Saturn in the Summertime

1. Aires - The Zodiac
2. Twenty Feet Behind - Mary Hansen
3. Der Computer Nr. 3 - France Gall
4. Five Separate Wooshes - Imitation Electric Piano
5. Black Noise / Memory Band - Rotary Connection
6. Saturn in the Summertime - Barry Adamson
7. Triggers - April March
8. Beat! - The Karminsky Experience
9. Joyful Grass and Grape - Dorothy Ashby
10. Sexopolis - Jean-Pierre Mirouze
11. Echolalia - Cavern of Anti-Matter
12. Mon P'tit Homme Spatial - Christine Pilzer
13. Firebird - White Noise
14. Pling! - Shuggie Otis
15. All My Life - Ralph Carmichael
16. Destination Omega 3 - Sven Libaek
17. Carousel of the Planets - Perrey-Kingsley
18. Exo-Orbit - Gemma Ray
19. Cache Coeur Naif - Mouse on Mars

I rather like this one. No particular theme.  A 'mood' perhaps.  A bit more...'upbeat' than some recent ones?  Fight off the seasonal effective disorder.  Some very kind person called one of my ye olde mixes (seriously, I've been on mixcloud a long time!) 'one of the best on Mixcloud.'  Subjective, sure, but incredibly flattering; I think this mixtape maybe harkens back to that kind of mix, but with six years of somewhat widened tastes and musical discoveries (seriously, I'm enjoying the new Karminsky album a hell of a lot).

I hope you enjoy the mix.  You can download it here.

Building a Better Way

When I was a kid I came across a strange record called Go Fly A Kite, which had tantalizing song titles such as "Atom is Evil" and "Heaven Out of Hell."  It was also credited to General Electric as the artist, which I knew as a company that made appliances and got made fun of by Letterman on Late Night when I'd sneak out to watch TV in my insomniac childhood.  The consignment shop in my hometown (not called a thrift store - I wouldn't encounter those until I was able to venture into larger towns) had an upstairs loft where they kept sundry items that hadn't made it on to the shelves in the main part of the store, and when I was a kid, as long as I tucked in my t-shirt, they'd let me go up there and rummage through boxes of things.  It was often just garbage - often religious stuff, gospel or Sunday school lessons - though I did find John Rydgren's Silhouette LP in there (which is religious but also amazing and insane).  But every once in a while something truly magical would turn up.  I immediately bought Go Fly A Kite for a pretty meager sum (I'm absolutely certain it was less than a dollar) and my affinity for industrial musicals was born.  I held on to that record - I still have it in storage.  (I will have to dig it out and post it eventually - it s fabulous.)  Once I was a little older I was able I cane across a couple other industrial musicals/ad music, and have a few.  (I have many digital copies of ones I haven't been able to get physical copies of, which is generally good enough for me.)

One day I came across a copy of an album credited to Chevrolet called Music From Building A Better Way.  Believe it or not, I actually had a 45 put out by Chevrolet - who had their own label - featuring The Cyrkle (the band that brought you this madness) and Paul Revere and the Raiders - it's worth f**k-all; you can get a copy for under $5 USD.  (Don't - get it for free, it's out there.)

Apparently there was a promotional film Chevrolet released around 1974 called Building a Better Way which showcased the things you'd expect it would, and Chevrolet's label released the soundtrack to it, which is largely wordless.  (Voices appear, but only as a musical instrument for the most part.)  And I think it is a pretty fantastic album.  The music is surprisingly good.  Especially "Designing" and "Building."  "Building" is amazing, with tonal and mood shifts (it's very nearly a song suite) and Moog and an almost Beach Boys-esque vocal harmony segment, etc.  Put this album on divorced from the fact that it is a Chevrolet promotional item for hawking their cars and it's a pretty decent funk rock album.  I suppose it's cheese - especially in parts.  I played "Building" on one of my Near Mint guest bits and more than one person asked me about it.  I thought I would upload and share it.  It does appear to be somewhat rare - Discogs has two copies for sale starting at $145.  I think it's quite good, and I hope you will agree.

Download here.

Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence

For Christmas, a mix of 15 different versions / interpretations of the song Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence, from electronic to jazz to classical guitar to 8-bit to lounge to Italo Disco and more (including, of course, the original version by Ryuichi Sakamoto for the soundtrack of the film of the same name).

I know it's quite soon for another mix, but I wanted to get this one in before Christmas.  O come ye merry gentlemen and women.

