Back catalogue: Psych/Garage Rock

Review: Fresh from dropping another essential seven-inch with his regular Sound Combo band, Misha Paniflov has joined forces with fellow multi-instrumentalist Shawn Lee for a string of collaborative singles. This "45" sports two genuinely impressive cuts, each full to bursting with quality live instrumentation. It opens with 'Sigmund Jahn Bossa', a superb fusion of late 1960s library jazz (think Roy Budd's score for Get Carter and you're in the right ballpark), bustling bossa-nova and spiralling psych-funk. Over on the flip the pair continue to deliver lounge, influenced, tongue-in-cheek thrills via the cheap, Sideman drum machine rhythms, tumbling guitars, elongated Hammond organ chords and hazy backing vocals of 'Aquaria'.

Review: Caito Sanchez lives in New York but was born in Panama and is a dedicated drummer who has spent years as a sideman. He's been honing his craft since the early 2000s and has played with the likes of Charles Bradley, Lee Fields and Brian Jackson. Now he finally makes the big step of going it alone and this debut single shows what he is capable of. He takes care of drums, but also bass, guitar and lead voice on a pair of nuggets that are heavy and psychedelic Spanish rock tunes full of fresh new wave sounds.

Review: If you don't know William Dorey already then chances are you're about to realise you've been missing out on quite the artist. Working as Skinshape, he's managed to garner a quiet cult following for his relatively quiet music, designed to unwind to, allow worries of the day to unwind, and dissipate into a concoction of psychedelic pop, downtempo electronica and dubby grooves.
Turn Away, a two-track single featuring titular piece and 'Dreams of Panama' is the latest case in point. Sublime melodies and deceptively advanced acoustic guitar work set to lackadaisical rhythms and beat patterns, soothing brass and synthesised strings helping capture a real mood. Which, specifically, is all about slowing down, and taking time to appreciate the moment. Designed to transport you to far away places, real and imagined, it sounds reductive to say these are bonafide travelling tunes but they are. The real joy is they also sound incredible when standing still.

Review: "No-one knew the songs or what the plan was. We kept it loose and fun. This was the spirit of the sessions. No headphones, no playback, minimal overdubs, or bleed. Fast and loose," says Sam Evian of his latest record, the first to grace his new imprint, Thirty Tigers. If that's not enough to make you balk with jealously at not being invited, then the idea of Big Thief's Adrian Lenker and Sufjan Stevens, among others, debasing to Evian's house in the Catskills to examine a revamped studio, complete with vintage tape deck and console, then going wild swimming at midnight, just as snow fell, might seal the deal. The following day, work began on Plunge, a record with no real fixed direction or plan. In the end, it will - or, at least, it should - be remembered among Evian's finest offerings. A stunning collection of folk-leaning rock 'n' roll, Americana and jangly indie, you can almost smell upstate New York.

Review: Berlin-based Saturns Drive is a project by New Zealand-born DJ and producer Elfy, and is one that takes its cues from a world of early sci-fi, exotica and library music, as well as coming on thick with cosmic disco synthesizers, Italo grooves and lush arps. His latest outing 'Next Stop Nebula' also brings in slide guitars and retro digital synth sounds over the top of rhythms that owe a debt to the 90s. It's a fresh and new sound that makes for expansive, immersive listening and transports you to an imagery, sun-kissed world where gentle grooves like 'Next Stop Nebula' and 'Bride Of Frankenstein' await for a nice laid-back party.

Review: Ty Segall's first album in two years takes the artist into rather new and unexpected musical territory. The production has had a whole redesign and come out the other side with a synthtastic sound but there remains a load of keys and guitars, too. As such Harmonizer sounds new and fresh with plenty of bursts of transcendent energy. The Freedom Band were called upon during the origin of this album and so appear all throughout it, but often one at a time. This intense record is a grown up soul sound that gets more and more compelling with each listen as fresh details keep on revealing themselves.

Review: Talk about fitting titles for an album. Skinshape has pretty much hit the nail on the head with this one, presenting a lush and intoxicating 11 tracks of calm (or, perhaps more accurately, cool) waters waiting for you to float on. These are pieces informed by 1960s movie scores, 70s funk, southern US psychedelic blues, and all manner of genres and subgenera that place an emphasis on sticky heat tempos, guitar licks, and a feeling of keeping one eye on the rear view mirror while cruising imagined highways.

Another triumph by the artist, if those descriptions aren't really cutting it then think the quietest ends of Khruanbin, Bonobo on a beach day, and El Michels Affair at their most soulful and cinematic. Transportive stuff, while purposefully informed and influenced by songs of the past, somehow Skinshape manages to paint fresh mental pictures with these familiar brushes.

Review: In 1969 Soft Machine were truly growing into the otherworldly entity they're best known as now, moving on from the more psychedelia-rooted sound of the debut album into the broader expanse presented on Volume Two. This live recording captures them in full flight at the legendary Bataclan in Paris, and the wild creative vision of Robert Wyatt's merry pranksters splays out from the ominous drum intro onwards, through towering crescendos of musicality that touch on noticeable album moments such as the 'Esther's Nose Job' suite from Volume Two to 'Moon In June', which would be released one year later on Third.

Review: Estonian-based label RR Gems is on a mission to present music that carries on a rich tradition of "free form, experimental and jazz" sounds. It does that here with dynamic Helsinki sextet, Soft Power, who have a style that ranges from jazz-rock to psychedelic jazz, always with exuberant musicianship and eclectic energy. Raw Bites is another exceptional outing that challenges conventions without ever losing sight of a compelling groove in amongst the cosmic sounds and noodling melodies. Walking bass brings bluesy qualities to some tunes and others are epic sonic adventures a la Sun Ra.

