Praise Space Electric - Mushroom Jazz

Hmm...the label says 1997, but you'd be forgiven for thinking it was 1970, filtered through an exotic 1959 bachelor pad haze.  Listen to this album and you'll immediately be transported to the very coolest psychedelic space-jazz lounge in the universe.

Nobody did this type of music better than Praise Space Electric.  Similar to their previous album '2 Leaving Demons', 'Mushroom Jazz' is an album of spacey, funky grooves, but with more jazz and lounge in the mix and a much better production, allowing these bright and breezy workouts to breathe.  There's Funkadelic/70s Miles Davis grooves sitting next to cosmic elevator music played by Vince Guaraldi. Some tracks sound like Les Baxter covering 'Crosstown Traffic'.  Or Jimi Hendrix covering 'Oasis Of Dakhla', if you prefer.  Either way, it's pretty smooth stuff.  Music to clean your clothes and shine your shoes to.  Put on your purple flares, fix yourself a cocktail, dangle a jazz cigarette from the corner of your mouth and let PSE do the rest...

Track listing:

1. Inbetween Times
2. Do You Know How To Play
3. Movement
4. Forward In Every Direction
5. Connection
6. Plazza De Toros
7. Nothing Could Be Simpler
8. Then You Can Do It
9. You're The One

Sorry, download link removed, notification of infringement received.  You see, Amazon sell it.  Probably iTunes too.  Haha, oh the irony of it, the cosmic sounds of PSE, anarchistic psychedelic warriors under the strict protection of the DMCA...the world has gone crazy!!

Praise Space Electric - 2 Leaving Demons

Turn the lights down low, crank up the strobe light, the lava lamp and a jazz cigarette and let the sounds of Praise Space Electric soothe your soul.

This is the 2nd album from Bristol's finest space explorers, released on Delerium records in 1994, and provides another welcome dose of funky, jazzy, spaced-out grooves. The influences come from all over the place - lounge, space-rock, psych, funk, dub, dance, soul, jazz noodlings, ethnic experimentations, spacey electronica...it's a melting pot of styles that just comes together in a way that feels so good. It's more focused than their debut album which, although worthy of a place in any space-head's music collection, is basically a few days jamming released as a mini album ('nothing wrong with that' I hear you say...and I totally agree!)

Blissed-out psychedelic soul music of the highest order.

Track listing:

1. Doc's Groove
2. Sinnerman
3. Rhythm Rhythm
4. Singing The Same Song
5. Diggin' At The Dig In
6. Freedom
7. 300,000 Million Years
8. Waves Of Joy
9. Drain Your Wobbles Away
10. Cybergenetic Experiment X
11. Pebbles

Feel the love here

Fun With Mushrooms

Hi! Lophophora Williamsii here! It's that time of year again and my mate Psilocybe Semilanceata has just popped up for a cup of tea. Mmmmmm....nice one Mr. P!

The above is taken from the blurb on the back of this second compilation of spaced-out lunacy from Delerium records. They even managed to get a photo of LW and PS sharing a psychedelic cup of tea. Put the kettle on, Mr. P!

This 1992 release picks up where 'Psychedelic Psauna' left off, featuring 13 tracks from bands that didn't appear on the first compilation, and there's plenty to satisfy psychedelic music fans and discerning fungus-heads. If you're both, then you can't go wrong! My pick of the crop? (err...pun intended) - Mooseheart Faith's 'Thought Dial' is simply a great song. The Watch Children and 14th Wray, much like Australia's Tyrnaround, seemed to have perfected the art of getting a genuine 60s sounding production on genuinely 60s sounding garage-psych songs. The Loop-esque Dead Flowers present us with a great slab of trancey guitar rock, a swirling bad-acid nightmare. Praise Space Electric do their best Hendrix impersonation with a very accomplished and funky variation on 'Crosstown Traffic', and Saddar Baazar do their always welcome 'Spacemen 3 with sitars' thing.

The great artwork for this LP was done by Pete Loveday, who could often be found behind his stall at the Glastonbury Festival selling his wonderful 'Russell - The Saga of a Peaceful Man' comics. I really should go into what Russell was all about, but I think I'll save that for a separate post.

Track listing:

Side 1

1. Boris & His Bolshie Balalaika - Toadstool Soup (Slight Send)
2. Saddar Bazaar - Night Descent
3. Praise Space Electric - Electric Sensation
4. 14th Wray - Yuppie Deadhead Party
5. Harrold Juana - Uncle Sam
6. Dead Flowers - Chocolate Staircase
7. Tangle Edge - Half-Moon Flower

Side 2

1. Watch Children - Did You Feed The Fish?
2. Dean Carter And The High Commission - Government Surplus Jam
3. Omnia Opera - The Awakened
4. The Inn - Who's My Name?
5. Wobble Jaggle Jiggle - Thoughts Of The Sky
6. Mooseheart Faith Stellar Groove Band - Thought Dial
7. Boris & His Bolshie Balalaika - Toadstool Soup (Slight Return)

Have Fun With Mushrooms!

Praise Space Electric - Cosmic Funky Explosion

I first came into contact with this lot in a psychedelic teepee at the Glastonbury music festival in the early 90s. One long hot summer evening, whilst drifting amongst the vegan food tents and the makeshift mini-rave festivals, and as high as a kite after lunching upon a particularly potent bag of welsh mushrooms, all nine of my senses zoned in on this wonderfully spacious groove floating out of this huge rainbow-coloured wigwam, a groove that seemed crafted out of nothing other than pure love. I floated over and poked my head inside, and there they were - The Moonflowers, looking like they'd just landed from 1969 outer space and playing just about the finest mushroom rock I'd ever heard. The song was 'Tighten Up' and I was hooked from that point on.

Praise Space Electric started life as 3 members of The Moonflowers having some improvisational and very psychedelic jazz/funk fun when not doing their stuff with the main attraction. They soon realised that there was room for both The Moonflowers and PSE, and they recorded their first album during ten days of improvisation at a Welsh cottage (Welsh? Hmmm....I wonder why...). Released in 1991, the eponymously titled album was a critical success with both the underground music press and festival heads across the nation. If it wasn't clear before, the fact that this chaotic group of painted freaks were technically and creatively extremely talented most certainly was now.

So, released on The Moonflowers' own Pop God Records, here we have the 1992 follow-up to their debut. 'Cosmic Funky Explosion' is a four track EP of funky psychedelic freak-outs and smooth jazzy jams. Absolutely essential.

Track listing:

Side 1

1. Freak Out
2. Sweetness Sweetness Sweetness

Side 2

1. All My Love
2. Whoop Your Ass

Listen here