Opus 3 14 16

Here's an interesting library release on the St Germain Des Pres label (sub-label of Editions Montparnasse 2000) titled Opus 3 14 16.  I was under the impression that it is somewhat rare (a couple of library music enthusiasts asked me for it), though Discogs has just now possibly disabused me of that idea as there appear to be copies available for reasonable enough prices.  St Germain is a favorite little library label of mine (I adore their sleeve design, and they have some incredible releases from Alessendroni, Jacques Siroul, Macchi, Iaccouci, etc. you can look it up and probably already know).  This release is an interesting one with a sound of its own, and quite good I think.  Credited to "Unknown Artist" on Discogs, the songs are composed by A Sainz and L Sainz (all of them but two credited to both of them) so I've just designated them as the artists.  It's a solid release that I enjoy quite a bit - I wanted to share it and I hope you find it as enjoyable - here's the link.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/m0ge6923le3tg43/A_%26_L_Sainz_-_Opus_3_14_16.zip

(If you're looking for a particular, hard to find library - or soundtrack, or whatever - album, feel free to get in touch and I'll see if I have it.)

The Explosive

Here's an interesting bit of pop psychedelia from 1969: A 45 by a band called The Explosive put out on the President Records label (who put out quite bit of great and interesting psychedelic / 60s/70s pop and, eventually, disco).  The A-side is "(Who Planted Thorns In) Miss Alice's Garden" with a B-side with the not exactly enticing title "I Get My Kicks From Living" (though it is a good song).  This particular 45 is notable to me because of how much the intro to "Miss Alice's Garden" is absolutely begging to be sampled.  It's a fantastic song all around, with a sort of almost reggae vibe, but that intro (which pops up as the intro to the verses throughout the song) needs to be sampled by someone; I could easily see a song built around it.  I'm sure these songs have ended up on one of the countless psych compilations at some point, but here it is for you to download from the 45.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/city0a7lnt74o01/The_Explosive_-_%28Who_Planted_Thorns_In%29_Miss_Alice%27s_Garden.zip

Phantom Frequencies

Ghostly transmissions, false memories, haunted electronics and hauntological communications.

1. A Breeze Through the Bedford Spur - Broadcast
2. And We Begin - Loose Capacitor
3. The Cursed Streets - Concretism
4. Polymer Dawn - The Pattern Forms
5. Queen of Puddings - Moon Wiring Club
6. Golden Green - ToiToiToi
7. Sleep Chamber - Pye Corner Audio
8. Jessica Finds the Beach - The Advisory Circle
9. Cycles - Patten
10. Inhale. Exhale. Love! - Roj
11. Manc - Curd Duca
12. Etheric Double Handshake - Diagonals
13. Rodney Imbues - Mordant Music
14. Frumious Numinous - The Focus Group
15. Hundreds, Tens & Units - The Twelve Hour Foundation
16. Summer Round - Belbury Poly
17. A Moment - Concretism
18. Electronic Hintermass - Hintermass
19. Quotidian Forgotten - Listening Center
20. Feline Ascension Time - Moon Wiring Club
21. Weekend Wildfire - Bibio
22. False Memory Syndrome - The Caretaker
23. Shortwave Fishtank - Howlround

Download

Switched On Santa

In the spirit of Christmas (and because I love these goofy old Moog records), here's a link to download this album.  Ho ho ho.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/qnhyr9bo47eq1eo/Switched_On_Santa%21.zip

The Mission

On my most recent mix, I included a song by the mysterious band The Mission, titled "Gailing Made It."



An absolutely batty bit of psych-prog from 1968, this group is only known to have released one 45, which I have been obsessed with for at least a decade.  It's made the rounds enough to have ended up on a couple of Pebbles-esque comps - Psychedelic Archaeology and Journey Into...Psychedelia, both of which are unofficial CD-R comps and as such I imagine perhaps not a great deal of research was likely put into the information about the music included.  (I do highly recommend seeking out these compilations.)  Discogs confirms these are the only two comps the songs have appeared on, for what that's worth.

