HOMEMADE LOFI PSYCH --- WHERE TO START?





"There is so much great music here..." WHERE TO START???

I recommend to
start with the HLFP-Samplers (especially HLFP 04).
Here you will come to know many of the bands/musicians featured in this blog. If you like what you hear, you may check out more of their music later on.
(You may also click on the picture on the sidebar and you will find the original post with download links.)

There is also a "FOCUS ON..." section. Here you will find albums that imo are absolutely great (***** = "five-stars-recordings") and that are essential listening and strongly recommended for download.


I TRY to RE-UP some stuff that has been down from time to

time, but I still don't have enough time to

listen to/post much new stuff.

Sorry!

IMPRESSUM: see here!

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Tropical Pills - Wind Seconds (EP) (USA 2009)

4 song EP by Chicago band called TROPICAL PILLS.
Wind Seconds is their first release, but there will be more to come; the band is working on a full lenght album.

Q: Do you want your real names mentioned? If so: what are your real names?

A: I know it doesn't sound like it but there are lots of people in and out of the band actually but we are just friends from college that met and made this album... but the main people are Kyle Poff, Dan Blackman, Dave Harbarger, Glenn Chan, Dave Seal.

Q: How'd you "label" your music? Influences?

A: We are a lo fi haberdash folky rock surf - ish kind of act -- we are influenced by colors and whiskey.

Q: How recorded?

A: Most songs recorded on 8 track and converted to mp3 through garageband.

Q: Since when does this band/project exist? Where are you from?

A: This band has been around for a little under a year and from Chicago.

Q: Anything that you think is interesting, that you'd like to inform the blog readers about...

A: We have a soon to be label that we are starting called Fixed Traditions that will also have the albums of the bands Wrugs. So far those are the only two bands on the label. And no website yet for that label (...)


Not bad for a first release. In fact it's quite good fun to listen, especially "Banned From Earth" is amazing.
Enjoy!


TROPICAL PILLS - Wind Seconds (USA 2009)
(mp3-zip, 4 tracks, 13,9 MB, 11 min)
Get it here or here or here!

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

ephemeroL - live in Frankfurt a. M. (GER), 07-05-2009


EPHEMEROL - Live in Frankfurt a. M., Germany 07-05-2009
(mp3-zip, 1 track, 74,4 MB, 54.20 min)
Get it here or here or here!

German experimental post-noise avantgarde band EPHEMEROL playing an improvised set as support for the SECRET CHIEFS 3. Enjoy!
Read more about EPHEMEROL here: (older posts)!


Monday, February 22, 2010

KiLL Kill Kill - Alone and Worried + Pan Afro (USA 2009)

In October last year I posted "Pissing Prisms", already the eighth release by the L.A. guitar psych/experimental band KILL KILL KILL (read the old post here).
Here is some new stuff.

"Here is a a VERY lofi EP we put out for fun a couple weeks ago..."

KILL KILL KILL - Alone and Worried (USA 2009)

(mp3-zip, 4 tracks, 19 min, 27,2 MB)

1. Yellow Feevr (9.38)

2. the Bird and the Demon (4.27)

3. bleep at the moon (1.00)

4. one inch (3.54)

Get it here or here or here!


"... and a studio full length with a guest singer." (Eric Stiner)


KILL KILL KILL - Pan Afro

(album # 9) (USA 2009)

(mp3 zip, 3 tracks, 60 MB, 44 min)

1. Pan Afro (20.13)

2. Broken Bbiles (7.18)

3. Birds of Prayer (16.15)

Get it here or here or here!


Guitar - Eric Stiner, Kristin Kennedy, Zac Nadile

Drums - Oscar Varela

Keyboards - Tino Flores

Saxaphone - Edgar Briones

Vocals - Kyle Howard*

Tracks 1 & 3 Engineered by Andy Barret and Colin Reef at Heather Court Studios. Mixed by Jon Deutsche and Eric Stiner at KXLU 88.9

Track 2 Engineered by Jon Deutsche. Mixed by Jon Deutsche and Eric Stiner at KXLU 88.9

Artwork by Alex Fuentes

*Kyle appears courtesy of Eyeball Records and Stiletto Formal.


