memory isblank and the amnesiacs - happiness machine

2012; 10 tracks
here is part deux of memory is blank and the amnesiacs previous release, hollow mind in the century of self (which can be heard here, it's an album i thoroughly enjoyed and truly love).

this album is perhaps a more meditative, even macabre take on the same chaos portrayed in the first release. there aren't precise words to describe what can be heard here, although groups like cLOUDDEAD and artistic minds of those such as Stockhausen are all good places to start. memory isblank build collages of sounds that aren't really collages, but soundscapes of places you want to go and never thought you'd be free to. this album combines moods, atmospheres, clips of surreal memories and places them in various patterns, interlacing freeform thoughts and concrete ideas. throughout the duration of this album you never feel as if you are lost, seeing as there seems to always be a presence of purpose for each track, although it may sometimes be hidden beneath clouds of sonic mystery. it isn't that complex to figure out, but i wonder if the simpler an idea is that presents itself to you, the happier you will be because of it. the secret here is to not be confused but to absorb.

with that said, i find that the real question of happiness machine is: where will you end up?

listen

Sun City Girls - Midnight Cowboys from Ipanema

1994; 20 tracks
Here is the Seattle-based experimental collective Sun City Girls technical third album, initially released on cassette in 1986 then reissued on LP in 1994 (and once more for CD in 96). It is essentially an album of covers, although about eleven of the tracks are original, mostly eerie spoken word tracks. A few of the tracks may leave your throat hurting.

Midnight Cowboys from Ipanema is 'what happens when two boys get ahold of a portable cassette recorder with weak batteries.' I haven't listened to nearly enough SCG to give an educated response to this album, so from a plebeian's point of view, I would have to say that this is the most incredible thing I've heard in, perhaps, forever. These may not be completely original songs, but they are completely original renditions and transformations. I have only really heard "Who's that Lady" and "Tell Me Something Good" in their original versions before, but they have definitely undergone amazing mutations to become these warped, otherworldly-classic rock/psychedelic creations.

"Me and Mrs. Jones" is by far my favorite track on here, though. As I mentioned to a friend, it reminds me of basking in the smoke of a seedy Japanese café during the eighties, hearing it performed among a scattering of sunflowers. This album is really just beautiful in every way.

01 I've Done It All
02 Fly By Night (Written-by Geddy Lee, Neil Peart)
03 Achram, Slow That Speed Boat Down
04 Midnight At The Oasis (Written by David Nichtern)
05 Gary Had Sex
06 Sweet City Woman (Written by Rich Dodson)
07 I'm Gonna Die Tomorrow
08 Who's that Lady (Written by Chris Jasper, Ernie Isley, Marvin Isley, O'Kelly Isley, Ronald Isley, Rudolph Isley)
09 Cook Ya Homos
10 Love Train (Written by Gamble & Huff)
11 Caco Demons
12 Malika
13 Radar Love (Written by Barry Hay, George Kooymans)
14 My Sperm
15 Brandy (Written by Elliot Lurie)
16 Canadian Dave
17 Tell Me Something Good (Written by Stevie Wonder)
18 Desperado
19 Me And Mrs. Jones (Written by Cary Gilbert, Gamble & Huff)
20 Ha Ha


we both know that it's wrong

Rättö Ja Lehtisalo - UU Mama

2010; 11 tracks

Rättö Ja Lehtisalo is the project of Finnish musicians Mika Rättö and Jussi Lehtisalo, who can be associated with acts like Circle (!!!!!!!), Moon Pharaoh Overlord, and others. UU Mama is their fourth full-length, as far as I'm aware, and there was just a new release by the duo this year.

This is pretty much a mixed bag. Although there are elements of the folky, psychedelic, and daring electronica, one might describe their music as just catchy pop (or something closely related). From what I translated of a certain review, they consider Kraftwerk to be an influence? Not important. It's Finnish, which already adds a degree of unusual atmosphere to the listening experience.

Download.

International Harvester - Sov Gott Rose-Marie

1968-69 (2001); 14 tracks
Sov Gott Rose-Marie is this underground Swedish experimental/psychedelic/folk ensemble's first and only release. International Harvester became Träd, Gräs och Stenar in 1969, and continue to create more prog/Amon Düül II-ish type stuff, but that is beside the point.

