TYRANNOSAURUS REX A Beard of Stars (Universal) cd 16.98

TYRANNOSAURUS REX A Star Of Beards (Get Back) cd 16.98
A Star Of Beards (NOT to be confused with the album A Beard Of Stars) is a new compilation of unreleased tracks, live recordings and demos from mystical psych folk legends Tyrannosaurus Rex. Like most completist collections, the sound quality is not the greatest, but Tyrannosaurus Rex (before Marc Bolan discovered the electric guitar) was always a lo-fi beast, so fidelity may not matter to super fans. Not necessarily essential, but folks curious to hear the origins of freak folk, get in line right here!
MPEG Stream: "Deep Summer"
MPEG Stream: "Wind Quartets"
MPEG Stream: "Misty Coast of Albany"

TYRANNOSAURUS REX A Star Of Beards (Get Back) lp 22.00
A Star Of Beards (NOT to be confused with the album A Beard Of Stars) is a new compilation of unreleased tracks, live recordings and demos from mystical psych folk legends Tyrannosaurus Rex. Like most completist collections, the sound quality is not the greatest, but Tyrannosaurus Rex (before Marc Bolan discovered the electric guitar) was always a lo-fi beast, so fidelity may not matter to super fans. Not necessarily essential, but folks curious to hear the origins of freak folk, get in line right here!
MPEG Stream: "Deep Summer"
MPEG Stream: "Wind Quartets"
MPEG Stream: "Misty Coast of Albany"

TYRANNOSAURUS REX My People Were Fair and Had Sky In Their Hair... But Now They're Content To Wear Stars On Their Brows (Universal) cd 16.98
...But Now They're Content to Wear Stars (the full title). For fans of Devendra Banhart! The 1968 debut from the otherworldly hippie folk-psych duo of Marc Bolan and Steve "Peregrine" Took. Long before Bolan turned Tyrannosaurus Rex into T. Rex and went all glam and teeny-bopper on us, he made this wonderful warbly Middle Earth music.

TYRANNOSAURUS REX My People Were Fair and Had Sky In Their Hair... But Now They're Content To Wear Stars On Their Brows (Vinyl Lovers) lp 17.98

TYRANNOSAURUS REX Prophets, Seers & Sages, The Angels Of The Ages (Universal) cd 16.98
Before Marc Bolan headed for glam rock gold with T. Rex he made (in my opinion) his best records as Tyrannosaurus Rex. With an amazing backwards folk flare, Bolan sang of sages, dragons and wizards. The stripped down recording style and experimental elements have made the Tyrannosaurus Rex recordings still ahead of their time. This is an album that takes you far away from reality while still having a total connection to nature. With the recent onslaught of the "free folk" movement their is no doubt that so many roads lead back to Tyrannosaurus Rex. Especially for Devendra Banhart, who when you hear this record you can't help but say oh my god Devendra sounds sooo much like Marc Bolan in this era - from voice to guitar styling and lyrical imagery. This expanded version includes an extra disc of alternate takes, the 45 version of "one inch rock", etc. Prophets, Seers & Sages... stands with Unicorn as not only my favorite Marc Bolan recordings but as one of my favorite albums of all time!

TYRANNOSAURUS REX Unicorn (Universal) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

UCHIDA, YUYA & THE FLOWERS Challenger (Phoenix) cd 17.98
For fans of Janis Joplin and/or Flower Travellin' Band... a reissue of the 1968 album from this Japanese Sixties psychedelic act, who later morphed into Seventies hard rockers and massive AQ faves Flower Travellin Band. This early incarnation of the FTB had a mostly different lineup, including female vocalist Remi Aso who does her best Janis (and Grace Slick), singing in either a delicate waver or a screeching wail, wow. And The Flowers back her up like Big Brother, total pros. There's also a male singer, Chiba Hiroshi, who belts it out on such songs as "Hey Joe". Yup there's lots of then-contemporary covers on here, including stuff by Hendrix, Cream, Jefferson Airplane, and Janis Joplin. So you've gotta be into the classic rock - with a Japanese twist. Apparently Uchida had just returned from a trip to England, hanging out there with John Lennon, and this record was his first attempt to take the Japanese "Group Sounds" scene into a new, more psychedelic acid rock direction to emulate the hipness happenin' in London and San Francisco at the time. The band got attention for that - and for their naked album cover photo, the band loitering about in an idyllic meadow someplace, in the buff, though any band members (ahem) who happen to be facing toward the camera also happen to be reading newspapers or magazines for some reason... Of course, Uchida pulled this stunt again with the first FTB album that came out a few years later, with the naked band on the cover riding choppers down the highway.
Besides the cover, the first thing anyone would notice about this album is the charming intro skit, at the beginning of track one, wherein a guy tells a giggling girl about this great new band from Tokyo, "these six guys and this chick", who "do some really fantastic Big Brother And The Holding Company stuff". And he's not kidding, as the rest of the record proceeds to prove. And let's face it, these are great songs, you might not want to hear the versions played on your local classic rock radio station ever again but the Summer Of Love seems a lot cooler when we're tuning in via Tokyo.
Numbered, limited cd edition in the usual Phoenix manner.
MPEG Stream: "Combination Of The Two"
MPEG Stream: "Greasy Heart"
MPEG Stream: "Stone Free"

UCHIDA, YUYA & THE FLOWERS Challenger (Phoenix) lp 24.00
THIS BOING BOING APPROVED GOLDEN OLDIE NOW ALSO REISSUED ON (180 GRAM) VINYL!!
Here's what we said about the cd version we recently reviewed:
For fans of Janis Joplin and/or Flower Travellin' Band... a reissue of the 1968 album from this Japanese Sixties psychedelic act, who later morphed into Seventies hard rockers and massive AQ faves Flower Travellin Band. This early incarnation of the FTB had a mostly different lineup, including female vocalist Remi Aso who does her best Janis (and Grace Slick), singing in either a delicate waver or a screeching wail, wow. And The Flowers back her up like Big Brother, total pros. There's also a male singer, Chiba Hiroshi, who belts it out on such songs as "Hey Joe". Yup there's lots of then-contemporary covers on here, including stuff by Hendrix, Cream, Jefferson Airplane, and Janis Joplin. So you've gotta be into the classic rock - with a Japanese twist. Apparently Uchida had just returned from a trip to England, hanging out there with John Lennon, and this record was his first attempt to take the Japanese "Group Sounds" scene into a new, more psychedelic acid rock direction to emulate the hipness happenin' in London and San Francisco at the time. The band got attention for that - and for their naked album cover photo, the band loitering about in an idyllic meadow someplace, in the buff, though any band members (ahem) who happen to be facing toward the camera also happen to be reading newspapers or magazines for some reason... Of course, Uchida pulled this stunt again with the first FTB album that came out a few years later, with the naked band on the cover riding choppers down the highway.
Besides the cover, the first thing anyone would notice about this album is the charming intro skit, at the beginning of track one, wherein a guy tells a giggling girl about this great new band from Tokyo, "these six guys and this chick", who "do some really fantastic Big Brother And The Holding Company stuff". And he's not kidding, as the rest of the record proceeds to prove. And let's face it, these are great songs, you might not want to hear the versions played on your local classic rock radio station ever again but the Summer Of Love seems a lot cooler when we're tuning in via Tokyo.
MPEG Stream: "Combination Of The Two"
MPEG Stream: "Greasy Heart"
MPEG Stream: "Stone Free"

UGLY THINGS Issue #21 magazine 6.95
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Yay, a new issue of Ugly Things! I don't think there's a single magazine that I (Allan) look forward to a new issue of more than this one. Seriously. And though I don't want to get into an argument about whether rock is dead or not, I can definitely tell you that it lives on in the pages of Ugly Things. Dedicated to "wild sounds from past dimensions", this 'zine is an over half-inch thick, 200-page tome densely packed with enthusiastic writing about garage, psych, beat, punk, n' rock n' roll from the sixties and seventies (mainly). You might find mention of prog and metal and folk and funk and even reggae too if you look hard enough. And there's lotsa lookin' to do -- I read fast, but even with spending every free moment the last few days paging through this thing, I still haven't gotten to the article on Spanish beat magazine Fonorama, or finished the massive cover story on the saga of The Misunderstood or checked out part 2 of the Metal Urbain piece continued from last ish or gotten through the various artists reviews. But I did read already was entertaining and informative. Ugly Things has a stable of lively, often hilarious writers who can make even the most record-collector-obsessive subjects pretty darn interesting. There's tons of reviews (the kind I take notes on to remember to order things for Aquarius), tons of interviews, tons of weirdness -- like a piece by Neuromancer author William Gibson about his one-time meeting with the legendary (and well-dressed) Skip Spence, or Jack Hemsley's article on Tucson teen killer Charles Schmid. There's so much in here it's hard to single stuff out, but maybe I should also mention Johan Kugelberg's article about rare punk rock records that suck, despite their high collectible value. Anyway, every issue is an inspiration and this one's no different. Once again, kudos to Editor/Publisher Mike Stax and co. for another essential installment of Ugly Things.