Favourite track: one inch and Birds of Prayer



All their albums are available for free download on their website

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Interpretace - leco9 (krautrock christmas session) + cull (CZCH Dec. 2009)




"the interpretace krautrock christmas session 2009 aka leco9 'interpretation of improvisation like a life function of an organism'...
onto this session we played with a friend who recorded with us
interpretace mc released later on oec, after more than 20 years..."
(Richard Charvat)

Excellent spacy krautrock-like improv stuff!


INTERPRETACE: leco9 (krautrock christmas session)
+
cull (December 2009)
(mp3-zip, 3 tracks, 54 min, 49,1 MB)
Get it here!

Friday, February 19, 2010

Shmu - Discipline/Communication (USA 2009)

Canadian born artist SHMU (aka Sam Chown) today lives in Austin, TX, where he is part of the local music scene.
Apart from his solo career, he is also drummer and vocalist of the experimental keys/drum duo ZORCH.
The music on his solo release Discipline/Communication is a mix of experimental pop, funk, shoegaze, indie and psychedelic rock.

Excellent production, great vocals and great songs! Recommended listening!

"... here are some things about me as an artist and the album in general:

It took about 2 to 3 years to record, write, engineer, mix, and master. I basically did everything myself with no assistance except for the stem mastering and mastering which I did with my buddy JP. (...) Doing everything yourself in the moment is pretty intense. So, for example when I would be recording my drums, I'd hit the record button in one room of my apartment, enter the other room in which my drums were set up, shut the door, put on the headphones, sit down and then play and hope to God that that take was going to be the one, because if it wasn't, I would have to do the whole process over again. So basically I was my own tracking engineer while I recorded every part. - In terms of what I was going for musically, I wanted to do a few things. I wanted to make some sort of modern wall of sound/face melting shoegaze album, with tracks like "Shadowgames" "Turpentine" and "Fester" (influences: My Bloody Valentine, basically it all goes back to them, Smashing Pumpkins) I also wanted to explore meshing shoegaze with glitch and electro (influences: Ulrich Schnauss, The Field, Burial, Daft Punk, Justice, The Books), that comes out in "Crazy #107" "&hearts" and "Heads Will Fall." The other two main genres I was going for were psychedelic folk rock (influences: CSNY, Joni Mitchell, Beck, America's first album) "Impressions" "Happiness" and "Tangeable" and then a sort of minamilist approach to pop-rock that was fully realized by bands like Talking Heads (and modern bands like Animal Collective, Panda Bear & Deerhunter). That kind of style comes out on "House of Stares" "Backwoods" and "Pool Party (Place 4 Us)" Everything else floats somewhere in between those main musical mediums of expressions. - For "Heads will Fall" I sampled this band from Toronto called Pursuit of Happiness. I'm from Toronto, so I grew up listening to their stuff. I sampled two of their songs off their album "Love Junk" which is about 20 years old now. I heard the lead singer is a producer of some rock n roll reality tv show. But anyway, I remember listening to that record and being like "i can totally glitch this bitch up!" I've sent it to him and he says he digs it which is cool. This track is definitely the most controversial in terms of some people fucking hate it and some people love it, there doesn't seem to be much in between. For "&hearts" which is track 11 on the record, I sampled myself. I have a huge library/vault of jams and abandoned tracks, and I figured why not recycle them into something different and interesting to my ears. For "Backwoods" I sampled this teacher I had at Berklee who did classes in breathing and movement exercises, basically a hippie-dippie class. I was the only student in his class to buy his cd, and then he died the next year. I sampled his voice as the so-called "lead vocal" for the track to honor his love and passion for humanity and music. (...) Shmu is my given hebrew name, its hebrew for samuel, so some people call me sam, others call me shmu, I'm fine being referred to either one. that's how I got my so-called pseudonym for this project. - The album is called Discipline/Communication so the theme of the album is about honing in on a sound and chiseling it out of the rock it came from, which is the discipline part and then communicating it properly so that people can emotionally connect with it. - This project has existed basically since the release of my first album under the name Shmu, it's called Compendium (...)"

