psychedelia
CD: The Cult - Choice of WeaponSunday, 20 May 2012![]() The end had long been nigh for The Cult, when it first came in 1995. It wasn’t just the booze and the arrival of grunge. It was as much that smart-arse Brit Pop was never going to have much truck with a man who called himself Wolf Child and wrote... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Denmark: SPOT Festival 2012, AarhusFriday, 11 May 2012![]() For a Brit navigating Denmark’s annual showcase of home-grown music, it’s impossible to eradicate thoughts of the Danish TV seen in the UK recently. Obviously, detecting Borgen-style intrigue while wandering around is unfeasible. But something else... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Small FacesSunday, 06 May 2012![]() Small Faces: The Decca Album (Deluxe Edition), From The Beginning (Deluxe Edition), The Immediate Album (Deluxe Edition), Ogden's Nut Gone Flake (Deluxe Edition)Kieron Tylertheartsdesk’s reissues round-up is usually dedicated to three... Read more... |
CD: Haight-Ashbury 2 – The AshburysThursday, 03 May 2012![]() Choosing such a loaded name is wilful. Scottish trio Haight-Ashbury are going to be identified with psychedelic-era San Francisco whatever they do. Should they wish to extend their musical wings, diversions into drum and bass or metal aren’t going... Read more... |
CD: The Time And Space Machine - Taste The LazerTuesday, 03 April 2012![]() Richard Norris has been mucking about making strange noises and joining the dots (and sometime microdots) in electronic dance music’s shadowy regions for 25 years. He's had multiple incarnations, from NME writer to creator of proto-acid house with... Read more... |
theartsdesk video exclusive: BlacksmifTuesday, 28 February 2012![]() Londoner Yemi Olagbaiye is the model of a new generation musician for whom the dissolution of genre categories means not homogenisation but an opportunity for greater individuality. Olagbaiye grew up playing guitar music, then moved on to drum'n'... Read more... |
CD: Paper Dollhouse - A Box Painted BlackSaturday, 07 January 2012![]() One of last year’s finest surprises was the debut album from Rayographs, a fractured, psychedelic excursion that remains enthralling. Paper Dollhouse is the solo guise of Rayographs’s Astrud Steehouder. While A Box Painted Black isn’t quite the... Read more... |
2011: The Rave ReturnsFriday, 30 December 2011![]() Against all the odds, I find myself going into 2012 with a strong sense of optimism. And the reason? I am a born-again rave zealot. I saw it at Outlook Festival in Croatia, I saw it at Sónar in Barcelona, and I saw it at the Big Chill where I was... Read more... |
CD: Anchorsong - ChaptersSunday, 27 November 2011![]() It's understandable that people get put off leftfield dance music, given how much micro-genre delineation and dog-in-a-manger protectionism there can be in underground scenes. It can seem a shame sometimes, but then again, these are part and parcel... Read more... |
CD: Admiral Black – PhantasmagoricThursday, 17 November 2011![]() You’ve got to love the “I Can Only Give You Everything” riff. Admiral Black do and base their “Got Love if You Want It” around an inverted version on their debut album. Cheese-wire fuzz guitar pulses, Bo Diddley drums bash and a wheezy organ, well,... Read more... |
Magic Trip: Ken Kesey's Search for a Kool PlaceMonday, 14 November 2011![]() Ken Kesey is one of these characters who gets filed under "Counterculture Legend", alongside the likes of Hunter Thompson and Abbie Hoffman, though his accomplishments are somewhat amorphous. His early achievements as a novelist are easier to... Read more... |
CD: Radio Slave - Works! Selected Remixes 2006-2010Monday, 14 November 2011![]() If there's one electronic sub-genre that is not worth approaching blind it's “tech-house”. Since the late Nineties, it has tended to be the most functional and generic of club soundtracks, a steady, decadent plod, all clean lines and predictable... Read more... |
