Podcast 2022.04 Sunday Stone: Psychedelia in the UK

Turn Me On, Dead Man 2022 Podcasts

#Alternative #Ambient #ArtRock #Cosmic #Devotional #Doom #Drone #Electronica #Experimental #FieldRecordings #Freakbeat #Fuzz #GarageRock #Glitch #HardRock #Improvisation #IndieRock #Instrumental #Krautrock #Lo-Fi #Lonely #Mod #Neo-classical #Noise #PowerPop #Prog #Psych #PsychRock #Psychedelia #Psychedelic #PsychedelicFolk #PsychedelicPop #PsychedelicRock #School #Sitar #SpaceRock #Stoner #StonerRock

⦾ The Lee Rudes – Insignificant Man (from “The Insignificant Man”, release date: November 20, 2021)

TMODM: What had the strongest influence on The Insignificant Man?
TLR: We are influenced by the Velvet Underground, Can, Sleep, Neil Young, Rat pedals, cassettes, Endless Boogie, Wooden Shjips, Wipers… We record to a broken Tascam 8-track cassette portastudio, with two tracks that won’t work unless they are recorded in reverse. We love accidents on record (such as the drums on Frack! cutting out when the hanging microphone disconnected…), room sound and ambient noise.
TMODM: What record changed your life?
TLR: Too many to mention but let’s go with Trout Mask Replica by Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band. The ‘Ulysses’ of records. When I was a teenager, my family and I went on holiday and all I had brought with me was a minidisc with TroutMask and Lou Reed’s Berlin on it and listened to them both solidly for a week.
TMODM: What’s next for you?
TLR: A side-long psych-doom epic accompanied by a couple of shorter krautrock numbers. Hopefully some live shows too. But before that, my other band, the acid-folk-gloom duo, Horseman, have our third album to finish.

⦾ The Lunar Fog Occult – Seaglass (from Hypersomniac, release date: February 20, 2022)

I corresponded with Brandon Gee of The Lunar Fog Occult
TMODM: What had the strongest influence on Hypersomniac?
BG: The strongest influences for me when writing and making Hypersomniac were The Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Beatles, The Byrds, Elephant Stone, amongst many others in the psychedelic genre as well as folk oriented artists like Lindisfarne and Donovan. A lot of late nights that turned into early mornings too, writing lyrics and coming up with chord progressions, you know? A mixture of many different things really.
TMODM: What record changed your life?
BG: Probably ‘Revolver’ by the Beatles. My dad is a big Beatles fan and introduced me to them at a young age, showing me the Yellow Submarine movie and playing their songs. Revolver in particular caught my ear because of the sound of the whole thing. It blew my mind as a young boy and still does now. It also introduced me to the sitar!
TMODM: What’s next for you?
BG: Album 2 is currently in the works, going for a tighter sound with it I think, but still along the psychedelic route. I’m also gonna work out how I’ll translate the songs to a live setting and hopefully get a band together! Should be fun 

⦾ The Web of Lies – Best Friend (from Nude With Demon, release date: February 25, 2022)

I corresponded with E.R. Stevens of The Web of Lies
TMODM: What had the strongest influence on Nude With Demon?
ERS: finding out I was going to be a dad, wanting to reach out, too much self inspection, my time in Manchester, bad brain.

TMODM: What record changed your life?
ERS: Smog – doctor came at dawn

TMODM: What’s next for you?
ERS: record another album then put a live band together

⦾ Artifacts & Uranium – Dive Bomber (from Pancosmology, release date: January 21, 2022)

⦾ Empty House – Zanshin (from Mushin, release date: February 21, 2022)

