MIND DE-CODER 27

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MIND DE-CODER 27

"Would you like some sweets, Willy?"

KATE BUSH      INTERLUDE

The intro to this weeks show comes from Kate Bush who remains pleasingly hat stand on her 2005 release AERIEL. 

MAGNET (feat. LESLEY MACKIE)      WILLOW'S SONG

Regular listeners to the show will by now know that I champion this song as one of the most beautiful ever written, and it can take on all-comers - I have versions by The Mock Turtles, The Go! Team, Isobel Campbell, Doves, Tinkerscuss, and Kelli Ali who even made The Sneaker Pimps give it a go, but this is sung by Lesley Mackie - who plays the slightly unhinged school girl Daisy in the film ("The little old beetle goes 'round and 'round. Always the same way, y'see, until it ends up right up tight to the nail. Poor old thing!") - from the recently discovered master tapes of the cult British horror film THE WICKER MAN that were lost for 30 years or so. The re-mastered sound track was released in 2002 and remains one of my favourite soundtracks from one of my favourite films. Willow's Song, itself, stops me dead every time I hear it. Lovely lovely lovely.

FLYING WHITE DOTS      WALKING ON CLOUDS

The only mash-up on tonight's show is taken from the album INTO THE GREAT UNKNOWN by The Flying White Dots, released in 2007, and available as a free download from his website here. This takes the original interview with Rickie Lee Jones that The Orb sampled for their track Little Fluffy Clouds and then plays it over the Orb track to suitable dubby/ambient effect - one of the most inventive bootleg artists around.

SAINT ETIENNE      WILSON

Before mash-ups there was sampling and none did it as well as Saint Etienne. Their debut album FOXBASE ALPHA, released in 1991, is a sugary concoction of delicious 60's basslines and dubby bedroom beats. It also features this mad little pre-hauntological track - all together now: "Would you like some sweets, Willy...?"

NICK NICELY      HILLYFIELDS (1892)

Completely ignored at the time of its release in 1982, Hillyfields (1892) is nowadays rightly considered a modern psychedelic classic. It can be found on the album PSYCHOTROPIA, an LP featuring his two singles and selected unreleased tracks which was released in 2004, that more or less accounted for everything he'd recorded up to that point. He has, however, enjoyed something of a renaissance in the last few years and appears to be releasing new material that's as tripped out as this - there's even an acoustic version he recently re-recorded for the very fine Fruits De Mer record label in 2012 that is by no means the lesser cousin. This track reputedly inspired Andy Partridge of XTC to come up with their psychedelic alter-egos The Dukes Of Stratosphear, and rumour has it that Kate Bush supplies the voice for the "pimply little post-boy" bit, but nick (lower case only, apparently) will neither confirm nor deny this, which means, where I come from, that it must be true. The other two interesting things about this song are: 1) It took a year to make, and 2) it is generally regarded as the first non-hip hop record to employ scratching.

THE TYRNAROUND      COLOUR YOUR MIND

When I first heard this record I was convinced that this was a genuine artefact from, ooh, 1967. Turns out it was released in 1986 on a 12" EP by Melbourne band Tyrnaround, who made great 60's influenced psychedelic pop records until the death of lead singer Michael Phillips in 1999. The 1980's marked a return of the psychedelic pop record in underground circles. I think it's because life was generally difficult in the 80's and sensitive pop souls needed something to lose themselves in between Smiths albums. Or maybe that was just me.

JULIAN COPE      CHEAP NEW-AGE FIX

From the last truly great pop album Julian Cope produced, 1997's INTERPRETER, this song simply fizzes with crackling energy. Copey has rarely been this playful since. For the best part of 1997 I took this album with me everywhere I went, played it to everyone I met. It even came with a map. I took the map and went exploring. In some ways I never came back.

FRANZ FERDINAND      ELEANOR PUT YOUR BOOTS ON

Lovely track, this, taken from 2005’s more or less YOU COULD HAVE IT SO MUCH BETTER. They were right, of course; we could have had it so much better, and despite the release of their 4th album last year, I'm still kind of waiting – in the meantime, this is the last song they produced that I loved.