UGLY THINGS Issue #23 Summer 2005 magazine 6.95
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A new issue of Ugly Things shows up and I know what I'm going to be doing in any and all upcoming free time that week!! Hours of music-obsessed readin' here, for those of us who share Ugly Things' fasination with the garage and psych sounds of past decades, that is. Packed with essays, interviews, and reviews (only of reissues and archival releases, no new things, even though current bands in the genre appear in the ads). This issue features the fourth part of editor Mike Stax' epic telling of the story of his favorite '60s psych rock act, The Misunderstood. Part four is about the '70s, tracing the lives of the bands ex-members into all sorts of weirdness and adventure, with intelligent crows, Sammy Hagar, and hidden ruby mines entering into the narrative. But of course there's lots more this ish besides: The Belfast Gypsies (aka Them) on the cover, Kim Fowley, eulogies for both Bomp's Greg Shaw and The Outsider's Wally Tax, an unpublished interview with the late Keith Relf of the Yardbirds, Michael Yonkers, and lots more stuff about a whole bunch of bands that we'd never heard of before but enjoyed reading about nonetheless, as always with this informative and entertaining music 'zine. Recommended.

UGLY THINGS Issue #26 Winter / Spring 2008 magazine 7.95
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Egads. As usual, our favorite magazine (a thick as a brick magazine, 224 packed pages, more like a tome!) shows up on a "list week" when we're too busy writing our reviews to do what we WANT to do, which is curl up with this new issue and enjoy all of their reviews, interviews, articles, and whatnot. That's what we'll be doing Saturday for sure, this rainy weather is perfect for that. Giving it a skim (and tearing ourselves away from it to get back to work), we can tell you that this ish is, as usual, full of good stuff pertaining to garage, psych, punk, freakbeat, acid folk, and other "wild sounds from past dimensions" as it says on the cover. Some of the contents include a 1988 interview with the late Rob Tyner, singer for the legendary MC5, a history of UK folksters Trees, an extensive, informative piece on the amazing '60s Norwegian scene, another about Napa Valley's, interviews and essays about the likes of The Sons Of Adam, The Pop Rivets, Jeff Simmons, Fire, Cedars, and as always a Pretty Things update. And, unbelievably, much more. Notably, Chris Stigliano shoves Julian Cope aside to present a "Beginner's Guide To Les Rallizes Denudes". And the 13 pages devoted to Johan Kugelberg's expert fan feature on "Punk Before Punk" is probably worth the price of admission alone, looking forward to delving into that one!
Plus of course there's dozens upon dozens of reviews of reissues...and ads and playlists and columns and rants and (sadly) obits and so much much much more, as we keep sayin'. Recommended if you have any interest in the cool, cult, collectable music of yesteryear. And copious free time to spend readin' about it!

UGLY THINGS Issue #29 Winter 2009 magazine 8.95
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The best thing about Ugly Things' rather irregular twice-yearly schedule is that it's always a pleasant surprise when the latest issue of this magazine of "wild sounds from past dimensions" suddenly shows up here! And, somehow, it's always a day or two before "list day" so we can't totally kick back and spend as much time reading it right away as we'd like, 'cause there's work to do. And we do mean we'd need to spend time, lots of time, it's a big ol' magazine (224 pages this ish) packed to the gills with text and vintage photos.
However, since our list-work IS to review New Arrivals, and since this Ugly Things is a New Arrival, we WILL take a moment now to leaf through it... ah, maybe sit back a bit, put the feet up, settle in... whoops, better be careful, hours and hours of "lost productivity" will go by as we read about cover stars The Masters Apprentices ('60s Australian psych-pop sensations we know better in their later proto-metal mode). That article is 27 pages and it's only part 1, another of editor Mike Stax's multipart epics, to be continued next issue! Then there's several eulogies to the late Sky Sunlight Saxon of The Seeds (who passed away the same day as Michael Jackson, who gets mentioned here in Ugly Things for probably one of the only times ever on account of that). And the usual slew of obscure groups are dug up and examined, in depth - this time 'round, The Fenmen ('60s UK harmonizers with Pretty Things connections), The Reactor ('70s Mexican-American Inland Empire punk), The Nomadds ('60s Midwestern garage rockers), The Bittersweet (all girl garage from Ohio in the '60s), The Wildflower (mystical ballroom era SF "lost band"), Dentist (late '70s French punkers), and PLENTY MORE. As usual, we most often find the stories told quite fascinating, even when we've never heard a note of a band's music, nonetheless entire long gone music scenes open themselves up to the imagination, the world as it once was, somewhere, elsewhere, underground, rockin' out.
Leafing through (ok, we'll stop in a second and get back to work) it's easy to come across any number of treats, from the reprinted super-harsh one line putdown album reviews from '70s fanzine Future (a sample: "Foghat - Night Shift - The title of this LP should not include the 'F' in shift"), to the piece about recently rediscovered proto-punks the Imperial Dogs (look 'em up on YouTube!!!), to fanzine editor Phil Milstein's tale of trying to release a Nico bootleg some 30 years ago, a difficult saga which somehow manages to involve both his mom and Penn of Penn & Teller fame, as well as Nico herself of course. If we keep reading we'd find more to mention, haven't even delved into the pages and pages and pages of reviews yet, but we have other reviews of our own to write, so we'll reluctantly set aside our copy of UT#29 to pick it up again after our remaining list-duties are completed. Ah, yes, recommended. A magazine by music obsessives, for music obsessives, of almost any nostalgical variety.

UGLY THINGS Issue #30 Summer 2010 magazine 8.95
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Without fail. The new issue of this awesome, and HUGE, magazine all about "wild sounds from past dimensions" (aka the '60s and '70s) always arrives, like, the day before we're doing a list. I think we've mentioned this before. So, there's no way we could read through the whole thing -and- write all our other reviews. Heck, probably couldn't read the whole thing in one night even if we played hooky from work and that's all we did, that's how much stuff is packed into its 176 pages. So, struggling to give it just a skim right now, we can tell you that it's got in-depth (and often, we mean REALLY in depth) features on, among others: our favorite Dutch beat rockers Q65, Australia's The Master's Apprentices (part II to the saga begun last ish), The Kinks/Ray Davies, ESP's Connecticut "tribe" Cromagnon (all right!!), Texan punks The Nervebreakers, SoCal garage rockers The Hysterics, Milwaukee teen psych sensations Finch, guitarist Oli Halsall's proggy Patto, and plenty more. Also Johan Kugelberg captures our attention with "A Loser's Guide To '60s Punk Compilations", and then there's the pages and pages (and pages) of reviews. Whew! As always, recommended reading. And congrats to the UT crew on their 30th issue, 27 years after they first started publishing! Keep 'em coming!!

UGLY THINGS Issue #31 Spring 2011 magazine 8.95
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Holy crap. 200 pages! And, as always, it lands here (with a weighty thud) just a day before our list. So we'll have to wait until the weekend to really delve in, but also as always we're damn excited to.
One of our favorite magazines ever, now up to its 31st fat issue, wow. If you're into almost any interesting bands of yesteryear, of the garage/punk/psych variety, you should read this magazine!! Girl groups, surf rock, freakbeat, even some esoteric prog, it's all here. (For metal bands, check out Snakepit, also reviewed this list.)
Tons of great stuff this ish, about bands both infamous (The Stooges) and obscure (The 40 Fingers). Let's see... Them, The Masters Apprentices (part 3 of a monster feature), oud master John Berberian, Wreckless Eric, Ollie Halsall, The Zachary Thaks, The Cobra Seas, The Mountain Men, The Pleasure Seekers, The Missing Lynx, Them, and others! Guaranteed each article or interview is both more in depth and more interesting than you could ever imagine.
Some of the other features that jumped out at us include a discussion of the merits of the many posthumous Jimi Hendrix records, also a piece all about the Norton Records label. And of course there's pages and pages and pages of reviews. Awesome - as always!

UGLY THINGS Issue #32 Fall / Winter 2011 magazine 8.95
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Oh boy. Editor / expert in chief Mike Stax and crew have done it again. Here's a fat new issue (176 pages) of our favorite magazine of ye olde rock n' roll (garage, punk, psych, power pop, and maybe a side of prog). This time 'round, there's typically in-depth, heavy duty features on a whole lot of interesting artists, some more obscure than others... Them, The Vibrators, Finchley Boys, The Sloths, Creation Of Sunlight, The Contrasts, freakbeat faves Wimple Winch, and plenty of others - including one REALLY obscure group with the amazing name of $27 Snap On Face, some Sonoma county weirdos circa '77. Along with a look at the psychedelic side of Paul Revere & The Raiders, the usual vast array of reissue reviews, the regular columns, et cetra. Oh, and a page devoted to "The 20 Worst Hard Rock Obscurities" to be avoided. And really that's just scratching the surface, as always an issue of Ugly Things requires a few solid hours of devoted study. For anyone who loves "wild sounds from past dimensions" this is sheer manna in magazine form.

