The Mind Flowers / The Roaring 4-20s "Down The Line / Blue Jay"

Reviewed by Nathan Ford

Here's an excellent split 7" on Levitation Records that is well worth the seven minutes it demands of your time and will have you paying repeat visits with alarming regularity.

On the a-side we have the second single (but first on vinyl) for newish Copenhagen trio The Mind Flowers. Instant points awarded for borrowing the title of my favourite Ultimate Spinach track for their moniker and plenty more points coming their way for the track itself. "Down The Line" is a great slice of retro garage with some nice, versatile guitarwork from frontman Emil Bureau that keeps a nice clean tone with plenty of reverb, and some nice Hendrixy flourishes. It's nice and sparse too, with the lead breaks neatly carried along by an inventive rhythm section that leaves the guitar upfront, without leaving it too naked. The lyrics deal with the fairly timeless concept of conservative oppression that's greeted longhair music since day one, and as such they feel like they were plucked right out of the late sixties / early seventies, raising a middle finger to the "get a haircut and get a real job" generation who alarmingly enough were probably all smelly hippies when this attitude was first being knocked about.

The b-side is less likely to inspire debate, leaving social commentary at the door in favour of a simplistic and rather enjoyable slice of garage / surf from Dresden's Roaring 420s. Lifted from last year's enjoyable debut E.P, "Blue Jay" features more clean jangly guitar work that makes it a good match for its a-side, but sets its sights a few years earlier in terms of reference points. There's plenty of distinctive vintage organwork making this sound like more of a period piece than "Down The Line" - think the Allah La's and you're partway there.

Good stuff, available directly from either band via the links below:

Free Download Roundup (May)

As the last of these mini-features of free downloads from around the net was so popular I thought I'd let it make a semi-regular appearance on the blog, hopefully monthly if I'm exposed to enough worthy releases to make publishing that often worthwhile.

First up this month we have "She Wants To Be Flowers, But You Make Her Owls" by the Owl Service. The Owl Service are one of our favourite folk-rock collectives here at the Active Listener, and this free (or name your price) 17 track download is basically a best of which acts as a perfect starting point for those still to discover them. They have a huge back catalogue which is available as a data DVD through the same link.



Next we have Gilligan Smiles, a Melbourne based psychedelic rock group that I know almost nothing about. Their new album "Fi​.​Fy​.​Fo​.​Funk" is available as a free/name your price Bandcamp download and has a nice range of well handled material that ranges from Tame Impala-esque jams to the moody "Flow" which sounds like Ride at their most melancholy and is quite lovely. Get it here and show them some support:



Also well worth a bit of your time is Swiss artist Luca Pollioni who has just released his debut E.P as Borderline Symphony. The sleeve art looks like something you'd find on a classic European library or prog rock album and the contents of this release hearken back to that time of invention, trims back the excess a little and lays on a fresh, contemporary sound that embraces vintage psychedelia but never attempts to replicate it. Extremely impressive for a debut, and highly recommended. You can get it below for a name your price or free download. It's worth paying for if you can afford it though.



Last up is more of a reminder. Violet Swells have released possibly the best psychedelic single of the year so far with "Jupiters Garden", and it's free. Nuts. I waxed lyrical about it here, but the simple truth of the matter is that if you like Jacco Gardner and classic baroque pop you simply must download it. There's a limited 7" pressing of it on the way soon too, and lucky us, we're just about to release the follow up single through Active Listener Records (which you can preorder here).
"Jupiters Garden" can be had for free here, although paying a little would help fund future projects.

Withered Hand "New Gods"

Reviewed by Jason Simpson (Forestpunk)

"New Gods" exists at a T-way intersection of first wave, roots-inflected classic rock and the next wave of roots-influenced indie music. It's like a spectral ballroom, with Shakey lazily strumming, the Boss on lead vocals; John & Paul provide some harmonies. James Mercer sits in; Julian Casablanca drops by, strikes a pose. The ghost of Gram Parsons is spotted in the catwalks, and Conor Oberst gives chase.

