Thursday 20 November 2008

RE-UPLOAD: Viaggio Allucinogeno, PsYchEdeLiC Italian Trilogy!

Photobucket
Here are the three parts of VIAGGIO ALLUCINOGENO my Lost Psychedelic Italian Trilogy, posted back in June.
Previously unreleased recordings by Gli ASTRALI (Garage/Psych 1967)
http://www.mediafire.com/file/ynijhnmjy4m/ASTRALI.rar
Le STELLE di MARIO SCHIFANO (Experimental/Psych 1967)
http://www.mediafire.com/file/vzjjmzmjmtz/STELLE.rar
ARMANDO PIAZZA Suan (Folk/Psych 1972)
http://www.mediafire.com/file/tjjze1y2z25/SUAN.rar
This last one has been posted following perhaps the original running order...I'm still not sure...
Check the original posts and comments for more information.
Photobucket
It would be nice to receive more comments.
ENJOY IT!!!

Friday 14 November 2008

A Taste of Dutch part 2: DRAGONFLY Special!

Photobucket
This is an amazing band that released only a couple of singles 40 years ago, possibly the first one came out late 1967 but in most places the date shown is 1968.
Nevermind because all sides are fantastic!
I loved these tracks since the first time I heard them and they have appeared in compilations during the last 25 years or so.
Few years ago the Op-Art label reissued several Dutch 60s singles and in the case of Dragonfly an EP that gathered their 4 tracks...
Photobucket
Apparently they rarely played live but when they did people were left with their mouths open because of the music and the striking visual appearance.
Photobucket
The first single reached no.33 in the charts but the second was a flop and the band split up after it in 1968, it all seemed so quick but actually they started as Beat Five in 1965 and eventually changed their name to Dragonfly in 1967.
Check this footage of the band, watch it all because at the end there's a snippet of Dragonfly live!


Photobucket
http://www.mediafire.com/file/thmyymkz50z/dragonfly.rar

Thursday 13 November 2008

A Taste of Dutch!

Photobucket
Continuing with our 1968 anniversary...just a quick reminder of how Holland kept releasing great records all through the 60s.
This is my favourite single by the strangely named RO-D-YS.
During 1968 they also released their second and final album "Earnest Vocation" full of quirky and interesting songs, a very different band...
Photobucket
In 1968 The Outsiders switched label and their first record on Polydor was this great single, I particularly like its B-side, later that year they would release the fabulous CQ album.
Photobucket
The Tower only released a couple of singles and this one, their first, is a stunning two-sider, so much so that both sides have appeared in different comps over the years.
The band featured singer songwriter Boudewijn De Groot, a kind of Dutch Donovan, Jay Baar of Q65 on drums (not on their second 45) and Eelco Gelling of Cuby & The Blizzards on guitar!
http://www.mediafire.com/file/332dnjhmxzj/dutch 68.rar

Sunday 9 November 2008

1968, Dive into Yesterday!

Photobucket
When i think of 1968, Kaleidoscope, July and Jason Crest come to mind, also it was then, early that year that Syd left the Floyds…and by the end of it The Pretty Things’ masterpiece “S.F. Sorrow” was finally released. Yes, it was 40 years ago.
Photobucket
Several of the early bands of the 60s were about to end, change or transform altogether, others were just about to start, some disappeared just as quickly as they appeared not before leaving us with some brilliant music.
About the latter I’m thinking of July’s self-titled album (guess when that was released), Rainbow Ffolly “Sallies Fforth” or Skip Bifferty.
While if we talk about some of the bands that had been around for a while most if not all, had already reached their peak the previous year, with the exception of The Kinks that would release “Village Green…”. By the time The Zombies "Odessey & Oracle" was out almost a year had passed since its recording and the band had effectively split up.In a similar fashion when the belated Tomorrow debut album hit the shops the group was history...
It was finally the year The Move made their debut LP too, it had been a long wait and there had been announcements about their first album already in late 1966.
The brilliant debut albums by The Soft Machine and their pals Caravan also saw the light of day in 1968, the former only being issued in the US…WHY???!
Photobucket
Photobucket
It was also the year that British Folk-Rock was making its debut, albeit with a distinctive American flavour...see Fairport Convention debut or the lone album by Eclection, that to be fair,while based in England, only one of the five members was English.

