Saturday, April 26, 2008

number two. UK sike-pop

NOTE: Sorry for the long delay, school has gotten in the way. Now that the internet is officially fixed here at the dorms, and school is cooling down, I feel like I'll be doing this more often.

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mix number two. UK sike-pop

Like their American contemporaries, psychedelic rock musicians in Britain had similar roots in folk-music, with the first bands indulging in it being folk bands going electric. You can hear it specifically on many tracks on this mix, that drench acoustic guitars in reverb and match them against sitars, organs, electric guitars, and even more off-kilter instruments, (such as my personal favorite from the entire collection, The Ceyleib People's "Ceyladd Beyta"). Lyrically, these songs also followed a strong folk influence, often imagistic and nature-centric, often socially-conscious and anti-war, many of these bands sought further than writing songs about love, fully baring their souls and thusly giving the songs a stronger emotional core. For instance, The Gregorians' "Dilated Eyes" is a beautiful narrative that concerns itself with hypocritical parents who perpetuate violence and self-destruction within their children, all while wondering what the world has come to.

UK sike-pop, as it was called, remained undeniably pop, while toying with traditional production techniques and songwriting formats that predated the more psychedelically-leaning works of The Beatles and Cream. These bands merely popularized, (and perfected) the rough pioneering work of the following artists, who were already creating such sounds. Once "Sgt. Pepper's" and Pink Floyd's "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn" had received more exposure (two albums recorded pretty much simultaneously), the floodgates of psychedelic music had been opened. 

Here were the harbingers of the movement.

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PART ONE.
1. The Scene - "Scenes (From Another World)
2. Friends of the Family - "Can't Go Home"
3. Silver Hawks - "All I Can Do"
4. The Tree Stumps - "Tomorrow's Sun"
5. The Gregorians - "Dilated Eyes"
6. The Collection - "Paper Crown of Gold"
7. Pussyfoot - "Hasty Words"
8. Rhubarb Rhubarb - "Rainmaker"
9. The Powers of Blue - "You Blow My Mind (instrumental)"
10. The Whether Bureau - "Why Can't You and I?"
11. Davie Allen & The Arrows - "Make Love, Not War (instrumental)"
12. Mother Nature - "Lost in the Pacific"

PART TWO.
1. The Ceyleib People - "Ceyladd Beyta (instrumental)"
2. Green Scarab - "Asariah's Dance (instrumental)"
3. Churchhills - "Too Much In Love To Hear"
4. Click - "Girl With a Mind"
5. The Endd - "This is Really The Zoo Plus Two (instrumental)"
6. Summer Set - "It's a Dream"
7. Rainy Daze - "Fe Fi Fo Fum"
8. Captain Groovy and His Bubblegum Army - "Bubblegum March"
9. Cats Pyjamas - "Virginia Water"
10. Unknown Artist - "Mystery Track 2" (if anyone has any info on this track, let me know)
11. Billy Elder - "Don't Take The Night Away"
12. Bill Fay - "Unreleased, Untitled Acetate"

with love, chris osborn.