Most of the "recommendations" that we've gotten from music critics and individuals are disappointing; many people seem to equate psychedelic music soley with the use of traditional classical instrumentation which is not really what we're after, (although classical works such as Holst, "The Planets" would fall squarely into OUR definition). I bought the CD "Young Team" by the group Mogwai based on praise that they were supposedly the most psychedelic band of all time and this was their best album. The music certainly isn't bad, but hardly psychelic IMHO. I've also been unimpressed by bands like Hawkwind and Aphex Twin although to be fair I've only sampled a small portion of their catalogs...

We're thinking more in the vein of Jimi Hendrix - "Electric Lady Land", early and middle Pink Floyd, especially the Syd Barrett years and Jefferson Airplane - "After Bathing at Baxter's". I played the track "A Small Package of Value Will Come to You, Shortly" from the latter for a friend once and her response was that it made her feel like she was on drugs. That's the kind of stuff we're interested in; music with unexpected melodies, instrumentation and "plot twists".

I don't mind if you list songs, artists or CD's as long as you think they might fit the bill. It doesn't have to be rock music. Jazz, New Age, Classical, Techno; it's all the same to us. Instrumental music is fine, in fact sometimes vocals have the effect of achoring a listener too much unless they are adequately strange in their own right.

I'll start will a few artists/albums, (that you may or may not be familiar with), that we think are prime examples:

Hochenkeit - I Love You
Bugskull - Snakland
Helios Creed - Planet X
Pere Ubu - Ray Gun Suitcase
Trumans Water - Godspeed the Vortex
Butthole Surfers - Locust Abortion Technician
Coyote Oldman - Tear of the Moon
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 - Tangle
Andreas Vollenweider - Down to the Moon
Kim Gordon; DJ Olive; Ikue Mori - Untitled
Latin Playboys - Dose
Polvo - Today's Active Lifestyles
Soul Junk - 1956
Mickey Hart - Planet Drum

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

Mike

"No man is an island; he's an peninsula...

Can - Tago Mago
Fifty Foot Hose - Cauldron
The White Noise - An Electric Storm
United States of America - s/t
Popol Vuh - In Den Garten Pharaos
The Red Crayola - Parable of Arable Land
13th Floor Elevators - The Psychedelic Sounds of... and Easter Everywhere
Guru Guru - UFO
Silver Apples - s/t and Contact
Amon Duul - Paradeiswarts Duul

...that's a start.

Time has come today by The Chambers Brothers

Just about anything by Black Hole Sun

Kraftwerk had rather hypnotic early techno stuff in the '70s, including "Autobahn" and "Computer World."

HiFi mentioned The 13th Floor Elevators - they are originals for '60s psychedelic music, although I'm not sure that's what you're looking for. If you want to check them out, "Easter Everywhere" is a good place to start.

You haven't forgotten Pink Floyd, "Dark Side of the Moon," and their other trippy albums, have you?

What about jazz? We were discussing John Coltrane earlier, and "A Love Supreme" is worthwhile listening, IMHO.

Have you researched music designed for meditation? I have an album (somewhere) of bells, church bells, ringing randomly for a long, long time that might fit your list. I'll see if I can locate it.

Another thought was sitar music, as in Ravi Shankar, Sangeet and many others. It can take your mind on a journey.

Al, I've only heard of about half of the artists that you've listed, but I'm not familiar with any of their work with the exception of "Can". I've been interested in learning more about "Popol Vuh" ever since I first heard their name. I'm a sucker for anything Mayan or Aztec and I really like the groups "Huayucaltia" and "Quetzacoatl".

Bluesfan, I really like "Time Has Come Today" and own a greatest hits compilation by the Chambers Bros., but I wouldn't consider them psychedelic. I know that it's really a subjective thing, but I'm thinking more along the lines of Lennon's "Strawberry Fields" or the more experimental stuff from the White Album. Or maybe some of Donovan's stuff like "Hurdy Gurdy Man" or Robin Trower's "Bridge of Sighs" album. I probably didn't explain myself the way I hoped to. To look at it another way, using a comparison with the visual arts, it might be like saying that Rembrandt is classical rock and the Impressionists were moving towards psychedelia, but it took the likes of Salvadore Dali to really push the envelope, (I know, kind of a lame example...). Now, Black Hole Sun... if their music is anything like Soundgarden's tune of the same name, (with their accompanying crazy music video), then they may have potential. I will check them out!!

ramblingjack, Hendrix, Sun Ra, Jefferson Airplane... that's the stuff!! I will try out your other suggestions too. Again, I've heard of some of these artists, but I had no idea that they might have pyschedelic tendencies...