(info from email; more info in the zip-file)


IF YOU LIKE WHAT YOU HEAR, PLEASE SUPPORT THE ARTIST!
You may purchase a high quality wavs download via SHMU's Myspace site.

http://www.myspace.com/samchown

Favourite track: House of Stares

SHMU - Discipline/Communication
(mp3-zip, 18 tracks, 76 min, 172,9 MB, @320 kbps)
Get it here or here or here!

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Trivo - Emoterapia (IT 2009)

TRIVO from Foggia, Italy, writes, composes and records his own songs since the age of 17. He now is 32.
He believes in free music for everyone and his cd is downloadable for free on his myspace site. His CD is therefore licensed under Creative Commons Attribuzione 2.5 Italia License.
If anyone wants a physical CD with case and coloured booklet contact TRIVO via Myspace. He only asks for 3 Euro (+ postage).
TRIVO has been working on "emoterapia" for six years. At one point almost everything was lost when his PC crashed, but he started again and the results are truely amazing. "emoterapia" has been reviewed on many Italian music magazines (including il mucchio, rockit and succo acido).
He sings in Italian, but has recorded many instrumental tracks as well.

Q: Where exactly are you from?
A: I live in Foggia, a small city from the south-east region called "Puglia".
Q: Do you want your real name mentioned? If so: What is your real name?
A: My real name is Rocco Triventi.
The word Trivo is born in the moment I needed to give a name to my new solo project.
I needed to define my own identity.
I just tell you three different versions and every single one can be the right one:
a) Trivo comes simply from my surname
b) Trivo comes from "Trivio", the three philosophical-literary subjects
(grammar, rhetoric and dialectic).
c) Trivo comes from a typing error, during a casual talk while I was
confessing to my friend "io mi trivo male in questa società"*
*the right one was "io mi trovo male in questa società" (I cannot find
myself in this society).
Q: Since I don't speak Italian: What are your song lyrics about?
A: They talk about emotions, about suffering and smiling... an italian webzine say about my work:
The evolution of the events of life, especially those feelings that are experienced in the disease. The transition from a state mental euphoria of a moment of frustration, until the fall in the deep darkness that we rending. Slowly getting used to the condition of anxiety, a distraught feeling of letting go. All these emotions are surrounded by a continuous flood of musical experimentation electro pop / rock. This concept so difficult to classify. Evolution are also emotional moments of serenity, a sort of inner security that gradually timid is again put under the rays of the sun. A little 'dazed, his eyes trasludici, because there is more accustomed to being summoned, he moves like a newborn baby (in this case re-born) who have little' excited, dedicated in the early stages of life. Something that you relish in short, which is given a different value after the black man who has had to live in every moment. Very sensitive in all its parts, gives a full spectrum of feelings experienced in those moments of life.
Q: Discografia: When did you record what; are those recordings still available?
A: Well... from 1994 I recorded 10 demotapes (7 on tape and 3 on cd).
The first records only gave them for free to friends, "Emoterapia" is the only one I sell... I don't sell the old ones because I plan to re-record the old songs with new arrangements.
Q: How/where can people buy your cd(s)?
A: People can contact me on myspace and pay me with PayPal. I will send CDs all over the world.
Q: Anything that you think is interesting, that you'd like to inform the blog readers about...
A: Here you can read a good interview in English (...)

"Emoterapia" is an absolute homemade-lofi-psych masterpiece. Strongly recommended!!! Filled with hundereds of little ideas, sounds, samples and hooks. And you really don't need to understand the lyrics to enjoy this jewel!
GET IT!!!
B. t. w.: The lofi distortions on Nero are on purpose and not a technical problem!

Favourite track: probably Perchè la cattiveria è enorme, but that whole disc is a killer!


TRIVO - Emoterapia (IT 2009)
(mp3-zip, 17 tracks, 39,7 MB, 37 min, artwork incl.)
Get it here or here or here!

