S.E.

I'm surprised you haven't put in a plug for your namesake.
Metal Box is a psychedelic record in many ways:

It's disorienting
It mimics a drug induced haze
It breaks some essential pop music rules

That's why I love it. It's hard to listen to Poptones and walk in a straight line.

-A

alex maiolo wrote:S.E.

I'm surprised you haven't put in a plug for your namesake.
Metal Box is a psychedelic record in many ways:

It's disorienting
It mimics a drug induced haze
It breaks some essential pop music rules

That's why I love it. It's hard to listen to Poptones and walk in a straight line.

-A

I thought I already had...not sure though. I do know I mentioned Tricky's Pre-Millennium Tension and compared that to Metal Box (and there are similarities in tone). I've drooled over Metal Box enough times by now to feel slightly embarrassed about doing so, but...

All right. This record is pure misanthropic hatred coming together and separating like light through a spectrum in these ways:

1) Jah Wobble's bass sound is oceanic. It takes over your mind. No one sounded like this before or after. It is huge, subsonic, possibly downtuned; dub bass, except subtly demonic in its delusional repetition and persistence - which is the scariest evil of all. Wobble uses Ampeg basses and bass amps. I saw a cheap Series 10 Ampeg copy bass and seriously deliberated buying the damn thing for a long time before someone else did. Eastwood's reissue of the Ampeg AEB-1 bass is on my instrument wish list simply because of the Wobble connection; I want that sound.

2) Keith Levene's guitar and synth stylings expose and extend the pulsing hatred inherent in Wobble's basslines; the Wobble sound is kind of like evil being held in check, while the Levene sound on guitar is that of someone completely losing their shit, expressed musically, and the Levene synth is the sound of an anxiety attack.

3) John Lydon verbalizes the hatred the music embodies, and vocalizes accordingly; his most lyrically harrowing performances are to be found here without question.

4) The drums drum along. They're solid and low-pitched. Many drummers were used for the sessions. I particularly like the oh-so-disco drumming from Dave Humphrey on "Albatross" and "Swan Lake" and dig all of Richard Dudanski's contributions (about half of the record). Levene drummed on "Poptones" despite never having really played drums before; you can hear it, but he keeps time - really abuses the ride and crash cymbals. Martin Atkins changed the beat when he played it live, for the better - way more fluid and groovy - but the studio version kind of wavers in and out...the mix on that track is nuts, there are at least seven or eight guitar overdubs on that track all playing variations of the same thing, and not like Bruce Springsteen overdubbing a dozen guitar tracks on "Born To Run". It sounds like each guitar track was recorded or played in a slightly different way each time and then mixed down accordingly. The song fucks with your head.

5) Pretty much every song on here is brilliant; there is only one song I'm not absolutely nuts about and that's Bad Baby, which is great but meanders. It feels much more like a directionless jam that just happens to be great than the other tracks do, even though they all pretty much came about under drug-induced, directionless jamming.

Psychedelic music, as a genre title, is clumsy; it fails to differentiate between music that evokes the hallucinogenic state versus music that sounds good on hallucinogens (Tomorrow Never Knows by The Beatles vs Trans Europe Express by Kraftwerk). Maybe this vagueness works in it's favor, because either camps have those who created the music under the influence of hallucinogens (Syd Barrett) and those who sought to imitate them through evocation of subject matter (the Count Five, Seeds). Personally, I let the distinction blur a bit because I wasn't around to witness it first-hand and split hairs even further.

Anyhow, a lot of the German psych/prog seems immensely influenced not just by Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd, but post-Syd Floyd as well (first Tangerine Dream albums). Ash Ra Tempel definitely should be heard by fans of Acid Mother's Temple, for obvious reasons.
The Outsider's "Q65" album is good scandanavian psych in the vein of Nuggets, while on the Turkish side of things I'd really, truly, fully recommend the vinyl repressing of the self-titled LP by Selda (on the Finders Keepers label). Fucking impervious music. Try the "Peace, Love, and Poetry" Turkish volume if you're hesitant.
United States of America
Silver Apples
Both musically progressive, unpreoccupied psych. Timeless.
Pretty Things. "S.F. Sorrow" & "Parachute". You'll love them if you like Led Zeppelin at all.
Make sure you know Can. Can is always good for those who Can't.