ULVER Childhood's End (K-Scope) cd 17.98
Those genre-defying former black metallers (a long long time ago, now!) Ulver return, with an unusual even for them detour into all-covers territory! Specifically, a collection of (mostly) obscure sixties psych faves, as it says on the cover, "lost & found from the Age of Aquarius".
They do 16 such nuggets, all moody, kaleidoscopic treats originally recorded by the following artists: The Pretty Things, The Byrds, Bonniwell's Music Machine, Chocolate Watchband, Jefferson Airplane, Gandalf, The Electric Prunes, 13th Floor Elevators, Troggs, Left Banke, Beau Brummels, Common People, Music Emporium, Curt Boettcher, Les Fleur De Lys, and The United States Of America.
And they do them well. Not totally straight, but not black metal versions either (which, really, might have been even more interesting!). No, this is a respectful tribute, Ulver emulating the originals fairly accurately, but boosted with some modern prog rock power & polish, presumably with the mission of introducing 'em to a new audience, though we'd venture to guess that folks who listen to Ulver these days already have pretty wide ranging musical tastes...
Comes in nice hardback digibook packaging, though we don't know if the use of the iconic napalmed naked Vietnamese children running in the street photo is in such great taste, though it makes sense with the title of course... Ulver definitely demonstrates good taste in their musical selections here, however! We were especially stoked to see the Gandalf pick. It's all great stuff, Ulver's versions reminding us a little bit of another Norwegian fave of ours (also with some black metal connections), Lars Pedersen's When, who also digs the '60s sikepop.


MPEG Stream: "I Had Too Much to Dream Last Night (Electric Prunes) "
MPEG Stream: "Velvet Sunsets (Music Emporium) "

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA s/t (Sundazed) cd 16.98
United States Of America is quite a politically charged monicker these days, what with the whole country / world divided over the war in Iraq and our President and gay marriage and everything else under the sun. Probably wasn't a whole lot less volatile 36 years ago, in the midst of the Vietnam War, when this record was first released. Which was precisely the point.
USoA mastermind Joseph Byrd was a long time devotee of twentieth century composition and minimalism, studying and/or studying with LaMonte Young, John Cage, Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Charles Ives and the rest. While at UCLA, Byrd helped organise the New Music Workshop and eventually arranged an elaborate set of concerts which culminated in a Lamonte Young piece that involved the inflation of a giant hot air balloon. Fearful that the less sophisticated members of the audience would get bored and leave, Byrd formed a blues band to play during that part of the performance and convinced his pal Linda Rondstadt to sing. Thus came the realisation that a rock band would give Byrd access to a much bigger audience, and so began his quest to start a psychedelic rock band, which would eventually be realized as United States Of America. Made up of Byrd's friends from academia and ethnomusicology and his ex-girlfriend, and born from his frustration with the war and his leaving UCLA, USoA became a politically charged experimental psychedelic rock combo unlike any that had come before. Utilising a not exactly standard bass /drums /guitar /violin lineup, their sound was further augmented by ring modulators, organ, harpsichord, and calliope. The end result was a sixties rock band, drenched in psychedelic filligree, swooping electronic trippiness, all sorts of circus-y weirdness, bizarre editing and song structures, but never losing sight of great songs.
And a lot of these songs are indeed great. Probably the best track on the record is "The Garden Of Earthly Delights", a super rocking Stereolab meets Jefferson Airplane number, that would not sound at all out of place on Emperor Tomato Ketchup, if it weren't for the gritty sixties rock chorus (with a hook to die for) and the storm of buzzing and bleeping, overloaded affects and tripped out swooping and soaring bleeps and bloops. And then there's the final track, a three part experimental montage / coda, all ambient jangle and ethereal ambience, with snippets and samples from the rest of the tracks on the record, resulting in a super damaged art-rock musical acid trip. And the rest of the record veers from countryish campfire stomps, to smoke-y sultry ballads, to freaked out psych jams and everything in between. All blessed by the absolutely gorgeous vocals of Dorothy Moskowitz. This record may be a psychedelic country pop rock record, but boy is it more than that. Reminds us quite a bit of recent AQ record of the week Euphoria, with it's complicated and bizarre arrangements and its unlikely melding of country rock, lush baroque pop and acid fried guitar leads. Imagine a Frankensteinian sonic monster constructed from Euphoria, Stereolab, Fifty Foot Hose, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, the Byrds...then make said monster do some coursework in twentieth century compostion and experimental minimalism, and let it experiment with a suitcase full of homemade sound generators and you'd still have trouble imagining how great this record is. As always Sundazed does the reissue right, with extensive liner notes from Joseph Byrd, and interview with Dorothy Moskowitz and TEN bonus tracks, almost all of them unreleased, and most of them as good as anything on the album proper!
MPEG Stream: "The Garden Of Earthly Delights"
MPEG Stream: "Hard Coming Love"
MPEG Stream: "The American Metaphysical Circus"
MPEG Stream: "Cloud Song"

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, THE s/t (Columbia) lp 23.00
Now available on lp! 180 gram vinyl!
United States Of America is quite a politically charged monicker these days, what with the whole country / world divided over the war in Iraq and our President and gay marriage and everything else under the sun. Probably wasn't a whole lot less volatile 36 years ago, in the midst of the Vietnam War, when this record was first released. Which was precisely the point.
USoA mastermind Joseph Byrd was a long time devotee of twentieth century composition and minimalism, studying and/or studying with LaMonte Young, John Cage, Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Charles Ives and the rest. While at UCLA, Byrd helped organise the New Music Workshop and eventually arranged an elaborate set of concerts which culminated in a Lamonte Young piece that involved the inflation of a giant hot air balloon. Fearful that the less sophisticated members of the audience would get bored and leave, Byrd formed a blues band to play during that part of the performance and convinced his pal Linda Rondstadt to sing. Thus came the realisation that a rock band would give Byrd access to a much bigger audience, and so began his quest to start a psychedelic rock band, which would eventually be realized as United States Of America. Made up of Byrd's friends from academia and ethnomusicology and his ex-girlfriend, and born from his frustration with the war and his leaving UCLA, USoA became a politically charged experimental psychedelic rock combo unlike any that had come before. Utilising a not exactly standard bass /drums /guitar /violin lineup, their sound was further augmented by ring modulators, organ, harpsichord, and calliope. The end result was a sixties rock band, drenched in psychedelic filigree, swooping electronic trippiness, all sorts of circus-y weirdness, bizarre editing and song structures, but never losing sight of great songs.
And a lot of these songs are indeed great. Probably the best track on the record is "The Garden Of Earthly Delights", a super rocking Stereolab meets Jefferson Airplane number, that would not sound at all out of place on Emperor Tomato Ketchup, if it weren't for the gritty sixties rock chorus (with a hook to die for) and the storm of buzzing and bleeping, overloaded affects and tripped out swooping and soaring bleeps and bloops. And then there's the final track, a three part experimental montage / coda, all ambient jangle and ethereal ambience, with snippets and samples from the rest of the tracks on the record, resulting in a super damaged art-rock musical acid trip. And the rest of the record veers from countryish campfire stomps, to smoke-y sultry ballads, to freaked out psych jams and everything in between. All blessed by the absolutely gorgeous vocals of Dorothy Moskowitz. This record may be a psychedelic country pop rock record, but boy is it more than that. Reminds us quite a bit of recent AQ record of the week Euphoria, with it's complicated and bizarre arrangements and its unlikely melding of country rock, lush baroque pop and acid fried guitar leads. Imagine a Frankensteinian sonic monster constructed from Euphoria, Stereolab, Fifty Foot Hose, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, the Byrds...then make said monster do some coursework in twentieth century composition and experimental minimalism, and let it experiment with a suitcase full of homemade sound generators and you'd still have trouble imagining how great this record is.
MPEG Stream: "The Garden Of Earthly Delights"
MPEG Stream: "Hard Coming Love"
MPEG Stream: "The American Metaphysical Circus"
MPEG Stream: "Cloud Song"

UWAIFO, SIR VICTOR Guitar-Boy Superstar (Soundway) cd 17.98
The mighty Sound Way label (the fine folks who brought us the killer Nigeria Special compilations) is back with another fantastic reissue of classic West African popular music, this time documenting the mid-1970s output of the enigmatic and flamboyant Sir Victor Uwaifo, the guitar-boy superstar! You might recognize Uwaifo from his appearance on the Nigeria 70: Lagos Jump compilation where his track "Dododo (Ekassa 1)" was a real skirt blower. These days, when most of us have access to this kind of music only through curated compilations featuring dozens of performers, it's a rare treat to get a more well-rounded picture of a single artist; big ups to Sound Way for delivering the goods!
The majority of tracks on this collection are based around Uwaifo's unique hybrid of the traditional rhythm of the 'ekassa' coronation dance with highlife instrumentation. The result is something joyous, funky, and soulful that manages to maintain a laid-back, upbeat feel that is distinct from the frenetic rush of Afrobeat and the other scenes happening in mid-'70s Lagos. In fact, there's a sweet, classic pop element to Uwaifo's songwriting that has more in common with Buddy Holly and Richie Valens than it does with the American funk, soul and disco that inspired his contemporaries. Valens is actually a pretty good jumping off point for comparison, as the electrified version of the ekassa rhythm lends a Latin flourish to the music that recalls Valens' Chicano rock styles saturated with fuzz, wah and a distinctly Nigerian rhythmic sensibility.
Unsurprisingly, it's Uwaifo's guitar playing that stand out as the real centerpiece of the record as it skips from traditional highlife accompaniment to psych-tinged, fuzzed-out solos to primitive delay and wah-wah experimentalism, sometimes all within the same song! Uwaifo's jangling open-string solos, jarringly nimble riffing, and ability to switch effortlessly between rhythm and lead again recall Buddy Holly and also classic US surf rock (in fact, the track "Agho" goes so far as to quote parts of "Tequila" - weird, but fantastic!), but there's a lot more going on than that. Check out "Igboroho (Ekassa 24)" to hear Uwaifo pushing his guitar into fractured, no-wave territory; given that it still sounds completely freaked out now, it must've been thoroughly mind-expanding at the time.
As with all things from Sound Ways, this disc comes with lavish packaging; meticulously researched and compiled liner notes replete with archival photographs, album art; and song-by-song gloss by Uwaifo himself. It's a fantastic package highly recommended for anyone who's been enjoying the goldmine of reissues of African popular musics we've been seeing over the past year. So good!
MPEG Stream: "Igboroho (Ekassa 5)"
MPEG Stream: "Egbe Natete"
MPEG Stream: "Agho"

