Lemon Kitten’s “Spoonfed & Writhing” released on Step Forward in 1979. I just happened upon this fine folker/DADA/???/// record. I’ve nabbed these words from Scaruffi.com to put this into perspective: “The Lemon Kittens were two young multi-strumentalists involved in multimedia art-performance/theater: Danielle Dax, a fan of electronic music, biblical mysticism and middle-eastern vocal music, and Karl Blake, a veteran jazz musician. Their music harked back to Canterbury’s jazz-rock, to Brian Eno’s avantgarde rock, and to the nonsense quality of much British rock.”
Also check Mutant-Sounds for Karl Blake and the endless other shares of that ilk. This is a great LP. I mean with the above description, how can you not be at least intrigued?
Enjoy!
Category Archives: Psych
Armando Piazza’s “Suan” released in 1973 on Beautiful Black Butterfly. Suan is heavy, yet subtle, folky Italian psych LP with oddly inflected vocals and some deliciously crunchyguitar. Armando employs the talents of Shawn Phillips for this outing and his ‘Nuas’ lp. For those unfamiliar with Armando Piazza, as I was, here’s a little bitty I found on over at Italianprog.com:”Armando Piazza was a singer-songwriter from Naples and released these albums with curious titles on the local B.B.B. label (that also released the Showmen 2 album), selling them by himself in concerts and through magazines. The albums contained acid-psych ballads, all english-sung and mainly based on acoustic guitar but sometime with good use of electric instruments, they’re also notable for the help of american musician Shawn Phillips (who lived in Naples for some years) on guitar and bass.”
Enjoy!
The Trees Community’s “Christ Tree” released in 1975. Folks, this is a must have record. This is easily one of the hottest LP’s I’ve come upon in a long while. A fellow record collector and friend of mine shared this with me and my life has been better because of it. Now I’m gonna pass it along to you all. Fortunately the Trees have gone out of their way to rerelease and reissue their recordings and some live material. There’s a subsite dedicated to The Trees Community over at Psychedelicfolk.com. There you can find heapings of great info.
Here’s some words taken from Psychedelicfolk.com:
This album, starting beautifully with sitar, harp and Christian harmony vocals, starts first very clearly structured, then becomes a rather free excursion through the world and various genres, and instrumental improvisations referring to various cultures, in different sections, while the group returns to songs. This freedom is done which such calmness like in meditation, while it brings you into direct confrontations with these worlds and experiences, in a way I think I am afraid wouldnt work for those Catholics that I know here in Belgium, because they would find it too direct and not like confirming their relationships with experience-less dogma. For those who are able to face things a bit more directly, this is a truly remarkable recording.
Here’s excerpt from a review from Unbroken Circle:
“Rating an album like this is somewhat superfluous, it is beautiful and cleansing, it is almost disturbing and insane. Once heard you will never ever forget it, it is unique in the way that few are. Only Taj Mahal Travellers, Sun Ra, Alice Coltrane and a few others have gone so far out, the question is – do you want to join them? (and will you get back).”
Now I know I’ve said this is a “must have”, but if you have an aversion to religiously oriented lyrics/music, I’d stay away. While this record has some religious overtones, the music and genuineness far exceeds imo. Oh, and they have a Myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/thetreescommunity
Enjoy!
By request, here’s the track list:
- Psalm 42
- Parable of the
- Mustard Seed
- Psalm 45
- Invocation
- Village Orchestra
- Jesus He Knows
- I will not leave you
- comfortless
- Chant for Pentecost
- Psalm 46
Beaver/Krause’s “Gandharva” released in 1971 on Warner Bros. I’ve been quite fond the Beaver/Krause collaborative efforts sense I first stumbled upon their “Nonesuch Guide to Electronic Music”. Gandharva was probably their most popular release and is easily the most genre bending release for them. Mike Bloomfield, Ray Brown, Bud Shank, Gerry Mulligan and many others help out on this outing. The record is all over the place stylistically but yet still retains a ‘tone’. I think this is in large part is due to it being recorded all live in Grace Cathedral over two evenings in 1971. Regardless of the LP’s whimsical music stylings it’s a stunning record, top notch musicianship with a little bit for everyone. I mean just give “Walkin” a listen…amazing!
I think this is a must addition to anyone’s collection if you don’t already have it. Enjoy! <– Link updated. Fixes problems unpacking the first file for Windows users