Discogs also has the 45 for sale starting at $299.00.  According to the site, only a few people claim to have the 45, and it has only ever sold for $200.  (I've seen one or two floating around eBay over the years in that price range as well.)  45cat lists only one person as having the 45.  All of this is to say - it's a rarity.  "Gailing Made It" is actually the b-side; the a-side is the equally and wonderfully bonkers "Calmilly":




Again, I would absolutely call this psych-prog; it's ahead of its time in 1968, and I'd say I've not heard anything quite like it regardless.  And both are just nuts - "Gailing Made It" seems to be in its own language for a great deal of the song, with lyrics that are mostly incomprehensible, and amazing monk-chant vocals (there are really nearly no solo vocals on either song; they are either all chanted in unison or harmonized).  "Calmilly" - which is not a real word either but totally seems like it could be - is another fantastic monk-chant slice of bonkers progressive psychedelia, with more comprehensible though no less surreal vocals that seem to be about possibly a waitstaff getting ready to serve a couple who are perhaps jumpy as care must be taken not to scare them away.  Seriously, whatever these guys had, I'd like some.

Both songs contain some fantastic shifts, with "Calmilly" spanning a couple of different time signatures.  They have a bit of the frenetic sound of garage psych perhaps, but these songs are wonderfully constructed and complex.

Also, notice how the keyboards take center stage - besides the bass guitar, I don't think there is any electric guitar on these two tracks, or at most it takes second fiddle to keyboards; the breakdown in "Calmilly" sounds like a guitar solo, but I think it's a keyboard solo.  Keep that in mind - even if there's electric guitar on these two tracks, it's absorbed into the melange of keyboards/organs and chants.

Beyond the music itself, the label lists only the song title followed by the name of the group.  There are no name credits on the label.  The record label is identified as BET Records (with the fantastically banal slogan "you can bet it's the best in stereo!"), which, according to Discogs, only put out this 45 and one other release; looking at the other release, I'm not convinced it is the same label, but perhaps it is.  The catalog number on this 45 is 101, with each side identified as "A" or "B," indicating this is the first release by this label.  Other than that, there only remains "Draco Music Co." listed as the publishing company.  Draco is a very evocative name, and has always contributed to the slightly Gothic feel to the songs.  And that's it.

There's something beautiful about something like this; a band, maybe just a garage band, or some session musicians or maybe even - in the vein of something like The Jellies - some students, who wrote a couple of songs, scrounged up some studio time, and laid down a couple of tracks in an hour or two, then went on with their lives, perhaps in bands or perhaps not, with one incredible 45 left to the wind to be discovered later.  I imagine these guys not even being aware anyone has this 45 or that, to a handful of people, these two songs might be near-legendary.  Still, every once in a while, I'll do a Google search, or play the songs for music-collector friends, and I've never gotten closer to finding anything out.  I know I'm not the only one - I've seen comments on a few sites, and no new information seems to ever emerge.  (In fact, doing a search using the song title of "Gailing Made It" as a search term actually returns my most recent mix, which I posted less than 48 hours ago, as a result.)  In a bit of OCD-fueled boredom today, I decided to do a little searching, and it occurred to me that, as the group had gone to the trouble to publish their songs, maybe the songs had been submitted for copyright.  Any music submitted for copyright should be listed in a catalog of copyright entries - assuming these would have been submitted for copyright in 1968, I took to Google Books to search.  And sure enough, I hit upon a possibly fascinating result.

Sure enough, the songs are listed - along with two others, which carry the titles "JUNK WALK" and "LAS ZING NAIL US."  The latter sounds like more batshit language similar to the vocals/lyrics to "Gailing Made It."  How tantalizing to know that two other songs were perhaps at least demonstrated, if not pressed.  But the most fun tidbit here is the name the songs are copywritten under: Daryl Dragon.  

If that name isn't familiar to you:

Yeah, that's right.  Daryl Dragon is the real name of The Captain of Captain and Tennille fame.  

Doesn't make sense?  Sure - Dragon was born into a musical family, with his father a well known conductor, his siblings being involved in music in one form or another (his brother produced the Captain and Tennille albums), and Dragon - who, Fun Fact! was nicknamed Captain by Mike Love of The Beach Boys when Dragon was playing keyboards with them in the early-to-mid-70s - was primarily a keyboardist.  He'd been involved in bands in the 60s, and did join up with The Beach Boys in the early 70s, making what Wikipedia deems as significant contributions to their recorded works in addition to touring with them.  Keyboards are front and center in these songs by The Mission, and it would also perhaps explain why the 45 is a one-and-done affair - within a year or so Dragon would be on to bigger and (your mileage may vary here) better opportunities.  Certainly lucrative ones.  And lastly - Draco.  The publishing name chosen fits and makes sense - it would likely be a take on Dragon Co.  

