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.

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.

Among hardcore 1960s rock collectors who have an interested in Japanese bands of the period, the Mops are one of the biggest acts in the genre, even if that genre is barely known to English-speaking listeners due to some linguistic barriers, and its general obscurity outside of Japan. Their 1968 album Psychedelic Sounds in Japan is certainly the Mops LP that's gained the widest international exposure, as it's the one with the most garage-psychedelic style and has rewarded the efforts of avid collectors around the world. In fact, the Mops were even marketed as "the first psychedelic band in Japan" in their homeland, though as psychedelia goes, it's pretty raw, verging on garage-punk at times. In truth, it's more attractive for the crazed energy of the performances - and the odd juxtaposition of the earnestness of the singing and playing with the unhinged bent of the arrangements - than for the originality of the music…