Spring is almost upon us! It’s been a relatively mild winter where I am in Tennessee, and there’s been tons of good music to take walks through the neighborhood with. This week, we have some trippy ambient tunes, Yes-inspired prog/psych rock, a touch of shoegaze, and a release from one of my favorite labels, Psychedelic Source Records. Enjoy!
Psych Jams for This Week
We Will Have Been Happy by Bajram Billi
We Will Have Been Happy is a trippy ambient EP full of cool synth sounds. According to Bandcamp, Billi “juggles analog fundamentals, digital eccentricities, scholarly writing, phantasmatic textures, and the earthly roughness of drum machines.” This is the type of psychedelic ambient/electronic I have been digging more lately.
Daydrops by Coral Grief
Coral Grief comes to us from Seattle, and Daydrops is a dreamy pop and shoegaze trip. It’s a good one for Melody’s Echo Chamber fans, and I noticed some resemblance to the classic alt-rock act Mazzy Star.
Flying Saucer Attack (Aka Rural Psychedelia)
This album was released way back in 1993 at the height of the shoegaze boom. It’s drenched in fuzz and reverb and includes a couple of tribute songs to Popol Vuh. Let’s travel back to the early ‘90s for this one.
MOVIETONE “Peel Sessions 1994-1997”
Movie Tone was part of the Bristol scene in the ‘90s that comprised of Flying Saucer Attack, Crescent, and Third Eye Foundation (nice name!). Band members from all three of these groups played in Movietone.
These fascinating “Peel Sessions” didn’t exist online before being released on Bandcamp, and Movietone is no longer making music together. It makes the archived recordings even more special.
Wildeastern Parapsychology vol. I, II, II
The Psychedelic Source Records collective from Hungary is freakin’ awesome. We’ve covered one of their albums before (The Homing Bird’s Trace), and this offering came to us in October 2022. Unlike Homing Bird, this is more of a hard-rocking psych, including the first track, Beyond, which is 21-plus minutes of freaked-out heavy psych madness. Check this out, for sure.
From the Bandcamp page: “Welcome unsuspected wanderer, this is the center of the east, the home of blockhouses, mass-fear, people who look like just had a big bite of shit. Arguing farmers and sarcastic bus drivers deeply sucked any-isms propaganda. Mean, envious, but Christian and truly not colorful because colors are different.”
Four Riders take Space Mountain by Øresund Space Collective
The Space Collective is “a music collective from Denmark and Sweden that play totally improvised space rock music. We have released 29 records since 2006. Music for your mind to escape the Matrix.” I’ve listened to these dudes for a little while, and they never disappoint. Each song on Space Mountain is at least 19 minutes, a journey that is undoubtedly into the final frontier.
Thank You from the Future by Moon Letters
Moon Letters is another Seattle band making an exciting blend of psych and progressive rock. Thank You from the Future is a release from 2022, and it sounds a bit like classic prog acts like Yes and Genesis.
It’s Bandcamp Friday, so head to the site, support some of these artists, buy some vinyl and digital copies, and spread the word!
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