V/A Cambodian Rocks (original version on Parallel World) (Parallel World) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Previously issued a while back only on vinyl, "Cambodian Rocks" - now on CD - presents a handful of unknown (to the point that no artist names or track titles are given) Cambodian garage bands from the late 60s and early 70s. The liner notes explain that the compiler (s/he is also anonymous) picked up a bunch of random tapes while in Cambodia and put this together of the best tracks from those tapes. For those who are entranced by the psychedelic exotica found in the "Love, Peace, and Poetry" series, "Cambodian Rocks" makes an exceptional companion. For the most part this compilation is dominated by really good fuzzed out organ / guitar garage rich with understandably crappy production. But along with the garage cuts, there's a track of incredibly unfunky James Brown mimicry that make the Make Up's theatrical irony seem even more insincere than they really are. Appropriated dancehall groove/stomps with Cambodian instead of Jamaican overtones. But the highlight is the appearance of the female led garage band who were featured on the Asian Psychedelic chapter of the "Love, Peace, and Poetry" series. Greasy garage rock not far from the Count Five or the Seeds but with reverb drenched female vocals that hits high notes rarely found even on Bollywood sountracks. Totally essential.

V/A A Visit To The Spaceship Factory (Psychic Circle) cd 16.98
Remember that rad White Lace And Strange compilation we highlighted not long ago? Some killer late sixties, early seventies psych rock from the USA, garage bands gettin' "heavy". Well this disc, on the same Nick Saloman-affiliated label Psychic Circle, is in some ways a sequel, featuring similar bands of the era from the UK (and one Israeli band that recorded in London, to be perfectly accurate). With the subtitle "20 Gems From The Early Years Of Prog", it's billed as a collection of obscure "progressive rock" tracks... but the stress is on the rock. After all, Black Sabbath was once considered a "prog" band too. Sure, there might be some keyboards, but there's lots of raw, raucous energy here, both singers and guitarists wailing away in full fuzzed-out psychedelic proto-metal glory, when they didn't know from headbanging but knew how to boogie! Being a comp, of course some of this is better 'n the rest, but quality control is pretty high. Some faves include the punkish Helter Skelter (ex-Crushed Butler), the powerful axe-action of Israel's Jericho, and the heavy blues thud of early UFO, among other treats here to be heard from these bands (some we already knew, some new to us): Treetops, Mousetrap, Deadwood, Fuzzy Duck, Incredible Hog, Mouse, Beggars Opera, Kingdom Come, Little Big Horn, Strange Fox, Onyx, Spontaneous Combustion, Sheephouse, Pussy, Axe, Sunchariot, and Kansas Hook. The liner notes provide interesting tidbits on each artist (ferinstance, if you're as much of a proto metal geek as Allan, you'll be excited to get the track by Pussy, a later incarnation of one-album wonders Jerusalem).
MPEG Stream: JERICHO "So Come On"
MPEG Stream: HELTER SKELTER "I Need You"
MPEG Stream: KANSAS HOOK "Nervous Shakin'"

V/A A Whole Lot of Rainbows (Warner) cd 21.00

V/A Absolute Belter (B-Music / Finders Keepers) cd 17.98
B-Music / Finders Keepers are the masters of the mix, headed up by DJ / record collector extraordinaire Andy Votel, pretty much every compilation these guys put out is like getting a super far out mix tape from your weird music obsessed best friend who knows everything about ____ (Turkish psych, lost disco, weirdo proto metal, lost soundtracks, Pakistani film music, Hungarian psych prog, etc.). To that list, of music your imaginary best friend (aka Andy Votel and his B-Music gang) is well versed in, you can now add "Mid-Med-Mod-Rock & Spanish Psychsploitation From The 'Cradle Of Spanish Pop'". Phew. Absolute Belter collects a handful of classic jams from the Spanish label Belter, marking the label's 50th anniversary!! Lots of incredible stuff here, plenty of fuzzed out psych, groovy funk, and especially intriguing, weirdo covers of songs by The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Quincy Jones, and most excitingly, Curved Air's "Back Street Luv" done by a group called Control (which is also on that Radio Galaxia comp!). It's a fuzzy, but more poppy than proggy version, makes us wish someone would do a cool anthology of all Curved Air's stuff, so good! But we digress...
The highlights are too many to mention one by one, it's basically a whole record of highlights, but besides that killer Curved Air cover, there's Fusioon's, warm washed out wearily psychedelic "Tocata Y Fug", with its woozy organs, majestic melodies, and weirdo prog-isms, or Furia's theme song "Furia", a heavy psych groove burner, with some awesome harmony vocals, thick basslines, and a killer main hook. Or howabout Soledad Miranda, most famous for being nude in Vampyros Lesbos with some groovy, loungy exotica, all soaring strings and jazzy drums, very Bond theme sounding, and she actually has a great voice. There's Los Mismos' "Jefe Ironside", a sort of disco cop show theme meets hippy jam from the musical Hair, or Control's country flecked bass heavy psychedelia, Los Gritos' "Veo Visions" a sci-fi fuzz groove, with tons of out-there Joe Meek production weirdness, we could go on and on and on and on. Needless to say, but we shall anyway, if you're a fan of the label, and any of their collections, the BYG Deal, Well Hung, Pomegranates, The Sound Of Wonder, well then you're probably gonna want this, or if you're just into cool fuzzy freaky far out psychedelic sounds, this could very well be the mix tape of obscure stuff you've been hoping someone would make you!
MPEG Stream: FUSIOON "Tocata Y Fug"
MPEG Stream: FURIA "Furia"
MPEG Stream: CONTROL "Por Las Viejas Calles"
MPEG Stream: LOS MISMOS "Jefe Ironside"
MPEG Stream: SOLEDAD MIRANDA "La Verdad"

V/A Acid Dreams (Past & Present) cd 17.98
Here's a cool comp of rare vintage '60s garage psych gems, that itself is a reissue of a long lost album, Acid Dreams having first been released back in 1979 on vinyl in an edition of just 77 copies, we're told. Apparently that record was compiled by the owner of a record store in Berlin, who thought that the then-current crop of new wave punk rock fans needed a lesson about the original wave of snotty, freaky, DIY "punk" from the previous decade... And indeed the nameless compiler picked some killer cuts from his collection of U.S. '60s psych singles for inclusion here, full of distortion and attitude ready to go toe-to-toe with the class of '77. Loads of fuzzed out guitars, urgent drumming and trippy lyrics burst forth across the 18 tracks here, most of 'em energetic yet moody 2-3 minute blasts, including songs from Zakary Thaks, Faine Jade, Music Machine, Mystic Tide, Painted Faces, Balloon Farm, Outcasts, Beautiful Daze, Caretakers Of Deception, Teddy & His Patches, Minds Eye, White Light, Remaining Few, Stereo Shoestrings, Unrelated Segments, Velvet Illusions (who get not one but two tracks on here, both awesome), and Vejtables (who were from San Francisco - hmm, could the spelling of their name maybe have been an inspiration to Wooden Shjips?). As you can see, all acts for the most part pretty obscure outside the collectors' realm, really. Poppy stuff, but probably too freaky for the masses, though it's not all hard acid wah wah guitar frenzies here - when not stormin' and stompin', Acid Dreams provides plenty of pleasant psychedelic swirling jangle as well.
Reissued now on cd by the same label that brought us the Electric Asylum comp listed last time, the no frills design of the original private press LP has been augmented with photos and brief liner notes on each and every track in the cd booklet.
MPEG Stream: VELVET ILLUSIONS "Velvet Illusions"
MPEG Stream: WHITE LIGHT "William"
MPEG Stream: BEAUTIFUL DAZE "City Jungle"

