JERUSALEM s/t (Vintage / Rockadrome) cd 14.98
Here's one of those albums that we KNEW we'd make Record Of The Week - IF ever it was reissued. And now it has been! Here's a fully legit reish of this cult '70s hard rock rarity, a record by one of those bands who seem simultaneously to be both testosterone-tanked young men and wizened ol' wise wizards. Yeah, a Record Of The Week easy, on account of it not only being an old fave of some of us here, but something that immediately caught on with the AQ staffers who hadn't heard it before, this reissue getting played in the store quite steadily (and loudly!) since it arrived. Let's listen in, as Jerusalem's vocalist belts it out, in an emotive yowl a bit like Robert Plant but with Ozzy Osbourne's paranoid feelings: "Hey girl, will you never learn? Who d'you think you're fooling with your lyin' and your cryin'? You'll only be happy the day you see me dyin'!" But then, in more of a normal speaking voice, we get the casual aside: "Oh yeah, that's the way it happens sometimes. Ha."
Right on, brilliant. That's from "Frustration", the first of nine fantastic tracks on the one and only album by this English band, recorded in 1971, released in '72 on Deram/Decca, produced by Deep Purple's Ian Gillan. Why Jerusalem didn't get big is a mystery, though the liner notes give some clues as to why they disbanded. Heck they're even fairly unknown (or a well-kept secret) among connoisseurs of '70s heavy psych and hard rock, with this being its first ever official, non-bootleg reissue on compact disc. Now, there's lots of great obscure heavy rock rarities from the early '70s. We've raved about reissues of many of them (Dust, Leaf Hound, Toad, Bang, T2, etc.). But as far as unheralded proto-metal goes, this belongs pretty much at the top of that longhaired, bellbottomed heap, as essential as any of 'em anyway. Pentagram, Bedemon, Blues Creation, Budgie, Night Sun, you name it.
Allan here first heard Jerusalem a few years back when a friend who shares his taste for proto-metal passed along a cd-r copy of this otherwise unavailable album (thanks, Glenn!). Killer stuff indeed, damn it was good. One of the heaviest things from the era he'd ever heard, Jerusalem took it to an extreme that most of their peers didn't approach. With elements of both biggies Sabbath and Zeppelin, but more frenzied and frantic on one hand, more plodding and suicidal on the other.
Crashing, fuzzed out guitars. Energetic hectic riffage. Doomy, thudding blues. Wicked stinging, sliding soloing. Punkish attitude (competitive with contemporaries Crushed Butler). The vocals often hoarse, on the verge of screaming, or gone over that edge. Yeah, pretty heavy for '72! This is rough, raw, proto headbanging mania mixed with mystical, melodic proggy interludes, of course we love it. Plus it's got a genuine dark, occult, despairing vibe, with poetic lyrics about madness, murder and death... And you can't get much more "downer rock genocidal" sounding than the truly, uh, primitive bludgeon what might be the heaviest track here, "Primitive Man".
Pretty darn metal when it comes down to it, forget the "proto". In their own way though, Jerusalem sounding halfway betwixt '60s garage rock and '80s New Wave Of British Heavy Metal... which on balance puts them a bit ahead of their time. In fact, since what's old is new again, this actually sounds like if could have been made now, not because it sounds modern (it doesn't) but because it's so line with certain stonery retro-stylings popular today, particularly in Sweden. In other words, if you like Witchcraft, you'll love Jerusalem!! We always thought that of all the obscure '70s bands that are their forebears, Witchcraft sound most like Jerusalem (well, next to Pentagram). Remember what we said in all caps about Witchcraft's debut? "PERHAPS THEE BEST '70s INSPIRED DOOM ALBUM EVER!" Well the same would go for this, except that it's the real deal, which makes it even better.
Anyway, to return to our story, after Allan got that cd-r dub, he knew he had to find a proper cd. There HAD to be one, this was too good not to have been reissued, right? But, after looking and looking, no luck. Then, one day, Allan came to work at Aquarius and lo and behold what did he hear, but Jerusalem blaring from the store stereo! No, it wasn't this reissue. This was still a few years ago. Turns out, Andee had found a used copy of a bootleg cd someplace, and had bought it simply 'cause he thought the cover looked cool (he's like that), without knowing anything about the band. Life is so unfair, thought Allan. But he was able to eventually guilt Andee into giving him the cd for a birthday present (thanks, Andee! You can have that one back now). Later on, we discovered a Japanese reissue that may or may not have been a boot but in any event was way too expensive and hard to get, nothing we could easily stock and sell for a reasonable price. But NOW, we happily are able to share Jerusalem with you thanks to this nicely done reissue on the Rockadrome label's Vintage imprint! Yeah!
In addition to the nine songs from the original LP, this cd comes with five bonus tracks, including non-album single "Kamakazi Moth". The thick booklet is filled with lengthy liner notes, complete lyrics, vintage photos, all that good stuff you want in a reissue. Once more, yeah!
MPEG Stream: "Hooded Eagle"
MPEG Stream: "When The Wolf Sits"
MPEG Stream: "Primitive Man"

JERUSALEM s/t (Vintage / Rockadrome) lp 19.98
Repressed, back in stock!
This asskicking, best selling proto metal aQ favorite now gets its long overdue VINYL reissue! In a fancy gatefold jacket to boot. Here's what we said when we made the cd version a Record Of The Week a couple years back:
Here's one of those albums that we KNEW we'd make Record Of The Week - IF ever it was reissued. And now it has been! Here's a fully legit reish of this cult '70s hard rock rarity, a record by one of those bands who seem simultaneously to be both testosterone-tanked young men and wizened ol' wise wizards. Yeah, a Record Of The Week easy, on account of it not only being an old fave of some of us here, but something that immediately caught on with the AQ staffers who hadn't heard it before, this reissue getting played in the store quite steadily (and loudly!) since it arrived. Let's listen in, as Jerusalem's vocalist belts it out, in an emotive yowl a bit like Robert Plant but with Ozzy Osbourne's paranoid feelings: "Hey girl, will you never learn? Who d'you think you're fooling with your lyin' and your cryin'? You'll only be happy the day you see me dyin'!" But then, in more of a normal speaking voice, we get the casual aside: "Oh yeah, that's the way it happens sometimes. Ha."
Right on, brilliant. That's from "Frustration", the first of nine fantastic tracks on the one and only album by this English band, recorded in 1971, released in '72 on Deram/Decca, produced by Deep Purple's Ian Gillan. Why Jerusalem didn't get big is a mystery, though the liner notes give some clues as to why they disbanded. Heck they're even fairly unknown (or a well-kept secret) among connoisseurs of '70s heavy psych and hard rock, with this being its first ever official, non-bootleg reissue on compact disc. Now, there's lots of great obscure heavy rock rarities from the early '70s. We've raved about reissues of many of them (Dust, Leaf Hound, Toad, Bang, T2, etc.). But as far as unheralded proto-metal goes, this belongs pretty much at the top of that longhaired, bellbottomed heap, as essential as any of 'em anyway. Pentagram, Bedemon, Blues Creation, Budgie, Night Sun, you name it.
Allan here first heard Jerusalem a few years back when a friend who shares his taste for proto-metal passed along a cd-r copy of this otherwise unavailable album (thanks, Glenn!). Killer stuff indeed, damn it was good. One of the heaviest things from the era he'd ever heard, Jerusalem took it to an extreme that most of their peers didn't approach. With elements of both biggies Sabbath and Zeppelin, but more frenzied and frantic on one hand, more plodding and suicidal on the other.
Crashing, fuzzed out guitars. Energetic hectic riffage. Doomy, thudding blues. Wicked stinging, sliding soloing. Punkish attitude (competitive with contemporaries Crushed Butler). The vocals often hoarse, on the verge of screaming, or gone over that edge. Yeah, pretty heavy for '72! This is rough, raw, proto headbanging mania mixed with mystical, melodic proggy interludes, of course we love it. Plus it's got a genuine dark, occult, despairing vibe, with poetic lyrics about madness, murder and death... And you can't get much more "downer rock genocidal" sounding than the truly, uh, primitive bludgeon what might be the heaviest track here, "Primitive Man".
Pretty darn metal when it comes down to it, forget the "proto". In their own way though, Jerusalem sounding halfway betwixt '60s garage rock and '80s New Wave Of British Heavy Metal... which on balance puts them a bit ahead of their time. In fact, since what's old is new again, this actually sounds like if could have been made now, not because it sounds modern (it doesn't) but because it's so line with certain stonery retro-stylings popular today, particularly in Sweden. In other words, if you like Witchcraft, you'll love Jerusalem!! We always thought that of all the obscure '70s bands that are their forebears, Witchcraft sound most like Jerusalem (well, next to Pentagram). Remember what we said in all caps about Witchcraft's debut? "PERHAPS THEE BEST '70s INSPIRED DOOM ALBUM EVER!" Well the same would go for this, except that it's the real deal, which makes it even better.
Anyway, to return to our story, after Allan got that cd-r dub, he knew he had to find a proper cd. There HAD to be one, this was too good not to have been reissued, right? But, after looking and looking, no luck. Then, one day, Allan came to work at Aquarius and lo and behold what did he hear, but Jerusalem blaring from the store stereo! No, it wasn't this reissue. This was still a few years ago. Turns out, Andee had found a used copy of a bootleg cd someplace, and had bought it simply 'cause he thought the cover looked cool (he's like that), without knowing anything about the band. Life is so unfair, thought Allan. But he was able to eventually guilt Andee into giving him the cd for a birthday present (thanks, Andee! You can have that one back now). Later on, we discovered a Japanese reissue that may or may not have been a boot but in any event was way too expensive and hard to get, nothing we could easily stock and sell for a reasonable price. But NOW, we happily are able to share Jerusalem with you thanks to this nicely done reissue on the Rockadrome label's Vintage imprint! Yeah!
MPEG Stream: "Hooded Eagle"
MPEG Stream: "When The Wolf Sits"
MPEG Stream: "Primitive Man"