Petaloid, I've been afraid to try Eno just because of the volume of work that he has out there; where do you start... But now you've given be a place to begin!! Crazy Jazz is always good; Thelonius Monk, etc. But I remember being disappointed with Weather Report's "Body Electric", but that was years ago and may deserve a re-listen. I don't actually own any Coltrane, but a lot of artists I do have, (like Pelt), have done covers of his stuff that I've really liked. I will try out "A Love Supreme". And eastern music is a definite contender; sitars, tablas. etc. can really be nice although at this point music I haven't gotten into music that is "too ambient" or droney. But, who knows? Ten years ago I wouldn't listen to anything that wasn't prominently guitar oriented. My, how times change...

Thanks to everyone for the ideas; It looks like I've got some "work" ahead of me. And, please, if anyone has any other suggestions, keep 'em coming ;)

Mike

The group in general or just that self-titled lp?

"I've been interested in learning more about "Popol Vuh" ever since I first heard their name. I'm a sucker for anything Mayan or Aztec and I really like the groups "Huayucaltia" and "Quetzacoatl"."

I really recommend P.V.. Their first two albums "Affenstunde" & "In Garten..." were electronic in orientation and feature the old style modular moog plus tablas. Very nice. After that(leader and group mainstay) Florian Fricke moved to acoustic instruments and created incredibly spacious and majestic music. A good place to start are some of the soundtracks that were recorded for the films of Werner Herzog especially 'Nosferatu' & "Coeur De Verre".

Glad I could be of help.

Tangerine Dream, I recommend any of the first five or six releases.

Ozric Tentacles, anything by them. They might be just what you're after. Give them a try!

Patrick Moraz, The Story of i.

All, Thank you so much for your suggestions! I only wish that Napster was still around in it's original incarnation so I could go sample some of the artists that you've listed. I know the record companies get all bent out of shape over losing revenues, but I didn't use Napster the way that the kids were. I wasn't looking for music that I could easily hear on the radio or buy from the local record store. I would spend hours searching for eclectic stuff and if I liked what I heard I would hit the record shops and buy the CD's, (if I could find them). I bought more music the two years that I was frequenting Napster than I had at any other time in my life. Of course, I wasn't buying the CD's that the suits wanted me to, and I guess that's part of the rub... (but that's a topic for a whole other thread).

So, it's off to hit the used bins with all the delicious choices that you've given me, and of course that won't make the record companies happy either ;)

Mike

I'm trying to think of some others....

This type of music is so much more rewarding, in my opinion, than that dance crap that someone else recently questioned me about (I answered, but did not see a follow-up). Anyway, you cannot, REPEAT, cannot go wrong with these songs:

FUHRS & FROHLING - Circles Of Life
CAMEL - Rhayder Goes To Town
LOTHAR & THE HAND PEOPLE - Space Hymn
MARILLION - Blind Curve
HAPPY THE MAN - Starborne
BEAVER & KRAUSE - 9 Moons In Alaska
PAUL HORN - Inside
TONTO'S EXPANDING HEADBAND - Cybernaut

...and here I have to go with two songs in a row that absolutely must be played together (sort of along the lines of Led Zeppelin's "Heartbreaker"/"Living Loving Maid"):
FINGERS AKIMBO - Over the Waterfall
FINGERS AKIMBO - The Buttonwillow

And one further suggestion, if I may. There is an entire side of Bo Hansson's 'Magician's Hat' album that should be played in it's entirety. Unfortunately, when it was released on CD, the first cut ("The City") was an extended version. I love extened versions - not this one though. Bottom line, if you can get your hand on the vinyl edition, listen to the whole side:
BO HANSSON - The City, Divided Reality, Elidor, Before The Rain, Fylke, Playing Downhill Into The Downs
Have fun,
Ric

So far I have 37 new bands, (to me), to sample. I never dreamed I'd get such a response. I figured you guys and gals would come up with maybe a couple of new artists for me to check out. It's gratifing to know that there are others out there that appreciate music that isn't exactly mainstream. You'd certainly never know it by listening to commercial radio or watching TV.

My friend Gene,(from the early 90's Amphetamine Reptile Records band "Vertigo"), and I were so disappointed in the state of current music that we began recording/producing music of our own to satisfy our personal needs. I've got 6 new songs for him to evaluate when he comes to visit in a couple of weeks. It's nice to know that if we ever decide to release anything in the future that there may actually be an audience for such craziness.

