60's Psychedelia

^ I think they did do, but they would be unavailable now as See For Miles seem to have gone out of business. Tracks from those bands seem to be all available on those 'Scene' compilations Deram did a few years ago which I think were reissued last year and should be easy to get- eg; the Psychedelic Scene, the Freakbeat Scene etc. I need to get some of those myself, actually.

Don't get me wrong, I like 'Pictures Of Matchstick Men' as a piece of schlock psych. There were clones of that song Quo recorded after the success of 'Pictures...' like 'Technicolour Dreams', 'Black Veils Of Melancholy' and 'Paradise Lost' which were all duff and they all suitably bombed, selling nothing. Quo's heart was obviously not in it as they later, as you say, veered to a blues rock/boogie sound which I much preferred from them.

There was a UK cover of 'Hot Smoke and Sassafras' by a band called The Mooche- a great track, as was the B side to that called 'Seen Through A Light'. There's another excellent UK psych compilation called 'Hot Smoke and Sassafras' which features a lot of excellent psych pop material from the Pye Records archive.

'Sunshine Superman' is my fave Donovan album, actually. I think it showed him starting to really think outside the box and go beyond the folk route he'd taken (which led some to call him a Dylan clone).

progismylife wrote: I would suggest Quicksilver Messenger Service (I don't remember if that's the band name or album name). I saw it in a Doors bio. Definetly worth checking out.

No, Quicksilver Messenger Service were one of the most acclaimed psych bands of the mid to late 60s. I recommend the eponymous debut and 'Happy Trails' but they seem to lose it after those albums, being just another West Coast rock act with little to distinguish them from hundreds of others.

Some not yet mentioned masterpieces:

White Noise is a must have!

1. C.A Quintet - Trip Thru Hell


2. United States of America


3. Silver Apples


4. Os Mutantes (+ Mutantes)

ResidentAlien wrote: Have it.  Anyone intend to answer my question on the Iron Butterfly album?

What question is that? I have Heavy (I think it is the debut) and it is really good.

Rocktopus wrote: 2. United States of America

It's considered as an essential album in the psychedelic realm.     

Is it really good BTW?

oliverstoned wrote: Is it really good BTW?

I defenatly think it is.

Unlike the academic Kevin Holm-Hudson, I can't see any reason to dismiss the psychedelia connection. Only reason must be that the sound of most other psychedelia albums of '67, sound like plain 60's beatpop compared to this one. 

It has everything from spaced out electronic/experimental tracks with vocaldistortion and samples, hymns and modernsounding (not unlike Broadcast/Stereolab, both bands being big fans) quirky pop. As diverse, unique and revolutionary as White Noise: An Electric Storm from '69.

Rocktopus wrote: 1. C.A Quintet - Trip Thru Hell

Don't forget this one!

