Psychedelic Rock

Born during the revolutionary and musically-rich '60s, Psychedelic Rock provided a platform for British and American musicians to experiment not only with hallucinogenic drugs, but also with new sounds that included elaborate studio effects, non-Western instruments -such as sitar and tabla-, disjunctive song structures and surreal and esoterically-inspired lyrics. The Psychedelic Rock Box is a 6XCD compilation that showcases the work of the genre's most prominent artists and many of the essential tracks from that era. The Fuzztones, Arthur Brown, Spencer Davis Group, The Deviants, Sun Dial and Plasticland are only a few of the performers included in this definitive collection of the genre. With fantastic artwork and remastered sound, The Psychedelic Rock Box is an fundamental addition to your rock music collection. And remember that it is not available on streaming platforms!

Collection features 4 CDs of the greatest artists, the biggest songs and the harder-to-find hits all uniquely themed to a genre… One could argue whether every track collected in this four-disc set is actually psychedelic or not, however one defines the term when it is applied to pop music, but everything here originally appeared at the close of the 1960s or the start of the 1970s, a time when pop music, and rock in particular, was expanding and playing with the notion of time, space, drugs, and a planet-wide pop culture. All that aside, there are some classic decked-out sides here, psychedelic or not, like the Lovin' Spoonful's "Summer in the City," the Amboy Dukes' "Journey to the Center of the Mind," Santana's "Soul Sacrifice," Moby Grape's "Omaha," the Byrds' "Eight Miles High," and Argent's "Hold Your Head Up," among dozens of other slightly tilted hits from the era.

Psychedelic Percussion definitely sticks to his title. With the help from Paul Beaver of Beaver & Krause (famous keyboard wizard and sound engineer for the likes of Stevie Wonder), vibe master Emil Richards (check is two fantastic album on Impulse! with The Microtonal Blues Band featuring Joe Porcaro, father of the famed Toto brothers) and Gary Coleman (percussionist in the famous Wrecking Crew), Blaine goes wild in the studio with drums, gong, xylophone, organ, bongos, congas and timpani. Unusual textures and tones lead the way to 12 instrumental exotic numbers similar in a way to Raymond Scott most visionary experiments.

One has to admit, the German psychedelic rock reissue label Garden of Delights puts a lot of care in its sampler albums. They are generous - occasionally to the detriment of an album - and packaged with informative and lavish 16-page booklets. For every tenth release of their catalogue they pick a track from each of the nine previous releases and compile them under a volume of this series. All catalogue numbers are an integer multiple of ten. The tracks chosen for these samplers comprise recordings from the field of progressive rock music in all its different shades, ranging from psychedelic to symphonic, fusion and blues-rock, provided that there are progressive elements in it.

In the CD programme Psychedelic Gems, psychedelic and progressive bands and their background are featured bands, whose overall output of published or unpublished material would not be sufficient to justify a CD on their own. Most of them played during the late sixties and early seventies, having published no more than a demo tape or a single, which is why several of them are presented together on one CD. Each group - so far all of them coming from German-speaking countries - is accorded a full-page colour picture of the cover of their single, a band history in German and English and, if space is available, a photo of their label. In contrast to bootleg labels such as Visions of the Past, Electrick Loosers or Prae-Kraut Pandaemonium, all licenses were legally obtained from the artists or their record companies…

While none of the acts appearing on ‘Psychedelic States: Dakotas In The 60s’ achieved mainstream success, a number of these entries did net regional recognition and are remembered fondly by those who were there. Unlike recent times, back in the sixties, local radio stations supported their homegrown artists by airing their vinyl efforts and gigs were plenty, leading many bands to be looked upon as real deal superstars in and around their vicinity.