| Once Upon A Dream was the fourth album by the Rascals (minus the young from the title) and represented a major shift and progression in their work. Here it is in all its beauty....a concept album in the magic of Sgt Peppers and Odyssey and Oracle with beautiful songs and a strong psychedelic attitude to the album. Without a question this album is a departure from their early pop fused paisely single approach to their albums. This album is a fusion of soul,pop and psych influences and offers some great flower popping bright music and cohesive feeling throughout. I love this album from start to finish and would have to consider it amongst the best albums of the psychedelic era. Stunningly essential | |||
| Aptly titled “around the world….Pepperisms” this fine collection contains 18 super duper fantastic Beatle’esque tunes written and performed by bands from all over the world. The common thread is of course everyone carries a Beatles influence to some degree and in many ways feels like Sgt Pepper atmospheres. Even the packaging carries that Sgt Pepper flare from cover to cover making this a fun paisley sort of compilation. Beatles fans who don’t mind a few stolen moments will get a lot of utility out of this recording | |||
| If there was one album you should swing this year why not make it the fuzzed out psychedelic Plastic Cloud's one and only recording! This is masterful psychedelic rock with tons of excellent paisley-oil blobbed songs and harmonic melodies. For those familiar with the Lasers Edge will know the care and love they put into their releases and this Canadian 60's beauty is no exception! If you love psych rock then get your fingers into this album it will simply send you back to the late 60's. | |||
| After a few years of trying to track down this gem down I finally found it in a used CD bin for $ 4.99 ! This is an amazing album full of paisley power pop in a similar vein to The Mamas and The Papa's with a more psych disposition. Spanky (Elaine) McFarlane had just one of those perfect voices and when combined with the male associates in her band (The Gang) hit some of the most psychy harmonies you will ever hear! This album is also very well recorded and does make a great headphone experience with multi-layered and multi-colored elements at every turn on this album. Even some humour to boot.....a killer album | |||
| In a recent conversation someone asked me what my most Psychedelic album was of all time and I quickly replied "maybe the first Ultimate Spinach album" which is in itself interesting. So my favourite might change on any given day, but this first Ultimate Spinach album is to die for kids! Huge psychedelic big sound with tons of toe tapping and harmonic parts...even a good chunk of dreamy melodies. And then add some Sitar and Theremin along the way to add to the whole experience. Again the sound and Big Beats reproduction quailty is of the highest order and again this is a great headphone experience album. "The Hip Death Goddess" which clocks in around 9 mins is one of the 60's greatest tracks and an essential one for lovers of the Psychedelia. Essential music | |||
| Traffic’s debut album “Mr Fantasy” has 2 sides…a US release and a UK release and both although at the heart are the same album, they are also very different too. The Island CD re-mastered version contains both UK (Stereo) and US (Mono0 versions. Apparently Bill Levenson opted to release both the mono UK original and stereo US original albums separately. And IMHO this decision makes sense as both albums sound remarkably different. But enough of the history, so what about the music and sound you ask ? Well if you have not hear Mr. Fantasy you need to ! Led by the immensely all star band led by the incomparable Steve Winwood (organ, bass, harpsichord and vocals), Dave Mason (guitars, mellotron, sitar, tambura, shakkai and vocals), Jim Capaldi (drums and vocals) and Chris Wood (flute, sax, organ and vocals) this magnificent rock band rocked the world with this stunning debut album. "Mr. Fantasy," is a pure delicious psychedelic snack with tons of lovely mellotron and organ soaked melodies. Musically this album blends aspects of Procol Harum, Pink Floyd, Cream, Moody Blues, Camel and even The Beatles into one. This album definitely watermarks the most psychedelic that Traffic ever got and pretty well is just a fantastic album from start to finish and if you snag the same CD version then you can decide on which version you prefer (I have mine). | |||
| The late 60's Grateful Dead albums are simply killer with tons of great psychedelic jams and moods. Aoxomoxoa is pretty much a classic and has received lots of fine coverage over the years so not sure I can add a whole pile of new things to be honest. If you have not heard this beauty then you are in for quite an experience. Lots of great guitar, quirky songs, paisley sun-bleeched lyrics and deep musical imaging. A must have album and if you are able to snag the Rhino records re-mastered HDCD version then I am sure you will hear a very fresh sound too. | |||
