This bit of psychodelic punk psychodrama is brought to you from sunny Spain. Psicodelic FunKilljazz combines 60s psychedelica and 80s funk with a decidedly post-punk mentality. Sort of Country Joe and The Fish versus Funkadelic in a mosh pit. Their self titled album is a bit undisciplined but each track has a certain wild charm. The group sails through jazz riffs, flamenco, cabaret tunes, and screamed vocals with ease as if it makes perfect sense to them. Probably does. Fortunately they have the talent and imagination to get away with it. The four track suite “La Odisea de la Langosta” is the best showcase starting with a quiet mood and ending in hardcore chaos. My advice is to just play the damn thing and go with the flow.

The album is available in separate tracks or full album zip of 128kbps MP3.

Download

Umma Project is the work of Esteban Mejía Mesa who plays all of the instruments and does all the sampling and programming. His albums are freely available through a creative commons license and will send the listener on a psychedelic sound journey complete with old fi-sci movie dialogue and spacey synth riffs.

Ethereal is a fitting title for this full album of almost an hour duration. The mood rarely go beyond calm and serene with just a hint of disquiet. Much of the music has a progressive rock feel similar to early Pink Floyd. There are no flashy solos or “wow” moments but if you are looking for a calming. meditative session in the line of space music or mystic moods, then this will fit the bill.

The album is available through a full album zip in 192kbps MP3.

Update: The download page now asks for registration to download the album but it is not required.

Download

Bombay Laughing Club is a curious mixture of blues, ragtime, psychedelica, and rock that is stirred, shaken, and served with a generous heap of humor. The best comparisons I can think of are the Holy Modal Rounders from the psychedic 60s and the music hall sound of The Bonzo Dog Band but the harder edged Captain Beefheart and the blues of Howlin’ Wolf are also influences. Bombay Laughing Club keeps us guessing with 14 highly varied tracks on their album The Golden Years. “Working Boy Blues” and “Kill You Dead” is coarse throated juke joint blues. “Suba Deba” is an Beefheart inspired romp that borrows from both punk and hip-hop as does the dance crazy “Space Machine. “Blue Berry” is ol’ timey madness while other tracks like “Jumping Bridge” and “Yak”confound easy classification. I really like this album but even if you don’t, you will certainly not be bored.

The album is available in 256kbps MP3.

Download

Rob Sanderson offers two albums of retro sci-fi psychedelica on his blog titled Heavy Horn Action. His blog is a good example of an artist taking music distribution into his own hands and using the internet to allow people to hear his creations and make their own judgements far away from the commercial hype of the music industry. The albums represent two distinct projects of Sanderson’s; Heavy Horn Action and Midnite Classix.

Heavy Horn Action checks in with Hyperbolikaleidoscopsychedelic Freakout!. As the title suggests, these are somewhat psychedelic ponderings witha little campy 60s sci-fi vibes thrown in for good measure. The songs are essentially collages pasted together with sampled dialoques and effects over spacy melodies that are driven by a techno beat. Not all of it is successful but tracks like “Hour of the Invisible Now”, “Subliminal Song”, and the rockin’ title song all make for some some interesting fun.

Midnite Classix’s Feeding The Thin Air is less psychedelic and more Drum’n'Bass. It’s appears to be focused on the dance floor crowd and packs some nice grooves. There’s a little of everything for the electronica fan. “Classical Gas” (Not the old Mason Williams hit) is very acid jazz while “Don’t Trust The Human” and “Time to Evolve” lays downs a heavy beat rather nicely. I find the album by Heavy Horn Action more my style but fans of electronic mood music will enjoy both.

You can download the two albums from Rob’s blog via Rapidshare or through the Internet Archive from the link below. The files are in either MP3 (64kbps, 192kbps, or VBR) or Ogg Vorbis format.

Download
Heavy Horn Action - Hyperbolikaleidoscopsychedelic Freakout!
Midnite Classix - Feeding The Thin Air

Finnish psych folk ensemble Paavoharju gives us an online album that defies description. Its strange and beautiful sounds borrow profusely from Finnish traditional music, ambient and trip-hop electronics, and even medieval hymns and chorales. There is a spiritual quality to this music that draws you in. The first track, “Nuo Maisemat” pits a phantom-like vocal against a wall of haunting sounds. “Kuljin Kauas” is recorded live and is the most rock-oriented track off the session while the acoustic “Pepe” is a gorgeous ballad which I suspect may be a traditional song. But more intriguing to me are the tracks that push the folk label envelope such as “Tartu Tahan Hetkeen”. It is a mysterious collage of street noises, hypnotically repetitive organ lines, and voice samples. The range of sounds varies from track to track but it remains a suprisingly coherent and complete work.

The album is available in 192kbps MP3. If you enjoy the music, I urge you to support this unusual and unique group by buying their CDs.

Download

“Set the Wayback Machine for 1968, Sherman!”

