MIND DE-CODER 33

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MIND DE-CODER 33

‘Trust in the you of now...Don't be frightened to display your talents...Use an old idea...Just carry on”.

                                                        Brian Eno, Oblique Strategies

THE MOODY BLUES     LEGEND OF A MIND

Following some goings on with the intro, which shamelessly plundered the Bardo Thodol for a cheap laugh, I thought I’d start the show with a little something from The Moody Blues, in this case, a slightly different mix of the track Legend Of A Mind, one of the bonus tracks to appear on the recently re-mastered copy of their third album, the thoroughly tripped out IN SEARCH OF THE LOST CHORD, originally released in 1968. This track, of course, is all about Timothy Leary, who famously used the Tibetan Book of the Dead to frame his take psychedelic mysticism, or perhaps mystic psychedelia…anyway, it all hangs together

SONS OF THE VEGETAL MOTHER     LOVE IS THE LAW

 

Sons of the Vegetal Mother were an Australian ‘esoteric special-occasion progressive band’ (it says here), who formed in late 1969 and released just the one EP, THE GARDEN PARTY, in 1970, before morphing into the slightly more famous Daddy Cool, who appeared to make a living playing 1950s doo-wop and had a number one single in 1971. THE GARDEN PARTY EP was limited to 250 copies and didn’t bother the charts at all, but did feature the rather fine Love Is The Law, which starts off as one thing and ends up as something entirely different altogether.

At this point I played a trailer for a psychesploitation movie called The Love-Ins that, all things considered, I can probably live without seeing.

THE CRAZY WORLD OF ARTHUR BROWN     FIRE

I can’t believe I haven’t played this before, and yet here it is; a song that takes me right back to my nights at Alice In Wonderland and magical mystery trips to Chislehurst Caves (I appreciate that this won’t mean anything to many of you). The big thing about this record, of course, which was a big and, indeed, defining hit for the band back in 1968, is that it had no bass or guitar on it – the lead instrument was, in fact, a hammond electric organ, somewhat augmented by an orchestral section featuring prominent brass. But everyone knows that.

BEYOND THE WIZARD’S SLEEVE     DIG IT

Those Beyond The Wizard’s Sleeve boys with an adaptation of The Monkees’ Can You Dig It, from the soundtrack to their cult movie Head which more or less saw off the last of their career in 1968. This rather fine interpretation (in hip-hop style they take their favourite bits and extend them) is from the Beyond The Wizard’s Sleeve album BIRTH, which was available briefly in 2005.

THE DOVERS     THE THIRD EYE

Released in April 1966, the Dovers' The Third Eye is one of the earliest attempts at reproducing the LSD experience on record. Unlike anything else in their catalogue, it’s a thunderous, threatening performance that hurtles up the scales to a frenetic close, as if the whole experience is too much. This is the sound of a band struggling to come to terms with having their minds' blasted wide open. The Byrds did it better, but The Third Eye takes you to the very edge, and in doing so captures a moment of visionary transcendence that would mercifully become somewhat diluted by the hippie brigade that would follow shortly.

I follow it with a little hauntologically inspired piece I put together that I’ve called ‘Mind De-Coder teaches you to swim’.

THE SOFT MACHINE     FEELIN’, REELIN’, SQUEALIN’

This track, released in 1967, was due to be The Soft machine’s debut single, until semi-legendary producer Kim Fowley famously got his hands on it, spliced up the master-tape, taking a musique concrète approach to the songs piano-and-flute instrumental section and presented it back to the band, completely blowing their collective mind. It was, however, way too far out for the A-side so was relegated to the B-side of Love Makes Sweet Music. The single failed to chart, but for many the story of the Soft Machine started with Feelin’, Reelin’, Squealin’.

THE STONE ROSES     BEGGING YOU

Their greatest sonic assault from the much unloved SECOND COMING, released in 1992. Focussed; sharp; throbbing with menace. If only the rest of the album had been this good.

FAR EAST FAMILY BAND     UNDISCOVERED NORTHERN TERRITORY

A little bit of ambient filler, really, that, on their third album NIPPONJIN: JOIN OUR MENTAL PHASE SOUND, a keyboard heavy space-rock album released in 1975 by the Japanese prog band, serves at the intro to a far heavier track that I decided not to use, and instead, allowed the track to disappear into…

UEH     CAMBOUS

I was always a big fan of the shoegazing scene but I’ve been very sparing in my use of it in Mind De-Coder, despite the transcendental use of shimmering guitars being right up my street back in the day. Ueh are a French avant-rock group who, back in 2002 at least, were connected to Acid Mothers Temple in some way or another. Cambous is from their debut and possibly only album, the tantalizingly entitled 1st ALBUM, released in 2001, a mellow, dreamy affair, reminiscent of washed-out water colours. In truth, I don’t know very much else about them really, but I thought after all this time a little transcendental shimmering might be just the thing. Expect tracks by Lush, Ride and Chapterhouse next week. 

