A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble - The Wizards of Oz

After two years of extensive crate-digging and foraging the Amorphous Androgynous return with the latest installment in their award winning series ‘A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble (Exploding In Your Mind) – The Wizards Of Oz’, released through Monstrous Bubble Recordings and Australia’s iconic Festival Records.

‘The Wizards Of Oz’ is devoted exclusively to the rich heritage of cosmic space music of our Antipodean brothers and sisters and in common with previous volumes traces the lineage from the sixties to the present day with sonic delights from every decade in between.

Across the double CD there is a 2 hour DJ mix of 34 tracks where we are treated to everything from Kiwi Krautrock to Aboriginal space jazz to OZ dream pop to cOZmic funkrok: CYBOTRON / TAME IMPALA / KANGURU / RUSSELL MORRIS / GEOFF KROZIER & THE GENERATOR / HIROSHI & CLAUDIA / MADDER LAKE / ROB THOMSETT / MANDU / DOUG JEREBINE / POND / SONS OF THE VEGETAL MOTHER / RAILROAD GIN & AIR are just a few of the delights contained therein.

The Wizards of Oz

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A MONSTROUS PSYCHEDELIC BUBBLE - Amorphous Androgynous

"A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble" is a gorgeous compilation of psychedelic rock music and some songs are really rare and beautiful. This is a compilation put together by someone who obviously has a taste for good music and its maybe one of the best for that genre.

A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding in Your Mind is a compilation series with selections by Amorphous Androgynous It was released on CD in November 2008. It is an extensive compilation mix album featuring a wide variety of artists, selected and mixed by the duo. Cosmic Space Music is the first in the series, and focuses on the band's psychedelic side, featuring everything from 1960s pop to film scores and modern psychedelia.

The albums generally received positive reviews. Time Out described it as "quite simply the best compilation ever", and one from Noel Gallagher of the band Oasis. Gallagher got into contact with Gaz Cobain after hearing this record and asked him if the Amorphous Androgynous would remix the forthcoming Oasis single "Falling Down".

Vol 1 Cosmic Space Music

Vol 2 Pagan Love Vibrations

Vol 3  Exploding in Your Mind (The 3rd Ear )

LINKS

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35007 - Psychedelic/Space Rock • Netherlands

SOLAR PROJECT - Psychedelic/Space Rock • Germany

I'm A Freak Baby - A Further Journey Through The British Heavy Psych And Hard Rock Underground Scene

Subtitled “A Further Journey Through The British Heavy Psych And Hard Rock Underground Scene 1968-73”, this is the follow-up to 2016’s well received collection, I’m A Freak Baby, featuring contributions this time round from better known acts like Love Sculpture, the Move and Jeff Beck rubbing shoulders with genuine obscurities from Sardonicus, Lightyears Away and Iron Claw. LTW’s Ian Canty keeps the freak flag flying.

With the positive reception given to the original I’m A Freak Baby boxset a couple of years back (reviewed here), it was inevitable that there would be a second collection, and here it is. Zeroing in on the years bookended by the psychedelia boom and the dawning of glam, to my ears this follow up veers slightly more towards out-and-out proto-metal than the first. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing and the people at Grapefruit have managed to winkle out many previously-forgotten gems of hirsute mayhem from the vaults. For those who may have missed the first box, we’re in the area where psych and hard rock co-existed, sometimes as part of the same song. Progressive was the key word, perhaps not quite as in a prog rock sense though, more developing away from psych roots into something else a little rougher.

Led Zep and Black Sabbath were prime inspirations for a lot of groups on here, but rather than being straight copies of Plant/Page or Ozzy’s gang (leaving aside Thor’s standard but ok take of Paranoid on disc 3) most put their own particular and often peculiar stamp on things. The “Underground” thrived in this era too and the various free festivals, benefit gigs and alternative publications offered a support network for these acts. Many of the participants had been playing in bands since the beat days and the long sets that were required for mod all-nighters sharpened their chops and instilled a soul/R&B itch that would prove hard for them to fully shake off, even when at their very heaviest. As a result, there’s a surprising amount of tracks here that get the feet wanting to move, which may not have been the original intention, but adds to the fun immeasurably.

Setting the general template for what follows on disc 1 are Cardiff’s own power trio, Budgie, who start this compilation in fine style with their track Guts. Anyone still labouring under the impression that they were some sort of middling boogie band will be knocked for six by the brutal, beautiful thuggery of their mighty riffage here. They, among many others here, may have provided the building blocks for heavy metal, but at this stage the genre was not fully formed and still playful, including elements not generally seen in head-banging music a few years later on. Jeff Beck, with Rod Stewart providing vocals, pre-empts Zeppelin with a tough treatment of the Yardbirds’ oldie Shape Of Things, demonstrating the general changeover that was occurring in 60s rock in the later part of the decade towards something much heavier.

Wicked Lady add garage fuzz to Run The Night and Slowload provide a crunching proto-metal background for what is actually a bewitching pop song in Rosie. It works a like a dream. Iron Claw might sound like an archetypal heavy metal name, but actually their Clawstrophobia is more like teak-tough psychedelia and I rather like the punning title into the bargain too. The Move weigh in with a stellar horns-embellished shouter in Turkish Tram Conductor Blues, showing they were a long way ahead of being mere a psych-pop cash-in.