| Before the demise of The Association they managed to release under the radar screen a quiet yet amazing album that they titled just “The Association”. Gone are any chart hits or blockbuster singles (ie Windy) here and instead the bad took a page out of the BYRDS book and wrote a flowery yet psych vocal harmonic country rock album. On this album the band had total freedom to record under their own creative control and this album is the output of this freedom. This is one of those “Easy to listen to albums” that never get loud of too fuzzed out and keep pretty much to their mix of eclectic yet acoustically harmonic melodies and moods. This is one of my personal favourite Sunday monrning albums. Plays wonderfully as the sun just comes up and your headphones are on ! Some of the best vocal harmonies you will ever hear. | |||
| FIRE was Dave Lambert's (Strawbs) first band and "The Magic Shoemaker" is kind of a cult psych classic! This was an early psych concept album based on Lambert's dream of a cobbler named Mark and a pair of magical shoes! For the recording of this album Lambert enlisted Dave Cousins and Velvet Opera guitarist Paul Brett. The end result is a psychy little album of great paisley enfused little tunes which I played actually quite a bit. It is really too bad that this band did not continue in many ways as this is just a wonderful recording from start to finish. This concept album is pitted with actual story line narration but not enough to annoy or get in the way of this grand album from unfolding. | |||
| This is an absolute killer late '60s West Coast incense styled psych in the same school of Jefferson Airplane and the Doors. This band was from the North Carolina region and released this very sought after album on B.T. Puppy Records in 1970. Musically this album has it all…..tons of trippy fuzzed out guitars, some excellent female vocals, psychy keyboard work (sounding distantly in the Doors camp) and great song writing. The guitar work on this album is absolutely stunning and in many ways is the highlight of the album for me....Oh yeah and has art work that will blow your mind. A mind numbing trippy album that is guaranteed to make you smile as you listen. | |||
| Here are one of those psych gems that for collectors are like magic to your ears. This rare 1970’s debut album comes from this US '60's psych band from Texas who were at the time (aka 1970) were gigged regularly with The 13th Floor Elevators. This album offers some excellent rural sounding hippy psych with the trippy classics "Song For Peace" and "Kaleidoscoptic". This is a well balanced blend of country and inventive psychedelia, augmented by some fine electric fiddle playing and vocal harmonies. In fact it was really the incorporation of the fiddle by lead bandsman Spencer Perskin that gave this band their watermark sound! Musically this band sound like a mix of early Grateful Dead and the Marshall Tucker Band. ..And even a little kazoo tossed in for good measure | |||
| "For Fox Sake" is a fantastic album with loads of hammond soaked parts, excellent song writing and vocal harmonies. The Fox definitely border on progressive rock really and at times sound more like Gravy Train and softer Deep Purple but carry a certain psychedelic flare. Overall an excellent album and just one of thise hidden treasures from the late 60's . | |||
| This Alabama-based psych/rock outfit cranked out one hell of a superb album with this debut album !. This amazing turn of the decade psych rock band blend Melodic “Floyd-like” progressive rock elements, softer less noticeable syncopated Gentle Giant-like jazz complexities with psychy blistering acid guitar, soulful vocals and shimmering keyboards. Opening track “Look at the sun” is an amazing song and although not all that typical of the album does open in a wonderfully tranquil vein. | |||
| The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown...so they have caught me off guard a few times in my life! One thing you can never forget is that this is THE CRAZY WORLD OF ARTHUR BROWN! This debut album is of course best known for the 60's hit 'Fire', which reached number two on the UK pop charts in September of 1968. This Organ dominated album is both slick and vicious and as always highly theatrical and deep psychologically! Side A on the album is alone well worth the price of admission which is a fine collection of a suite of songs resembling a modern-day musical update on Dante's 'Inferno'. I always considered this album to be a psychedlic nightmare as Brown plays such a dark album. Having said that though I would say that this album is absolutely essential and a neccessity in your psych collection! | |||
