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Another of my very favourite psych albums that has barely left my turntable/ipod since it first blew my mind many years ago, 'The Conference of the Birds' is that rare and beautiful thing - an album that has a truly unique sound. Imagine the psychedelic lovechild of Ravi Shankar and Spacemen 3 brought into the world by Ry Cooder and you're somewhere close to the sound of this album. Essentially trance music, droning sitars and metronomic tabla filtered through a late night narcotic haze, it's a beautiful and magical album, brimming with imaginative use of various exotic instruments. One of Delerium's finest releases.
Track listing:
1. Sukoon
2. Arc of Ascent (Part One)
3. Kiff Riff
4. Garden of Essence
5. Sukoon (Reflection)
6. Shamsa (Sunburst)
7. Baraka
8. Arc of Ascent (Part Two)
9. Freedom Rider
10. Neelum Blue
-Update- Link no longer available. A copright infringement has been slapped upon my sharing of it, even though I ripped it from my own long deleted and very rare CD. I guess it's because you can now get this album from itunes and amazon as a download, and my little corner of the internet is...ahem...hurting their business. Sorry.
Back in the 80/90s, Magic Mushroom Band were a big favourite with festival-going psychedelic warriors with anarchistic political leanings - a niche market, I'll freely admit, but a pretty hardcore one! I managed to catch them live a couple of times and they were always great fun, a psychedelic blizzard of swirling, energetic music and mind-bending lightshows.
This is the debut album released in 1986 and is a definite favourite of mine. Influenced by the usual suspects favoured by festival bands in the 80s - Hawkwind, Gong, Here and Now etc - it's a wonderful mix of space rock, space dub, space pop, space ambience...space everything. Production quality varies, as it is, I believe, a collection of hastily recorded live takes, but this matters not - it totally captures the feel of psychedelic underground culture in 80s England. A great album and a great band.
Track Listing:
1. Better Up Than Down
2. Revolution
3. Living in a Dream
4. Magic Eye
5. How Does it Feel?
6. Turban Paranoia
7. Hard Stuff
8. Wide Eyed Electric
Get your mushrooms here
My only previous contact with Dr Brown was with 'Freakbeat', a fine track they contributed to the 'Psychedelic Psauna' compiliation. With its improvised sonic lunacy and very bassy groove, it sounds like it's being transmitted live from some deep underground festival. I never managed to track down any more of their output, but thanks to Kev, ex-singer with Dr Brown, I acquired this album a couple of months ago and it's been on heavy rotation ever since. For fans of bluesy lysergic 70s festival rock, you really can't go wrong. It brings to mind Hawkwind, Pink Fairies, Edgar Broughton, Groundhogs, Here and Now etc. There's various styles on offer, from the full-on boogie of 'Big Red Ford Capri' to the Hawkwind-esque space-rock of 'Magic Cat', from the folk-reggae of 'Celebrate the World of Dreams' to 'Faithless' which, strangely enough when considering the sound on the rest of the album, is vaguely reminiscent of 'Big City' period Spacemen 3. Highly recommended, a thoroughly enjoyable album.
Track Listing:
1. Insecurity
2. Magic Cat
3. The Oak
4. Ought To Tell Her
5. Live To Die
6. Big Red Ford Capri
7. Faithless
8. Unchained
9. Celebrate the World of Dreams
Get it here
