MIND DE-CODER 24

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MIND DE-CODER 24

“Be glad for the song has no ending…”

TAME IMPALA     BE ABOVE IT

The opening track from Tame Impala’s second album, LONERISM, (2012), and you can almost taste the acid dissolving on your tongue. 

SMOKE      MY FRIEND JACK

An alternate mix of their 1967 cult hit, that can be found on the 2006 CD re-issue of their only album, IT’S SMOKE TIME. This song, even in its sanitized radio-friendly form, spelled commercial suicide for the band, getting them banned by the BBC for its ’suggestive’ lyrics, but it remains a definitive slice of acid inspired psych-pop that, with the Tame Impala track before it, sets the tone for the rest of tonight's show.

SYD BARRETT      IT'S NO GOOD TRYING

What can you say about Syd Barrett that hasn't been said? I like this particular track because it owes more to the playful Syd revealed on THE PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN, than the fragile acid casualty he'd become by the time he recorded THE MADCAP LAUGHS in 1970. That being said, this is still an acid soaked trip through the man's brittle psyche, the giddy, woozy production can be quite disorientating - exactly the way I like my tunes, in fact.

THE DUKES OF STRATOSPHEAR     WHAT IN THE WORLD??...

This is XTC satisfying their Beatles/Pink Floyd trip, taken from the brilliantly psychedelic album 25 O’CLOCK, a six track mini-album released in 1985. This is one of my favourite albums of all time, containing every psychedelic reference point available, but put together with such heartfelt joy and enthusiasm, that the listener is simply swept along by their love of mellotrons, phasing, backwards guitars, echoey piano, primitive feedback, keening harmonies and stereo panning, but most of all - good tunes! I never tire of listening to this album. It's a rip-off, but a brilliant one, produced by the great John Leckie, who was obviously enjoying himself as much as the band. This album has just enjoyed a lavishly packaged re-issue which you may want to get your hands on.

FAUST     J'AI MAL AUX DENTS

The first of four tracks taken from the legendary THE FAUST TAPES, released in 1973 for just 49 pence by the nascent Virgin records. The next three tracks are Untitled, Untitled and Dr. Scwitters, but that is largely beside the point, as the album is mostly made up of sound collages and cut and paste edits that weren't meant to be named. In fact, the original album had no track listing, and it wasn't until the Faust box-set was released a few years ago, that I discovered Faust weren't singing "Chet-va Buddah" but J'ai Mal Aux Dents, which I think is French for My Teeth Hurt. This is one of my favourite trip albums of all time, an album that opened me up to a world of possibilities - the first time I heard it, it scared the life out of me and blew me away at the same time. Hidden among the experimental tracks are a handful of truly wonderful pop and rock songs that will take you to other far away places - the perfect Mind De-coder album.

THE BYRDS      CHANGE IS NOW

Hidden away as an extra track on the Columbia CD re-issue of The Byrd's ground-breaking 1968 album, THE NOTORIOUS BYRD BROTHERS, sits the enticingly titled Universal Mind Decoder, a three and half minute Roger McGuinn guitar wig-out that eventually became Change Is Now. The first time I heard Change Is Now, under heightened circumstances, it must be said, I realised that I'd just found my favourite pop song ever, and that the album itself is the perfect pop-art record, recorded by a band that were barely talking to each other at the time. I love Change Is Now so much - what with that initial guitar wig-out now pared down to 45 seconds, the optimism of the lyrics' and that crazy slide guitar that comes out of nowhere - that when I was searching around for a title for this show the demo version sprung to mind, and thus Mind De-Coder was born. The Byrds were never the same after this album, and nor was I. 

When asked whether the horse was meant to represent the David Crosby, who had been fired from the band during the recording of the album, Roger McGuinn is reported to have replied that, if that had indeed been the case, they would have shown the horses arse.

CORNELIUS     CHAPTER 8 - SEASHORE AND HORIZON

Blissful psychedelic pop from Japan's Keigo Oyamada, featuring  Hilarie and Robert Schneider from Apples in Stereo on vocals, who together produce a seamless blend of Pet Sound vibes and magical mystery-pop burnout. And that's just this particular track - the rest of the album, FANTASMA, released back in 1998, is insane.

ESPERS     DEAD QUEEN

This is one of the most exquisitely beautiful songs I've ever heard. Words fail me whenever I hear it so I'll just say that it sounds like a medieval castle revealing itself through the early morning mist, and can found on the album ESPERS 2, released in 2006. This was, in fact, the band's third album, and continues their love of spooky, acoustic folk peppered with flute, cello and even weirder sounds held together with vocalist Meg Baird's voice, which is baroque and amazing. I love this song - it always leaves me feeling spellbound for absolute moments whenever I hear it.

FLYING WHITE DOTS      2000 LIGHT YEARS FROM THE SKY

In which the mash-up artist otherwise known as Bryan from Brighton, England, takes The Rolling Stones' 2000 Light Years From Home and sends it even further off into space. This can be found on the free-to-download album STARING AT THE SKY which you can get your hands on from his web site here. 

SPACE MACHINE     GARDEN OF SOMNOLENCE

Space Machine is the analogue electronic cosmic sound project put together by producer and Acid Mothers temple founder Kawabata Makato. This track can be found on the Acid Mothers Temple Family triple-disc CD DO WHATEVER YOU WANT TO DO, DON’T DO WHATEVER YOU DON’T WANT, released in 2002, a sprawling epic that takes the listener on trip of cosmic proportions, and also segues very nicely into..