JIMMY CASTOR BUNCH, THE It's Just Begun (RCA Victor) lp 12.98
Picked this album up at a garage sale as a kid, just 'cause of the crazy cover art, and have been a big fan ever since. Here it is reissued on vinyl, a definite '70s funk classic (from '72 to be precise), Jimmy's freakiest by far, stuff that could have made Funkadelic proud, both fuzzy and funky and a little Latin too. Or as we've said before about a Castor comp, "for fans of early Kool & the Gang, Parliament, B.T. Express, that sort of thing, but the best stuff here's got a dosed and primordial edge unlike anything else excavated from the early '70s era." And that "best stuff" is mostly all here on It's Just Begun. The title track is a heavy acid funk freakout, then there's the cave man classic "Troglodyte", and the trippy vibes of "L.T.D. (Life, Truth, Death)", and more... And it's all wrapped in that awesome, astrologically symbolic cover painting (featuring a slum building, in a wasteland, with not one but two giant Jimmy Castors looming over it, alongside a floating armored egg, tubes and troglodytes). There's an explanation of all the images' significance to be found on the back cover, dig it.
MPEG Stream: "It's Just Begun"
MPEG Stream: "Troglodyte (Cave Man)"

JOHN'S CHILDREN The Complete John's Children (Burning Airlines) 2cd 30.00
Here is a 2cd release collecting all of the best (and the rare, and the radio sessions etc.) of John's Childen, the rebellious, punk ass, late '60s, psych pop band who at one point included Marc Bolan, later of the legendary T-Rex. JC are maybe best known for being thrown off a Who tour for upstaging them theatrically and for being louder!! On this album are very early versions of songs Marc Bolan would later re-record under his own name and as Tyrannosaurus Rex, such as "Mustang Ford", "Desdemona", and "Perfumed Garden Of Gulliver Smith". Contains a fancy book with extensive liner notes by band members, filling you in on all the dirt on this short lived British band.
RealAudio clip: "Just What You Want - Just What You'll Get"
RealAudio clip: "Jagged Time Lapse"

JOHNNY LUNCHBREAK Appetizer / Soup's On (* (asterisk)) cd 14.98
We're not sure if the Numero Group's small subsidiary label, *(asterisk) is still continuing or not. Dedicated to obscure full album releases of private press records (namely in the soul, folk, and R&B vein), it's been over a year since their last release. Quite frankly, with the exception of the great Boscoe album, we just weren't as excited by this sub-label's releases as we have been with most all of the Numero Group output. But we recently discovered we still had a few copies of this Johnny Lunchbreak release that we never reviewed before, and after the Boscoe, it was our second favorite release on the label, mainly because it was so different from the others.
While Johnny Lunchbreak, an early-seventies post-Velvet's rock band from Connecticut, never recorded a full album, an acetate of nine demo recordings made between 1974-75 had turned up mysteriously and been released as a limited lp on Zero Street Records a few years ago, and *(asterisk) made it into a full cd release. Like the Modern Lovers and other East Coast rock bands of the era, Johnny Lunchbreak have a softer New York sound, clean but Velvety riffs with sort of a surfy twist and vocal melodies that are less insistent then either Jonathan Richman's or Lou Reed's. Apparently the band was trying for an early Bee Gees sound, but didn't quite reach that potential. Still the songs are pretty catchy, and for a band that spent its two years of existence focusing more on merchandising than playing live, the songs are surprisingly well-written and recorded. Worth checking out!
MPEG Stream: "The Same Could Happen To you"
MPEG Stream: "Never Found"
MPEG Stream: "Take Me Baby"

JOKERS s/t (Fading Sunshine) cd 14.98
Tehran, Iran isn't the first place you'd think to find a heavy '70s power trio playing loud distorted blooze rawk, but if you were there in 1972 and looked in the right garage, you'd have found these guys rocking out, the Jokers. They recorded this album on a reel-to-reel tape machine, with two mics, in that garage, but it was never released - until now. Lotsa fuzz and wah where the guitars are concerned, and raucous vocals. Influenced by English and American blues rockers like Cream and Mountain and Hendrix and Grand Funk, we'd hazard a guess. And, especially on "Southern Blues", seemingly also inspired by '50s rock n' roll cats like Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent.
Only 4 songs here, but it's still over a half hour long, 'cause the fourth song is really a wailin' three-part suite that would have taken up a whole side of vinyl. All in all, awesomely unrestrained and uncouth, though maybe a bit too bluesy for some. You probably would never guess that these Jokers were from Iran, it's not like they incorporate any Persian music in their sound, but this definitely sounds real raw and underground in its blues-blasting abandon. Packaged in mini-LP style sleeves, numbered limited edition of 1000. (There's also a limited vinyl reissue we can get, from the same label, but it's waaaay more expensive, we can order it for you though if you like...)
MPEG Stream: "Going Away"
MPEG Stream: "Southern Blues"

JOLY, RENE Chimene (Magic) cd 19.98
One of our favorite reissues and new/old discoveries of last year was the passionate and powerful work of Gerard Manset. We immediately fell hard for his rich and textured songs which showed the more intense side of '60s and early '70s French Pop. So we were immediately intrigued by this collection of songs by Rene Joly when we saw that the orchestration was credited in part to Gerard Manset. But once we listened, it turned out to be Joly's voice that grabbed our attention right away. Full of drama, fire and beauty we couldn't believe that this was the first time his amazing voice had made it into our ears. It made us think of what Antony & The Johnsons might have sounded like if they were from France in 1970, or maybe Bryan Ferry doing Edith Piaf covers.
Even some of our friends who grew up in France had not heard of Joly so we don't feel quite as bad for not hearing him until now. How glad we are that this gem of French orchestral psychedelic pop has finally risen to the surface, brought to us by the same label that brought us the great Pop Made In France compilation highlighted last time. Prog fans will even want to check this out for the great King Crimson cover "La Cour Du Roi Musicien" (The Court Of The Crimson King). Majestic sounds filled with cinematic flair, and bubbling with grandeur and rich color. Joly's commanding voice sweeps us off our feet every time we listen. Highly recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Chimene"
MPEG Stream: "La Cour Du Roi Musicien"
MPEG Stream: "L'Amour Fut Doux"

JONESY Masquerade - The Dawn Years Anthology (Esoteric) cd 25.00

JONESY Ricochet (Cherry Red) cd 15.98
Blimey, here's a "best of" from an early '70s UK prog band we'd never even heard of before, but we are now firm fans of (these nine tracks, at least). Ah, thank the gods for cd reissues and anthologies like this one, catching us up with worthy obscurities from way back when. Nothin' dusty here, as Jonesy kicks out some vigorous, vibrant, jazzy tunage all across this disc, offering up selections from their three albums (No Alternative '72, Keeping Up '73, and Growing, also '73) featuring searing horns, hard-charging guitars, melodic vocals -- and full-on mellotron abuse. The opening cut, "1958" sets the tone, and comes off sort of like Lalo "Mission Impossible" Schifrin meets Caravan. Meanwhile, at the far end of the disc, the wah-wah trumpet stylings of the 11+ minute "Jonesy" remind us the heck of '70s Miles, cool. And in-between, there's lots to like as well. It's propulsive stuff, energetic and superbly played, less about show-offy compositional complexifications (though there's enough of that to keep it prog!) or pretentious concepts (no Lord Of The Rings fantasies from these guys) than wild soloing combined with solid groove.
The liner notes cite such influences and/or comparisons as King Crimson and Nucleus, and they'd be right about those two for sure... we might suggest a little early Chicago as well (hey Chicago's first album is pretty killer, trust us!). Amon Duul II and Neu! are also mentioned, but we can't quite see exactly how those krautrockers can be heard here. But we'd agree that the grooviness and experimentation of Jonesy give them something of a Continental character.
As "prog" becomes more and more the "in" thing (hadn't you noticed?), the time is certainly right for a band like Jonesy to get some posthumous props. We'd suggest, ferinstance, that fans of Crime In Choir should investigate forthwith.
MPEG Stream: "1958"
MPEG Stream: "No Alternative"

JOSEFUS Dead Man / Get Off Of My Case (Sundazed) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
1969-1971 era 'heavy' blooze rock from Texas. 2 super rare lps finally reissued by the swell Sundazed label. Self described as 'a bare knuckled slugfest with the devastating wallop of a Texas tornado.'

