Lost In Tyme

Cosmic Trip Machine - Vampyros Roussos (2009) The Curse of Lord Space Devil (2010)

Lost-In-Tyme — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 18:36:03 GMT

If you are a regular visitor of this blog/site you'll probably remember Cosmic Trip Machine and their first CD-r Lord Space Devil reviewed on Lost-In-Tyme (June 2008) by Mr. Rainy Day Sponge !!! I still remember how excited he was about that album when he first listened to it !!! Since then, Cosmic Trip Machine find their way to discography and their new album The Curse of Lord Space Devil is distributed by Nasoni Records on CD and vinyl !!!

Cosmic Trip Machine claims that "this particular review on Lost-In-Tyme in June 2008 had a snowball effect. You were among the first to believe in Cosmic Trip Machine when no one else did, and you proved it with a Lord Space Devil review on your blog". I believe that their music was (and still is) good enough to reach a large audience. So, it was a matter of time to find more people to believe in their music and it's obvious that they found them under the Nasoni Records label. And of course to all of you who like, listen and maybe? buy their music !!!

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Cosmic Trip Machine - 2009 - Vampyros Roussos
(Tape : 2009, Sloow Tapes, CS 60 / CD : 2009, Open Your Eyes, OYE 002)

Tracks :
1 Vampyres (Begin) (3:06)
2 Psychedelic Twist (1:44)
3 There's No Sympathy (3:04)
4 Welcome to Roussos (1:42)
5 (Not) Very High (3:45)
6 Evil Preacher (2:04)
7 White Lodge (1:48)
8 Under the Control of Evil (2:00)
9 It Feels Good (4:07)
10 Revelation Evil (1:53)
11 Forest / Lost Island (4:36)
12 Zorba Goes to Hell (3:00)
13 Cerbere (3:18)
14 Black Lodge (2:27)
15 Flashback / Tropicalian Gnome (5:05)
16 This Is Jazzy, Isn't It ? (2:51)
17 The Dirty Pursuit (3:05)
18 Vampyres (End) (3:18)

Vampyros Roussos

Background and concept :

9 September 2003 : Vampyros Roussos was born. Originally, the project was intended to be a funk-soul-jazz-psychedelic rock imaginary soundtrack, based on an "alcoholic hippies vampires" [sic] movie script written by Majnun.

15 and 16 September 2003 : Will Z. and Majnun recorded demos of Psychedelic Twist, There's No Sympathy for the Devil, It Feels Good, Under the Control of Evil, This Is Jazzy, Isn't It ?, Jimmy Escape (The Dirty Pursuit), Welcome to Roussos and three other tracks Beautiful Red Apple, Groovy Tunes, Progressive Surf (none of which were issued).

25 May and 6 July 2004 : A Vampyros Roussos sequel, based on a teenage opera-rock written by Will Z. was recorded. The newly composed demo tracks were the two Vampyros Roussos themes, Evil Preacher, Revelation Evil, Zorba Goes to Hell and Cerbere.

18 April 2006 : An ultimate Vampyros Roussos montage was released, mixing 2003 and 2004 demos. Will Z. and Majnun and planned to record this project, in the future.

12 December 2008 : The Vampyros Roussos rehearsals began with T-Bone on drums. New demos of Vampyros theme 1 and 2, Psychedelic Twist, It Feels Good, Cerbere and Zorba Goes to Hell were recorded.

Vampyros Roussos 2009 Recording Sessions :

Vampyres (Begin)
Basic tracks recorded 7 March (take 2). Overdubs added 9 and 10 March (acoustic and electric guitar, sitar, keyboard, percussions) and vocal tracks 12 March. Mix 24 and 26 March.

Psychedelic Wist
Basic tracks recorded 7 March (take 3). Overdubs added 9 and 10 March (organ, electric guitar, sitar) and vocal tracks 12 March. Mix 23 and 27 March.

There's No Sympathy for the Devil
Basic tracks recorded 6 March (take 2). Overdubs added 8 March (organ, electric guitar, percussions) and vocal tracks 12 March. Mix 22 March.

Welcome to Roussos
Recorded 8 March (take 1). Percussions, electric guitar and double tracked bass only. Mix 26 March.

(Not) Very High
Recorded live 6 and 8 March (take 2). Overdubs added 9 and 10 March (bass, electric guitar) and vocal tracks 11 March. Mix 22 and 26 March.

Evil Preacher
Basic tracks and double tracked bass recorded 6 March (take 5). Overdubs added 8 March (electric guitar) and vocal tracks 12 March. Mix 22 March.

White Lodge
Basic tracks recorded 7 March (take 2). Overdubs added 9, 10 and 11 March (electric guitar, effects, Theremin). Mix 24 March.

Under the Control of Evil
Basic tracks recorded 6 March (take 3). Overdubs added 9 March (electric guitar) and vocal tracks 12 March. Mix 22 March.

It Feels Good
Basic tracks recorded 7 March (take 6). Overdubs added 8 and 9 March (percussions, keyboard, electric guitar) and vocal tracks 12 March. Mix 23 March.

Revelation Evil
Basic tracks recorded 6 March (take 5). Overdubs added 10 March (electric guitar) and vocal tracks 12 March. Mix 23 March.

Forest / Lost island
Recorded 9 March. Overdubs added 10 and 11 March (keyboard, electric guitar, sitar guitar, effects) and vocal tracks 11 March. Mix 24 March.

Zorba Goes to Hell
Basic tracks recorded 6 March (take 3). Overdubs added 8, 10 and 11 March (keyboard, sitar, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, sitar guitar) and vocal tracks 12 March. Mix 23 March.

Cerbere
Basic tracks recorded 6 March (takes 2 and 4). Overdubs added 8 and 11 March (organ, electric guitar, Theremin) and vocal tracks 12 March. Mix 23 March.

Black Lodge
Basic tracks recorded 7 March (take 4). Overdubs added 9 and 10 March (electric guitar and keyboard). Mix 24 March.

Flashback / Tropicalian Gnome
Recorded 7 and 9 March. Overdubs 9 and 11 March (percussions, organ, electric guitar) and vocal tracks 12 March. Mix 24 March.

This Is Jazzy Isn't It ?
Basic tracks recorded 7 March (take 2). Overdubs added 9 and 12 March (electric guitar, effects, voices, electric piano). Mix 24 March.

The Dirty Pursuit
Basic tracks recorded 6 March (take 2). Overdubs added 8 and 10 March (organ, electric guitar, sitar, percussions) and vocal tracks 12 March. Mix 22 March.

Vampyres (End)
Basic tracks recorded 7 March (take 1). Overdubs added 8, 9, 10 and 11 March (electric guitar, organ, mouth organ, percussions, sitar, acoustic guitar, sitar guitar) and vocal tracks 11 March. Mix 26 March.

Cosmic Trip Machine have a present for you, their second album Vampyros Roussos in good mp3 quality.
So if someone should discover Vampyros Roussos by downloading it as much as it is in good quality !!!

You can download it from RapidShare or SendSpace
You can order a physical copy from here or here.

Cosmic Trip Machine - 2010 - The Curse of Lord Space Devil
(CD/LP : Nasoni Records, NASONI 102)

Tracks :
1 Quiet Night Thoughts (3:55)
2 You (5:03)
3 Jessica's Nightmare (2:21)
4 Cosmic Travel (4:19)
5 Strange Is... (4:35)
6 Fragment Résiduel (1:52)
7 The Secret Song (2:32)
8 Remains of Amethyst (2:33)
9 I (2:41)
10 Hear the Voice of the AM (5:30)
11 Son of Lord Space Devil (9:15)

The Curse of Lord Space Devil

Storyline :

Between 2009 and 2010, Cosmic Trip Machine had many difficulties with their third album preparation, Son of Lord Space Devil (disease, depression and technical problems). So, the duo decided to cut the album in half, several tracks were abandoned including Amethyst because the two musicians thought this particular song possesses a negative power from the start. In fact, Will Z. composed, in 2000, the first five minutes of Amethyst, inspired by two James Joyce's poetries but didn't have the rights to use original texts, so the lyrics subsequently changed with many versions, all unfinished. For more than ten years, Majnun and Will developed their ideas and extended the song by adding in some improvisation elements and new themes, but every recording attempt failed.

Because of all these events, Son of Lord Space Devil was shelved on March 2010. However, some of the tracks were salvaged and rearranged. Majnun insisted to change the album title as The Curse of Lord Space Devil, which includes electric and acoustic fragments intended for the lost original project plus new material.

Cosmic Trip Machine changed their minds during the realization process, but The Curse of Lord Space Devil is the definitive version of Son of Lord Space Devil, not THE version of course, another one, floating on Corpus Hermeticum, The Book of Am, poetries and mystic texts. The third Cosmic Trip Machine album is showing a new direction, a synthesis of the synthesis, close to the Lord Space Devil psychedelic spirit, that you should enjoy.

Third album by Cosmic Trip Machine, The Curse of Lord Space Devil, is out on Nasoni Records.
This new opus is available on CD and LP. You can order your copy here.

The album's trailer can be seen here.

Cosmic Trip Machine are :
Will Z. : acoustic guitar, vocals, sitar, bass, organ, keyboards, percussion, rainstick, tambourine, gong.
Majnun : electric guitar, acoustic guitar, classical guitar, sitar guitar, percussion, flute.
with the help of T-Bone on drums

Informations for the band can be found at their.
Official site, MySpace, facebook and YouTube channel.

A Bunch of Fronds

Opa-Loka — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 07:50:35 GMT

No need to say a lot about Nick Saloman and his moniker Bevis Frond...
Here is some of his 7" singles, some can be found easily and others not....

Bevis Frond / Walking Seeds - 1990 - Sexorcist / Reflections in a Tall Mirror
Bevis Frond - 1993 - Bevis Goes Italian
Bevis Frond - 1993 - Summer Holiday E.P.
Bevis Frond - 1995 - Dolly Bug / Green Park Saturday
Bevis Frond / Prime Sinister - 1995 - Sociopath / Images

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Bevis Frond / Walking Seeds - 1990 - Sexorcist / Reflections in a Tall Mirror
(7" split single, Clawfist, PIG-1)

A Side : Bevis Frond - Sexorcist (6:37)
B Side : Walking Seeds - Reflections in a Tall Mirror (5:17)

Limited to 1400 copies. A-side is referred to as "Claw", B-side is "Fist".
This split single finds each artist covering a song by the artist on the flip side !

Bevis Frond - 1993 - Bevis Goes Italian
(7" single, Helter Skelter, HS 94743)

A : Let's Live for Today (3:46)
B : 29th September (3:22)

Covers of two 60's beat songs.
Performed in the sixties by The Rokes(Let's Live for Today) by Mogol, Shapiro, Julien, Scott
and by Equipe 84 (29th September).

Bevis Frond - 1993 - Summer Holiday E.P.
(7" EP, Woronzow, WOO20)

A1 : Summer Holiday (3:58)
A2 : Big News (2:22)
B1 : Dancing Shoes (3:39)
B2 : Round and Round (2:25)

Dancing Shoes features Nick's daughter Debbie on vocals.

Bevis Frond - 1995 - Dolly Bug / Green Park Saturday
(7" single, Damaged Goods DAMGOOD 81)

A : Dolly Bug (3:24)
B : Green Park Saturday (4:30)

A side is from "Superseeder", the B side is a previously unreleased solo instrumental.

Bevis Frond / Prime Sinister - 1995 - Sociopath / Images
(7" split single, Musical Tragedies, Tragedy One O Seven MT-255)

A Side : Bevis Frond - Sociopath (2:54)
B Side : Prime Sinister - Images (3:19)

This release, documents the friendship between Nick Saloman, and Nürnberg heroes Prime Sinister. What more needs to be said about Bevis Frond that already has not been said?, like how there are about a dozen or more albums, all of which can be recommended, and that Bevis Frond live shows are a legend. This short song (very uncharacteristic for Bevis Frond, but its because of the format), recorded for this single, is a nice rockin melodic tune with distorted vocals. Prime Sinister, offers their trademarked style of intelligent, down and out, cry in my beer rock. Full color cover, great black and white inner sleeve photo of Nick Saloman and Prime Sinister together (thePrime Sinisters have in the past regularly supportedBevis Frond concerts in Nürnberg). Black and red splattered vinyl on the first pressing of 500, clear vinyl on the second pressing of 300.

Happy Holidayz & Happy New Year
Enjoy !!!

Smell Of Incense / Ethereal Counterbalance (split EP, 1997)

Opa-Loka — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 06:57:26 GMT

Smell Of Incense / Ethereal Counterbalance (split EP, 1997)
(Split 10" release, SG TEN 2)

Smell of Incense side :
What Do You Want/Magick Brother (12:05)

Ethereal Counterbalance side :
Bodyland II/Liar's Boogie/Flight 49 (22:26)

$CUT$

Smell of Incense are from Oslo. Inspired by the Canterbury Scene Smell Of Incense offer long & freely interpreted versions of two early Gong songs. Based on a trancy floating repetitive drum/bass carpet --- guitar, keyboards and violine create an open atmosphere. With collected energies they expand into progressive rock space before galumphing into the country folk tinged cosmic sector of "Magick Brother".

Ethereal Counterbalance is the contemporary UK guitar-psych group featuring Rod Goodway. Ethereal Counterbalance's multi-layered guitar sound produces hallucinogenic effects. "I swear I heard a guitar solo I was never able to detect again". Psychedelia & space rock ("Flight 49") for your third ear.

Evel Gazebow - 2010 - A Message to Your Mind

Lost-In-Tyme — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 20:58:14 GMT

Evel Gazebow - 2010 - A Message to Your Mind

"We’re more KNIEVEL, than EVIL !”

Tracks :
1 Message to Your Mind (8.19)
2 Little White Dress (4.44)
3 Invisible Tractor (4.13)
4 Times They A-Changed (4.52)
5 Bubbling Under (2.50)
6 Swordfish 2010 (4.00)
7 On the Edges (4.48)
8 Secret Door (4.52)
9 Lost Tribe (4.24)
10 What Happens If... (5.11)
11 New.Free.Sex.Chocolate (7.42)

The Gazebows are :
Graham Davis : Guitar, Vocals, Bass, Keys, Writing, Recording & Mixing.
Did Dilley : Drums, Vocals, Percussion. $CUT$

We are Evel Gazebow, and we’re a psychedelic space rock band from London. We met each other through our mutual love of all things psychedelia, and over the past few years, we’ve been performing Hawkwind’s "Space Ritual” album live - in track order, in it’s entirety - complete with space poems, back projections and scantily clad dancer etc. (The culmination of which came in a performance of it at The Royal Academy of Art, in London’s Piccadilly – clips available on YouTube).