THE SOFT HEARTED SCIENTISTS      ROCKFORD'S RETURN

The Soft Hearted Scientists first album, UNCANNY TALES FROM THE EVERYDAY UNDERGROWTH, a collection of their first three EPs, is one of my favourite albums ever. I know I say that a lot, but really, I shared a moment with that album and its wistful, dreamy blend of pastoral psychedelia, and soon came to treasure it. This track is from their second album, or first album proper if you like, 2008's TAKE TIME TO WONDER IN A WHIRLING WORLD, which was just a little bit too self-conscious to be as magical as the first. That being said, when The Soft Hearted Scientists tell you to Take Time To Wonder In A Whirling World, you really do have to listen.

LOVE      A HOUSE IS NOT A MOTEL (A BEYOND THE WIZARD'S SLEEVE RE-EDIT)

Contains my favourite line in any song - "You are just a thought that someone, somewhere, somehow feels you should be here", ever since the day I suddenly realised that I knew exactly what he, Arthur Lee, meant. This track was meant to be released on an album by Beyond The Wizard's Sleeve, but it was withdrawn lest anyone inadvertently think they were trying to cash in on Lee's death a few years ago.

SPIRITUALIZED      ANYWAY THAT YOU WANT ME (DJ BLUE & JONATHON BARRET REMIX)

This is a really spaced out mix I had to rescue from a tape a flatmate gave me years ago so it may sound a little hissy. I was tempted to use their original recording as it's always been one of my favourite recordings by the group, Jason Pierce's singing sounded so lost and far away, but this remix, that accompanied their debut release in 1990, just takes it somewhere else.

ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE      PINK LADY LEMONADE (YOU'RE SO SWEET)

This incredible track will be well known to anyone who was lucky enough to see Acid Mother's Temple on tour in the late 90's as they used it as the opening piece for their shows - it actually lasts an hour, which gives you some idea of what to expect at an AMT gig. Towards the end it picks up a bit, then it slows down again, then it returns to that same mesmerizing refrain. I saw them do this once in the backroom of a tiny pub in Brighton. Entirely blown away by the music I just stuck my head in the nearest speaker and let the song wash all over me. I couldn't hear anything for a week after - just walked around with a big idiot grin on my face. I still think it's an amazing piece of music and I really should have just played you the whole track despite my wife only letting me put it on when she's out. You can find this version (because there are at least two other versions to choose from) on the album DO WHAT YOU WANT TO DO, DON'T DO WHAT YOU DON'T WANT TO DO!, released in 2002. If you've ever heard Pink Lady Lemonade all the way through then there's a part of your body where it's still actually playing and will do so for ever.

AKASHA PROJECT     QUANTUM MUSIC OF THE LSD-25 MOLECULE

The Quantum Music of the LSD 25 Molecule is based on the frequencies of the infrared spectrum of the LSD-25 molecule. Akasha Project, a musical venture of the sound artist Barnim Schultze, who deals exclusively with tones drawn from nature and their effects, opened the World Psychedelic Forum in Basel Switzerland with this music on March 21st, 2008.

While that was playing I included a similar piece called 432HZ-8HZ by Bart Wayshower  which purports to be the sound of you, or indeed me, or us, I suppose – this frequency vibrates on the principals of natural harmonics and unifies the properties of light, time, space, matter, gravity and magnetism with biology, the DNA code and consciousness producing profound effects on consciousness and also on the cellular level of our bodies. 

I thought both of them played together would have a nice effect whilst tripping.

MATT JOHNSON      ICING UP

Taken from the now semi-legendary album BURNING BLUE SOUL, released by a pre-The The Matt Johnson, in 1981. An album of melancholic grandeur, eerie melodies, lonely strummed guitars, Eastern chants and medieval trumpets that linger long after the record has stopped playing. I listened to it a lot in my bed-sit days. Sometimes it made me feel heroic.

And that was Mind De-Coder 27. Thank you for your tyme.

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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MIND DE-CODER 22

MIND DE-CODER 22

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''Jimi Hendrix played his cock"

                                                   Bill Hicks

AMON DÜÜL 1     LOVE IS PEACE

This track is taken from the album PARADIESWÄRTS DÜÜL released in 1970 as the fourth album from the politico-musical commune known as Amon Düül. This track actually turns into a massive Teutonic folk-groove freak-out that takes up the whole of side 1 of the album, but we leave it after the opening minutes as I wonder about what all those dots actually do; especially those two over the A – that doesn’t look right at all.

