The Vertigo Swirl - Baited Breath (USA 2009) Video

 Have  a look at this fan made video from the S/T album. (2009)

Manik Myk Thompson - Manik Digressions (USA 1991-1995) RE-UP

WOW!!! 

It's recordings like this, why I love running this blog and why I think it's worth it after all, worth all the work I put into it and time I spend on it... Because – this is what it's all about: HOMEMADE LO-FI PSYCHEDELIC ROCK MUSIC!!!
Where else would one have the opportunity to find little psych jewels like Manik Digressions by MANIK MYK THOMPSON, if not on HLFP, that is: unless you are so lucky to know that guy personally – as BRIAN ANDREW MAREK does, who compiled this brilliant song collection.

Here is a very talented guy, who just explodes with anarchic creativity and does exactly what he wants to do, records exactly the weirdness, the voices, the guitar storms and tape manupilations and whatever else – the way he likes it – lo-fi and rough and simply great...
I really love that stuff! Strongly recommended to every serious psych head!

"I heard "Manik" Myk Thompson before I met him. An ex-girlfriend of mine had a brief relationship with him shortly after ours, and it was through her that I got a copy of his 1994 cassette "Beyond Dysfunctional". His works were intriguing enough to overcome my natural aversion to an ex's new boyfriend, and I soon drafted him into my latest project, initiating an occasional working relationship and a friendship that continues to this day.

Myk also started to make me jealous in a way that has nothing to do with girls. Like me, he was making strange, funny, smart home four-track creations, but unlike me (and like another influential friend, Andrew "File 13/Full Dimensional" Aldrich), he had the drive and vision to compile entire cassettes of this material, package them and give them out to people. I just sat and hoarded mine, too unsatisfied and self-conscious to share, waiting for some undetermined day in the future when I could professionally record and release my music. For several years in the nineties, Thompson was releasing a new 60 minute album every year, and it is from these that this compilation derives.

While Myk is best known in the open mic night circle that he still haunts for laugh-out-loud folk songs of the political and observational stripe, I have intentionally eschewed this material in favor of his more esoteric efforts. Tape manipulation, samples, skewed poetry, cosmic humor and his always outrageous guitars come together to produce a sound world that is uniquely "Manik". There's even a few bona fide (if slightly left of center) songs.

Myk asked me to compile this, and I'm glad he did - it gave me the opportunity to pay tribute to the lesser known side of a talented friend. So sit back, relax and enjoy nearly eighty minutes of Mykadelia!"

(Brian Andrew Marek, who compiled this great song collection - Thanks a lot, BaM!!!)

Favourite tracks: there are many, but probably most of all: She's My Favorite Color, Crossroads, City, I Want You, Room 222, Pleasantly Confused ...

Enjoy! 

 

Manik Myk Thompson - Manik Digressions
(1991-1995)
(mp3-zip, 33 tracks, 79:53 min, 184,1 MB, artwork incl.)
Get it here! New Link 01-2022

Check out more of Manik Myk's music here:

 https://manikmykthompson.bandcamp.com/

Anyone's Dreamcolour - Acid Daze (GER., 1992) RE-POST by request

 

This is a true "psychedelic" recording in its literal sense. And probably the most "far out" musical work of the one-man-home-recording-project ANYONE'S DREAMCOLOUR. One improvised guitar track was recorded, while allegedly under the influence of some psychedelic substance, and later, over the next few weeks/months three more tracks were overdubbed with various guitars, voices, drums and other sounds – trying to resemble the different moods of a psychedelic experience. The result is – not surprising – an unnerving, often disturbing bizarre listening adventure. This for sure isn't straight rock music! Rather a kind of a rough soundscape, giving one the opportunity to witness an inner space travel. Some tracks, like for example Out of Time, are heavily disjointed, resembling quite effectively the affect of psychedelic substances.
Butterfly, which is sandwiched between the two parts of the long Acid Daze song, was recorded under similar conditions around the same time on another date. This time the rhythm guitar track was recorded live together with a drum track, more or less improvised, lyrics added later. 

No Difference was (in a more rock oriented version/arrangement) later played live by CLOUD NINE (and ORANGE) and also recorded. Butterfly also appeared for a short time in the ORANGE playlist.

Be warned! This recording is surely something of an acquired taste. But look at the name of this blog. Isn't that what it's all about? Different sounds for different people...
Should be listened to in the dark on headphones!

 Anyone's Dreamcolour - Acid Daze (1991/92)
(mp3-zip, 3 tracks, 35 min, 49,7 MB, art + lyrics incl.)
(Get it HERE!)