This is a collection of quick demos of original material that we’ve recorded in our guitarists’ living room. We drew inspiration for these tracks from listening to some of our all-time favourite bands, such as: Pink Fairies, The Deviants, Hawkwind, Gong, Amon Duül, Edgar Broughton Band, Syd’s Floyd etc... We’ve retained some of the ‘stoned, lazy feel’ that is evident in the music of all those bands, plus we’ve added some additional ‘stoner-punk-prog-kosmische-folky-pop-eastern-electro’ stylings, and some Zappa / Mighty Boosh-esque humour elements to boot... It’s a surreal and eclectic psychedelic trip into a world of Badgers in bathing caps, Invisible Tractors, coats made of Squirrel’s eyes and sight-seeing trips to villainous megalomaniac’s hidden bunkers!

Message to Your Mind :
Is a sonic aural sculpture depicting the Saxon uprising of 1297, in undulating tones reminiscent of perpetual astral birth. I wrote this in the bath, whilst outside the the first leaves of Autumn fell in concentric spirals on the sad countenance of an acerbic tortoiseshell kitten.

Little White Dress :
Is about the different types of rope that are available in an average sized hardware store. (Not string though - I'm very particular about this and would look disfavorably on anyone suggesting otherwise).

Invisible Tractor :
Despite the title, is actually about a visible tractor!

Times They A-Changed :
Well, nothing is more certain than roast potatoes. The sun, the stars, all have dalliances with inverted perspectives and frenzied dragonflies dance to the tune of a monkeys yodel...

Bubbling Under :
Many mysterious vegetables live beneath the waves. I've heard of one that can fly and if you tickle its thigh, all your dreams will come true.

Swordfish 2010 :
I fell off a tree once and all the recalcitrant Pandas residing within told me this astonishing tale by the medium of dance! I'll never forget it.

On the Edges :
I've always found banjoes a lot of fun at parties, so I thought I'd write a song about the solitude of space as viewed by an idealist.

Secret Door :
I've never been afraid of saying what has to be said. I just don't harp on about it... For instance, when performing ‘Waiting for Godot’ at infant school, I had a feeling that it was the apotheosis of solitude. I mentioned this to the teacher and she touched me inappropriately.

Lost Tribe :
I almost awoke one morning to find that reality was just a dream. Then I did a cosmic trump and found that dreams were just reality. So if tomorrow is just another yesterday, who is the dreamer and what day is it? It's questions like this that keep me awake!

What Happens If... :
I'm often asked what this song is about, and I always say the same thing...

New.Free.Sex.Chocolate :
Help I'm being held prisoner in a Psychedelic rock band!

You can contact (mail) Evel Gazebow If you want to order a copy.
You can also find Evel Gazebow at MySpace

The Tricks of the Sun - 2007 - The Tricks of the Sun

Opa-Loka — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 08:58:38 GMT

The Tricks of the Sun - 2007 - The Tricks of the Sun
Τα Παιχνίδια του Ήλιου - 2007 - Τα Παιχνίδια του Ήλιου

(PD 002, ΠΔ 002, Private, Produced : 2007 - Released: January 2009)

Tracks :

A1 Ra (Ρα)
Α2 The Dream (Τ' Όνειρο)
Β1 Flatter of the Butterfly (Η Πεταλούδα Ανοίγει τα Φτερά της)
B2 The Tricks of the Sun (Τα Παιχνίδια του Ήλιου)

B3 Epilogue (Επίλογος)

Members :
Lilian Tsatsaroni : main vocals & narration
Christos Pieridis : vocals
Spiros Rouchotas : flute, fife, electric & acoustic guitar, electric bass,
keyboards, drums, native instruments & sounds, effects

Aphrodite : narration

$CUT$

Music written by Spiros Rouchotas
Lyrics by Nancy Fanouriou & Spiros Rouchotas
Recorded at home, 2007 Athens
Sound engineering & remix by Zacharias Kotsikis

70's sound & chaotic spirit in an absolute utopian album.
Great crystal sound, with many space folk themes, trippy flutes, majestic female vocals,
dreamy childs voice, native instruments & sounds, heavy dope psych melodies & more...
Fantastic artwork with double-page velvet insert.
Private issue in only 300 copies.

It's just a hallucinogen experience !!!

More info here (You may also order this album directly from the artist, if there are available copies) :
http://dedalospsych.blogspot.com/2009/08/ta-paichnidia-tou-iliou-lp-2007_30.html

Review from PsychedelicFolk.com :

The first over 13 minute track starts with an electronic music intro with a drone and overtones (and some temple bells) and later with spacey effects with a rather eastern sounding flute solo, slowly developing. A guitar takes over the flute idea with middle eastern chords with a sufi-like flute response. This turns to a second part with an electric bass theme repetition which reminds me very much of Igra Stakleni Perli's first album (which was based upon in its turn on Pink Floyd's "Interstellar Overdrive”) or pre-Ozric Tentacles, with some drumming. Two new layers are added with soprano vocals. This mode improvises and evolves further simple and pure with electrified guitar and organ and slightly echoing electric guitar, before a long meditative mode concludes this track with vibrating electronica and temple bells only.

The second track has an intro with church bells and water splashes. This is an acoustic song of guitar and dual vocals sung in Greek, suddenly stopping like an open ending after the first verse, ending the same as the intro.

Side two with another strange intro reverse vocal collage is a song with female spoken word in Greek while the band improvises in a relaxed psychedelic way on a musical theme with organ, wordless vocals, wilder electric guitar, drums and reverse flute, later on as full band with all these instruments and a flute arrangement on a folk-rock rhythm with trio harmony vocals singing the song theme with a swinging electric bass and some organ.

The next song is based upon two acoustic guitar pickings, has different parts with flute arrangements, on changing relaxed jam rhythms with some repetitive bass, and some beautiful child-voice like spoken word, while the band improvises dreamily on the rhythm.

The last track has an intro of children playing during a break in school. It is based upon descriptive moody acoustic guitar composition with two guitars.

The Magnificent Brotherhood - 2010 - Dope Idiots‏

Lost-In-Tyme — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 07:53:14 GMT

The Magnificent Brotherhood - 2010 - Dope Idiots‏

It's green, it's mean, it's the... "Dope Idiots" !!!
Magnificent Brotherhood's second studio album is featuring 12 songs for your ear's and feet's delight.

Tracks :
1 I Want You (2:29)
2 Dope Idiots (3:09)
3 All Because of You (2:46)
4 Divine Advice (3:12)
5 Too Much (3:44)
6 Degeneration (2:49)
7 Last Song About You (3:21)
8 Psychosis (4:28)
9 You Can Only Guess (3:30)
11 Upside Down (3:00)
12 Surrender (2:07)
13 Save Me Save You (3:05)

$CUT$
The Magnificent Brotherhood is :
Kiryk Drewinski : guitar, lead-vocals
Erik Haegert : Farfisa compact organ, lead-vocals
Jan Rohrbach : bass, backing vocals
Lars Puder : drums, backing vocals

Discography :
2008 The Magnificent Brotherhood
2009 Live Ammunition (at Burg Herzberg Open Air)
2010 Dope Idiots

Dope Idiots brings you 12 highly addictive garage rockers, full of crazy Fuzz guitars, Farfisa organ swirls and zappaesque lyrics.
The Magnificent Brotherhood's unique songwriting style and their freak-out attitude make this album a musical upper, capturing wild up-tempo numbers, as well as some souly tracks too. Not denying the band's vintage and raw live sound Dope Idiots is serving some freash material, all written by Drewinski & Haegert.
This record sure is dope! But listen yourself…

Here are the song descriptions from Kiryk Drewinski & Erik Haegert (songwriters of The Magnificent Brotherhood) :

"All songs on "Dope Idiots" got a true background and are mostly either about love or dope... Guess that's what we like to do best.
You can find some of our lyrics here: www.maghood.com/lyrics.html"

I Want To
A guy is after a certain girl. But she doesn't want him. ...well, until he gets tired of running for her and finds another girl. Now the first girl is showing very strong interest.
...What would you do in such situation? Decide for yourself. The song's not gonna tell.

Dope idiots

A song about the partycrew.

All Because of You

This tune is about a boy that loves a girl no matter what. ...even if she makes loving her a hard time.

Divine Advice

Party's a cheep shrink.

We shot a video to this song. It's about a kind of psychedelic party sect, including high priests, followers and an oracle etc. This sect's aim is giving people that divine advice: Party till you die!!! ...It's called The Magnificent Brotherhood ...hehe ...hey, everybody join us!

Too Much
Friendship at the edge of love. Two people loving each other but don't show it as they know that they just can't be together for many reasons. So they keep their feelings a secret to them selfs and everybody else, trying to stay away from each other to avoid the "final step".
The song has got a happy ending when the guy decides to change this situation by confessing his love to her. But reality often is different.

Degeneration

Everybody feels low sometimes but there are ways out.

Last Song About You
A classical garage song topic. Guy loses girl. Guy is in pain. Guy finds new/better love. ...and writes a song about it. ...haha!
It's a kind of good bye letter, addressed to an ex-girl after realizing that love can be a wonderful thing, only if you find the right girl.

Psychosis

Just a funny song about dropping acid.
The Intro chat is featuring Sky "Sunlight" Saxon and was recorded at Erik's, our organ player's place in the morning
after the show The Magnificent Brotherhood did together with Sky & The Seeds in 2008.

Sky was living at Erik's place for a couple of days during his stay in Berlin. He was talking about moving to Berlin as he fell in love with the city. Sadly some time late he passed away as you know. We were shocked and wanted to pay tribute to this master of psychedelic by putting him on the record (and of course we're honored by what he is saying ; )

You Can Only Guess

Sometimes thoughts can turn into paranoia pretty quickly. Especially if you are in fear or a very jealous person.
Everybody knows this feeling not to be sure. It really can drive one crazy when guessing is the only thing left to do. Of course in the end it's senseless as you just don't know, no matter how many thoughts you spend but somehow we do it anyway. ...scary, ain't it?

But is this song really about all that? ...Well, you can only guess...

Upside Down
This song is about living a live completely against the clock, against the standard ...and at least against yourself.
But it's the only life you know and the only life you can live.

"I'm living upside down, with my head to the ground. My world is upside down but my ass is wearing a crown".
Kiryk (the guitarist): "I live a life like that, not because I want to. Just because I can't help it. I wake up at night and go to bed in the morning most of the time. In general my ways are rather unconventional. I call this upside down. I don't say this with pride at all!! Living upside down can really be a pain but I just can't change it ...and I tried, believe me. ...And I still do".

Surrender

What is it that everybody wants from one?

Save Me Save You

Can't we just be nice to each other?

You can order your Dope Idiots copy here
The Magnificent Brotherhood pages :
Official site, MySpace, facebook, YouTube channel

Baby Scream - 2010 - Baby Scream

Lost-In-Tyme — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 19:51:25 GMT

Baby Scream - 2010 - Baby Scream

Forthcoming album for Argentinean Power Pop quartet.

Tracks :
1 Powerpop Crush (2:12)
2 Exile (2:46)
3 Jekyll & Hyde (3:26)
4 Mental Case (2:17)
5 The Ghost of Valerie (Feat. Eric Dover) (3:28)
6 Watching the End of the World (On TV) (3:02)
7 Nipone (3:34)
8 Lazy (3:55)
9 What About You ? (3:25)
10 Twenty Seven (2:29)

Argentinean singer/songwriter and Baby Scream leader Juan Pablo Mazzola has returned with his latest offering, "Baby Scream", a heady combination of classic rock licks and power pop sensibilities that sits comfortably between Lennon and T-Rex.

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Let's read what Juan says about this album !!!

I write songs at night, let’s say around 3:00 am.
Thing is, I’ve been doing this for years now, it started when I was 18 and I’m 29 today.
I recorded some cds between the year 2003 and 2008 but saved what I considered the best songs for this record, also, I decided to call it just "Baby Scream".
So probably this release is going to be my favourite.
Writing songs at night it is probably the loneliest experience that I’ve ever had, having said this, it is amazing to share the result with my friends.

Powerpop Crush
Wrote this song in 2009, sometimes writing a love song could be something difficult to deal with,
could be something you didn’t expect at all.
Actually an uncomfortable situation could be the perfect moment to think about it,
especially when you are not a part of the story….

Exile
I’ve been living in exile for years now, sometimes physically, sometimes mentally…
I tend to escape from my reality, actually, I don’t like doing it at all…..thing is : "sometimes the right words for an end are hard to find".

Jekyll and Hyde
Baby Scream’s Monsters ep was released in Germany in the year 2007 through Beyond Your Mind Records.
I wrote those songs in 2005, the same day I wrote this song I wrote a song called "Mars".
Both of these songs were inspired by David Bowie’s "Space Oddity", also, they are about mental illness.
I somehow decided to use the space thing as a metaphor when it comes to craziness.
We recorded some demos and hired a local producer in Buenos Aires,
he thought that this song was not good enough for the ep.
I kept playing it over and over, changed the lyrics a little bit and decided 2010 was the right time to re record this song.

Mental Case
Again, crazy people.
Doing cocaine and living 2 different lives might not be a good idea…
Being a Queen fan could be a great idea though….especially for a guitar player.

The Ghosts of Valerie
I've met some horrible people in my life, some of them took some things away from me like places, streets, music, small conquers….being "close friends" the one that hurts the most.
Eric Dover (Jellyfish,Slash’sSnakepittt, Alice Cooper) played lead guitar and sang backing vocals here.

Watching the End of the World (On T.V.)
Wrote this song in 2001, it is about the war in Afghanistan, I can’t believe this song’s almost 10 years old!
People tell me that I am really pessimistic, it’s been almost 10 years and nothing has changed.
There’s a line that says : "They are bombing a playground".
I guess they are still doing it….

Nipone
Nipone is about selfish people, it is also about ending a relationship (mainly because of somebody else’s selfishness.)
The music was inspired by John Lennon’s "Beautiful Boy".

Lazy

My friend Chris (an amazing songwriter from Germany, he plays in a band called "The Cheeks") wrote this song.
I went to his place in 2008 and he played it to me, "the song’s about a very special character".
This character lives in his own fantasy world, in an outer space experience……he is respected in "planets far away, where tomorrow never starts today".

