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[	Current Music	|	Can - Monster Movie	]

Album: In Blissful Company
Artist: Quintessence
Release date:1969
Genre: Raga Rock, Psychedelic Rock, Progressive Rock, Acid Rock
Scene: Ladbroke Grove Scene

Album: Quintessence
Artist: Quintessence
Release date:1969
Genre: Raga Rock, Psychedelic Rock, Progressive Rock, Acid Rock
Scene: Ladbroke Grove Scene

This is a real cultish psychedelic music. Not in the sense of being a cult record, but in the sense of being performed by a an actual cult member. The songs constantly reference Christ, Buddha and Hindu gods. Both albums have. Every their album features a version of "Hari Krishna" hymn. But the best version is by Hüsker Dü in my opinion. Also this band used Indian sitar and raga elements in their sound. But I don't like it very much. But if you are looking for some spiritual new age psychedelic rock check out this band.

Album: Wasa Wasa
Artist: Edgar Broughton band
Release date:1969
Genre: Acid Rock, Heavy Psych, Blues Rock Psychedelic Rock, Hard Rock, Occult Rock
Scene: Ladbroke Grove Scene

Album: Sing Brother Sing
Artist: Edgar Broughton band
Release date:1970
Genre: Acid Rock, Heavy Psych, Blues Rock Psychedelic Rock, Hard Rock, Occult Rock
Scene: Ladbroke Grove Scene

This is a band I really liked. The first album "Wasa Wasa" features heavy psych sound and diverse but always aggressive vocals. Very anti-gentle treatment. The songs are unique and in my opinion deserves individual treatment. The opening track is "death of the electric citizen" is an extravagant book of the dead entry, with the n raspy vocals in style of "Captain Beefheart" delivering lyrics which include lines like: "I got us up her, up her \\ And her head spin \\ Like a cryin' out for water \\ Like a bony thin \\ And the sky was a city \\ City palace all around wall \\ And the twelve guards \\ Where back as far \\ Aphrodite play with \\ Sheep from out the den \\ There's a lion growing in my ears \\ Electric big bear, big bear". And the second song is a non-compromising anti-war satire, and every psychedelic rock album should have a song like that. I will publish complete song's lyrics here so you can experience enjoy them:" Hi, kid \\ Hello, sir \\ What d'wanna do, boy? \\ Well, I don’t really know \\ D'you wanna go back to school, kid? \\ Err, not really \\ Well, do you wanna go to work, boy? \\ Uh-huh \\ D'you wanna dig potatoes, son? \\ No, sire \\ What d’you wanna do, boy? \\ D'you wanna go to war, boy? \\ Oh, yes, please, sir, yes, please, sir, yes, please, sir \\ They're sending me home \\ Shot through to the bone \\ He had a red cross on his arm \\ All I got was napalm \\ The American Army, the American Army \\ Mmm, wait till the Russians get hold of you \\ Not forgetting the Navy, not forgetting the Navy \\ And the Air Force, too \\ \\ Shot down from my plane \\ They leave me out cold \\ Never be the same again \\ I was just sixteen years old \\ \\ The American Army, the American Army \\ Wait till the Russians get hold of you \\ Not forgetting the Navy, not forgetting the Navy \\ And the Air Force, too \\ \\ It'll be so nice to get back home to North Carolina \\ See my blonde, all-American honey bun \\ With her transistor radio turned up full \\ Do all the things we used to do, back in the old days \\ What a thrill it could be, hope you enjoy the air raid". And for the ammplification of the satirical effect it's accompanied with a cheerful Doo Wop back vocals. "Why Can't Somebody Love Me?" and "Neptune" both are slow sad-angry songs with heavy greasy guitar. Side A of the record is closed by a banger track "Evil", which strongly remind me of early metal in vane of "Black Sabath". By the way, this song is connected to some fantasy story about a tower and a witch. The next song, "Crying" is another sad anti-war song with hypnotizing cadence. "Love In The Rain" is fine, it's simple and complex at the same time. The final track "Dawn Crept Away" starts with some acoustic guitar sounds and some poetry being recited. A this points it sounds almost like dark-folk. And then slowly it becomes a heavier traditional angry-sad Edgar Broughton band's song. And then this song becomes an emotional play about a mother and her child discussing the sunset as a family tragedy. Overall, I really like this album. In the same time it's dark, heavy, satirical, mythopoetic and pagan.