V/A Acid Dreams (Past & Present) lp 24.00
Now on vinyl!!!
Here's a cool comp of rare vintage '60s garage psych gems, that itself is a reissue of a long lost album, Acid Dreams having first been released back in 1979 on vinyl in an edition of just 77 copies, we're told. Apparently that record was compiled by the owner of a record store in Berlin, who thought that the then-current crop of new wave punk rock fans needed a lesson about the original wave of snotty, freaky, DIY "punk" from the previous decade... And indeed the nameless compiler picked some killer cuts from his collection of U.S. '60s psych singles for inclusion here, full of distortion and attitude ready to go toe-to-toe with the class of '77. Loads of fuzzed out guitars, urgent drumming and trippy lyrics burst forth across the 18 tracks here, most of 'em energetic yet moody 2-3 minute blasts, including songs from Zakary Thaks, Faine Jade, Music Machine, Mystic Tide, Painted Faces, Balloon Farm, Outcasts, Beautiful Daze, Caretakers Of Deception, Teddy & His Patches, Minds Eye, White Light, Remaining Few, Stereo Shoestrings, Unrelated Segments, Velvet Illusions (who get not one but two tracks on here, both awesome), and Vejtables (who were from San Francisco - hmm, could the spelling of their name maybe have been an inspiration to Wooden Shjips?). As you can see, all acts for the most part pretty obscure outside the collectors' realm, really. Poppy stuff, but probably too freaky for the masses, though it's not all hard acid wah wah guitar frenzies here - when not stormin' and stompin', Acid Dreams provides plenty of pleasant psychedelic swirling jangle as well.
MPEG Stream: VELVET ILLUSIONS "Velvet Illusions"
MPEG Stream: WHITE LIGHT "William"
MPEG Stream: BEAUTIFUL DAZE "City Jungle"

V/A Ain't It Hard! (Sundazed) cd 19.98

V/A An Apple A Day (RPM) cd 16.98
A lot of us here at AQ have a huge weakspot for the breezy sounds of late 60's psych-pop. Those four guys in The Beatles were also pretty fond of those same sounds and under the umbrella of their Apple publishing and recording label (which was originally set up mostly as a tax shelter) they enlisted a mainstay of great songwriters like Pete Ham and Ron Griffiths (who would go on to form Badfinger), as well as Graham Lyle and Benny Gallagher, who churned out some totally tasty pop gems during this golden era. This collection gives some of their never before released songs a chance to finally be heard. The standout track on this disc comes from Mortimer, "People Who Are Different" which is a perfect sixties feel-good-be-weird-be-proud pop gem, the sort of song that had Kerry, Christine, Irwin and Scott all but putting flowers in their hair and dancing throughout the store. We have a sneaking suspicion that there are more than a few of you out there who will dig these groovy sounds as much as we do!
MPEG Stream: MORTIMER "People Who Are Different"
MPEG Stream: THE U (DON'T) KNOW WHO "An Apple A Day"
MPEG Stream: GALLAGHER & LYLE "Technicolor Dream"

V/A An Outbreak Of Twangin': Phantom Guitars Vol. 2 (Psychic Circle) cd 17.98
I'm no doctor, but I have heard of rockin' pneumonia and boogie woogie flu. But what if the symptoms are an outbreak of twangin'? Well if you've heard the popular Phantom Guitars comp, released last year on Psychic Circle, you'll know what to expect. This is in fact officially Phantom Guitars volume 2, another fab collection of early '60s electric guitar instrumentals in the style of The Shadows and The Ventures. 26 more tracks of vintage reverby twang n' strum n' stomp, compiled by Nick Saloman, of Bevis Frond (and now Psychic Circle) fame. So giddy up and get it, Phantom Guitars fans. The acts on here, mostly British, are as follows: Ahab & The Wailers, The Blackjacks, The Boys, Alan Caddy, The Cannons, The Cliffters, The Eagles (but not THE Eagles of course), Rob E.G., Gordon Franks Orchestra, Jim Gunner, Richard Harding, The Hearts, Peter Jay & The Jaywalkers, Les Champions, Mandrake, Nero & The Gladiators, Judd Proctor, The Rapiers, The Ramblers, The Runestones, The Saints, The Saxons, The Sunspots, Teddy Vento & Dietrich Pregl, The Volcanos, Bert Weedon. More evocative perhaps are some of the track titles: "Train To Moscow", "Ghost Train", "Just For Chicks", "Husky Team", "The Phantom Stage", "Django", "Jezebel", "Desperado"... 'twas a simpler time, the swingin' sixties... There's a surfy sound going on here (a couple tracks reminded us of the Hawaii Five-O theme) and quite obviously a spaghetti western vibe too (the wordless background vocals on The Boys' version of "Polaris" seem fairly Morricone-ish, ferinstance). Sometimes moodily suspenseful, at other times energetically exotic, always groovy, and just plain fun stuff. Like the original volume of Phantom Guitar twangin', definitely cool and recommended!!
MPEG Stream: THE BOYS "Polaris"
MPEG Stream: JUDD PROCTOR "Clearway"
MPEG Stream: THE HEARTS "Black Eyes"

V/A Anatolia Rocks: A Musical Trip Through Turkey 1968-83 (World Wide Productions) lp 25.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We haven't had a good Turkish psych compilation in some time and while this covers some pretty familiar ground, there's plenty of stuff new to us to recommend it. Don't let the time range of the music create any doubts, the bulk of this is from 1968-1976 with one song from 1977 (Edip Akbayram & Dostlar) and one from 1983 (Fikret Kizilok, doing a smoky ballad that sounds older than most material on here). Three of the tracks are reissued here for the first time. While there are key hits from Selda, Erkin Koray, Mustafa Ozkent and 3 Hur-el that have been on numerous other releases, the tracks by Baris Manco, Esin Afsar, Umit Tokcan, Nurcan Opel, Galatasaray Lisesi, and Cem Karaca Ve Apslar are all unfamiliar to us, mostly taken from rare 45's and soundtrack records. Lots of heavy rock groove, surfy lounge beat, and smoky soulfulness to make this a highly worthwhile collection for DJs and unusual psych connoisseurs. Just ignore the subpar cover art! On Red Vinyl!
(This was also released as an outrageously expensive cd-r, we passed on those, but figured it was worth it on vinyl.)

V/A Andergraun Vibrations!: Spanish Hard Psych And Beyond, 1970-1978 (Hundergrum Records) cd 24.00
Two words: Fuck Yeah!! Three more words: Fuzz fuzz fuzz. Another word: Word.
Oh okay, let's see, you probably want to know who's on this comp, like it matters, have you heard of any of these obscure bands? From A to X: Albert Band, All & Nothing, Ciclon, Expresion, Galaxia, Ibiza Sound, Madera De Cipres, The Matches, Modification, Pinonate, Shock, Skorpis (two cuts from them), Unidades, Rudy Ventura, and Xetxu. Fortunately, the 20-page cd booklet provides useful notes (in both English and Spanish) on all of 'em, plus full-color thumbnail repros of the original rare 45 rpm vinyl sleeve art. This is another excellent addition to the ongoing bounty of -sweet- Spanish psych/prog reissues we've seen lately, from Agamenon to Zarpa... "The Spanish Trip" (another cool comp) keeps on tripping! So what are -these- Andergraun Vibrations all about? Some of 'em groovy, some of 'em poppy, some of 'em melancholic, some of 'em heavy, some of 'em funky, some of 'em all of the above... there's disco horns and proto-metal both. Prog flutes and acid rock guitar. Dramatic vocals and garage scuzz. All sorts of retro coolness in other words. What Who Will Buy These Wonderful Evils vol. III was to Sweden, this is to Spain. Oh and despite the date range of '70 to '78, twelve of the sixteen tracks are from '73 or before, and most of 'em sound even earlier (more '60s than '70s).
FYI: 'twas originally released on expensive import vinyl (in two volumes, out of print) with this cd comprising all of the 1st and about half of the 2nd volume.
MPEG Stream: CICLON "Mr. Mague"
MPEG Stream: GALAXIA "La Noticia"
MPEG Stream: SKORPIS "The Somnambulist"

V/A Andy Votel's Brazilika (Far Out) cd 17.98
One of our favorite mix makers, DJ Andy Votel. One of the most sparkling genres of music ever, Tropicalia. Can't go wrong with this one! Andy Votel is responsible for such AQ fave discs as Prog Is Not A Four Letter Word, Folk Is Not A Four Letter Word, Vertigo Mixed, Welsh Rare Beat, and the recent Well Hung (that killer comp of Hungarian funky fuzz rock we highlighted last list), among many others. Tropicalia? Well that's the late '60 Brazilian musical movement (with political and artistic dimensions as well) that melded psychedelia with Latin rhythms like bossa nova... chances are most AQ customers have some passing familiarity with it, probably having an Os Mutantes, Gilberto Gil or Caetano Veloso reissue or two or more in your collection.
Of those three biggies, only Mutantes appear hear on Votel's Brazilika mix, which should appeal to both Tropicalia fans and the simply curious as well. And of course Votel digs fairly deep to bring some definite obscurities into play, all from the vaults of the Brazilian Som Livre and RGE record labels. Some names: Os Brazoes, Tim Maia, Novos Baianos, Sidney Miller, Trio Soneca, Azimuth... Those familiar with his penchant for heavy, "hairy funk" on his previous mixes won't be surprised that this rocks fairly hard (and also jazzily), full of organ jamming and wah wah fuzz guitar, giving less of a look in to the breezier, more delicate and folky aspects of the Tropicalia sound. So it's not exactly a primer, but if you can untangle which part of each track is by what artist (Votel mashing several into each cut), it should whet your appetite and give you some clues for further reissue exploration. And be a surefire hit at your next party, of course.
MPEG Stream: NOVOS BAIANOS/TIM MAIA/TRIO SONECA "Baby Consuelo/Flores Beles/Funga Funga"
MPEG Stream: AZIMUTH "1974 / Periscopio"