What About You ?
I've met this guy in 2005, no names of course.
He would say that everything I did was wrong, that everybody close to me was stupid.
It was really funny watching this guy becoming friends with the same people that he was criticizing in the past, especially because they were also criticizing him.
You know the proverb, "do as I say but not as I do".

Twenty Seven
My soulmate wrote the music for this song, I wrote the lyrics.
I’m a huge Big Star fan so I named the song after Big Star’s "Thirteen".
It is a song about love, pure love.

Album it is going to be out in the U.K. in December on Ok! Records.

Baby Scream :
Official Page, MySpace, facebook, YouTube channel

Labels:
www.myspace.com/recordedrecordingsrecords (U.S.A.)
www.myspace.com/fadingwaysartistcollective (U.K.)
www.myspace.com/okrecordsmusic (U.K.)

Management (Melanie Perrettett)
www.aspiremusicmanagement.co.uk

Kind Regards
J

St. Atom HRT605 - 2010 - Smiling Autumn Leaves

Lost-In-Tyme — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 18:37:39 GMT

St. Atom HRT605 - 2010 - Smiling Autumn Leaves

Unobtrusive Ambient that flirts with nature sounds and images, revoking familiar,
tender (and sometimes repressed) feelings, and often points -and refers to- nostalgic visions.

~begemot

Tracks :
CD1
1 Far Away (1:46)
2 Celebrating Alone (3:10)
3 Angels (1:54)
4 The Temple (7:36)
5 A Few Seconds After the Grief (4:03)
6 A Fair End (2:50)
7 Clock (4:26)
8 Travelling (3:57)
9 Holy Ghost (2:34)
10 Arriving for First Time (4:16)
11 Underwater Landscape (11:02)

CD2
1 Across The River (6:46)
2 Alike (1:59)
3 The Dawn (6:58)
4 As the Night Train Reminded Me of Ash Ra Tempel (11:09)
5 Near the Path (5:39)
6 Weak Winter (2:50)
7 Far Away (Still) (1:34)

$CUT$

Review :
It is not only neo folk, it is not only folktronica but... it is a common secret that most of those artistic expressions that can be more than attractive and even more interesting for our sonic pleasure, come far away from the city's deadbeat. Even though civilization is the source of unhapiness, there is always an escape through the oceanic feeling no matter if it has to flow through electricity. Ok, first of all, this is the art of hunting the lost nature of things. The eternal battle between the pleasure and the reality principles. "Smiling Autumn Leaves" need your real attention. Their creator is a cosmic monk who invented this unique space to travel through fragile, old fashioned romantic tunes to asthmatic industrial waves. Lot of music blends, lot of influences in this hand made, self release double cdr that fortunately moves across the local aesthetic about making, creating, playing and releasing music. St. Atom HRT605 has no need of any passport to reach you. All the internet chanells are open. I hope your ears too.

~George "Dr.Fuzz"

You can buy this double CD-r (limited to 100) : http://www.st-atom-hrt605.com/_/also available here
You can buy this album (digital) : http://statomhrt605.bandcamp.com/
You can contact St. Atom HRT605 : MySpace or facebook
Artwork by Penny VideoPhotography

James McKeown - 2010 - James McKeown

Lost-In-Tyme — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 11:25:57 GMT

James McKeown - 2010 - James McKeown

Debut album from Bristol based guitarist/songwriter James McKeown.

Tracks :
1 From NASA to None (05:24)
2 Dark Sky Park (03:00)
3 Stars (02:50)
4 Poachers Feet (04:29)
5 Bones (05:05)
6 Days Were a Joy (05:26)
7 Storm (06:13)
8 Mayfly (06:00)
9 40,000 Full Moons (03:45)

James McKeown is the guitarist in Bristol based luminaries Hi-Fiction Science.
Whilst their music is based around a unique blend of Krautrock, Folk, Post-Punk and Electronic influences.
James' debut album is an introspective journey into quintessentially English lo-fi melancholic dreampop.

$CUT$

Let's read what James says about his album !!!

"The songs are an outpouring of all of my thoughts and actions during something of an emotionally traumatic time in my life.

Most of the songs were already written, so I spent some reclusive late nights and weekends laying down the recordings and mixing, here some explanation of what is behind the music"

From NASA to None
A song about being stuck in a rut. Emotionally, chemically and not helping yourself to break out of it. Musically I used live drums played by Aidan Searle, the drummer in Hi-Fiction Science. A real Lo-Fi technique as I got him to play along to a backing track, recorded them live and then chopped them up to make a loop and overlayed an 808 beat on the kick drum and snare.

I had been listening to some 'chillwave' hypnagogic bands like Washed Out and Ariel Pink and wanted that vibe of blending the guitars, keys and vocals. Also went for a synth solo rather than a guitar break which I wanted to sound like it was a cross between Cocteau Twins, mid '80's Marillion (!) and The Associates.

Dark Sky Park
An ethereal instrumental that hopefully is somewhere between Durutti Column and Mike Oldfield - Fellow Bristol musician, guitar virtuoso Robin Allender (Gravenhurst/Yann Tiersen/Three Cornered Moon) compared it to Pat Metheny, which is very complimentary although I'm not sure I've quite got the same level of musical chops!

Stars
This is a song about light, the universe and astronomy. The way that the first astronomers were considered to be heathens for suggesting other planets were out there and that the universe was infinite. Stars die and time evolves. Musically quite a simple song which uses a Mellotron. Except there is no way I could afford a real Mellotron (who can ?) so this is a Mellotron app mic'd up and ran through a Moog Analog delay. Nice. Almost has a MGMT/Flaming Lips vibe about it.

Poachers Feet
This one is probably the oldest song on here being that it was a track that I first recorded when I was stockpiling songs recorded on my 4-track around 1999/2000. Again I used the aforementioned drum loop technique with the live drum samples. Came up with a quick funky locked in bassline groove and acoustic guitar, which with the flanged vocal effect sounds a bit like it could be from Pink Floyd's Animals album. The theme is the poacher hunting and killing their prey - loss of innocence. I get into a keyboard freakout at the end by running it through the Moog pedals again and finally leading to the subsonic LFO outro that flows straight into......

Bones
A simple song about a murder sang from the perspective of the killer. Based on a news story I heard about a girl who went missing after a night out in Bath. Her remains were discovered recently near the M5 motorway and I expanded on this this theme. Acoustic guitar/bass/vocals. That's it.

Days Were a Joy
A very personal song about past love and regret and a report of mentally where I am. Really pleased with the harmony vocal end section as I am a big fan of Curt Boettcher/The Millennium (particularly the 'Begin' album) and his production so I tried to make it a bit of an homage to that in the climax of the track also pleased with the hypnotic guitar motif and the (slightly out of time in places!) fake xylophone keyboard which all blend to give it a subtle psychedelic edge.

Storm
Using the famous Lo-Fi Mellotron technique and acoustic guitar, a song directly dealing with breakup/breakdown of relationships. The vibe I wanted here was a early King Crimson ballad. This was confirmed when Keith - from Fruits de Mer Records - said that my voice had a Greg Lake quality to it. It's purposely melancholic - as much of my music is - slowcore and downtempo.

Mayfly
This one is about a brief ill fated relationship that I thought could work out but we both knew it couldn't due to certain circumstances. April > May > June and then it was over. I was gutted and this song poured out of me almost like automatic writing. Really quite simple but I'm pleased with the strong double-tracked vocal melody and the fluid guitar lines which were initially recorded far too loud but I wanted to go with them as they sounded good and subsequent takes seemed forced. Luckily the balance was addressed in the EQ of the final mastering and is now all level and quite polished.

40,000 Full Moons
An ambient outro to wind down the album. Lot's of delay and backwards guitar through out. Originally I had a spoken word sample of Timothy Leary over the top taking about dying and how he had opened the 'pandora's box' of chemical experimentation that was first discovered over 40,000 Full Moons ago. In the end I decided against it as it sounded too unsubtle and overtly stoner/druggy. Having said that, it's a nice way to end the trip. Man.

The album is available digitally from all major retailers - www.jamesmckeown.bandcamp.com, iTunes, Amazon etc.
~~A physical copy will be available in the near future - check www.myspace.com/jamesdylanmckeown for updates.~~
A physical copy can be ordered here or here
You can listen entire album in both addresses (MySpace & BandCamp)

Cheers

James

The Vertigo Swirl - 2010 - A New Swirled Record

bamarek — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 07:03:09 GMT

The Vertigo Swirl - 2010 - A New Swirled Record

Tracks :
1 The Megalith (4:37)
2 Jeremy's First Flight (5:46)
3 We've Got Electricity (5:32)
4 Molehill Sherpa (3:12)
5 Loneliness Is a Choice (4:32)
6 Got Yer Back (2:46)
7 Third Sun from the Stone (8:46)
8 You Belong in Outer Space (8:23)

$CUT$
In late 2009, "Manik" Myk Thompson suggested we revive our long dormant collaboration with some recording of an experimental/psychedelic nature. I countered by suggesting that we do so with the goal of a recording a second album under The Vertigo Swirl identity. We began with a day of improvisation that yielded "Jeremy's First Flight", "Third Sun from the Stone" and the compositional beginnings of "The Megalith". I added my contributions to some tracks that Myk had begun at home ("We've Got Electricity", "Molehill Sherpa", "Loneliness Is a Choice" and "Got Yer Back") while he, in turn, added guitar to my own pet projects ("You Belong in Outer Space" and "The Megalith"), a couple of guest performers did their thing and, voila, we had A New Swirled Record - eight paths of excess trod by two psychedelic brothers in arms.

~Brian Andrew Marek

Engineered and produced by "Manik" Myk Thompson
and Brian Andrew Marek, December 2009 - March 2010
mixed by Brian Andrew Marek.

A New Swirled Record is solely the work and property of Brian Andrew Marek and Michael Allen Thompson, both of whom fully consent to (and encourage) its free distribution.

MySpace page : http://www.myspace.com/brianandrewmarek

The Morticians - 1987 - Freak Out with the Morticians

Opa-Loka — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 14:03:02 GMT

The Morticians - 1987 - Freak Out with the Morticians
(Tin Soldier TIN-1)

Punk Side :
Now She's Gone (3:21)
Action Woman (2:48)
Don't Need Your Lovin' (3:47)
Blackout Out of Gretely (4:21)
E.S.P. (2:45)
I Need You There (2:47)
Sweet Young Thing (2:48)

Psych Side :
Spiral Bat (7:08)
Carolyn (4:36)
Song of a Baker (3:38)
Section 44 (9:01)

Bonus Tracks :
I Don't Care (3:47)
Hey Gyp (Dig the Slowness) (2:23)$CUT$
(Originally recorded for inclusion on Psychedelic Psauna,
compilation but didn't make it in time for the release)

Redfern Bros. began to play in the mid-80s as The Giant Sunhorse; at the beginning of 1986 they found bassist Ben Jackson and changed name to The Morticians, releasing this delicious sweet at the end of next year. An explosive punk side (those who don't know one original at least, lift up their own hand) and a visionary psych-side made few lucky owners happy... the first pressing of 500 ran out very soon and so did the second one of little more than a thousand, but Ben's leaving caused dissolution. At the end of 1988 a compilation of early recordings (demos and live sets) titled "She's Like Heroin" came out on Distortion Records.

~Roberto from the wrong way

Part of the 80's wave of UK Neo Psych and Garage Punk, The Morticians made one of the best lost UK psych-punk albums of that era. It's a combination of '60s styled garage punk and West Coast/Pink Fairies like acid guitar rock. Heavy distorted fuzzed out guitar solos, swirling keyboards and a really stoned atmosphere pervade this little gem that's long gone on vinyl. Includes uniquely heavy versions of "Action Woman" & "Song Of A Baker", "Blackout Of Gretely" and a totally over the top lysergic version of the Country Joe & The Fish classic "Section 43". Dave Goodman's production is raw , drenched in reverb and somehow (only God knows) he managed to hold this monstrous creation together.

Discography :
1987 - Freak Out with the Morticians
1988 - She's Like Heroin or Vombadill Versus The Matmoss (The Early Recordings)

Yesterday's Thoughts - 2009 - A Moment to Pray

Opa-Loka — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 16:31:37 GMT

Yesterday's Thoughts - 2009 - A Moment to Pray
(Sound Effect, SER 014)

Yesterday's Thoughts third album A Moment to Pray is here!
Screaming farfisa and soul arousing vocals powered by Dimitris Megedisidis, totally 60s sounding, brain melting stellar guitar performed by Spyros Megedisidis, plus the time bending, playful rhythm section of Lefteris Galanis on bass & Giorgos Vagiatlakis on drums. After being around for twelve years they decided to lock themselves in the comfort of their own studio along with Sound Effect Records vintage analogue recording gear for two years!
$CUT$

Tracks :
A1 Why Can't You See 2:31
A2 Take a Walk 2:17
A3 One and Only 3:29
A4 Now You're Gone 2:12
A5 Thoughts 2:24
A6 Bad Love 2:32
A7 Fallin' 2:18
A8 Try to Understand 2:24
B1 In this Town 2:43
B2 Don't You Worry 2:19
B3 When 2:13
B4 Puppets 2:35
B5 I'm Loosing My Head 3:02
B6 Reborn 3:25
B7 I Don't Care About You 1:48
B8 Sorry Mama 2:37
B9 A Man Lost in the Wind 1:55

Notes :
Recorded and Mixed in their basement studio with an 8-Track analog recorder.
Mastered at Feedback Studio. Includes insert with Lyrics & Credits. Limited Edition of 450 copies.

