The Steppes - Drop Of The Creature

This is The Steppes first full length album released in 1986 on Voxx Records, re-released on Delerium in 1991.  'Drop Of The Creature' is a psych pop/rock album that draws on wide influences - Beatles, Byrds, Syd Barrett, Country Joe, Yardbirds, Who, acid rock, garage punk, celtic folk, baroque...the list goes on.

Again, this is another album that I haven't listened to in well over 20 years and a request has caused me to dig it out and revisit.  It's actually a real nice album, the musicianship is always tight, there's some razor-sharp acid guitar freakouts, some classic psych-punk melodies rubbing shoulders with sad and melancholic folky moments, and the Fallon brothers' harmonies are always welcome.  All in all, it's a psych classic, well worth your time.

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Freakbeat Issue 4 - Free flexidisc

2 track 7" that came free with issue 4 of Freakbeat, released in 1988. This time, it's the turn of The Bevis Frond Museum and The Steppes.

The discerning head music afficionado will already be familiar with, if not the music, then the name of The Bevis Frond AKA Nick Saloman, stalwart of the psych music scene, publisher of his own underground music magazine 'Ptolemaic Terrascope' and owner of his own record label 'Woronzow'. Quite the psychedelic entrepreneur! Anyway, what we have here is classic Frond - fuzzy 60s influenced psych pop, laden with memorable acid guitar hooks and led by Saloman's somewhat brave, distinctive and very English vocals.

The Steppes give us a song that starts out as a 60s pop classic but soon reveals itself as a meandering tripped-out mind excursion. Just the thing for an evening in with Mr P!

Track listing:

This Side

The Steppes - History Hates No Man

Other Side

The Bevis Frond Museum - African Violets

Get it here.