JOSEPH Stoned Age Man (Radioactive) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

JPT SCARE BAND Sleeping Sickness (Monster) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

JUAN DE LA CRUZ Himig Natin (Vicor) cd 11.98
Some time ago we raved about a disc entitled Shake Your Brains by a real-deal '70s stoner rock band from the Phillipines called the Juan Dela Cruz band. Turns out that disc, now long-gone and out of print, was actually a compilation of tracks taken from the Juan Dela Cruz albums Himig Natin and Maskara, which we discovered have just recently been reissued in their native land. Our mission was clear, and now we've managed to track down copies of both discs from a Phillipine supplier. They're supposedly "digitally remastered" but suffer from no-frills packaging, though, without much in the way of a booklet (pet peeve #493 strikes again) and chintzy "now on cd!" graphics marring the cover art repro. Still, these are the only way to acquire the most killer stuff by these obscure heavy rock legends. Here's some of what we said about that Shake Your Brains disc if you missed it:
"Juan De La Cruz (a band, not a man, so it's filed under "J") was a hard-rock powerhouse powertrio from the Phillippines. If you're hip to other obscurites from the era, imagine a cross between Buffalo and Los Dug Dug's! Totally rocked out bluesy stoner jams, with brilliantly fucked sex and party obsessed lyrics ("get drunk all day, get down all night", "I'll just wait for you down in the alley / and I'll show you how it can be"). And guitarist Wally Gonzales has got his acid-psych leads down, man! It's not clear who's singing (it might be the drummer, who previously played in the equally primal Japanese psychrock band Speed, Glue, & Shinki) but whoever it is, he's got the perfect delivery for this stuff, which includes one of our all-time favorite garage-psych songs, "I Wanna Say Yeah" -- perhaps the ultimate rock n' roll song title/lyric *EVER*. I mean, yeah! None of today's punks, stoners, or garage revivalists can touch that."
That Shake Your Brains disc consisted of ten songs -- taking four of Himig Natin's nine tracks and six of Masakara's dozen -- about half of each. And probably the better half of each, we have to say. But some stuff not selected that you'll find on these albums is just as good, and besides which you can't get Shake Your Brains anymore. So if you want to hear "Beep Beep" and "I Wanna Say Yeah" and "Shake Your Brains" you've gotta get these two discs!
Himig Natin came out originally in 1973 and features, as both albums do, the line-up of Wally Gonzales (guitar), Mike Hanopol (bass), and Joseph Smith (drums, acoustic guitar). It's got the aforementioned "I Wanna Say Yeah" and the song with the "down in the alley" lyrics, "Take You Home" (also recorded by Speed Glue & Shinki), among other highlights. Some cuts are on the bluesier side, they do one Chuck Berry song ("Round And Round"), and another one's a Greatful Dead cover! It's a rollicking version of "Big Boss Man", not being a Deadhead I don't know if that's an obscure cover or not, and I also wouldn't have guessed it was a Dead song either. The album winds up with the rather pretty title track, wherein Smith's acoustic comes into play.
MPEG Stream: "Take You Home"
MPEG Stream: "I Wanna Say Yeah"

JUAN DE LA CRUZ Maskara (Vicor) cd 11.98
Some time ago we raved about a disc entitled Shake Your Brains by a real-deal '70s stoner rock band from the Phillipines called the Juan Dela Cruz band. Turns out that disc, now long-gone and out of print, was actually a compilation of tracks taken from the Juan Dela Cruz albums Himig Natin and Maskara, which we discovered have just recently been reissued in their native land. Our mission was clear, and now we've managed to track down copies of both discs from a Phillipine supplier. They're supposedly "digitally remastered" but suffer from no-frills packaging, though, without much in the way of a booklet (pet peeve #493 strikes again) and chintzy "now on cd!" graphics marring the cover art repro. Still, these are the only way to acquire the most killer stuff by these obscure heavy rock legends. Here's some of what we said about that Shake Your Brains disc if you missed it:
"Juan De La Cruz (a band, not a man, so it's filed under "J") was a hard-rock powerhouse powertrio from the Phillippines. If you're hip to other obscurites from the era, imagine a cross between Buffalo and Los Dug Dug's! Totally rocked out bluesy stoner jams, with brilliantly fucked sex and party obsessed lyrics ("get drunk all day, get down all night", "I'll just wait for you down in the alley / and I'll show you how it can be"). And guitarist Wally Gonzales has got his acid-psych leads down, man! It's not clear who's singing (it might be the drummer, who previously played in the equally primal Japanese psychrock band Speed, Glue, & Shinki) but whoever it is, he's got the perfect delivery for this stuff, which includes one of our all-time favorite garage-psych songs, "I Wanna Say Yeah" -- perhaps the ultimate rock n' roll song title/lyric *EVER*. I mean, yeah! None of today's punks, stoners, or garage revivalists can touch that."
That Shake Your Brains disc consisted of ten songs -- taking four of Himig Natin's nine tracks and six of Masakara's dozen -- about half of each. And probably the better half of each, we have to say. But some stuff not selected that you'll find on these albums is just as good, and besides which you can't get Shake Your Brains anymore. So if you want to hear "Beep Beep" and "I Wanna Say Yeah" and "Shake Your Brains" you've gotta get these two discs!
The title of 1974's Masakara might possibly relate in some way to the sleeve photo of the band in facepaint... So cool. They mellow out on a few of the tracks, but mostly these are heavy duty rockers! A few highlights: "Pinoy Blues", "Nadapa Sa Arina", "Beep Beep", "We Love You", "Palengke", and "Pagod Sa Pahinga" -- a lot more Tagalog language lyrics/titles here than on the previous album. And no covers this time, as far as we know.
MPEG Stream: "Beep Beep"
MPEG Stream: "Rak En Roll Sa Mundo"

JUAN DE LA CRUZ Shake Your Brains (Crystal Emporium) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Juan De La Cruz (a band, not a man, so it's filed under "J") was a hard-rock powerhouse powertrio from the Phillippines who flourished in the nineteen seventies. If you're hip to other obscurites from the era, imagine a cross between Buffalo and Los Dug Dug's! This bootleg-looking disc reissues one of their earliest albums (no date given, sorry, but we'd guess '71 or so), and it's a killer. Totally rocked out bluesy stoner jams, with brilliantly fucked sex and party obsessed lyrics ("get drunk all day, get down all night", "I'll just wait for you down in the alley / and I'll show you how it can be"). And guitarist Wally Gonzales has got his acid-psych leads down, man! It's not clear who's singing (it might be the drummer, an American who previously played in the equally primal Japanese psychrock band Speed, Glue, & Shinki) but whoever it is, he's got the perfect delivery for this stuff, which includes one of our all-time favorite garage-psych songs, "I Wanna Say Yeah" -- perhaps the ultimate rock n' roll song title/lyric *EVER*. I mean, yeah! None of today's punks, stoners, or garage revivalists can touch that. (Although, parts of this album *do* remind us a bit of Drunk Horse!)
We'll soon have another Juan de la Cruz reissue, a 1970 recording called "Up In Arms" that Shadoks is putting out real soon. Apparently it's got a ton of unreleased live stuff on it, can't wait!
RealAudio clip: "I Wanna Say Yeah"
RealAudio clip: "Shake Your Brains"

