Diggin' Up Down Under Official Release LP !

Happy New Year to all you Ladies and germs, faithful followers of this backward spot in the websphere! Time to get back to business. Here's the official Dig The Fuzz release of Diggin' Up Down Under. Now you can discover all the work that went into this LP, just compare it with the promo release. As usual, time is needed to listen and relisten to a bunch of tracks in order to find the perfect flow. Some weaker tracks are gone, the flow is seamless and the new songs are killer. This really showcases DTF impeccable taste and selection.

Dig it (again) here.

Incredible Sound Show Stories 17 - Clap Hands Daddy Come Home Volume 2

Final instalment of the Incredibe Sound Show Stories, this volume represents one the series' highest point: only the best Freakbeat is featured here.Again Ripped from one of our own mintish Vinyl, this really rips along. SAdly, IT IS the last volume Dig the Fuzz published, although there are rumors that many more volumes were planned. Why did they stop? A few people know…not me.

We still have a few aces up our sleeves to follow the DTF thread, these will be up starting next week. There is also bigger and better plans for this blog.

Meanwhile, Clap hands and welcome Daddy's return here.

Incredible Sound Show Stories 09 - Clap Hands Daddy Come Home

In the immortal words of Dig the Fuzz Records: "You have here a collection (gathered together by hideous phone bills, hedaches, loft insulated records and of course the sheer love of it all!!) of stupidly rare and obscure discs from foreign shores featuring lost and long forgotten British bands from the mid to late sixties.
In this latest instalment of the delicious and Incredible Sound Show series, we present 17 god almighty blasts of guitars, organs, drums, harmonicas, and while we're at it general MOD and R&B mayhem from 16 no-hit wonders now back in the land of the Union Jack. CLAP HANDS! DADDY COME HOME!…

My personal comment here: there are a lot of UK bands who felt competition was too hard in the UK and emigrated elsewhere (usually Europe)… easier living to be had. Either that or foreign-only issued 45. These songs literally come from all over the world… Singapore included!
A scorcher of a volume is what we have here… it nearly started a parallel ISSS series. Look for a new volume in the near future.

Meet Daddy here!

Incredible Sound Show Stories 4 - A Trip on the Magic Flying Machine

Short post for today. This is one of the best psych volume in the Incredible Soundshow Stories series…so good I am still listening to it years after ripping it. There's just one heavy prog/psych in the track listing, all the rest is absolute classics. The word "Psychedelic" is mentioned so many times on this comp that I will spare you the track listing! There's also too many favourites in there to start commenting them… you'd end up with another monster post.

Just climb aboard the magic flying machine here.
We enjoy your comments… get typing!.

Incredible Sound Show Stories 3 - 200 Feet Deep In A Purple Idea

More Freakbeat and Psych insanities from Dig The Fuzz label.
This volume, interestingly, features 2 french psych bands among the usual british Freakbeat fare. This is certainly only the tip of the iceberg and we are thinking of making a FOTH comp exploring the french psych/prog scene. Les Goths made only one but excellent 4-song EP, highly sought after, and Tacpoum Système made several psych 45, from which "Asmodai" is lifted. They sadly transformed into a prog band after this initial effort. All in all, this is yet another classic comp in the Bam Caruso mould.
There is a small mistake in the tagging of one song: "XK 1LX" is by the Nashville Teens, not by The Lemon Drops, I'll let you correct that.


The next FOTH volume "Pre-Kraut Pleazers" is ready and should be out and posted this week.


Hold your breath and dive 200 Feet Deep In A Purple Idea here.

Incredible Sound Show Stories 2 - When the Tangerine Strikes Twelve

Second Volume of the ISSS series now up for grabs. This one has a definite Freakbeat/early Brit psychedelic tint to it. Again compiled from (very) hard to find acetates and master tapes, and ripped from the original Vinyl LP. Featuring rare John's Children tracks along with a BBC Interview… They sound all a bit full of themselves or were they out of their brains? There's also a heavy serving of the later incarnation of the Downliners Sect, when they discovered R&B was out and psych was in. All recorded as demo in a Medium's House with a band that was on the brink of exploding.

