This album is quite a revelation! Ofege, A group of hippies from Nigeria came together to record an absolutely solid disc full of tunes that sound less Afrobeat and more West Coast psych. A cool album, indeed.
Ofege – How Do You Feel
Shūko No Omit – 秘密の回顧録 (Secret Memoir)
Ramble Records out of Australia have published a unique album here – one that should be seen as a modern psychedelic rock masterpiece. From their Bandcamp site:
“Shūko No Omit, the name of the band, featuring Yonju Miyaoka on guitar and Vocals, his older brother Taiju Sugimori on bass and chorus,and his cousin Yuya Yamazaki on drums and chorus, is a mix of Japanese and english. Yonju told me he came across the word omit while reading an old English dictionary. Shuko (終古) is old Japanese. A word no longer used. One lost to time.
The characters 終 + 古mean end and old, but, he says, when put together, they mean something like “eternity, timelessness, from ancient to forever”; The の “No” character in the middle means of. Like omit of Forever.
…
As far as names as descriptors go, Shuko No Omit is pretty good. There is decay and damage in this music. And pain and sadness and the dangerous but essential fascination required as you stumble through that damage to the unknown whatever that lies ahead.
The music feels like it is on the edge. There is desperation that you hear from the opening moments. Most of the looseness comes from Yonju. The Rhythm is slow and steady. Yonju says there are many mistakes. The parts of it that people generally want to omit. It sounds to me like a raging fire. Blazing up one minute and smoldering the next. “
Heavy listening.
Various Artists – D-Day: A Grateful Dead Tribute from Krautland
Although the bands themselves on this comp from our dear friends at the Lollipoppe Shoppe might play Kraut-influenced music, this comp is definitely NOT Krautrock. I can’t say that the music is perfectly straight-ahead covers of some of the Grateful Dead’s finest work, but to hear these songs in a more modern setting is rather refreshing. The tunes maintain their psychedelic heart, even if there is a touch of Kraut (a welcome addition, mind you) imbued into these tunes.
Jeff Gburek and A.J. Kaufmann – Jazzisthmus
Had I not known the previous (impressive) works of both Jeff Gburek and A.J. Kaufmann, I would have happily believed that this was a lost psychedelic music gem long forgotten about in a basement studio recorded during Soviet times. While the tones are dulcet, you never really get a chance to get into a groove. The music shapes and shifts, making you ever aware of its presence and demanding that you pay attention (particularly hard to do as I’m grading papers at the moment). The introduction to the album at Ramble Records’ Bandcamp site is one of the most elegant I’ve read in a while:
“JazzIsthmus is the spontaneous nomination of a surreal podcast from two dolphins once swimming the lochs of Berlin un-bump-into-able until another quasi-human life incarnation, in nearby Poznan, where they skimmed palms at some music event in 2016, realized they bore the stigmata of guitarism and poetry. Their various hermetic preoccupations kept them adrift until the Man from Atlantis & his Ramble Records began to publish their solo projects independently. Sharing a label caused Jeff Gburek and A.J. Kaufmann to push their tables together, jam a bit, swap sounds and begin the collaboration that you can witness with a few clicks.
There’s more than guitar going into this mistura. First track bears psychedelic jazz ceremonial organ, careening space-cadet theremin glissandi, spiced guitar shards. Track two features Jeff’s soundscaping hydrophone recordings, VLF receiver, radios & Adam’s minimal ghostly tricky synth-like guitars. Thirdly comes Doof Tram, the very first live meeting, which remains exactly as it was recorded (except for the parts we changed, of course). Like Jerry Garcia meets Bern Nix. Gratefully Undead for this Halloween 2023. Further on down the road there’s some real synth and, you guessed it, more guitars. Meandering, nimble, somewhat melancholy at times. This is just a description, not a review.”
Will -O-The Wisp – Will -O-The Wisp
Led by guitarist Takis Barbagalas, Will-O-The Wisp are a Greek psychedelic rock band from the late 1990’s whose Hammond organ-infused rock sounds as authentic as anything from the late 1960’s to early 1970’s.
Henri Giraffe – The Giraffe Transmissions
Henri Giraffe works under a score of pseudonyms (this is one of them, obviously), but what is impressive about the release is that it is some of the freakiest lo-fi space rock I’ve heard in a while.
Wara – El Inca
Bolivia is a country who rarely pop up on my radar. Thankfully, today we have a hard-rock/psychedelic gem to present to you. Wara were influenced by hard-rock giants like Uriah Heep and Deep Purple, but they also added touches of their own Bolivian heritage to their music. Straddling the borders of psych, hard rock and prog, this album is considered to be one of the holy grails of South American rock music.
My Brother The Wind – Once There Was A Time When Time And Space Were One
This post is dedicated to my dear brother in music, Shane Beck, because he turned me on to this magnificent band. My Brother The Wind is something of a supergroup comprising of Nicklas Barker of Anekdoten, Makajodama’s Mathias Danielsson, and Magnolia’s Ronny Eriksson & Tomas Eriksson. The music is a bit less metal-influenced, and more in the tradition of Swedish progressive and psychedelic rock. It’s dark, mellow, and if you’re more into Pink Floyd’s deeper psychedelic excursions (not the famous stuff, but the weirder), you’re going to appreciate these guys.
Psycada – Hiking Lung
Psycada are an astoundingly heavy psychedelic rock band out of Athens, Greece. The band straddles the line between fuzz, prog and stoner rock perfectly.
Zhaoze (沼澤) – No Answer Blowin’ in the Wind (没有答案风中飘)
If you can imagine 1969-era King Crimson played on Chinese traditional instruments and a more relaxed feel, you would have this new album by the Guangzho-based band Zhaoze. The music is definitely progressive, touching upon art-rock, but so solidly based in traditional Chinese music that one can call this a sound all its own.