| Billy Gibbons of yes ZZ-Top fame’s first band was a Texas psychedelic group in the mid-1960s who released in the late 60’s one excellent album “Flash”. The band featured Billy Gibbons (guitar), Don Summers (bass), Dan Mitchell (drums) and Tom Moore (keyboards). The Moving Sidewalks musically played psychedelic blues-rock based rock with heavy guitar, bass and drum interplay. This band built up such popularity and local notoriety that they endeed up supporting Jimi Hendrix at one of his early U.S. gigs. After the release of Flash 2 of the members entered the US Army and Billy wne ton to form ZZ Top and this ended the life of "The Moving Sidewalks" but not if you pick up this psych gem ! | |||
| In a premonitory manner, Leslie West named his first album simply “Mountain” and then of course later built a band and called them Mountain. This album is nothing more than straight forward guitar driven acid rock that sort of reminds me of a mix of Jimi Hendrix and say the psychier CCR. This album never stops moving and is great toe tapping psych with some wild guitar playing. Leslie West’s vocals are raw yet highly fitting to the heavy acid guitar riffing going on. Pretty raw and essentially bare album full of creativity and potency. | |||
| So it was a bloody hot summer afternoon and I stumbled across a garage sale in my neighbourhood and found this album for I think 10 cents and thought “what the hell”. So it was well worth the 10 cents and in fact this is a great album and rare find ! How the hell this ended up in this guys collection of crappy vinyl I will never know but who cares ! This is pretty subtle and smooth 60’s psych which sounds pretty groovy ! Lead singer Dennis Yost has a smooth velvety voice and the band blend horns, penny whistles, sitars, groovy beats into some pretty groovy tunes. I would say this band is a cross of the Walker Brothers and the Righteous Brothers. Although this album has a number of ballads it is really the more paisley-pop drenched pieces that i dig. One of the best pieces they have ever done is a tune called "Strange Changes" which should be on everyone's psych top 100 list ! | |||
| Rhinoceros were one of the lesser known psych bands circa late 60's whose debut album was produced by Paul Rothchild (Doors and Love). This soulful psych album is full of some highly energized musicianship and deep soul embodied throughout the album. Plays like a cross of Sly and The Family Stone, Deep Purple and Blood Sweat and Tears. This group featured Danny Weis, formerly of Iron Butterfly, Doug Hastings, formerly of the Daily Flash and Buffalo Springfield, and a severely underrated percussion mastermind named Billy Mundi. I know in their day Rhino did not move all that many albums in terms of sales but I must tell you that I groove with this album and really like it...think they honestly missed this album guys!! Please let me know what you guys think of this one too........Along Comes Tomorrow | |||
| Without a question everybody's grandmother has heard "Green-Eyed Lady" and of course this is the track everyone thinks of when they speak of the first Sugarloaf album, but tracks 2 - 6 are also pretty solid. I dont know a lot about this band to be honest but I believe they originated from Colorado. Sugarloaf blend heavy keyboards with intoxicating guitar, bass and percussive vibes creating a heavy trippy sound. My favourtie track is "Back Door Man / Chest Fever" which just rocks out. | |||
| The Folklords incredibly only released one album in their far too short a history...but what an album! Psych fans will need to hunt this lttle gem down which has been carefully released on CD by Pacemaker. Musically this expressive quaint little album blends autoharp (Martha Johnsoon), guitar (Paul Seip), bass (Tom Martin) and drums (Craig Boswell) with soft paisely-like vocals and harmonies. This is quite an enduring album with an abundance of great melodies and interesting musicianship. | |||
| Jack London & The Sparrows is a highly sought after recording from Canada's brief voyage into Psychedelia. Jack London Fronted this little psych band from Toronto's Yorkville area (where I spent about 3 years of my life!). They Recorded this, their only album with London (aka Dave Marden) in 1965 and had backed him up on several of his Canadian chart hits Like "if You Don't Want My Love", "i'll Be the Boy" and "Our Love Has Passed". This albums straddles the BEAT and FREAKBEAT genres with some pretty awesome tunes. A even a little bit of garage psych tossed in too! | |||
| In the summer of 1968 Jay Kaye trekked from Las Vegas to Vancouver to record this dark psychedelic journey. Clearly inspired thru the miracle of LSD, Kaye and Company recorded a timeless album that has been criminally under-apprecited. Musically this album offers some wonderfully magical tunes and real memorable treasures. Time to brush my teeth ! | |||