Yesterday’s Thoughts :
Lefteris Galanis : Bass, Backing Vocals
Giorgos Vagiatlakis : Drums, Tambourine
Spiros Megedisidis : Guitar, Backing Vocals
Dimitris Megedisidis : Vocals, Organ [Farfissa]

Discography :
Yesterday's Thoughts 1998 (EP, Album, Ltd) Action Records
Searchin In Shadows 2002 (LP, Album, Ltd) Action Records
Let's Take A Ride With... 2004 (LP, Album, Ltd) Sound Effect Records
A Moment To Pray 2009 (LP, Album, Ltd) Sound Effect Records

Review from FuzzOverdose.com :
The Yesterday's Thoughts third album, is dedicated to their departed friend, mentor and associate, Sky Sunlight Saxon, and while being physically away, his spirit continues to haunt the tracks of this record. The title A Moment To Pray, taken from a line of their gospel psych waltz gem Fallin', sets the tone for the musical and lyrical themes of this record. There's not a fleck of colour to be found on the moody artwork, a motif that continues onto to the grooves, and the listeners should embrace themselves for a brooding, bad acid trip into lysergia. Having no deadlines or any kind of restriction helped them to push the equipment’s and own abilities to the extreme epitomizing garage punk and psychedelic music from the 60’s to the 00’s. Under the given conditions they’ve breathed life to these sessions by managing to capture fragments of their moody yet powerful soul and transfer them into this album’s 17 original compositions. This time around more esoteric, psychedelic and Boston tingled, pointing further out their already acknowledged unique blend of 60’s influenced garage and psychedelic music. More focused and mature than ever, efficient to lay the path for your trips into their distinctive sound they’re offering to us their best album so far. Imagine a tasty blend of the Seeds with Outta Place or Head & the Hares fuzzin’ it’s way to the center of your soul with wild performance and well crafted melodies. Always psychedelic but never noodling, the Yesterday's Thoughts offer us 17 of their own compositions, full of minor key excursions from the omipresent Farfisa organ, harsh vocals, and every shade of fuzz known to man. Straying from the usual Garage Punk lyrical route, these songs are about personal matters, the tone being sombre and verging to desperate. Having built their own analogue basement studio, the Yesterday's Thoughts had the opportunity to painstakingly craft this album and to hone their recording skills, creating a faithfully pure 60's affair. Not for the faint hearted, if you are looking for easy kicks you should steer away, but those of you searching for a late night companion, the Yesterday's Thoughts' third and probably best album will surely become your friend and stay near your record player for years to come.

Beware this is not your typical moody band !

Bio :
Yesterday’s Thoughts were formed in 1996. The main influences of the group are focused on the mid sixties US punk and psychedelic sounds. In 1998 Action Records released a 7’’ with four of the band’s songs. In 2002 Action Records again released the band’s first LP titled «Searchin’ In Shadows». In 2004 Sound Effect Records released the 2nd LP called "Let’s Take A Ride With…”, which contains 13 of the band’s songs plus two with Sky "Sunlight” Saxon at the vocals. In 2009 the 3rd lp "A Moment to Pray" came out. Other of the band’s recordings can be found in several compilations: "Come Where the Action Is” (Action Records - Gew-Gaw), "Enjoy the Greeks vol. 2” (On Stage Records), "Gew-Gaw fanzine vol.7”, "Rumble Skunk fanzine vol.1”, "Peace Frog fanzine vol. 1”, "Lost in Tyme fanzine vol.2”,"Timemazine vol.4" . Through all this years the band gave some gigs alone or with some great garage bands: Sky Saxon and the Seeds, the Sonics, Fuzztones, Nomads, Steve Wynn, Baby Woodrose, Beach Buggy, Will-O-the Wisp, Frantic V, Invisible Surfers, Psykicks, Teddy Boys from the Crypt, Meanie Geanies, Teardrops, Ducky Boys, the Barbara Farmers, the Jacks and others.

Yesterday's Thoughts on MySpace

Apothecary Hymns - 2005 - Trowel and Era

Lost-In-Tyme — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 11:46:41 GMT

Apothecary Hymns - 2005 - Trowel and Era
(Locust Music, locust 69)

Apothecary Hymns is the pseudonym of the Court & Spark's Alex Stimmel, who makes his full-length solo debut on this Locust Music release. Whereas Stimmel's other band has more of an alt-country feel, this project is filled with a '60s vibe that will probably be very appealing to fans of southern California psych revivalists like Beachwood Sparks and Greg Weeks' band Espers. $CUT$I've seen a lot of other reviews that have compared Stimmel to Syd Barrett, but I'm hearing more of a Meddle-era Pink Floyd sound going on, and other moments are a little bit reminiscent of early Brian Eno. Toward the end he goes into more of a garage rock thing with fuzzy guitars and Rhodes organ. Overall it's a nice record, ably written, produced and arranged, and not quite as druggy as the band name might lead you to expect.

(RH)~Other Music

Tracks :
1 Abandoned Factories 5:43
2 The Father 4:58
3 The Marigold 4:15
4 The Human Abstract 2:45
5 Watching the Bay 3:27
6 (A Sailor Song) 4:44
7 The Conclusion, In Which Nothing Is Concluded 2:46
8 All True Love Is Happiness 2:49
9 In the Icy Beds 4:30

The one man band Alex Stimmel (a.k.a. Apothecary Hymns)
send us a link for listen to their first album Trowel and Era (available on Locust Music).

Thank you Alex !!!

"Hi! I've been a long time fan of your blog/site. However, since I noticed that you've been doing a lot of recent releases
so wanted to offer you a link to my old-school psych band, Apothecary Hymns.
If you enjoy our first album (second one is already finished but not released), you should feel free to post it!"

Review from BlogCritics.org :
Apothecary Hymns, huh? Could there be drugs involved? All signs point to hell yes. If you’re looking for a rave, however, you’re in the wrong place.

The closest you’re likely to get from Alex Stimmel, a.k.a. Apothecary Hymns, is an Acid Test. This is psychedelia from the old school, mostly delicate psyche-folk, some sweetly crunchy guitar textures here and there with the occasional foray into full-on feedback get-the-thorazine-dude freakout.

Trowel and Era teems with banjo, acoustic guitar, recorder, and organ, with a few flatulent analogue synths (hey, it’s the nature of the instrument) thrown in for a little variety. Says here there’s a glockenspiel and an autoharp on board, too. Guess I missed 'em.

Do not let the lyrics of the opening track, "Abandoned Factories”, frighten you off. Yeah, it’s pretty dire stuff – "Abandoned factories are ghostly mirrored minds / their corners tuck away all clarity / Deep within gray areas, and lost between the lines / lie clouded crystal shards of memory” - but just think of Stimmel’s warm, Eno-esque voice as simply another instrument in the mix, let it carry you along, and all will be fine.
("Warm and Eno-esque” is not an oxymoron, by the way. Go back and listen to some of Brian Eno’s vocal work, both solo and with, say, 801, and you’ll see what I’m talking about. The lyrics may be cold, but the voice is not.)

Lyrics are not really the strong point here, with the exception of "The Human Abstraction”, and it’s William Blake set to music (organ, banjo & recorder). Not really a fair comparison, is it?

No, what makes the disc in question worthwhile are the sonic textures on display. Listening to this album, I’m put in mind of nothing so much as that most precious relic of the psychedelic era, Spirit’s 1971 opus, The Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus – only the greatest album of its day* and certainly one of the top five of all time. Not that Trowel and Era is that good, mind you, but it would hold up relatively well played back to back with it.

Stimmel is no Randy California, but fuck it – who is? It’s not that the two albums sound so much alike (they don’t, really) but that the (forgive me) spirit of both is fairly similar. It’s a late-sixties/early-seventies zeitgeist we’re looking at. A light-filled lysergic smile plays across its face of "Watching the Bay”, for example, with its slight taste of, say, Moby Grape, or maybe Quicksilver Messenger Service. Its companion piece, "(A Sailor’s Song)”, sails a darker sea, but still sparkles plenty. "The Marigold” has something of a "John Barleycorn Must Die” zest to it. You’ll wanna skip right over the pretentious sound collage of "The Conclusion, in which Nothing Is Concluded”, though.

The title alone sound be warning enough, really, but I know some of you are gonna feel a little adventurous and want to see what’s up. Well, what’s up is some found sound and backwards tracks and yada yada that never really goes anywhere. Forgo, I say, forgo this temptation and save your ears for the "Syd Barrett fronting early Black Sabbath with smaller amplifiers” treat of "All True Love Is Happiness”. Stimmel’s vocals even sound a bit like Jay Ferguson’s on this one, which leads us back to the waiting room of Dr. Sardonicus. Neat, huh?

Look, if psychedelia leaves you cold, this ain’t the disc for you. Many people dismiss the sounds associated with the exploration of inner space, man, as nothing more than "hippie wankery”. They’re entitled to their opinion, of course, and in a few cases (cough-Grateful Dead-cough) they’re absolutely right. For those of you willing to dive in, get your hair wet and have a look around, though, the genre offers some real delights. I don’t know that I’d start somebody off with Trowel and Era, but if you’re already an initiate you could do worse than to check it out.

*Hyperbole? Well, maybe. A little. It’s a mighty fine album, though, and if you haven’t heard it you need to remedy that post-haste, toute suite, and pretty damn quick, too.

Author: bmarkey

More reviews here !

Links :
Band's site
MySpace page
Facebook fun page
Buy CD or LP (Locust Music)

The Steppes - 1997 - Gods, Men and Ghosts

Opa-Loka — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 15:26:04 GMT

The Steppes - 1997 - Gods, Men and Ghosts
DELEC CD 039

Tracks :
1 Samhain 3:14
2 Chicago Oratorio 5:21
3 Kiss of Fire 2:50
4 Taught Me To Love 3:00
5 Bad Blood 2:46
6 Alanna 5:14
7 Ways of The World 4:53
8 Cornucopia 3:03
9 Lord of The Trance 7:34
10 Reckless, Fearless, Hopeless 2:37
11 Can't Come Back 4:32
12 Stalker's Lament 3:32
13 Chances 3:26
14 Potter's Wheel 3:51
$CUT$
The final album by The Steppes was recorded for Delerium in 1995 and was produced by John Frankovic of Plasticland. As you would expect it's a classic release with all of the key Steppes elements in place. Superb arrangements -including the bands trademark West Coast guitar and vocal harmony interplay - and some of the best songs the band ever wrote!

Credits :
Tracks 1, 4, 6, 8, 13, 14 written by David Fallon / Published by Achaini Cheoil*
Track 2, 5, 7, 9, 10, 12 written by John Fallon / Published by Podgeman Melodies*
Track 3, 11 written by Tim Gilman / Published by Soul Gem Music*

Produced by John C. Frankovic
Engineered by Bobbio
Recorded at Sound Sound Recording
Mastered at Serendipity
Management by Richard Allen at Big Brother..

Bio :
The Steppes were originally formed as a powerpop trio in 1982 by brothers John and David Fallon with drummer Eddie GrzybThe Blue Macs". There were five demos that were recorded and given a brilliant review in Melody Maker in March of '83. John and David relocated from Dublin to Los Angeles and added Tim Gilman to the line up. The name of the band was now changed to The Steppes. They recorded 8 songs that were released by Mystic Records in Hollywood February of '84. James Bailey became the drummer shortly after. The Steppes gigged in Los Angeles and around southern California from 1983-1985. John and David Fallon returned to Ireland for several months. Greg Shaw of Bomp Records signed The Steppes to a multi-album deal after The Steppes played one show at Greg's Cavern club in Hollywood near the Capital Records building. The Steppes then recorded Drop of the Creature LP in west Los Angeles in '86. the album was realeased in '87. The Steppes then recorded the Stewdio LP in '87 in Hollywood. The album was released in '88. John Fallon played guitar on a Dementia 13 album called "Disturb the Air" which came out in '88. The same year, The Steppes toured Europe. They played shows in England, Belgium, Germany, and Greece. After the tour, they recorded 'Enquire Within' in London. The Steppes then did 22 shows plus a TV appearance in Greece in '89. The Enquire Within album resulted with a second and larger European tour in October. There were 30 shows in England, Germany, Italy, Greece, Belgium, and Holland. After the tour, they returned to London to record 'Harps and Hammers' in December of '89 and January of '90. To be continued...

MySpace URL : www.myspace.com/thesteppesnowonmyspace

Bumble B - 2004 - Flight Of The Bumble B

Opa-Loka — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 22:41:45 GMT

Bumble B - 2004 - Flight Of The Bumble B
Acony Bell Records (AB-001)

Solo debut by SigneLine Lundstrom alias Bumble B., member of The Smell Of Incense.
Presenting a collection of traditional folk songs from Norway. She plays viola, violin, flute, various bells and she sings. On some tracks she's joined by musicians on pedal organ, indian harmonium, e-bow guitars, sitar, classic & acoustic guitars, flutes and bodran. Limited edition of 400 copies, vinyl only release. Coming with paste-on sleeve artwork by Bumble B. and contains an insert.
$CUT$
Tracks :
A 1 A Vil Du Hava Meg Til A Kveda (1:23)
A 2 Lanst Inn Pa Ville Heii (3:57)
A 3 Folkestadvisa (3:21)
A 4 Viervand Og Marihand (0:41)
A 5 Maria, Un Er En Jomfru (2:39)
A 6 Ormen Lange (2:16)
A 7 Rosensfolen (1:51)
A 8 Svalande Vind (2:30)
A 9 Svend Svane (0:44)
A 10 Vassrafela (1:45)

B 1 Varulu (0:33)
B 2 Flanarormin (0:51)
B 3 Duva Sette Se' Pa (2:51)
B 4 Beijarblakkjin (2:52)
B 5 Lova, Lova Line (2:26)
B 6 Signelin (2:12)
B 7 Liti Kjersti (2:40)
B 8 Signe Lita (5:34)
B 9 Svalande Vind (instrumental) (3:35)
B 10 So, Ro Liten Tull (1:26)

Review from PsychedelicFolk.com :
Bumble B. is SigneLine Lundstrom. It’s her first solo-album beside her work with The Smell Of Incense. We have here a collection of traditional folk songs from Norway, sung and accompanied mostly solo, with a varied number (and sparse-to-the essence) of acoustic instruments, helped on some tracks by The Smell Of Incense members, and with one track, a trance psych folk track played by the whole of The Smell Of Incense.

I don’t know if it’s appropriate to say, but recently I tried to get the most important albums by Turid together, a folk singer/singer-songwriter from 70’s Sweden. Turid for instance succeeded to combine a singer-songwriter era early Joni Mitchel style with some folk elements. Bumble B. is much more innocent, but her interpretation and choice of folk songs are sung with head and heart to the music, like a songwriter. Above all, I already liked her voice with the psych song group The Smell Of Incense, where her voice had a definite and distinctive folk character already.

