Psychedelic Music Thread

[moom]

Robyn Hitchcock

He is just so influenced by Syd, you know! His music has a whimsical quality that is reminiscent of Syd (though Syd did it better.) His lyrics in that album (Globe of Frogs) are extremely surreal and the entire album is somewhat designed to fuck with your mind. Psychedelic, no?

When I heard that album I just couldn't even believe at first

[Uncle Harry 74]

My top Psych albums of 2012! Fuzzed out motorik space rock!

Mugstar - Axis
My Sleeping Karma - Soma
VA - Head Music (Fruits de Mer)
Carlton Melton - Photos of Photos
Electric Moon - Cellar Space Live Overdose
Vert:X - Unorthodox Paradox
Eat Lights Become Lights - Heavy Electrics
Zone Six/Vespero - The Split Thing
VA - The Reverb Conspiracy
The Eternal Tapestry - Dawn in 2 Dimensions
Verma - EXU
Radar Men From The Moon - Echo Forever
Lumerians - Transmissions
Causa Sui - Pewt'r Sessions (re-issue)
Eternal Tapestry - A World Out Of Time
Sula Bassana - Dark Days
The Cosmic Dead - The Exalted King
Vespero - Subkraut: U-Boats Willkommen Hier
Camera - Radiate!
Electric Moon - Live One & Two 2012

My late teens/twenties were spent listening to Hawkwind, Here & Now and Gong. Also liked Pink Fairies. Got into Loop and Spaceman 3/Spectrum. Started getting into current Psychedelic crop a couple of years ago. Love The Spacious Mind, White Hills, Mugstar, Vert:X and bands from list above.
Some can be found on Bandcamp.
Uncle Harry's Continuing Freakout!!

[Massed Gadgets]

Some nice choices there, Harry. Here's my top 20 list for 2012, with commentary

20. Astra - The Black Chord
San Diego psych/proggers return for their sophomore effort. Not as strong as the epic double album The Weirding, but still a fine album nonetheless.

19. Mechanik - Inner Temple Outer Temple/You Yourself Are the Teacher and the Guru (EPs)
These spacerockers from Spain have a very original and exciting sound. Looking forward to hearing a full-length from them sometime soon (hopefully).

18. Roy and the Devil's Motorcycle - Tell It To the People
Swiss band returns after a long hiatus, but this time minus the cowpunk attitude, for a more laidback, wasted hippie psych/country/rock album. If you like your psych with some twang, this is the perfect album for you.

17. Hawkwind - Onward
Sure, I liked it, it's Hawkwind, and it did make my Top 20 list. But it's not one of their best albums. Some good tunes on it, but it's a bit overproduced and doesn't quite have the energy I expect from the band.

16. White Manna - s/t
Earthy, mantric and very absorbing heavy psychedelia from these California freaksters. A great, acid drenched debut.

15. Sula Bassana - Dark Days
Epic album from Dave Schmidt, has some really great tracks on it like Underground and Surrealistic Journey, but also a little lesser stuff too. Still a fine effort from our man in Austria.

14. The Future Kings of England - Who Is This Who Is Coming
Haunting and chilling prog/psych based on a creepy ghost story by M. R. James. Some really evocative stuff on this album. Dark, gothic and moody...perfect for listening to with the lights out.

13. Saturnia - AlphaOmegaAlpha
Sprawling double CD from Portugal's Saturnia is maybe a bit TOO much. It might have worked better as a single CD. But there are some fantastic tracks on the album nonetheless, especially the awesome opener I Am Utopia.

12. Earthling Society - ZodiaK
I liked the latter half of this album a bit more than the first half, but it was all good. A rawer, more immediate sound from Fred and the boys in two lengthy tracks (and one tiny little one in between them).

11. Moonwagon - Foyers of the Future
An excellent follow up to this Swedish band's stunning debut. There's a bit of a Yes vibe in some of these instrumental tracks, but it's more spacier than Yes tended to get.

10. Cranium Pie - Geometry of Thistles
I know, these were older recordings from a previous line-up of Cranium Pie to the line-up that recorded last year's amazing Mechanisms Part 1, but these beautiful, strange psychedelic folk songs have a mystery and magic all their own.

9. Space Mushroom Fuzz - Something Weird's Going On
One of two great albums this Boston duo released this year. Kick-ass psych and spacerock draws on Hawkwind as an influence, but only partially. They give it their own distinct feel.

8. Motion Sickness of Time Travel - s/t
I really loved this double album from electronic musician Rachel Evans. Just 4 long tracks, rekindling the spirit of the 70's analogue synth explorers, but giving it a modern (and feminine) twist as well.

7. MV & EE - Space Homestead
More great wasted psychedelic folk music from these modern day hippies. Possibly their best album since 2006's Green Blues!

6. Hawklords - We Are One
This album from former Hawksters had all the raw energy and creativeness that seemed lacking in Hawkwind's Onward. Some terrific, punky spacerock, picking up where 25 Years On left off.

5. Moon of Ostara - The Star Child
Fred Laird of Earthling Society's debut solo album finds him exploring more rhythmic ambient sounds with synth and guitar in a similar vein to Krautrock explorers Harmonia and Ashra. Mesmerizing!

4. The Cosmic Dead - The Exalted King
Killer improvised spacerock from these Scottish rockers. Some great, long explorations to the fringes of the universe!

3. Seid - Magic Handshake
I wasn't sure we were going to hear from these guys again. What a welcome surpise to hear them return with possibly their best album yet. Everything on here from Hawkwind-style spacerock to Eastern psychedelia and everything in between.

2. Lumerians - Transmissions From Telos Vol. IV
The San Francisco weirdoes stretch out for some longer, instrumental jams. Highly original and innovative stuff that's sure to please spacefreaks everywhere!

1. Black Science - An Echo Through the Eyes of Forever
The second and sadly final album from Black Science, full of melodic, hooky spacerock and wild, disorienting psychedelia, complete with tripped out lyrics and concepts. An amazing album from it's catchy start, to it's stretched out 15-minute epic finish.

[Massed Gadgets]

Lumerians...I love these guys...this isn't a song off their latest album that I listed in my top 20, but it is such a cool, psychedelic video...a live performance on public television...

[Uncle Harry 74]

Appreciate the work there Massed Gadgets. At least you didn't include Goat who seem to on everyone's blog-list!
Mechanik has a regular spot on my playlist - surprised by how good they were. Just discovered White Manna myself; on first listen seem to be more raw than White Hills who seem to be losing their way a bit in my opinion. Gonna check out one or two on your list that I haven't heard. So, thanks for posting. Bin repeatedly playing Troldmand this week. You know of them?

[Massed Gadgets]

Yeah, Troldmand are really good...Live at Loppen was great. White Hills...I kind of feel the same way...I love their first few albums, but then I kind of started to lose interest. White Manna do have quite a raw sound, but I think that's part of what makes it great. I had a hard time narrowing this list down. There were a lot of great albums that came out this past year. My shortlist had something like 40 titles Goat...man, I gave that quick listen once, but it just didn't draw me in.

[Uncle Harry 74]

Yeah Loppen Live is good but check out Rastapopoulos from the Kildemose Kult Festival. It's on You Tube. One of the best tracks of the year?

[moom]

Lumerians...I love these guys...this isn't a song off their latest album that I listed in my top 20, but it is such a cool, psychedelic video...a live performance on public television...

That's what happened when Daft Punk discovered 'shrooms

[rememberaday]

Shiite...man, I just listened to Oresund Space Collective's album Inside Your Head (what a fantastic album cover, btw) and it's midnblowing. They're are somewhat the Grateful Dead I always yearned for, great long jams with space-rock. I'm gonna explore more of their discography.

I'll listen to The Lumerians, but most probably a pure audio track, as I just don't dig those grim-reaper cloaks they wear.

[Massed Gadgets]

I'll listen to The Lumerians, but most probably a pure audio track, as I just don't dig those grim-reaper cloaks they wear.

I think it's supposed to be space monks or something, not grim reapers. Their masks aren't skull faces and they have weird silver symbols on their chests. But actually, the song I posted there sounds nothing like the stuff on Transmissions From Telos Vol. 4 (there does not seem to be a Vols. 1 - 3). Transmissions is all instrumental.

[Uncle Harry 74]

Since no-one else has mentioned it, let me it's a cover of 'Crazy Horses' by The Osmonds!
Sorry if I'm stating the obvious. I put this band's instrumental album Transmissions in my top 20 albums of 2012 and this cover is not typical as was said above. I was a bit shocked when I realised what they were playing on the vid. Crazy indeed!

[rememberaday]

Are all the volumes of Oresund Space Collective's Picks From Space worth it?

Right now, all I have of theirs is Inside Your Head, but I'm keen on getting Black Tomato and a few others. Their space rock jamming in the style of the Grateful Dead is delicious!

[danielcaux]

I've always associate psychedelic music with the earth loving california hippie scene but I was wondering, what kind of music was the actual "soundtrack" to the more urban and modern "swinging london" scene? You know, all those cool girls with short dresses and go-go boots sure couldn't be dancing to "Surrealistic Pillow" when they went to parties... was there such a thing as "psychedelic pop" or something more like that, more ehhh ...danceable? Or is this idea just some fantasy cooked up in my mind after listening to much to Madonna's 60s tinged Beautiful Stranger?

Perhaps they were listening to stuff like Nancy Sinatra's These Boots? What's that style of music called?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbyAZQ45uww

[Massed Gadgets]

These Boots Are Made For Walking is just simply pop music. It was perhaps influenced very lightly by the psychedelic culture of the time, but I wouldn't call it psychedelic music. But there were a lot of psychedelic pop bands in the England too. One better known example is The Small Faces and their huge hit "Itchycoo Park".


Another of the more well known UK hits of the time was "Time of the Season" by The Zombies. This 1968 promo video I think shows the kind of thing you are thinking about.


Here's another one, actually one of the earliest pop hits to incorporate psychedelia. Donovan's "Sunshine Superman" came out in 1966.


These are only a few of the most well known hits of the late 60's. But there were all sorts of pop bands that adopted 'psychedelic' sounds into their music, whether it be adding a sitar in or singing about trippier topics than simple boy meets girl stuff. Understand that the young people of the time didn't require pulsing beats that threaten to split your head open in order to dance to it. Those 'cool girls in short dresses and go-go boots' would happily dance to songs like these ones.

[danielcaux]

Thanks for the clips! That Zombies video is exactly the thing I was thinking about.

Yeah I understand that dance music back then was something much more gentle on the senses that the modern stuff, I guess I was just wondering about the differences between the hippie scene pop music and that of the swinging london scene, which has always seemed to me more sophisticated and hedonistic than the rural blues tinged and nature-loving psychedelia from the american west coast...