This is an absolutely, absolutely ABSOLUTELY stunning album. Completely stunning. Listening to it now on repeat, I am just in utter awe of the perfect, intimate beauty of these songs. I am reminded of some Bergman films, like Summer with Monika and Wild Strawberries. A mystery that is transcendental, warm and radiant. Communal peace and stability achieved through glorious repetition. Candid minimalism - children yelling as they play, the music grows dark yet women still sing. One can just envision charcoal-colored smoke rising from a gathering, many heads hung over a fire as the music carries their souls across worlds and universes unknown. A dog barks. Each track on Sov Gott Rose-Marie (Sleep Well Rose-Marie) is like a hand-crafted wooden sculpture. This album is a work of psychedelic magic, mantric lyrics hypnotically chanted in both Swedish and English while traditional melodies and rhythmic, battle-like drums spin away as in some dreamy medieval orchestra on a grassy hillside.

I am in love with this treasure of the past. 

Notes: 

- Tracks 1 to 13 were originally released as an LP in the spring of 1969 by Love Records (Finland). 

- Track 14 is an previously unreleased bonus track. 

- The first eleven tracks and bonus track (14) were recorded on August 10-12th 1968 in Nacka Aula, Stockholm, directly on two channels with natural acoustics. The effects were made afterwards.


and suddenly i realize that you are bound to die

Speed, Glue & Shinki - Eve

 2010 (1971); 7 tracks hey you wanna buy some speed? you wanna buy some speed?

Here is the debut album by Japanese progressive/psychedelic rock trio Speed, Glue & Shinki.

Eve was originally released on June 25, 1971 but has since been digitally remastered, which is the version I give you.

Some of last.fm's ever-insightful artist description:

"With Kabe's crunching atonal bass runs and Smith's stop-start rhythms creating a unique foundation for Shinki Chen's euphoric blues, combined with Smith's dangerous outlaw lyrics and caustic Iggy Pop-like vocal asides, gave the band an edge that no other Japanese band could (or would have wished to) achieve.

They took their name from Kabe's love of sniffing Marusan Pro Band glue and Joey Smith's obsession with amphetamines, as evidenced by the lyrics of many Speed, Glue & Shinki songs (all lyrics being written and sung by Smith)."

"Eve is a bluesy, psychedelic album, with Chen's Hendrix-style guitar playing firmly underpinned by Smith's insistent percussion style modelled on the playing of his idol, Ginger Baker."

I don't fucking know. I just really love it. It's hazy and reminiscent of some lost era.

イヴ　前夜

Xrin Arms - Scumbag Summer Mixtape

2011; 15 tracks

this is... quite possibly... no... without a doubt... the greatest... rap mixtape... of all.... time....

if there was ever a way in heaven or hell that i could have sex with this i would. i love the rapping, i love the beats, i love the lyrics, i love the track names, i love their voices i love their randomness i i i

last.fm

♥

01 Toxic Dreaming
02 Lucifer's Helm
03 Peyote Buttons (featuring p.WRECKS)
04 Purple Aura (featuring p.WRECKS)
05 We Are Nightmares (featuring p.WRECKS)
06 Cactus Juice Bloodtype
07 Virgin Hologram
08 Under Rocks (featuring AZl, Tahkid)
09 Busted Shutters (featuring K. Clifton, p.WRECKS)
10 Wasteland (featuring Guttah Face)
11 Intimate Reflection
12 Bright Lights (Guide Me)
13 Xenia Washington
14 Eyes Of The Shitstorm (featuring p.WRECKS)
15 Buzzard Feathers

psychedelic rap coffin

Mi Ami - Steal Your Face

2010; 6 tracks

It is thundering outside...

Oh yeah, this album is so so so so so so so so goddamn incredible. Honestly. It is energetic and all over the place, pulsating with some indefinable, attractive chaos. The frantic sounds edge around psychedelia and a constant, steady beat keeps it moving. The vocals, which by the way are unforgettable, reminded me of Les Georges Leningrad. They're the kind that grate against your ears but leave you begging for more.

Mi Ami is a San Francisco-based noise rock/experimental trio founded in 2007. They've been releasing EPs and 12"'s since 2008, and Steal Your Face is their second album of three (the latest one being from 2011). Fuck everything else on your to-do list today or lack thereof and listen to this album now.

Something else that I admire about this band. They have very nice track names which are ordered in such a way that they seem to... need each other...? lkdwnn told me about this, so thanks @ him.

01 Harmonics (Genius of Love)
02 Latin Lover
03 Dreamers
04 Secrets
05 Native American (Born in the U.S.A.)
06 Slow

* Listen

* Download link taken down upon request.