One of the most known folk groups from the 70’s from Norway is Folque. They were still pretty traditional compared to the UK folkrock inspirations we all know of now. This group opened up the Nordic folk tradition, with some folkrock elements. The first track of side B, "Varuluv” is inspired by Folque. This track is also much more folkrock, with some electric guitar addition, but with the voice concluding the song essence. Also nice to hear on "Lova, Lova Line” is the use of a sitar, always a very beautiful instrument to combine with a beautiful folk voice. A couple of small tracks are acapella, solo or with some voice arrangements, always strong enough to withstand. The voice of Lundstrom is like a beautiful instrument indeed. Therefore it is not necessary at all to understand the texts being sung. The collection of songs and its interpretations give a very good whole, and give a very nice rewarding listening experience.

Mandra Gora Lightshow Society - 2001 - Space Rave (EP)

Opa-Loka — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 11:48:56 GMT

)

Mandra Gora Lightshow Society - 2001 - Space Rave [10'' EP]
Vinyl, 10", 33 ⅓ RPM, Picture Disc, Limited Edition of 1500 copies , Quadraphonic.

Now this is a funky beast and no mistake ! A four track, ten inch picture disc, from German trip merchants MGLS.
Contain three great studio tracks and one live stonker - all psychedelic space rock to the max in Dolby Surround Sound.

Astronaut's Psyde
A1 Love Dies (8:20)
Guitar [Pslyde] - Matmosphere
A2 Betty Day (6:38)
Tabla - Emél
A3 This Sweet Pain (4:28)

Spiral Rocket Psyde
B1 Psychedelic Shiva (17:32)
Recorded By - Grecore

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Artwork [Coverartwork & Design] By - Bobby Pie
Congas [Groovy] - Gitte Reents
Drums - Martin König
Effects [Dub] - Willi Dammeier
Guitar [Delicious Psychotic Guitars ( Rickenbaker & Vox Phantom )] - Willem Kucharzik
Organ [Hammond], Electric Piano [Wurlitzer], Synthesizer [Der Formant] - Anders Becker
Other [Lightshow] - Cactus Cooper
Recorded By - Willi Dammeier (tracks: A1 to A3)
Vocals, Voice [Cosmic] - Timo Lommatzsch

Notes : This album is recorded in Dolby Surround - so it is in quadrophonic sound quality.

Review (from Aural Innovations) :
I'm gathering that this 10" vinyl release is the closest we have yet to a follow up to Mandra Gora Lightshow Society's Beyond The Mushroam Gate CD, and it features the same killer brand of psychedelia that the band served up on that release. Side A includes the songs "Love Dies", "Betty Day", and "This Sweet Pain". The trip factor is highest on "Betty Day", my favorite of the three. This is the kind of stuff where you just have to project liquid lightshows behind the band and go-go girls dance at the sides of the stage. It's got a killer 60's sound, but Mandra Gora Lightshow Society are infinitely spacier than the 60's psychedelia they draw from. And on all these songs the band have a funky rhythm to the music that makes the body want to MOVE!

All of Side B consists of "Psychedelic Shiva", a jam recorded live at the 1999 Hawkfan Festival. It starts as a song similar to those on Side A, but quickly launches into a cosmic tribal space jam with frantic driving rhythms and mind-melting space guitars, and that organ that gives the band such a beautiful sound. Timo is a man possessed on vocals, not unlike an impassioned Jim Morrison. The band really stretches out across the song's 15 minute length. These guys really do an excellent job of blending the psychedelia of the 60's with a more modern space rock sound. Highly recommended.
God I LOVE that organ.

~Reviewed by Jerry Kranitz - AI#19 (April 2002)

Review (from Psychedelic-music.net) :
After the incredible re-release of Mandra Gora Lightshow Society’s album "Beyond the Mushroam Gate” on Liquid Sound Records, here comes the band’s brand new 10” record that features the first time Timo on vocals. His "crazy” singing is brilliant; it fits perfectly to the mesmerizing soundscapes. The tracks are mostly mellow with floaty audio generator style noises and with gentle jamming. Their fully-fledged experimental psychedelic madness with spaced out and cosmically fried guitar work makes this tranced out audio landscape to a blissful, but relaxed experience. "Space Rave” is one of the most convincing psychedelic albums I have heard in a long, long time.

~(HM)

Review (from Pooterland.com) :
One thing you can be sure of when you get an Mandra Gora Lightshow Society album is that you are going to be treated to an aural feast. This record is no exception as Mandra Gora lay down another set of psychedelic grooves thanks to the use of Tablas, Hammond organ, Wurlitzer E piano, congas, drums and guitars, to give you an early "Deep Purple" meets "Doors" and "Floyd" style.
These space groovers have just stepped through the psychedelic Stargate from the planet Psylocybin to spread their acid induced music.
"Psychedelic Shiva" ebbs and flows on a tide of cosmic hypnosis "Hawkwind" style and sung with the anger of "The purple Things" and is one of the best psych tracks I've laid ears on. To have been there at the 1999 "Hawkfan meeting" where this live recording came from must have been an awesome trip.
The whole Mandra Gora theme is like being thrown back to the classic psych days and this from a 21st century band is quite something, there surely can't be a better band on the planet who can cut it like these guys can. Pure pleasure, pure brain food.
To complete the theme, this limited edition of 1500 copies is on picture vinyl, one side depicting an astronaut with coloured oval shapes of varying sizes and the other side is of a rocket with a spiral trail that draws you in as the vinyl spins. Aint vinyl just soooo good.
Highly recommended.

~ Reviewed by Sir Eel - February 2002

MySpace URL : http://www.myspace.com/mandragoralightshowsociety

After working for eighteen years with different musicians, Mandra Gora Lightshow Society now presenting their new line-up with new sounds!

@256 + LP scans
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Vibravoid - 2010 - What Colour is Pink ? (EP)

Lost-In-Tyme — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 18:22:54 GMT

Vibravoid - 2010 - What Colour is Pink ? EP
(Fruits de Mer Vol. 10)

Limited-edition pink vinyl 7”, with pink labels and a pink sleeve
on sale April 2010

Tracks :
Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun
Let There Be More Light
A Saucerful Of Secrets

Remember when the likes of Island, Charisma and, of course, Casablanca Records offered a guaranteed stamp of quality? Well, despite the collapse of the music industry there are still cult labels out there to pique your interest. Think Tee Pee. Think Rise Above. Think Fruits de Mer! This tiny outfit outta Walton-On-Thames, Surrey specialises in vinyl-only releases, their eclectic roster of bands offering new versions of psychedelic, prog, acid-folk and krautrock classics. Vibravoid’s What Colour Is Pink ? EP is vol. 10 in a series of seven-inch singles, and these deranged Düsseldorf drongos have done Fruits de Mer proud with interpretations of Pink Floyd’s Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun, Let There Be More Light and A Saucerful Of Secrets. If you thought the originals were off-kilter, you ain’t heard nuthin’ yet. It’s like early Kraftwerk (with Ray Manzarek on keys) let loose in the BBC’s Radiophonic Workshop. More mind-blowing than a ton of Space Dust fermenting in a barrel of Alka-Seltzer.

Words: Geoff Barton @ ClassicRockMagazine.com

- Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun -
Amazing new version by Vibravoid from the upcoming EP "What Colour Is Pink ?"

Review from Head Full of Snow :

Following on from Us & Them’s splendid ‘Julia Dream’ reworking for the previous Fruits de Mer release, the record label that shouldn’t work but bloody well does, have tapped the Pink Floyd psychedelic vein once more to bring us mere mortals the deity-like splendour that is Vibravoid’s What Colour is Pink ? EP.

Vibravoid, the German psychedelic rock outfit, are no strangers to the Fruits de Mer experience, having already appeared on the Krautrock Sensation EP. This time around the likes of Can and Kraftwerk are replaced solely by acid rock’s highest profile exponents, Pink Floyd.

Lifting three tracks from the Floyd’s second album, 1968’s excellent A Saucerful of Secrets, Vibravoid let rip with a blistering rendition of space-rock opus ‘Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun’, followed by fellow interstellar explorations ‘Let There Be More Light’ and ‘A Saucerful of Secrets’.

Choosing to cover anything from Pink Floyd’s early days is always going to leave a band open to fierce criticism from the handful of Barrett obsessives holed up on painfully obscure and insanely miopic forums the length and breadth of the interwebs. Even though none of the three tracks appearing on What Colour is Pink ? featured lead vocals or stemmed from the pen of the Madcap himself, one can imagine virtual knives already being sharpened, ready to cut these Teutonic upstarts down to size for having the temerity to tackle the mighty Floyd.

No such reckless knifeplay here though. Vibravoid’s take on both ‘Set the Controls…’ and ‘Let There Be More Light’, are spot on interpretations of the originals, never straying far beyond the radar of the source material, but injecting enough nuances to ensure they remain relevant and interesting. ‘A Saucerful of Secrets’ manages to condense the original’s 12 minutes of interplanetary meandering into just three and a half. No easy feat, to be sure.

What Colour is Pink ? may not sport the innovation of the Us & Them mash-up of ‘Julia Dream’ and ‘All the Pretty Little Horses’, last time around, but so what? When something sounds this good, it doesn’t matter.

Full marks to the Fruits de Mer team once again, and to those travellers beyond the realm of the ninth dimension, Vibravoid. Long may they keep the psychedelic flag flying.

The What Colour is Pink ? EP -- Limited edition pink vinyl 7″, with pink labels in a pink sleeve -- goes on sale April 2010, and will be available through the Fruits de Mer Records website. Be warned, these vinyl superlatives have a habit of selling out fast!

Fruits de Mer Volume 10 - Vibravoid -2010 - What Colour is Pink ? EP will be available mid-April 2010 - email to reserve. Over 300 of the 500 pressing gone on reserve. 3 track EP as the Void Vibra three Floyd 1968 tracks "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun/ Let There Be More Light/ A Saucerful Of Secrets" on a pink vinyl 7" EP. $8 shipped, for now...

Available direct from FdM at :www.fruitsdemerrecords.com

PS: Please let us know if you know What Colour Pink Is !!!

Allison - 2009 - People from Outer Space

Opa-Loka — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 12:04:00 GMT

Allison - 2009 - People from Outer Space
(Missing Vinyl, MV999)

Tracks :
1 People from Outer Space (4:05)
2 San Francisco Nightmare (2:45)
3 Everyday Sunday (6:05)
4 Keep on Rolling (5:09)
5 Midnight Love (4:51)
6 California Sun (4:55)
7 Run and Hide (4:33)
8 Midnight Ride (3:46)
9 Good Reason (3:30)
10 Call of the Wind (6:23)

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Allison :
Chara Dancer - Vocals
Captain - Guitars, Vocals
The Priest - Keyboards
Stash Moon - Guitars
King Scorpio - Bass
Silver - Drums

Allison is a exceptional Greek neo-psychedelic band, which was formed in 2003 by Human Grape guitarist, 3 ex Purple Overdose members and an interesting female singer.
The band has opened for groups such as the Fuzztones, the Electric Prunes, Radio Birdman, the Walkabout etc. during their recent Athens performances.
With People from Outer Space, their first album, Allison may well look straight into the eyes of the best contemporary neo-psychedelic/ progressive, spacerock groups worldwide.

The band was formed in 2003. The idea sprang during a jam session between Captain Delta (guitar & vocals) and Silver (drums). They were also assisted on bass by King Scorpio. Chris Daskalopoulos, an old-time friend of Cpt.Delta, christens the group "Allison”, by which name, with the addition of keyboard player Maestro (the priest) and guitarist Stash, they perform several times along such artists as the Fuzztones, the Electric Prunes, Radio Birdman, the Walkabout etc. The end of 2007 finds them in the studio, recording their debut album "People From Outer Space”, with the addition of Chara in vocals.

Allison on MySpace

@320 :
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covers :
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Embryo with Charlie Mariano and the Karnataka College of Percussion - 1980 - Life

Opa-Loka — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 08:53:41 GMT

Embryo with Charlie Mariano and the Karnataka College of Percussion - 1980 - Life
Disconforme S.L. (2001)

Tracks :
1 Cello Cello (15:27)
2 Telisirama (7:16)
3 Tala Tarangini (14:44)
4 Moroccan Pirates (11:35)

Musicians :
- Christian Burchard / electric vibraphone (A1/2, B2), marimbaphone (B2)
- Edgar Hofmann / Soprano saxophone (A1/2, B2)
- Friedo Josh / flute (A1/2, B2)
- Charlie Mariano / Soprano saxophone (A1, B2)
- Uve Müllrich / bass (A1/2, B2)
- Michi Wehmeyer / harmonium (A1/2, B2)
- Jay Zier / acoustic guitar (A1/2, B2)
$CUT$
+ Principal T.S.A. Mani / Mrindangam
- T.N. Ashok / vocals
- B.N. chandramouli / khanjira
- V.R. Chandrashekar / khol
- N.N. Dinesh / dholki
- M. Gururaja / morsing
- M.N. Mohankumar / pakwaj
- M. Raghavendra / vocals
- R.A. Rajagopal / dholak
- T.N. Ramesh / ghatam
- T.N. Shashikumar / dholak
- S. Srishyla / mridangam top pitch

Review :
Christian Burchard's world music fusion band Embryo has long been a running project of nearly inconceivable depth and breadth. This 1979 live album brings together recordings from an Asian and Indian tour featuring the Embryo sextet with saxophonist Edgar Hofmann, guitarist Jay Zier, bassist Uwe Mullrich, Friedemann Josch on flutes, Michael Wehemeyer on harmonium, and Burchard on marimbas, along with special guest and Embryo alumnus Charlie Mariano on soprano saxophone. What made this tour special was the addition of the Karnataka College of Percussion, a 12-piece Indian percussion ensemble, to the proceedings led by T.A.S. Mani. The result is nothing less than the total synthesis of Embryo's otherworldly sound, crashing, loping, and improvising around set rhythmic and harmonic patters, augmented by the sophistication of this brilliant percussion ensemble who never, ever, overplays. There are four pieces here, the most satisfying of which is the opener, "Cello, Cello" -- and that could be because it is just such a surprise, as everything here rocks! The level of improvisation here is so intimate, so symbiotic as to be literally almost scary that this kind of communication can take place between musicians -- many of whom have never played together before. Literally, these four selections will astonish you at the very least, and perhaps even take your breath away.
~Thom Jurek, All Music Guide

@320 :
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Unknown Passage - Dead Tymes (2008)

RainyDaySponge — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 15:46:20 GMT

Unknown Passage are active for more than ten years in Amyndeo, Greece and totally dedicated to garage/psyche.
Here are their most recent recordings, titled "Dead Tymes", which they are offering for free.
You can visit the band's site for more free music (including their only studio album "Tales From Prison" from 2001).
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Tracklist
01 - Run (2:23)
02 - Painted Air (5:32)
03 - No 2 (2:05)
04 - What you doing to me (4:56)
05 - Sifilis (1:59)
06 - Five Years Ahead Of My Time (2:16)
07 - Loose Lip Sync Ship (3:00)
08 - Witch (2:40)
09 - Space race (3:44)
10 - You're Gonna Miss Me (2:40)
11 - Blues Theme (1:55)
12 - Dont Try To Walk On Me (3:15)
13 - Heartbeat (3:56)
14 - Splash (4:03)
15 - Pipeline (2:07)
16 - Crystalize Your Mind (3:46)
17 - Nonsense Song (1:53)
18 - Opa (5:18)

Two new albums by Brian Andrew Marek

RainyDaySponge — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 15:10:04 GMT

The never resting Brian Andrew Marek sent us two new great albums. Thank you Brian!

