Essential Listening For Y'All in December....

Cromagnon - Orgasm - ESP Recordings. Cherrystones turned Poptones.co.uk onto this one.  What does it sound like?  Well ... imagine the zombies from Dawn of the Dead entering into a pop studio to record a rock’n’roll album. Its fucking nuts! Join Cherrystones on myspace.com by clicking here

Prog Is Not A Four Letter Word - Compiled by Andy Votel, its an excellent primer for the more obscure reaches of psychedelic prog.  Get it now

King Biscuit Time - Live Bootlegs.  Poptones.co.uk has been tracking down and listening to live boots of the KBT show on the ‘net.  Each show demonstrates Steve Mason (you know ex-Beta Band guy, now King Biscuit Time and all ‘round geniuis) to be the master of mesmeric psychedelia, space-dub and astronaut pop which brings to Poptones.co.uk’s mind, alternatively Neil Young, Notorious Byrd Brothers and Wilder-era Teardrop Explodes Julian Cope.  In other words ... fucking genius.  The Crunch will be released in Springtime. Join King Biscuit Time on myspace.com by clicking here.

The Gentle Rain - Moody - Tracked down through b-music.co.uk’s fanzine, the Gentle Rain is the mastermind of Nick Ingram, whose string arrangements have been turning out weirdly legendary with his library music selections turning out for big bucks on Ebay.  Moody is his only album that came out on the rather mysterious Circle of Sound label.  Within the grooves of the Gentle Rain are reworked soft psychedelic versions of While My Guitar Gently Weeps, I Feel The Earth Move and Family Affair.  Well worth tracking down.

International Submarine Band - Safe At Home Remember when you would read about lost albums and wonder ... ‘what the fuck are those about’...?  International Submarine Band was one of those albums.  Gram Parsons first band?  What the hell?  On Lee Hazelwood’s label?  Recently bought in Canadaland and I have to say—its good ... and always nice to hear Gram Parsons laconic vocals on old country and western classics.  But not as good as his solo albums and the Sweetheart of the Rodeo.  Still ... check it out!

Moog Plays the Beatles - The Electronic Music of Marty Gold I gotta say this.  Man, I’m getting sick of the Beatles.  Not that its the Beatles fault nor is it anything intrinsically wrong about the Beatles but everytime I see them on the cover of a magazine (almost monthly ... nearly fourty years on?) ... I just reached Beatles saturation and began to seek out moog-only versions of Beatles classics.  So when I saw this odd little number at a Garage sale in Canadaland I had to pick it up (not for the weird nude full-frontal figures but for the wonderfully ernest cover versions of the Beatles on moog.  And electronic legend Walter Sear plays on it. 

Tron - Music by Wendy Carlos Deeply confusing electronic soundtrack by legend and composer Wendy Carlos.  Screams mixed with moogs?  But with titles such as ‘Water, Music and Tron Action’ and 1990’s Theme, how could you go wrong?

Odetta at Town Hall - Vanguard Odetta’s voice is probably the most chilling that Poptones.co.uk has ever encountered.  This live album approximates everything that is right about music.  Go forth and get it now!

Alexander Spence—Oar—Reissued in 1999, it was again, one of those lost albums.  But a lost album worth owing.  Discussion about Alexander Spence is usually reserved for mentions of schizophrenic acid casuals of the 60s (Syd Barrrett, Pete Green et al) but his album Oar was recorded in isolation in Texas.  It is a whisper to a scream of a man sitting on the very edge of reality and provided the template for the countrified acid-country singer songwriters of the 90s and 00s. 

Micheal Chapman - Poptones.co.uk hooked in UK singer-songwriter when we recently bought the Nine Million Tongues compilation.  Strangely ignored in the mass media explosion in the Uk with regards to folk music, Chapman started his career on EMI’s Harvest (the first act) and continues his career releasing solid folk rock that for an Englisman is mired in beautiful Faulkner-like Americana.

Bruce Springsteen - Born in the USA - Why?  Because he is the boss.  ‘Nuff said.

Warp 10+1 - Poptones.co.uk found Warp’s compilation of early Detroit Techno in a charity shop in Archway.  Having never heard the early 80s techno, we gotta say...PHROAWRR...FINALLY UNDERSTAND WHY EVERYONE WAS CALLING IT THE NEW PUNK ROCK.  Tracks of amazement!

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