Repsychled Records is based in Peru, and has done great work documenting their psychedelic rock scene. This particular one is a weird treasure from 2019. Culto al Qondor bring the freakiest of Krautrock to South America with two 14-minute tracks of pure drone-laced music inspired by bands like Ash Ra Tempel or Amon Düül II. Really good music.
The Utopia Strong are a band out of the United Kingdom which blew me away. Praise to Chris Morley for alerting me to the band’s existence. It sounds something like Krautrock or psychedelic rock which goes funky. It’s almost as if you can dance to some of this material. The musicianship is excellent, reminding me of Gong or groovier elements of bands like Embryo or even Neu! It turns out that I was right to think this, as the pedigree of the band is impressive. Personnel: Kavus Torabi (Gong/Cardiacs/Knifeworld/Guapo) Steve Davis and Michael J. York (Coil/Teleplasmiste/Guapo) The Quietus Magazine also…
What we have here is an experimental music supergroup. Makoto Kawabata and Hiroshi Higashi of acid-psych lords Acid Mothers Temple team up with the legendary guitarist Richard Pinhas (famed as the leader of the band Heldon, and still very much active under his own name). Joining them are two musicians from Peru in Manongo Mujica and Juan Luis Pereira who fill out this psychedelic soundscape. For some context regarding this release, read these notes for the band’s Bandcamp site: When Acid Mothers Temple and Richard Pinhas visited Lima for the first time, in November 2017, to participate in the experimental…
While reading an excellent blog called The Fragmented Flâneur (I highly recommend subscribing to it, psych fans), I came across a review from a band whose words I admire a lot, but had forgotten about. The Myrrors are an outfit from Tuscon, Arizona who manage to blend together the noisiness of White Heaven, the hypnotic dirges of Ghost or even modern masters like Kikagaku Moyo, and a violin, adding a touch that would have fit in perfectly with the Third Ear Band. Invest a few moments reading The Fragmented Flâneur’s review and then sink into these otherworldly tracks. It’s worth…
Our friend and colleague George Christian Vilela Pereira has released an album that I could only describe as mellow strumming psychedelic noise with elements of Krautrock and instrumental psych that one could have found in Japan in the late 70s and early 80s. The lo-fi feel of the recording adds to the hazy pleasantness of this album. According to George Christian’s notes, this is a paean to the African influence in Brazil and on his music. He explains it clearly here: This album came up with a basic motivation in mind: to show how much Africa there is in my…
I almost feel bad for only promoting the download of this release. Our dear friends over at Meticulous Midgets, one of Russia’s finest experimental/avant-music record labels also releases a magazine to go with the album, and it’s a stunning affair. This is the second one I have had the pleasure of reviewing, and it makes me pleased to know that promotion of new music in the country is in good hands with my Moscow-based colleagues. What’s more, they don’t rest with promoting local acts. The artists on this comp hail from the United States, the United Kingdom, German, Spain, France,…
We have quite a treat tonight. The Lamplight Club was a six-piece band out of Essex, England who produce a sound that fits comfortably between 60’s garage-psych, gothic folk and touched with a noir country tinge to it. You can stream their songs via Spotify here. If there are more honorable streaming services to recommend, please do so.
Though there are heavy tensions at the moment between the governments of Japan and the People’s Republic of China (sic), this compilation proves that there is peace through psych. Psychedelic music is the medium both the legendary guitarist of Acid Mothers Temple, Kawabata Makoto and Chinese acid-folk musician Baisong Wu, and their collaboration bore the fruit of dulcet, meandering, gentle washes of lightly LSD-soaked bliss. This is music for the cloudy day we’re currently enduring in the Greater Los Angeles area, and it fits perfectly with the clouds. A stellar piece of work.
Tommy Guerrero’s music came to me via a recommendation of a friend online. I had heard his name bandied about years ago because of friends of mine who were into skateboarding, but I had no idea he was making music. And such good music, I must say. The album is full of instrumental psychedelic tracks. According to Tommy, influences such as Ethio-Jazz, Afrobeat and spiritual jazz inflect the album, and you can hear this from the first few notes. This is one I’ll be coming back to frequently.
I wish to thank my friend Slava, who is based in Kazakhstan, for introducing me into this avant-prog treasure. The Onségen Ensemble are a Finnish group who have a rather open personnel, which is in keeping with their mission statement. The sound is a mix of heavy progressive, psychedelic rock and a bit of raw, old-school metal. I think a band like this would feel at home with American labels like Cuneiform Records, but they want to forge their own path, and it’s a very, very loud one.