Okay, so psych/psychedelic/whatever-you-want-to-call-it is a genre of music I have tended to ignore up until now. I've never really enjoyed the likes of the 13th Floor Elevators and much of the other bands both Jason and Sonic cite as influences; apart from the Velvets/Reed, Suicide and Laurie Anderson, I tend to listen once and go "meh, not my thing". Similarly, the songs I've heard off Nuggets and the like do nothing for me, and Syd-era Pink Floyd is by far my least favourite period in the band's history. I also tried to get into The Warlocks back when they were de rigeur listening and sadly didn't like them at all. I know loads of modern psych bands get much kudos from members of this board, but I've let it all drift past me unfortunately.
But! Intrigued by the numerous shout-outs on the board, I bought a Carlton Melton album last week (Photos of Photos, to be precise) and it's ruddy brilliant. I love that heavy, woozy, droney, jam-based sound; parts of it remind me of Spz/Sp3 etc; parts sound like ambient records I love but can't quite put my finger on, and the first track reminds me of a stoned Zappa riffing on "Any Downers" circa 1975 (the following youtube clip definitely worth a listen; skip to the 2:00 mark to avoid the silly voices and hear some effects-laden guitar craziness over a very Nor'easter like chord sequence).
mc wrote:
So my questions to you all are as follows:
1) Which Carlton Melton album should I get?
2) What else can you recommend that sounds similar?
I'm in the mood for discovering some new music and will try to listen to all suggestions, so fire away
Answer to (1): If you can find a copy, get the RSD Live in Europe release. It is the mutt's. Other than that, buy any CM LPs you don't have as they are all excellent.
Answer to (2): Chase down releases by The Heads. The re-release of Relaxing With... on 2xCD is a fantastic place to start, or the vinyl re-release if you are into LPs. The anthroproprof and Kandodo offshoots by various members of The Heads are great. GNOD and White Hills have their moments. On the more drone/krautrock front, I can highly recommend the Wooden Shjips, Eat Lights: Become Lights and Perplexa (all well recommended by others on here). The last Perplexa album is outstanding.
Lots more recommendations coming from others I'm sure. I'm too knackered to be able to remember much at present!
sun araw- 'beach head'/'on patrol'
cave- 'neverendless'
hookworms- 'pearl mystic'
i'd second 'relaxing with the heads' and pretty much anything by wooden shjips.
Well, as you know...I am a 60's psych junkie. So, from what I read above it doesn't sound like I can recommend too much to you from that era as I am not sure it will be what you want or are looking for.
BUT...how about Bardo Pond? They are a heavy, effects laden and multi-layered guitar based psych band out of Philadelphia. Well worth investigation and pretty much ALL of their albums are worthy of mention. But If I were to recommend just one to start with I would pick up "Amanita". If you dig this album there are a number of us on this board who can point you in direction of what to get next. I also LOVE their couple of releases from their side project, 'Hash Jar Tempo'.
Recently, I have also been digging out my 80's underground psych rock records, in particular, Rhode Island's 'Plan 9'. Very 60's/garage/Nuggets oriented band but they have some great records that are worth searching out. Of course, I am also a big fan of the Green Pajamas. I have touted them numerous times in this forum and there is a thread dedicated to them. They are more pop psych with a lot of Beatles influence but their albums are wonderful (imho).
Oh, and check out the thread on Orange Can, who also come with my highest recommendation as do the first two Sleepy Sun albums ('Embrace' and 'Fever').
I'll second Bardo Pond... as i think they are possibly the closest you'll get to Carlton Melton from all those suggested above. they have so many albums and side projects that they can be a little overwhelming, but if you stick with their albums first and enjoy those you'll find your way through to some of the side projects eventually. My recommendations would be Set & Setting and Crystal Tickets which are probably their most polished work. The RSD 12" they did with Funkadelic's Maggot Brain is also one i'd track down as its just fuckin' epic!
The Heads are incredible, and i'd recommend the "Everybody Knows We Got Nowhere" album. The opening track on that album will blow your head off, BUT their releases can be hard work at times, especially as many are just compilations of jams which are sometimes far from polished, so might be a little too much for initial listens. Persevere tough as they have some moments of incredible groove and heaviness that few can surpass.