Three CD collection. Although vintage British psychedelia is viewed by many these days as an Alice In Wonderland-style enchanted garden full of beatific flower children innocently gathering flowers or chasing butterflies, there was always a more visceral element to the scene. Pointedly free of such fripperies as scarlet tunic-wearing gnomes, phenomenal cats and talismanic bicycles, the power trio format that was popularized by the likes of Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience spawned a host of imitators. As the 60s drew to a close and pop evolved slowly but inexorably into rock, psychedelia gave way to a sound that was harder, leaner, heavier, louder. Across three discs and four hours of music, I'm A Freak, Baby: A Journey Through The British Heavy Psych And Hard Rock Underground Scene 1968-72 investigates that largely under-documented period, incorporating everything from some of the biggest names in the burgeoning hard rock/proto-metal firmament (Deep Purple, Uriah Heep) all the way down to a significant number of provincial semi-pro bands who gigged extensively but were unable to land a recording contract during their lifetime. We feature some of British rock's pioneering acts (The Yardbirds, The Move), a handful of bands who travelled far beyond their blues boom roots (Fleetwood Mac, Chicken Shack, The Groundhogs), the infamous Ladbroke Grove scene (The Deviants, The Pink Fairies, Hawkwind, The Edgar Broughton Band), a smattering of inspired, where-the-hell-did-that-come-from one-shots like The Velvet Frogs and the mighty Egor, and a clutch of previously-unreleased recordings (The Kult, Hellmet, The Phoenix) that have even eluded the specialist reissue companies and bootleggers. Housed in a clambox featuring a lavishly illustrated and annotated 36-page booklet, I'm A Freak, Baby is the most comprehensive and wide-ranging anthology to appear thus far of an underground scene that, in addition to being responsible for some magnificent music, also acted as a signpost to the subsequent emergence of British punk and heavy metal.

I'm A Freak Baby (2016)

I'm A Freak 2 Baby (2019)

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Led Zeppelin on Rampaging Cajun

February 28, 1975 Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA

The second leg for Led Zeppelin’s tour in 1975 started on February 27th in Houston, but no tape is in circulation for that concert.  Baton Rouge is the second date and has been in circulation thanks to one of the best audience tapes from the era. Rampaging Cajun on Eelgrass is the first release of an excellent quality, nearly complete soundboard recording. 

Like the other soundboards from this tour, it has remarkable depth and liveliness in contrast to the rather dry professional tapes from other eras.  There is good mix between the vocal, drums and guitar and the audience reactions to the music is clearly heard.  Some of the minor imperfections are some distortion at the beginning of “Rock And Roll” due to high volume overload of the bass and a drop in the guitar during “Sick Again” starting at the 0:52 mark.  Crackling is audible during the rocking part and ending of “The Rain Song,” some static where the volume runs too high on Bonham’s drums and Plant’s comments before “No Quarter” are missing.

Despite the imperfections this is one of the better soundboards to surface from this tour and offers another perspective on what is a very strong show. 

Zeppelin took close to a two week long break after concluding the first half of the tour on February 16th in St. Louis.  They started off the second half in much better health and with much more confidence than the first, setting a high standard in their performance.  The show starts off with “Rock And Roll” and the new song “Sick Again” before Plant explains the program for the evening, speaking about the “cross-section of musical color that we’ve managed to get together in the last six and a half years. Some old stuff, some new stuff, some cool, and some pretty raunchy stuff too. So hang on to your heads.”

A groove is reached with “Over The Hills And Far Away” where the guitar solo sets the precedent for continued experimentation by Page later on in the tour and “In My Time Of Dying” is the first announced song from Physical Graffiti, “that’s just it’s finally been … the egg has been laid .. or it it the guy who got laid?”  “Kashmir” is another and is dedicated to “quite a few people who passed our way. Mr. Royston, who’s travelling with us, Mr. Harold, who’s travelling with us, and many other folks who’ve given us inspiration from time to time.”

1975 - Rampaging Cajun

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Alice Cooper - Rock

“Breadcrumbs” a tribute to some of the Garage Rock Heroes from his hometown Detroit. Inspired by the city’s punk scene in the late 60’s and early 70s, Detroit born Alice Cooper returns to his roots and the raw garage sound his fans love.

Produced by Bob Ezrin, the EP consists of 6 brand new recordings, features cult Detroit musicians, including Johnny “Bee” Badanjek from the Detroit Wheels, Grand Funk’s Mark Farner and MC5’s Wayne Kramer, and was recorded at Rust Belt Studios, Detroit.

The opener “Detroit City 2020”, an updated rewrite of “Detroit City” from 2003’s “The Eyes Of Alice Cooper”, sets the tone for the EP. Along with Alice’s own take on Detroit punk classics such as Suzi Quatro’s “Your Mama Won’t Like Me”, Bob Seger’s “East Side Story”, the MC5’s “Sister Anne” and Shorty Long’s “Devil With A Blue Dress On” as well as The Dirtbombs’ “Chains Of Love”, the EP also features the brand-new Alice Cooper original “Go Man Go”.

Included are covers of “Sister Anne” by MC5, “Your Mamma Won’t Like Me” by Suzi Quatro and “Devil With a Blue Dress” by Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels. Cooper is joined on the recordings by MC5’s Wayne Kramer, jazz singer Paul Randolph, former Grand Funk Railroad member Mark Farner, ex Detroit Wheels drummer Johnny "Bee" Badanjek and Mick Collins.

Cooper outlined his release plans in March, explaining that he’d decided to focus on the music of his hometown. “There's a certain Detroit sound we're looking for," he said. “It's indefinable. There's a certain amount of R&B in it. There's a certain amount of Motown in it. But then you add the guitars and you add the attitude and it turns into Detroit rock. I feel like if we mine around with all Detroit players, we're gonna find that sound.”

Breadcrumbs

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