DISC ONE
THE HOBORCHESTRA – Editable Text
I can’t think of another band I hear as many great things about as I do The Hoborchestra. “You should hear the new album, it’ll blow you away”, “Cool, The Hoborchestra are on DG6, I love that band”, “Tim Kotch is my favourite songwriter” and so and so on. Of course I’m already a believer and these words are wasted on me, but I thought they’d be a worthwhile resource in explaining how well thought of this music is. “Editable Text” is their latest offering to the Daydream cause, with it’s tag-line of “Would you maybe like to come visit, I know you’re sick, but it’s Monday night and there’s good public television”, its a meandering, folky-pop song, instantly diggable for it’s wonderfully understated and vividly recognisable human warmth and fragility. Also it’s well worth hearing right to the end for some ad-libbing on the art of learning the clarinet. I fully expect to hear more good things soon.
www.myspace.com/thehoborchestra
SUCKS TO LALA LAND – Cure For The Common Cold
To throw up a Bob Dylan comparison in the first sentence of this write-up would be an unfairly heavy load to heap upon Sucks To LaLa Land’s Keith Crain, but it’s regrettably unavoidable. For a start like the freewheelin’ songsmith of old, Keith’s a young troubadour, perhaps still learning his trade, with songs stripped right back to the bare bones of a beautiful voice and a finger-picking guitar. In a simple twist of fate Sucks To LaLa Land’s fondness for churning out exciting Dylan covers in recent months hasn’t gone unnoticed, but here we’re treated to something original, and like a young painter under the watchful tutalage of an old master, it would appear that the influence is rubbing off nicely. With a song like this, the potential combination of one (if not the) best vocalist to have ever graced the DG compilations, and a maturing mind conjuring up Dylanesque song-adventures is truly an ear-watering prospect. So stay tuned.
www.myspace.com/suckstolalaland
DEAD CANARIES – Who Knew?
Like some musical superhero the addition of real live drums is the equivalent of bestowing special powers through some magic potion on the Dead Canaries set-up. Men, women, children, and especially animals openly wept with equal measures of joy and confusion at the beauty and ingenuity of this year’s relatively drum-free “Crital Mass” album – so one can only speculate as to the aftershock of their next offering if “Who Knew?” is anything to go by. Melodically riotous, unanticipatedly noisy, catchy and effortlessly cool like some nodback to the 1960s Mod-era, this song is arguably one of the finest 3 minutes to have been born from the bowels of the Dead Canaries laboratory to date. With rumours of a new album sometime soon you should expect more of the unexpected – and let’s face it, you wouldn’t expect anything less from this band would you?
Download DEAD CANARIES “Critical Mass” at the Quixodelic Record store link above.
THE PLAYGROUND – Songs For Jennifer
I feel sorry for the flies in Mixmastermigity’s home “studio” because there really can’t be anywhere safe for them to land. Picture a circus world of kazoos and guitars, of handclaps and gadgets and you’re getting the idea. Where most bands bust a gut flogging a style to trademark perfection, this guy seems determined to rip through every genre going (and have some fun while he’s ripping) – we’ve heard Dylanesque Highway 61 folk, Beatlesque distorted pop, slacker Indie Rock, and now with “Songs For Jennifer” we’ve got a slice of unrepentant electronic soul. Drum patterns and computer layers of sound take the flies to someplace else altogether as they buzz around loved up through a fog of smoke and their own confusion. With a debut Playground album surely going to make a break for cover soon, I can honestly say that I don’t have a clue what comes next. I wouldn’t even write-off some kind of death-metal-hip-hop, I’m just happy to be one of those flies circling in an invisible ring around the big tent roof buzzing on whatever comes next.
www.myspace.com/mixmastermigity
Download “The Playground” EP at the Quixodelic Record store link above.