Psychedelic Rock always brings back memories of the 1960s for me. The music was unique in rock with its extended instrumentals, trippy effects and dreamlike lyrics. Certainly, artists such as Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead, and Donovan led the way. Lesser bands like Vanilla Fudge and Iron Butterfly were just as influencial.

Then there were hundreds of unknown or forgotten bands firmly in the shadows of the Psychedelic movement. I have never heard of J. P. Sunshine but this 1968 self-titled album is a delightful relic of this era. It has its problems, It not closein qulaity to even the b-list of sixties psychedelic bands. The production values are inferior even for the sixties. The vocals and presentation is somewhat amateurish. But there still that sense of innocence and wonder that made this genre so attractive. The title track is a good example with its folkish guitar, obtuse but optimistic lyrics, and an appealing fuzz guitar solo. “Hey Girl” has some nice moments despite its silly lyrics (”Hey Girl whats that look in your eye. / Looking high so am I”). Most songs continue in the same folk-pop vein except for the last track, “Dirt Blues”. It’s a bluesy departure reminiscent of Canned Heat or Al Kooper. It’s my favorite track but I’ve always been more of a blues man than a hippie anyways.

The album is available in 160kbps MP3.

Download

When is a bootleg album not a bootleg? When it is freely and legally offered on the band’s official web site.

Which is exactly what the Butthole Surfers have done on their web site. Three entire albums of varying sound quality are available and all three attest to the unique sound of this seminal shock rock / neo-psychedelia band.

Technically only one of these is a bootleg, Tejass was recorded during their 1996 tour but there is no information on time or place of recording. The sound, considering it is a bootleg, is really good. Gibby Haynes’ vocals comes out loud and clear while Paul Leary contributes his hardcore guitar sound that makes this band so distinctive. This is a good album for those who are not familar with this group. There is a nice live version of “Pepper” which is one of the few songs that made commercial air play. The tracks are available in 160kbps MP3.

Double Live has an interesting background. There were so many bootlegs around that, as the web site states, “By ‘88 the band felt they could bootleg the band as well as everybody else, so they joined the crowd and released their own crappy bootleg too.” The album had a very limited release and now available on the web site “since it’s doubtful this will ever be reissued again.” The sound isn’t all that great but it is an excellent example of the energy Butthole Surfers brings to a stage. The album is available in 128kbps mp3.

Live in Fort Worth is an online only release of a 2002 performance. The band continues to present controversial music just as they did in the 80s. This is another good live session and is available in 160kbps MP3.

All three albums are worthwhile, but if you enjoy them you should purchase their excellent albums. You can download a few sample tracks from each of their LPs and/or some tracks from another bootleg titled Caso Raro!.

Download
Double Live
Live In Fort Worth
Tejass

Tantrum inhabit that shadow area of the rock world where disembodied vocals mix with psychedelic quitar evoking memories of David Lynch films. The result is trance inducing and similar to the sonic dream music of artists like Cocteau Twins and Blonde Redhead.

Tantrum has two albums available online. Maisie’s Friend (1999) is their first and has a slightly more melodic feel to it. “Pill and Dreams” pulses and flows over the ethereal vocals of Nikki Grant. “Scaremonger” is my favorite track with its light lyrics over densely layered guitar and electronics. I also recommend “Skunk”, a delightful exercise in manic energy.

Advice To Users was released in 2006. Tantrum continues the pattern of floating voices over deep layers of sound. “Princess” is especially engaging as its Grant’s voice lulls you into a dream then jolts you awake with high-voltage guitars. “Emergency Poncho” has a Sonic Youth echo to it. Both albums are recommended to those who like their rock music to be spacy and intelligent.

Both albums are available in 128kbps MP3. If you enjoy the music, support the artists by buying their CDs in higher quality sound.

No longer available

Brian Jonestown Massacre (named after the Rolling Stones guitarist) are a psychedelic band featuring Anton Newcombe and a rotation of more than 40 artists through the 90s.

Methodrone, Spacegirl, and Their Satanic Majesties Second Request are sloppily recorded but reminisce over a broad range of shoegaze and psychedelia . Take It From the Man! is a more accessible retreading of the Stones, BB King, Bo Diddley, The Animals, Them, Jimi Hendrix, and others. The appropriately titled Give It Back further relives 60s rock, while Strung Out in Heaven is perhaps their most mature work, sounding more like The Byrds than the Stones.

Bravery Repetition & Noise is a darker, dreamier, more atmospheric album as much dependent on post-punk as the 60s, and And This Is Our Music is even prettier and more ghostly. Bringing It All Back Home Again is only 30 minutes long and country-tinged.

Brian Jonestown Massacre is definitely the “biggest” name I know of to post so much of their work on the Internet; here’s hopin’ others follow suit!

The albums (and other tracks) are available for download in zipped packages of 96kbps OGG files from the download page.

Download
Methodrone
Spacegirl
Their Satanic Majesties Second Request
Take It From The Man!
Give It Back
Strung Out In Heaven
Bravery Repetition & Noise
And This Is Our Music
Bringing It All Back Home Again