I've listed all the artists that you all have recommended thus far in alphebetical order and made a print out. We've got a few pretty good stores around with used sections that I'll be hitting starting this week. If you know of any web sites that feature download samples of any of these artists I would greatly appreciate the links; it would make my search a little less daunting.

As always, thanks for taking the time to respond!

Mike

iinsic, I have the Godspeed You Black Emperor, "Yanqui U.X.O." CD and it's pretty good. How does it compare to their "Skinny Fists" album?

Ric, Way back when, I purchase Bo Hansson's "Lord of the Rings", (or was it "The Hobbit"?), on vinyl. I'll have to go fish it out of my collection and give it another spin. I remember being dissapointed with it at the time, but then again, I was a little dweeb in those days and didn't have much tolerance for anthing but classic 60's rock. I'm not familiar with any of the others you listed; it's so exciting to have new stuff to try!!

HiFi, Thanks so much for the link you provided. These guys sound like just the ticket. Too bad that there was so much in-fighting and that only one record came out of the adventure...

Happy listening,

Mike

"Picture this: a female vocalist screaming over a fuzzed out, feedback drenched guitar. Or whispered, spoken words over a repetitive, discordant drone. Or agony filled singing over melodic lead bass lines, syncopated drums and an array of electronic noises including a theramin, oscillator and something called an echolette. Sometimes they sounded like a straightforward garage band with a jazzy feel. Other times they invoked some sort of eerie, hallucinatory movie soundtrack. Like maybe the scene in "The Trip" when Peter Fonda loses it. Or maybe an accompaniment to Godard's surreal science fiction classic "Alphaville". Above all, though, they rocked as hard as any punk band currently around. They even did a beautiful cover of Billie Holiday's "God Bless The Child." "

And therein lies the problem with Fifty Foot Hose (as well as the United States of America). I just don't see those two groups as being what Mike is looking for - although he did include the Butthole Surgers in his original post, so maybe you are onto something, HiFidelity. To me, psych music is capable of taking you on a mescaline-like trip without the mescaline. Speaking of which, the tune "Peyote Healing" from Robbie Robertson is pretty cool too.
Ric

Paul Horn Inside the Taj Mahal
Ravi Shankar and John McLaughlin
The Doors (the Come on Baby, Light my Fire epoch)

Ric and HiFi, Ric was right-on with his mesc. remarks, but as I think we all know, it's really a subjective thing. Each one of us has his/her own "triggers" as to what gets us "there". Sometimes it doesn't even have to be that unusual of a song, but maybe there's a mood or a melody that strikes an individual just right.

And, I don't mean to imply that psychedelic music is the only thing that I listen to. I'm interested in everything from 30's, 40's and 50's Blues to Classical; from early Country to Pop; from New Age to Punk; from BeBop to Classic Rock.

And, even though I may find that not everything listed meets my personal expectations of "psychedelic", I'm still excited about mining whatever jems that I can from these suggestions, no matter what category they fall into. There's so much unchartered territory for me here!!

iinsic, If the albums are similar, I'm sure to enjoy Skinny Fists also...

Mike

Clairabelle my dove, take a look at my original post. The Paul Horn tune I suggested (Inside) was the lead off track from that album. Again, the whole album can be a tad daunting, but it certainly is better than the other albums he did in the inside series.
Ric

When I first saw your post I could of sworn that you wrote: "Has anyone mentioned EMINEM yet?". Damn dyslexia!! You had me worried... ;)

Mike

Tangerine Dream - Phaedra and Rubycon in particular.

Vangelis - Spiral

Michael Garrison (RIP) - http://www.garrisongs.com/. Check out Eclipse.

Karlheinz Stockhausen - Some of his work could be described as psychedelic classical. Challenging music and certainly not for everyone.

Steve Tibbets - Explode View - exotic percussion with some wicked guitar playing

Sun Ra - Fate In A Pleasant Mood When Sun Comes Out - Insane jazz...psychedelic long before the term was popular or even existed for all I know.

Synergy - Larry Fast was certainly a pioneer of Electronic music...check out 'Games'

System 7 - features spacey guitar by Steve Hillage. May also want to check out Steve's earlier solo work.

Ashra Temple

Hope this helps.

Also we have recently discovered an new band call Ishq. Very psychedelic ambient music. Not suited for driving. It is more like the ulitmate chill music.