INVASIONS – Helpless Magic
The psychedelic capital of the world (Toronto) pulls another great band from it’s seemingly bottomless magician’s hat. Invasions sit comfortably at the edge of the swirling psych vortex, just dipping their toes in and pulling their own pop faces while they’re at it, oblivious as to how special this music actually is. “Helpless Magic” is upbeat and full of swagger, with a melody that sticks like bubblegum to your boots, guitars like uncontrollable dogs licking your face, drums jumping up and down on your back, and a vocal delivery of totally wasted cool. There’s only one thing I can possible say to sum this song up – “It’s magic…”
www.myspace.com/invasionsmusic
THE FALLING FLOORS – If You Say ‘No’
If this had been 1965 instead of 2008 then The Falling Floors would be the kind of band that would have surely had rabid record executives salivating in the wings of their every gig, ready-made contracts rolled up in their sweaty hands. Within a matter of months this Manchester band would have been sitting pretty in the Top 10 alongside now legendary names like The Beatles, The Kinks and Ken Dodd. But as it happens, of course it’s 43 years later and the brilliant “If You Say ‘No’” must be content (for now) to shine prettily on an obscure Indie music mix-tape. But go and listen close enough and you might just be able to hear behind the “ooh-la-la’s” and the gobsmackingly great tune, the sound of young girls sobbing and the pitter patter of saliva at the edge of the stage.
www.myspace.com/thefallingfloors
SAUVIE ISLAND MOON ROCKET FACTORY – Another Suicidal Continental Sled
I think I fell in love with this song instantaneously. Once I’d gotten over the mouthful of a band name and song title, there was something charged and highly original in the structured chaos of the music, the psychedelic slide riff, chugging bendy electric chords, walking bassline, and schizoid jazz drums, but the more I listened the more I found that it was actually the song itself that elevated it to the creamy head of great tunes in my musically saturated mind. “Another Suicidal Continental Sled” is the kind of song that songwriters dream of writing, something that could probably be framed by any combination of instruments and still come out sounding like one of the best things you will hear this year. If anybody can figure out if and where I can get my hands on an acoustic version then feel free to let me know. As well as being a favourite of Sauvie Island live shows, I’m told that this song was also a favourite of a friend of the band who tragically took her own life. So I guess regrettably this one’s for her.
www.myspace.com/sauvieislandmoonrocketfactory
JANE GILMORE – Where’d You Go, Mr. Sunnyside? (demo)
It’s not a great secret how highly I rate Jane Gilmore as a singer/songwriter, and in many ways she epitomises what the Daydream Generation is all about. Where some bands have the luxury of recording studios to play in, and some home-recording artists have top quality technology at their fingertips to bring their songs to life, there are others who are simply content (or forced) to make do with what they’ve got, grab a guitar, press record, and sing for the sake of songwriting. A track like this might still only be at the demo stage, but it goes on to tick every box a lo-fi gem should – highly autiobiographical, alive with brilliant phrases & melodies, gutsy and beautifully raw. Jane Gilmore yet again delivers a masterclass on how to be yourself by dreaming of dancing in forests and baking in the Midwest. On the stage of a daydream it’s not where it’s going, but where it’s at that really matters.
Download JANE GILMORE “Knowledge Is Dangerous” at the Quixodelic Record store above.
WILD SMILE – Technicolor Breeze
Let’s face it – anyone who has the tehnical know-how to build a song around a Beach Boys surfing drumbeat like that knows exactly what they are doing. Casey Hardmeyer (Wild Smile) serves up “Technicolor Breeze” on a bed of harmonies, a song for the summer of youth, full of twee hippy keys, a gentle voice that verges on shoegaze, and of course those drums. At worst it’s easy listening loaded with innocent cool, at best it’s two and a half minutes of unmined pop psychedelia like a super-colourful pale wind on your happy upturned face.
www.myspace.com/caseyhardmeyer
TWISTED GIMLET – Far Far Far (You Are Invincible Now)
“Far Far Far…” begins life as a trippy spiritual lullaby concerning the benefits of sleep with a solitary solarized vocal in the dark above a distant swirling organ. In itself that would have been great enough, but halfway through the song explodes into a funky 60s rhythm section that ushers the song to a higher level still, the dreamlike intimacy of it’s beginnings melting away like a series of colours down the barrel of a kaleidoscope. Throw in a fucked up band name and if the spark of curiosity is not a full-blown inferno between your ears then I can only assume we must be listening to different songs. Soon as the heat from this track cools down I’ll be tracking the scorched earth back to its origins and demanding to know what other weird concoctions Twisted Gimlet has been cooking up.