| Saint Steven's "Over The Hills" is considered one of the great US psychedelic albums of all time and thanks to the fine folks at Eclectic Records they have done a wonderful job in repackaging and remastering this long lost gem of the late 60's. This strange album juxtaposes some pretty trippy music with some wild background noises creating a very psychy and original album. Breaking this album down you are left with a very cool album with tons of great melodies and groovy parts. | |||
| Although outside of the classic 60's psych timeline this Canadian band recorded a real mind bending album full of some lovely psych-prog music. This album is split into 2 parts (faces) and offers some real high quality fuzzed guitar with lots of organs, flutes and sexes too. Singing is in French so if you liek your psych English then you may want to pass on this album, but if this is not the case then check out this album....... | |||
| Criminally under referenced band were LA's "The Gentle Soul". This harmonic singing duo of Pamela Polland and Rick Stanley penned a magnificent album full of true 60's psych paisley-pop culture. Musically this band were a real mix of Chad and Jeremy, Peter, Paul and Mary and even the Mammas and the Papas. Essentially this is acoustic music that is surrounded by the lovely flowing harmonic yet contrasting voices of Pamela and Rick. An absolutely essentially album! | |||
| Ok so the Beatles influenced a lot of bands and yes some more than others.....The Knickbockers were a great little band who definitely modelled their sound after after the fab four and recorded some great tracks. One should not discount them as a band because they were not the Bealtes as they too broke some interesting new ground in their music and is a great listen. In fact I find them less polished overall and little more garage band-like. I would highly recommend this band to all lovers of MOD , BEAT, Frakbeat and Psych scene.....like me | |||
| The Choir were something of a local Ohio hero band led by Wally Bryson who would later join up with Eric Carmen to form one of the 70's great Power-pop bands The Raspberries. In their lifetime, The Choir managed local support to concerts which included The Who, The Yardbirds and Herman Hermit's. The Choir's sound was paisley-psych-pop thru and thru with great vocals and song writing. | |||
| Birthday was The Associations 4th album released and was one of their most psychedelic offerings and is a a great album. I think the only song that did anything off this album was "Everything That Touches You" which died out as quick as the album did. Birthday is full of lounge and harmonic pieces with orchestration and that finger snapping 60's beat quality that we all love. | |||
| I grew up in Canada and all its hockey and scenic beauty and without a question there is not one person in this country of mine that does not know who the Guess Who are....I wonder how many of them really freaked out to "Canned Wheat" though? Ah well I know of at least one.........This is the Guess Who at their finest IMHO with some real freakout guitar and great songs. I can remember travelling with my dad in his Parisienne Safari station wagon listening to "Undun" on the radio and my dad singing in the front seat. Rave on !! An absolute essential album for the psych lover in you !!! | |||
| The frist time I heard anything from this album was on a 2 LP Sampler I bought while in Kingston Ontario that featured this music and really turned me on. I immediately snagged this album too and was just blown away by its sheer creativity. "Song Cycle" is a magical album that features some pretty trippy songs with tons of background sounds and Sgt. Pepper like orchestration with a heavy dose of Pet Sounds-like vibes and moods. | |||
| The Strawberry Path were one of Japan's great psych / hard rock bands of the 70's. No question there is a huge Hendrix influence in their sound with some real psyched out raging guitar solos. A few of the members of this band went on to form the band called Flied Egg and in face some of these tracks where re-worked into later Flied Egg material. A totally tripped out album and totally cool all the way thru! | |||
| Of all Mark Bolan's vast catalogue it is Electric Warrior which stands out for me as one of the great complete albums. Psychy hits like "Jeepster' and " Bang A Gong" were very successful in their day, but I find equal strength in the rest of the album. How can you get any better than this stuff eh? Mark and his fuzzed out guitar playing with a great backing band. The latest Rhino records remaster is just amazing sound quality too with a few extras circa 1971. In the mean time why not be a cosmic dancer! | |||
| The Quicksilver Messenger Service were a band you had to experience as much as listen to their albums ! "Happy Trails" and "Just For Love" are two of my top West Coast fav psych albums of all time. This album features some amazing percussion and timeless tunes featuring the great psychy guitar work of Dino Valenti, Gary Duncan and David Frieberg. This album also has the great track "Fresh Air" that would certainly become one of their signature songs. A superb Album | |||