Yes, you have heard something like "New Gods" before. Vitriol has rained down like napalm upon modern musicians, saying there's nothing new to be said. That as a generation, we are doomed to endlessly recycle and rehash. That we'll never be as good as their generation.

This idea raises some interesting thoughts on music history, about the role that music plays in society, and the myth of progress. There seems to be a thought that music is only valid if it's completely original, emerging from the VOID. That it's not valid to be in love with your record collection. All of this suggests music as a commodity, to be hawked out of the back of a truck. Gotta have the newest, flashiest thing!

This idea is relatively new in human history. Classically, it was more important to master a craft than to take credit. Master potters and rug weavers wouldn't even sign their work.

If you're a musician, you will grab whatever you can get your fingers into, whether that's the sound of a babbling brook or your Dad's record collection. Ultimately, as a generation, we've got to contend with our influences.

Withered Hand is basically wrestling with the same problem as every musician ever; how to organize notes, chords, rhythms, instruments, words and voice, to express themselves. And yes, Withered Hand does sound like other things. There are moments, listening to New Gods, when I was reminded of The Strokes, Death Cab For Cutie, The Shins, Sufjan Stevens, Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, even Mount Eerie. "Love Over Desire" is a dead-ringer for country- era Bright Eyes, before seamlessly sliding into The Beatles, which then becomes Led Zeppelin. This seems to be done knowingly, as nearly half of the songs on this record have explicit quotes from classic songs, the "Love Love Love" medley in "Love Over Desire", "The Gilded Palace Of Sin" lyric from "King Of Hollywood", a reference to The Flying Burrito Brothers, "White Light/White Heat," from the song "California," to the Velvet Underground, played with Neil Young's lazy junkie strum.

Dan Willson is clearly in love with his father's record collection. And while the most recent generation of classic music lovers choose to bury their adoration in layers of noise, hiss, grit and reverb - whether that's the gooey-cassette disco of Arial Pink or My Morning Jacket's elegant, elegiac southern rock, or The Jesus And Mary Chain's burned ephedrine greaser snarl, Withered Hand has played it straight and clean, lushly layering acoustic + electric guitars, mandolins, organs and gorgeous background vocals to make a truly classic record.

I have heard it said that collage is the most honest form of 20th century art. Dan Willson is clearly a master collagist, moving and re-arranging ephemera and bric- a-brac to make something wholly unique and personal.

Like any master of form, the true heart lies in the embellishments. A work of art may be inspired by another, but it is always its own thing, inhabiting its own world. The nuances really shine through in the lyrics on "New Gods", with love songs to his guitar ("Love Over Desire"), junkie lamentations ("California", "Life Of Doubt"), tarot cards and paradigm shifts; New Gods and faded beauty queens.

When you peel back the layers, and "New Gods" exists in its own universe, is when there's that sky-cracking moment, when your heart bursts like a newborn phoenix, like a setting sun, like the moment when Willson's voice cracks like a rusted hinge on "Life Of Doubt", or when the crystalline choir emerges on "New Gods". For the Angel is in the details, and you've never set foot in THIS river before.

Almost every song on New Gods is in a different style, but mostly sticks to a laid- back country groove, except for the choppy piano charge of "Heart Heart", which is the only song I'll forgive shoutalong gang vocals, as I love the rest of the record. For lovers of roots-infused classic rock, new and old, all hail the new thing!

Available on vinyl, or CD.

Kikagaku Moyo "Forest of Lost Children"

Reviewed by Nathan Ford

Plenty of great stuff has happened for Japanese psychedelic sorcerers Kikagaku Moyo (that's Geometric Patterns) since I reviewed their amazing debut less than a year ago. That debut was picked up for a vinyl release that sold out before the wax could even cool (this reviewer even missed out on a copy, sigh....), and they toured near and far, making friends and fans wherever they went, including conquering this year's Austin Psych Fest by all accounts.