Review: From the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s, Brazil's population suffered at the hands of the brutal dictatorship of the Fifth Republic, arising from a coup at the hands of the country's armed forces with support from the US administration of the time. Human rights abuses, institutionalised torture and extrajudicial killings were par for the course of a regime, supported by religious and anti-Communist sections of society. At the same time, the domestic avant garde music scene was merging with the mainstream birth the Tropicalia arts movement, but this wasn't the only sound that was pushing back against the corridors of power. Forged from rock, folk, psychedelia and traditional Brazilian rhythms, while Som Imaginario aren't always considered part of that scene, they shared values and, in many ways, an approach to pushing sonic boundaries. This 1976 live album speaks volumes about the creative freedoms expressed as a form of protest against militarised conformity.

Review: Sopwith Camel are one of the pin-ups of the San Francisco psychedelic rock scene of the late 1960s. Their debut album came in 1967 but it is their second and last full length The Miraculous Hump Returns From The Moon from 1973 that gets reissued here. Fans consider it a next level work which might explain why a good copy of an original will cost you a few quid these days. It's a record - and really one of the lost classics of the era - that has stood the test of time and still bangs today for the way it so uniquely mixes up FM schmaltz, prog-rock, jazz, showtunes, Krautrock and Indian classical music.

Review: The fourth LP outing from the Nottingham band sees revelling in 60s psychedelia and folk sounds, checking in somewhere between the whimsical glories of The Left Banke, the powering grooves of The Doors and the beguiling melodicism of Nick Drake. It's a nostalgic sound but it's not lacking in dynamics, especially when driven along by the glittering, sparkling drums of founding member Adam Carr, which often feel like the lead instrument as the vocals of Leonore Wheatley and the guitar, bass and keyboards mesh into a hazy supporting act.

Review: This is a black vinyl version of a reissue that we also have on gold vinyl of Soyuz's '2' album. Originally released in 2019, this album marks a significant phase in the band's evolution, offering a glimpse into the sound that would define their later work while retaining traces of avant-psychedelic-pop influences. Produced during bandleader Alex Chumak's transition from Minsk to Kyiv, the LP reflects the tension between exploration and homesickness. Drawing from influences like Mikita Arlou, Ethiopian jazz, and Italian library music, the album eloquently captures the melancholy of long-distance travel and transience, creating a sonic narrative of emotional flux.

Review: Belarus collective Soyuz grace Mr Bongo with their third album, building on a formidable background in lush orchestral jazz to deliver an album of astonishing beauty. Their music draws on 70s Brazilian MPB as a major source of inspiration, but everything has a twist which feels unique to composer and arranger Alex Chumak's location in modern day Belarus. As a result, the album sounds comfortingly familiar but strangely new in the same breath, and oh so very easy on the ears. The sound is light and airy, with space to soar through liberal reverb, while the rhythm section gently buffets rather than slamming. You won't hear another record as sweet and sincere as this all year, we promise.

Review: English alternative-garage psyche rockers (and that barely comes close) Spacemen 3 had a serious reputation for their live shows. Inducing the kind of trance-like states in their audiences we more commonly associate with the endless spirals of dance music, for some the trio are godfathers of shoegaze, writing the book on that epic guitar opera long before people really knew what to call it, helping set the tone for the more exploratory side of 1980s rock. Simply put, they were a group you'd feel lucky to have experienced live, and even this five track opus of mind-melting rhythms, discordance and pent up energy is a pretty incredible thing to behold. Recorded live at Melkweg, Amsterdam, and originally released in 1989, once you've lost a few minutes in the refrains, builds, and crescendos you'll understand the cult status of this release - thankfully now repressed.

Review: Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs of Saint Etienne fame are the diggers behind this new rock assemblage which pays tribute to mid-afternoon set times at lesser-known festivals from years gone (well, the 70s) such as Deeply Vale, Bickershaw, Krumlin, Weeley, and Plumpton. They were just as important to those who attended as the more celebrated likes of Glasto' and this collection shows the sounds were just as good, too. The sounds - from big names liek Deep Purple, Hawkwind and Alan Parker & Alan Hawkshaw to lesser known acts like Jonesy, will appeal to hippies and bikers alike with big riffs, funky drumming and some psyched-out sounds.

Review: If you call yourselves Stoner you better be able to lay claim to being the definitive stoner rock band, but what do you know? Led by Brant Bjork of Kyuss, Fu Manchu and The Desert Sessions legend, with the equally legendary Nick Oliveri (Queens of the Stone Age) on bass, this is a supergroup without a doubt. Following hot on the heels of their debut album Stoners Rule, the group return with totally..., featuring more of those fuzz-caked guitars, languorous bass licks and such coolly detached songs as 'A Million Beers', 'Spacedude & The Burn' and 'Driving Miss Lazy'. This is the sound of musical heroes kicking back and playing for fun, and they can't help but make it the dopest rock music you've heard since their last album.

Review: Damo Suzuki was with seminal krautrock outfit Can from 1970 to 1973, lending his vocal talents to albums such as Tago Mago, Future Days and Ege Bamyasi. Exactly fifty years after the latter LP, you can hear him on this new recording described as being 'derived from fantasy'. In collaboration with Spiritczualic Enhancement Center, an eight-piece group of self-proclaimed disciples from the CAN University that gathered at Berlin-based club Arkaoda, it feaures three tracks; 'U', 'Ra', 'Beya' - excerpts from this gathering at the beginning of 2020.