MOUNT VERNON ARTS LAB     BROADCASTING

Experimental goings-on of a hauntological nature from The Mount Vernon Arts Lab, the musical project of Scottish avant-garde musician Drew Mulholland, whose spooky noodlings are said to have been the inspiration for the Ghost Box music label, home for all things hauntological. Broadcasting is taken from the album ‘E’ FOR EXPERIMENTAL, released 1999, a compilation album that collects together all his work up to that date. These days he works under the name Mount Vernon Astral Temple and continues his psycho-geographic journey to where ever his muse takes him.

VASHTI BUNYAN     WINDOW OVER THE BAY

Taken from her now semi-legendary debut album, JUST ANOTHER DIAMOND DAY, released in 1969. The story goes that she wrote the songs for this album while travelling by horse and cart from London to join a commune in the Isle Of Skye. This lovely and fragile song makes me wish that I lived over a bay too.

STEALING SHEEP     THE GARDEN

Stealing Sheep do a very fine line in experimental folk played through a psychedelic time machine and are big on dextrous three-part vocal harmonies, but that’s only half the story – on their debut album, INTO THE DIAMOND SUN, released 2012, they also throw Warpaint vocals, Kills garage licks, Stereolab synths, Doors-y psychedelia, and some Animal Collective apocalypto-tribalism into the mix, too. Quite simply marvellous.

THE END     SHADES OF ORANGE

Destiny only allowed 60’s psych-pop also-rans The End two singles, but as is so often the case, their second, Shades Of Orange, released 1968, is quite rightly considered something of a psychedelic classic these days. It was produced by Bill Wyman (who also managed them) during the Stone’s sessions for their Satanic Majesties Request, so there was a lot of free time available – that’s Charlie Watts on tabla, who was also at a loose end.

THE FOCUS GROUP     THE BOHM SITE

Cool name for a track, taken from the album WE ARE ALL PAN’S PEOPLE, released 2007, featuring oddly assembled sampledelic collages, stitched together from fragments of library records and forgotten soundtracks from the hauntological school of perception. A beautiful, unhinged stream of consciousness that seems to prod at buried memories.  

LAVENDER DIAMOND      DANCE UNTIL IT'S TOMORROW

The almost unbearably lovely Dance Until It’s Tomorrow, by Lavender Diamond, taken from the album IMAGINE OUR LOVE, released in 2007.  Despite being known for their largely winsome and sometimes ethereal psych-folk sound, singer Becky Stark’s voice can also knock your socks off at 20 paces when she gets going. I remain a fan.

  

VAUGHAN WILLIAMS     II. ANDANTE SOSTENUTO

The sublime Spurn Point from Vaughan William's pastoral composition SIX STUDIES IN ENGLISH FOLK SONG, written in 1926, and performed here by the Nash Ensemble, one of England's finest chamber music groups, in 2001.

FLYING WHITE DOTS     THERE IS HOPE

The only mash-up to appear in today's show, this mashes Mazzy Stars' Hope Sandoval's ghostly vocals over Primal Scream's towering Higher Than The Sun to mesmerising effect. The album from which it's taken, 3D, released in 2008, is available for free download here 

JULIAN COPE     KNOW (CUT MY FRIENDS DOWN)

The mighty Julian Cope from his heathen-folk masterpiece, 1992's JEHOVAKILL. This track is a stark and thrilling charge to the head.

JIMI HENDRIX     1983 (...IF A MERMAN I TURN TO BE)

This is Hendrix in truly experimental form, taken from side three of ELECTRIC LADYLAND. I wish he'd lived long enough to explore this direction because he was never this psychedelic again. I let it segue into in Moon, Turn The Tides...Gently, Gently Away and lay some Bill Hick's underneath it. I think they'd both approve.

BEYOND THE WIZARD'S SLEEVE - SUNDAY MORNING SUN-G

From the 2009 release, GEORGE, Sunday Morning Sun-g is a trippy psychedelic edit of the surprisingly over-looked cult-classic DREAMIES by Bill Holt, given the treatment by Erol Alkan and Richard Norris.

