Ash Ra Tempel - New Age of Earth

I just discovered the exit gate through the labyrinth inside Manuel Gottsching's mind. Now I'm in the garden inside the New Age of Earth. Follow me here!

Ash Ra Tempel - New Age of Earth
link borrowed from this amazing blog.

Sunburned Hand of the Man - Fire Escape

Fire Escape, was released by Smalltown Supersound on October 2, 2007. Produced by Kieran Hebden (Four Tet), and led these days by John Moloney, Sunburned Hand of the Man is not a band in the traditional sense, Sunburned is a collection of like minded artists and musicians gathered together for the purposes of group exploration and an undying search for the 'ecstatic truth'.

Kieran Hebden's relationship with Sunburned Hand of the Man began after Hebden read an article in The Wire that touted Sunburned Hand Of The Man as leaders of the "New Weird America". The story sent Hebden on a search of Sunburned records and he's been a fan of them ever since. Sunburned supported Four Tet for a two-week tour in the spring of 2004. A couple of years later in March 2006, Hebden asked the band if they would like him to record them in a London studio (the Exchange) with the idea that he would take the recordings and construct his vision of a Sunburned record. Fire Escape is that vision.

Both Sunburned Hand of the Man and Smalltown Supersound are fans of Boredoms and they asked the band's leader, Yamatsuka Eye, to create the artwork for Fire Escape. The artwork Eye created perfectly captures the band, the album and the sound.

This is practically one of my favorite albums of the century!

Sunburned - Fire Escape

Lucky Dragons - Widows

Luke Fischbeck has been making Lucky Dragons music for almost seven years. He is an industrious tinkerer, and very clever with words. He has made so much great music in the past seven years that States Rights Records recently released a retrospective of his work entitled Sewing Circle. Fischbeck's fourth album, Widows, was recorded on three separate occasions, then endlessly torn apart and mashed together over the course of a year. One of the things Fischbeck discovered with this album was "a tradition of American culture that I agreed with, even felt inspired by. This is my attempt at making American music - music that describes and remembers and criticizes and embraces and expresses and illustrates and ornaments and digests and shits out what it means to be American." With an impressive array of instrumentalists and Fischbeck's established talent, Widows is truly mythical, mystical, and amazing.

Lucky Dragons - Widows

Religious Knives - Resin

Maya Miller and Mike Bernstein (Double Leopards) and Nate Nelson along with Todd Cavallo (Mouthus) are together 'Religious Knives'. Since their first release for No Fun Productions, the collection of early LP's/singles entitled 'Remains', the Religious Knives have grown into a stunningly assured and powerful rock n' roll band of sorts, one liberally and noticeably immersed in the smoke-addled haze of the psychedelic underground. Resin marches ahead with a vigorous potency that accurately shares its bloodline with the best psychedelic acts of the past. This is Brooklyn's true Psychedelic Rock.

Religious Knives - Resin part 1
Religious Knives - Resin part 2

White Rainbow - Zome

White Rainbow's ZOME is the first major release by Adam Forkner since his great [[[[VVRSSNN]]]] album and the first major release under the White Rainbow name. The music is soft, growing, beautiful, patient, and breathing. It is 4 songs and 42 minutes that is such a peaceful and beautiful piece of music to listen to again and again.

Here is what Adam says about this album:

"ZOME was recorded in the fall of 2003 with members of Landing in their attic studio as an audio love letter to my (at that point very new) eternal love vibe-partner Honey Owens. It Is the last sort of "ambient rock" recordings I've made, with guitars, effects, keyboards, bass, vocals, drums, and drum machine. It was during my national tour in support of my very first solo record called [[[[VVRSSNN]]]]. At the time of this recording, all the VVRSSNN vibes were starting to dissapear and the idea of White Rainbow as a name and a vibe and a more infinite concept was born. So this is sort of a segue between what i was doing as VVRSSNN and the more abstract ambient music I have been developing for the two years since then. It is one of my favorite recordings I have ever made and I am so proud and happy that is it finally coming out. So please, give it a listen and let me know what you think!"

White Rainbow - Zome

Sunburned Hand of the Man - Headdress

This group is spiritually aligned in the same smoke-filled room with other such contemporary purveyors of modern psych as The No Neck Blues Band, Six Organs of Admittance, The Major Stars, Charalambides, and very few others. Headdress opens tentatively enough with a repetitive spindle of staccato guitar and vocal yelp, pronouncements of the coming celebration. Then, this 11-piece ensemble begins to engage and take off, employing bass, djembe, shakers, horns, flutes, keys and congas to produce a hypnotic mix that burns with percussive clatter, incisive guitar, rhythmic drones and the respective, shared passions of friends.

Sunburned Hand of the Man - Headdress

Soft Circle - Full Bloom

Hisham Bharoocha was a former Black Dice and Lightning Bolt member, and now he is Soft Circle. Soft Circle’s sound can be rightfully compared to contemporaries like Animal Collective, Boredoms and former band Black Dice, but with all its similarities Full Bloom seems a little too equally contrived a slightly watered down. As a drummer, Bharoocha’s method includes an abundant, restrained use of his drum kit along with swirling guitars and Panda Bear vocals circa Young Prayer. The effect is a sort of ambient spiritualism that you would be likely to find on a White Rainbow album.