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Full Dimensional - Title Strip (USA 1998)


"The sixth in my series of File 13/Full Dimensional cassette rips finds Andrew Aldrich getting darkly beautiful and beautifully dark. Dig the puzzling popadelia of "Just a Scheme" and the emotive soundscapes of "Insomnia Ballet"! Includes lyric sheet."

(BaM)


FULL DIMENSIONAL: Title Strip (1998)

(mp3-zip, 14 - 2 cover songs = 12 tracks, 58 min, 152,6 MB,

lyrics and artwork incl.)

Get it here or here or here!

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Full Dimensional - Re-Entry (USA 1997)

"Two albums in one year? You bet, and not for the last time! The staggeringly prolific Andrew Aldrich returns to expand your mind and bang your head for an unforgettable hour that culminates in the classic 'No Drug No God'." (BaM)


FULL DIMENSIONAL: Re-Entry (1997)

(mp3-zip, 18-2 (cover songs) = 16 tracks, 62 min, 132,6 MB)

Get it here or here or here!

By the way: You should always read the comment section...

And how about a comment by yourself?

Full Dimensional - Memories Of Roswell (USA 1997)

If you downloaded the 4th HLFP-Sampler SOUND EXPLOSIONS (as you should have done!) you already will be familiar with Andrew Aldrich's/FULL DIMENSIONAL's (aka FILE 13's) sound. Glowing Smiles surely is one of the highlights of SOUND EXPLOSIONS.

Furthermore there have been posts of FILE 13's
- Demos (1994) and
- Makeshift Viewmaster (1996)
as well as FULL DIMENSIONAL's
- Exhale (1995)
(here).

So you've got absolutely no excuse, if you don't know Andrew's music yet...

Memories of Roswell is – as the title suggests – a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Roswell incident with alien songs and alien sounds by Andrew and a few select guests.
Excellent homemade lofi psychedelic music that should find its way into every serious Psych Head's collection!
Need I say more? Get it!!!

2 more to come! And again, thanks to BaM!

http://www.myspace.com/fulldimensional

FULL DIMENSIONAL: Memories Of
Roswell (1997)
(mp3-zip, 18 tracks, 60 min, 149 MB, artwork incl.)
Get it here or here or here!

Shalloboi - all hope is blind (USA 2009)

SHALLOBOI were already featured with two albums and one live recording on HLFP in the past, and they also have got one track on the third HLFP-Sampler. (Check out the older posts here!)
Very dark, very slow and very dreamlike music.
If you like SIGUR RÓS you should really check this band out!

"All hope is blind" is going to be a vinyl only release and will come with a 20-page zine. You may take a look at the zine at the band's website as well as order their recordings there.

IF YOU LIKE WHAT YOU HEAR, PLEASE SUPPORT THE ARTISTS!

tyler ritter= guitars, voice, loops, drums on 'paper doves,' glockenspiel on 'forever drowning'
stefanie goodwin= drums, percussion, voice, glockenspiel on 'windsong'
billy speer= cello
chris gagnon= viola
katelyn eldridge= violin

"recorded from november of 2006 through august of 2009 at the panda room in chicago, il and at billy's house and tyler's parents' house in kansas city, mo. all songs (...) and all string arrangements were written by tyler ritter. the album was mixed at the panda room in the spring and summer of 2009. recorded on an 8-track cassette machine and mixed down to a 2-track 1/4" tape machine. mastered by bruce templeton at minneapolis, mn in the winter of 2009."


SHALLOBOI - All Hope Is Blind (USA 2009)
(mp3-zip, 11 tracks, 50 min, 79,1 MB)
Get it here or here or here!

video by Look Busy Do Nothing feat. Talha Wynne: Emotionalogic

Look Busy Do Nothing - Emotionalogic

LBDN is a psychedelic rock band from Pakistan.
Talha Asim Wynne - Guitars
Daniel Arthur Panjwaneey - Bass
Kayzad Giara - Drums

Post Rock/Shoegazey jam at Qubee.

http://www.myspace.com/talhaasim


Check out more stuff by TALHA ASIM WYNNE here!