As for Carlton melton, Photos of Photoes is just superb. Totally blew me away. I agree the RSD live album from this year is definitely one to get as it really does give you an idea of how their live shows go. From tripped out, delicate drones to heavy, heavy freakouts. The new album, Always Even, is much more of the same, though i feel it is over before you know it so seek out the recent Four Eyes EP too (i like to think they compliment each other rather well and makes me think the new album is on a par, length-wise, with PoP!). If you like their heavier side, their first album is great (especially their stunning cover of Pink Floyd's When You're In) as was Country Ways, which has the best and most intense version of March Of The Cicadas of any release. I must have played that one track over 100 times when i got that album such was the feeling i got from it! I'd highly recommend the Smoke Drip EP that was released prior to PoP too. Was a real taster for what PoP brought in abundance. Their AQ HIts album compiles many of their earlier split singles and b-sides and i managed to get the band to send me a copy of their first CDr, Live At Point Arena, which has some really great unreleased stuff too. I have a couple of other live shows i tracked down which i enjoy too.
Others i'd suggest to you to check out would be:
Dead Sea Apes - Both the Lupus LP and their Soy Dios EP are great releases, especially the track, Soy Dios II from the EP. The Cosmic Dead - Much more of a looser feel to them and with some tracks clocking at almost 40mins at times, require a little patience and faith in where they are taking you, but when they get going, you'll struggle to find anyone better! hey have one of the best rythm sections i've witnessed live with an intuition between each other that is just sublime to watch. The Hills - As much a nod to Neu, Can, and all the original Krautrock bands, their debut album is superb. Got an unbelievable groove about them. I'd say less heavy, more groovy! If you liked Camera's debut, i thinkyou'd like this lot. White Manna - Another great psych band doing the rounds just now. Their debut release has some brilliant song based psych, but their recent release, Dune Worship EP, is probably much more likely to tickle your fancy, especially the Illusion Of Illusion track.
If you like your psych more guitar-noodle-y and jammy, then i would check out Sula Bassana and the related Electric Moon, Earthless, Black Bombain, Blues Pills, Brain Pyramid, Causa Sui.
Others of note (not already mentioned): Cave, Camera, Lumerians, Pontiacs, The Janitors
If there is anything that takes your fancy, i could put together a selection of different tracks from many of the above for you to check out, see if anything catches your attention.
I know the OP was asking for acts in a similar vein to Carlton Melton. Slightly OT, but I would also add Luna by The Aliens (Astronomy for Dogs is great too) which is my go-to album when I need cheering up. Musically and visually (cover-art) it is a beautiful record. I had completely overlooked/forgotten these records.
It goes without saying (which is why I didn't say it in the first place ) that the collected works of Julian Cope are worth a lengthy visit. The Brain Donor records are right up there in the heavier edge of psyche IMHO. Doggen is particlularly on fire on those records.
you are certainly asking on the right forum.. plenty of knowledgeable psych heads around here!
the thing about psych is it's actually a wide ranging term with lots of subgenres- you've got acid rock, shoegaze, krautrock, more electronic stuff, drone etc etc. as you've identified Carlton Melton as the starting point it seems you're after the more overtly spacey psych stuff. as I'm no expert I'll just recommend some personal favourites with that in mind-
UFO- Flying. going back a bit here, these guys turned into a metal band soon after this but this is pure trippy rock with a blues base. there are two centrepieces to the album where they go right off into noodling spaciness with lots of delay effects.
Comets on Fire- Blue Cathedral. my favourite album by one of my favourite bands. heavy and raucous in parts (the vocals are a bit more shouty than your usual psych, but also put through an echoplex for extra trippiness!), interspersed with more chilled and tranquil pieces.
Magic Lantern- Platoon. the other band by the chap from Sun Araw- more rock based, less dubby. some of the squelchy wah-wah riffs are almost Hendrix-esque, but there's plenty of spacey drone too. I would say this mix is closest to Carlton Melton out of all the bands here, and can't see you not liking it if you like them.
on the poppy side I'd also recommend Tame Impala but I'm sure you are aware of them already. on the heavy side I also adore the two albums by The Psychic Paramount, these almost go into pure noise at times.
I will echo angelsigh's praise of UFO's 'Flying' LP. It is a heavy load in their cannon. Original guitarist, Mick Bolton, couldn't be further away from German riff master, Michael Schenker who created their mid-70's signature hard rock sound. This album, their second, was recorded in 1971 and is an anomaly in their catalog. It most definitely lives up to the album's tag line "One Hour Space Rock". Absolutely essential, in my opinion.