JUAN DE LA CRUZ BAND Up In Arms (Shadoks Music) cd 14.98
Here's that other Juan de la Cruz reissue we promised last list in our review of their "Shake Your Brains" album. "Up In Arms" was the band's debut from 1971. Like "Shake Your Brains" this is psychedelic hard rock, but it's a bit more psych, and less hard, than that album. On "Shake Your Brains" the band was stripped down to a power trio, but here they're augmented with piano, organ, sax, and flute, instrumentation that brings in some jazzier, trippier sounds than the basic garagey heaviness found on "Shake Your Brains". The liner notes tell us that the band was one of the Philippines's biggest, partially thanks to their performance in a production of Jesus Christ Superstar at the Cultural Center of the Philippines! That led to them gigging at that same Cultural Center with the Philippine National Philharmonic! Wow. It's a little hard to imagine that their brand of bluesy, heavy-duty hippie rock really meshed well with a symphony orchestra (doing songs like "Mystery Roach" and "Requiem For A Head"?), but I guess Deep Purple was an inspiration. Anyway, "Up In Arms" has got some fine acid-rock jams, as well as mellower psych-pop moments. Which are nice, if not exactly what we were hoping for. BUT, the bonus tracks that occupy the entire second half of this hour-long disc (tracks 7 through 12) are quite a bit heavier. Recorded "live and in concert", the Juan de la Cruz Band kicks out the jams on a bunch of Tagalog-language cuts including several from the "Shake Your Brains" LP. No info is provided as to where or when this live stuff was recorded, but it all sounds great, and is totally rockin'.
RealAudio clip: "Requiem For A Head"
RealAudio clip: "Sarap Ng Buhay"

JULY July & The Second July (Mason) cd 23.00

JULY s/t (Aftermath) cd 17.98
First cd issue of what is reportedly a highly sought after record of UK psychedelic rock. The singer's got a nice Skip Spence strain in his voice, and there's a lot of sitar on top of the more traditional instrumentation, and the winsome harmonies are sweet. Other than that, it's pretty good but not mindblowing so we're recommending it only to hardcore psych freaks who already have all the Kinks records, the West Coast Pop Art Experimental band reissues, etc. You know who you are.
RealAudio clip: "Jolly Mary"
RealAudio clip: "Hallo to Me"

JULY s/t (Rev-Ola) cd 17.98
July is one of a myriad of UK psych bands to come out of the paisley maelstrom of the post-Sgt. Pepper's London psych scene in the late sixties. One who would still remain a minor footnote if they had never made this brilliant and amazing debut album. It's a highly collectible psych artifact for good reason. It's awesome!!!!!!!! We've been playing it nearly non-stop since we got it, and it's pretty much an across the board store favorite.
Starting out years earlier as the Tomcats (amongst many other line-up changes and band names that defined the hectic scene back in the day) and influenced by the same wave of American R&B that bands like the Stones and Spencer Davis Group were, they soon realized the London scene was too crowded for them and headed off to the France and Spain for a couple of years to tighten their chops. When they came back in 1968, the sound and scene had changed once again from R&B to full on flowery acid-psych. Armed with good songs and well-rehearsed from touring, they quickly snagged a record deal and used the studio to augment their songs with all manner of gimmickry such as phasing, delays and tape-loops and far-out instrumentation of sitars, tablas, and African percussion.
The band quickly cut one of the finest examples of acid-y psych pop to come out of the era, an engaging mix of lysergic dreaminess and lo-fi garage rock urgency. The only thing was, none of the members really liked the result. (Unlike us!) Certain choices like the "ugly" cover art and band name (changed to July to coincide with the album's release?!) were taken out of the band's control, and some members felt the studio gimmickry being used was far too gimmicky. At the time when so many bands like The Pretty Things, Pink Floyd, and Kaleidoscope were making stronger inroads with the psych sound and scene, July couldn't figure out what it should do with itself, and cutting only one more single (featured here among the bonus tracks), called it a day. Tragic! Listening to this today, you can hear its influence through bands like Olivia Tremor Control, early Guided By Voices, and Jennifer Gentle. If you have loved UK pop-psych albums such as Tangerine Dream by Kaleidoscope, S.F. Sorrow by The Pretty Things, and Pink Floyd's Pipers at The Gates of Dawn, July's self-titled debut will be one more jewel in that acid pop crown. So totally recommended.
NB. another July album called The Second of July of previous unissued recordings from 1967 exists as well, and hopefully also will be reissued by Rev-Ola.
MPEG Stream: "Jolly Mary"
MPEG Stream: "I See"
MPEG Stream: "Friendly Man"

JULY s/t (Guerssen) lp 31.00
This all time aQ favorite is now available on vinyl!
July is one of a myriad of UK psych bands to come out of the paisley maelstrom of the post-Sgt. Pepper's London psych scene in the late sixties. One who would still remain a minor footnote if they had never made this brilliant and amazing debut album. It's a highly collectible psych artifact for good reason. It's awesome!!! We've been playing it nearly non-stop since we got it, and it's pretty much an across the board store favorite.
Starting out years earlier as the Tomcats (amongst many other line-up changes and band names that defined the hectic scene back in the day) and influenced by the same wave of American RnB that bands like the Stones and Spencer Davis Group were, they soon realized the London scene was too crowded for them and headed off to the France and Spain for a couple of years to tighten their chops. When they came back in 1968, the sound and scene had changed once again from RnB to full on flowery acid-psych. Armed with good songs and well-rehearsed from touring, they quickly snagged a record deal and used the studio to augment their songs with all manner of gimmickry such as phasing, delays and tape-loops and far-out instrumentation of sitars, tablas, and African percussion.
The band quickly cut one of the finest examples of acid-y psych pop to come out of the era, an engaging mix of lysergic dreaminess and lo-fi garage rock urgency. The only thing was, none of the members really liked the result (unlike us). Certain choices like the "ugly" cover art and band name (changed to July to coincide with the album's release?!) were taken out of the band's control, and some members felt the studio gimmickry being used was far too gimmicky. At the time when so many bands like The Pretty Things, Pink Floyd, and Kaleidoscope were making stronger inroads with the psych sound and scene, July couldn't figure out what it should do with itself, and cutting only one more single (featured here among the bonus tracks), called it a day. Tragic! Listening to this today, you can hear its influence through bands like Olivia Tremor Control, early Guided By Voices, and Jennifer Gentle. If you have loved UK pop-psych albums such as Tangerine Dream by Kaleidoscope, S.F. Sorrow by The Pretty Things, and Pink Floyd's Pipers at The Gates of Dawn, July's self-titled debut will be one more jewel in that acid pop crown. So totally recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Jolly Mary"
MPEG Stream: "I See"
MPEG Stream: "Friendly Man"

JUPITER SUNSET Back In The Sun (Magic Records) cd 15.98

KAHVAS JUTE Wide Open (Aztec Music) cd 21.00
Aussie prog reissued.

KALEIDOSCOPE Faintly Blowing (Repertoire) cd 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Although, sadly, we haven't been able to get copies of the first Kaleidoscope album on cd of late (the one entitled Tangerine Dream, not to be confused with the krautrock band of that name), we are very happy to now have copies of this perfectly twee UK psych pop combo's recently reissued second album, 1969's Faintly Blowing! And it comes in a nice digipack with six bonus tracks! Now if only we had some tea and crumpets we'd be all supercalifragilistic. Ahem.
Kaleidoscope were one of the best unsung post-Peppers British psych-pop acts. This one carries on from their first (a solid AQ fave) with more of the same delightful dreamy oh-so-melodic and lysergically lyricized pop psyke, some of the best ever in our humble opinion. Orchestrated, emotive, shoulda-been-hits abound, along with some way-out psychedelic experimentation. The Kaleidoscope story continued into the proggy '70s with a name change to Fairfield Parlour but Faintly Blowing was really their last colourful hurrah of dainty dandy '60s poppiness.
MPEG Stream: "Faintly Blowing"
MPEG Stream: "Snap Dragon"

KALEIDOSCOPE Faintly Blowing (Sunbeam) lp 24.00
Yay, a vinyl reissue of a long time sixties psychpop fave... This perfectly twee UK psych pop combo's second album, 1969's Faintly Blowing.
Kaleidoscope were one of the best unsung post-Peppers British psych-pop acts. This one carries on from their first (also a solid AQ fave) with more of the same delightful dreamy oh-so-melodic and lysergically lyricized pop psyke, some of the best ever in our humble opinion. Orchestrated, emotive, shoulda-been-hits abound, along with some way-out psychedelic experimentation. The Kaleidoscope story continued into the proggy '70s with a name change to Fairfield Parlour but Faintly Blowing was really their last colourful hurrah of dainty dandy '60s poppiness. Quite nice, fantastic, possibly even supercalifragilistic.