Friday, February 12, 2010

The Syllable Section - some appetizer for you (USA 2010)

THE SYLLABLE SECTION from Chicago, Illinois, have got a new album out, called "Linear Views". From listening to some of the tracks I can assure you that this is a true psychedelic delight of great originality! Yet you will hear some traces of SYD BARRETT, ROBYN HITCHCOCK and THE SOFT BOYS as well as THE FLAMING LIPS or TELEVISION.
The vocals seem to be heavily phased on most tracks which adds to the surprising sound (or is that Matthew's usual singing voice...?) – sometimes slightly dissonant, but very uplifting and pleasant.
Great work of art!

THE SYLLABLE SECTION are:
Matthew T. Marquardt- vocals, guitar, keyboard
Brandon Begotka- bass
Brian Green- drums and percussion

In this Youtube video Matthew T. Marquardt of the band talks about the making of the album and plays a SYD BARRETT solo tune on acoustic guitar.
Enjoy!



Here are two songs for you, meant as appetizer;
posted with kind permission by Rob Beechner, Magic Tree Productions. Thanks!

THE SYLLABLE SECTION - 2 tracks
(mp3 zip, 2 tracks, 8,8 MB)
Get 'em here or here or here!

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Manual Zombie - Autumn (USA 2009)

A band most blog readers will know by now.
MANUAL ZOMBIE were already featured July and August last year, and they also have one excellent track, Automatic People, on the last Homemade-Lofi-Psych Compilation SOUND EXPLOSIONS (HLFP 04).
This here is their latest release.

"... as for this album being a bit different, I think it's closer to our first self-titled LP than 'ice from the sun'. I consider that album nightmare rock. It has a story line. I thought we (were) going to continue in that direction, but we kind of went back to being a regular rock band. So it's a little lighter in tone and subject matter for the most part."

(Ben from M. Z.)


And here's a new video, posted on YouTube.

So much for "nightmare rock"...




Favourite track: stabbing

MANUAL ZOMBIE - Autumn (USA 2009)
(mp3.zip, 17 tracks, 51 min, 42,7 MB)
Get it here (links are dead - RE-UP by request)!

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Dustdevil & Crow - while walking slowly you can see the grasses grow (USA/UK 2009)

DUSTDEVIL & CROW are Michael Dustdevil of ANCIENTS and ATLANTIC DRONE fame and Bendle from THE DOOR AND THE WINDOW.

"walking slowly, watching the insects grow, watching the nettles sew, watching (and recording) the wind blow, moving slowly but then again - we're instantly in oak harbour usa and simultaneously in the weird whiteley woods in the uk, zanging and zinging, zinging and zanging..."
(http://www.myspace.com/dustdevilcrow)

Don't have much info on this one, so just go, download and listen.

What do we hear?
First of all: This isn't rock music, it's rather experimental or some kind of weird folk music. Very quiet and with a rather sparse arrangement, mainly vocals and guitar. How you will react to this music will depend very much on your liking of the vocal style. It's very special and fits perfectly to the strange dreamlike atmosphere, but it surely will not be everyone's cup of tea. (Somehow it even reminds me of some a capella songs by the HOLY MODAL ROUNDERS, e.g. Werewolf, though the mood is very different, or some songs by ROY HARPER.)
Enjoy!


And don't forget to visit Michael Dustdevil's site:


DUSTDEVIL & CROW (2009):
while walking slowly you can see
the grasses grow
(mp3-zip, 12 tracks, 102,4 MB, 45 min)
Get it here or here or here!

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Michael J. Bowman - Psychic Borderland (USA 2009)


"Somewhere in the twilight zone between delusion and disillusion, between freedom and success, between insanity and brainwashing, lies a psychic borderland (...) Between song forms and free noises, between cultural references and unintended consequences. Far out (on the inside). Somewhere between stimulus and recovery (...) It's a concept album. About an aging psychedelic artist losing his mind. He comes to believe that his waking life are his dreams, and his dreams are his real life (...)"