POPOL VUH      IN DEN GARTEN PHAROAS

As Julian Cope says in Krautrock sampler, In Den Garten Pharoas is the natural harmony of ancient everyday life - fast drumming in an underground cave, the sculling of oars and a waterfall where woman are crouched at their daily washing, the artificial Star Trek voice of a woman, a priestess, calling the faithful to prayer, the sound of water rushing by a community of endless ancient souls – IN DEN GARTEN PHAROAS, released in 1972, is an album of divine healing music - a wondrous elegiac Adam and Eve trip.

MOON WIRING CLUB     THOUGHTS OF A SUNKEN VILLAGE

Slightly spooky, slightly confounding, slightly short, Thoughts Of A Sunken Village is from the highly prolific Ian Hodgson’s 2009 album, STRIPED PAINT FOR THE LAST POST.

CRANIUM PIE     DRYING IN THE SUN

Cranium Pie make psychedelic prog music with overtones of Pink Floyd, Hawkwind, Soft Machine, Caravan and Frank Zappa, a description that doesn’t do them any justice at all. They create the kind of far-out sounds that can only come from the 11th-dimension, although, in their case, I think that means a cave in Wiltshire. Their debut album, MECHANISMS PT. 1, (2011) appears to be a concept album which tells the tale of a civilisation of lobsters rising up against evil robot overlords (or something), while Drying In The Sun comes on like a fluted-up Air playing with a mooged-up The Soft Hearted Scientists. Possibly my new favourite band.

THE VIRGINEERS     HOW FAR DOES SPACE GO?

The elusive and mysterious Virgineers, whose one eponymous album, released in 1999, is a candy-coated 60’s pop flashback in the same way that XTC created The Dukes of Stratosphear to satiate their psychedelic yearnings, or Andrew Goulds’ celebration of the 60’s with The Fraternal Order of the All. It’s a homage to Magical Mystery Tour era Beatles, Head period Monkees and Syd era Pink Floyd, with the odd post-Syd, Atom Heart Mother vibe thrown in for good measure, as evidenced in this track, the spacey How Far Does Space Go?

MILKY     UP ON THE MOON

This spooky little track, Up On The Moon, is brought to you by Milky, a collaboration between ex-husband and wife Maria Napoleon and the semi-legendary Scottish performer Momus, who keeps popping up all over the place. They seemed to have remained good friends - their only album, TRAVELS WITH A DONKEY, released 2002, is full of sparkling little gems like this.

DJ FOOD     COLOURS BEYOND COLOURS

DJ FOOD’s most recent release, THE SEARCH ENGINE, (2012) is actually a compilation of the last three EPs he’s released since 2009 with a few interludes thrown in for good measure. It’s a cheerful mix of sampled old-time radio shows discussing UFOs, outer-space and the nature of sound, combined with hi-pitched sci-fi synthesizers, ominous chords, thumping break-beats and the occasional heavy metal riff. It’s good. I like it.

THE COLORED PLANK     THE BLACK FERRIS WHEEL

The Colored Plank are one of those bands who only seem to exist on compilation albums with names like The Last Daze Of The Underground. In fact, I found it on the compilation A PSYCHEDELIC PSAUNA, released in 1991, and that’s all I’ve ever been able to find out about them. The Black Ferris Wheel is perhaps the weirdest track on tonight’s show which, I hope, really means something.

MATT JOHNSON     THE RIVER FLOWS EAST IN SPRING/

 ANOTHER BOY DROWNING

Two tracks from Matt Johnson’s debut, BURNING BLUE SOUL, released 1981, and an underground classic that got passed around the common room in a reverential fashion as if, in its grooves, lay some holy insight into our existentialist daydreams, hopes and fears. Another Boy Drowning was rarely off the stereo in my bed-sit days when I was experimenting with being a Godless beatnik (oh, yes, the fun never stopped at my place) but The River Flows East In Spring shows just how truly out there Johnson was.  In their own way, both tracks led to Mind De-Coder. However, Another Boy Drowning could only be followed with a little something I put together featuring Allen Ginsberg reading from his poem HOWL! over various backward loops for that psychedelic effect.

BAKING RESEARCH STATION     BLACKSAND

The Baking Research Station are Cranium pie by any other name, but they chose to release this cover of Brainticket’s Blacksand on the very fine Fruits De Mer krautrock influenced spacerock album ROQUETING THROUGH SPACE (released 2010), as The Baking Research Station, their even more deranged side-project, if, indeed, such a thing is possible.

LAVENDER DIAMOND     RISE IN THE SPRINGTIME

From their self-released EP CAVALRY OF LOVE (2006) this is a song of hymn-like hope in the turning to face the dawn of yourself and the gathering up of your pieces found lying scattered around following a beautiful trip of self-exploration and discovery in the sure knowledge that no heart needs remain broken, forgiveness is unconditional, and that all are one beneath the morning sun. Or something. Vocalist Becky Stark's voice is simple and devout, and reassures that all is well and that we are safe, and that in accepting this we give thanks for our place in the universe. It's also nice to hum on the way to work.

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