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One of the best gigs I ever had the pleasure of freaking out at was Loop at the Roadmender in Northampton in the late 80s. These guys played hard psychedelic drone rock like their lives depended on it and to hear them live was to plummet headfirst into the sun at a thousand miles an hour. Repetition was the name of the game, monster riffs and searing acid guitars spiralling off into infinity, their dedication to the one-chord ethic unswerving and relentless.
What we have here is their 1988 EP 'Collision', 4 tracks of blistering, swirling, hypnotic guitars, pumping basslines and mesmeric drumming.
Volume on max or consider yourself banned from this blog.
Track listing:
1. Collision
2. Crawling Heart
3. Thief of Fire
4. Thief (Motherfucker)
Freak out here
If acid-fried garage psych, Nuggets/Pebbles style, is your thing, then you'll love this 1989 cassette-only release from the Watch Children. I'm not sure if it's extremely hard or ridiculously easy to get a genuine sounding production, but whatever, the Watch Children have it nailed, this could easily have been recorded back in the day.
BTW, this release marks a first for this blog - the music is not taken from my own collection. Yes, I hang my head in shame. But as I've been asked a couple of times if I have it, I thought I'd post the copy I grabbed a while ago. Where did I get it from? Some blog or P2P network, I honestly can't remember. So, until the original uploader contacts me with a 'how dare you!' type approach, at which point I will gladly remove the download link and refer the discerning psych-head to the original source, may I present to you 'How Does It Feel To Be So White?' by the Watch Children. Enjoy.
Track Listing:
1. Little Plastic Flowers
2. Go-Go Action Girl
3. Pictures
4. Only Girl
5. Immediate Ratification
6. Intermission Part
7. Coconut Lifesaver
8. Hey Girl
9. In My Dreams
10. She's Mine
11. Kind of Retarded
12. Very Pretty Face
13. Watermelon Soup
14. Too Far Away
15. That Nothing's Happening Feeling
16. Teenage Limabean
17. Outro
Getit here
Medusa Cyclone formed in 1992 following the break-up of legendary Detroit psych band Viv Akauldren, and is the solo project of Keir Mcdonald, VA's keyboard player. To date, there have been three albums, of which 'Mr. Devil' is the second and my personal favourite.
The sound of Medusa Cyclone is almost as far removed from Viv Akauldren as was Jeff Tarlton's acid folk musings. Gone is the wild, choatic psychedelic rock, replaced by hypnotic and disorientating experiments in sound. On Medusa Cyclone's eponymous debut album, it was often obvious where the influences were coming from (Wire, Syd Barrett, Faust, maybe 'Cosmic Tones for Mental Therapy'-era Sun Ra). With 'Mr. Devil', it's clear that Keir Mcdonald had moved out of the shadow of his influences and fully developed a sound of his own. While there are some 'songs' here (the minor-chord moodiness of 'Beyond Earth' and 'Hypnosis Take'), the album is more concerned with trance and experimentation. Sometimes unsettling, often beautiful, always hypnotic, 'Mr. Devil' is an abstract, intense journey through many moods and textures. A great record, one of my very favourites.
Track listing:
1. The Smith Can
2. In Diameter
3. Beyond Earth
4. Ouija Ground
5. Invisible World
6. Blind Witch
7. Z-Man
8. Dr. Weird
9. Subzero
10. Lightning Cross
11. Living Bomb
12. Hypnosis Take
13. End Cloud.
Medusa Cyclone are still active, so no download link for this. Buy it here