Soft Circle - Full Bloom

The Lickets - Journey in Caldecott

Released online at pay-your-own prices the same day that Radiohead set In Rainbows loose, Journey in Caldecott is Chicago duo The Lickets’ fourth album. Featuring a transcendental mini-orchestra, Mitch Greer and Rachel Smith deliver a trippy journey through mythical lands and lush sonic forests. After all, Journey in Caldecott is more than just the album title, it’s the entire concept behind this work. This IS a journey, from the opium drenched “Crowd of Pimps in the Rain,” to the unholy temples worshiping the “Rabbit Moon,” ending with the quiet celebration of a quest finished with “The Beekeeper.” Haunting, eerie, and altogether unique, The Lickets pull from numerous influences—at one point sounding like an Old World procession and an Indian throne room the next. With tracks like “Smoking Hippie” and numerous self-references to ‘60s psychedelia, there may be a suggestion that this music is better experienced with the aid of some sort of (ahem) medication, but no such enhancement is needed. This is indeed a mystical trek of an album, one that you’ve never experienced before and never will again. To sample the music, The Lickets even provide a literal journey through Caldecott on their website (it’s sort of like a Victorian Myst), complete with their music as a soundtrack. Take a sample, don’t be afraid to get hooked—all the cool kids are doing it.

The Lickets - Journey in Caldecott part 1
The Lickets - Journey in Caldecott part 2

Brightblack Morning Light - s/t

Nathan "Nabob" Shineywater dan Rachael "Rabob" atau "Rabinyah" Hughes adalah dua sahabat sejak kecil yang berasal dari Alabama, dan memulai band (Rainywood) untuk manggung pertama kali di Alabama Green Fest tahun 2001 yang hanya dikunjungi 15 orang-an. Thank god Will Oldham atau Bonnie "Prince" Billy ada disana dan menyaksikan mereka manggung. Will suka, dan instantly menjadi fan. Akhirnya, yeah tentu saja diajak tour bersama. Lucky? not very.

Musik yang dimainkan duo yang akhirnya menamakan dirinya Brightblack Morning Light ini memang membius. Elemen yang digunakan hanya berupa instrumen minimalis, beraroma psychedelic, dengan memasukkan unsur Blues, Soul, R & B, Gospel dan American Roots lainnya. Nabob dengan gitarnya membesut sayatan Alabama Blues yang sangat kental, membalut beat mid-tempo yang seolah ditahan lajunya oleh zat-zat kimia jahat yang mencegah kesadaran. Percussion, brass dan gaungan vokal dua menambah the warmth of the album. Namun core yang disajikan dalam musik mereka ternyata datang dari sweet tones of Fender Rhodes Piano yang dimainkan oleh Rabob. Hmm nggak tepat juga sih kalo dibilang sweet tones, karena hook-hook blues yang dihasilkan Rabob ternyata makin menambah alunan psychedelic 60's menjadi-jadi di udara. Vokal lemah nan malas Nabob seperti memaksa kita untuk terus mengikuti trip sampai habis.

Album ini dimulai dengan "Everybody Daylight", the hit single. Intro bluesy yang disambut raungan duo hippie ini langsung mengajak kita naik ke wagon pelangi yang akan berkeliling taman nirwana. Sinting. Tempo lagu-lagu yang dimainkan di album ini rata-rata sama, terkesan monoton, namun justru the constant beats bikin kita penasaran seperti apa track yang menunggu sesudahnya. "Friend of Time" menyuguhkan lapisan suara wind chime di awal lagu, memberi kesan Summer yang sangat sempurna untuk pergi ke danau dan menyantap beberapa jamur ajaib. Jangan tergesa-gesa beranjak, nikmati saja cool breeze yang datang menghantam kuping mu dari belakang. Jangan pikirkan waktu yang terbuang, karena "Think about time is wasting time" kata Nabob. "Fry Bread" lebih groovy sekaligus gelap, seperti The Doors yang sedang jam session di kuburan tua pada sore hari yang dingin. "Amber Canyon Magik" adalah track yang sadis, nuansanya hangat, dengan mantra yang dihembuskan repeatedly dari sela-sela percussion yang ringan, dan voíla, sweet tines of wind chimes muncul lagi, namun kali ini di akhir lagu yang tiba-tiba mentransformasi aura ruangan menjadi groovy kembali di "Black Feather Wishes Rise". "We Share Our Blanket with the Owl" yang instrumental bernuansa indian mengakhiri album, mengantar kita keluar dari tenda psychedelia dan kembali ke wagon pelangi untuk bangkit dari perjalanan spiritual yang tak terbandingkan ini. Aneh dan agak sedikit membesar-besarkan memang, namun ini adalah kejujuran. I'm telling the right thing, and that's what this music hut is all about. Coolness.

Coolness juga di temukan di diri Nabob dan Rabob. Mereka (yang mengaku memiliki darah Native American somewhere) menolak total kehidupan kota dan lebih memilih hidup di kawasan rural di Carolina Utara, living in tents during the warmer months and a small cabin in the winter.

