Ramases

Esoteric Recordings are pleased to announce the release of Glass Top Coffin, the second album by Ramases. The duo (Martin Raphael and his wife Sel) first came to prominence with the release of the album Space Hymns on the Vertigo label in 1971. The Glass Top Coffin project took several years to write, and Ramases vision of an inter-galactic concept finally appeared on Vertigo in 1975 in an elaborate sleeve. The sessions saw contributions from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the London Symphony Orchestra and was arguably the most fully realised of the two Ramases albums.

Although Ramases' debut album is best known today for featuring the infant 10cc as accompanying musicians (the 1990 Repertoire reissue even flags their involvement on the front cover), it is, in fact, deserving of considerably more attention than even that merits. Insistent, percolating rhythms float across a lightly funky soundscape, building with an intensity that ebbs and flows with every track and begging comparison with some of the other, darker folk devils that danced around the fringes of the early-'70s British underground. Comus, Gravy Train, and Dr. Strangely Strange all inhabit similar musical caverns, even as they strained toward new peaks of uniqueness, and Ramases shares that ambition - and occasionally even surpasses it…

Various Artists - The Rubble Collection, Volumes 11-20 (2007) {10 CD Box Set - Fallout FALLBOX002 rec 1960s-1970s}
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© 1960s-70s, 2007 Fallout | FALLBOX002
Rock / Psychedelic Rock / Acid Rock / Freakbeat / Garage Rock / Mod

The second box in as many years of a truckload of obscure British psychedelia. Here are ten more CDs' worth of serious rarities by some bands that barely scratched the surface of the British freakbeat scene during rock's golden era, and a few who went on to other things. In all, there are 128 cuts here, all compiled and annotated by Phil Smee – of Perfumed Garden fame (also issued by Past And Present). While some of these acts, such as the Poets, the Human Instinct, Outer Limits, and Denny Laine left marks on the scene, as did mod bands such as les Fleur De Lys and the Buzz; many others came from the swamp and returned with only these few minutes of glory for all of their efforts.

Various Artists - Looking At The Pictures In The Sky: The British Psychedelic Sounds Of 1968 (2017) {3CD Set}
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© 1968, 2017 Grapefruit Records / Cherry Red Records | CRSEGBOX040
Rock / Psychedelia / Psychedelic Rock / British Psychedelia

It goes without saying that 1968 doesn't have the same kind of cachet as 1967 - a year that, in musical terms, will always be indelibly associated with the Summer of Love, Sgt Pepper and the emergence of psychedelia. •But although the major players turned away from the excesses of the previous year in favour of a back-to-basics musical approach, there were arguably a greater number of psychedelic records made in 1968 than during the preceding twelve months. •Vital, lysergically-inclined 45s emerged from a whole host of younger groups, with The Factory, Mike Stuart Span, Fleur de Lys, The Fire, The Barrier, Boeing Duveen, Rupert's People and numerous others all releasing singles that have long been widely regarded by psychedelic collectors as genre classics.

Various Artists - Real Life Permanent Dreams: A Cornucopia of British Psychedlia 1965-1970 (2007) {4CD Castle Music CMXBX1239}
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© 1965-70, 2007 Sanctuary Records / Castle Music | CMXBX1239
Rock / British Psychedelia / Psychedelic Rock / Psychedelic Pop

There have been previous attempts to marshal a lot of British psychedelia into one compilation, but Real Life Permanent Dreams is a little different from those. This four-CD, 99-song box set isn't a best-of, but more like an attempt to assemble a very wide (though still representative) cross section of material, most of it pretty obscure to the average listener. For the most part, it succeeds in delivering a high-quality anthology that manages to offer a lot to both the collector and the less intense psychedelic fan, though it's by no means the cream of British psychedelia.

Three CD box set. Time Machine is a fascinating look at a equally fascinating time in music, containing 41 tracks from the first golden age of the Vertigo label including rare and classic tracks from the likes of Aphrodite's Child, Black Sabbath, Colosseum, Gentle Giant, Jade Warrior and the Sensational Alex Harvey Band. Also contains a 48-Page Booklet containing biogs, rare photographs and exclusive interviews. Whether you are a fine of Psychedelia or Prog Rock, there's something here to excite your senses.