Somehow they also found the time to release "Mammatus Clouds" - a longer, more exploratory digital and cassette only release that (notice a trend here) disappeared before wallets could be extracted from pockets (but fear not, Captcha Records & Cardinal Fuzz will be issuing a vinyl version of that in the coming months).

Most exciting of all though was the news that Beyond Beyond is Beyond (a label with the uncanny ability to consistently release exactly what I want time and time again) had them signed for another new album, and no procrastinating this time, my pre-order was in minutes after discovering its impending existence. A month later and it's rotating on my turntable and I couldn't be happier.

"Forest of Lost Children" showcases Kikagaku Moyo's impressive and rapid evolution effortlessly, with a good old fashioned album's album that fits together seamlessly as their definitive recorded statement so far, and makes me wish even more fervently that I'd had the chance to see them explore this stuff live at APF.

It's very much a head record, but it's much more laid back than the debut with the dreamy sitar and vocal interplay of "White Moon" lulling and soothing in a particularly tranquil, therapeutic manner, while opener "Semicircle" lopes along nicely with an off the cuff charm that makes it sound like a round the campfire improv.

Sandwiched between these moments of loveliness are a succession of jams that reach far beyond the normal sphere of influences with rhythms whose roots lie in African and South American music mingling effortlessly with those of their own ancestry and lingering traces of seventies Can.

It's an extremely intelligent album, but it's music for the entire body, not just for the head. It's got heart, it's got grooves that are unescapably infectious, and it's got the sort of soul that you just can't fake, and that made this listener feel like a much more spiritual being than I realised I was.

Vinyl, CD, digital and streams can be all be had here:

P.J Philipson "Peaks"

Reviewed by Nathan Ford

Little Red Rabbits outsider label Little Crackd Rabbit have come up with a winner here in the shape of guitarist P.J Philipson's "Peaks". You'll possibly be familiar with Philipson's work in Starless and Bible Black or the Woodbine and Ivy Band. This is a very different creature to those outlets.

Little Crackd Rabbit's mission statement encompasses experimental, improvised and ambient works, and "Peaks" is all of those things and a whole lot more. Solo guitar pieces with heavy use of echo and delay, recorded entirely live in one evening in a church in Manchester, "Peaks" is an emotive creature full of unexpected twists and turns, accomplished with subtlety and nuance where others would likely rely on bluster and bombast.

And it's no wonder with a list of influences that include Robert Fripp, Vini Reilly, Robin Guthrie, Michael Rother and Richard Skelton, that Philipson's own pieces display such deft awareness of how to combine melody and atmosphere, without relinquishing too much power to either force.

Again, I'm impressed with the way that Philipson holds himself back from the gimmickery that this set up invites, instead allowing the natural space and acoustics of the church to generate a gigantic sound that often walks a grey line between reverential, richly beautiful and compellingly sinister.

Check out the impressively controlled atmospherics of "Landings at Stanage Edge" below - it has as much in common with post rock practitioners like Mogwai, and particularly Jakob as it does with its more improvisational brethren. Its this implied structure that makes "Peaks" such an easy album to surrender to, as even in its most challenging moments there's a sense that it's working towards something greater, and it reaches those moments of greatness with more regularity than it has any right to.

Quite splendid.

Order directly from Little Crackd Rabbit here.

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart "Days of Abandon"

Reviewed by Elizabeth Klisiewicz

Fans of "Belong", don’t despair that the band’s lineup has changed. While the group has dialed down the shoegaze element, "Days of Abandon" (the title comes from Elena Ferrante’s celebrated 2002 novel) is dreamy and lush and filled with the best sort of pop music you’ll never hear on commercial radio. Maybe you could also call it chamber pop, due to the presence of horns and strings. At first listen, I was reminded most of The Smiths, and my opinion hasn’t changed on that. The stellar melodies and boy-girl vocal interactions also hints of early Stars ("Simple and Sure"). But those are only starting points to launch you into this rather lovely confection.