| I first heard "The Open Mind" on a mixed collection of long lost psych tracks and I was in search of a better quality version of "Magic Potion". Well thanks to the fine folks at Sunbeam Records we all can enjoy the entire suite of Open Mind tracks and I must say the whole album is stunning and in fact is one of the best psych albums you can listen to! Tons of fuzzed out guitar and psychy vocals and harmonies with a great rhythm section. This album is a real must. | |||
| This is the Sergio Mendes album that put them on the map. A little salsa and a little Lounge and little bit of psych ....what else can you ask for! I am a big fan of Sergio and the Brazil '66 albums and spin them frequently actually and always enjoy them. My parents used to have some Sergio on "8 Track: of all things in our wee basement stereo modulator, where I first got to hear this eclectic world music. Later in life I learned a new respect for Sergio and this special band and discovered what my dad always knew !!! Psych fest for sure !!! Highly recommended for Fest-fav's | |||
| How about opening up with a quazi-salza-lounge version of the Beatle's "A Little Help From My Friends" with hints of sassafrass and peppermint. Turn on your Lava Lamps kids! This is a very sweet psych album which just drips in 60's flower drops and punch buggies. Also a great version of Burt Bacharach's "The Look Of Love" and some great orchestration and piano playing of Sergio Mendes. The vocals are sweet and you must love Lani Hall and Janis Hansen who angelic voices sound like a velvet moon. An ultimate lounge experience album! | |||
| Equinox was Sergio Mendes' second album and is another wonderful album full of latin vibes and lounge- psych tunes. These albums make me smile everytime I play them! The mix of female and male harmonies makes these albums very plentiful for your mind and a great easy way to psych out your friends! Absolutely a stunning album | |||
| The early Kinks are either one of those bands you get or you don't!. 1970's Lola versus Powerman is a wonderfully strange album. After a brief interlude Ray Davies returned to the kinks refreshed and wrote and recorded one amazing album and carried 2 major hits (Lola and Apeman) and couple a number of psych tracks represents one of my fav early Kinks albums. This is as witty an album as they come and works on two levels both cerebral ! | |||
| Hard to have a psych collection without a little Jimi Hendrix kicking around....and what could be finer than the classic acid-drenched Electric Ladyland. Originally released as a double album, this album is brimmed with inventive guitar work, suitably trippy lyrics and Mr. Hendrix's best vocal work....absolutely essential | |||
| The early two Blossom Toes albums may have been one of the most bootlegged albums of the 60's and thanks to our friends at Sunbeam Records we can all enjoy them remastered from the original acetates. "We Are Ever So Clean" is one of the pinnacle British Psych albums of the 60's and certainly one of my favourite psych albums of all time !!!!!! Psych fans will absolutely need this album! Released at the Height of 'flower Power' in 1967, We Are Ever So Clean is widely considered to be the finest Popsike albums ever recorded. The album was produced by Giorgio Gomelsky (who also discovered the Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds). This album mixes whimsical Pop, Acid Psych Rock elements. This CD version includes no fewer than 10 Bonus Tracks encompassing non-LP Singles, Demos, Out-takes and live performances. | |||
| Now here is an amazing psychedelic album! The sole 1968 Orphan Egg album is one of the more collectible albums from the psychedelic era and finally a clean and well mastered version exists! The Orphan Egg were a short-lived group who were formed in 1967 in the San Jose area. I think a pretty common story where as a high school band they won the grand prize in a battle of the bands and received both new equipment (including Vox Superbeatle Amps) and a one album recording deal. And what an album they recorded ! | |||
| "Would You Believe" is an absolute masterpiece which has been out of circulation for far too long. With a bit of the genius of Brian Wilson and a bit of the magic of Nick Drake and a bit of the Song writing of the Small Faces and you have this great psychy album. Billy Nicholls could really write music...holy moly...how did this album get more recognition? Billy is helped out by the talents of Steve Marriott, Big Jim Sullivan and Ronnie Lane. "Life Is Short" sounds like The Barclay James Harvest meets Pet Sounds. The music is vivid, the beats and songs are infectious and highly memorable and without a question this is one of my most played albums from 1968 these days. A pure 60's psych'fest. | |||