Here are B.A.M.'s description:

Hello Lost in Tymers! You might remember me from my albums with Rocket Park that were posted here some time ago, and I thought I'd share a couple of albums I made more recently.

The Vertigo Swirl - The Vertigo Swirl (2009)

The Vertigo Swirl is my new psychedelic project and this is its first album. Five tracks recorded quickly and spontaneously in December of 2008 and January of 2009 including the epic titular improvisation.

"The three tracks in song format presented here are nice explorations in psych pop, but the real treat are the two instrumental tracks: 'Baited Breath' is a very far out soundscape psych song complete with backward guitars and sitar-like sounds that could easily come from a 1967 album...the title song 'The Vertigo Swirl' is another, more krauty, psychedelic masterpiece...(at) 22.47 minutes not one second too long! GREAT!" - The Homemade Lofi Psych Blog
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"You're not going to do too much better than this if you're on the prowl for new psychedelia...everything here is finely crafted, and the instrumental tracks in particular will provide some mind transportation for your entertainment and enjoyment." - Dr. Schluss' Garage of Psychedelic Obscurities
Download - http://www.megaupload.com/?d=WJZBOLXE

Brian Andrew Marek - Utopian Flying Machines (2009)

Disconcertingly shaky, held together by duct tape and dreams but somehow managing to occasionally achieve flight, these are my "utopian flying machines" - 14 diverse tracks banged out in my basement over the last seven months at no small expense to my brain cells (not that I'm complaining). Recorded on the same old school Tascam reel-to-reel four track that produced "The Vertigo Swirl", this lastest batch of songs and sounds finds me yet again looting and pillaging all my favorite genres for an eclectic pop/rock blend lyrically covering such topics as love, death, work, politics, ghosts, Walt Winston, conspiracy theories and, of course, peanut butter toast and tea. As is often the case, my ambitions outstripped the facilities at my disposal, resulting in a murky, low fidelity echo of the classic rock productions I love - hopefully these sonic imperfections are more interesting than offensive to the listener. So here it is, a distorted aural snapshot of myself in 2009, unwashed and naked (but making funny faces here and there), setting off in my psychedelic airship. Enjoy the flight.
Download - http://www.megaupload.com/?d=XA4ACW14

Mr. Pine - Rewilding (2008)

RainyDaySponge — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 09:11:33 GMT

Kevin Scott of the Canadian acid-folk band, Mr. Pine, sent their recent album in Lost In Tyme, as a free download.

It's like we have been transfered to England, back in 1971 and amongst the great folk groups of the era, like Mellow Candle, Amazing Blondel, or Steeley Span, we have discovered a lost gem, full of beautiful melodies, in the old traditional style, yet performed with the psychedelic spirit we all love.

Mr. Pine is a band of accomplished musicians, with deep knowledge in the folk scene of the 70s, but this is not sufficient to make a good record. What makes "Rewilding" a recommended album is their high-level songwriting and their honest approach. In fact, I'm sure that most of these songs would fit perfectly in a mixed CD (or tape) with selections of Brit acid-folk of the 70s.

$CUT$

Mr. Pine are Matt McLennan/Kevin Scott/Leslie Oldham/Richard Caners/Jason Peters/Ken Phillips plus several guests (I have to mention the vocals of Alison O'Donnell of Mellow Candle in "Sleep of Ondine")

Here's what Simon Lewis of Ptolemaic Terrascope said about it:

"The second album from Mr Pine is a rewarding collection of songs that take Acid-Folk as a starting point, but is not afraid to tread less travelled paths.

With all songs written by Matt McLennan and Kevin Scott, there is a wonderful flow to the album, each song is enhanced by a full band adding bass, drums, electric guitar, and female vocals, all of which maintain that acid folk tag. After the gently swaying opener "Ace of Cups I”, the band get into the groove with the laid back west-coast feel of "Streets of York”, featuring guest banjo from Jay Churko. Building up the tempo, "Set Piece” is a faster song with a more contemporary sound, that is, until the songs breaks down for a recorder solo, falling through time back to 1972, and doing so with great skill.

Featuring harpsichord and some lovely strings, "Blue Onyx” is a baroque folk delight, yet is obviously the same band as one the previous track, something I find pleasing, a band aware of its own identity and sound. One of the album highlights for me is the pure folk-rock of "Glass Petals”, acoustic picking and rocking electric chords blended perfectly, the top notch vocals, powerful rhythm section and twisted violin adding the tension to a dark tale of murder, as it should be, and a sure fire classic.

Written as an homage to musical heroes Mellow Candle, the songwriters never expected that "Sleep of Ondine” would actually feature vocals from Alison O’Donnell, but so it proved, the song a tribute so well written that it would sit quite happily on "Swaddling Songs” itself. Featuring a small gathering of recorders, the wistful love song "The Enclave”, is so beautiful it will stop you in its tracks, another classic in the making and another reason for you to buy this album now. Having unleashed their muse, the band do not let up for the rest of the disc, the rockier "Cymbeline”, followed by the quieter flow of "Robin’s Breast”, featuring vocals, guitar, violin and tambourine, giving the song a pastoral feel, with some exquisite lyrics adding to the joyous vibe.

At just over six minutes "Dirge” is a heavy guitar drone that slowly envelopes the almost chanted lyrics as the song progresses. This is folk with a totally modern twist and came as something of a surprise, although it fits in with the rest of the album, again proving the bands ability to retain their identity whilst changing their sound. To end this fine offering we get a string-laden instrumental reprise of the opening track, the uplifting playing on "Ace of Cups II” leading us out with a dance in our feet and a smile in our heart, just wonderful."

Mr. Pine's site

Mr. Pine at myspace

Listen to Rewilding

Experimental Souvenir - 2009 - Cosmic Pill

Lost-In-Tyme — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 19:00:30 GMT

Experimental Souvenir - 2009 - Cosmic Pill

Tracks :
1 Cosmic Pill
2 The Creation
3 Lavatory
4 Tert
5 Neutralized Man
6 The Rotten Side Of Earth

Musicians:
Gallo - Guitar, flute and noises
Kanaan - Drums and percussions
Awake - Synthesisers and noises on Neutralized Man
Erevos - Violin on The Rotten Side of Earth

$CUT$
Reviews :

1
Released in 2009, Cosmic Pill is the first album from the guitar-led musical collective Experimental Souvenir. It includes a vast collection of punchy, spacey instrumental epics with a flair to jazzy-metallic experiments. The instrumentation is simultaneously complex, spacious and exhuberant.

The album opens with the superb and gorgeously addictive Cosmic Pill. A truly propulsive heavy krautrockin' hymn dominated by energetic guitar riffs, thundering drum patterns and glacial synthesised effects. The Creation is a wild, free and dissonant hard rocin' exentricity, including weird effects and a flourish exotic mood. Lavatory can be described as an esoteric version of classic hard rockin epics with touches of pastorally flute notes and dynamical moody rhythmics. Tert (Greek dialect which means "Pontiac") carries on the schema of composition already explored in The Creation. It features an oriental-influenced heavy-jazzy rock hybird. Propulsive and mysteriously invigorating at the same time. The guitar soloing sections are surprisingly tranced out and explosive. Tert also features subtle references to Greek traditional music. Neutralised Man is an epically spacious metal track for aggressive guitars and cosmic synth grooves (by Jon Dimoulas "alias" Awake). This one is said to be influenced by the famous track Hallo Gallo from NEU!. The Rotten Side of Earth closes the album with an outer-space rockin improvisation floating in a toxic ambience. My personal favourite with the opening theme. Cosmic Pill achieves a solid balance between atonal jazzy metallic grooves and kraut-blissed out vibes. A convincing and recommended debut effort.
~P.B. (ProgArchives)

2
Experimental Souvenir are a new band, a duet, from Thessaloniki that was formed a few moths ago! And in those months they created "Cosmic Pill", an EP diamond from every point of view that follows an experimental/progressive path and is really a 35minute trip back to the psychedelia of the 60's and also indicates that the genre is anything but dead.

Though the influences from bands like King Crimson and Faust are evident, Experimental Souvenir manage to maintain the originality of their sound and their perceptive compositions. The record flows flawlessly, absolutely complete, amazingly homogeneous of style and at the same time rich in alternations and elements that make each song unique.

First, the self titled track, creates an unearthly, mystic atmosphere keeping from the beginning till the end its steady motif, still not being once monotonous. Follows the stronger track "The Creation", devided musically in 3 parts - Before The Creation, GenesisThe Experiment - with the initial eastern melodies binding beautifully with more jazzy elements and the continual changes being accompanied by intense emotional reactions. And then comes "Lavatory"! For most it'll probably won't be the strongest track of the album, but it magnetized me from the very first minute. Don't let the title predispose you, it's a wonderful, dynamic creation where the flute steals the show giving a lighter sensation. "Tert", which comes next, seems to bring us back to reality, preparing us for the album's darkest track, "Neutralized Man", that will surely impress every Neu!'s music enthusiast, since Hallo Gallo is the source of inspiration! "Cosmic Pill" ends with an epic 12minute masterpiece, entitled "The Rotten Side Of Earth", where the violin dominates the second part matching pefectly the subtitle Dark!

The production is limpid, a rarity amongst the greek independent bands, while the artwork is meticulous, simple and chaste as this genre's releases demand. On the whole, it is a project of high musical and technical inspiration. You will see it on your own that the musicians are exceptional and that applies to both Experimental Souvenir and the guests that surrounded them on the keyboards and violin.

Each time you hear it, the album becomes even more exhilarating, even more addictive. So, take your cosmic "trip" and hit repeat cause one time is definitely not enough!

For more info: www.myspace.com/experimentalsouvenir

10/10

Elina Kefala (metalhunter.eu)

Very interesting first work from this new Greek band !
If you're interest to buy or listen this album take the time to contact the band :
experimentalsouvenir@yahoo.gr

The Further Adventures of Vietnam Veterans as the Gitanes - 2009 - Strange Girl

Lost-In-Tyme — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 17:40:08 GMT

The Further Adventures of Vietnam Veterans as the Gitanes - 2009 - Strange Girl

The Gitanes are :
Mark Enbatta : vocals, guitars
Lucas Trouble : bass, keyboards, vocals
James Kibut : guitars
Eric Lenoir : drums

If you are a regular visitor of Lost-In-Tyme you'll know our love for this great band.
New album from probably the best psychedelic band of the 80's ! The Vietnam Veterans are back with 17 great songs.
Here is a sort introduction to new Vets album Strange Girl !

We ask Mark Enbatta to tell us few words about the new songs...
and here is what he said :
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"Very happy you like Strange Girl. I'm crazy about this record !
No problem to write a few words about every song !"

• Fishing Song
Lucas wrote the music. Usually it's very hard to write lyrics for his songs! He's a very talented musician and producer but he's a complicated writer! The words are about our Dutch wild fishing sessions with Hans Kesteloo and Jan Van der Bent. We started fishing "walleyes (Zander) together in the 80's and meet every last Saturday of May. We fish, get stoned, talk and sleep on the banks of a lake. It's a real psychedelic experience!

• Girl with the Hairy Legs

It was one of my acoustic song about a drummer I was playing with in the late 60's. It was a time of free love and sex! I was spending my summertime in a shack on top of a cliff in the Basque country. I was living there with my (much older than me) girlfriend and a friend. A lot of freaks would come and visit us for acid trips. Among them was a girl who believed in Indian culture. She had what Lucas and I call "deer legs": not as thin as a deer's but hairy as a deer! My drummer was in love with this girl but she prefered my bassist... The funny thing was that we were often 20 in the same bedroom but my drummer never made love with the girl with the hairy legs...Many years later I met the guy and he was now a very rich guy collecting gold watches, Leica cameras, Mercedes Benz cars, vintage guitars and amps. I saw this guy wasn't happy in his life and I wrote this song. I hope he will never know it's about him...

• Till You Fall
Typical Bo Diddley beat with cajun psychedelia in it! It's a song we were playing during the last tour... Just a dance song!

• Fall In Love Again
The kind of slow song I always loved by Otis Redding, Them or the Animals. James is doing a great job on this one! The lyrics are true... I don't want to fall in love again ...but I think I couldn't help it!

• Female Vampire’s Fuzzy Beaver
Here is the Strange Girl ! A song by Lucas and it's a tradition for me to write words about pubic hair on his music! It started in 86 with Safety razors! Stupid funny words on a brilliant 60's influenced work. This girl's vampire teeth are not in her mouth...

• Malakas Yeah Yeah
This one is about modern communication. I know a lot of people through my computer... In the past I was meeting people on the road... The title was given to me by Lost in Tyme magazine! He told me the square Greek people called your 60's freaks Malakas ye ye! The music is typical Black Floyd or Pink Sabbath !

• Burn in Hell
A classical Vietnam Veterans angry song! It's built around what Lucas calls "my one and only riff"! There's a DDBM&T "shoulder job" rhythm in it. Watch old 60's live videos and you'll understand !

• Mercy
A song about guilt... The way we played it is far from the mood I wanted but that's the way the guys felt the song. Twanging... A surprise for me as I thought it would be the most psychedelic song on the album !

• I Don’t Deserve You
The Byrds meet a stoned Tex Avery! James played it like Clarence White from the very first rehearsal although he never heard Clarence White before! I'm playing 12 string Rickenbacker and TB Noze (the Buckaroos) is HUGE on mandolin. Early Flamin' Groovies feel! Country not KKKountry...

• No Way Back
A song about acid tests... I stole the opening riff from a cartoon my young daughters watch on TV! The freak out part is a real one. It's the first time we can do it in a studio !

