Us and Them - Fading Within The Dwindling Sun (10")

Swedish duo's tribute to Sandy Denny!

This coloured 10” vinyl is out now on Fruits de Mer Records. It's a five-track tribute to Sandy Denny featuring three Denny-penned tracks and two more songs she made her own. Anyone doubting that Us and Them can due justice to the music of Sandy Denny need only check out the 7” they released a couple of years back which contained a sterling cover of 'By The Time It Gets Dark'.

As we approach the solstice, the sun is dwindling it does indeed get dark early. I can't think of a better soundtrack for to accompany the midwinter stillness. My advice – avoid the High Street madness, do your shoppong online (from Fruits de Mer reputable mail order service), find a quiet spot and let this music take its effect. It's a perfect piece of wintry folk, and another jewel in the Fruits de Mer catalogue. Just right for those moments of quiet reflection, when you take stock of the preceeding year and charge your batteries for the next 12 months. Have a great solstice everyone.

TRACKLISTING

Winter Winds

Farewell, Farewell

Next Time Around

Banks Of The Nile

Take Away The Load

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The Karovas Milkshake - In The Shade Of The Purple Sun

(This review first appeared in issue 53 of Shindig! magazine)

In their home city of Yekaterinburg, east of the Ural Mountains, The Karovas Milkshake have concocted an aural love letter to '60s UK psychedelia that should appeal to fans of the original genre as well as those of its recent torchbearers (The Bees, The Coral, Temples et al.)

Standout track 'Purple Sun Of Glastonbury' is a seven and a half minute sitar-driven freakout which conjures images of rituals, standing stones and the dark spirit of Brian Jones, complete with a searing backwards guitar section.

Light relief comes via the Austin Powers-y pastiche of 'Zombie Wok' and the jaunty continental pop of 'Cryptique'. There's also room for some Bolan-ish folksy warble (Apple Pie) and Barrett-fronted jug band blues (Sugary Life).

It's all executed with a playfulness that raises it a notch above most time travelling psych-pop. Yekaterinburg may not share a ley line with Glastonbury but on this evidence you'd believe it could.

Click here for The Karovas Milkshake website. 

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Bananas Magazine - Issue #14

Latest issue of the coolest zine around! Garage, punk and psych inky available from all good stores & distros!

I think we can all agree that 2016 has been a heinous beast of a year. Brexit, Trump, all those deaths and the murder of a forward-thinking, kind-hearted MP. A seismic year, the effects of which have yet to truly affect us. Where the hell do we go from here?! It's a point well made by editor Christophe in his column of the latest issue of Bananas Magazine. What we do need to do is pick ourselves up, dust ourselves down and continue to stand up and fight for what we believe in. As a musical community, (especially one as uniquely small yet global, as the garage scene is), is to keep the "citizen of the world" ethos alive, despite what Theresa May and nativist politicians the world over want to do. Hey, maybe here's not the place for politics but I just wanted to get that off my chest and try and remain positive.

Anyhow, one bright spot at the tail end of the year is issue #14 of the best garage 'zine around, a timely reminder that there are still good people, good events and great bands. If Ian Dury was around today it would be one of his reasons to be cheerful. Packed as usual with interviews, reviews, awesome illustrations that'll have even the most rural dwellers hip to the scene. Grab a copy from your local store or distro, or via the mag's website. And also check out their latest online comp, (see embedded player below). A soundtrack for your New Year's Eve party. Here's to 2017, stay strong brothers and sisters!

http://bananas-magazine.com/

The Beckies - The Beckies

(This review first appeared in issue 52 of Shindig! magazine)

 

Hampered on its initial 1976 release by a refusal to tour and the feeling of it being a major label take on the new wave zeitgeist, this sole eponymous album has aged well. Marked by its warmth and pure joy of (power) pop, it may have been at odds with the prevailing AOR professionalism of the era but forty years on reveals itself as a lost gem.

Founding member of The Left Banke, Michael Brown had a genius knack for delicate melodies and classical influenced arrangements which sat well with the power pop brio of his newly found bandmates, who'd learned their craft in Chessmann Square, a journeyman group founded on a love of harmony-rich British Invasion bands.

The Beckies would turn out to be Brown's last release on a major label. This first time on CD reissue is a fitting tribute to the man, whose talents gave so much and deserved more in return.

Herbcraft - Wot Oz

(This review first appeared in issue 52 of Shindig! magazine)

 

Experimental rock trio Herbcraft continue to make music that challenges and compels in equal measure. For their fourth LP band mainstay Matt Lajoie and new recruits Joe Lindsey and Aaron Neveu have released an improvised rehearsal tape where ambient dub rubs up against mutant-funk and Sister Ray style jams. From the primordial soundscape of 'We're Gonna Make It', into the focused art-rock of 'Fit Ur-Head', learn to expect the unexpected.

'Push Through The Veil' is an uncompromising take on Afro-funk with rolling bass, drum clatter and unhinged but murky vocal wailing, whereas 'No More Doors' is a more abstract, swampy affair, all voodoo drums and interplanetary guitar scales.

'Bread Don't Rise' is the closest track to traditional rock, albeit with undecipherable lyrics and primal scream delivery. If you're looking for music on rock's outer reaches, music that's devoid of cliché and unafraid of experimentation, here it is. One for the heads.

Click here for Herbcraft on Bandcamp.