So not only are there perhaps two other songs recorded by The Mission - including one with the most bug humping crazy title of all (Las Zing Nail Us!) - one of the forces behind these marvelously crazed slices of monk-chanted psych-prog might be The Captain - "Love Will Keep Us Together," "Muskrat Love" (if you want to question your very existence and the existence of the universe, look up the "music video" to "Muskrat Love"), "Do That To Me One More Time" - The Captain.  (He does have a doll made in his likeness, released by the ever-reliable Mego - and, to make it a double-honor, his head mold was later used for Mego's Paul Stanley doll - before melting, of course.)  

I actually think this makes me love these two songs even more.  I could, of course, be wrong - but how many guys are out there named Daryl Dragon who are keyboard players from musical families that were operating in the late 1960s and would go on to work with The Beach Boys (who were not completely out of their more psychedelic period - among others, Dragon would work on the Boys' album Surf's Up, playing pipe organ, Moog, vibraphone, etc.)...?  Now, if I could only get in touch with Mr Dragon, who is still with us (but sadly has been suffering some health issues, apparently)...

UPDATE: See part 2 of this story - it's a whopper. READ IT HERE. 

L’appel du Vide

The call of the void. Night thoughts, lucid dreams, cloudy skies and clouded mind.

1. Cloudy Night - We All Together
2. Prelude - Millennium
3. Kaleidoscope - Peter Pan and The Good Fairies
4. Thinking is the Best Way to Travel - The Moody Blues
5. Sit With the Guru - Strawberry Alarm Clock
6. Dream Magazine - Svensk
7. Fool on the Hill - Lisa Miller
8. Why Don't You Just Drop In - Giles, Giles & Fripp
9. Gailing Made It - The Mission
10. The World is a Circus - Fiona Richmond & Anthony Newley
11. If I Had a Ribbon Bow - Fairport Convention
12. You're Too Incomprehensible - Tages
13. Oleh Oleh Bandu Bandong - Kevin Ayers
14. The Owl - Silver Apples
15. Balloons - Peter Pan and The Good Fairies
16. The Telegraph is Calling - The Pawnshop
17. Dr Root's Garden - Chrysalis
18. Baby Lemonade - Syd Barrett
19. Don't Turn Around - Birmingham Sunday
20. Some Velvet Morning - Lee Hazlewood & Nancy Sinatra

Back to my "normal" mode - I think, excluding the stuff I did recently for Near Mint, the last three mixes (including this one) have been of a piece or a trio with a bit of a theme running through it that I've been getting out of my system perhaps.  

Speaking of my recent guest mixes for Near Mint, I was pleasantly surprised to listen to The OST Show - also on Resonance FM, of course - and hear the wonderful Karminsky Experience guys as the guests, who I haven't really thought about for years (their last album - besides a couple of absolutely wonderful compilations of fun easy listening music - was about a decade ago; I purchased it on CD at a bookstore that is within walking distance of my current apartment that no longer exists - it's a CVS Pharmacy now), who played a flawless bunch of music - including some stuff very adjacent to some things I put together for Near Mint, including a track from John Rydgren's Silhouette Segments and some fantastic old drug panic samples.  Near Mint got there first!  (Ha ha.)  I also managed to come up with some absolutely horrible puns. (I found the pun competition a bit more difficult this week and didn't really get a "hit" in, though the one that I was most proud of, and that got the lovely engineer - who educated me on British puddings - to laugh the most, didn't get read - but that's really due to my "esprit d'escalier" and only getting mine in near the last minute; Jonny did say "I do like that you really tried," which is rightfully damning with faint praise - I'll do better next time!)

But enough of that!  I hope this mix is met with the approval of whoever, and I imagine I'll have another one soon (I find that I end up unwinding after working on my own stuff by organizing my collection, which lately has led to me setting things aside and making mixes, for better or (and?) worse), and Fun Fact:  On the Kevin Ayers song included in this mix, the wonderfully and almost nightmarishly batty "Oleh Oleh Bandu Bandong" (off the 1969 album Joy Of a Toy, which has not a bad song on it - and this song is not indicative of the rest of the album whatsoever), the female vocals are provided by some Ladybirds from the Benny Hill show.  Now I've got Yakety Sax stuck in my head.  Off to find an acceptable earworm to clear that one out.

Love and Cannibalism

The eagerly anticipated - by me, anyway, certainly - new album from one of my favorite currently active bands, The New Lines, came out the other day.  It's called Love and Cannibalism and is absolutely sublime.  If you enjoy psychedelia, chamber pop, baroque rock, dream pop, etc. etc., they are well worth checking out and the new album is a perfect place to start.