• Another Life
James wrote this beautiful song! The lyrics are about a girl I met. We both knew we could start a strong love story together but already had complicated lives... So we just meet and say hello how are your kids?
Maybe in another life...

• I'm Alive
My life is rather hard... It's always a surprise for me to start something new when I feel so desperate...

• Danger
Eric wrote the music. I don't even play on this one because Lucas and James are PERFECT! My lyrics are really DARK and sincere ... My daughter Cynthia (I gave her my life...) is busy on a video clip for this great song...

• Breams of Today
The title is a joke about Dreams of today! Dreams of today was a song of hope, this one is a song of dispair... Next time I'll write Creams of today! The bream is the stinking fish you don't want to catch! My broken voice is so true to match the words. I hate to sing such words but it's my cruel truth... Lucas wrote a great "Seedy" music. As always it's a very complicated song !

• I Remember the Time
Lucas and only Lucas! He even sings for the first time... I didn't want to sing those nasty words! I just sing some backing vocals... Great dirty song! I like to sing VERY dirty songs but I want to write the words myself !

• Tartan Miniskirt
Great Rhythm n Blues music by Lucas! Words about my mod days in the 60's. The French mods were very special, very different from the English ones! I thought about the people in Larissa when I wrote the lyrics !

• Thirteen/When I Was Young
A live in the studio session by stoned and drunk people! I knew the Dantzig song by Johnny Cash and the very last words are "when I was young"... so we started one of my all time favorite songs at the end of Thirteen! We didn't keep the original vocals because there was noise on the track. The rest is really live !

"I think MP3 is a very bad standard and I don't download.
Anyway I think that fans who can afford the records BUY the records !"
~Mark Enbatta

Overview :
The return of The Vietnam Veterans is a fact !
Even now, in the year 2009, most psychedelic acidheads still remember the legendary cult band from Chalon Sur Saone, France : The Vietnam Veterans and their stunning, hypnotizing music. Their last album (as Vietnam Veterans) was released in 1987 and now, 21 years later, they return with a mesmerizing new masterpiece!

Nobody, not even The Vietnam Veterans, expected this to happen.
Mark Enbatta and Lucas Trouble remained close friends through the years, with Trouble busy recording wild music in his now-legendary Kaiser Studios. They hooked up with James Kiput and Eric Lenoir, played some try-outs in Greece and the karma was back. The Vietnam Veterans sound wasn't gone. It was even present more than ever. The four lunatics went into the studio and here you can judge the result ! A brand-new album full with 72 minutes hypnotic psychedelic music: The true Vietnam Veterans sound.

Beware ! Adults only.

Bucketful Of Brains once wrote about 'Green Peas' : 'Souls must have been sold for a performance like this'.

This is the best album ever to come out of France !!!

You can find "The Vietnam Veterans" on MySpace :
www.myspace.com/thevietnamveterans

And you can buy the new Vietnam Veterans album from here :
http://www.rimpo.de/mmlist.htm

Steeplejack (Italy) - 1987 - Serena Maboose

Opa-Loka — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 10:51:39 GMT

Steeplejack (Italy) - 1987 - Serena Maboose
Electric Eye Records - EES 16

Tracks :
A1 Hot Summer Again
A2 Fallin' Leaves and Autumn's Thrills
A3 I Was Born in a Jungle

B1 If I Had Possession Over Judgement Day
B2 Nobody Around You
B3 The Sky Is Full of Shadows

$CUT$
Steeplejack was formed in 1986 by Maurizio Curadi, after playing guitar singing and writing songs in seminal acid rock italian bands such as Useless Boys and Birdmen of Alkatraz. Steeplejack has always been a strange anomaly in the Italian scene: visionary rather than psychedelic in the usual sense, the band has always followed an independent path with unusual spirits and sounds, mixing primitive delta blues with eerie songs. They recorded 2 LP's ("Serena Maboose" in 1987, and "Pow Wow" in 1989 for Electric Eye Records) and 2 singles in 1991. After years of apparent inactivity, they reformed in 2000. At present they're recording new material for a new cd, "Nameless City".

First release from Italian band Steeplejack onElectric Eye Records.
Neo-psych/Garage band leaded from Maurizio Curadi (member also of Birdmen of Alkatraz in their first EP).
Some great tunes in here !

Find out more about them on their site - http://www.steeplejack.it/
(You can also download a video of "If I Had Possession Over Judgement Day" in a great electric-blues version)

You can find Steeplejack's full length album "Pow Wow" in the excellent blog of our friend caveman67.

V.A. - All Cops in Delirium

Opa-Loka — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 00:45:46 GMT

V.A. - All Cops in Delirium ( a.k.a. Good Roots)
Release date :1980 (Private Pressing)

Side 1
1. The Sweetarts - A Picture Of Me
2. The Mojos - What She's Done To Me
3. David Santo - Rising Of Scorpio
4. Sonostar - Save Wild Basin
5. The Chocolate Tunnel - Ostrich People
6. The Free - (A Day Of Decision) For Lost Soul Blue
7. The Bad Boys - Love
8. The Blackbirds - Space

Side 2
1. The Clue - Bad Times
2. Kit & The Outlaws - Don't Tread On Me
3. H.M. Subjects - Don't Bring Me Down
4. The Tidal Waves - She Left Me All Alone
5. The New Breed - Green Eye'd Woman
6. Scorpion - I'm Only Human
7. Skip & The Creations - I'm Calling You Baby
8. Neil Norman - Phaser Laser

Mysterious early 80s comp with an equally mysterious sleeve. Despite covering an impossibly wide field this one too has a sort of moody consistency to it. Best stuff is the low-key folkrock and obscure hippie 45s only available here. Some classic punkers and strange psych numbers round out the set.
Very rare nowadays.

Invaders (South Africa) - 1970 - There's a Light There's a Way

Opa-Loka — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 20:35:37 GMT

Invaders (South Africa) - 1970 - There's a Light There's a Way

Tracks :
1 Turn On The Sun
2 Ocean Of Peace
3 Astral III
4 Second Coming
5 I Need You
6 There's A Light There's A Way
7 Astral II
including excerpts from 'You Really Got Me' (The Kinks) and 'I Want To Take You Higher' (Sly & The Family Stone)
8 You Can't Always Get What You Want

Early 70s funk rock from South Africa with heavy guitars...
like Uriah Heep, Head Machine & Toe Fat.

$CUT$

Musicians :

Joey Moses : lead guitar, vocals
Errol Gobey : rhythm guitar, vocals
Johnny Burke : bass
Dave Burke : drums
Spewy Pillay : organ

More info & full biography :
http://www.theinvaders.co.za (official)
facebook (official fun page)

Buy Double CD compilation :
The Heart & Soul Of The Invaders

Satin Whale - 1974 - Desert Places

angelab23 — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 13:46:52 GMT

Tracklist
1.Desert Places (6:48)
2.Seasons Of Life (6:41)
3.Remember (9:38)
4.I Often Wondered (7:15)
5.Perception (12:56)

- Thomas Brück / bass, vocals
- Gerald Dellmann / keyboards
- Dieter Roesberg / guitars, saxophone, flute, vocals
- Horst Schöffgen / drums

$CUT$

''Desert Places'' is the debut album of German ''Satin Whale''.

During a rock contest in 1974 (Rocksound 74) Satin Whale was elected the most popular German band.

Culpeper's Orchard - 1970 - Culpeper's Orchard

angelab23 — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 11:28:13 GMT

Tracks :
01 Banjocul
02 Mountain Music Part 1
03 Hey You People
04 Teaparty For An Orchard
05 Ode To Resistance
06 Your Song & Mine
07 Gideon's Trap
08 Blue Day's Morning
09 Mountain Music Part 2
$CUT$
Line up :
Cy Nicklin : Lead vocals, Rhythm & Acoustic Guitars, Percussion
Neils Hendrikson : Lead Guitar, Piano, Lead Vocals on Acoustic Guitar, Harpsichord
Michael Friss : Bass, Organ, Flute, Two Finger Piano, Percussion
Rodger Barker : Drums, Percussion

Culpeper's Orchard is a great Danish psych/rock group that put out three albums. The first time you listen to the opening strains of "Banjocul," you'll think, "What did I get myself into?" But then comes the opening chords of Mountain Music and you'll know you are in for one fun guitar jam for the entire album. Though definitely in the psych vein, Culpeper's Orchard isn't a rehash of the '66-'69 psychedelic bands or the "west-coast sound." Instead, the band takes intense electric jams that dissolve into beautiful folk-like acoustic arrangements and harmonized vocal melodies. Even the lead guitar is clean and jangling, eschewing the popular fuzz-tone of that era. The Orchard combine known styles with Danish-folk arrangements into an original style distinctly their own. Hendrikson's electric lead played over driving dual acoustic rhthym guitars never fails to get me out of my chair and bopping 'round the living room. His lead guitar style in "Gideon's Trap," "Your Song and Mine," and the two-part "Mountain Music" draws heavily upon Eric Clapton during EC's time with John Mayall and Cream. This is most obvious in "Mountain Music Part 2," where he plays many classic Clapton licks from the Bluesbreaker album in homage to Eric. Though drawing from Clapton, Hendrikson doesn't wear it on his sleave, having developed a unique style of his own. Don't look for outstanding technical ability or phenomenal musicianship because you won't find it here. Just expect some good solid psych 'n' roll and you'll be as happy as I am with this album. Highly recommended. A completely different beast from the usual, this obscure Danish group produced a really underrated album in 1971 that should please those fans of innovative sixties acts. This album is amazingly stylistically diverse. Opening with a banjo/vocal ditty, you really have no idea what is going to happen next as Culpeper heads into a great rock flight like the best of the early Vertigos with Jack Bruce on vocals. Strong point of this group is the lead guitarist who's tone and emotion causes this group to really excel. As the album progresses you hear the Byrds, the Beatles, Crosby Stills and Nash, Procul Harum, Chocolate Watchband, 13th Floor Elevators, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, the list goes on. The way it all comes together is extremely powerful and in my opinion far better than much of those bands music. In truth this is like an amazing tour into the late sixties and early seventies by a simply excellent band.

Sources : Gibraltar Encyclopedia Progressive Rock Web Site (Found on 26 Mar 2000, but no longer there on 23 Jan 2001)
: http://gen.culpepper.com/Interesting/arts/orchard.htm

Far East Family Band - 1976 - Parallel World

angelab23 — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 20:00:32 GMT

Tracks :

01. METEMPSYCHOSIS
02. ENTERING
03. KOKORO
04. PARALLEL WORLD

- Fumio Miyashita: guitar, keyboards, vocals
- Hirohito Fukushima: guitar
- Masanori Takahashi (Kitaro): keyboards
- Akira Ito: keyboards
- Akira Fukakusa: bass
- Shizuo Takasaki: drums
$CUT$

This is an Amazing Trippy Progressive Space Japanese album of 1976, the third album of ''Far East Family Band ''.
Recommended especially for those who like deep music dives inside the ocean of universe.
The album "Parallel World" was produced by the famous electronic pioneer KLAUS SCHULZE.

Yezda Urfa - 1975 - Boris

angelab23 — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 22:08:06 GMT

Tracklist:
01. Boris And His 3 Verses, Including Flow Guides Aren't My Bag - 10:51
02. Texas Armadillo - 1:51
03. Almost 4, 6 Yea - 8:49
04. To-Ta In The Moya - 10:56
05. Three Tons of Fresh Thyroid - 10:21

Brad Christoff: drums, percussion
Phil Kimbrough: keyboards, mandolin, wind, vocals
Mark Tippins: guitar, vocals
Marc Miller: bass, cello, marimba, vibes, vocals
Rick Rodenbaugh: vocals

Beautiful record from the americans Yezda Urfa.
Their music is between Gentle giant and Yes.
This record was recorded as a demo for the radio stations and it was released in few copies.

YEZDA URFA - TO-TA IN THE MOYA (LYRICS)

Waiting time will fly, aching shoulders cry, sizing up the sky,
knowing when to die, wake up judgment is gone and lighting is bad.

Southward winds have blown, fertile soil you've grown, asking
answered not, granting all you've got, output lone frontier groaned dead, boxed and produced.

Talking down to God, old men screaming loud, sinners, eat your
words, gather up in herds, old face streaking down image, and the new way.

Waiting time will fly, aching shoulders cry, sizing up the sky,
knowing when to die,wake up judgment is gone and lighting is bad.

Songs I sing of this that and you won't it break through,
climaxed on the wind joined the din, we can't hear you.

Forward wards will reach as they teach, is it all new, silence
steals the waves as they break, don't they speak truth.

Now it's taking too long, write words for this song, not getting
along. Watchful sentry smile at the grile burning lightless, hairless
people run watch the sun solar nonsense.

Strong this part must be strong, not getting along, three tolls
on the gong. Laughing through the night, wasted fight, dried up car wash.
Linger let lie low, let me go, tuberous green squash.

Fall from ninety miles, into smiles, throw up good gosh.

X-Mal Deutschland - 1987 - Viva

Opa-Loka — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 16:33:24 GMT

X-Mal Deutschland - 1987 - Viva

Viva was Xmal Deutschland's third album, released in 1987.
"Matador" was produced by the Stranglers's Hugh Cornwell and was released as a single in the UK in 1986.

Tracks :
1 Matador (4:00)
2 Eisengrau (2:57)
3 Sickle Moon (3:36)
4 If Only (4:11)
5 Feuerwerk (31. Dez) (6:02)
6 Illusion (Version) (4:06)
7 Morning (Will There Really Be) (6:04)
8 Manchmal (3:41)
9 Polarlicht (3:17)
10 Ozean (4:53)
11 Dogma I (4:04)
12 4 (2:56)

Xmal Deutschland (pronounced: ixmal doytschland) was a musical group from Hamburg, Germany. Founded in 1980 as an all-girl band, they became successful outside their native country. Vocalist Anja Huwe was often compared to contemporaries like Siouxsie Sioux (Siouxsie & the Banshees).

Bass - Wolfgang Ellerbrock
Guitar - Manuela Rickers
Drums - Peter Bellendir
Keyboards - Fiona Sangster
Vocals - Anja Huwe

Biography (From Wikipedia)

Xmal Deutschland (often written as X-Mal Deutschland) was formed in 1980 by Anja Huwe (vocals), Manuela Rickers (guitar), Fiona Sangster (keyboards), Rita Simon (bass guitar) and Caro May (drums) in Hamburg, Germany. Their first single, "Großstadtindianer" was released a year later on Alfred Hilsberg’s ZickZack label. The band also contributed the to the label compilation Lieber Zuviel Als Zuwenig (ZZ 45). Around this time Rita Simon was replaced by Wolfgang Ellerbrock.