When the tangerine strikes twelve…get your fresh fruits & veggies here!

1- Daddy Rolling Stone - John's Children
The band attacks the song from every direction and they at least manage to play a verse and a chorus fromthe original version before smashing it up in true punk style. A good opener.

2- Every Minute of the Day - The Primitives
Great band already featured on ISSS 1 respected for their Pye 45 punker "You said". The track selected here shows their move into '66 mod style.

3- Little Piece of Leather - The Hipster Image
Slice of mod-influenced from Sheffield, they managed to hop on Jimmy Saville charity flexi with this Sue standard. Backflip is an organ instrumental (not featured here).

4- Shame Shame Shame - Unknown Band
Great '65 sound with a menacing rythm guitar from a band who strikes a close resemblance with the Kinks (Kontaversy period).

5- Eiderdown Clown - The Scots of St James
From Scotland indeed! Had their start on the Go label (subsidy of CBS) at the end of '66. This is their follow-up in 67, a classic psycher on the Spot label. Without much success, they went on to become the Hop Scotch and then Forever More. Graham Maitland then also appeared in pop psycher The Five Day Rain

6- White Caterpillar - The Downliners Sect
Proof that a good band can switch to different sound without being ridicule.

7- Shalom - Hell Preachers Inc.
You already had a taste of them on our FOTH 22 comp here. Proof of our good taste.

8- Boring Song - Charge
Early Floyd influence all over that slab of Art College psych from Derby. Double sided privately pressed 45. Recorded quietly in the college Library, believe it or not.

9- Spider - Downliners Sect
See White Caterpillar for description. When you start being obsessed with insects, it's time to lay off the drugs.

10- Perfumed Garden of Gulliver Smith (& Interview with John Helwett)
According to them, they were trying to expand the genre… the interview has them sounding like arty poofs, but the track is much better.

11- Never Mind - Elli
This single was released on the same day as the Fab Fours "Strawberry Fields Forever" ensuring instant obscurity. Elli will pop up on a number of other ISSS volumes… One of the UK's unknown national treasures.

12- Second Glance - Timothy Grass
A great slice of Psych from a totally unknown band…

13 - The Wind Out of Nowhere - Whichwhat
Track from a surviving master tape and an excellent find from Nottingham's late 60's pop/rock scene. The band stayed together long enough to record an album and 6 singles before splitting. Their late 70's reunion produced this fine lazy pop psych track.

14 - All Lead Back to You - The First Impression
One of the many late 60's London acts who fitted into the jigsaw of the underground circuit of the time. Also featured on the Saga label " Swingin' London" LP– a pretty ridiculous attempt at grasping the era ensured them well deserved obscurity.

15- Strange Loves of Gwyneth - St Davids Road
Welsh psych obviously… From a promo copy.

16- Hot Rod Mama - John's Children
Shades of Bolan to come. Nuff said.

17- Lord of the Rings - John's Children
Keith Grant uses the leftovers of the original Sect to record this strange attempt at psychedelia. Well, it HAS a very clear psych feel but you can still feel the good ol' R&B influence while declaiming verses about Tolkien's epic saga… what were they taking?

Incredible Sound Show Stories 1 - The Technicolour Milkshake

As promised, we're starting a new parralel series, with the re-upping of The Incredible Sound Show Stories. There are seventeen tracks by fifteen groups: standouts are "Action Painting" by the Ricketts, "I'm so Glad" (the Skip James song) by the Maze (two members of which would later be in Deep Purple--but this track sounds nothing like "Smoke on the Water"), and "Red and Green Talking Machine" by an unknown group. This is from the original vinyl pressing, full of 1960's acetates/private pressings/obscurities. It seems to a have a slight Deep Purple fixation: the Purple Barrier had to change their name to The Barrier because of DP and you'll find a track by The Maze (not the US bands) which featured Ian Paice and Rod Evans. The first track is an insane freakbeat instrumental by The Ricketts, which was worth buying the LP alone. Other track of note is "Devil" which sadly never made it past the acetate stage and "Silence of the morning" which has since then appeared on a number of comps.