The Green Pajamas - Death By Misadventure

(This review first appeared in issue 52 of Shindig! magazine)

 

For a band with a back catalogue large enough to rival Grattan, (Sears if you're in the US), it's surprising that this Seattle-based group are not more widely known. Even more of a mystery given the strength of Jeff Kelly's songwriting on this vinyl reissue of their 2012 album. Though they may have strayed from the psych-pop/Paisley Underground roots of their DIY cassette releases of the mid '80s, their current brand of intelligent guitar-based pop for grown ups more than compensates.

The music veers from taut and muscular indie rock, through lilting piano ballads and McCartney-esque pop, to songs owing more to European gypsy music than they do Anglo-American rock. Despite such musical variations the album is held together by being a two part song-cycle that reveals depth and intrigue with each listen. If dark storytelling is not to your taste there's the upbeat 'Carrie', a true hit single in waiting.

The Sunchymes - Present...

(This review first appeared in issue 52 of Shindig! magazine)

 

The Sunchymes are a studio-based sunshine pop outfit from the distinctly unsunny environs of Northampton, and are a vehicle for the writing and arranging talents of auteur Aaron Hemmington. Their third album continues their ever more assured line in harpsichord and harmony laced soft-psych. Packed with Brian Wilson-esque melodies, chamber-pop arrangements and lyrics about parks, carousels and daydreaming, it makes for a pleasant, knowingly lightweight listen. The use of Mellotron strings and subtle phasing give the album a gently disorientating twist, though it's more psych that's safe for children than the full on lysergic experience.

'Time Will Tell' is typical of the fayre; breezy, upbeat and sugary. Despite lacking that killer song the album does a fine job in recreating a certain period charm and finely straddles the line between soft psychedelia and bubblegum. Abandon your alphabetical filing and stash this one between The Beach Boys' Friends and The Banana Splits LP.

French Boutik – Front Pop

Parisian nova-mods' full length debut oozes style and sophistication!

We've covered French Boutik here before of course, and delighted in their previous standalone vinyl releases – Les Chats De Gouttiere 7” and Ici Paris 2x7”. Now stripped to a lean and mean quartet they've just released their debut long-player which more than lives up to expectations. No great game changing moves but there's a definite distillation and honing here, along with a growth in confidence.

With the boy/girl vocals and split between French and English language songs French Boutik bring style and sophistication to the fore. Their previous releases hinted at a band capable of a range of moods and styles. Over ten new original tracks and a neat version of Francoise Hardy's 'Je Ne Suis Pas La Pour Personne' the band get to show them in full

They describe their sound as Pop Moderniste and that's about right. Rooted in '60s soul and mod but with a nod to The Style Council and a touch of acid-jazz here and there (check out the flute solo on 'Hitch A Ride'). Factor in a little bossa nova, some louge-core within that musical melting pop you'll find French Boutik. Step in and enjoy!

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Icarus Peel - Forget-Me-Not Under Pussy Willow

Conceptual village wyrdness among the rolling hills!

A concept album about an undertaker and a gang of London villains set in a village between the Cotswolds and Milton Keynes! Yep you heard right. The leader of The Honey Pot and musical collaborator with Harmonic Distortion favourite Crystal Jacqueline has concocted a song suite set in a fictional English village. A seemingly normal world but scratch beneath the surface and the strangeness of old Albion soon reveals itself. Packed from start to finish with the sort of pastoral eccentricity that went out of fashion when Mr. Barrett retreated to suburban Cambridge, this album was apparently written as a bet. The nature of that bet may not be known but the resulting LP means everyone wins.

No-one would make the claim for Icarus Peel as being a great singer, his voice more suited to teaching geography than selling a song but that matters not and indeed is almost the point, with the songs all delivered in a straight, English folk story-over-style manner. Shifting between gentle psychedelia, acoustic ballads and soft spacey rock, this is a strange album for an even stranger year and a great tonic when the real world's ugliness is too much.

Available on limited edition black vinyl (250 copies) and as a 4 CD set housed in a handmade individually numbered wooden box.

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Oriental Sunshine - Dedicated To The Bird We Love

Deluxe reissue out 2nd December on Round 2 Records 

 

The long and winding countryside of Norway in the late sixties was hardly the ideal time or place to be playing psychedelic folk music. But the teenage duo of Nina Johansen and Rune Walle, aided by their friend Satnam Singh, triumphed over high odds to make one of the most spellbinding albums in the genre made in any country.

Johansen and Walle met at a Peoples College in 1968 in the rainy small town Manger outside of Bergen, and discovered a shared love of The Beatles, Joni Mitchell and eastern sounds. They soon started playing and writing songs together. Then they met Satnam Singh, one of the very few people of colour living in Norway at the time, and luckily he turned out to be an excellent flute and tabla player. It was meant to be — Oriental Sunshine was formed.

A sole album was made, released on Philips in 1970, with the trio joined by accomplished jazz musicians Espen Rud (Min Bul), Sture Janson, and Helge Grøslie (Junipher Greene). The album was recorded by the legendary Norwegian producer and recording technician Jan Erik Kongshaug. After the death of Johansen’s father and with Satnam Singh facing deportation the band lost contact for 35 years and no music has been produced by the group since. This truly is a one off, and a key, unique record in Norway’s psych history.

Round 2 are proud to present this long out of print rarity, with remastered audio, exclusive poster and liner notes by Richard Morton Jack.

Tracklisting:

Side A
Across Your Life
Mother Nature
Look At Me
Unless
Land of Wisdom
Let It Be My Birth

Side B
Can Anybody Tell?
Visions
My Way To Be Hurt
Where You Went (Tum Kahan Gaye)
I’m Going