TRAFFIC     DEAR MR. FANTASY

Deeply soulful psychedelic vibes from Stevie Winwood’s Traffic and the title track from their 1967 debut MR FANTASY, a stone-cold tripped out classic of reverb-saturated mellow grooves played in a psychedelic jazz-blues stylee. 

I’ve always been a big fan of Lionel Bart's Oliver!, me.

TIMOTHY LEARY AND ASH RA TEMPEL     SPACE

In 1972, having been sprung from jail by The Weatherman (of the ‘you don’t need to be a weatherman to see which way the wind blows’ variety), Timothy Leary was smuggled safely out of America and into Algeria where he was delivered into the hands of the Black Panther Party who immediately took him hostage and demanded half the advance of his next book to release him. He somehow escaped this situation and fled for Switzerland with a group of fellow mind-travellers where he avoided deportation back to America by moving from canton to canton, and finally meets up with Sergius Golowin, the disillusioned ex-MP and mystic who takes them to his mountain retreat (see Mind De-Coder 30). In 1972 he was visited by Ash Ra Tempel, accompanied by Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser, the man who more than any other created the krautrock scene, and legendary producer Dieter Dierks, the man who more than any other, recorded it and, most crucially, captured it in the studio.  There was a sympathetic meeting of minds shall we say, and the resulting album, 7UP (so called because Leary spiked the bottles of 7Up with acid during the recording sessions) is one of the most far out and gone pieces of music you will ever hear. Space takes up all of one side and is divided into four tracks that segue together to become unlike anything ever recorded before or after – a kosmiche musik astral plane freak-out that literally blow your mind clean away if you listen to it in the same state in which it was recorded. Absolutely crucial listening for the committed head.

MESMERIZING EYE     SIDE 2

In fact, the only way down from 7UP is to drift away into side 2 of PSYCHEDELIA: AN ELECTRIC LIGHT SHOW by The Mesmerizing Eye, who know a thing or two about this sort of thing. It’s pretty much a psychesploitation album, put together by a couple of Hollywood-based producers and nameless session musicians in 1967 to cash in on the psychedelic craze. It works as an instrumental sound collage with a wide array of tripped out sound effects and has the best cover art you’ve ever seen. The titles alone should tell you everything you need to know about this album: 1) may the bird of paradise fly up your flute, 2) requiem for Suzy Creamcheese, 3) the war for my mind, 4) dear mom, send money, and 5) exercise in frustration.

PETER SARSTEDT     BLAGGED!

Blagged! is not strictly a psychedelic record in and of itself, although it does feature a very fine use of phasing, but who can resist a record that starts with the lines: “…and as I blagged another cigarette from her”? Peter Sarstedt is most well-known for his 1969 hit Where Did You Go To (my Lovely), but this terrific little track can be found on the B-side to the rather less well-known I Am A Cathedral, released in 1968.

THE FLOOR     TRUSTING MR. JONES

Here’s something you don’t hear every day, A Danish psychedelic band, The Floor, who released their only album, 1st FLOOR, in 1967. It’s fairly derivative of what was happening in London at the time, but let’s not forget that English was their second language and that some of the songs are quite impressive. I particularly like Trusting Mr. Jones, which seems to have captured the English psyche-sensibility perfectly with its backwards guitars and all.

MOON WIRING CLUB     GARDEN GET TOGETHER

More spooky happenings from the Moon Wiring Club wherein the simple hauntological act of a garden get together is made slightly sinister. Taken from the 2011 release CLUTCH IT LIKE A GONK.

THE BLUES MAGOOS     RUSH HOUR

The Blues Magoos were one of the first garage-punk bands to achieve chart success, and one of the first to embrace psychedelia. They always had a way with a tune, too, as can be heard on the fuzzy day-glo pop of Rush Hour, from their second LP, ELECTRIC COMIC BOOK, released in 1967.

HOLISM GAEA     WEEPING MEADOW

In which Israeli duo translate' The Marriage Of Heaven And Hell' by English mystic William Blake to sound through time and space (it says here). You won’t have heard anything like this album, BLAKESIAN WILLIAMNESS, released in 2012, before; it’s like an astral space-noise journey that sets its sights on infinity – truly cosmic music. I know it sounds awful to the untutored ear but if you were to listen to this track under the influence of a powerful hallucinogen like, for the sake of argument, acid, say, then I assure you that this track is entirely transcendental, like tuning in to every radio wave on the planet.

 I think Copey sums it up best in his March 2013 Address Drudion (which you can read here) in which he says that he guarantees you will still be playing this at social evenings of utter cunted-ness thirty years hence.

THE BYRDS     C.T.A. 102

Roger Mcguinn’s love song to outer space, complete with gimmicky effects from The Byrd’s landmark album YOUNGER THAN YESTERDAY, released in 1967.

Thank you for your time.