KALEIDOSCOPE s/t (Shadoks) cd 17.98
Record Of The Week honorees Los Dug Dugs aren't the only vintage psych band from south of the border that we dig, of course. Here's another, recently reissued rarity as well. The Mexican Kaleidoscope, not to be confused with the UK Kaleidoscope (a huge AQ favorite) or the USA Kaleidoscope either. Actually this Kaleidoscope was only sorta from Mexico - while record was originally released there, the band had begun in Puerto Rico, and then later moved in on the Mexican scene, via a stopover in the Dominican Republic, where this album was recorded, in 1967. Interestingly, on the back cover of the cd booklet, there's a show poster for 'em (billed as The Kaleidoscopes) that says they're from here in San Francisco, psychedelic central at the time, a promoter's claim made probably just to help sell tickets. But they did sound like they *could* have been from 'Frisco all right.
Swirling organ and guitar fuzz dominate the uptempo numbers, like garagey, groovy opener "Hang Out", and there's plenty of organ and fuzz to be heard on the more melodic, moody likes of "Once Upon A Time There Was A World", a somber eight minute opus that one. Definitely killer psychedelic pop stuff for all you "Nuggets" fans, Kaleidoscope for sure fitting in with such acts as The Electric Prunes, Strawberry Alarm Clock, Question Mark & The Mysterians, The Lollipop Shoppe, and others of the era. They seemed to specialize in the wild and unhinged, there's even a song called "I'm Crazy".
The urgent and intense "Colours", with its stinging fuzz, burbling electronics, sudden horn-honks, and desperate vocals, is especially tripped-out. Crucial lines from the lyrics: "acid colors burn my brain / I'm just insane"! Also something about the singer's delivery on that track reminds us of Mexican-American punks The Plugz (of Repo Man soundtrack fame)... That's probably the number one nugget here, a classic, but all the tracks are pretty good. One song here, with the great title of "I'm Here, He's Gone, She's Cryin'", was written by their Venezuelan pals Ladies WC, the others all originals.
This is a nicely done, totally legit reissue (they even tracked down the original cover artist), with extensive liner notes, vintage photos, and cool full color artwork in the cd booklet. It also includes 3 bonus tracks: 2 bluesy ones from a Kaleidoscope offshoot (which may or many not date from the '60s, we wonder) and a live recording of Kaleidoscope in 1969, doing Donovan's "Season Of The Witch". Shadoks pronounce themselves pleased to put this out, and they should be.
MPEG Stream: "Hang Out"
MPEG Stream: "A Hole In My Life"
MPEG Stream: "Colours"

KALEIDOSCOPE Tangerine Dream (Repertoire) cd 22.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Whoo-hoo! At last this AQ fave is back in stock, repressed in a nice new digipack edition. Here's how we raved about it when we first reviewed it a few years ago:
Not a new release -- nor even a new reissue -- but we just manage to get some and wanted to list it 'cause it's something that several of us here have been listening to a lot lately! This Kaleidoscope were a sixties British pop psych band (not to be confused with the various other Kaleidoscopes of the era from the US and Mexico) and we believe these guys might in fact have been THE ULTIMATE psychedelic pop band ever. This album (also not to be confused with the famous Krautrock/soundtrack outfit with the same name as the album's title) is just incredible. Gorgeous vocals, killer melodies, lush orchestrations, and, especially, beautifully baroque psych-speak lyrics that put "Strawberry Fields Forever" to shame -- with lines like "Battalions in baby blue are bursting beige balloons / the water pistols are all filled with lemonade / the jester and the goldfish have joined minds above the moon / oh please kiss the flowers and you too will be safe / oh swing and sway..."
It's very British, twee and dreamy, being that perfect blend of sunshine and melancholy so many psych pop bands of the era were striving for. The Kaleidoscope did it best right here. I mean, if you like the Zombies and the Hollies and heck the Olivia Tremor Control you should know about these gents too. Indeed, the original 1967 album's final track (followed here by six bonus tracks), "The Sky Children", might be THE ULTIMATE pop-psych track on this ultimate pop-psych record. (Hey a little hyperbole never hurt anybody.) It's an eight-minute epic, with a thrilling vocal hook on endless repeat, and amazing lyrics continually pouring forth the whole time. Truly awe-some, if you're attuned to the vibe.
MPEG Stream: "Dive Into Yesterday"
MPEG Stream: "Flight From Ashiya"
MPEG Stream: "The Sky Children"

KALEIDOSCOPE Tangerine Dream (Sunbeam) lp 24.00
Yay, a vinyl reissue of a long time sixties psychpop fave... This Kaleidoscope were a sixties British pop psych band (not to be confused with the various other Kaleidoscopes of the era from the US and Mexico) and we believe these guys might in fact have been THE ULTIMATE psychedelic pop band ever. This album, their 1967 debut (which is also not to be confused with the famous Krautrock/soundtrack outfit with the same name as the album's title) is just incredible. Gorgeous vocals, killer melodies, lush orchestrations, and, especially, beautifully baroque psych-speak lyrics that put "Strawberry Fields Forever" to shame - with lines like "Battalions in baby blue are bursting beige balloons / the water pistols are all filled with lemonade / the jester and the goldfish have joined minds above the moon / oh please kiss the flowers and you too will be safe / oh swing and sway..."
It's very British, twee and dreamy, being that perfect blend of sunshine and melancholy so many psych pop bands of the era were striving for. The Kaleidoscope did it best right here. I mean, if you like the Zombies and the Hollies and heck the Olivia Tremor Control, you should know about these gents too. Indeed, the album's final track "The Sky Children", might be THE ULTIMATE pop-psych track on this ultimate pop-psych record. (Hey a little hyperbole never hurt anybody.) It's an eight-minute epic, with a thrilling vocal hook on endless repeat, and amazing lyrics continually pouring forth the whole time. Truly awe-some, if you're attuned to the vibe.

KALINICH, STEPHEN JOHN A World Of Peace Must Come (Light In The Attic) cd 14.98
One would usually never align The Beach Boys with early freak folk, but then this strange and lovely oddity suddenly emerges out of nowhere and all kinds of links can be made. Stephen John Kalinich was (and still is) a poet and songwriter who with the help of Lindsey Buckingham in a project called Zarathurstra and Thelibus cut a demo of "Leaves of Grass" inspired by the Walt Whitman poem. Moving to LA in the mid-sixties, he met the Wilson brothers and based on the strength of the demo was signed as the first artist on their newly formed Brother Records imprint. He co-wrote songs mainly with Dennis such as "Little Bird" and "Be Still" from the Friends album (one of our Beach Boys favorites) as well as songs from the recently reissued "Pacific Ocean Blue". "A World Of Peace Must Come" was to be his debut release. Recorded by Brian Wilson at Brian's house in 1969, the tapes were immediately lost and never heard from since... until now. The production is not what you might expect from Brian Wilson, instead these are beautiful lo-fi recordings of beat-like impressionistic poetry and song, backed by simple arrangements of acoustic guitars, field recordings and tablas, with bits of dialogue between Brian and Stephen interspersed. One can't help but be reminded of the Jewelled Antler collective's foresty acoustics when listening to tracks like "The Deer, The Elk, The Raven". Or the gentle spoken word psych of Bobby Brown. Like Eden Ahbez was to Nat King Cole, Kalinich was a strange visionary figure in the Wilson's lives, and this is a fascinating document of their relationship, and an interesting curio of The Beach Boys in their peak era. Now if someone would only reissue that American Spring album........
MPEG Stream: "The Deer, The Elk, The Raven"
MPEG Stream: "Be Still"
MPEG Stream: "America, I Know You"
MPEG Stream: "Leaves Of Grass"

KAPLAN BROTHERS Nightbird (Erebus) cd 17.98

KARACA, CEM Kardaslar & Apalar (Guerssen) cd 17.98
Hopefully you already picked up the awesome collection of rare tracks by Turkish psych guitarist Erkin Koray that Sublime Frequencies recently released. If that put you in the mood for more vintage psych pop rock from Turkey, we've also just received this import disc of stuff by one of Koray's contemporaries, the late Cem Karaca, former member of Mogollar. His is a name that's certainly up there in the Anatolian rock pantheon, along with Erkin Koray, Baris Manco and Edip Akbayram.
Originally released in 1972, it compiled songs circa '69-'71, recorded for 45rpm singles by Karaca with his bands Kardaslar ("The Brothers") and Apaslar ("The Apaches"). The general tone of these tracks is towards the romantically, dramatically bombastic and orchestrated, with strings and horns and vocals that are almost operatic. He's like the Turkish Tom Jones at times... but there's some satisfying stabs of fuzz as well, and of course those irresistible Anatolian folk rhythms and melodies. While this disc isn't quite so killer as that Koray one, it's still pretty cool.
Cd booklet includes liner notes, photos, all that good stuff.
MPEG Stream: "Tatly Dillim"
MPEG Stream: "Zeyno"
MPEG Stream: "Kara Yylan"