V/A Barry 7's Connectors 2 (Lo Recordings) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
For those who devoured the first delightful volume of Barry 7's Connectors: Rare Italian Library Tracks, here's an entire second volume! A cornucopia of sonic frolics very much in the same spirit as Luke Vibert's Nuggets and many of the Crippled Dick Hot Wax compilations. Unfamiliar with any of those? Well then, strap on your seatbelt 'cause you're in for a treat! Over the top Euro kitsch, melodrama and campiness! So perfect if you're on the lookout for a diverse array of rather flamboyant theatrical music 'cause these tracks - originally catalogued for '60s and '70s television and radio production backing use - are overflowing with bontempi-esque organs, analog synthesizers, choral singers, and flutes! And four of them come from a gent named Ennio Morricone (very much of the delirously wonderful Danger Diabolik period). Curious who this Mr. Barry 7 is who wants you to hear the unheard music? Why, he's one third of that analog synth jammin' UK group Add N To (X) who clearly have drawn much inspiration from these works. Splendid!
RealAudio clip: BONESCHI, GIAMPIERO " New Situation"
RealAudio clip: MORRICONE, ENNIO "Stato Confusionale"

V/A Barry 7's Connectors Vol. 2 (Lo Recordings) 2lp 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
For those who devoured the first delightful volume of Barry 7's Connectors: Rare Italian Library Tracks, here's an entire second volume! A cornucopia of sonic frolics very much in the same spirit as Luke Vibert's Nuggets and many of the Crippled Dick Hot Wax compilations. Unfamiliar with any of those? Well then, strap on your seatbelt 'cause you're in for a treat! Over the top Euro kitsch, melodrama and campiness! So perfect if you're on the lookout for a diverse array of rather flamboyant theatrical music 'cause these tracks - originally catalogued for '60s and '70s television and radio production backing use - are overflowing with bontempi-esque organs, analog synthesizers, choral singers, and flutes! And four of them come from a gent named Ennio Morricone (very much of the delirously wonderful Danger Diabolik period). Curious who this Mr. Barry 7 is who wants you to hear the unheard music? Why, he's one third of that analog synth jammin' UK group Add N To (X) who clearly have drawn much inspiration from these works. Splendid!

V/A Basementsville (Misty Lane) lp 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This is a Brazilian garage comp of 1960's 45's. It has covers of the classics that we know so well, if not a bit too well (My Generation, Paint It Black, Time wont let me, Daytripper, I Cant Get No Satisfaction), for the most part sung in Portuguese. In addition to the well known garage/rock n' roll hits, there are some songs I've never heard that were great. I liked them best. Brazilian garage, how rad is that. Oh and the boys on the back cover are foxes.

V/A Bearded Ladies (B-Music) cd 15.98
Like the freak circus entertainments of a bygone era, so too does this new B-Music compilation mine the fringe of far-flung female folk from the recent past and immediate present. Starting where the Folk Is A Four Letter Word comps left off, Bearded Ladies features many of the same B-music 'vixens' such as Wendy and Bonnie, Turid, Susan Christie, Selda, Heather Jones and Brigitte Fontaine joined by their more contemporary equivalents, Speck Mountain, Misty Dixon (Jane Weaver), Lights, Lispector, Emma Tricca, and Magpahi amongst others. Not as "Old Tymey" as the cover would suggest, Bearded Ladies excavates the rare individual artistry from pigeon-holed genre conventions as the contemporary artists are just as unfettered and original as the older artists, and not merely new retreads of folk motifs made popular in the last few years by Joanna Newsom and Cat Power. Another winner for B-Music. Ladyfolk lives!
MPEG Stream: SPECK MOUNTAIN "Hey Moon"
MPEG Stream: WENDY AND BONNIE "Paisley Window Pane"
MPEG Stream: BRIGITTE FONTAINE "Le Goudron"
MPEG Stream: MISTY DIXON "Are You Lost"

V/A Beat Frauleins: Female Pop In Germany 1964-1968 (Grosse Freiheit) cd 17.98
Achtung! Remember a little while ago we were digging a various artists collection entitled Funky Frauleins? Which showcased the swinging female pop stars of Germany (East and West) circa 1968-1978, a super delightful go-go disco dance party platter auf Deutsch all right. Now, here's the sequel - or rather, the prequel, 'cause while Funky Frauleins contained a lot of '70s kitsch, this one goes back to the mid '60s, "when pop culture entered the innocent world of German popular chart music", giving this its "Beat meets Schlager!" tagline. 19 tracks dating from 1964-'68, by an assortment of artists that haven't been part of our education previously, including Brigitt, Joy and the Hit Kids, Marion, Inga, Dorthe, Conny Froboess, Pitty und ihre Beatchicks, and a dozen more.
They do dreamy orchestral pop, teenybop anthems, garagey groove, popsyke, and soul. There's a few German-language covers of familiar hits, including a wonderful interpretation of The Hollies' "Bus Stop", done here as "Er sah mich im Regen" by Monique and the Lions. Meanwhile the Jacob Sisters' "Was hab ich dir getan" you'll recognize as a Teutonic take on "Stop In the Name Of Love" by the Supremes!
Super fun stuff, that's been getting a lot of play here at AQ ever since it showed up. In the compilations competition, this one proves that while France had their "ye-ye girls", and Spain their "chicas", Germany's "beat frauleins" were also pretty darn groovy. But, being German, even at their most hip shaking, these ladies can still somehow sound kinda stern, which only adds to our enjoyment...
MPEG Stream: BRIGITT "...da beisst ein Goldfisch an"
MPEG Stream: MONIQUE AND THE LIONS "Er sah mich im Regen"
MPEG Stream: RENATE KERN "Kiss and Shake"

V/A Beat Frauleins: Female Pop In Germany 1964-1968 (Grosse Freiheit) lp 17.98
Achtung! Remember a little while ago we were digging a various artists collection entitled Funky Frauleins? Which showcased the swinging female pop stars of Germany (East and West) circa 1968-1978, a super delightful go-go disco dance party platter auf Deutsch all right. Now, here's the sequel - or rather, the prequel, 'cause while Funky Frauleins contained a lot of '70s kitsch, this one goes back to the mid '60s, "when pop culture entered the innocent world of German popular chart music", giving this its "Beat meets Schlager!" tagline. 19 tracks dating from 1964-'68, by an assortment of artists that haven't been part of our education previously, including Brigitt, Joy and the Hit Kids, Marion, Inga, Dorthe, Conny Froboess, Pitty und ihre Beatchicks, and a dozen more.
They do dreamy orchestral pop, teenybop anthems, garagey groove, popsyke, and soul. There's a few German-language covers of familiar hits, including a wonderful interpretation of The Hollies' "Bus Stop", done here as "Er sah mich im Regen" by Monique and the Lions. Meanwhile the Jacob Sisters' "Was hab ich dir getan" you'll recognize as a Teutonic take on "Stop In the Name Of Love" by the Supremes!
Super fun stuff, that's been getting a lot of play here at AQ ever since it showed up. In the compilations competition, this one proves that while France had their "ye-ye girls", and Spain their "chicas", Germany's "beat frauleins" were also pretty darn groovy. But, being German, even at their most hip shaking, these ladies can still somehow sound kinda stern, which only adds to our enjoyment...
MPEG Stream: BRIGITT "...da beisst ein Goldfisch an"
MPEG Stream: MONIQUE AND THE LIONS "Er sah mich im Regen"
MPEG Stream: RENATE KERN "Kiss and Shake"

V/A Best of Twist-A-Rama (Norton) cd 14.98
Twist-A-Rama was a '60s teen talent show which broadcast in upstate New York. This compilation subtitled "Crude 1965 Garage Sounds From The Mohawk Valley: New York Garage Bands Vol. 1", is certainly packed full of the raw garage and surf sounds of the time, but is far from crude. Quite an impressive array of original songs from cleancut teen bands such as The Toffs, The Brix, and The Galaxies. Note: this cd was mastered from a mint copy of the LP which was released 35 years ago, and includes all the original liner notes... and surface noise. Yay!