SecondEdition wrote:Really? I thought the general consensus was that Zeit was bullshit, but I haven't heard it. Is it underrated?

I think it's their best album by a long, long way, although I like the records prior to and immediately following it well enough. I believe it took a lot of criticism because it was so minimal that a lot of journalists and/or fans could only make sense of it as a joke. I think it's beautiful music though.

YURA YURA TEIKOKU

Highly overlooked Japanese psych band. They have a few dozen nice psych pop singles. Some of which are on their my space. If you go deeper in their catalog you'll find some really great jams.

www.myspace.com/yurayurateikoku

ALSO,

alex maiolo wrote:Also, Beta Band did their own version. Sort of psych folk with some loops every now and then. I think they were really under rated.

Absolutely. Its way too fashionable to hate the Beta Band. Its so fucking predictable. Most have never given them a fair listen but, when asked, will say that they don't like them. The beta band were WAY over looked. Fact: The Beta Band are a good band.

If you disagree or have never given them a fair listen. Start with

"Dr. Baker"
The whole fucking Hot Shots 2 album.
"It's Not Too Beautiful"

belmont wrote:I once had in my collection a record from the band THE REVERB MOTHERFUCKERS.

I think this might be my favorite band name ever.

What did they sound like?

-A

John George Peppers wrote:Absolutely. Its way too fashionable to hate the Beta Band. Its so fucking predictable. Most have never given them a fair listen but, when asked, will say that they don't like them. The beta band were WAY over looked. Fact: The Beta Band are a good band.

If you disagree or have never given them a fair listen. Start with

"Dr. Baker"
The whole fucking Hot Shots 2 album.
"It's Not Too Beautiful"

I think the reason people slag them is because they were shamelessly promoted in High Fidelity (movie). "Best opening track ever?"
I love Dry The Rain, but please.
I suppose the fact that Astralwerks were involved with the movie *had* nothing to do with that.
Not their fault though.

You're right, they were fantastic.

Have you seen the DVD? That is some psychedelic shit. On top of that, it's like they invented their own type of psychedelia. It's genuinely messed up in a great way.

Human Being is a great damn song and so are the ones you listed.

Thanks for the Japanese band rec. SOMEBODY has to pick up where The Mops left off.

-A

alex maiolo wrote:

John George Peppers wrote:Absolutely. Its way too fashionable to hate the Beta Band. Its so fucking predictable. Most have never given them a fair listen but, when asked, will say that they don't like them. The beta band were WAY over looked. Fact: The Beta Band are a good band.

If you disagree or have never given them a fair listen. Start with

"Dr. Baker"
The whole fucking Hot Shots 2 album.
"It's Not Too Beautiful"

I think the reason people slag them is because they were shamelessly promoted in High Fidelity (movie). "Best opening track ever?"
I love Dry The Rain, but please.
I suppose the fact that Astralwerks were involved with the movie *had* nothing to do with that.
Not their fault though.

You're right, they were fantastic.

Have you seen the DVD? That is some psychedelic shit. On top of that, it's like they invented their own type of psychedelia. It's genuinely messed up in a great way.

Human Being is a great damn song and so are the ones you listed.

Thanks for the Japanese band rec. SOMEBODY has to pick up where The Mops left off.

-A

WOW, Your right, I never made the High Fidelity connection. I could go on a rant about that but I'll let it be. Poor bastards. They were really on to something. I have seen the DVD and it's good, but nothing beats being at their live shows.

Has anyone mentioned Sarena Maneesh from Norway or The Psychic Ills from New York City?

TOMORROW - Tomorrow

TWINK - Think Pink

HAWKWIND - Hall of the Mountain Grill

The Warlocks - Heavy Deavy Skull Lover