MICHAEL J. BOWMAN is a man of many talents. He is a musician and artist and lives in Brooklyn, NY, USA. Between 1989 and 2006 alone he released 15 full-length cassette albums of experimental pop-rock on his homemade Semperlofi label.

Q: Where exactly are you from?

A: The psychic borderland

Q: How recorded?

A: Through the condenser mic on my mac powerbook G4. All the songs were done in my apartment here in Brooklyn, except the drums for "Far Out On The Inside" were recorded in a practice room on a real drumkit (also here in Brooklyn). I played everything myself, layering the tracks in Garageband. Garageband has tons of cool effects, plus with cutting and pasting you can really get lost in a project... At home my gear consists of an ovation acoustic guitar, a casio keyboard and half a drumkit. I got the electric guitar sounds by tricking out the acoustic guitar tracks in Garageband. I also threw in sound-clips from old news interviews on YouTube, plus some sound-clips of my then 2-year-old daughter laughing and screeching. There's probably some of her toys in the mix too.
Q: When recorded?

A; Summer and Autumn 2009

Q: Who involved? Who played what?

A: I wrote, played and sang everything. The basic riff for the song Ghost was inspired by a track that Don Campau and I recorded together many years ago.
Q: Any more releases? Any "official" releases?

A: I've been "releasing" stuff, mostly cassette and CDR albums, since 1989. I released a 7" single called "I Shot The Invisible Man" in 2006. To see the discography go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/velveetaheartbreak
Q: Since when does this band/project exist/are you into music?

A: Been playing in bands since the late '70s, doing my own albums since 1989.

Q: Any previous bands worth mentioning?

A: I played drums for The Brian Wilson Shock Treatment from 2004 to 2006, it was an amazing experience.

Q: How'd you "label" your music?

A: Experimental Lofi Pop-Rock

Q: Influences?

A: The usual - later Beatles, '70s King Crimson, Eno's first 4 solo albums, Guided By Voices, first Pink Floyd album, the first couple Residents albums, Hendrix, Matching Mole, Hatfield and the North, anything proggy/psychedelic/interesting/catchy

Q: Website, myspace?
A: 
http://www.gallerymjb.com is the main portal, there are links from there to the rest of my Internet splatter

Q: Anything that you think is interesting, that you'd like to inform the blog readers about...

A: When I was making "Psychic Borderland", I was really trying to create a deeper, more involved psychedelic concept album than anything I'd done before. It was really supposed to be a complete listening experience, not just a collection of tracks. I wanted that dreamy, psychedlic feeling when you turn the lights out and put the headphones on and go inside the album for 40 minutes or whatever. Not sure I pulled it off but that was the goal!

Most of the songs on "Psychic Borderland" could be described as experimental or psychedelic pop music except for the last track, the appropriately titled "Passage" that also starts as a low-key pop song, but soon evolves into a psychedelic space drone delirium... Quite an introspective album with a rather dreamlike atmosphere.

Favourite song: Far Out (on the Inside) and – of course – Passage

You should really check out Michael's blog:

Here you will find more info about "Psychic Borderland" and his other musical projects including VELVEETA HEARTBREAK (to be posted soon) as well as some reviews and a link to Michael's excellent drawings and paintings – most of them could definitely be called "psychedelic".

"Holy Shit"

IF YOU LIKE WHAT YOU HEAR AND SEE, PLEASE SUPPORT THE ARTIST. YOU MAY PURCHASE THE CD VERSION OF PSYCHIC BORDERLAND OR SOME OF MICHAEL'S ART VIA PAYPAL (look at his blog for more information)!

MICHAEL J. BOWMAN - Psychic Borderland (2009)
(mp3-zip, 8 tracks, 51 min, 69,6 Mb)
Get it here or here or here!

Michael gave me his ok to feature some of his excellent art, and so here we go!

"Spirit Surge"

"Miasma"

"Miasma - detail"

"Psychic Borderland B"
((c) all artwork Michael J. Bowman)