But, it doesn't exactly fit the criteria you set in your original post. Still, seek and you will be rewarded!
Any Rain Parade might hit the spot as well. Particualrly Emergency Third Rail Power Trip, Explosions In The Glass Palace and the criminally underrated Crashing Dream LPs.
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Oh my, loads of recommendations - thanks very much, everyone! From the sounds of your descriptions it's the heavy, echoey, effects-y, spacey instrumental stuff I'm particularly interested in, although I'm looking forward to trying everything out. I don't know how I got this far in life without hearing Bardo Pond, and I've been meaning to listen to The Aliens for ages but never got round to it I'll start listening to your picks and let you know how I get on
Olan, you mentioned Julian Cope - I'm a huge Cope fan, although I still have gaps in my collection. I don't have any solo material pre-Peggy Suicide save for Fried, and I'm missing Interpreter and a couple of other late-period albums too. I'm particularly fond of Jehovahkill, Odin, LAMF, all of the Rite albums and Black Sheep; I enjoy all of Brain Donor's albums, but Love, Peace and Fuck is truly awesome stuff - Doggen's playing is wonderfully OTT. Really digging Cope's latest - "Woden" and "Revolutionary Suicide" as well.
Dunno if you could call it psych, but I reckon Sleep's "Dopesmoker" might appeal to some of you - a single hour-long heavy-as-hell psychedelic jam with a very appropriate title. I can't recommend it enough
Right, for various reasons both good and bad, and after a long fallow period in buying new music, I've been in the mood for a splurge. And because I like to appreciate albums as a whole rather than individual tracks, I' thought "sod the risk, let's go for it" and bought the following:
Carlton Melton - Country Ways
Carlton Melton - Always Even
Eat Lights Become Lights - Heavy Electrics
Hookworms - Hookworms
Bardo Pond - Rise Above It All
Bardo Pond - Amanita
White Manna - White Manna
The Heads - 33
I tend to listen to music digitally, so they're all downloads from boomkat.com and Amazon. Can't wait to digest this little lot, and I've also got a very long wishlist ready to dip into over the coming months
Laz and I posted at the same time (8:09 am). My post looks like it was written at 8:08 am (it was). Laz's post looks like the result of careful thought and lucid, concise and insightful prose. I suspect that there were prototype drafts before publication. Just what time of the morning does Laz get up at? On the other hand perhaps my 8:09am post was just shite. Kudos due!
Haha... I was just enjoying my morning porriage at my work desk when I typed that up. I have small portable hard drive I use at work for a selection of my music, so had about 100 albums I could quickly scan through for suggestions.
Carlton Melton and Bardo Pond are two bands I'm really passionate about so I just wanted to put across my points well. I hope they were useful.
They most certainly were Laz, as were yours olan, and everybody else's - I know I'm in safe hands with the recommendations on this board It's been a while since I've bought some truly new music, and I'm very much looking forwards to this trip...
Laz69 wrote:
Dead Sea Apes - Both the Lupus LP and their Soy Dios EP are great releases, especially the track, Soy Dios II from the EP. The Cosmic Dead - Much more of a looser feel to them and with some tracks clocking at almost 40mins at times, require a little patience and faith in where they are taking you, but when they get going, you'll struggle to find anyone better! hey have one of the best rythm sections i've witnessed live with an intuition between each other that is just sublime to watch. The Hills - As much a nod to Neu, Can, and all the original Krautrock bands, their debut album is superb. Got an unbelievable groove about them. I'd say less heavy, more groovy! If you liked Camera's debut, i thinkyou'd like this lot. White Manna - Another great psych band doing the rounds just now. Their debut release has some brilliant song based psych, but their recent release, Dune Worship EP, is probably much more likely to tickle your fancy, especially the Illusion Of Illusion track.
If you like your psych more guitar-noodle-y and jammy, then i would check out Sula Bassana and the related Electric Moon, Earthless, Black Bombain, Blues Pills, Brain Pyramid, Causa Sui.