Anyone's Dreamcolour - It's So Cold Out Here In Space/FfM Bunker (1996/95) (GER.) RE-UP by request

ANYONE'S DREAMCOLOUR was the solo project of Mike S., bass player of CLOUD NINE (& THE VITAMIN C) (1983-1992), SISTER LUNA (1992/'93) and ORANGE (1993-'96). Lofi home recordings on 4 track exist from the years 1992 until 1999, all unreleased and only given away to friends.

 

The music of ANYONE'S DREAMCOLOUR in generell is less focused and more experimental than most of Mike's previous work with his former bands and heavily rooted in late 60s/early 70s Psychedelic Rock and experimental music. For example Girl in a Drop of water sounds somewhat like a crossing between COUNTRY JOE & THE FISH's Grace and the GRATEFUL DEAD's Rosemary, while Spacelab seems influenced by STEREOLAB and HAWKWIND.
Laughing Inside, written by P. Hergo, was a song by SISTER LUNA, that was never properly recorded; Girl in a Drop of Water was an old CLOUD NINE & THE VITAMIN C  song.
Electric Hippie Church is performed completely by Daniel P. Caesar, aka SUPER KING, Mike's band mate from ORANGE, and is based on the organ track of Eternal Hippies.
Enjoy! 

ANYONE'S DREAMCOLOUR - It's So Cold Out Here
    In Space (1996)/FfM Bunker (1995)

    1. Laughing Inside - 4.06
    2. Spacelab - 5.19
    3. Girl In A Drop Of Water - 4.25
    4. Eternal Hippies (feat. Super King) - 4.53
    5. Electric Hippie Church (performed by Super King) - 4.45
    (mp3 zip, 5 songs, 23.32 min,33,5 MB, covers incl.)
    (Get it HERE!)

Anyone's Dreamcolour - Opel Opera - Dadaistische Oper in 3 Akten (GER. 1994) REPOST

When I started this little blog here, one of the first posts was "Rosemarine", an excerpt from the LOFI- PSYCH-DADA-OPERA "OPEL OPERA - Dadaistische Oper in 3 Akten" by ANYONE'S DREAMCOLOUR, the homemade lofi psychedelic project of Mike S. (from ORANGE and earlier CLOUD NINE & THE VITAMIN C – two bands most of the regular blog readers here will probably know by now). Postings of "IT'S SO COLD OUT HERE IN SPACE" (1996) and "ACID DAZE" (1992) followed recently. Today it's time for ANYONE'S DREAMCOLOUR's third major work.

So now here it is: the complete thing in all its glorious lofi madness. What you get to hear (that is: if you dare) is a strange sound collage of various styles, ranging from spacy blues rock to hard rock snippets, experimental kraut psychedelia mixed with typewriter and radio noises, dog snarling and saxophone improvisations. There also is a theme ("Opel Opera Main Theme") that is repeated in different variations (reminding of ZAPPA's "Uncle Meat" concept), one time for example played as a pseudo reggae (Jamacian Opel") and another time in a mean grunge parody, DINOSAUR-JR.-style ("Dinosaur Opel").
This "Opera music" uses indeed all kind of different sounds, often in collage format, using every usable source imaginable. The lyrics are a mix of bad english, german and sheer dadaist nonsense. All songs were recorded in Mike's living room (see front cover!) on anaolog-4-track recorder in the time span of November 1992 'til June 1994.
A word about the Opera ... "concept": Go and sell back the painted Opel car ("Opel" is a well known car series built in Germany) to the factory and throw the keyboard player out of the band... (Well, make of that whatever you will...)
(In order to keep the flow of the music and to avoid unwelcome splits between tracks, I joined together some of the songfragments, when converting the audio tracks into mp3s.)

ANYONE'S DREAMCOLOUR - OPEL OPERA (Dadaistische Oper in 3 Akten) (1994)
(mp3 zip, 36 min, 16 tracks, art and lyrics incl.)
(Get it here!)

Cloud Nine & The Vitamin C (GER.): Rock im Depot - live 1988

On February 9th 1988 Cloud Nine & The Vitamin C had their 8th gig at the Lorscher Straßenbaudepot (Hessen, Germany). It was the second festival at this location, this time under the name ROCK IM DEPOT. The first two tracks are from an audience tape, the rest is soundboard.

Songs:

1. Black Queen, Part 1 (06:46) - 00:00
2. Black Queen, Part 2 (01:41) - 06:46
3. Brainstrom (05:59) - 08:28
4. Announcement (00:15) - 14:27
5. I’m Lost (05:24) - 14:42
6. Jack o’Lantern (10:08) - 20:06
7. Survivor (10:54) - 30:13
8. Introducing the Band (00:32) - 41:07
9. Car Car (03.50) - 41:40
Complete time: 45:29

Get the mp3-version here!