KARACA, CEM Kardaslar & Apalar (Guerssen) lp 32.00
Now available as a vinyl reissue too.
Hopefully you already picked up the awesome collection of rare tracks by Turkish psych guitarist Erkin Koray that Sublime Frequencies recently released. If that put you in the mood for more vintage psych pop rock from Turkey, we've also just received this import disc of stuff by one of Koray's contemporaries, the late Cem Karaca, former member of Mogollar. His is a name that's certainly up there in the Anatolian rock pantheon, along with Erkin Koray, Baris Manco and Edip Akbayram.
Originally released in 1972, it compiled songs circa '69-'71, recorded for 45rpm singles by Karaca with his bands Kardaslar ("The Brothers") and Apaslar ("The Apaches"). The general tone of these tracks is towards the romantically, dramatically bombastic and orchestrated, with strings and horns and vocals that are almost operatic. He's like the Turkish Tom Jones at times... but there's some satisfying stabs of fuzz as well, and of course those irresistible Anatolian folk rhythms and melodies. While this disc isn't quite so killer as that Koray one, it's still pretty cool.
RealAudio clip: "Tatly Dillim"

KARACA, CEM & KARDASLAR Puskullu Moruk (Destur) 10" 22.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

KARACA, CEM W/ KARDASLAR s/t (Turkuola) lp 33.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

KAWACHI, KUNI & FLOWER FLOWER TRAVELLIN' BAND s/t (Black Rose) cd 23.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Recorded in 1970, these sessions represent a sort of "prequel" to what would eventually become AQ fave Japanese psych act Flower Travellin' Band. Having cut one record as Yuya Uchida and the Flowers, this line up brought in Joe, the inimitable vocalist whose trademark sound did much to make the band stand out from the pack and organist/pianist Kuni Kawachi from another sixties band The Happenings Four. While Kawachi never made the cut, for whatever reason, for the final group that would later record FTB debut Anywhere, his Hammond organ grumblings add a nice touch to the tracks here. In addition to Kawachi's organ, singer Joe plays his harmonica more than he did on later recordings, giving these recordings a bluesier sound. While we're not going to fool you into thinking this is anything near as great as Satori or even Made In Japan, it's got some great heavy psychedelic jams that are certainly as great as anything they did for their first album. And for those who were turned off by Anywhere due to its consisting entirely of covers, it will be comforting to know that the tracks here are all originals. If anything, they are a lot closer to what ended up on Satori, albeit a great deal more primordial and lacking the taughtness of their later works.
MPEG Stream: "Kirikyogen"
MPEG Stream: "Classroom For Women"

KAWACHI, KUNI & FLOWER TRAVELLIN' BAND Love Suki Daikirai / Kirikyogen (Bamboo) cd 17.98
Newly reissued, now as a 2-on-1 with another, later album, we've previously listed a cd of Kirikyogen, organist/pianist Kuni Kawachi's 1970 recording with hard rockin' Japanese psych geniuses Flower Travellin' Band (which barely preceded those AQ faves debut on their own, Anywhere, also 1970). Kawachi came from sixties Group Sounds band The Happenings Four, and made a great decision in teaming up with the nascent FTB (who had started off as Yuya Uchida and the Flowers, another GS act) for Kirikyogen, especially since Flowers/FTB had recently recruited Joe Yamanaka, the inimitable vocalist whose trademark wail did much to make Flower Travellin' Band band stand out from the pack later on. With Joe on the mic, and guitarist Hideki Ishima coming into his own, Kirikyogen is very much Flower Travellin' Band, the prequel! Meanwhile, Kawachi's Hammond organ grumblings add a nice touch to the tracks here, which he also wrote, for the most part. In addition to Kawachi's organ, singer Joe plays his harmonica more than he did on later recordings, giving these recordings a bluesier sound. While we're not going to tell you this is anything near as great as FTB's Satori or even Made In Japan, it's got some great heavy psychedelic jams (like the title track, and "Works Composed Mainly By Human") that are certainly as good as anything they did for their first album. If anything, they are a lot closer to what ended up on Satori, albeit a great deal more primordial and lacking the taughtness of their later works. It should also be noted that Kirikyogen is about 1/2 heavy Hendrix-y grooves, 1/2 more acoustic-y (but lovely), not as heavy melodic material.
Also to be noted, as alluded to above, this cd reissue also includes Kawachi's 1972 follow-up Love Suki Daikirai, which is appears as the first 14 tracks here for some reason rather than being presented in chronological fashion. Love Suki Daikirai doesn't feature any FTB folks (and is thus automatically less rockin'), but does have Kimio Mizutani on guitars, whose solo album A Path Through Haze was also recently reissued by Bamboo and reviewed by us (and which happened to feature, yes, Kuni Kawachi on keyboards!). Much more gentle and meandering than its predecessor, this later album certainly has its beautiful and/or freaky moments, but Kirikyogen, #25 in Julian Copes "Japrocksampler" Top 50, is still the primary reason to pick this up.
MPEG Stream: "Kirikyogen"
MPEG Stream: "Works Composed Mainly By Human"
MPEG Stream: "The Cat"
MPEG Stream: "Like A Concert Of Angels"

KEBNEKAISE III (Silence) cd 17.98
This is Kebnekaise (formerly Kebnekajse)'s third album from 1975, kinda like "II" with the trad Swedish folk elements, and the unexpected afrojazz parts, but MORE SO. We can't help but think that the folk/classical sounding pieces on here aren't too different from what a lot of modern power metal bands come up with, but performed with a different (non-metallic) sort of instrumental attack. But then there's electric country hoe-down tunes mixed with tripped-out ethnic percussion jams, and doleful drone-chant ballads, and fully African sounding stuff towards the end. Boy does it seem like it would have been a lot of fun to attend a dance that this band was playing at! Another one for fans of the International Harvester album to investigate. Once you get used to Kebnekaise's strange, light-more-than-heavy hippie folk rock sound, you might find it quite appealing! (Allan ended up getting all three albums, after a few listens.)
RealAudio clip: "Eklundapolskan"
RealAudio clip: "Balladen om bjornbar och natmelon"

KEBNEKAJSE II (Silence) cd 17.98
Swedish psychedelic hippy rock band's second album, from 1973, newly reissued on cd. While their first album was fun, zany hard rock taking off from the style of English and American acts of the day, with this release they matured, and got heavily into traditional Swedish folk music, with fiddles and so forth, sounding not unlike a prog band playing courtly square dance music for the rennaissance faire! But then, they also delve into what might be termed Afro-Swedish jazzrock too. A weird band, but quite lovely. If you liked the Trad, Gras Och Stenar reissue on Silence, you should check these guys out as well. Includes a live bonus track.
RealAudio clip: "Horgalaten"

KEBNEKAJSE Resa Mot Okant Mal (Silence) cd 17.98
Here's the first-time-ever cd reissue of this Swedish hard rock/psych band's 1971 debut album, a fun disc inspired perhaps by the likes of Cream and Hendrix and '60s beat groups. This was before Kebnekajse really got into the folk music of their homeland (or the other unusual sounds that they incorporated into their later recordings). There's some hints of their later folk-fixation in the almost countrified moments on here, but its more in a Thin Lizzy-ish heavy, hard rockin' mode than their later stuff. There's definitely something almost silly about their upbeat (manic, even) instrumental riffing, and very *definitely* silly when at one point they pitch-shift their vocals up, chipmunk-style! Maybe they're supposed to sound like little trolls or something? The zaniness evident here makes this first Kebnekajse album seem almost like a 1971 Swedish hippy equivalent to Primus (no funky bass, though). Odd, and as we said, fun.
RealAudio clip: "Resa Mot Okant Mal"

KENNELMUS Folkstone Prism (Sundazed) cd 13.98
Another fine reissue from fine reissue label Sundazed (who put this out in '99 -- so we're slow, sorry) of late sixties era psych rock. Kennelmus were from the Arizona desert and played a sunbaked style of almost surfy psychedelia, as documented on this, their sole LP release from 1971. Influenced by the Beach Boys, early Alice Cooper, and we'd have to assume some mind-expanding drugs, this is gorgeous stuff that's also weirdly unhinged as you'll discover as the album progresses. 'Indonesian instrumental '60s guitar pop band The Steps doing Morricone Western soundtrack music' (cool!) is the first thing we thought after hearing the initial three or four songs, but then as the tracks advance, more and more songs feature vocals, often silly, nasal ones...partially because of this, at times this reminds us of another strange band originally from Arizona, the Sun City Girls!
Kennelmus have their own, unique vibe, but you never know what to expect: there's the song "Mother Of My Children" with vocals that sound exactly like Lee Hazlewood, lotsa studio trickery and effects (backwards guitars galore), and then album-closer "The Raven" (yes, the famous Edgar Allen Poe poem set to music). Which explains the bird silhouette on the disc's fantastic purple cover. If you liked Sundazed more recent reissue of the Gandalf album we reviewed last list, this is way weirder but similarily lovely and obscure.
RealAudio clip: "I Don't Know"
RealAudio clip: "Dancing Doris"
RealAudio clip: "Black Sunshine"
RealAudio clip: "Think For Yourself"

KESEY, KEN The Acid Test (Acadia) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Recordings from/for one of Kesey's infamous Acid Tests.