The second Edgar Broughton band's album is even more interesting. It opens with the song "There’s No Vibrations, But Wait!" which seems to be a snap on Beech Boy's "Good Vibrations". So I would rather name it "Bad Vibrations". And this song sounds really special. It uses some kind of sampling loop to repeat words "bad vibrations". And it's played over a kind of funk rhythm loop. So the sounds almost like a cross between early hip-hop and something by Psychic TV. The next two songs "The Moth" and "The Momma's reward" are sort of build on the world play of similarity of pronunciation of worlds "Moth" and "Momma". And the first song flows into another, and the second song is way more energetic. The songs are really strange and trippy:"Hello, Mother, are you there\\ Would it be all right to turn on the light, though I'm over sixteen\\ And another thing, everything you taught me has been washed away in the flood\\ I dreamed\\ And that ain’t all, there's a moth on the wall\\ Says his name is Moth, would you believe\\ Didn't like to knock, for I know how it is with poppa\\ I’m not sure Moth is friendly\\ Moth looks down at Peter from over his furry brow, saying\\ "It's time to grow up, throw off your puberty\\ Take on your destiny in a man"\\Moth, are you there?\\ Can you hear them out there?\\ Don't they need you more than I do?\\ Look after Poppa, look after Momma\\ I know they need you more than I"\\. Next song is "Refugee". This is again such a trippy mythopoetic song, which is performed as a tradional southern gospel-blues with only slow heavy drums following it:"The promise was a word, the word was fine \\ Fine became a line, too fine to take it easy \\ Easy was food, food was warm \\ Warm became a weapon behind a locked door with the cold turned on \\ With the cold turned on, with the cold turned on, with the cold turned on, Lord \\ Then the word was a lie \\ Turned yellow, fell down, turned brown \\ Turned black, black became a place nobody want to go, Lord\\ Become a place nobody want to go \\ They carried a star Star was gold, pickled in a jar Jar became a grave Grave turned hot - with the cold turned on With the cold turned on, with the cold turned on, with the cold turned on, Lord Then they burned like cold Coal was red, the red become the dead The dead became a legend The rest left home Home become a body around their bones". Suddenly, the next track is the Doo Wop "Officer Dan". "Old Gopher" is an absurdist blues-rock fit. "Aphrodite" is surprisingly light sounding pop-rock/country-rock song maybe in style of latter work of Velvet Underground. It's followed by "Grandma", a more experimental "Captain Beefheart" style absurdist blues track. Which also doesn't forget to jab on American militarism:"Granma, Granma \\ Then what's the good of losing blood \\ Fighting in that bloody war? \\ Grandson, Grandson \\ I'm old up front and I'm way behind \\ But I ain't blind, I ain't blind". Next track "psychopath" seems to be just a pure psychedelic jam with a spoken word narration and sound effects over it, and actually tell a confession of a sexual psychopath. But the second part of this song it different. It sounds like a ragga-rock by "Quintessence" and features a psychopath talking to a little girl. The album ends with "It’s Falling Away". It's an alerting political song. Slow but not heavy. Overall, I feel that this album is great. It's a king of British version of Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart. But it's not a direct copy.

Album: Sea Shanties
Artist: High Tide
Release date:1969
Genre: Heavy Psych, Progressive Rock, Heavy Metal, Occult Rock, Space Rock
Scene: Ladbroke Grove Scene

"High Tide" is yet another great band. It's heavy and dark with songs like "Futillist's Lament" and "Death Warmed Up". It sounds a lot like "Black Sabath". But "High Tide" goes one step further and is way more progressive band. For example you can note their use of the violin in less intense fragments of their music. I won't write a lot about individual songs here. But this band is definitely a win.

Album: Volume Two
Artist: Soft Machine
Release date:1969
Genre: Psychedelic Rock, Jazz-Rock, Experimental Rock, Progressive Rock
Scene: Canterbury Scene

Album: Third
Artist: Soft Machine
Release date:1970
Genre: Jazz-Rock, Jazz Fusion, Avant-Prog, Experimental Rock, Avant-Garde Jazz, Tape Music
Scene: Canterbury Scene

I need to confess: I accept the great musical innovation behind the Soft Machine. But I don't really like their "Volume Two" album. In my experience it's just to mellow especially after the Wasa Wasa and Sea Shanties. The only fragment of this album which I like is the "Esther's Nose Job", where some noise actually hits. Personally I enjoyed the "Third" album much more, because it has way more experimental and noisy segments. Also it's important to say that the "Third" is a double album so it's pretty long.

Album: Horse
Artist: Horse
Release date:1969
Genre: Hard Rock, Heavy Psych, Occult Rock, Psychedelic Rock
Scene: UK

This is sort of a bonus. I wasn't initially planning to write about this band. But I found it through it's connections with "Atomic Rooster" and "Andromeda". What caught my attention here is the opening track "Sacrifice." This is an incredibly dark, almost heavy metal sounding anthem. As the name suggests it describes a bloody sacrifice in all the gory details. Other songs are OK I guess. But it's sad that their style is everywhere over the place and they all are not like the Sacrifice.