Artifacts & Uranium is a collaboration between Mike Vest (11Paranoias, Blown Out, Drunk In Hell, Mienakunaru, Melting Hand, Artifacts & Uranium, Oblivion Reptilian et all and Bong) and Fred Laird (Earthling Society, Moon Of Ostara, Taras Bulba, The Crawlin’ Hex, The(e) Transmissions). I asked Fred Laird how this collaboration came about.
FL: Out of the blue really. Mike got in contact with me in early 2021, He had heard some of my stuff and really liked it which was cool because Bong’s ‘Mana-Yood-Sushai’ is one of my all time favourite albums. He had some loose ideas and I had been experimenting more with keyboards and treated piano. Very quickly the first Artifacts & Uranium album was completed (think it took a week or two) and we were so happy with it we quickly moved onto ‘Pancosmology’ which due to its structure took a bit longer. Great thing is with the collaboration is that we both know what works well and don’t step on each others toes; Mike handles the guitars in the main and I handle the synth/keys textures.

Then I asked Fred about his project Empty House.

TMODM: What had the strongest influence on Mushin?
FL: Probably 2 albums made a deep impression on me to make the ‘Mushin’ album. These would be’ August 1974’ by the Taj Mahal Travellers and ‘Through the Looking Glass’ by Midori Takada. I was also listening to ‘Gore Motel’ by the brilliant Bohren and Der Club of Gore
TMODM: What record changed your life?
FL: Low by David Bowie – An album still sounding like the future and Popol Vuh’s ‘Aguirre’ the stuff of dreams and spirituality.
TMODM: What’s next for you?
FL: Currently recording new material for Empty House. I have many tracks ready, I’ve had a big burst of creativity lately. Need a good lie down!!!

⦾ Melodrome Man – The Dead Planet (from The Last Shore, release date: October 16, 2021)

I corresponded with Laurie Rowland of Melodrome Man
TMODM: What had the strongest influence on The Last Shore?
LR: ‘Blackstar’ by David Bowie, hearing the versatility of sounds and genres on this album made me change my outlook on song writing and made me experiment beyond what I would usually write. I think I was especially channeling this in the vocal harmonies on ‘The Dead Planet’.
TMODM: What record changed your life?
LR: ‘In the belly of the brazen bull’ by The Cribs – A record that made me want to start a band and showed me that anyone could write music. As an album it changes meaning at each point I listen to it in my life. I’ve always enjoyed more raw, lo-fi production (warts and all) in the music I listen to and I hope it carries across into my own tracks too.
TMODM: What’s next for you?
LR: I’ve got about 5 more mini albums recorded that I plan to release eventually. I’d love to play them live at some point in the future, but being a solo musician makes that part tricky! But I’m always writing and experimenting with different sounds – so who knows!

⦾ Permanent Rain – Street Song (from Permanent Rain, release date: February 4, 2022)

Permanent Rain is an art rock duo from Wales
Dom Austin – Vocals, Guitars, Bass, Piano, Engineering, Sequencer, Synths, Samples
Ewan Smith – Vocals, Guitar (11), Drum Kit + Programming, Percussion, Field Recordings, Synths, Samples
What had the strongest influence on Permanent Rain (the album, that is)?
PR: It’s hard for me to say because every song is so different and so every song has a different influence. But as far as musical and lyrical concepts go I’d say “Too Fat to Run” by Jautì had the biggest influence on my writing personally.
TMODM: What record changed your life?
Dom: As a musician it was Dream Theater’s “Images and Words”, because that was the album which introduced me to so many different musical concepts and expanded the boundaries of what music could be for me.
Ewan: Blur’s album 13 was probably the turning point musically for me. Something about that album’s atmosphere instantly captivated me and got me interested in more diverse and experimental avenues of music
TMODM: What’s next for you?
PR: Getting the album on streaming services is the first thing, and then with any luck I’d like to just play as many shows as we can in order to get a local following. There are limitations to what we can do though because the both of us are still in school and have other interests that take priority over music production. But hopefully, we’ll soon get back to writing in the coming months!