KHAZAD DOOM Cherry Town (Hallucination) cd 14.98

KIM JUNG MI Now (Lion) cd 14.98
All of you who loved Light In The Attic's career-spanning collection of music by Korean psych guitar maestro Shin Joong Hyun, that we recently made Record Of The Week, should be happy about this. It's an brand new official reissue, the first in a series, of Shin Joong Hyun related albums. As you perhaps recall, soothing psych-pop-folk singer Kim Jung Mi, backed by Shin Joong Hyun and his group The Men, appeared on that Beautiful Rivers And Mountains anthology with a song called "The Sun", which we said reminded us of Galaxie 500!
This 1973 full-length from Kim Jung Mi, as masterminded by Shin Joong Hyun, is also quite special. "The Sun" is just but one of the ten dreamily melodic tracks found here, including a four minute version of the song "Beautiful Rivers And Mountains" itself, a signature Shin Joong Hyun tune. Other titles include "Wind", "Blow Spring Breeze", "It's Raining", and "Lonely Heart", and although the lyrics are all in Korean, we get the idea that love and nature form much of the subject matter here (actually, the thick cd booklet provides English translations of the lyrics, along with EXTENSIVE, ultra-laudatory liner notes and lots of full-color photos of the sexy young chanteuse). In those liner notes, Shin Joong Hyun is quoted as having said: "There is no person who can sing Psychedelic music as well as Kim Joong Mi".
Kim Jung Mi's lovely voice will go straight to your heart, and the emotive music accompanying her is moodily lush, majestically melancholic... it's not really about hard-edged fuzz guitars, though they surface occasionally, as more often do propulsive psych "beat" grooves, but for the most part this album seems to hover on a higher, more heavenly pop plane of psychedelia than that suggests... The groovier stuff, though, reminds us of Serge Gainsbourg's Historie De Melody Nelson at times (on "Your Dream" especially). And it's no stretch that the liner notes call Kim Jung Mi the "Francoise Hardy of Korea". Recommended to any fan of the Forge Your Own Chains comp, in addition to those who already heard her on that Shin Joong Hyun collection. Gorgeous!
Comes nicely packaged in a miniature lp-style sleeve, with that aforementioned info/photo packed booklet. There's a vinyl version forthcoming as well, fyi.
MPEG Stream: "Wind"
MPEG Stream: "Your Dream"
MPEG Stream: "Beautiful Rivers And Mountains"

KIM JUNG MI Now (Lion Productions) lp 21.00
Yay! Now reissued on nice thick vinyl too! Here's more or less what we said about this when the cd reish came out some weeks back...
All of you who loved Light In The Attic's career-spanning collection of music by Korean psych guitar maestro Shin Joong Hyun, that we recently made Record Of The Week, should be happy about this. It's an brand new official reissue, the first in a series, of Shin Joong Hyun related albums. As you perhaps recall, soothing psych-pop-folk singer Kim Jung Mi, backed by Shin Joong Hyun and his group The Men, appeared on that Beautiful Rivers And Mountains anthology with a song called "The Sun", which we said reminded us of Galaxie 500!
This 1973 full-length from Kim Jung Mi, as masterminded by Shin Joong Hyun, is also quite special. "The Sun" is just but one of the ten dreamily melodic tracks found here, including a four minute version of the song "Beautiful Rivers And Mountains" itself, a signature Shin Joong Hyun tune. Other titles include "Wind", "Blow Spring Breeze", "It's Raining", and "Lonely Heart", and although the lyrics are all in Korean, we get the idea that love and nature form much of the subject matter here. In the extensive liner notes, Shin Joong Hyun is quoted as having said: "There is no person who can sing Psychedelic music as well as Kim Joong Mi".
Kim Jung Mi's lovely voice will go straight to your heart, and the emotive music accompanying her is moodily lush, majestically melancholic... it's not really about hard-edged fuzz guitars, though they surface occasionally, as more often do propulsive psych "beat" grooves, but for the most part this album seems to hover on a higher, more heavenly pop plane of psychedelia than that suggests... The groovier stuff, though, reminds us of Serge Gainsbourg's Historie De Melody Nelson at times (on "Your Dream" especially). And it's no stretch that the liner notes call Kim Jung Mi the "Francoise Hardy of Korea". Recommended to any fan of the Forge Your Own Chains comp, in addition to those who already heard her on that Shin Joong Hyun collection. Gorgeous!
Comes nicely packaged, with obi, and large full-color 4-page insert with photos and those aforementioned liner notes.
MPEG Stream: "Wind"
MPEG Stream: "Your Dream"
MPEG Stream: "Beautiful Rivers And Mountains"

KING GOBLIN Goblin King (Smell Rot Music) cd 14.98
Just got a few more of these back in stock!!
You'd think it would be easy to write reviews of records you love, but it's not, not always anyway. This band, though, makes the task easier, 'cause maybe we can just say a few key words: JAPAN. DOOM. PSYCH. CRAZY. Uh... is that doing the trick? Tokyo trio King Goblin, who describe themselves as a "progressive space psychedelic death rock band", definitely have that "anything goes", totally WTF?! Japanese thing going for 'em, mixing up prog and punk and funk and metal and noise whatever else they want, you know what we mean if you have albums by bands like Boredoms, Melt Banana, Children Coup D'Etat, Space Streakings, Omoide Hatoba, Green Milk From The Planet Orange, and others of that ilk in your collection. Specifically, though, the Japanese bands that King Goblin most especially make us think of are CSSO, Solar Anus, and Sigh (circa Imaginary Sonicscape). Somehow melding gonzo grind and druggy doom, plodding heaviness and catchy grooves, the nine strange songs here bouncing from spaced out acid rock to lumbering funk, with rubbery bass, squiggly guitar, gruff guttural vocals, and, as it says here, "hand craps" (sorry if it's not PC to chuckle over that particular credit in the cd booklet!).
Imagine if retro-disco-doomsters Cathedral got even weirder than they already are now, turned Japanese, and went no wave... that might approximate the dizzying extreme entertainment offered up by King Goblin. Also, how can songs with titles like "Boiled Again (Born To Ride)" and "Motordead" not be entertaining?
This disc, their debut, actually dates from 2007, but we only discovered 'em recently, and got some copies directly from Japan as quick as we could. They're working on a new album, to be entitled Cryptozoology, but unfortunately the guitarist of King Goblin is currently suffering from some unspecified, serious illness, so that's delaying things. Hopefully he gets better soon!! However, a couple of the King Goblin guys are also in wicked sick grindcore band called AKBK, who have a brand new album out that smokes, see the review elsewhere on our site.
MPEG Stream: "Megalomaniacs"
MPEG Stream: "From Dusk 'Til You Die"
MPEG Stream: "Datura"

KINGDOM COME (ARTHUR BROWN'S) Galactic Zoo Dossier (Sanctuary / Castle) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Most people probably know Arthur Brown, if at all, as the leader of the Crazy World of Arthur Brown, kind of a one-hit wonder in the UK and the US with their 1968 single "Fire". But I remember a few years ago somebody playing me a '70s vintage LP by Arthur Brown, and it was a pretty amazing, freaked out space rock artifact. I'm pretty sure it was one of these three Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come records that have just been reissued, remastered with bonus cuts -- although next to "amazing" I'd also have to use the word "ridiculous" 'cause these sure are some gonzo, over the top examples of early '70s rock excess. The story goes that after his "I am the God of Hellfire" 15 minutes of f(l)ame, Arthur's Crazy World broke up, and then he eventually regrouped with this band, who were dedicated to an altogether heavier, more guitar-oriented sort of showmanship, from dark psych-prog to simply silly music hall theatrics. Brown was capable of some incredible vocal stylings, from Tom Jones worthy croonery to sheer sheer manaical dramaturgy, and he demonstrates that full range on these discs, coming across a bit like early Alice Cooper (who may in turn have been influenced by Brown originally). Totally wigged out and acid fried, chaotic and confused. What they're trying to get across is hard to say, but if you delight in both failed genius and '70s hippy zaniness, then Arthur Brown is your new prog rock hero.
Galactic Zoo Dossier, from '71, was the first of the three Kingdom Come albums. You'll note that it was good enuff for a present-day psych fanzine to be named after it. A classic of sorts. Then came 1972's self-titled Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come record, whose contents, according to the liner notes, were affected by the band's communal living situation and increased LSD consumption. It's a little more disjointed than the first record but it does contain the "Traffic Light Song" which was both a pop psychology metaphor for personality types and an excuse for the band to wear traffic light costumes on stage as part of their increasingly bizarre live show. Last comes 1973's Journey, which may be the best of the three, or at least the weirdest, because rather than a human drummer, Journey features electronic drum machine rhythms programmed by Brown himself. Apparently the drummer on the previous two albums ran off with the bass player's wife! So they went with a drum machine, quite an unusal lark back in 1973 for sure! (And we thought that the Metal Urbain album was ahead of its time!). Crudely, it's kind of a collision of psychedelia and new wave and it's pretty cool. Though, all three discs have proto new wave elements alongside the space-rock and Zappa-ish tomfoolery. So, even now Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come isn't like anything else you've really ever heard (although whether the band was "good" or not is another, very subjective matter). Be brave and investigate!
MPEG Stream: "Internal Messenger"
MPEG Stream: "Metal Monster"

