Sunday is going to be hectic, so today, I wanted to impart to you an album by The Myrrors, easily one of America’s finest psych bands. The music is all instrumental and sounds like the outtakes of a more relaxed Blue Cheer or some of the modern drone composers like Terry Riley. I never would have thought would be referenced by a psych band, but has been done so perfectly). Let the hot Arizona winds flow on top of you today. This album is worth your time.
The spirit of Krautrock has spread well beyond the German-speaking world, and has for some time now. Primitive Air is an American collaboration between Drew Piraino, Jefre Cantu-Ledesma and Emil Amos reminds me of the more freaky (yet still gentle) parts of bands like Popol Vuh and modern bands like The Myrrors. This is a blissful little record, and it would have sit comfortably among the greats of German psychedelic music of the late 1960s and early 1970s had these folks been around during those heady days.
I think it’s impossible to overestimate the important place Roy Montgomery has in the annals of New Zealand’s experimental rock scene. Thanks to his work on labels such as Kranky Records and Drunken Fish, he has quite a high international profile, and it helps that the music he’s produced for so many decades is nearly impossible to pigeonhole. This latest project will be four CDs or LPs released in stages throughout 2021 and 2022: February 5, 2021 – Island of Lost Souls July 30, 2021 – That Best Forgotten Work October 22, 2021 – Rhymes of Chance January 14 2022-…
Igra Staklenih Perli were one of the greater monster progressive/psychedelic rock bands to come out of Yugoslavia (the band themselves were Serbian) during the late 1970s and early 1980s, and though some of their work could be seen as taking cues from legendary western groups like Pink Floyd, I hear elements of Can, Hawkwind, Jimi Hendrix and the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, about the only metal period I like short of Black Sabbath. The only gripe I have with the album is the low mix. Music like this should be listened to at high volume, so the punch…
Euphemia Rise is a rather remarkable project run by Wim Lankriet. Born a Cow is Wim’s debut album, and it’s quite a fine work, combining an acidic psychedelic music which reminds me of Syd Barrett in parts while maintaining a 1980’s-1990’s gothic feel. Lyrically, it is a heavy album covering such topics as. “being (sexually) different and facing people’s judgments – but also venture into darker subjects such as drug prostitution, sadomasochism, rape…” Wim notes, and I would strongly agree, that the tone is never negative. I’m not sure this music put a smile on my face, but it left…
Guerssen Records out of Catalonia, Spain is known for putting out some amazingly weird psych and lo-fi music, but this one has to be one of the most charmingly weird ones in their catalog. Two Paraguayan brothers of German origin, Joern and Dirk Wenger, self-released an album in 1971 called Pops de Vanguardia and had a deal with EMI-Argentina for a series of albums which came out and gained them a bit of fame, but Joern was also a student of Karlheinz Stockhausen, so you know his weirdo bona fides were going to be solid. This album does not disappoint at…
Controlled Bleeding were one of the few bands who could glide from genre to genre easily. They were comfortable working with EBM, harsh noise and experimental music, and would even appeal to some elements in the goth-rock crowd, but this particular album stood out as their magnum opus for me. Paul Lemos, the one constant member of the band, sculpted beautifully minimalistic guitar playing which sounded almost like avant-progressive rock, while the late Joe Papa (of eternal memory) would let his vocals soar, especially on the track Red Stigmata. My favorite album by a criminally underrated band. For a more…
From the ashes of local garage rock legends The Bomboras sprang, in something like a phoenix-like fashion, The Lords Of Altamont. This particular album has been reissued by the Italian record label Heavy Psych Sounds, and as considered to be a rarity for garage rock music collectors. It was first pressed by the French record label Fargo Records, but the band hype was so strong at the time that the record sold out very quickly, and it remained out of print until now. The mix of biker rock, psychedelic rock and B-movie exploitation movie imagery made them a big hit during…
I have a feeling that this Israeli psychedelic release is a hoax, and the label, ΠϢΑϪЄ (That Word), seem to admit the same. However, on the music’s merits, it’s a pretty interesting slab of Middle Eastern-influenced psychedelic rock. Eventually, the mystery of this album will be solved, but it’s nice to just enjoy the music and let it melt all over your brain for the time being.
The Blog That Celebrates Itself was a website and record label based out of São Paolo, Brazil which dedicates itself to promoting shoegaze and other underground artists from all over the world, of course specializing in young Brazilian acts. This particular comp leans more towards pop-psych music, with covers from bands such as the Velvet Underground and Herman’s Hermits done in a drone-like, hazy fashion. The blog and the label are worthy reading.