⦾ The Galileo 7 – The man who wasn’t there (from Listen To The Colours, release date: November 26, 2021)

⦾ Necessary Animals – In The Twilight (from Animalia, release date: November 5, 2021)

TMODM: What had the strongest influence on Animalia?
NA: I think the strongest influence on Animalia was the music of the 60s and 70s, in broad terms.
TMODM: With people from such different backgrounds, how did Necessary Animals come together?
NA: Necessary Animals came together partly through previous collaborations – the creative core of the band goes back almost 30 years – and partly from the creative community in Hastings and St Leonards, where I live. I’m very lucky to know a lot of talented people.
TMODM: What record changed your life?
NA: The record that changed my life was either Great Movie Sounds of John Barry, the first ever LP I bought, or Anthem of the Sun by the Grateful Dead, which took my mind apart the first time I heard it. Early Pink Floyd and electric period Miles Davis also get an honourable mention!

⦾ My Opal Garden – Mind Wandering (from Welcome To My Opal Garden, release date: January 2, 2022)

⦾ Deep Hum – Thoughts of Cats (from The Boys Cosmic, release date: May 1, 2021)

I corresponded with Lloyd Markham of Deep Hum
TMODM: What had the strongest influence on The Boys Cosmic?
LM: Well, I can’t speak for Gareth and Luke, but when I was working on the beats, synths, and production for the album I was thinking Talking Heads for the poppy bits and King Crimson for the heavy bits. Our goal for The Boys Cosmic was to put together something that showed off a wide and contrasting array of sounds and vibes.
TMODM: What record changed your life?
LM: It’s a bit cliché but listening to Dark Side of The Moon was very formative for me as a teenager. It was my introduction to more conceptual rock music and set me on a path that eventually led to me getting into more experimental, psychedelic, noise, electronic, and ambient music.
TMODM: What’s next for you?
LM: Well, I just put out a pay-what-you-want solo record called The Bats of Light. It’s an ambient psychedelic doom-drone-noise album. If you like Sunn O))), Earth, and Boris’ more abstract stuff then I think you’ll enjoy it.
Here’s a link: https://lloydmarkham.bandcamp.com/album/the-bats-of-light
As for Deep Hum – myself, Gareth, and Luke have just finished recording a new EP. It’s darker and weirder than The Boys Cosmic. Should hopefully have it out in a few months.

⦾ Organs – Furious Return (from Slow Compression, release date: December 18, 2021)

I corresponded with Ian Pearce of Organs.
TMODM: What had the strongest influence on Slow Compression?
IP: Tough one, general influences on all our sessions and the essence of the project is putting yourself out of your comfort zone as all our core tracks are improv on the spot, we never rehearse. The exception to this is when Watt or another guest adds a track as they are playing along. Another big influence was the disheartenment at being involved in countless projects that never recorded anything, so I wanted to do something that recorded a release before playing any gigs (we are still yet to gig, our debut was due to be March 2020 but Covid hit!). Musically I know some common listening around the time was Saccharine Trust, Can, Hawkwind, Universal Congress Of, Tangerine Dream, Neurosis, Hoover, John Coltrane, and Lee Scratch Perry.
TMODM: How did the collaboration with Watt come about?
IP: Bushie who plays one of the drumkits had a previous band called Estel from Dublin, they recorded some stuff with Mike Watt and Steve Mackay when The Stooges were in Europe. He sent Watt one of our early tracks which he played on his show, he then interviewed us and after that I asked him if he would like to contribute some bass and words to some tracks we had. He agreed and we put out the Organs & Mike Watt CD and then for Slow Compression we purposefully recorded a track with no bass (I moved to percussion) and he sent us music for what would become ‘A Sea With No Colour’.
TMODM: What record changed your life?
IP: A few, Dead Kennedys – Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables, Spacemen 3 – Playing With Fire, Butthole Surfers – Locust Abortion Technician, bands and artists like Nick Drake, SLF, Velvet Underground, Black Flag and a lot of early Iron Maiden…
TMODM: What’s next for you?
IP: For Organs I think the next release is a lathe cut 7″, followed by another album on CD. The tracks are all recorded and mixed, it’s just a matter of raising funds to release, and hopefully playing a couple of gigs this Summer. A nice warm evening at an outdoor festival would be nice!