V.a. Psychedelic Gems

They made one of the rarest albums of the psychedelic era (a copy recently sold on eBay for just under £4,000), while their two singles included one of the genre’s most enduring surrender-to-the-void creations in the much-compiled ‘The Otherside’. Nevertheless, so little information has ever surfaced about Apple that UK underground rock guide book Galactic Ramble described them as “probably the only legendary UK psych band still shrouded in mystery”. Finally, however, we have some kind of closure with this first-ever band-approved reissue of “An Apple A Day”, which also includes mono mixes of their aforementioned brace of single releases. ..

They made one of the rarest albums of the psychedelic era (a copy recently sold on eBay for just under £4,000), while their two singles included one of the genre’s most enduring surrender-to-the-void creations in the much-compiled ‘The Otherside’. Nevertheless, so little information has ever surfaced about Apple that UK underground rock guide book Galactic Ramble described them as “probably the only legendary UK psych band still shrouded in mystery”. Finally, however, we have some kind of closure with this first-ever band-approved reissue of “An Apple A Day”, which also includes mono mixes of their aforementioned brace of single releases. ..

T.I.M.E. (1968). Debut album of this underrated US psychedelic band (which evolved out of very fine, garage-pop-psych band Hardtimes) was released in 1968 by Liberty Records in attractive die-cut, gatefold cover. It contained great mixture of very catchy and memorable songs based on rich vocal harmonies and strong guitar-organ interplay and being somewhere between garage rock and pop-psych. The music itself was very diverse, ranged from dark, atmospheric heavier tracks to much lighter sounds. lt’s worth noting that the main influences to the band were The Beatles, The Byrds, The Hollies and Buffalo Springfield…

Formula 3 were one of first and most popular Italian rock bands of the late 60's/early 70's era and their debut LP (released in February 1970 by Numero Uno label) without a doubt is one of the best psychedelic album ever recorded in Italy! Musically this trio was similar to early Deep Purple, Procol Harum and Vanilla Fudge - with heavy emphasis on Hendrix-like guitar (by Alberto Radius - one of the best Italian guitarists ever), tasteful Hammond organ passages and really fine vocals. The 7-minutes long title track is an amazing piece of dark, intensive and heavy psychedelic rock and must be heard to be believed! Other songs were divided for ambitious pop-psychedelia and heavy, intense pieces including fine rendition of classic Walk Away Renee.

The second LP from this heavy blues-rock\psychedelia group, who remained on the edge of obscurity with two incredibly rare albums released on Nasco in 1970. Both albums were reissued in 2001. On their second album, the standouts are a cover version of "World of Pain," originally by Mountain, and a rave-up on the blues standard "Don't Need No Doctor," while elsewhere they soak in instrumentals with electric keyboards and guitar distortion with no apparent direction.

This Israeli band (with British vocalist & guitarist) started as The Churchills and released the mind-blowing, psychedelic 1968 LP and some fine singles. In 1971 they moved to England, changed their name to Jericho Jones and recorded guitar-dominated and truly great heavy rock LP Junkies, Monkeys & Donkeys. In 1972 they has shortened their name to Jericho and released fantastic, eponymous album - the real gem of the heavy progressive era! Two shorter songs and three extended tracks make up the album. It was high-octane rock with plenty of heavy riffing and extended, driving guitar solos, screaming vocals & thunderous drumming, but also with numerous tempo changes and typical, progressive arrangements. Unfortunately, shortly after the last single (released in November 1972) the band split up.