Technicolour Milkshake here!

Fools On The Hill 6: Red fuzz with purple flashes - 24 worlwide wild freakbeat masterpieces from the mid-60's

We've skipped volume number 5 to give you a little dash of much-needed fuzz, as #5 was about soft pop. We thought better to keep you wide awake. So what is Freakbeat?
Freakbeat was essentially the bridge between the beat groups and psychedelia. It was an adventure, albeit a brief one. Its influence, certainly among musicians, was widespread, although it's only in retrospect that it's been seen as any kind of movement. Usually made by rare British blues and garage rock artists, bands that sounded a bit like the Rolling Stones, Yardbirds, or the Bluesbreakers, but occasionally some of the tougher Merseybeat bands fit this category, too. It was often primitive (indeed, one of the bands was called the Primitives), with a foundation in blues and R&B, but it was a vital cog in moving music forward. Elements of the freakbeat sound include strong direct drum beats, loud and frenzied guitar riffs, and extreme effects such as: fuzztone, flanging, distortion and compression or phasing on the vocal or drum tracks. Think proto-psychdelia, or how to aim for the charts while stretching the envelope a bit further.
Early albums by The Who and The Kinks supplied the blueprints, but The Yardbirds were really the detonators for freakbeat bands that followed, such as The Creation, The Sorrows and The Move. Of course, there were many, many more freakbeat bands than the ones mentioned above. Most of them lasted for one, perhaps two singles, offering three minutes of pure abandon before returning to their regular lives. A fair number of them are commemorated today on compilations, even if they made no impact at the time.
Admittedly, we often use this term as a UK-only music, but it does stretch to some Commonwealth countries and Northern Europe who were looking up to Britain for inspiration.
The term "freakbeat", incidentally, was coined in the 1980s by Phil Smee of the Bam Caruso reissue label, a man of serious good taste.


Your life won't be like it was before get the fuzz 'ere
Tell us about it in the comments section.

Track Listing:

1●The Creation ●Makin’ time (UK, 1966)
2●The Clique ●You’ve been unfair (UK, 1965)
3●Shel Naylor ●One fine day (UK, 1964)
4●The Master’s apprentices ●War or hands of time (twisted bootleg version) (Australia, 1966)
5●Rupert’s people ●Dream in my mind (UK. 1967)
6●Edwin Rumbold ●Come back (?)
7●Thane Russal ●Security (UK, 1966)
8●The Animals ●Outcast (UK, 1966)
9●The D-Coys ●Bad Times (Australia, 1966)
10 ●The Bluestars ●Social end product (New Zealand, 1966)
11 ●The Allusions ●Gypsy woman (Australia, 1966)
12 ●Thor’s Hammer ●My life (Iceland, 1966)
13 ●Mickey Finn ●Garden of my mind (UK, 1967)
14 ●The Chasers ●Inspiration (UK, 1966)
15 ●The Master’s apprentices ●Undecided (Australia, 1967)
16 ●Thor’s Hammer ●Better days (Iceland, 1966)
17 ●Q65 ●From above (Holland, 1966)
18 ●The Master’s apprentices ●Burried and dead (Australia, 1967)
19 ●The Eyes ●Man with money (UK, 1966)
20 ●The Creation ●How does it feel to feel (UK, 1968)
21 ●Rick & Sandy ●Lost my girl (UK, 1965)
22 ●The Moondogs ●Tryin’ to make you see (Denmark, 1967)
23 ●Cool Stove ●Big Sensation (Germany, 1967)
24 ●The Creation ●If I stay too long (UK, 1968)

You're holding Me Down: Joe Meek Freakbeat

Bent. Paranoid to the extreme. Control freak. Closet Queen. Weirdo. Everything has been said over Joe Meek. All that is left of him now is his music. Although better know for his instrumental successes (Telstar, anyone?), he also produced some fine R&B-derived rock music, much of which prefigured the British Invasion sound by several years. Joe Meek, inventor of the Freakbeat?

