Unknown Mortal Orchestra

"Unknown Mortal Orchestra II" is one slippery record.  Sliding back and forth between the musical influence of the 60's, 90's Hip Hop, Soul music, and post punk energy.  The melodies have a sugary sweet feel but are contrasted with a melancholic mood.  The guitar tones stick to a classic fuzz tone but are matched by in the pocket drum and bass lines recalling the sampled beats of J Dilla or RZA.  While the influences and references are widespread and perhaps counter intuitive, it makes for a very original and very fresh take on Psychedelic songwriting.

The opening track "From the Sun" is a perfect example of the manner in which Ruban Nielson straddles the past and present.  The song's melody could have been lifted straight from John Lennon, but that is not to say that the song is straight mimicry.  If anything, the familiarity of the sound lures listeners in with a false sense of security, just to have the song taken in the opposite direction.  The intro is one of the many examples of Nielson's excellent guitar picking and knack for chord structure.  "From the Sun" starts sparse and light before switching to a tripped out pop melody.  His playing is simple but often unexpected, switching between agile picking patterns, chugging post- punk pop, and fuzzed out psychedelic wailing.  While "Swim and Sleep (Like a Shark)" finds Nielson picking his way around the fretboard in a downward spiral.

While maintaining a cohesive style, the album switches the flow constantly.  Swimming between the slow jam soul of "So Good at Being in Trouble", the offbeat groove of "Opposite of Afternoon", and the  thrash of "No Need for a Leader".  Nielson and the gang weave their way effortlessly from one idea to the next.  The album has a great pacing, a diverse range of ideas, and a complex melding of style and substance.            

        

Easter Everywhere

I've been waiting to review this album for sometime.  Today seems as appropriate a day as any, so here it is...  

"Easter Everywhere" by the 13th Floor Elevators is an album which may very well be the band's masterpiece before their inevitable unraveling.  This album is cohesive and versatile, the songs sit comfortably with each other, combining the repetitious and cyclical Psychedelic jams they pioneered with R&B, as well as the more subdued yet beautiful acid folk songs like "Dust" and "I Had to Tell You" Roky brought to the table.  This record is a success on all fronts, in the instrumentation, the cryptic lyrics, and even in the production which is much cleaner and tighter than the first album.  

The album's opener, "Slip Inside This House", is an 8 minute epic, a hypnotic head banger, chronicling the path of self discovery and introspection brought on by the psychedelic experience.  This is one of Tommy Halls better lyrical pieces and Roky Erickson howls them out like a spoken word poem over top of the bands razor sharp cyclical rhythm.  The band effortlessly weaves in and out of phrases blurring the lines and sounds in a truly original fashion.  

Rock stompers like the ethereal "She Lives (In a Time of Her Own)" and "Levitation", as well as the thunderous "Earthquake" keep the record in the vein of their garage rock roots, taking feedback and manipulating it into a slithery sonic snake that continues to shift it's form, masking the structure of each song.  This is largely indebted to Stacy Sutherland's guitar lines which are incredibly melodic and bridge the gap between the rock tunes and the folk ballads.       

The Bob Dylan cover "Baby Blue" may be the best cover of the song I have heard.  The band takes it and makes it their own, turning it from a lovers goodbye into an LSD comedown.  Roky's voice is perfectly suited for the emotion of the song and subject matter.  While Sutherland's sliding guitar sneaks back into the arrangement and gives a new psychedelic poignancy to the lyrics "the carpet, too, is moving under you".  

"Easter Everywhere" is a perfect example of a band finally capturing the sounds they have been striving towards.  I have never heard a record anywhere close to sounding like this.  I can trace the roots, but the band blends southern folk, with R&B, and Blues based rock in a way that is all their own.    Listen to the record as a whole and let it sink in.  

  

World Psych

I was thinking I should post some of the highlights of all the world psych compilations I've been listening to.

Su Derenin Sulari by Husnu Ozkartal Orkestrasi
I found this off of the "Psych Funk 101" compilation. The group is from Turkey and recorded this in 1972. Pretty raw.


Allah Wakbarr by Ofo the Black Company, recorded in 1972. Available on the compilation "Love's a Real Thing: World Psychedelic Classics 3"


Selda Bagcan's Yaz Gazeteci Yaz. Turkish Psych-Folk, 1975.


Carinito by Los Hijos Del Sol peruvian psych off of the compilation "Roots of Chicha: Psychedelic Cumbias From Peru"
love the video.


Here's a little sampler of Danish 60s psych/prog rock.