KINGDOM COME (ARTHUR BROWN'S) Journey (Sanctuary / Castle) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Most people probably know Arthur Brown, if at all, as the leader of the Crazy World of Arthur Brown, kind of a one-hit wonder in the UK and the US with their 1968 single "Fire". But I remember a few years ago somebody playing me a '70s vintage LP by Arthur Brown, and it was a pretty amazing, freaked out space rock artifact. I'm pretty sure it was one of these three Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come records that have just been reissued, remastered with bonus cuts -- although next to "amazing" I'd also have to use the word "ridiculous" 'cause these sure are some gonzo, over the top examples of early '70s rock excess. The story goes that after his "I am the God of Hellfire" 15 minutes of f(l)ame, Arthur's Crazy World broke up, and then he eventually regrouped with this band, who were dedicated to an altogether heavier, more guitar-oriented sort of showmanship, from dark psych-prog to simply silly music hall theatrics. Brown was capable of some incredible vocal stylings, from Tom Jones worthy croonery to sheer sheer manaical dramaturgy, and he demonstrates that full range on these discs, coming across a bit like early Alice Cooper (who may in turn have been influenced by Brown originally). Totally wigged out and acid fried, chaotic and confused. What they're trying to get across is hard to say, but if you delight in both failed genius and '70s hippy zaniness, then Arthur Brown is your new prog rock hero.
Galactic Zoo Dossier, from '71, was the first of the three Kingdom Come albums. You'll note that it was good enuff for a present-day psych fanzine to be named after it. A classic of sorts. Then came 1972's self-titled Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come record, whose contents, according to the liner notes, were affected by the band's communal living situation and increased LSD consumption. It's a little more disjointed than the first record but it does contain the "Traffic Light Song" which was both a pop psychology metaphor for personality types and an excuse for the band to wear traffic light costumes on stage as part of their increasingly bizarre live show. Last comes 1973's Journey, which may be the best of the three, or at least the weirdest, because rather than a human drummer, Journey features electronic drum machine rhythms programmed by Brown himself. Apparently the drummer on the previous two albums ran off with the bass player's wife! So they went with a drum machine, quite an unusal lark back in 1973 for sure! (And we thought that the Metal Urbain album was ahead of its time!). Crudely, it's kind of a collision of psychedelia and new wave and it's pretty cool. Though, all three discs have proto new wave elements alongside the space-rock and Zappaish tomfoolery. So, even now Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come isn't like anything else you've really ever heard (although whether the band was "good" or not is another, very subjective matter). Be brave and investigate!
MPEG Stream: "Time Captives"
MPEG Stream: "Superficial Roadblocks"

KINGDOM COME (ARTHUR BROWN'S) s/t (Sanctuary / Castle) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Most people probably know Arthur Brown, if at all, as the leader of the Crazy World of Arthur Brown, kind of a one-hit wonder in the UK and the US with their 1968 single "Fire". But I remember a few years ago somebody playing me a '70s vintage LP by Arthur Brown, and it was a pretty amazing, freaked out space rock artifact. I'm pretty sure it was one of these three Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come records that have just been reissued, remastered with bonus cuts -- although next to "amazing" I'd also have to use the word "ridiculous" 'cause these sure are some gonzo, over the top examples of early '70s rock excess. The story goes that after his "I am the God of Hellfire" 15 minutes of f(l)ame, Arthur's Crazy World broke up, and then he eventually regrouped with this band, who were dedicated to an altogether heavier, more guitar-oriented sort of showmanship, from dark psych-prog to simply silly music hall theatrics. Brown was capable of some incredible vocal stylings, from Tom Jones worthy croonery to sheer sheer manaical dramaturgy, and he demonstrates that full range on these discs, coming across a bit like early Alice Cooper (who may in turn have been influenced by Brown originally). Totally wigged out and acid fried, chaotic and confused. What they're trying to get across is hard to say, but if you delight in both failed genius and '70s hippy zaniness, then Arthur Brown is your new prog rock hero.
Galactic Zoo Dossier, from '71, was the first of the three Kingdom Come albums. You'll note that it was good enuff for a present-day psych fanzine to be named after it. A classic of sorts. Then came 1972's self-titled Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come record, whose contents, according to the liner notes, were affected by the band's communal living situation and increased LSD consumption. It's a little more disjointed than the first record but it does contain the "Traffic Light Song" which was both a pop psychology metaphor for personality types and an excuse for the band to wear traffic light costumes on stage as part of their increasingly bizarre live show. Last comes 1973's Journey, which may be the best of the three, or at least the weirdest, because rather than a human drummer, Journey features electronic drum machine rhythms programmed by Brown himself. Apparently the drummer on the previous two albums ran off with the bass player's wife! So they went with a drum machine, quite an unusal lark back in 1973 for sure! (And we thought that the Metal Urbain album was ahead of its time!). Crudely, it's kind of a collision of psychedelia and new wave and it's pretty cool. Though, all three discs have proto new wave elements alongside the space-rock and Zappaish tomfoolery. So, even now Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come isn't like anything else you've really ever heard (although whether the band was "good" or not is another, very subjective matter). Be brave and investigate!
MPEG Stream: "A Scientific Experiment Featuring 'Lower Colonic Irrigation'"
MPEG Stream: "Traffic Light Song"

KINGSLEY, GERSHON Music To Moog By (Dagored) cd 15.98
'60s Moog-pop pioneer Gershon Kingsley, of Perrey and Kingsley fame, made some fab music without partner Jean-Jacques Perrey as well -- such as his hit single "Pop Corn" which you'll find on this at-long-last reissued edition of Kingsley's 1969 masterpiece, the incredibly FUN album Music To Moog By. Along with snazzy originals like "Pop Corn" and energetic album-opener "Hey, Hey", Kingsley also gives the Moog instrumental treatment to Simon and Garfunkel's "Scarborough Fair" and both "Nowhere Man" and "Paperback Writer" by the Beatles. He also sneaks in some Beethoven too, and takes writing credit for a manic version of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star"! Sometimes his Moog sounds like a church organ, other times like the whip-whip-wap of a hip hop dj's turntable. It's a frothy, hip, pop-psychedelic space age 'electronica' album all right. Released the year man landed on the moon, you can imagine it spinning on the Apollo 11 hi-fi, had the astronauts been partying up there. Wonderful stuff.
MPEG Stream: "Hey, Hey"
MPEG Stream: "Paperback Writer"
MPEG Stream: "Pop Corn"

KINGSLEY, GERSHON Music To Moog By (Dagored) lp 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
'60s Moog-pop pioneer Gershon Kingsley, of Perrey and Kingsley fame, made some fab music without partner Jean-Jacques Perrey as well -- such as his hit single "Pop Corn" which you'll find on this at-long-last reissued edition of Kingsley's 1969 masterpiece, the incredibly FUN album Music To Moog By. Along with snazzy originals like "Pop Corn" and energetic album-opener "Hey, Hey", Kingsley also gives the Moog instrumental treatment to Simon and Garfunkle's "Scarborough Fair" and The both "Nowhere Man" and "Paperback Writer" by the Beatles. He also sneaks in some Beethoven too, and takes writing credit for a manic version of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star"! Sometimes his Moog sounds like a church organ, other times like the whip-whip-wap of a hip hop dj's turntable. It's a frothy, hip, pop-psychedelic space age 'electronica' album all right. Released the year man landed on the moon, you can imagine it spinning on the Apollo 11 hi-fi, had the astronauts been partying up there. Wonderful stuff.

KINKS, THE Are The Village Preservation Society (Sanctuary) 3cd 29.00
This total Kinks classic from 1968 receives the deluxe remastered reissue treatment... and deservingly so! Such an utterly expansive, deeply influential work that has more than stood the test of time. It's a whopping three discs -- the first is the album in stereo with four bonus tracks, the second is the album in mono with six bonus tracks, and the third is filled with 22 rarities (alternate versions, BBC sessions, etc). As an added treat, the liner note booklet includes interviews with the Davies brothers. 'Nuf said!
MPEG Stream: "Village Green (Orchestral Overdub)"
MPEG Stream: "Animal Farm (BBC Session Remix)"