Others of note (not already mentioned): Cave, Camera, Lumerians, Pontiacs, The Janitors
Some great choices there, the Black Bombain album Titans is brilliant
mc wrote:Right, for various reasons both good and bad, and after a long fallow period in buying new music, I've been in the mood for a splurge. And because I like to appreciate albums as a whole rather than individual tracks, I' thought "sod the risk, let's go for it" and bought the following:
Carlton Melton - Country Ways
Carlton Melton - Always Even
Eat Lights Become Lights - Heavy Electrics
Hookworms - Hookworms
Bardo Pond - Rise Above It All
Bardo Pond - Amanita
White Manna - White Manna
The Heads - 33
I tend to listen to music digitally, so they're all downloads from boomkat.com and Amazon. Can't wait to digest this little lot, and I've also got a very long wishlist ready to dip into over the coming months
Can't argue with any of the suggestions so far but i'll throw Earthless into the mix: Long, wah-heavy instrumental jams.
BTW possibly the worst Heads album you could've picked to start off with! I don't mean it's bad it's just a difficult listen at times and not a true representation of their sound.
I think you'll be fine with your other choices though. Enjoy!
sunray wrote:
Can't argue with any of the suggestions so far but i'll throw Earthless into the mix: Long, wah-heavy instrumental jams.
BTW possibly the worst Heads album you could've picked to start off with! I don't mean it's bad it's just a difficult listen at times and not a true representation of their sound.
I think you'll be fine with your other choices though. Enjoy!
Thanks sunray, I'll investigate Earthless too - that sounds right up my street. I couldn't find much by The Heads available to buy digitally - unsurprisingly, given what I've read here about their ultra-limited releases - but boomkat only charged me £1.70 for "33", so even if it doesn't go down well I'll chalk it up to experience and keep looking for their classic releases. They also have "Under The Stress Of A Headlong Dive" available for £8 on download - is that a worthwhile purchase?
I'll second the recommendation for Earthless too. their album Rhythms from a Cosmic Sky is really good- pretty much an entire album of freeform, heavy jamming with a psych feel. and aside from a short Groundhogs cover bolted onto the end, totally instrumental. if you like Sleep you'll like them. Earthless are more solo based than riff based though.
Finally got around to giving ELBL a spin thanks to this thread
The space-agey Krautrock of "Test Drive" is just wonderful - just unspeakably wonderful. Please tell me there is more obscure records I've not previously consumed that sound exactly like it
Zenchan wrote:Finally got around to giving ELBL a spin thanks to this thread
The space-agey Krautrock of "Test Drive" is just wonderful - just unspeakably wonderful. Please tell me there is more obscure records I've not previously consumed that sound exactly like it
I have 3 LPs and a bunch of singles all released on Great Pop Supplement. I have a great fondness for the first LP, called Autopia IIRC.
Neil, their mainman used to post here under the moniker 'They Transmit' (one of their early singles I believe).
I saw them play live for the first time at the Liverpool Psyche Festival, although a combination of excessive beer intake all-day with Aquarian-Time and Angelsighs (and a lunatic pint of handcrafted cider at 1:30 in the morning to top off all the beer) and the bowel-quaking levels of volume EL:BL played at, caused me to run away before the end of their set. I'm getting old....
Just a quick update to let you know how I'm getting on with my psych splurge. Happy to report that it's been an enjoyable journey so far, with no disappointments. I've not quite listened to everything yet, and other albums only once, but initial impressions are all good.
Carlton Melton - "Photos Of Photos" continues to amaze me, and "Country Ways" and "Always Even" are both proving excellent listens as well. I've listened to White Manna once and found it very enjoyable - much more formal and traditional song based than I was perhaps expecting, but with great instrumentation and sonics all the same. Not listened to Eat Lights Become Lights or The Heads yet; listened to my Hookworms and Bardo Pond purchases once each and can't say much about them so far other than I enjoyed them. I'm currently downloading Bill Laswell's "City of Light" because it was cheap on amazon, and I've also bought "Sonic Prayer" and "Rhythms From A Cosmic Sky" by Earthless too. I'm listening to the latter for the first time as I type - the first track opened up like a more chaotic Cop Shoot Cop middle section then launched into this Brain Donor-esque wah power trio craziness that's still going on fifteen minutes later. Bloody marvellous
) that the collected works of Julian Cope are worth a lengthy visit. The Brain Donor records are right up there in the heavier edge of psyche IMHO. Doggen is particlularly on fire on those records.
I'll start listening to your picks and let you know how I get on 
I don't mean it's bad it's just a difficult listen at times and not a true representation of their sound.