Suzy

Thanks for all the continued suggestions! My buddy is coming down for the weekend, so we'll be attempting to check out some of these artists. So far you've recommended, (in alphabetical order and excluding CD's/Albums that I already own):

13th Floor Elevators - The Psychedelic Sounds of... and Easter Everywhere
Amon Duul - Paradeiswarts Duul
Ashra Temple
Beaver & Krause
Black Hole Sun
Brian Eno - Music for Airports
Camel
Can - Tago Mago
Charlatans, The
Coltrane, John - A Love Supreme
Edan
Enigma -
Fifty Foot Hose - Cauldron
Fingers Akimbo
Fuhrs & Frohling
Garrison, Michael - Eclipse
Glass Philip - Mishima
Godspeed You Black Emperor - Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven
Gong - Camembert Electique, Here and Now Band
Guru Guru - UFO
Hansson, Bo - Magician's Hat, The City, Divided Reality, Elidor, Before the Rain, Fylke, Playing Downhill into the Downs
Happy the Man
Horn, Paul - Callings, Inside the Taj Mahal
Ishq
King Crimson - Three of a Perfect Pair, In the Court of
KLF
Lothar & the Hand People
Marillion
Moraz, Patrick - The Story of i.
Oldfield, Mike - Tubular Bells
Orb, The
Ozric Tentacles - Waterfall Cities, Erpland
Popol Vuh - In Den Garten Pharaos
Quasimoto
Red Crayola, The - Parable of Arable Land
Silver Apples - s/t and Contact
Spacemen 3
Stockhausen, Karlheinz
Sun Ra - Fate in a Pleaseant Mood When the Sun Comes Out
Synergy - Games
System 7
Tangerine Dream - Phaedra, Rubycon
Tibbets, Steve - Explode View
Tomorrow
Tonto's Expanding Headband
United States of America - s/t
Vangelis - Spiral
White Noise, The - An Electric Storm

Thanks again,

Mike

I just purchased the following used CD's:

Marillion - Six of One, Half Dozen of the Other
The KLF - The White Room
Orb - Cydonia
Enigma - The Screen Behind the Mirror

I haven't had time to really give them a good listen, but I'll post my impressions of each of these once I feel I can give them a fair review. As I buy more of the suggested artists I'll continue to rate their psychedelic qualities, (as long as anyone is interested)...

Mike

Papa John Creech.... Played electric violin with Beautiful Day and other bands and has some good albums of his own.

Kitaro....Synthesizer stuff

John Williams.... (clasical guitar) Albania's Asturias

Osibisa.... African music

Bleen.

Dixiesmom, I really like the artists/albums you listed. I especially enjoy the Traffic album "On the Road" which has extended live versions of "Low Spark...", "Light Up or Leave Me Alone" and "Sometimes, I Feel so Uninspired". Ummagumma is an old stand-by, (Several Small Species...).

Don, I've got some Kitaro and John Williams; good stuff! Papa John Creech also played with Jefferson Airplane/Starship and Hot Tuna. I don't have any of his solo music...

Aruu, I've been looking for some good Eno titles, (preferrably not too ambient); Was Pussyfooting one of his earlier collaborations? Meddle has always been a favorite, especially the song Echoes... I'll have to check out the Stump you mentioned, (I like the name)...

Mike

It's not that I don't like ambient, but I have three of his ambient works already. Lot's of folks seem to recommend Warm Jets, Tiger Mountain and also Green World. I believe these are some of Eno's earliest solo efforts after his stint in Roxy Music.

And yes, this thread is getting a bit unwieldy...

Sound of another thread dying ;)

Mike

But I've never heard of Matching Mole...

The thread; It's alive!!!

Mike

I'd recommend "Matching Mole's Little Red Record" as a good place to start.

If you don't own "Allez Ali Baba Black-Sheep Have You Any Bullsh1t" from the 1977 "Floating Anarchy" album, then really, you're missing out.

They were 20% brilliant, and 60% crap. As for the other 20% - who knows - it could go either way.

Really anything by them is great, particularly off of "Are You Shpongled?". My personal favorites are "Levitation Nation", "Monster Hit", "Shpongle Spores", "Shiva Space Technology", "Nothing Lasts, but Nothing is Lost" and "Connoisseur of Hallucination".

Hopefully you still check this thread, because I really think that you would like this music.

Enjoy man!

Oh, and "Twilight Eyes" by Entheogenic is pretty good too, if you end up liking Shpongle-ish stuff.

I generally check this forum a couple of times a week...

I've heard of Shpongle, but I've never actually heard their music.

I have added both Shpongle and Entheogenic to my "Bands to check out" list.

Thanks so much for the recommendation!

If this is a sound you like, respond please. There's so much more 60's stuff of this genre.

Download link below