Uncle Wiggly - There Was An Elk

1993; 24 tracks

Uncle Wiggly was a New York-based band formed in 1988 by a college student/radio announcer and a few of his friends. They went on to create a number of albums and cassettes throughout the 90s. Their sound is best described as a mixture of their favorite music, which included Pink Floyd and The Minutemen. Full of shimmery, summery music about frogs (and other things) delivered with cleverly-written lyrics, Uncle Wiggly shares some complex but lighthearted indie/soft rock.



i wish to be the space between your back and the wall

Satan's Pilgrims - Psychsploitation

2009; 13 tracks

Fun and groovy psychedelic rock - from the future! Well, it was released 2 years ago, but I think it sounds rather futuristic. Anyway, I don't know how you could not like this. Satan's Pilgrims, a band formed in Portland, Oregon in the early 90s, made instrumental surf rock blend with psychedelia to dazzling effect. According to Last.fm (a very trustworthy source in regards to music, let me tell you):

"The Pilgrims are one of the most influential surf and instrumental bands of the 90s. While much of their sound has a definite Southern California influence, what sets them apart is the legacy of their Pacific Northwest rock 'n roll ancestors: The Ventures, The Wailers, The Sonics and The Kingsmen."

This strikes me as interesting because I actually used to be completely obsessed with The Ventures. They were one of the only bands my dad listened to that I really liked, honestly. They also played instrumental surf rock, along with covers of tons of songs, such as the James Bond and Batman themes. Satan's Pilgrims is slightly different than them, though, because they have a definite psychedelic edge to their tracks, and with a name like Satan's Pilgrims you might even find yourself listening to this in a smoky room of druggies, surfers, and fortune tellers.

Favorite track: "Wylde Tymes." Makes me want to dance.

Download.

Elevator to Hell - Parts 1-3

 1996; 27 tracks

I love the album Purple Blue by Eric's Trip (which I might be posting in the near future), and Elevator to Hell was a sort of solo project for Rick White, of Eric's Trip.

Elevator to Hell was a Canadian lo-fi/indie rock project active during the later 90s through the 00s. Parts 1-3 is a combination of the band's first release, a self-titled album, and a mini-LP entitled Part 3. It is absolutely amazing - one of the greatest things I've come across in a while. Every single song is great.

"Haunting lo-fi psychedelia."
one day as i walked down the street
i found a cat at my feet
and when i asked it it's name
the cat said hooray,
you're what i needed today

n.b. they have a song entitled "Why I Didn't Like August 93," which is one of my favorites on here, but I am mad that they didn't like August of 93 because that's when I was born! >:(

Vijay Iyer, Prasanna & Nitin Mitta - Tirtha

2011; 9 tracks

The Sanskrit word "tirtha" (THEER-tha), literally 'crossing' or 'shallow passage of a stream,' denotes a place of pilgrimage near sacred waters. It suggests a liminal space between the fixed and the fluid, a threshold between worlds.

"Jazz" and "Indian music" are two imperfect labels for massive systems of information, archives of knowledge, zones of activity, fields of possibility. These traditions are "as wide as all outdoors," to borrow Julius Hemphill's phrase; they both embody the great legacies of their respective heritages, and yet they have spanned the globe, evolving and adapting, constantly heralding things to come.

It's no secret that the two histories have intersected many times already. Tirtha is the latest in a series of such tirthas (crossings). But it also represents a unity that only recently became possible, after several decades of South Asian global mobility, transition, and flow.

Vijay Iyer is a very involved and prolific American jazz pianist, working in several groups as well as solo. Tirtha is his first album with collaborative partners Prasanna, a guitarist-composer, and tabla player Nitin Mitta. The band formed in response to an invitation. In 2007, Iyer was asked to put together a concert celebrating 60 years of Indian independence. He wanted to steer clear of fusion experiments that attempted to mix styles - to "create something," as John Coltrane famously admonished, "more with labels, you see, than true evolution." Prasanna and Nitin Mitta, two outstanding musicians from India who have settled in the states, had been traveling alongside Iyer. The trio had never collaborated before, but of their first rehearsal Iyer says, "We felt a jolt of recognition. There was no question of 'fusion,' no compromise, no attempt to sound more or less 'Indian'; just a fluid musican conversation among three individuals, an atmosphere of camaraderie, a sense of beginning.'"


the sound of a new reality.

Erkin Koray - Elektronik Türküler

1974; 8 tracks

This is a fantastic prog/psych rock album. Erkin Koray, a Turkish guitarist and musician, was a major figure in the anatolian rock music scene throughout the 60s, 70,s and 80s. Anatolian rock is the term for Turkish rock music emerging in the mid-1960s, blending traditional folk music with rock. Elektronik Türküler, the musician's second full-length and first album to be recorded for the LP format, is an entirely Turkish-sounding album with many psychedelic and progressive rock elements. I thoroughly enjoy it, the whole way through, and if you'll notice I included the track "Cemalım" in my latest mix because I really, truly love that track.

01 Karlı Dağlar
02 Sır
03 Hele Yar
04 Korkulu Rüya
05 Yalnızlar Rıhtımı
06 Cemalım
07 İnat
08 Türkü


Download.

Loop - Fade Out

1989; 8 tracks  Shoegazey, spacey, and sinister, this British noise rock band's second full-length flourishes with fuzzy, repetitive riffs. Enjoy. Download.

Indian Jewelry - Free Gold!

2008; 14 tracks

This is a psychedelic album full of great sonic moments, shimmering buzzing through the universe. Indian Jewelry is a Texas-based indie rock / psychedelic group who, I've heard, aren't very good live. But that won't matter as you listen to this - particular highlights include "Temporary Famine Ship" and... yeah, that song is just fucking awesome. Watch the video!

Download.

Donovan - Sunshine Superman

1966; 10 tracks

Donovan is a Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist whose groundbreaking sounds gained him much popularity in the UK, and eventually the world. Here is his third album. I just love "Celeste" so so much...

"Sunshine Superman blended his original folk style with American folk-rock, jazz and psychedelia, also managing to bring in eastern and medieval flavours into the mix. Whilst his earlier albums had been mostly performed solo, his new material had his voice and guitar augmented by electric guitars, drums, strings, percussion, sitar and more. Donovan was one of the first artists to make extensive use of the sitar, and on Sunshine Superman it is played by Texan singer-songwriter Shawn Phillips, who he had met in '65 and become close friends with.

Sunshine Superman kick-started a new period in Donovan's career, both in terms of chart success and recognition as well as musical exploration. It is widely considered a landmark psychedelia album."

my songs are merely dreams visiting my mind

ゑでぃまぁこん (Eddie Marcon) - 綿の煙の招待状

2009; 10 tracks

Absolutely delightful folk/ambient album from Japanese group ゑでぃまぁこん (Eddie Marcon). The title translates as "Cotton Smoke Invitations." Childish innocence and the purity of summer fuse in this beautiful music that is sunny even in the rain.


Download.

Verdunkeln - Einblick In Den Qualenfall

2007; 6 tracks

I haven't posted any black metal in a while.

Despite many negative reviews, Verdunkeln's one and only full-length album is not bad.. not bad at all. The German band's sound is purely atmospheric, very resonant, with a psychedelic/hypnotic touch. If you like the more creative styles of black metal in the vein of, say, Urfaust, try this out.

Download.

Psychic TV - Roman P / Neurology

1984; 3 tracks

The first track of this release, "Roman P," was written in memory of film director Roman Polanski. I love that track so so much, although it doesn't sound very like Psychic TV at all.

The B-side is entitled "Neurology" and contains a message from Mr. Sebastian, a spokesman of Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth (TOPY). TOPY is an artistic federation of groups such as Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV, and Coil. These two final tracks also contain collaged speeches by Charles Manson and Jim Jones which run simultaneously in different stereo channels.

Download.

The Oscillation - Out of Phase

2007; 13 tracks

The Oscillation is multi-instrumentalist Demian Castellanos' psychedelic/krautrock project. Aside from The Oscillation's brilliant cover of "Head Hang Low," from Julian Cope's first album World Shut Your Mouth, this album is full of wonderful moments. Out of Phase, from funky post-punk to experimental to psychedelic to krautrock, can accurately be described as phantasmagorical.

Listen to this cover and see if it isn't just the greatest thing ever.



Download

Purchase

Bowery Electric - Bowery Electric

1995; 9 tracks

Bowery Electric is the first album by shoegaze/ambient group Bowery Electric. It really might be my new favorite shoegaze album ever, Loveless aside. The spacey feel, the prominent bass, the dreampoppy vocals - it feels like being by the sea at night time. Dark, repetitive, and utterly hypnotic, the tracks can, at times, become indistinguishible from each other. This only intensifies the ambient beauty of Bowery Electric's brand of droned-out shoegaze. I don't really know what else to say... "Another Road" is an amazing track.

awake but numb