Lucky Looser

Over the past decade, Braids have devoted themselves to exploring their art, together, making for one of the more daring and fluid catalogs in contemporary experimental pop. JUNO Award winners and twice-shortlisted for the Polaris Music Prize, Braids see their story as a series of actions and reactions, a collective expression that swings like a pendulum between process-driven precision and open-hearted freeness.

Compiling the "Nuggets From The Golden State" series has been a lot of fun and a true labour of love, but right from the start there's one volume I've been itching to put together: 'The Berkeley EPs'. A compilation of four prized artefacts from the mid-1960s West Coast rock renaissance, this CD hopes to make a case for the town of Berkeley as the real birthplace of psychedelic music.People in the UK tend to view the whole of the Bay Area as just "San Francisco" whereas Berkeley, a twenty minute drive east across the Bay Bridge, is a completely separate area, both geographically and intellectually. And it shows.