Category: UK

Golden Cup – Vagabond (2012)

“Three tracks of hazy, stoned drifting psychedelia. The opening track takes up the entirety of side one, a slow-burning improvised trance-like piece with Can-style rhythms, wibbly synths and guitars building up to a frenzied finale. Reminicent of all manner of drugged out early ‘70s kraut-jams there’s an oddly Celtic feel to it. Track two is completely different, opening with a heavily echoed bongo-like sound there is fluttering flute and birdsong. Track three is similar with tribal-ish percussion, droney sitars and wandering psych guitars and a drifting, hazy almost underwater vibe. A three track stormer of semi-improvised, tripped out celestial psych-drone to while away these hazy summer evenings.”

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Koolaid (Global Tyranny) – Koolaid (Global Tyranny) (2011)

“The weirdest of the bunch, groovy, and almost funky, thick steel string strum, all wreathed in psychedelic guitar noise, laced with some weird samples, drug related of course. All wound into a sound noisy and weirdly tripped out. Totally drugged out hypnotic space rock . The band set up a groove, usually super simple and minimal, spaced out and krautrocky, and then over the top, they basically let loose, a barrage of samples, all twisted up and layered and doused in effects, some looped rhythmically, others slowed down and sped up, and on top of that sheets of strange drones and whirs, clouds of swooping echo and delay, all manner of backwards melodies. The musical part slipping easily from minimal hushed lope, to pounding wah wah guitar drenched Stooges-y psychedelic stomp, to buzzy raga, to dirgey almost Butthole Surfers sounding drug rock, but again, it’s what’s going on all around it, which is like a symphony of malfunctioning samplers gone haywire.”

Bakerloo – Bakerloo (1969)

“Bakerloo (previously The Bakerloo Blues Line) was an English heavy blues-rock trio, established by Staffordshire guitarist David “Clem” Clempson, Terry Poole and others in the late 1960s, at the high point of the influence of The Jimi Hendrix Experience and Cream. Although the group was prominent only for around a year (1968-9) and released only one album it played an important part in the history of the genre, especially in view of its members’ subsequent involvement with Colosseum, Humble Pie, May Blitz, Graham Bond, Vinegar Joe, Judas Priest and Uriah Heep.”

Skullflower – Ruins (1990)

“Led by guitarist Matthew Bower, the highly prolific Skullflower boasted the largest cult following of the bunch, with a sound based on sludgy, Black Sabbath-style riffs overlaid with feedback, fuzzed-out guitar noise, and throttling rhythms, all played at an ungodly volume. Always an improvisational outfit, their textured noise freak-outs grew increasingly free-form over the course of their career, moving farther and farther away from even loose definitions of “rock.” Skullflower claimed a broad range of influences in addition to the aforementioned Sabbath: heavy psychedelia (Blue Cheer, et al.), Krautrock, classical avant-gardists (John Cage, Steve Reich, Terry Riley), early industrial music (Throbbing Gristle, Einstürzende Neubauten, Whitehouse), and noise rockers from the American indie world (Sonic Youth, Big Black, the Butthole Surfers).”

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