earls psychedelic garden

Sunday, 16 June 2013

Les Rallizes Dénudés - Laid Down '76 Again

Perennial favourites. Recorded live at at Shibuya Yaneura . July 22nd 1976 . Originally released on the 'Volcanic Performances' four CD set as a bonus disc.. ..




1.  A Memory Is Far - 2;48
2, Imprnovisation Fragment - 1;35
3. Dream - 7;00
4. Field of Artificial Flowers - 12;44
5. Night Of The Assassins - 10;11
6. Deeper Than The Night - 4;51
7. Imprnovisation #2 - 8;07
8. The Last One Improvisation -  10;46






German Oak - German Oak


Self produced debut  from 1972.  Recorded in a Dusseldorf air raid shelter . This reissue adds three tracks . Bonus tracks being 1,2,3..   'Swastika Rising' has an eerie vibe similar  to early Amon Duul . ..'Shadows Of War' in two parts is fucking bleak. War is hell.. 'a portrait of the soldiers feelings during the war' .. 
 What's follows is a mixed bag 'Airelert' is too short .'Down In The Bunker ' drags until the  last five minuites .  'Raid Over Dusseldorf ' is stellar . The band wake up 'rocking' out to an infectious groove   . '1945 -Out Of The Ashes 'is 'Airalert' part two..



1. Swastika Rising (4:55) 
2.The Third Reich (10:18 ) 
3. Shadows Of War (5:54) a) Rain Of Destruction b) V1 To London 
4. Airalert (1:50) 
5. Down In The Bunker (17:51) 
6. Raid Over Dusseldorf (16:02) 
                                7. 1945 - Out Of The Ashes (2:14)













                             


                                         Fuhrer meets Band Of Gypsies .

Friday, 14 June 2013

Michael Head - The Magical World of The Strands





 Influenced by  Nick Drake and Love .This is one of the best albums from the 1990's . Sought after and bought on the strength of a positive review in the NME .. These days it's a rarity and very expensive. 

review below..

Michael Head, former frontman of the Pale Fountains and current co-leader along with his brother John -- who is also a Strand -- of Brit pop outfit Shack, turns in a stellar chamber pop performance with Magical World of the Strands. Head, who is no stranger to either classy, baroque pop or neo-psychedelia, has composed an album of gorgeously illustrated songs that are lushly orchestrated by a standard rock quartet augmented by a flutist (Leslie Roberts) and a string quartet. The result is an album that, while little known, is a classic, a masterpiece of modern chamber pop. Released in 1997, this disc walks the line between the deep, darkly expressionistic chamber work of the Tindersticks to the airy, classically augmented breeze-laden pop of Nick Drake à la Five Leaves Left -- long before the millennium obsession with Drake's work began anew because of a Volkswagen commercial. The disc's two openers, "Queen Matilda" and "Something Like You," are so striking in their seductive, tenderness. The ghost of Drake is everywhere, floating in and hovering with the string section. In the refrain to "Something Like You," one can even hear his voice in Head's phrasing. The difference is in how Head composes a lyric, more economical and more expressive; he gets to the essence of the very image he's trying to write about and leaves the listener to fill in the blanks with the musical arrangements. In many ways this music could have been recorded in the early '70s, but with its economic line and outrageously large harmonic terrains -- between the strings and the guitars -- it could have only been written and recorded when it was. The feeling in this music is timeless; it's a pop music that has never been made by Americans, though more than a few have aspired. What reverberates through it on every track -- from the direct lyrical reverie of "X Hits the Spot," with its jangling guitars and subtle backbeat, to "It's Harvest Time," which calls in the spirit of Dave Cousins and Strawbs with open, ringing 12 strings, and piping, echoplexed flute, to the electric-acoustic guitar tradeoff between Michael and James in "Fontilan," with its melancholic theme and spacious mix that has the strings swelling underneath the guitars -- is musical savvy, compositional classiness, and an aesthetic sensibility that is at once completely, utterly artful, while being completely accessible to anyone with an interest in well-written, -played, -produced, and -sung pop. This record will be selling for hundreds of dollars ten years from now, mark my words. (allmusic)


 1. Queen Maltida 
2. Something You Like 
3. And Luna 
4. X Hits The Spot 
5. The Prize 
6. Undecided (reprise)
7. Glynys And Jaqui 
8. It's Harvest Time 
9. Loaded Man 
I0. Hocken's Hey 
11. Fontilan



Wednesday, 12 June 2013

The Beta Band - The Beta Band .







1.The Beta Band Rap  – 4:41  
2.It's Not Too Beautiful  – 8:29 
3. Simple Boy – 2:18  
4.Round the Bend – 4:56
5 Dance O'er the Border  – 5:33 
6.Brokenupadingdong – 4:46 
7.Number 15 – 6:49
 8.Smiling – 8:35 
 9.The Hard One – 10:06 
10,The Cow's Wrong  – 5:49



The Three ep's compilation was released to universal acclaim ten months earlier...The  'Beta Band' album 'proper' didn't fare as well . The group didn't help matters by rubbishing the album before it the shops. Something to do with a unreasonable deadline and a tight budget  .. Track one...'The Beta Band Rap'  tells the tale of how the band came into being . Each verse is done in a different musical genre .  From the infectious , effecting chug - a - chug riff  to the John Barry 'Black Hole Theme ' sample  at the finish . 'It's Not Too Beautiful ' is epic..  ....   'Simple Boy ' and 'Round The Bend'  are clever pop songs......'Dance O'er The Border' , 'Brokenupadingdong', 'Smiling' . Dance floor friendly laden with baggy beats.. .  The band enter dub territory with the infectious 'Number 15 ....... The Hard One' is a psychedelic masterwerk . Adding  layers of effects to the piano coda and lyric from  Bonnie Tyler's 'Total Eclipse From The Heart' . Turning Jim Stiemans original idea inside out  .  Lastly 'The Cows Wrong ' is the come down , drifting off into the ether..Very good album as it turned out..



link

Wednesday, 5 June 2013

Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros - Redemption Song







1. Redemption Song
2. Arms Aloft
3. Armagideon Time (live)



Dubsteady Vol 1


 Dub and Roots Mix..



1 Saturday Night Style - Mikey Dread
2. Warrior Charge - Aswad
3. Butter Fe Fish - Skin, Flesh & Bones
4. Milk And Honey - Lucy Lizzard 
5. Born Free - Michael Rose ; Black Uhuru
6. Rock Vibration - Yabby U / King Tubby 
7. Dub Fi  Gwan - Aggrovators; King Tubby
8. King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown - King Tubby Agustus Pablo
9. Dub MPLA - Tapper Zukie
10. Rock in Me Dub - Thompson All Stars 
11. Deliver Me from My Enemies - Yabby U
12. Bag Of Wire Dub - King Tubby
13. Pit Of Snakes - Burning Spear and The Taxi Gang
14. Words -  Lee "Scratch" Perry; Sangie Davis