Permanent Records' 34th label release!
AVAILABLE AGAIN!!!!!!
AVAILABLE AGAIN!!!!!!
Fans of Terry Riley, Kraftwerk, Conrad Schntizler, and Kosmische Musik in general take note! Bitchin Bajas has returned to Permanent Records (following their split single with Moon Duo) with a brand new record of side-long transcendental synth workouts. This is Bitchin Bajas most accessible and autobahn ready delivery to date!
Bitchin Bajas began as a side project, but Cooper Crain of CAVE and Dan Quinlivan formerly of MAHJONGG have been spending as much time, if not more, with Bitchin Bajas as they have with the aforementioned groups and they've been progressing very quickly. In just two or so years, Bitchin Bajas have released three critically acclaimed LPs (one on Important Records and two on Kallestei Editions), two incredible splits (one with Moon Duo and the other with the Peaking Lights- related Faceplant), and one very limited edition cassette tape.
The two side long pieces on this nearly 40 minute EP were written on their 2012 European tour and recorded and mixed over three days by Bitchin Bajas at Minbal Studio in Chicago, Illinois.
Features eye-popping cover artwork by artist Jeremy Kannapell.
"A whole mess of cats in the drone-age try to spiral upward to the heights of Bitchin Bajas, but few nail the sacred combination of Harmonia/Neu! and Steve Hillage circa Rainbow Dome Music with the same air of confidence." - Tiny Mix Tapes
This one blew outta here at warp speed last time we stocked it, so act fast and grab one whilst you still can!
HEADS UP LONGHAIRS! We just scored a grip of this mind-flaying import compilation of heavy-hitting, fuzzed-out guitar bangers from the "wasted generation" of 1968-1972! Compiled by the folks overseas at Frisco Speedball Records, grab your poppers & cold one & kick it with Frisco Speedball:
"Non-hippie, devastating guitar-psych and PCP induced hard-rock: Angel Dust Psychedelia is a '100% killers, no fillers' compilation featuring obscure and unknown 45s and unreleased acetates from the US, most of them released on private labels. Many local underground bands of the late 1960s and early 1970s lacked the money and/or material needed to make a full-length album, and would put out a self-released 45s instead. Record collectors and writers have been slow to understand this treasure of vintage private press singles, with music that is every bit as good as hallowed underground LPs like Mystic Siva or Boa. Fourteen tracks including the monster acid-punker 'Time Gone to Waste' by Local Traffic, post-Stereo Shoestring band Red House with an unreleased track, the mega rare acetate by Matchbox from Houston, tremendous acid-psych by Dick St John and Ragweed Patch, raw hard-rock by Masque and Zoo and more. The perfect companion to those legendary '80s psych comps like Brain Shadows, Acid Dreams, and Endless Journey. Remastered sound for a stunning in-your-face heavy guitar experience. Limited to 500 copies."
We're not gonna waste any time trying to convince you, but this comp is a hesher's dream come true! If you are AT ALL interested in the likes of the Bonehead Crunchers comps, the recent "Darkscortch Canticles" comp on Numero or your get your kicks from recent bands like Fuzz, Witchcraft, Graveyard, Zig-Zags or Kadavar then drop the spoon, man & grip this ASAP! This one's CRIMINALLY limited to 500 copies world-wide & is already getting scarce, so DON'T HESITATE! RECOMMENDED to the MAXX!
NEW ON GOD? RECORDS!!!
After last year's lp "Vaguely Ethnic" on Castleface, Chicago bruisers Running are back with a DEFINITELY KILLER triple shot for God?, entitled "Frizzled." Need an introduction? Read on-
"Haven't run into Running yet? Fire, fury and FUN, plus some unbelievably gnarly guitars. Unhearable pop music at it's young and innocent best!" - God?
Continuing on with their damaged yet potent mix of no wave spasms, deathrock guitar squeals, pummeling killed-by-feedback brutality, reverb drenched angst and visceral punk thrashing, "Frizzled", "I've Got It" and the b-side "Totally Fired" are sure to sear themselves directly into yer soul and/or leave a mark. Don't bother asking for some RIYLs cuz this is next level sonic terrorism from one of the best local Chicago groups kicking around.
If you haven't checked out Running yet, "Frizzled" is just the succinct dose of noise punk mayhem you need to get hooked. And for those who've been onboard since their debut release we put out, YOU KNOW WHAT YER IN FOR! And like we've told you before, YOU NEED THIS!!! Everyone should be a believer by now! RECOMMENDED!
