★Cosmic Rock
Richard Twice
Fuzz guitars, organ, celestial vocal harmonies, a single effort and then…eternity (or obscurity if you look at the other side of the coin). In 1968 leader Richard Atkins - Richard Manning his artistic partner & co-writer, hence the name - was building toward success, his musical adventures and philosophy not that far from the likes of The Byrds or the more eccentric Simon & Garfunkel. He’d won a contract with Mercury Records, and recorded with the Wrecking Crew members, a group of Los Angeles …
Kuni Kawachi & Flower Travelling Band
The japanese keyboard player, vocalist, songwriter and arranger joined forces with members of the Flower Travelling Band on this amazing 1970 release. Published for the sole Japanese market on major company London Records, the album is still considered one of the top release in its own right, publicly praised by Julian Cope as a cornerstone of the (heavy) psych counterculture. Sharing some efforts with british contemporaries, the album is a brilliant example of how a – basically – hard rock comb…
H.P. Lovecraft II
The 2nd chapter, yet a revelation. Released on Philips in 1968, right after their ’67 self titled album this iconic psych-folk masterpiece still detain a refreshing and revelatory approach. The Chicago band, named after American supernatural fiction writer, is on the verge of some weird songwriting experience, as suggested by some explicit titles as Mobius Trip or At The Mountains Of Madness. Celestial electro-acoustic harmonies and spacey keyboards gave way to mystical show, still entertaining …
Oasis
*In process of stocking* “Another psych holy grail, finally seeing the light of day. Oasis was an American rock band from Marin County, California active in the 1970s. They eventually morphed from the prog-folk ensemble R J Fox. Their self-titled debut album was released as a private press in 1973 by the Cranbus label in a small run of 150 copies, imagine that…The record was in fact never released in the States but only in Canada, such a mystery today. Coming from the west coast the band - led …
Relatively Clean Rivers
Long before the term Cosmic Americana was of common use there was a band ideally fitting the role. Back in 1976 the long psychedelic wave was rapidly fading away, but the market of private press was still in demand. The self-debut album of Relatively Clean Rivers came out the same year on the leader Phil Pearlman label. Pacific Is released just this sole album and was to a certain extent an original example of do it yourself. The brainchild of Phil Pearlman, the band was rapidly crossing genres …