Astonishing Sound Show Stories Volume One

And now for something completely different: ASSS Vol. 1- Yes, that's not a typo. This promo only CD was meant to be the start of a new series for Dig the Fuzz, concentrating on the modern (read 2000) British Psych Scene.Honestly, before hearing this, I always suspected there were still a few bands here and there working ye olde Psych genre, but a scene? Well, you learn something new everyday. As a matter of fact, this is quite a pleasing surprise music-wise. You do get very period-sounding bands but also some who do give the genre a new twist.
Dig the Fuzz instead of pursuing the completion of a new series, started publishing full albums by some of the bands showcased here. These LPs will eventually be found here in the near future, that is, if we manage to find copies.

Meanwhile enjoy your appetizer here.

FOTH 24 - Sizzling Sitar Special

Hi guys and gals, ladies and germs, just a quick one to tell you we've finally (!) completed all our notes on the FOTH 24 post.
Let's hope it gives you new leads for your record-hunting.
The Fuzzy Team.

PS: Another Dig The Fuzz rarity will be up shortly.

Incredible Sound Show Stories 14 - Candy Coloured Daydreams

As promised, fresh off the vinyl ripper, Volume 14 of the ISSS series. For once, instead of the usual acetates and promos, we have an interesting collection of overlooked songs, mostly from 45s, coming from all over the world. On this platter, you will find a track sung in Greek and for those of you with a tut on the end of your tongue cos it's not sung in the Queen's dear English, sorry it's not too late. Open up your mind (or learn Greek) and cor blimey! there's two of the blighters! So where are all those obscure American and British bands the "Real Psychedelic" stuff? Up your arse second shelf, mate… we start off this comp with a great unearthed gem of British Psych Pop by "Great Uncle Alfred". "Ex-Beauty Queen" carries on regardless of normality and sits neatly on the throne of insanity with a sitar flavored romp complete with the late sixties affection for rousing the Cossacks (Hey! Hey! Hey!) It only gets better with an early Giorgio Moroder song (yes, of Disco fame) and French, Belgian, Dutch and Australian gems. This will have you searching the dollar bins again for strange "foreign" 45s… Many a surprise is still waiting to be unearthed. (Adapted from the liner notes)

Meanwhile, get a taste of candy coloured dreams here.

Incredible Sound Show Stories 13

This is just a tease… Volume 13 never appeared officially, but we might have some news on that shortly, as one of our international correspondants seems to have a promo-only copy. Meanwhile, we'll just move on to the next Volume, which should be online by tomorrow.
Stay tuned for my more psychedelic crazyness in the near future!

Journey to a Higher Key - The Best of Sitar Psychedelia: volume One

Work and life in general got the best of me again. Here's what I promised in my FOTH 24 post. This rare comp was an interesting way to discover 60's songs with sitar on them. If the name doesn't ring a bell, it's quite normal: Volume One was the only one ever published. This is in fact the precursor the well-known "Psychedelic Sitar Headswirlers" series. The cost of vinyl pressing proved to steep for Nava Rasa Records and the length of these songs also fitted better on CDs. Journey to a Higher Key was only ever issued as limited edition of 300 copies. As you can see, my musical director has a rather unusual plastic fetish. Despite the LP being MINT, there's a fair amount of surface noise, which proved too much trouble to remove as the most of the songs have a very gentle volume. Surface noise to music ratio was too low.

This comp gave me leads to Okko Becker "Sitar & Electronics" and the Rascals' "Once upon a Dream" LP… Time well spent.
First track is one of these "Wodunnit" songs or how to surprise your friends with musical trivia: This is Linda Ronstadt's first band… a long way from her hot pants and good ol' Rock'nRoll days!

Ananda Shankar led me down the path of period Indian and Bollywood sounds, with some very interesting finds.
I left Bobby Callender in Sitar-Exploitation heaven and Gabor Szabo got stuck in the fake Psych-Jazz category, not quite the type of songs I had in Mind for FOTH 24. I had to drop Hand Gjort (Hand Made in Swedish), because of the length of the song and I also couldn't locate a copy of the Album (one of the most sought after item in Folk-Psych)… If you have a rip off it, I'll be grateful if you could drop me a comment with your email or a Download link. All comments are moderated and I won't publish anything with your email addy. Thanks in advance.

Enjoy your sitar-laden psychedelia here.