My favorite tune is predictably "Until the Sun Explodes", which sounds the most like their material on "Belong", but there is also the gorgeous "The Asp at My Chest", which rolls along gently with swells of organ and the grand addition of brass. You can drop the needle or skip forward anywhere, and you’ll be treated to blissful tunes swollen with melody and melancholy. Really, you can’t miss with anything here. With help from multi-instrumentalist Kelly Pratt on horn arrangements and Jen Goma from A Sunny Day in Glasgow on vocals ("Life After Life"), Kip Berman is well equipped to move forward musically.

Vinyl available here, CD here.

Active Listener Records May Releases

Here's the next two releases on Active Listener Records. Violet Swells' "Jupiters Garden" single kicked my ass when I reviewed it earlier on this year so I jumped at the opportunity to release the follow up E.P "The Soft Focus". Also out this month is the debut single from garage pop duo Doctor Nod. Their "Walkin The Dog" is extremely catchy and may well be my favourite single track on the label so far.

Investigate these new releases here, your support is hugely appreciated.

VIOLET SWELLS "THE SOFT FOCUS"
AL021
From: Tasmania, Australia
Style: Baroque Psychedelic Pop
Recommended if you like: Jacco Gardner, The Beach Boys, The Zombies

Read more / listen / buy here.

DOCTOR NOD "WALKIN' THE DOG" 
AL020
From: Fayetteville, AR, U.S.A
Style: Garage / Pop / Psych
Recommended if you like: T. Rex, White Fence, The Stooges, The Velvet Underground

Read more / listen / buy here.

Keith Cross & Peter Ross "Bored Civilians"

Reviewed by Nathan Ford

By 1972 guitarist Keith Cross had already developed a reputation as the next potential Clapton, a tag that while not quite as damaging as the next Dylan tag that was being applied liberally to almost anyone, invariably had the same effect of diluting the artist's own personality and creating an image that was near impossible to live up to. Cross, by this point had two excellent future collectibles under his belt in the shape of the Bulldog Breed's excellent modish psych-rock album "Made In England", followed closely by T2's "It'll All Work Out In Boomland", a heavy guitar based proto-prog album that really allowed his guitar playing to take flight.

So come 1972, there were two directions he could potentially take, and perhaps a little surprisingly he bypassed the more obvious full on progressive rock route, and joining forces with fellow singer guitarist Peter Ross who'd been working with Richard Thompson), they settled on a more rootsy, Americanized sound that leaned heavily on the then popular Laurel Canyon sound with a distinct West Coast tinge.

"Bored Civilians" is the result of this collaboration, and the last that either had to do with recorded music. It's easy to see how its lack of success would have left them disillusioned too - it's a very solid effort, and with guest appearances by Caravan's Jimmy Hastings, Brinsley Schwartz's Nick Lowe and Cochise's B.J Cole among a host of others, it certainly had the firepower that should have led to quite a bit of exposure if it had been promoted with any sense of urgency .

It's mostly acoustic based, but that doesn't mean that the flourishing progressive rock scene surrounding them isn't given a look in - while complex time signatures and endless solos aren't really the order of the day here, these are much more complicated, multi-faceted songs than you would find on the works of their contemporaries. Lengthy stand out track "Story to a Friend" even has a middle section that sounds a lot like Pink Floyd's "Any Colour You Like" would have sounded if they'd recorded it for "Wish You Were Here", with Hastings' flute work a dead ringer for Richard Wright's synthesizer tones on that later album - interesting as this pre-dates the release of both of these Floyd works (although Floyd were gigging "Dark Side" material around this time).