2014 Reissue on Sommor Records
First official reissue of this hard-rockin' monster from the UK featuring ex-popsikers Jason Crest vocalist "Nobby" Clarke! Lovingly reissued by the folks at Sommor Records (who did the very excellent 'Nite People' and 'Plastic Penny' reissues a couple of years back) - Sommor's tossing us the vine on Orang-utan, so let's have a swing:
"Orang-Utan were in fact a London based band called Hunter, featuring vocalist Terry “Nobby” Clarke (of psych-pop legends Jason Crest), guitar player Mick Clarke, drummer and songwriter Jeff Seopardi and bass player Paul Roberts. They recorded their sole album in 1971 and DeLane Lea studios. In a bizarre twist of events, their producers / managers ran with the tapes to the US, where they placed the album on Bell Records under a new band name: Orang-Utan, without telling any of the band members. A lost classic of blazing, early hard rock with minor psychedelic hangover vibes, a twin-guitar attack, and waves of fuzz/wah, along with powerful vocals. First ever legit reissue done in co-operation with the original band members. Insert with liner notes by Jeremy Cargill (Ugly Things / Got Kinda Lost), telling the bizarre story of the band for the first time, and rare photos. “Quintessentially British hard-rock, transforming the blues in a way American bands rarely did, and with a kind of vocal intensity that compares to Free, Humble Pie et al”
An unfortunate casualty of the "record biz", 'Orang-utan's album was only (sort of) released in the USA by Bell Records and when the band found out what had happened, they folded right around the LP's release. It's an insane story, but it seems like this is a common occurrence, particularly in the Sixties/Seventies ; the "product" being more important that the actual band itself. It's a shame too, as we feel 'Orang-utan' could have really gone places! The album's chock full of heavy, progressive riffing not unlike what former Small Faces frontman Steve Marriot was doing in Humble Pie. The real interesting part is that there is still a whiff of the popsike of years just past; it's not just macho "get over here girl" a'la many of the hard rockers of the day, nor is it Tolkien-esque elven codpieces a'la LedZep. There's a sense of mysticism and darkness more akin to, say Black Sabbath (but sans DOOM) or Sir Lord Baltimore than anything else. This one's a MONSTER and we're spinning it to death! Pretty sweet package too - lovingly remastered audio and original sleeve artwork, plus liner notes courtesy of Ugly Things contributor Jeremy Cargill - this is an officially sanctioned release by the original band members, so buy with confidence! If you like your riffs heavy and hot then look no further. RECOMMENDED!
P-Rex Fave Back In Print!!!!
Here's what we said about this stellar album the first time around:
All you longhairs better pay attention! Lion Productions continues to amaze us with their ongoing crusade to reissue the best forgotten musical gems of the past few decades! This time out, legendary British hard rockers Jerusalem's s/t debut from 1972 gets the royal treatment! This heavy mutha originally came out on the Deram/Decca imprint & you'd think that with a debut as rocking & solid as this, they'd be on every major stage in the UK! Spawned from the same emerging heavy blues-based rock scene as Deep Purple, Zeppelin, & Canned Heat, Jerusalem takes the 12-bar blues co-opted by all these bands & cuts out the crap - all-killer-no-filler here folks! Heavy drums, raging guitars that sound like a thousand dying hellhounds, & a dark, proto-metal aggressiveness that few could manage at the time (save, say Black Sabbath or maybe early Motorhead) this is an LP that spits & crawls it's way off the turntable & into your earholes (and even slaps on a pair of bell-bottom for good measure)! Originally produced by Deep Purple's Ian Gillian (who's even quoted on the back as saying "This is the first album by Jerusalem, a band which excites me very much, they are rough, raw and doomy..."), this is a hi-quality, near exact reissue, remastered for vinyl from the original master tapes, with a stunning gatefold with lyrics & an insert with new liner notes & photos! GREAT, great stuff & any fans of any of the aforementioned bands should grip this PRONTO! Recommended!
LIMITED TO 350 COPIES!!!
Psychedelic music is in a FULL-ON renaissance these days, with bands sprouting up like magic mushrooms all over the globe! Kikagaku Moyo hail from the mighty city of Tokyo, Japan and this is their debut album co-released by Greek label Cosmic Eye Records (who also released the s/t Montibus Communitas LP earlier this year) and Sound Effect Records. Cosmic Eye is all seeing, so let's let them pontificate on Kikagaku Moyo:
"We are excited to announce the debut KIKAGAKU MOYO release, a co-production of Cosmic Eye and Sound Effect Records. Just released as a Bandcamp download in May 2013, it impressed us so much with its awesome otherworldliness, to the point of requiring instant vinyl availability.
KIKAGAKU MOYO (Geometric Patterns in japanese) started in the summer of 2012 in Tokyo attempting to recreate the spirit of the early 70s japanese psychedelic underground. And they have perfected the art of late 60s influenced psychedelia to breathtaking levels. They enrichen this gentle sound with the use of sitars, percussive drums, theremins, wind instruments and charming female vocals, to the point of sounding powerfully spacious and lazily calm at the same time. And they achieve such levels of invention, to not be labelled traditional revivalists but creators of a modern electric music for the mind and body.
There's a beautiful simplicity to this album no matter how far-out it may sound. Each song builds on a formula of direct yet otherworldly folk/psych vibe to subconsciously evolve into a joyous, haunting, and totally colourful, tribal far-out music. Lysergic mind-expanding landscapes, ghostly rhythms, clouds of uplifting fuzz, swirling guitar excursions into space, water-stained sitar licks and beautifuly wasted vocals guarantee a floating magic carpet ride to the galaxy. KIKAGAKU MOYO are on their own deserted island, gazing the cosmos, hallucinating the million details of the One and firing them right back at us. LP version is pressed on high quality vinyl and comes out in a limited edition of 350 copies."
WOW. This record is some trippy business! 'Kikagaku Moyo' starts off slow and gentle with a pastoral, lilting instrumental, before getting loose and freaky and launching into the stratosphere with 'Zo No Senaka', a driving psych burner with some wicked sitar peppered throughout! Cosmic Eye is the perfect label to be releasing this one, 'cuz their tunes get "interstellar" pretty quickly, with echoes of 'Saucerful'/'Meddle' era Pink Floyd as well as Popol Vuh, Flower Travellin' Band, Far East Family Band and perhaps Hawkwind if they were less biker and more hippy! The guitars buzz and sting with fuzzy venom and the rhythm section is locked in tight, making this a rollicking ride thru the corridors of your mind!! The last track "Dawn" brings us a bit more into the 21st Century, with it's propulsive riffage reminding us of Brian Jonestown Massacre at their most rockin'! This bad boy is SUPER LIMITED to 350 copies worldwide, so DO NOT SNOOZE on this one lest you be left floating in the ether with nary a record to be found! We're diggin' this one quite a bit - Best of 2013? Perhaps... perhaps... in the meantime it is definitely RECOMMENDED!
