Gospelfolk - Prodigal (1969)

I bought this for £2.50 up in Glasgow and it's apparently worth about 50 times that, so GERRITUPYE! Chilled Xian psych from Scotland with a bit of organ and fuzz, and some folky moments, but mainly in a solid 67-68 Byrdsy vein. Allegedly only 99 copies pressed, but I've heard that might be false. Some (presumably unintentional) Velvetsy vibes on this, and typical naive Christian hippy lyrics. Sorry for the crackle on my copy, but I think I'm the first to rip this so quit complaining.

HERE

Primevil - Smokin' Bats at Camptons (1974)

This one gets really fun really quickly, with pristinely-recorded rural gentleness breaking out into intense virtuoso jamming and wild vocals. The rhythm section keep it heavy and funky while the guitar leads head for the stratosphere. In theory I find the barroom muso vibe kinda gross, but the execution is so wild and entertaining I don't care. I pick up some low-rent early 70s Dead overtones too, which is always a bonus.

HERE IT IS

Blessed End - Movin' On (1971)

I know I've been away for a while, walk it off you crybabies.
To make assistance for crybaby walking, here is downer organ psych gem. This record came out around about the time Jim Morrison died, and I'd say The Doors + the cold embrace of the grave is a pretty good formula for describing this record. Far less pretentious and flamboyant than Morrison and co, this has a gritty real people vibe and direct downer lyrics (this is PA not LA). Powerful vocal performance that reminds me of Sinatra's most downcast moments. No distortion or fuzz here but plenty of doomed, quasi-proto-goth atmospheres.

GET ON IT

Smokin' Willie - Smokin' Willie

Reverb-choked 'lude-rockers sing the barbiturate blues. The fuzz solos on the heavy tracks scyth through the murk and go straight for the back of your brain, struggling up from the leaden mire of the rhythm section, which pounds monolithically (this is of course a good thing). The lighter songs, covers of "Whiter Shade of Pale" and "House of the Rising Sun", while still maintaining the downer vibes, disrupt the flow of the sludgier pieces somewhat, and break up the album in a mildly frustrating way. Well above the biker rock/heavy psych average though.

DOWNLOAD

Dryewater - Southpaw (1974)

Early 70s burnout rock with an appealingly murky soundscape that brings a cold, resigned atmosphere to the preceedings. The 60s were long dead by this point. Strong, bluesy vocals and adventurous but solid instrumentation keep things interesting for the most part, although there are a few lapses into bar-band mundanity. Opening "Winterground" lives up to its name with an atmosphere of icy detachment and dead trees, complimenting the bluesy vocals, and is my favourite track on the album. Lots of Who influence scattered throughout the record, as well as solid FM rock moves, but "Thunder" and "Revelation" play it hard and psychy, with some nice flanged guitar. Overall, a flawed but interesting listen that unfortunately doesn't live up to the promise of its opening track.

DOWNLOAD

Mark Melanson - Haunted Hearse (1970)

Ok, first of all, the track indexing on this is all screwed up and I can't be arsed fixing it. Sorry. Now that that's out of the way:

This is a really strange outsider/real people acoustic record, apparently performed by (or at least in the persona of) a grizzled Irish gravedigger. Some spoken word sections that break out into songs performed in an untutored yet ambitious, and by no means unpleasant, brogue-heavy croon. Moods range from the wistfullness of the opening "Master Wunder" and "I Wrote Your Name", to the scarred and nightmarish war meditation "Pieces in the Sand", which is shot through with coal-black veins of bitterness. The minimal acoustic guitar backing is competently played with a pleasant ringing quality, due to the reverb that covers this record. While this record sometimes veers into overreaching pomposity, the abiding tone of amateur earnestness keeps it compelling. Now, someone find me a vinyl copy.

DOWNLOAD

The Index - The Index (1967)

This is what you'd expect the first Velvet Underground record to sound like if you'd only read reviews from the time: raw, depressive, smack-addled garage rock for a degenerate, anomic civilisation. This record is bathed in an unrelenting cloud of grey noise, 60s reverb-obsession taken to its anti-logical conclusion. Their version of "Eight Miles High" bears about as much resemblance to the original as Husker Du's, taken the sweet out of the Byrd's bittersweet rendition and facing the horrors of Vietnam with blank resignation. The wintry doombeat excursions of "Rainy Starlet" and "Fire Eyes" remind me of Joy Division, with ahead-of-the-curve hippie disillusionment replacing post-punk angst. These guys were from Detroit, an industrial city in decline just like late 70s Manchester. There's definitely a similar noise-loving impulse to The Stooges, those other detroit pre-punk legends, but The Index are about drug-addled introspection rather than Dionysian release.

