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!

The Inn - Psychedelic Schedule

Not a lot of info on this American four-piece. The late 80s/early 90s was their time, they hailed from North Carolina and made 3 or 4 albums of melodic psychedelic pop, west coast style.

I first encountered them via the 1992 Delerium compilation 'Fun With Mushrooms', on which they contributed a track called 'Who's My Name' (great title!). 'Psychedelic Schedule' was their debut album, released in 1987 on Voxx Records. By far the most psychedelic thing about it is the sleeve, an absolute riot of colours and lysergic imagery. The music contained within (excluding 'Roy G Biv'...more on this later) doesn't quite reflect the cover, but it is a good collection of psych-pop songs, fairly lo-fi and relentlessly catchy.

So, 'Roy G Biv'. Within the context of the album, it's like they suddenly forgot that they were making an LP of 4 minute psych-pop gems and included a 25 minute long track that starts like a garage-punk spy theme, then drifts off into 15 minutes of extremely spaced-out drum and guitar, laden with echoes and muffled, abstract noises, before finishing off with more fuzzed-up spy theme madness. Hmm....this must have been when the acid hit...

Track listing:

Side 1

1. Roy G Biv

Side 2

1. Marlwood Lake
2. Infinity's Beginning
3. What's It Like?
4. Mind Confection
5. Soon

Get it here

By the way, apologies for the couple of jumps towards the end of 'Roy G Biv'. Damned mice have been scurrying around in my record collection again.