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063374821371 

https://cloud-nine-and-the-vitamin-c.blogspot.com/

 A new edit of Jack O'Lantern:

Since this blog was a victim of some bot activity using the name „Tyler“ who is trying to sell his dubious products here without my permission in the comments, I will have to moderate future comments. Stay safe - and a Happy New Year!

New book out about the FUZZTONES

There’s a new book out about the FUZZTONES published by Fanppro:
As Times Gone - 40 Years of Garage Grunge
The Lysergic Legacy of the Fuzztones
366 Pages, coloured
€ 39,80
ISBN: 978-3-946502-12-8

40 years of Garage Insanity. The detailed band history of the legendary band, from Harrisburg to New York City to Los Angeles and finally Berlin.
Leave your Mind at Home!

Neuer Titel bei Fanpro:
As Times Gone - 40 Years of Garage Grunge
The Lysergic Legacy of the Fuzztones

40 Jahre Garagenrock-Wahnsinn.
Eine detaillierte Bandgeschichte der legendären New Yorker und ihre Karriere um die halbe Welt, von Harrisburg (wohl ein bisschen Strahlung abbekommen, was?) über New York City, L. A. und schlussendlich Berlin.
Leave your Mind at Home!
Voluminöses Softcover, Querformat, 366 Seiten, vollfarbig,
in englischer Sprache.
€ 39,80
ISBN: 978-3-946502-12-8

The Imaginary Suitcase - The gods gave you victory today only to make your final defeat more bitter (Belgium 2021)

 

The singer-songwriter Laurent Leemans has a new album out under the name THE IMAGINARY SUITCASE, released on March 1, 2021.

"The Imaginary Suitcase is the one in which the Belgian singer-songwriter Laurent Leemans keeps his dead dreams, those that still barely breathe and the memories of his fantasized lives. Singer of the folk-rock combo Ceilí Moss from 1996 to 2015 and of the arty-new wave band La Vierge du Chancelier Rolin in the 90s, Laurent started solo in 2012, when the desire to bring songs Ceilí Moss leftovers to life became stronger than the fear of becoming the umpteenth fool with a 6-strings who whines his existentialism over two and a half chords.

Comparison isn't always right, but it still helps to know where we're going, so let's go: in search of the perfect balance between clear line melodies (like Suzanne Vega), lyricism (like Sophia) and rough and willingly uncomfortable sounds (à la 16 Horsepower), The Imaginary Suitcase offers melodies and soul (not always pure), for songs built around a dark, expressive and versatile voice, which knows how to caress as well as how to scratch, deceptively simple guitar chords (acoustic / electric) and burning or sarcastic (mainly EN and sometimes FR / NL) lyrics about life, death and the scary moments in between.

Since 2012, The Imaginary Suitcase has released a whopping 9 recordings and played around 500 concerts in Belgium, France and the Netherlands. The 10th album (“The gods gave you victory today only to make your final defeat more bitter”) will be released on March 1, 2021. It contains 14 songs of mourning, rage, shattered hopes and letting go. Don't expect romantic sunsets, rather something like 16 Horsepower meets Michel Gira at a Nick Cave concert (back in the days when Nick Cave wasn't boring). A perfect album for these times which forces us into introspection.

More than ever, to be continued… " (press info)

Some links to check his music out:

http://www.theimaginarysuitcase.be
http://www.facebook.com/theimaginarysuitcase
http://theimaginarysuitcase.bandcamp.com
https://soundcloud.com/the-imaginary-suitcase
http://www.reverbnation.com/theimaginarysuitcase
http://www.youtube.com/user/theimaginarysuitcase/playlists

Paneye - Lord of Circles (AUSTRALIA 2021)

 

 

PANEYE has a new album out. It's acoustic guitar-based psych and I like it very much.

You may have a listen and download it here: https://paneye.bandcamp.com/album/lord-of-circles-2021

Words, Music, Vocals by Will Treffry
Art by Will Treffry and Bonnie
Original photos by Bonnie and Will
Water sample on Track 5 by Bonnie
Jay Squire plays guitar with me on Track 14

All recorded on Duxford Street in Paddington, Wentworth Falls in the Blue Mountains and Ocean Street in Edgecliff, Sydney 2018-2020

released March 2, 2021

Link to blog post on Lord of Circles:
www.eyelidtemples.com/2021/03/lord-of-circles-by-paneye-2021.html