Jeff Conklin, East Village Radio
5 Under the Radar ‘60s/’70s Records
1. Trad Gras Och Stenar, Djungelins Lag, Sweden, 1971
Trees, Grass, and Stones combined a love of minimalism with blistering free rock and elements of traditional Swedish folk to produce a wholly unique brand of trance inducing psychedelia. Like many of their fellow travellers, this live document best showcases their revelatory approach to rock and roll.
2. Ash Ra Tempel, Ash Ra Tempel, Germany, 1971
The brainchild of guitar wizard Manuel Gottsching and featuring future snyth superstar Klaus Schulze on drums, Ash Ra Tempel’s first album transcended popular notions of what guitar, bass and drums could accomplish and virtually created the “space rock” genre.
3. Popol Vuh, Letzte Tage Letzte Nacht, Germany, 1975
Probably best known as Werner Herzog’s go to band for scoring some of his best films, Popol Vuh was the creative outlet for pianist Florian Fricke. Letzte Tage, Letzte Nacht inhabits a space of pastoral folk-rock beauty and features some of the finest cosmic electric guitar ever recorded courtesy of the tragically underrated Daniel Fischlescher.
4. Taj Mahal Travellers, August, Japan, 1974
A free improv group that employed a wide array of traditional stringed instruments, electronics, hand percussion, and human voices to create a swirling vortex of sound that has informed much of the present day underground drone/psych scene.
5. Godz, Godz 2, USA, 1967
The Velvet Underground weren’t the only NYC band undermining the flower vibes of the 60’s.The Godz perverted folk, pop and garage rock with ramshackle arrangements and lo-fi production and may have unwittingly sown the seeds for for the “freak-folk” movement of the 00’s.
5 Essential Post-1979 Psych Albums
1. Meat Puppets, Up on the Sun, USA, 1985
By their third album Meat Puppets had perfected their unholy combination of punk, country, and psychedelia. The Meat Puppets had reigned in the ferociousness of their previous work and produced a sunstroked record that went against the dogmatic principles of the hardcore scene that spawned them.
2. Sun City Girls, Torch of the Mystics, USA 1990
Unclassifiable in the most beautiful way, the Sun City Girls pillaged every corner of the musical universe in a pursuit of sonic transcendence. With a seemingly impenetrable discography that spanned three decades, Torch of the Mystics remains as the crown jewel of SCG’s brand of post-psychedelic headswirl.
3. Various Artists, Tokyo Flashback, Japan, 1991
The first entry in a continuing series documenting Japan’s perpetual psychedelic rock scene. The PSF label’s Tokyo Flashback compilation is an incendiary introduction to such legendary fuzz mavens as Marble Sheep, White Heaven, Ghost among others. Absolutely essential.
4. Six Organs of Admittance, Dark Noontide, USA, 2002
Based around the guitar of Ben Chasny, Six Organs of Admittance’s second LP seamlessly combines gorgeous introspective acoustic guitar with smoked out drones and blissed electric leads to create a hazy melancholic atmosphere.
5. Jackie-O Motherfucker, The Magick Fire Music/Wow!, USA, 2003
An amorphous group of musicians centered around visionary Tom Greenwood, Jacki-O Motherfucker’s sprawling opus is a psychotropic stew of free jazz skronk, Harry Smith devotionals and krautrock boogie.