Of the two, Ross has a voice that sounds less like a product of its time, with Cross's voice a mixture of Mike Patto and eco-warrior / protest era McCartney (think "Wild Life"),  often straying into an earnestness that collectors of the era will find easy to forgive, but which may prove harder to swallow for more contemporary listeners. This is a real pity as these are generally top notch songs that could perhaps do with a little more variety in terms of tempo, but are otherwise representative of the topper echelon of their era.  Opener "The Last Ocean Rider" is a lively opener with a fabulous second half that gives Cross the opportunity to spar impressively with BJ Cole's pedal steel. Their take on Fotheringay's "Peace In The End" is a sprightly, pastoral reinvention that could have provided the hit that this album really needed to take off (Ross's "The Dead Salute" could have provided a similar breakthrough), but perhaps most impressive (bar the gorgeous progginess of "Story to a Friend") is the ornate orchestration that closes the album on "Fly Home" a gorgeous and stately closer that hammers home the musical ambition that this duo display in droves here.

Esoteric have met their normal standards of excellence with this new remaster which includes two b-sides as bonus tracks.

Available on CD here.

Melodien "Participation Mystique"

Reviewed by Nathan Ford

Chances are Liverpool is not the first place you'd think to look for the next great Krautrock hope, but if you were to go to the trouble that's where you'd find Harry Sumnall. And that's where Dom from the Great Pop Supplement found him for this debut full length on his esoteric Deep Distance offshoot label.

While Sumnall has been tinkering for a while (his Bandcamp page contains the fruits of those tinkerings), "Participation Mystique" is certainly the most impressive thing he's come up with so far.
Krauty instrumental rock with layers of great sounding vintage keyboards wooshing by in all directions as if someone from the seventies had been asked to interpret the concept of space travel as a sound experiment.

And while I have just implied that this is laced through with all manner of vintageness, it also has a foot firmly planted in more contemporary climes, making this an easy and extremely enjoyable listen for those who are yet to acclimatise to Krautrock.

Opener "2-CT-TC-7" is the most immediate track here and an instant drawcard with its "Sympathy For The Devil" shuffle soon being appropriated by a funky bassline and some wonderful eighties BBC synth sounds. 

The rest of the album is a little slower to reveal its secrets, but there are plenty of them and continued exposure to this wee gem is dangerously addictive. You've been warned.

I've been told that vinyl copies of this are sold out almost everywhere so get in quick here if you want one.

Otherwise, digital download or stream available here:

The X-Ray Harpoons "Get Attuned To Our Tyme"

Reviewed by Nathan Ford

Cologne based garage punk merchants the X-Ray Harpoons follow up two strong singles with their first full length platter for copaseDisques, and it's a belter in the grand old tradition of the Music Machine, with lashings of fuzz guitar and heaps of melodic vintage organwork.

There's plenty on here to suggest that they could have held their own convincingly against any of the genre's kingpins with the first three tracks having the requisite muscle and attitude that a good piece of garage punk needs for its backbone. And while these three tracks alone warrant your attention, it's what comes after that makes these guys really special. The original sixties garage bands as a rule had the gritty, punky numbers down pat, I'll assume we're agreed on that. What let a number of these groups down in my opinion was that when the throttle was eased back for something with a little less beat, they generally didn't have the subtlety or the chops to not end up sounding like a bunch of wimps. Bearing this in mind "City of Light" is a bit of a revelation - mellotron and organ ducking and weaving together effortlessly, acoustic guitars (the antithesis of garage punk), and heavily treated psychedelic vocals that bring this more in line with the Doors or the Beatles than the Seeds. While this may sound like a huge departure from the sound of the preceding tracks (and it is), it still has their stamp of identity all over it, and from here on in the album ebbs and flows wonderfully, with plenty of surprises that never get away from them.

There's a couple of covers too, but the originals are so strong on here that they almost feel like an afterthought. The 8 track reel to reel recordings sound really great too, with none of that modern studio tarnish, but heaps of punch and presence all the same. You're gonna really enjoy this one.

Vinyl album available here.

Stream below: