Hi Fiction Science "Curious Yellow"

Reviewed by Nathan Ford

Uncategorisable (but I'll give it a go anyway) Bristol band Hi Fiction Science have come a long way since I reviewed their debut back in 2012 (as hopefully have I - terrible review that one!)

In the meantime they've contributed to more Fruits de Mer Records projects, guitarist James McKeown has wowed me with his solo work ("English Dream" made number two on my albums of the year list for 2012), and now album number two for HFS is out on Cherry Red's progressive rock imprint Esoteric Recordings, mixed by Portishead associate Jim Barr.

And esoteric it is too. Like their first, it's an unusually effective amalgam of genres that, cross-blended in this fashion doesn't sound remotely like anyone I can think of - the closet comparisons that come to mind are Amon Duul II and Curved Air, but "Curious Yellow" is a much more contemporary sounding album than those names would suggest, also evoking the adventurous approach of post "O.K Computer" Radiohead.

With an inventive, Krautrock informed rhythm section creating a dynamic and varied bedrock for guitarist McKeown and keys player to Matt Rich to apply liberal layers of texture to, this would function perfectly well as an instrumental album, but it's the otherwordly vocals of Maria Charles that give "Curious Yellow" its distinctive edge. Charles has seemingly grown in confidence since the band's debut, and her vocals here are extremely powerful, with the sort of timbre you'd normally associate with the early seventies U.K folk-rock movement. Charles here does what even the likes of Sandy Denny couldn't manage when she tried later on in life though - integrating those distinctively Albion vocals with a more contemporary, genre-defying approach, particularly effective when given a mysterious eastern tinge on "Digitalis".

McKeown's guitars do inventive things throughout too - occasionally flashy, but at their cleverest when subtly manipulating textures and creating a psychedelic brew with Rich's lush keyboard washes, or providing an unusual rhythmic counterpoint to Aidan Searle's dexterous drums.

In the grand tradition of classic progressive rock - which I guess "Curious Yellow" fits into just about as well as any other genre - it's an album that feels like it's supposed to be experienced as a complete package, with a flow and progression from track to track that's rarely valued or achieved these days and which makes the idea of highlighting specific tracks redundant.

You won't hear another album this year that sounds like "Curious Yellow", but you'll hear many from bands who are struggling to capture the diverse spirit that Hi Fiction Science have trapped with apparent ease here.

"Curious Yellow" is available here.

The preview below will give you an idea of what to expect, but be warned, listening to the album in full is required to really connect with it, and will increase your enjoyment of it exponentially.

The Soundcarriers "Entropicalia"

Reviewed by Nathan Ford

In a move that sees them stepping in a slightly different, but complimentary direction, the bastion of English Hauntology, Ghost Box have released the Soundcarriers third album "Entropicalia"(fourth if you include the instrumental precursor to this album "The Other World Of the Soundcarriers").

When the Soundcarriers first burst upon the scene a lot was made of perceived similarities to Broadcast - a band that many critics (myself included) are always looking for indirect descendents of, but as the Soundcarriers have refined their unique blend of motorik rhythms, quintessential Englishness, sixties cinema, sunny Tropicalia and vintage Gallic pop, they've shrugged off the limitations of comparisons and ended up in a very odd field, with very little in the way of peers, but plenty of admirers.

Unusually for an album that follows on from an instrumental statement as strong as "The Other World of.." undoubtedly was, "Entropicalia" may well be the Soundcarriers most vocally dependent album yet. Which is not to say that the vintage cinema grooves and Canterbury influenced prog/psych of previous albums are absent or even diminished, but that the material on "Entropicalia" showcases songwriting chops every bit as sharp as their already acknowledged instrumental virtuosity and attention to vintage detail. Simply put these songs function just as well on a left-field pop front as they do as instrumental jams, with tracks like "Low Light" and "The Outsider" driven as much by the glorious sunshine harmonies of Leonore Wheatley and co. as they are by the inventive, often krauty rhythm section.

There's guest appearances by Jesse Chandler of Midlake and Elijah Wood for trainspotters, but it's the core group of Adam Cann, Paul Isherwood, Dorian Conway and particularly Wheatley that really gel and spark here, forging an album that works on so many different levels - we've already heard the majority of this as a storming instrumental set, but one gets the impression that the songs on "Entropicalia" could be just as easily stripped back to vocals and the barest of accompaniments and succeed just as readily.

Pretty great, and certainly their best offering so far.

Entropicalia is available on vinyl here, CD here, and digitally here.

Dr Cosmo's Tape Lab "Ever Evolving Lounge"

Reviewed by Nathan Ford

If it wasn’t for Todd Rundgren trying to dance like a granddad to bad techno music, none of this would have happened.
For Joe Kane (The Owsley Sunshine, Them Beatles) and Stu Kidd (BMX Bandits, Wellgreen), that fateful night turned from despondency to dreaming as they left the ABC early to drown sorrow in cider and concoct a musical utopia that Todd Rundgren should really be dancing to.

And why not? "Ever Evolving Lounge" is the first album length ripening of the fruits of that night (although I was just about to write an early review of a completely different and bonkers album from this duo ("Beyond The Silver Sea"), when I got word that it had been scrapped in favour of this one.)

Fear not though, "Ever Evolving Lounge" is bonkers too, different bonkers to "...Silver Sea", but bonkers nonetheless, and probably even more eclectic. In fact there are moments here where the diversity on show captures the easy cross-genre pollination that the younger Todd Rundgren used to so effortlessly master, but then, it's a young person's game innit?

From infectious mod-soul ("A Sting In The Tale") complete with kazoo mock-bees, to mad as electro-pop "(Adopt a Rabbit), through vintage Kinksian pop ("Animal Man"), studio-tinkered psychedelia ("The Secret of the Tibetan Grapefruit Is...?" downloadable for free on last month's sampler), via a memorable instrumental, frothing over with mad sequencers, and with "Trading Time" a poignant and subtle, mellotron-soaked piece of loveliness that sounds like mid period Wings re-scoring John Barry's "Midnight Cowboy."
Temper this with plenty of nice Beatlesque melodic touches and you've got a ridiculously hyperactive album that will more than likely take a few listens to get your head around, but will have lodged itself firmly in place by the end of those few listens.

Soooo good, and the pre-album single "Pin The Tail" / "Girl in Winter" is well worth your time too.

Fully streamable here, with downloads and CDs available from June 30:

Music From The Motion Picture "The Goatman" Performed by the Unseen

Reviewed by Grey Malkin (The Hare & The Moon)

The soundtrack to long lost and almost forgotten 1970’s cult horror ‘The Goatman’ finally sees the dark light of day after several decades lying cobwebbed in the crypt. Ostensibly a movie about a young couple who on moving to a seemingly idyllic Somerset cottage encounter the terrifying and fatal vision of The Goatman, it has become over the years a folk horror film legend. Any attempts to find an original print of the film have failed, sadly leaving The Goatman as a word of mouth cult classic. This has only been made more so by director Simon Grundig meeting an untimely and mysterious demise, apparently in circumstances too horrific to recount.

However, many years later a chance meeting between two young horror aficionados, the unnamed author of the Unseen Horror blog (www.unseenhorror.wordpress.com) and one Septic Boaby, led to an afternoon of hazy reminiscing and recollection of seeing Goatman in their youth. This then led the intrepid pair to search for and discover the long thought lost Goatman original soundtrack as performed by The Unseen; a duo consisting of Simon Magus and Harold Legg. Both Magus and Legg are credited on the sleeve with ‘electronics’ and their work certainly falls into the category inhabited by horror soundtrack luminaries such as John Carpenter, Goblin and Acanthus, particularly their music for Jean Rollin’s celluloid chillers such as ‘Les Frisson Des Vampires’. There are also echoes of Orville Stoeber’s masterful accompaniment to ‘Let’s Scare Jessica to Death’. Opening track ‘Eerie Meadow’ recalls Carpenter’s music for ‘The Fog’ in its sinister, synthesised glacial minor key brilliance. This is genuinely chilling and expertly draws the listener in to a landscape that is apparently normal and sedate yet is chock full of hidden, unknown and unspeakable goat-like terrors. The track ends with an alarming reverberating drone that leads us directly into the echoed glockenspiel of ‘Newlywed Arrival’, as protagonists Frank and Susan disembark at their (supposedly) tranquil Somerset holiday home. A single repeated piano note alerts us however to the caprine capers and darkness that lies within. ‘Footsteps outside the Cottage’ adds suitable tension and the sound of said footsteps (or hoof steps?), inhuman breathing and the screeching of crows mixes with a disturbing electronic shimmer. ‘Susan’s Dream’ wavers in and out of psychedelic eeriness; a single ritual drum beat echoing again and again against some acid folk style flute and reversed tape loop as her dream unfolds.

A description of the lost footage describes this sequence thus;

Susan is wandering through a meadow, and she hears a young girl singing; the sound is strange, reversed, the feeling becoming weird and dreamy, hallucinogenic. She sees the little girl sitting in the long grass, and as she approaches her, the girl turns around. But it is actually a really small old lady with coal-black eyes and great big long bony fingers. She reaches out to grab Susan, who runs away. The sequence is filmed in grainy, old-school slow motion, and the sound of a heartbeat only adds to the creeping terror. The thing is gaining on her, grabbing at her, and tearing at her clothes. Susan makes it into the woods and just as she thinks she might be safe, she becomes aware of being surrounded by malevolent entities, whispering all around her. She awakens screaming…

‘Melancholy Glade’ adds synthesized strings to the increasingly oppressive atmospherics before ‘Séance in the Farmhouse’ takes us further into creeping analogue dread. Mention must be made of the superb electronica that is featured on this album. Fans of Pye Audio Corner and Ghost Box’s roster of Belbury Poly and The Advisory Circle will find much to enjoy here. The majority of the soundtrack was reportedly recorded on electric harpsichord, vibraphone, vcs3 and Mellotron Mk11 and as such contains the sweeping icy beauty so redolent of bands of the era such as King Crimson and The Moody Blues. Other instruments appear as required, adding to the palette of the soundtrack; indeed ‘Passion in the Woods’ introduces Hammond organ and a rather funky guitar line to adorn one of the more fruity sequences in the film. ‘Shadows at Hunter’s Lodge’ is more akin to the BBC Radiophonic Workshop as crackles, electronic swirls and bleeps and bells flange around the speakers like a suitably demented Quatermass or Dr Who soundtrack, before stately guitar sounds and drums enter to proclaim the hircine terror within. ‘Surreal Rural Sequence’( in which Frank dreams of being chased by Susan with what appears to be the head of a goat) adds sinister backwards children’s voices; these lend a chilling hue to the otherwise tranquil birdsong until glistening electronic chimes reverb throughout to disquieting effect. The additional sound of a heartbeat only adds to the nightmarish atmosphere conjured by Magus and Legg (an unlikely looking pair going by the website, Legg himself bearing an uncanny resemblance to comic warlock Alan Moore). ‘Strange Sex’ is, belying its descriptive title, a rather beautiful orchestral mellotron and flute epic and, to this listener, one of the high points of this demented and underrated opus. ‘Betrayal’s choral voices are deeply disturbing; do not listen to this in the dark, actually on second thoughts do – it is the perfect ambience in which to enjoy the delights of ‘The Goatman’. Arcane drones evoke a cavernous lair in which the anthromorphic beastie himself dwells. ‘The Goatman and his Maidens’, as well as being the best title for a song I’ve heard in a long while, is a tremendous scream of static, white noise, radio (and animal) howl. Nigel Kneale would have commissioned these chaps for any of his Quatermass or TV chillers had they not been so unknown and, well, unseen. A crescendo builds in the madness until the end title ‘Lullabies’ closes the album, its bass led harpsichord and echoed vocals a song the likes of which Jeff Wayne would have killed to write.

Who knows if the discovery of this music will lead to a print of The Goatman movie being unearthed? By all accounts it is a terrifying and unusual film in the vein of The Wicker Man, Blood on Satan’s Claw and other British classics of the era. So much mystery and misinformation exist around the existence of the film and its troubled making that it is already a cult classic without having been seen in decades, instead only half remembered from late night TV viewings.

As a soundtrack this is essential; it ably sits amongst the revered soundtracks of other 70s cult horror films that you should already have on your shelf by the likes of Paul Giovanni, Luboš Fišer and Marc Wilkinson. It was clearly a labour of love and is hugely enjoyable on its own as a piece of music. Reverb Worship have kindly made this lost classic available again in a limited edition, the sleeve beautifully replicating the original movie poster. Enter the world of The Goatman; you will be both terrified and pleased that you did. No kidding.

Available on CD from www.reverbworship.com

Galileo 7 "False Memory Lane"

Reviewed by Nathan Ford

Those of you with long memories may remember that I really enjoyed the last album by The Galileo 7, and guess what? There's a new Galileo 7 album out, and I'm loving this one too. Happy days!

The Galileo 7 is of course the songwriting outlet for the venerable Allan Crockford. Most well known previously as bass player in the Prisoners and the James Taylor Quartet, Crockford has his his fingers in many other Medway pies to the point where he's become a bit of a legend down that way.

All of which goes a long way towards explaining just why "False Memory Lane" is such a fine brew. None of this bandwagon jumping that you see going on with a lot of the major label slightlydelic artists of today, Crockford is the real deal and the Galileo 7 has an honesty and directness that can't be fudged. "False Memory Lane" continues on nicely from "Staring at the Sound" with a perhaps slightly rebalanced ratio of vintage sounding power pop to psychedelia that gives this a more contemporary edge than its predecessor.
Crockford's songs, and the conviction of his performances are the key elements here though - these aren't the tentative doodlings of a sideman, but the confident outpourings of a born frontman who has had the grace and humility to allow others their time in the limelight before claiming his own moment or two. Top band too, with the Higher State's Mole on bass and great vintage organwork from Viv Bonsel providing able support.

Highlights then? Well initial spins would lead you to believe that this is a frontloaded album with "Your Cover is Blown" and "You're Not Dreaming" providing immediate fixes early on, but subsequent plays reveal the moody baroque pop of side two's  "Fools" to be a prime candidate for most substantial cut here.

And I won't pretend I understand what's going on with that nifty cover art, but I'm pretty sure that's the same field as on the cover of "The Other World of the Soundcarriers", perhaps the most psychedelic field in England?

Available on vinyl, digital, and CD.

Tor Peders "Brev Fran Ederstorp"

Reviewed by Nathan Ford

We've got Fruits de Mer head honcho Keith Jones' persistence and dedication to thank for even having the opportunity to hear this great release from now sadly defunct Swedish proggers Tor Peders.

Self recorded back in 2011 in their rehearsal space, Tor Peders guitarist (and driving force) Jonas was part way through negotiating with Keith Jones for a Fruits de Mer release of "Brev Fran Ederstorp" when he was hit by a car and taken from us. With Jones' only contact within the band gone, the album release was reluctantly shelved, and it was only when Jones noticed drummer Johan's name on another project that he was able to reconnect with the band and negotiate its eventual release.

Keith's enthusiasm for the album is easy to understand, and traceable to his roots as a record collector. In his words, "Brev Fran Ederstorp" reminded him of "the best instrumental parts from my Vertigo / RCA Neon / Charisma record collection from the early seventies, with all the embarrassing bits left out", and while Tor Peders often have a much more European sound than that comparison may suggest, the vintage sound implications and quality level inferred are both without peer among modern recordings.

Jonas's guitar takes centre stage as a muscular presence, equally at home with Hendrix influenced guitar heroics or the occasional surf guitar run, but the exquisite organ work is arguably more responsible for supplying the authentic early seventies vibe, although the simple, live in studio production style helps maintain this illusion as well.

An excellent cover of George Martin's "Theme One" rubs shoulders with a number of band originals that easily match it in quality with the spiraling guitar riff of "Smafaglars varn" and the atmospheric space-rock of "Incident vid Domsted" being the most memorable of a superb bunch that goes to show that just occasionally, they do make them like they used to.

Also included is a bonus 7" single containing two tracks recorded in the band's last session (after the album was recorded", which show further growth, especially the majestic, "Nights in White Satin" evoking "Signed TP".

A sad loss to be sure, but we're blessed to have this remarkable aural document to remember the man by.

Also released by Fruits de Mer Records this month: "I Have Known Love" a brand new 7" e.p from classic Irish psych folkers Tir Na Nog, "Wind on the Water" an excellent new LP from Astralasia showcasing their adventurous progressive Kraut side, with a minimum of the electronic music that often creeps into their work, and "Sonar" by Craig Padilla, a great collection of solo synth pieces that will make fans of late seventies Tangerine Dream very, very happy indeed.

All of these titles are available here directly from Fruits de Mer Records for UK readers. International readers are directed here, to the always excellent Norman Records, who ship internationally for an extremely reasonable price.

"The Dark Haze E.P"

Reviewed by Nathan Ford

Brazilian Pedro Alves began tinkering with the idea of The Dark Haze in 2013. With his work as a video editor and motion designer giving him a unique perspective on the cinematic qualities needed to evoke a sense of activity, coupled with his experiences of scoring his own projects in college, all of the pieces were in place to ensure that the Dark Haze was going to be something special, and not your standard, tentative debut.

Conceived as a tribute to the likes of Goblin, Fabio Frizzi and particularly, John Carpenter and Allan Howarth, Alves created a backstory for this non-existent movie that really helps to sell the action that's happening on the screen in his head, and gives him a focus that other 'soundtracks for imaginary films' often lack.

In Alves' story a group of astronauts arrive on a distant planet and discover the remains of a well-structured, religious alien community. Their subsequent exploration of the planet soon reveals that the haze that decimated this particular civilisation hasn't gone anywhere, and that the arrival of the astronauts has awoken it from its hibernation - a sci-fi cliche, Alves is quick to admit, but one that is ripe for moody musical exploitation.

A sense of dread and impending doom is manifested almost immediately but Alves trumps many of his like-minded contemporaries by never imposing atmosphere at the expense of melody, as demonstrated by the memorable and naggingly familiar refrain of "Arrival", which builds up to a fever pitch with an eminently hummable tune in tow.

The rest is just as memorable, with grand finale "The Temple" boasting the sort of creepy minor key melody that sounds custom designed to be performed on some sort of makeshift ribcage-as-xylophone apparatus. Fans of VHS era sci-fi and horror will be right in their element here. Definitely sleeping with the lights on material. Highly recommended.

Available as a 'name your price' download here:

Free Download Roundup - Guruguru Brain Wash / Savage Sister / Torpa / Prana Crafter

Here's another batch of great free stuff courtesy of the artists and labels involved.

Various Artists "Guruguru Brain Wash"
Put together by Japanese psychedelic label Guruguru Brain, this extremely generous 21 track sampler is a fresh and vibrant snapshot of the current Japanese psychedelic scene, which shows that the children of the Acid Mother's Temple are every bit as adventurous as their forefathers.
I'm not usually one to make sweeping statements to describe an entire nation's approach to making music, but on the whole "Guruguru Brain Wash" shows the current Japanese scene as one that doesn't rely on effects and studio trickery to give their music a lysergic edge, when explorative jamming, relentless riffing and occasionally intimidating wig-outs will do the job even better.
Active Listener favourites Kikagaku Moyo are present and accounted for of course, but there's plenty more gold to be discovered here, particularly Deigen's "Cosmic Upside Down" and Icecreams' "Tachikurami (Dizzy)" which clocks in at over ten minutes (as a number of tracks do here), and could quite easily double its length before I started to lose interest.
Mind expanding and rather grand.
Available as a free download here:



Savage Sister "Huge Moves"
"Huge Moves" is the new three track single from prolific Chicago based dream-pop trio Savage Sister, and from the moment the big Gil Norton / Pixies drums of the lead off track kick into life you know they've studied the production techniques of the masters. Big Cocteau Twins synth washes and drop-dead gorgeous, heavily reverbed vocals seal the deal, and the songs have hooks to match their ambitious production refererences. "Huge Moves" is a big, cavernous anthem of a track that will leave the vocals swimming around in your head for days, but its B-sides are equally seductive, and will be treasured by all who have ears to hear.
Available as a free / name your price download here:



Torpa "Dead Letter Drop / Spiral"
This intriguing U.K based electronic duo already have about a million releases out through their Bandcamp page which show a diverse approach to incorporating their electronic tendencies into everything from psychedelia, ambient, dub, shoegaze and more.
This recent release is the one that grabbed me and shook me the hardest though, a two track tribute to John Barry that bypasses the more obvious brassy Bond approach and heads for Barry's more intriguing and low key mid sixties work for inspiration. This is moody, slightly sinister stuff most closely aligned to Barry's work on "Seance on a Wet Afternoon" with the slightly more subtle spy twang of "The I.P.C.R.E.S.S File" sneaking in too.
Deserving of its own movie, or at least a short film for a video clip.
Available as a name your price download (starting at $0) here:



Prana Crafter "Mountain Throned" / "Forest at First Light"
An artist that we've covered before (and will continue to do so long as he releases stuff this good) is Will Sol, who records under the name of Prana Crafter.
"Mountain Throned" is an instrumental set that showcases his rustic, hazy, woodsy psychedelia at its best. Opener "Treasure in a Ruin" has the eerie resonance of Pink Floyd's "Signs of Life" without the eighties production values. Elsewhere Sol's guitar rumbles with the brooding intensity of "Dead Man" era Neil Young.
A newer, stand-alone single "Forest at First Light" introduces vocals for an affecting performance not unlike early Bon Iver or a less produced Fleet Foxes.
Check out Prana Crafter's bandcamp page here for these and many other free downloads.

Verma "Sunrunner", Krakatau "Water Near a Bridge"

Reviewed by Nathan Ford

Trouble in Mind Records continues to bamboozle those who would attempt to pigeon-hole their output with two excellent new releases that stray a long way from the label's early garage roots, and further embrace the adventurous eclecticism of recent releases.

First up is the new album from Chicago's Verma, whom you may recall released this excellent, mellow instrumental album on Trouble in Mind last year. Those expecting more of the same will be in for a bit of a shock; the slowly unfolding charms of that record are notably absent on new album "Sunrunner", replaced by aggressive Hawkwind invoking space-rock (which they are more accustomed to), with more than a little Detroit style punk in both attitude and delivery.

Vocalist Whitney Johnson wails in a suitably otherwordly and alien fashion throughout while the rhythm section of Rob Goerke and Zach Corn lay down a solid and pummeling bedrock for Johnny Caluya’s explorative guitar sweeps to parry around - kosmische this may well be, but it's more a case of navigating an asteroid field at warp speed than contemplating the beauties of a distant spiral nebula.

Fab, but exhausting stuff - phew!

Krakatau's "Water Near a Bridge" is just what I needed to calm my nerves after that relentless onslaught.

It took me a little bit of digging to find some info on these guys, and I was very surprised to find that they're not some ancient Scandinavian prog druids, but a young trio from Melbourne, Australia.

"Water Near a Bridge" is an intriguing, explorative effort with its three long tracks unwrapping slowly, and leaving plenty of space for improv that is approached in a meditative fashion rather than your usual "look how many notes I can fit in here" approach that most young prog heads will fall into when trying to prove themselves. This restraint works very much in Krakatau's favour and doesn't preclude some funky jamming in the second half of opener "Riddell's Creek".

The lack of guitar works well for them too, with the nimble rhythm section sensing the needs of keyboard player James Tom seemingly before he's even aware of them and creating space for him when necessary, and still knowing when to step out of a supporting role and really fire. But it's Tom's burbling keyboards that make the biggest impression, particularly on the opening cascading notes of "Riddell's Creek" with its gorgeous, vintage radiophonic tones that take me to the same, eerie places that this does.

Admittedly, not everyone in the world is going to want to own an album with three long, semi-improvised tracks on it, but for those who like their prog to stray off the beaten path, and accentuate the progressive elements well over the rock side, this will provide a particularly satisfying, and soothing balm.

Verma's Sunrunner is out now and available here on vinyl, here on CD, and here digitally.

Krakatau's "Water Near a Bridge" will be released soon. Keep an eye on their Facebook page here for updates.

Free Download Roundup - Pez Headz / Coloured Clocks / Southern Boutique

I've found soooo much great new free stuff for you for this month's free download roundup that I'm having to split the feature into multiple parts to ensure that I don't give you too much goodness to take in at once. Without further googoo gajoob, check out these beauties:

Pez Headz "Mr. Something"
I'm a sucker for a piece of memorable sleeve art, and "Mr Something" pulls the neat trick of sounding exactly like I hoped it would from the cover - a rare case of being able to judge a book by its cover. California based Pez Headz combine some nice, vintage sounding U.K post-punk moves with groovadelic organwork and reverb-laden surf guitar in a manner that occasionally suggests The Cure's "Three Imaginary Boys" reimagined at half speed by an original Nuggets era garage psych band. Quite an odd mixture, but extremely effective, with the wobbly organ and treated vocals adding a layer of mystery that makes everything sound just a little disconcerting and spooky.
Fans of Holy Wave will probably like this one a lot. We like it a whole lot, especially when the bass guitar goes all Hooky.
Available as a free download direct from the band's Bandcamp page here:



Coloured Clocks "All Is Round"
"All is Round" is a pretty phenomenal piece of bedroom psych pop that shows more sonic invention than most bands can muster in a fully equipped studio - and James Wallace does this all by himself. Over the course of twenty tracks, interest should at some point lag, but Wallace's songwriting smarts and production and arrangement skills ensure that there's never a dull moment, with an impressive wall of sound that suggests Tame Impala with a baroque pop fixation. Special mention should also be made of Wallace's occasional guitar solos which have the lyrical quality of David Gilmour with a more spontaneous edge. Try "Killing Time", "Irrational II" or "It's Getting so Close" for an idea of the memorable songwriting on display here.
Seriously inventive and impressive.
"All Is Round" is a free download from the Coloured Clocks Bandcamp page here:



Southern Boutique "Growing Old / Undercurrent" "Rabbit Trails / Don't Be Yourself (Cowboy Song Pt. 2"
Not one, but two great singles from this excellent Austin, Texas psychedelic pop combo with an inventive, lo-fi aesthetic that adheres closer to something from the Elephant 6 roster than the reverb-laden, garage psych that Austin is renowned for.
No idea where these guys sprang from, but I'm assuming there's quite a background behind them as these are not the tentative first steps you'd normally hear on a set of debut tracks.
"Rabbit Trails" is particularly assured, with a stonking, rhythmic arrangement that puts the bomp in the bomp, bomp, bomp while accentuating a killer melody. "Don't Be Yourself" on the other hand features memorably arranged harmony vocals that go all wiggy in the best tradition of the likes of "Good Vibrations" - as Beach Boy tributes go this is a particular winner, and undoubtedly more psychedelic than anything Wilson and co. ever conjured without losing the edge of melancholy that invited so many of Brian's tracks into our hearts. Yup, pretty damn fine.
Both available on a name your own price starting at $0 basis from their Bandcamp page here.


More free stuff to come soon!
Check out previous free download roundups here and here.