V/A Blow Your Cool: 20 Prog / Psych Assaults From The UK & Europe (Psychic Circle) cd 16.98
The record-collecting excess of Nick Saloman (Mr. Bevis Frond) pays off for all of us once again, as he presents yet another collection of groovy old '60s/'70s tracks from rare vinyl that he's compiled for the Psychic Circle label. Blow Your Cool is a sequel of sorts to Psychic Circle's winning A Visit To The Spaceship Factory comp but instead of featuring only obscure UK prog/psych gems, this ventures further afield to showcase tracks by weird/cool bands from Continental Europe as well. Thus it's definitely got something of the Prog Is Not A Four Letter Word/"B-music" vibe.
Of the 20 artists included, a few names jump out as familiar to us, and speak well to the quality of the comp. There's Cosmic Dealer (a psychedelic Dutch band who more than live up to their name, which is much better than what we're told their original moniker was: Floating Fudge), Triangle (the title track "Blow Your Cool" is by this French group, it's also on the collection from them we listed last year), Zior, Egg, Freedom, Mogul Thrash (featuring John Wetton), Les Variations (more Francias Metal de Proto we've reviewed before), Blue Beard (with "Sly Willy", also found on the Some Songs Stuck In My Mind comp we listed last week), and The Rattles (feat. Achim Reichel). Then, among the rest, quite a few new-to-us surprises, from the bombastic, poppy opening track "To Live" by Paradise Hammer from England, to the progged-out, wound-up Hendrixy heaviness of Italy's Tritons on their "Drifter". Also on here: Primitive Man, Barry Freeman & Strange Power, The Foundations, Dream Police, Ferris Wheel, Paul Ryder & Time Machine, Jess & James, Bedlam, and Swegas.
As usual, informative liner notes and graphics pertaining to each track are provided in the full-colour cd booklet. What can we say, but keep 'em coming, Nick!
MPEG Stream: COSMIC DEALER "The Scene"
MPEG Stream: PARADISE HAMMER "To Live"
MPEG Stream: MOGUL THRASH "Sleeping In The Kitchen"

V/A Blue Explosion: Tribute To Blue Cheer (Black Widow) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
As "tribute" comps go, this is a really good one. Usually a tribute succeeds only if the cover versions are really different from the originals (for instance, the pop-punk bands doing metal covers on the "I Heart Metal" tribute). At the very least there can be some humor value in that (another example: the "Red Star" comp of grunting death metal bands covering Rush!). But sometimes, the tribute works because the bands doing the tribute are well matched with the band being covered, AND it's not a band that gets a lot of cover-song attention. Such as this one. I've never heard anyone cover "Fresh Fruit & Iceburgs" before, have you?
Blue Cheer of course is the granddaddy of all metal/stoner bands, with their first two and a half classic albums still being heavier in their own way than most stuff released today. And Black Widow have put together a pretty excellent international line-up of their progeny to pay tribute. Pentagram (who are on here twice, and may as well BE Blue Cheer 'cause they do it so well!), Internal Void, Thumlock, Natas, Fireball Ministry, Ufomammut are a who's who of some of today's best doom/stoner acts. Plus there's some more obscure names from the space/prog axis as well. The only puzzle about this comp is that several bands chose to cover songs from Blue Cheer's not-so-heavy early '70s albums, which turn out well, but I can't figure out why they did that, except to be different and demonstrate what big fans they are. Still, quite a bit of 1968's "Vincebus Eruptum" and '69s "Outsideinside" is represented. Right on!
RealAudio clip: PENTAGRAM "Doctor Please"
RealAudio clip: THUMLOCK "Out Of Focus"

V/A Boil The Kettle Mother (Past & Present / Radioactive) cd 18.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

V/A Boyd Rice Presents Music For Pussycats (Soleilmoon) cd 11.98
Since we seem to no longer be able to get a hold of that fantastic '60s french girl group Ultra Chicks series, we're delighted to finally get a bunch of this just-reissued collection of girl group tunes compiled, strangely enough, by controversial industrial culture icon Boyd Rice. No, they're not the highly sought French ye ye girls, but they are very much in the same perky vibe as the abovementioned comps. Rice has selected nine lesser known (or quite unknown) artists to showcase: solo singers Diane Ray, Bernadette Castro, Bernadette Caroll, Susan Rafey, Priscilla Paris, Robbie Winston, and Lori Burton as well as the suitably named groups The Love Exchange and Honey Ltd. The songs range from squeaky clean and girlish like Patty Duke to the more worldly and womanly like Petula Clark and Shirley Bassey. The second tune by Ms Castro sounds like something Le Tigre studied thoroughly. Very cool!
MPEG Stream: BERNADETTE CASTRO "Get Rid Of Him"
MPEG Stream: PRISCILLA PARIS "My Window"

V/A Brazilian Guitar Fuzz Bananas: Tropicalia Psychedelic Masterpieces 1967-1976 (Tropicalia In Furs) cd 16.98
Geez! Just when you thought you've heard all the Brazilian Psych and Tropicalia of the sixties and seventies worth listening to, comes this monster compilation of complete unknown jams from the era that very nearly blows away anything you considered to be the best. Distributed by the same folks who brought us the killer Psych Funk 101 compilation (a unanimous store favorite), if you dug that compilation you should definitely check this one out. Culled specifically from the rarest of 7" singles (the era's cheapest and most produced format), many of 'em promo only, there are none of the usual suspects, no Caetano, Os Mutantes or any of Rogerio Duprat's star artists. Instead this is the sound of the deeper radical underground, of groups most of which couldn't ever get record deals. The music is way heavier, the vibe more unhinged and funky with big fuzz and often wild, ecstatic arrangements. Here is the checklist of groups on here: Celio Balona, Loyce E Os Gnomes, The Youngsters, Serguel, Fabio, Tony E Som Colorido, 14 Bis, Banda De 7 Leguas, Ton & Sergio, Ely, Com OS Falcoes Reais, Marisa Rossi, The Pops, Piry, and Max Rybell. The cd comes with a HUGE full color booklet with info on all the singles and pictures and the enhanced cd itself features a documentary, called "What Are Fuzz Bananas?" (good question). Meanwhile, the vinyl version comes with a large full color booklet with info on all the singles and pictures. We got the last copies of the first vinyl pressing that include 3-D glasses, though we're not sure why they were included as none of the record sleeve was printed in 3-D as far as we can tell, though they do make the wildly colorful psychedelic drawing in the gatefold sure look neat! [Update: now the copies with glasses are gone, anyway...]
Way Recommended!
MPEG Stream: CELIO BALONA "Tema De Batman"
MPEG Stream: COM OS FALCOES REAIS "Ele Seculo XX"
MPEG Stream: LOYCE E OS GNOMES "Que E Isso?"
MPEG Stream: MAC RYBELL "The Lantern"

V/A Brazilian Guitar Fuzz Bananas: Tropicalia Psychedelic Masterpieces 1967-1976 (Tropicalia In Furs) 2lp 21.00
Geez! Just when you thought you've heard all the Brazilian Psych and Tropicalia of the sixties and seventies worth listening to, comes this monster compilation of complete unknown jams from the era that very nearly blows away anything you considered to be the best. Distributed by the same folks who brought us the killer Psych Funk 101 compilation (a unanimous store favorite), if you dug that compilation you should definitely check this one out. Culled specifically from the rarest of 7" singles (the era's cheapest and most produced format), many of 'em promo only, there are none of the usual suspects, no Caetano, Os Mutantes or any of Rogerio Duprat's star artists. Instead this is the sound of the deeper radical underground, of groups most of which couldn't ever get record deals. The music is way heavier, the vibe more unhinged and funky with big fuzz and often wild, ecstatic arrangements. Here is the checklist of groups on here: Celio Balona, Loyce E Os Gnomes, The Youngsters, Serguel, Fabio, Tony E Som Colorido, 14 Bis, Banda De 7 Leguas, Ton & Sergio, Ely, Com OS Falcoes Reais, Marisa Rossi, The Pops, Piry, and Max Rybell. The cd comes with a HUGE full color booklet with info on all the singles and pictures and the enhanced cd itself features a documentary, called "What Are Fuzz Bananas?" (good question). Meanwhile, the vinyl version comes with a large full color booklet with info on all the singles and pictures. We got the last copies of the first vinyl pressing that include 3-D glasses, though we're not sure why they were included as none of the record sleeve was printed in 3-D as far as we can tell, though they do make the wildly colorful psychedelic drawing in the gatefold sure look neat! [Update: now the copies with glasses are gone, anyway...]
Way Recommended!
MPEG Stream: CELIO BALONA "Tema De Batman"
MPEG Stream: COM OS FALCOES REAIS "Ele Seculo XX"
MPEG Stream: LOYCE E OS GNOMES "Que E Isso?"
MPEG Stream: MAC RYBELL "The Lantern"