In 1982 the band released the Goth classic "Incubus Succubus". Drummer Caro May left the band and formed a new band, and the vacant drummer position was filled by Manuela Zwingmann the same year. While German audiences were less than receptive at first, a United Kingdom tour opening for the Cocteau Twins resulted in a label deal with independent label 4AD Records. Their debut album, Fetisch and the singles "Qual" and "Incubus Succubus II" were released in 1983, all 3 making the UK Independent charts, even though the band used German lyrics.

Manuela Zwingmann left the band after one year, being replaced by Peter Bellendir. This lineup, Huwe/Rickers/Sangster/Ellerbrock/Bellendir proved to be the longest running. 1984 saw the release of the single "Reigen" and the album Tocsin, followed by a world tour through 1985.

The Sequenz EP was essentially a remake of a John Peel session, which had been originally recorded April 30, 1985, and was broadcast May 13, 1985. The EP contained the tracks Jahr Um Jahr II, Autumn (the band’s first English lyrics, apart from brief snatches of English that appeared in Qual, Young Man and Tag für Tag) and Polarlicht but omitted Der Wind, which was played at the Peel sessions.

1986 saw the release of Matador, produced by Hugh Cornwell of The Stranglers. Xmal Deutschland also opened for The Stranglers at a concert at Wembley Arena in London. Their follow-up album, Viva was recorded in Hamburg and was released in 1987, followed by the single "Sickle Moon". Viva contains a large number of English lyrics, among others a poem by Emily Dickinson. It was during this time that the band were interviewed by Jamie Meakes for the infamous underground Goth Fanzine 'House Of Dolls'.

After the release of Viva, Manuela Rickers, Fiona Sangster and Peter Bellendir left the group. Anja Huwe and Wolfgang Ellerbrock continue to work with Frank Z. (Abwärts) on guitar. Producer Henry Staroste played keyboards, and German studio drummer Curt Cress completed the line-up that would record the 1989 LP Devils and the singles "Dreamhouse" and "I’ll be near you". This also proved to be the last release of Xmal Deutschland, showing a change of direction towards mainstream pop. 1990 saw a few scattered live appearances by the group, but eventually the group split up.

The Left Handed Marriage - On The Right Side Of The Left Handed Marriage (1967)

RainyDaySponge — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 22:44:18 GMT

In the summer of 1965, in a corner of Hampton Grammar School, Bill Richards (who had been a fleeting, early member of 1984 before it acquired its futuristic name), and his colleagues Jenny Hill (nee Rusbridge), Henry Deval and Terry Goulds, formed a folk-rock band called the Left-Handed Marriage, named after an archaic form of marrying beneath oneself. By January 1967, the quartet had progressed to the point where they had issued their own privately-pressed album, "On The Right Side Of The Left Handed Marriage", which ran to just fifty copies (and, incidentally, has since acquired cult status among collectors, with a £600 price tag to match).

A few months later Bill Richards approached Brian May (then member of 1984) to help him create a "fuller" sound for the Left Handed Marriage, with a request to provide guitar and backing vocals on some recording sessions. The two sessions made with the 'full' line-up (one of them in the Abbey Road) were remained unreleased until 1993, when Richards tagged these recordings onto the end of "Crazy Chain", a CD recorded by the reformed Left Handed Marriage, which itself was prompted by collector's interest in the group's original 1967 LP, "The Right Hand Side Of . .". (adapted from a John S.Stuart article, 19.1.2006)

Righ Side... initially gives you the feeling that it was an 'unplugged' session of a rock (or pop/rock) band. 'Civil Servile" seems to need desperately the electricity to show itself and 'Another Kind of Love' seems to be one of this hypothetical band's quieter/softer moments.
But as the album goes on, it starts to reveal a somewhat different face: there are songs of pure acoustic nature, yet not the folk or tradition-flavoured tunes you'd expect from an all-acoustic band. There are no tales from the woods or for the life by the old countryside, but stories from the city and about modern girls with mini skirts. And there are songs, still acoustic, but more "produced", with harmony vocals and a shy bass.
Three boys and a girl, decided that their music doesn't need the power of electric instruments, but their voices, their guitars and their passion were sufficient. They decided also (or it was due to financial reasons?) that it didn't matter if the recordings were from a studio session, from their living room, or from a gathering by the fire in the evening, since these 50 copies pressed were apparently for their friends (and the record labels). As a result, "On the Right Side of the Left Handed Marriage" is a record of varying recording quality (always acceptable), but also with varying moods and -to a certain degree- styles. With a few exceptions, their choices were right: the more 'poppy' tunes were recorded in the studio or at least were more produced, while the more 'folky' tunes were recorded with just a guitar and vocals.

The vocals -both male & female- are full of youth and honesty, the melodies are well structured and there is a nostalgic feeling - at least as I'm listening to it today. Essentially songs in the english pop tradition (need I mention Kinks?), with a little folk and faint touches of psyche and Mamas & Papas harmonies, closer to the 'swinging 60s' feel than to the folk movement (let's just say that Marianne Faithfull could have sang some of these songs in the 60s - try 'Happiness Is You-Shaped'), these little melancholic songs are lovingly hand-crafted attempts from some promising kids, intimate relicks of an era that can never come back.

This is a rip from the 1996 reissue on vinyl (on Tenth Planet - very OOP now) and, although there are not much scratches, tracks A7 (the great 'Limousine') & especially A8 ('Arthur') are suffering by horrible skips, but, thankfully, the masterpiece 'Secret Girl', plays perfect and 'Arthur' can be found in another version. The original 1967 private press contained 15 tracks, but here you can find three more (alternative versions of 'Arthur', 'Happiness is you' and 'Another Shoulder').
Although these are simple, not demanding tunes, I'd recommend a couple of listens to let this record's innocence grow in you.

Zulema - Suddenly There Was You (1976) Z-Licious (1978)
& Zalmac - Whatcha Gonna Do (1982)

Lost-In-Tyme — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 21:06:18 GMT

Zulema - 1976 - Suddenly There Was You
(RCA Victor / APL1-1423)

Tracks :
1 All I Need Is You (5:22)
2 Here's Where Love Begins (4:19)
3 Suddenly There Was You (3:49)
4 I Love You Baby (4:29)
5 Remember (5:03)
6 New Day Is Coming (3:20)
7 Pity for the Children (3:16)
8 Hungry for Your Love (3:23)
9 Takes Time (3:37)

Review :
RCA LP "Suddenly There Was You” includes the best Disco-ish cut is "All I need is you” very nice soulful vocals here, this LP is great for Zulema’s fans..

Zulema - 1978 - Z-Licious
(Le Joint (London) Records / LEJ-17000)

Tracks :
1 Prologue (2:23)
2 Higher Plane (4:45)
3 Change (4:14)
4 I'm Not Dreaming (4:17)
5 See (4:04)
6 Hanging on to a Memory (3:59)
7 You've Got Something for Me (4:20)
8 Praying for a Miracle (4:25)
9 What Do I Do Now? (4:17)
10 Gotta Find a Way (2:55)
11 Epilogue (1:27)

Review :
Producer Van McCoy never was able to get Zulema past first base. On this, her last known LP, the former original member of Faith, Hope & Charity shares production credits with McCoy on nine jams, 11 if you include the "Prologue" and "Epilogue." This has plenty of disco, but the ballads "I'm Not Dreaming" and "What Do I Do Now" are the most arresting. None of the singles, including "Change," a mild disco offering, did anything. Other pleasant items include "Higher Plane," "See," and "You've Got Something for Me."
~by Andrew Hamilton -All Music Guide

Zalmac - 1982 - Whatcha Gonna Do
(TSOB (The Sound of Brooklyn) Records / TS - 5004)

Tracks :
1 What's In It For Me (5:15)
2 Dreamin' (4:22)
3 See What Your Love Has Done (5:44)
4 Friends (3:12)
5 Whatcha Gonna Do About It (4:03)
6 I Get Down (5:24)
7 Happy Feelings (3:59)
8 What Am I Doing (5:06)

Reviews :

Zalmac was a one-off project of bassist Al McDowell and singer/writer Zulema. Their 1982 album is a highlight of boogie-styled soul, featuring such numbers like "What’s In It For Me” and "Whatcha Gonna Do.” Unfortunately it was released on a small independent label and has since become quite rare, but it is well worth seeking.

TSOB released a lot of quality boogie records in their heyday of the early 80s, perhaps none of them as well-regarded as this album. Grooving, tight rhythms and strong vocals present the usually strident Zulema in a totally different light. Nice to hear her in a relaxed atmosphere.

~All Things Deep.com

A great later project from Zulema -- one done in the years after her fame on bigger labels, but still pretty darn great overall! The groove here is quite different than the records she did back in the 70s -- much more in the street soul mode you'd expect from the TSOB label -- with lots of tightly popping basslines, sweet-stepping keyboards, and a set of rhythms that runs mostly in the boogie and 80s groove side of the spectrum! Turns out, Zulema's vocals are a perfect fit for the style -- and where she might have overdone some tunes at points in the 70s, she's really fitting right in with the stronger backings here -- kicking things very nicely with group co-member Al MacDowell. (Zalmac = Z + Al Mac).
~Dusty Groove America

Bio :
Born Zulema Cusseaux in Tampa, Florida, U.S.A., she was a member of the Lovelles in the late '60's and early '70s.
A Van McCoy-produced Lovelles single ('So Much Love') became a Top 20 R & B hit in 1971, but Zulema went solo shortly afterwards, recording a couple of albums for Sussex. She assumed her highest profile with a series of LPs for RCA in the mid-'70's, reaching the middle of the R & B charts in 1975 with 'Wanna Be Where You Are.' Her recording career ended after an album for LeJoint in the late '70's.

Zulema was a pioneer of sorts in that she was a '70s Black R & B singer who wrote much of her own material, and was able to assume some of her own production chores.

The records themselves were forerunners of urban contemporary music, occasionally reaching the lower parts of the R & B charts, Zulema's vocals betraying a strong Aretha Franklin influence.

source : http://www.soulwalking.co.uk/Zulema.html

Albums:

Zulema (Sussex 1972)

Ms. Z (Sussex 1974)
Zulema (RCA 1974)
R S V P (RCA 1975)

Suddenly There Was You (RCA 1976)

Z-Licious (Le Joint 1978)

Medicine Man - Forever Brother (2008)

RainyDaySponge — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 18:53:54 GMT

Dylan Ewing, based in Brooklyn, NY, recorded "Forever Brother" early 2008, in Oakland, CA. It is produced by Greg Ashley of Gris Gris (who also plays various instruments).
Avant-country, psycho-americana, reminding Greg Ashley's and Dylan Ewing's previous efforts (Medicine Fuck Dream and 4192 respectively), and rather different than them at the same time, "Forever Brother" rides quietly through the valleys of dream-time cowboy tales.

A concept not far away from the pre-Western of Caroliner (although musically not related at all with them), this album is a collection of haunted sounds, sometimes in the form of instrumental soundscapes, sometimes in more conventional song forms, but always searching under the surface of things.

Strangely, in the more guitar-driven tracks, what comes in my mind is "modern-day Quicksilver Messenger Service" and, the more you listen to "Forever Brother", you're getting deeper in a warm 60s feeling, that breaths in these tunes. I won't go into track-to-track review, but from the first few listens I found the opening instrumental 'For Other Brothers' and the two closing tracks 'Lion Hunt' and "Forever Brother' outstanding, though I'm sure that there are more future favorite tracks in it.

Forever Brother is the second release of Medicine Man, after last year's entirely solo effort "Reverberations for Baby".
The Medicine Man's influences: Cowboy pictures, pickled peppers, and some strange birds.

We thank Dylan Ewing who sent us this exceptional record to share with you and we hope that it will get a proper release - it definately deserves it.

Edit: Forever Brother will be released in a limited run of 500 LPs later this year on Dent Records

Here is Medicine Man's myspace page

Lost In Tyme

Cosmic Trip Machine - Vampyros Roussos (2009) The Curse of Lord Space Devil (2010)

A Bunch of Fronds

Smell Of Incense / Ethereal Counterbalance (split EP, 1997)

Evel Gazebow - 2010 - A Message to Your Mind

The Tricks of the Sun - 2007 - The Tricks of the Sun

The Magnificent Brotherhood - 2010 - Dope Idiots‏

Baby Scream - 2010 - Baby Scream

St. Atom HRT605 - 2010 - Smiling Autumn Leaves

James McKeown - 2010 - James McKeown

The Vertigo Swirl - 2010 - A New Swirled Record

The Morticians - 1987 - Freak Out with the Morticians

Yesterday's Thoughts - 2009 - A Moment to Pray

Apothecary Hymns - 2005 - Trowel and Era

The Steppes - 1997 - Gods, Men and Ghosts

Bumble B - 2004 - Flight Of The Bumble B

Mandra Gora Lightshow Society - 2001 - Space Rave (EP)

Vibravoid - 2010 - What Colour is Pink ? (EP)

Allison - 2009 - People from Outer Space

Embryo with Charlie Mariano and the Karnataka College of Percussion - 1980 - Life

Unknown Passage - Dead Tymes (2008)

Two new albums by Brian Andrew Marek

Mr. Pine - Rewilding (2008)

Experimental Souvenir - 2009 - Cosmic Pill

The Further Adventures of Vietnam Veterans as the Gitanes - 2009 - Strange Girl

Steeplejack (Italy) - 1987 - Serena Maboose

V.A. - All Cops in Delirium

Invaders (South Africa) - 1970 - There's a Light There's a Way

Satin Whale - 1974 - Desert Places

Culpeper's Orchard - 1970 - Culpeper's Orchard

Far East Family Band - 1976 - Parallel World

Yezda Urfa - 1975 - Boris

X-Mal Deutschland - 1987 - Viva

The Left Handed Marriage - On The Right Side Of The Left Handed Marriage (1967)

Zulema - Suddenly There Was You (1976) Z-Licious (1978)& Zalmac - Whatcha Gonna Do (1982)

Medicine Man - Forever Brother (2008)

Zulema - Suddenly There Was You (1976) Z-Licious (1978)
& Zalmac - Whatcha Gonna Do (1982)