As written by N. Shineywater and R. Hughes on the Matador website:

"These collections of songs were written by two homeless friends from Alabama while living in tents in rural Northern California. The majority of this recording was completed without a permanent shelter. Our mixed blood holds some American Indian somewhere, but we have no reservation to live. Yet we make a deliberate attempt to be indigenous to the Earth nearby, away from city babylons. Matador Records asked us to record our songs, and this LP is what came of it.

If we travel with friends to your town sharing songs, we are grateful for that. We hope you will be too."

Cool or What?!

Brightblack Morning Light - selt titled

V/A - Hallucinations: Psychedelic Pop Nuggets from the WEA Vaults

Alright kids the 60's isinya bukan cuma Beatles dan the Stones. tapi juga ribuan band keren dengan rasa psychedelic yang lebih berwarna daripada pelangi. Kalo lo denger San Francisco era 60-an, apalagi Golden Gate Park, pasti otak lo langsung referring to suatu tempat ngumpul drug-headed hippie berdansa ria dibawah matahari, main layangan, minum bir diatas tikar, have sex di semak semak, baca puisi, dan lain-lain yang pasti ga jauh-jauh dari panggung rock n' roll.

What are you about to download, adalah album kompilasi lagu-lagu psychedelic pop 60-an yang sarat aroma Golden Gate Park. Band-band juara macam Kim Foley, The Electric Prunes, Lee Mallory dan Adrian Pride yang sempat menghantam rongga udara di langit California saat

itu ikutan masuk menjadi pengisi album ini. Okay okay tapi psychedelic pop kayak apaan sih? well, kira-kira gini: psychedelic pop adalah musical style yang terinspirasi dari psychedelic rock yang soundnya lebih keras, namun diaplikasikan ke suatu bentuk musik yang bersetting pop. Sebenernya pada dasarnya kebanyakan band psychedelic pop merupakan band pop/rock konvensional, hanya menggunakan ornamen-ornamen psychedelic seperti sitar, fuzz bass, tape music, lirik yang sarat hal-hal spiritual dan natural, dll. Namun banyak juga yang hanya berupa pop/rock group biasa, tapi memfokuskan ciri psychedelicnya pada fashion style-nya yang extreme. Pernah liat Jefferson Airplane atau Donovan? mereka punya fashion style yang sangat "Flower Generation", tapi juga mampu menciptakan musik yang lebih trippy dari pakaiannya.

Okay lo mungkin butuh LSD atau Psylocibin untuk bersiap menghadapi track pembuka album ini. Hallucinations oleh Baker Night & The Nightmares keren mengusung sunshine rock n' roll yang sangat bersemangat. Efek-efek trippy ga bisa dicegah, bikin kita berhalusinasi sambil tak terasa bergoyang terseret beat. Even more genius, track kedua oleh The Misty Wizards masuk dengan harmonisasi vokal ala The Zombies atau Beach Boys yang sangat apik. Gaungan solo gitar di tengah lagu lagi-lagi bikin kita berhalusinasi. Even more you listen, even greater the vibration! seiring lagu berjalan dan berganti ke lagu berikut semakin terasa pula aura psychedelia yang membumbung tinggi. Key track dalam album ini dipegang oleh Adrian Pride dengan lagunya Her Name is Melody. Vokal dan melodinya yang terdengar kental terpengaruh Ravi Shankar bercampur apik dengan fuzzy guitars seperti ramuan sakti yang diciptakan tetua suku di India yang akan diberikan kepada pemuda desa yang baru saja masuk puber dan dilegalkan untuk bercinta dengan kekasihnya. Kim Foley pun tak mau kalah dengan outerspace spaz rock maut miliknya berjudul Strangers From the Sky. Beberapa detik UFO effects di intro akan membuatmu merinding hingga akhirnya mengagetkanmu dengan masuknya drum. If you're hearing this using headphones, then you will feel as you are in some silver spaceship, berbaring di bawah wajah-wajah asing alien yang bereksperimen dengan tubuhmu. And suddenly flute masuk dengan seruan sang alien berkata "There is life on Alpha-Centauri, the north periphere. Eyes of the living stars has seen us!". Yes, pure psychedelic experience extra-galaxy. Bayangkan zat apa yang diinject mr. green man kedalam tubuhmu! tentunya bukan asam lysergic diethylamide biasa. Apa yang terjadi? akankah berakhir? kau dilanda kepanikan karena zat tersebut membuat segala sesuatu menjadi perak dan terdengar suara-suara Dr. Leary dari penjuru ruangan. Who's to help? Lee Mallory mungkin lebih tau hal ini dan ia akan menyuruhmu bersabar menghadapi ini, That's The Way It's Gonna Be, Wait and See. The rest of the trip depends on how calm your souls menghadapi perjalanan luar jiwa ini. Have a nice trip.

This trip is extremely for use under experienced supervision. Unresponsible use can cause bad trip, or even flip out.

V/A - Hallucinations: Psychedelic Pop Nuggets from the WEA Vaults part 1

V/A - Hallucinations: Psychedelic Pop Nuggets from the WEA Vaults part 2