V/A Cambodian Rocks Vol. 1 (Khmer Rocks) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
While most record stores might include Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" as a mainstay album, consistently moving units from its initial release on up to the present, the original Cambodian Rocks collection has been for us a mainstay in its own right. We may not be able to boast the quantities that a larger store might for a staple, but Cambodian Rocks has got to be one of the most universally loved albums here at aQ. So you can imagine we were pretty damn excited when we found out that the collection was being released with full disclosure of musicians, vocalists, recording dates, song titles and lyrics (translated into English!) And if that isn't enough, Khmer Rocks has expanded their version of the collection to two discs! Even better, for all of you owners of the original collection, between these two discs and the original release on Parallel World there are only 5 songs total that overlap! So now you're wondering what the connection is between Khmer Rocks and Parallel World. Well, as far as we can tell, there is absolutely no connection. Seems like Khmer Rocks titled their two discs to capitalize off the original's popularity. And to their credit, they seem a bit more legit, having gone through the trouble of tracking down artists' names and song titles to give credit where credit is due. Not to be too harsh on Parallel World -- their collection is a fucking great compilation, always will be -- but the Khmer Rocks folk seem to be more genuinely indebted to these artists and it shows in their aformentioned efforts. And like Parallel World's collection, all the tracks on these two discs are absolutely great. It would be hard to leave a track out of your iPod if you were short on space. You might just have to get rid of something else. The artists here are all absolute geniuses in their abilities to absorb American rock and roll and tweak it to local tastes. In a lot of ways these bands are like South East Asian versions of the Sun City Girls -- picking up foreign radio transmissions (shortwave radio broadcasts to American military personnel) and subverting them to their own likeness. Some of our favorites are tracks like Meas Samoun's "The Engagement", a completely dirty take on the Santana sound (a lot of these Cambodian rockers seemed to really dig Santana) with an organ (or is it some ridiculously fucked up early seventies guitar processing?) solo that will kill you. Others, like Ros Sereyosthea take an American song part and parcel -- in this case CCR's "Rolling On A River" -- merely inserting their own lyrics and twisting the arrangement. Other twisted renditions sound an awful lot like "Hey Jude", "If You're Going To San Francisco", and "Whiter Shade Of Pale". But more often than not the tracks tend to be originals with a deeply modified American twang and sound less like the cover versions mentioned above. In all cases, the rock on these recordings has an energy of absolute immediacy and urgency that's unlike any of their psychedelic counterparts the globe round.
MPEG Stream: SINN SISAMOUTH "Quando My Love"
MPEG Stream: MEAS SAMOUN "The Engagement"
MPEG Stream: YOL AULARONG "Whiskey Whiskey"

V/A Cambodian Rocks Vol. 2 (Khmer Rocks) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
While most record stores might include Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" as a mainstay album, consistently moving units from its initial release on up to the present, the original Cambodian Rocks collection has been for us a mainstay in its own right. We may not be able to boast the quantities that a larger store might for a staple, but Cambodian Rocks has got to be one of the most universally loved albums here at aQ. So you can imagine we were pretty damn excited when we found out that the collection was being released with full disclosure of musicians, vocalists, recording dates, song titles and lyrics (translated into English!) And if that isn't enough, Khmer Rocks has expanded their version of the collection to two discs! Even better, for all of you owners of the original collection, between these two discs and the original release on Parallel World there are only 5 songs total that overlap! So now you're wondering what the connection is between Khmer Rocks and Parallel World. Well, as far as we can tell, there is absolutely no connection. Seems like Khmer Rocks titled their two discs to capitalize off the original's popularity. And to their credit, they seem a bit more legit, having gone through the trouble of tracking down artists' names and song titles to give credit where credit is due. Not to be too harsh on Parallel World -- their collection is a fucking great compilation, always will be -- but the Khmer Rocks folk seem to be more genuinely indebted to these artists and it shows in their aformentioned efforts. And like Parallel World's collection, all the tracks on these two discs are absolutely great. It would be hard to leave a track out of your iPod if you were short on space. You might just have to get rid of something else. The artists here are all absolute geniuses in their abilities to absorb American rock and roll and tweak it to local tastes. In a lot of ways these bands are like South East Asian versions of the Sun City Girls -- picking up foreign radio transmissions (shortwave radio broadcasts to American military personnel) and subverting them to their own likeness. Some of our favorites are tracks like Meas Samoun's "The Engagement", a completely dirty take on the Santana sound (a lot of these Cambodian rockers seemed to really dig Santana) with an organ (or is it some ridiculously fucked up early seventies guitar processing?) solo that will kill you. Others, like Ros Sereyosthea take an American song part and parcel -- in this case CCR's "Rolling On A River" -- merely inserting their own lyrics and twisting the arrangement. Other twisted renditions sound an awful lot like "Hey Jude", "If You're Going To San Francisco", and "Whiter Shade Of Pale". But more often than not the tracks tend to be originals with a deeply modified American twang and sound less like the cover versions mentioned above. In all cases, the rock on these recordings has an energy of absolute immediacy and urgency that's unlike any of their psychedelic counterparts the globe round.
MPEG Stream: PAN RON "Hippie Men"
MPEG Stream: SINN SISAMOUTH "Missing Tender Care"
MPEG Stream: ROS SEREYSOTHEA "Haircut"

V/A Cambodian Rocks Vol. 3: All Psyched Up (Khmer Rocks) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
It would appear that the Khmer Rocks label is slowly rendering the original Cambodian Rocks compilation on Parallel World obsolete. With each volume of their version of the beloved series there are a smattering of those tracks included -- now better served with full disclosure of the artists' names, song titles and even lyrics! With volume 3 there are three more, leaving you with 16 completely new tracks. We figure that by volume 7 or 8 of the Khmer Rocks series we'll all be able to trade in the original. As a bonus, Khmer Rocks has included two tracks at the end of volume 3 of "Romvong Songs", or Cambodian circle dance songs. It's the label's way of turning on all the garage psychsters to some traditional Cambodian music. The first track is actually a lot like the tracks on the Cambodian rocks discs, but with a bit more swing. The second, by Cambodian superstar Sinn Sisamouth, replaces guitar and bass with flute and clarinet along with traditional Cambodian instruments, but it still has the same intensity of those rock tracks. What can we say? Highly recommended!
MPEG Stream: SINN SISAMOUTH "A Diamond Ring"
MPEG Stream: YOL AULARONG "Number One"
MPEG Stream: SINN SISAMOUTH "The Kickboxer"

V/A Chains And Black Exhaust (Jones) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
BACK IN STOCK! We thought these were gone for good a month ago, but we've just managed to get a few more!
Here's the soundtrack to your wildest blaxploitation-fueled fantasies, baadasssss R&B with an acid rock edge. You'll never need to ask, "Mommy, what's a funkadelic?" after this.
"Chains & Black Exhaust" is a compilation of late sixties/early seventies raw, fuzzed-out funk put together by some young, devotedly-crate-diggin' Memphis DJs, who apparently don't think we need to know what exactly we're listening too, 'cause there's no artist info, no track listing, nothing -- heck, the title of the comp appears nowhere on it, even! They give us a tantalizing but unhelpful glimpse of some original 45 labels in a photo in the cd booklet, which is otherwise illustrated with snapshots of black motorcycle club insignia. We can't imagine this lack of info is for copyright reasons, perhaps they just don't want their finds being identified & scooped by other DJs...? And unfortunately, none of us here, despite our enthusiasm for this stuff and general musical expertise, can tell you what's on here, nor did we locate a tracklist on the internet.
Oh well, whoever these mystery artists are, what's important is that they kick out the jams big time here: hard, heavy stuff full of wailing acid-psych wah wah leads, driving organ, killer grooves, and soulful vocals. It's funk verging on rock, with Black Power meets garagey rock n' roll attitude. Of course, these old singles tracks are served up with lots of lovely ol' vinyl crackle, just scratchy enough to lend that extra level of authenticity and atmosphere to the party. Highly recommended -- if you're into *early* Parliament-Funkadelic you'll dig these 16 cuts. This is one of those albums that just sells itself the second we put it on over the stereo -- even our pal DJ Z-Trip bought one instantly. Enjoyed that Peanut Butter Wolf-produced collection of unearthed funk singles? Then you'll love this one too. Right on.
We're told that *perhaps* someday this will get reissued with proper liner notes (the kind that actually tell you who is on the record at least) but that's at least a year or a year and a half off, if ever. So, we'd recommend grabbing these copies now, while you can, before they're gone, again...
RealAudio clip: BLACKROCK "Yeah Yeah"
RealAudio clip: BLACK MERDA "Cynthy Ruth"
RealAudio clip: UNKNOWN "Get High"

V/A Cherrystones Rocks (Lo) cd 10.98
A very original, wonderfully varied collection of uber-rare international "psych and progressive gems" of the '60s and early '70s presented by Lo Recordings, who've always brought us the cool cutting edge modern electronica. Lo has previously also delved into the past for library music / acid funk compilations...now they go waaaay out with these bizarro rock tracks, picked by British hip hop DJ Garreth Goddard (who records as Cherrystones for the Twisted Nerve label). Obscure artists on here indeed -- we had previously only heard Brazil's Rita Lee (of Os Mutantes) and Detroit R&B hard rockers Frijid Pink (with "Crying Shame", one of their best songs). Garreth's obsessive crate-digging has paid dividends here, making this the kind of comp you've got to get 'cause you'll never find these records OR reissues. It's all groovy, psychedelic, crazed stuff. Some other names: Taiconderoga, Black Cat Bones, Klaus Doldinger, Niagara, Breakout, Mecki Mark Men, Sunbirds, The Mogol, and more. Veering from free-jazz inspired horn soloing to heavy fuzz guitar riffs to spoken beat poetry, the stuff on here is all over the place yet is freaky, funky, fried fun that really seems to belong together -- kudos to the DJ. Awesome.
RealAudio clip: PUGH "Love, Love, Love"
RealAudio clip: FRIJID PINK "Crying Shame"
RealAudio clip: ROLF AND JOACHIM KUHN AND THE MAD ROCKERS "Funny Bird"