Definitely and unmistakably English was the debut album by Pentagle that nevertheless blended the British Folk idiom with the American Jazz and Blues, fantastic stuff!
Photobucket
The most magical Folk adventurers though were without a doubt The Incredible String Band that in 1968 reached their peak and released two astonishing albums (or 3 if you count “Wee Tam and the Big Huge” as separate albums).
Photobucket
Very prolific and somebody that anticipated certain sounds was Donovan, unfortunately its releases were often postponed or simply not issued in the UK.
Two of his best albums came out in the US only in 1968, "Mellow Yellow" and "Hurdy Gurdy Man".Still, there was enough for the British market too with a wonderful "In Concert" album and some singles that hit the charts.

There were many “Rubble” favourites that issued 45s during 1968, going by the wonderful names of Wild Silk, Bamboo Shoot or The Mirror ….better known bands like Kaleidoscope, Fire, The Koobas or Fleur-De-Lys all released great singles too.
Blossom Toes managed two 45s between their two very different albums, “Postcard”, their second, being a favourite of mine.
Photobucket
Scottish bands like The Stoics and My Dear Watson among others had singles issued and Marmalade were the most succesful but by far the best from Scotland was One in a Million brilliant two-sider “Fredereek Hernando / Double sight”.

And of course there were more and while I still think of 1967 as my favourite year, we could put together other similar comps from 1968 with a completely different tracklists…and of course there were more from other places besides the UK and I don’t even mean America…
Photobucket
The Outsiders from Holland followed the Pretties example in releasing their masterpiece, titled “CQ”. In Italy for the first time an album was released only in stereo, it was “Stereoequipe” by the Italian Beat favorites Equipe 84. Their close competitors The Rokes released a great English version of an Italian song called “Il vento”, for the English market only and one of their rarest and better sides, a great favourite of mine!
Talking of which, it was during 1968 that my personal favourite from Eastern Europe, Illes from Hungary, released their best album “Nehez az ut” and a bunch of marvellous 45s.
Many of the above have shown up in this blog, and I strongly recommend if you don’t know them, to check the albums above mentioned through other blogs too starting for example with the Peppermint Store!
Photobucket
1968:DIVE INTO YESTERDAY!
A Collection of UK Psychedelights and Other Oddities

01 JASON CREST Turquoise tandem cycle (Jan debut single)
02 KALEIDOSCOPE A dream for Julie (Jan single)
03 ONE IN A MILLION Double sight (Jan B-side single)
04 JULY Dandelion seeds (Jun B-side debut single)
05 FACTORY Path through the forest (Oct debut single)
06 SKIP BIFFERTY Man in Black (Jul single)
07 PRETTY THINGS Talkin' About the Good Times (Feb single)
08 KOOBAS Walking Out (May single)
09 MOVE Kilroy Was Here (Mar album track)
10 KALEIDOSCOPE Jenny Artichoke (Sep single)
11 MIRROR Gingerbread Man (May first & only single)
12 TURQUOISE Tales of Flossie Fillett (Mar B-side)
13 MIKE STUART SPAN Concerto of thoughts (Feb B-side)
14 ECLECTION Another time another place (Sept single)
15 RAINBOW FFOLLY Montgolfier (May album track)
16 INCREDIBLE STRING BAND Witches hat (Apr album track)
17 FAIRPORT CONVENTION If i had a ribbon bow (Feb debut single)
18 PENTANGLE Let no man steal your thyme (May album track)
19 CARAVAN Ride (Oct album track)
20 BLOSSOM TOES Everyone's Leaving Me Now (Oct B-side)
21 SOFT MACHINE Why Are We Sleeping (Dec album track)
22 YARDBIRDS Think About It (Mar B-side)
23 TOMORROW Hallucinations (Feb album track)
24 PRETTY THINGS I See You (early version from "More Electric Banana")
25 PINK FLOYD Point me at the sky (Dec single)
26 ROKES When the wind arises (May B-side single)
27 ONE IN A MILLION Fredereek Hernando (Jan single)
28 FLEUR-DE-LYS Gong with the luminous nose (May single)
29 TIMEBOX Gone Is The Sad Man (Nov B-side)
30 JASON CREST Patricia's dream (Jul B-side)
http://www.mediafire.com/file/v4n2jz2wmjj/1968 DIVE INTO YESTERDAY.rar
http://www.mediafire.com/file/tloddwmtiny/1968 DIVE INTO YESTERDAY part2.rar

PS
Sorry if you had been looking for white albums or beggars banquets...
Photobucket

Monday 3 November 2008

The KOOBAS Complete Singles Collection & LIVE 1966!