DOWNLOAD

Daybreak - Daybreak (1971)

Wasted* organ-heavy psych with endearingly muffled production and echoing vocals. Doomy, druggy vibe is maintained throughout, even on the uproarious version of "Rock Around the Clock" (Completely with distorted brass instrument of some description). "Nights in White Satin" is turned into a nightmarish Mandrax dirge, and "Down By the River" is smothered in the audial equivalent of confused, drunken remorse. The two originals shine bright too, opener "Can't get Down" ploughs a thrillingly nihilistic blues-rock furrow, while the twisted history of the US related on "Monster, Suicide, America" is just baffling. A definite juggernaut classic for fans of no-fi psych and outsider rock.

DOWNLOAD

*I use this word a lot, I know.

Earthen Vessel - Hard Rock/Life Everlasting (1970)

That rarest of rarities, a Christian rock record that actually sounds like it comes from the same spiritual source as the music of Messiaen, Albert Ayler and Blind Willie Johnson. Blinding fuzzy hard rock with whiteboy/girl gospel vibes and an all-round sense of ecstatic joy (tempered with anguish and eventual redemption on "Who Can"). Sharon Keel kinda sounds like Grace Slick if she swapped the pharmacopia for Communion wine. Competently played throughout, but still with that hint of ramshackle enthusiasm that makes the post-hippie private press such a goldmine of compelling music. Unreservedly recommended to humans with ears

DOWNLOAD

Black Metal was invented in 1971.

Seriously.

The Psychedelic Sound of American Despair

Nice comp I put together of downer/lowner/outsider/depressive psych/garage/folk/rock etc., including the mighty Phafner (See below). I'll probably be upping full records of most of these acts over the next few days/weeks/months, so consider this a taster.

01 - Yetti Men - High Himalayas (1964)

02 - The Index - Fire Eyes (1967)

03 - CA Quintet - Colorado Mourning (1969)

04 - Alexander Skip Spence - Weighted Down (The Prison Song) (1969)

05 - Sainte Anthony's Fyre - Lone Soul Road (1970)

06 - Charles Manson - Cease to Exist (1970)

07 - Mystic Siva - Spinning a Spell (1970)

08 - Mark Melanson - Pieces in the Sand (1970)

09 - Stephen David Heitkotter - I Don't Mind (1971)

10 - Phafner - Whiskey Took my Woman (1972)

11 - Dave Bixby - Drug Song (1972)

12 - Bob Desper - Lonely Man (1974)

13 - Kenneth Higney - Look at the River (1976)

14 - Jody Koenig - In the Market (1981)

15 - Jandek - European Jewel (1982)

DOWNLOAD

P.S. Sorry for the weird formatting in this post.

Phafner - Overdrive (1972)

Here's some wasted, wasted sounding biker rock to welcome the Spring. Phafner's accurately-named "Overdrive" is one of those shockingly rare (50 copies allegedly) private press records I read about on The Acid Archives and immediately hunted down and obsessed over (thanks to the magic of sharity). This is for those days when Blue Cheer sounds too upful, and you need some open-road whiteboy blues blow-outs to help the whiskey down.

These Marshalltown, Iowa natives seem to confirm all my prejudices about the rural midwest, with the opening "Plea From the Soul" being a thrilling slab of smalltown ennui carved out with plenty of distorted solos. Next comes the manic, pounding yet somehow morose "Uncle Jerry", with the same paradoxical upper/downer quality as "Paranoid" or "My War". "Whiskey Got my Woman" is a lumbering blues-rock jam, like "Electric Mud" at 25 RPM, with more Quaalude-addled soloing.

The second half is back to the uptempo/downer-vibed rockers, with the priapic "Rock and Roll Man" choked brilliantly by the barbiturate haze.The intro to "Red Thumb" carries a distant ring of folk rock (probably via Zeppelin III and IV), which then leads back onto the Steppenwolf highway of fuzzed-out abandon. The closing title track is probably the most upbeat tune on the record, with a solid mid-60s garage vibe filtered through the early 70s dream-death prism.

I dunno if this has been reissued, but if it has you should probably buy it.

DOWNLOAD