Although touted as Britain's own Phil Spector, it is safe to say that Phil's character pales in comparison. Given the social and moral environment of early ‘60s Britain, it’s tempting to think that Joe Meek’s repressed sexuality and fragile mental state played the major part in shaping his creativity, but he built the first TV in his town, was an RAF radio engineer, a technician with the Midlands Electricity Board, and before branching out on his own was a BBC sound engineer. He did not last at the BBC because his methodology of altering recordings was completely at odds with tradition.

So, in his rooms above a leather goods store at 304 Holloway Road in London, Meek became Britain’s first independent record producer, pioneering special effects, tape reversal, direct imput of the bass guitar, close-mic’ing, and multi-tracking. It remains remarkable that he was able to emulate stereophonic sound on his 1959 recordings I Hear a New World, possibly the world’s first concept album.
Anyone who’s ever thought they sounded better singing in the bathroom, or felt that drumming on a table or door felt right should be able to relate to Joe Meek, who covered his lack of musical talent with his use of echo, reverb, compression, home made electronics, innovative sound sources, and ideas about the separation of instruments. Understanding of technology was one of his strengths, but instead of using equipment to emulate what already existed or make it cleaner, Meek was on a quest to harness his imagination
into sound.

This CD comes from the later part of his carrer, when, deprived of the income his hits had generated, tortured by the implications of his sexual orientation, he was desperately trying to invent a new sound. Sadly, just when the Beatles were expressing an interest in his work, Joe killed his landlady in a fit of paranoia-driven madness and then shot himself, on the anniversary of the death of his hero, Buddy Holly.

30 nuggets indeed…

Justification CD: 20 Trippers from the 60's UK Psychedelic Subculture

Off good Ol' Freak Emporium: Limited to 500 copies and a compilation of the best tracks from the first two deleted vinyl releases from the Justa.. series. Includes some new gems, this features some of the best obscure UK Sixties psychedelia. Includes cuts from Kippington Lodge, Murray Head, Cupid's Inspiration, Jet Harris, Sharon Tandy and lots lots more. Perfect for those retro pill-popping parties... Contains a wad of Justification 2 LP songs and some unissued material as bonus. If somebody has the Justification 2 LP, please leave me a comment with your email (i won't publish it). Cheers.

Get it here.

Justification - 13 Rare as Hell 1960's UK R&B Stompers !!!

Last Volume of this series in my possesion. Anyone has has Justafixation #2? If so drop me a line in the comments (always welcomed). NExt post will be some Wall of Voodoo for a change.
Here it is.

Yup… Something strange happened… the track list is scrambled. Somehow the song titles and artists names are attached to the wrong files. I'll fix it when I can… means a new archive.

EDIT: The new Archive is linked now, with the correct bands tagged to the corresponding songs.

Justafixation - 14 rare trippers from the 60s U.k. psychedelic subculture

Justafixation came out in '96, and is more psych than beat. I think Voyage Through the Sugarcube has the edge, but there's some great stuff on Justafixation, including the Koobas' freakbeat track "Gypsy Fred". There were 3 other volumes in the series: Justafixation #2, Justavibration (softer British psych in a Circus Days vein) and Justification, which is the beat volume and the best of the lot. They aren't so hot in the sound quality department, unfortunately.
This comp had been issued at around 200 or 300 copies in 96, and was nearly sold out in the first weeks after it appeared....
This is a Rip from the original LP.
Dig it!

I'll follow-up with the "vibration" and "fication" Lps, but sadly haven't got Justafixation #2…