Photobucket
Isn't it amazing that The Koobas singles have not been the subject of a proper reissue?
Yes, some were added as bonus tracks to their album but as my friend Tulloch said "One of the interesting things about listening to the singles in order is the way they progress from Merseybeat through blue eyed soul (reminding me of the Action) and on to psych-pop, with an unfortunate detour into old-timey stuff with Sally/Champagne And Caviar"...yeah, I wonder what was the idea behind the "Sally" 45.
Still, this is a strong collection that would deserve a nice packaging, the kind of stuff Circle records have been doing for example, maybe one day!
UPDATE 19 May 2011: over a thousand downloads so far...
Photobucket
After I re-posted my almost complete Koobas 45s comp just over a month ago, my call to fill those gaps was answered...check the comments and you'll find another link to a similar but different comp, still incomplete!
So, here it is, thanks to Tulloch from England, the definitive Complete Singles Collection, that apart from ALL their UK sides it includes a rare B-side from a Denmark single only, a cool cover of a tune originally recorded by folk-guitar-hero Bert Jansch, and also two tracks from their album issued as a French 45 only.
Finally,nine LIVE tracks from their two 1966 appearances (Jan & Sept) at the German TV Show BEAT BEAT BEAT, most but not all of these have shown up on youtube (check my first post on Koobas).
COMPLETE SINGLES COLLECTION:
01 I Love Her
02 Magic Potion
03 Take Me For A Little While
04 Somewhere In The Night
05 You'd Better Make Up Your Mind
06 A Place I Know
07 Sweet Music
08 Face 1
09 Woe is love my dear
10 Sally
11 Champagne And Caviar
12 Gypsy Fred
13 City Girl
14 The First Cut Is The Deepest
15 Walking Out
16 Where are my friends?
17 Royston Rose
http://www.mediafire.com/file/0mrzmyzdyjj/Koobas Complete Singles.rar

LIVE AT BEAT BEAT BEAT, GERMANY 1966:
01 Daddy Rollin' Stone
02 Somewhere In The Night
03 Take me for a little while
04 You'd better make up your mind
05 Stubborn Kind Of Fellow
06 Shake
07 Take Me For A Little While (2)
08 You'd Better Make Up Your Mind (2)
09 You Don't Love Me
http://www.mediafire.com/file/dzdyt2eoyzu/Koobas Live 1966.rar
Photobucket

Saturday 1 November 2008

Kenny & The Kasuals: Teen Dreams

Texas had without any doubt a great number of fine and very original bands during the 60s,with The 13th Floor Elevators at the very top of the list of course, followed by almost forgotten groups that recorded whole albums like the great Golden Dawn, Lost & Found or the positively weird Red Crayola. There were also many garage bands that have appeared in countless comps since the early 80s.
Photobucket
Kenny & The Kasuals started early and until they split up in 1968 recorded 7 singles and a rare album supposedly live but actually made up of studio recordings, basically all covers, with crowd noises added and released as "Impact - Live at the Studio Club" in 1967.
I found it odd that there isn't yet a proper definitive collection of their work as they would deserve. French label Eva released a couple of albums gathering all their recordings including outtakes around 1983-'84, then reissued in one CD and I just read that there's a brand new authorized comp on vinyl only, certainly a must buy!
Kenny & The Kasuals reformed in 1977 and back then "Teen Dreams" was released...a kind of unreleased second album but in fact a brilliant collection of 1966-1967 original recordings (1 cover) that plays really well as an album, including among others the fantastic "Journey to Tyme", fuzz bass and all.There are many great garage-psych tunes from beginning to end.
Had it been released 10 years earlier it would be considered an all-time classic!
Judge it by yourself.
Photobucket
TEEN DREAMS,
01 See Saw Ride
02 Strings Of Time
03 Things Gettin Better
04 As I Know
05 Everything seems fine
06 Come tomorrow
07 Revelations
08 Raindrops to teardrops
09 I'm gonna make it
10 And there you were
11 Come on kid
12 Can't keep from crying
13 Who stole my house
14 Journey to Tyme
Photobucket
http://www.mediafire.com/file/wmntdiyn15g/kenny & the kasuals - teen dreams.rar