Recording for International Artists Records, the crazed Texas label that brought the world such acid-damaged visionaries as the 13th Floor Elevators, the Red Krayola, Lost & Found, and Electric Rubayyat, the Bubble Puppy seemed by comparison to be a beacon of semisanity - a rather typical psychedelic band of the period who seemed more interested in having a good time and cranking up the amps than in reimagining the size and shape of the inner cosmos. But that's not to say they weren't a good psychedelic band - the band's best known tune, "Hot Smoke and Sassafras," was a charging guitar-heavy rocker that deservedly became a hit single, and its flip side, "Loney," was nearly as good…
The Magic Bubble were a brother-and-sister act from Hamilton, Ontario who were apparently a popular attraction on the Ontario club scene when they cut their one and only album in 1969 – the liner notes include a ringing endorsement from none other than the vice president of the Ontario Restaurant Association, who attests to their local popularity. The female half of the Magic Bubble, Rita Rondell, would later change her name to Rita Chiarelli and became a well-respected blues artist, but for the most part this album is solid but lightweight folk-rock with touches of psychedelia and occasional flirtations with harder rock sounds.
Since the late 90s, Amorphous Androgynmous AKA The Future Sound Of London AKA Garry Cobain and Brian Dougans have been weaving together two-hour broadcasts of their favourite records that could be loosely classed as 'Cosmic Space Music'. After ten years of messing with our heads via the wireless, they now pick their choicest mind-melting moments on what promises to be a fine series of double CDs. It's a collection that perfectly runs the gauntlet from kitsch (Lord Sitar's I Am The Walrus) to uber cool (Miles Davis or Can). Donovan, Osibisa, Can, Miles Davis, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Hawkwind and many more.
The music that Chicago-based producer/composer Angel Marcloid makes under the new moniker Nonlocal Forecast distills her experimentation in the prog, jazz fusion, and new age disciplines into pristine instrumental compositions teeming with intricate harmonic structures and complex webs of programmed percussion. Orbiting as another satellite around her genre-obliterating flagship projects like Fire-Toolz and MindSpring Memories, Nonlocal Forecast centers Marcloids practice on a palette of technical leads and atmospheric MIDI synth arrangements.
Produced by wunderkind producer Mark Wirtz (Tomorrow, the mythical Teenage Opera, and guy who decided not to produce Syd Barrett era Floyd), and co-written by Kris Ife who called on his old bandmates from The Quiet Five for these studio creations. Most of these pieces of psychedelic bubble gum were packed as The Matchmakers, some chipper chiclets were initially issued under monikers such as Astronaut Alan & The Planets (“Fickle Lizzie Anne,” “Cellophane Mary Jane”), and The Guards (“Fantastic Fair”). This final pack of bubble blowers were finally issued together in 1970 by Vogue Schallplatten in Germany and a few other territories shortly after.
Originally released on Third Stone Records in 2004, this was the first officially available album from Spatialize. Sitting with the old vanguard of atari/synth/sampler production tradition, Dryad's Bubble has stood the test of time remarkably well. Layers of space synths float dreamily across breakbeats and deep basslines whilst highly manipulated samples flit in and out of the mix. A hybrid of style, comparable in places to Nodens Ictus, The Orb, FSOL, Ishq or Ozric Tentacles, Dryad's Bubble has recently been dubbed a classic of synth electronica and is often praised for it's ability to withstand repeated listens.
An antipodean cosmic space music odyssey from 1966 to now! Featuring Russell Morris, Tame Impala, Cybotron, Sons of the Vegetal Mother and more. After two years of extensive crate-digging and foraging, UK psychedelic DJ duo the Amorphous Androgynous return with the latest installment in their award winning series 'A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble (Exploding In Your Mind) - The Wizards Of Oz'. As the title suggests, 'The Wizards Of Oz' is devoted exclusively to the rich heritage of cosmic space music from Australia and New Zealand. In keeping with previous volumes of this acclaimed series, it traces the lineage from the sixties to the present day, re-appraising the meaning of the term 'psychedelic' along the way, The tracks are expertly woven and mashed together to form a trip as enjoyable as it is both enlightening and educational.
It's not unusual for a small independent record company to be defined by its first major success, and that was certainly the case for the maverick Texas label International Artists. IA began life in 1965 as a fairly ordinary regional outfit releasing pop/rock stuff, but when they scored a nationwide hit with the 13th Floor Elevators' proto-psychedelic anthem "You're Gonna Miss Me," the label's de facto A&R chief, Lelan Rogers, dove headfirst into Texas acid culture and IA became a home for consciousness-expanded acts such as the Golden Dawn, the Bubble Puppy, Endle St. Cloud, and the truly crazed Red Crayola. Never Ever Land is a three-CD set designed to give a reasonably comprehensive picture of International Artists' strange and memorable five-year lifespan.
Presentation has always been a central facet of Church of the Cosmic Skull‘s approach, arguably no less crucial to it than the lush vocal arrangements or tight-knit songcraft that have played out in such classically progressive fashion across their two prior albums, 2018’s Science Fiction and 2016’s Is Satan Real? With their third offering and first to be self-released through their own semi-real imprint Septaphonic Records, Everybody’s Going to Die, they bring their delivery modus to a new level entirely on all fronts, from the writing and execution of the material to the artwork for the album by Zorad, to the release method, to the theme and narrative creating of a kind of journey through a dogma of cosmic self-realization, or, as they put it, “The Psychic Ascension to Humanity,” played out across what they call ‘The Seven Objects