Released 1969 on Candy Floss
Reviewed by The Seth Man, 12th December 2000ce

“Trip Thru Hell” is surrounded by its two-part title track, and its theme of wordless woman wail will continually reappear eerily throughout the rest of the album from time to time…when you least expect it. Part one of “Trip Thru Hell” is a haunting, nine-minute instrumental odyssey and plain scary at times, the main theme overlaid and woven within its chanteuse wailing and only interrupted by cross fade by: an over-phased drum solo, an organ-led trip piece, and finally a churning and completely not right noise guitar solo that sounds like a recording of a sputtering car engine trying to start and plugged through a chain of distortion and fuzzboxes while slowing and speeding up pitch at random. It really starts to shriek at about the same time you realise that for all its lighter moments, this guided tour of Sheol will have moments just as heavy, and it is those that remain to petrify and terrify. The main theme fades back in, maintaining the previous interludes as portraits of perilous hellfire or the infamous in their torment. But then again, seeing as The C.A.Q. s spelt their album’s title “Thru” and not “Through”, it does also operate on the level of a battle of the bands winner presenting a jerry-rigged haunted house spectacular after exam week by dropping a couple tabs and playing in the dark in the corner with painted faces, a totally warped 45 played on 16rpm on a portable record player while some of their girlfriends scream behind a curtain. But it’s this very hand-stitched quality that makes “Trip Thru Hell” so convincing. I’m sure lead vocalist, lyricist and trumpet player Ken Erwin didn’t have to bone up on Dante’s “Inferno” to get a convincingly “hellish” and oftentimes trippy feel to his lyrics, while the arrangements present their democratic ensemble-lising amazingly well.
“Colorado Mourning” outlines “The Letter” by The Box Tops, but with blaring trumpet lines and cavernous vocals that end with more strident trumpets, as though signaling all rise to hail an entering technicolour Hollywood king. Cross fading out of this abrupt blast is the cool, serene and always unsettling main theme from “Trip Thru Hell”. “Cold Spider” begins with quiet bass and spooky organ, filigree guitar and a snare roll as the words “Cold spider…cold spider…cold spider” precede an echoed cry for help. The guitar solo intertwines with fuzzed-out hits and brash, soaring feedback drones as it turns into a simple but effective two-guitar feedback war. “Underground Music” opens with a brief feedback flourish, paving the wave for Ken Erwin’s celebratory trumpets to blare out the melody line before the he sings with melodic harmony vocals the explanatory lines: “It’s the music for the mind/Underground music/Underground, so fine”. What it is in fact is a pop single with a three and a half minute feedback freakout featuring guitarist Tom Pohling hitting all the wrong places at the right time, using wah-wah and generally sounding like he’s operating on his guitar with the entire contents of a toolbox as he continually belabours his already smoking Vox amp. Then guitar riff splits off into two separate leads, going neck to neck and constantly outdo themselves in an ever- throttling manner. The repeating drum and organ pattern is then left to continue its turtle pace alone once the two guitars burn up and drop out entirely. A few seconds later, the lyrics come back to hurry the song to its pop finale, complete with brash trumpet trills. Did that song happen out loud?
A trudging organ crawls behind “Sleepy Hollow Lane”, a forsaken place “where nothing ever grows”. Dismal and dank, “You can go there anytime you want/And it will always rain”. Even if you brought both umbrella and torch here, you will still trip over a tree root and flee screaming “Jimmy crack corn and I don’t care!” Then the eternally spooked main theme of “Trip Thru Hell” reappears (but passes by the doorway only long enough, like in that ONE hallway scene in “Repulsion” to completely make you do a double take and shiver). A gong crashes open “Smooth As Silk”, and Erwin’s trumpets are to the fore once more and ultimately catchy in the bridge while the guitar is still sputtering fuzz and distortion throughout. The organ fills are all over the place in a completely 1966 Vox Continental manner, swelling all over the place and over-recorded. Which only adds to the diaphanousness of the whole feel as well as providing a sensuous backdrop to the lines “Don’t stop to wonder/If I’m real/I float on by you”…because he’s smooth as silk and flying pretty high, at that. But despite this track’s abundantly optimistic air, all cascades back to the ultimate return of “Trip Thru Hell (Part 2), the last song. Heralding trumpets straight out of a medieval Hollywood constructed Technicolor palace resound with “Hear ye, hear ye!” ALMOST corniness. But then both Ken Erwin and 16-year old Toni Crockett (the female voice on “Trip Thru Hell” -- that otherworldly voice emanated forth from a junior in high school!) “ooooo-ooo-oooo” a bit longer until the guitar comes in. And when it does, it’s time for flight or fight, because after a final blast of trumpets (what are they heralding now?), the now already-too-familiar main theme returns, and when it ends, it is the last time it appears on the record. What enters but an incredibly bouncy, bass-led percussion segue that sounds far too happy go lucky for…Hell.

Ah, that’s what you thought. (cue evil laughter)
WELCOME..!

Everything then tears apart, the curtain of the former jolly percussion scene is now revealed for what it truly is: brimstone, flames, lava…you name it: It’s all here in musical form as backward lead guitar flies all around and stretches against the organ as everything begins to speed up faster, faster, FASTER until it all explodes into a startling freak out of descending bassline, wah-wahed guitar, screaming and more scraping f**ked-ness until…a clock chimes as the music starts to fade out, continuing well past the music’s exit.
Was it all a dream, or just another awakening?
Oh, “Dead Of Night” is on tonight?
Let’s watch it and get r-e-a-l-l-y creeped out.

From Julian Cope Presents Head Heritage, Unsung.