THE SOFT MACHINE     HOPE FOR HAPPINESS, JOY OF A TOY, HOPE FOR 

    HAPPINESS (REPRISE)

The opening suite from the debut album by The Soft Machine featuring a minute and a half long intro designed, no doubt, to ensure the uncommerciality of the project. The album was recorded in new York whilst supporting Jimi Hendrix on tour, but despite this, the record retains a quintessentially English psychedelic feel and is now considered a classic of the extraordinarily creative post-psychedelic, pre-progressive, period of the late 60’s. Trivia fans will be thrilled to learn that Joy Of A Toy is one of the first compositions to feature a bass guitar melody played through a Wah-wah pedal.

WOLF PEOPLE     TINY CIRCLE

In the spirit of English psychedelic bands getting it together in the countryside, Wolf People recorded their second album, STEEPLE, released 2010, in a converted chicken barn on the grounds of a 17th century Welsh mansion. It’s full of arabesque electric guitars; groove-laden drums; entrancing folk-song; smoke-fogged, riff-stoked jams; ethereal vocals and on Tiny Circles, stuttering flutes on an album that cheerfully treads the lines between revivalism and timelessness.

THE SEE SEE     AUTOMOBILE

If you’ve ever wondered, like I have, whatever happened to acid-folk band The Eighteenth Day Of May after they split (two of them went on the form The Left Outsides, by the way), then you’ll be pleased to learn that former frontman Richard Olson now leads The See See, a band steeped in its love for sun dappled West Coast psych-folk played through a Krautrock sensibility. The deceptively simple yet incredibly catchy Automobile, taken from their second album FOUNTAYNE MOUNTAIN, released 2012, with its slinky, hypnotic rhythm and jangling guitars captures the spirit of a summer day in all of its Byrds-ian psychedelic glory. (Now whatever happened to The Left Outsides, that’s what I want to know?).

THE FLAMING GNOMES     LOVE SONG WITH FLUTE

The fairly wonderful Flaming Gnomes with a cover of Caravan’s Love Song With Flute, recorded as the b-side to their only single Care Of cell 44, for the excellent Fruits De Mer record label (check them out here), which specializes in releasing psychedelia, prog rock, krautrock, r ‘n’ b, acid-folk and spacerock on vinyl. There is little more to say about The Flaming Gnomes. They haven’t really made their minds up about recording anything else.

MOON WIRING CLUB     MARMALADE SUN

Ian Hodgson’s The Moon Wiring Club turns a perfectly pleasant but half-remembered light tea served one summer’s afternoon in an English country garden into slightly disturbing yet quietly absorbing flash-back sequence that lasts exactly one minute and twenty one seconds. Taken from his third album, STRIPED PAINT FOR THE LAST POST, released 2009, the whole album sounds like one of the scary bits from an episode of Sapphire and Steel.

THE TIME AND SPACE MACHINE     THE COSMIC COWBOYS RIDES AGAIN

The Cosmic Cowboy rides again! Hear him on VOLUME 3, released 2010.

THE LUCID DREAM        DEVIL RIDES OUT (TIME AND SPACE MACHINE REMIX)

Richard Norris is everyone’s go to guy for a stripped down motorik remix, but to be honest, the The Lucid Dream were always there – the band’s name perfectly reflects their sound. Devil Rides Out is the b-side to their 2011 single Love In My Veins, but this heavily hallucinogenic version by Norris' The Time and Space Machine can be found on his album THE TIME AND SPACE MACHINE PRESENTS 'THE WAY OUT SOUND FROM IN', a 2014 release of heaveny psychedelic remixes by Norris of some of the most cosmically oriented groops around.  

THE MOONFLOWERS     GET DUBBER

And speaking of band’s whose name reflects their sound, these are The Moonflowers - possibly the funkiest bunch of hippies of the magic mushroom eating variety ever to take the indie charts by storm in the late 80’s, by which time your average indie-fan wasn’t as in to your punk-funk-reggae-rock-jazz-disco-psychedelic fusions as you’d think (for which I, possibly unfairly, blame the likes of The Wedding Present). The b-side to their debut single Get Higher, released 1992, simply called Get Dubber, ticked all my boxes, though, and has been one of my favourite tripped out dance tracks ever since.

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