ONE UNIQUE SIGNAL – Dismemberment
There’s always one song on every Daydream compilation I find myself crossing my fingers for, hoping you can hear what I can hear. One Unique Signal sit unflinching at the darkest end of shoegaze/psychedelia, very nearly toppling over into something resembling an experimental effects driven punk-rock-noise project. “Dismemberment” taken from the brilliant 3-song EP of the same name is full-throttle from the moment the key hits the ignition. Noisy, layered, menacing, magical, the sound of kicking through things in a frenzy of feedback and you know what – why the fuck am I crossing my fingers? This song and this band are brilliant.
www.myspace.com/oneuniquesignal
BECKY N – Rest
And so the unthinkable very nearly happened. Since July 2007 whenever the compilation rallying call has been sounded, Becky N has been there on the front line with her clever guitar lines, kooky accordian, microphone tied to hair and poetry flowing. And with DG6 I was made up to hear from her again, this time with “a disco song” called “Yellow Days”, and as always the song was subtly brilliant. Only with a couple of weeks to go she changed her mind, said the song was rubbish and forced me at ten and a half thousand mile gunpoint to remove it from the compilation. Thankfully on the very last day I was looking for songs, she produced “Rest”, and thankfully again it’s what she does best – picks up a guitar and sings more melodic fodder for a growing army of admirers.
Download BECKY N “Two Wheels” EP at the Quixodelic Record link above
THE GILLS – Ghosting
Having graced DG5 with the brilliant “To How We Feel Down”, here’s another of Ryan from Sleep School’s musical projects. I’ve been fortunate enough to hear the record that “Ghosting” was taken from – an 8-song record, dark, melodic and majestic called “Engine Note”, and was given the priviledge of hand-picking my favourite track from it for this compilation. After 3 weeks of listening to the record and changing my mind a dozen times over, I eventually picked the immaculate “Ghosting”, revved-up comparison-defying shoegaze-pop with fire in it’s bones, as atmospheric as it is accessible, as full of feedback as it is melody. Another couple of days though and I may have just changed my mind again, “Engine Note” is that good.
www.myspace.com/thegillsthegills
SIMON PILER – Big Arc Blues
The main question about Simon Piler is “artist or musician”? The answer is probably a lot of both. I might have been dreaming again, but I’m pretty convinced that the email that accompanied this song described how it was made “with bicycle parts”. How this is possible, or even if it is true, I honestly don’t know. I’ve listened for bells and a foot pump, but I really can’t hear much further than the bluesy-folk ferocity of it’s vocal line. There’s no doubt though that “Big Arc Blues” sounds nothing like anything I’ve ever heard before – rather than other-wordly, it’s so weirdly great that it can only be human and very much of the earth, mechanical, functionally expressive, and as curiously unconventional as music can get.
BROKEN MONO – Now The Sun Is Golden
Sometimes I think the man with a cat’s head and an ear for 60s psychedelic guitar riffs is just playing with my mind. He says about this song “oh, and this one’s got a riff on it”. A riff? This resembles quite possibly one of the greatest understatements of the century – “Now The Sun Is Golden” doesn’t just start with a riff, it snarls into being with a loping electric gathering of rain clouds, chords and notes that would have been worthy of Jimi blasting the skies wide open. “Now The Sun Is Golden” is Broken Mono at his finest, psychedelic, supersonic, call it what you want. They say that when Hendrix was born the moon was blood red, and when Broken Mono was born “absolutely nothing happened”… well I think maybe it’s happening now.
VAGABOND STORIES – Dressed In Dreams
All the way from Germany, another lesson in how to craft a perfect psychedelic shoegaze sound. Bittersweet beautiful vocals wrapped around a Brian Jonestown Massacre-esque arrangement, and the very best thing about this song is that it is still only at the “rough-mix” stage. Lord only knows how great it’s going to sound when it’s finished. Vagabond Stories promises loads and I’m sure will be a name you’ll be seeing over and over again in future months, in the meantime I’m feeling rather pleased with myself that we managed to squeeze them onboard the Daydream bus at the very last moment – the compilation is darker and more shimmering with their presence.
www.myspace.com/vagabondstories
THE BAREFOOT KID – Waiting For
Some songs are so laid-back that you feel like you should be tilting your head horizontally to hear them properly. It’s partly that wicked little slide guitar line that punctuates The Barefoot Kid’s “Waiting For”, like some odd rowing boat bobbing up and down upon the sea of acoustic sound. But it’s equally as much to do with the vocal take, a barely audible drawl, the murmur of a daydream waiting for something to happen. All you can really do when faced with a song like this, is to lie back, close your eyes and let the ocean take you wherever it wants to go. And you’re certain somewhere deep down in your brain that if you were to peek over the side then you’d surely find the name “Syd” inscribed in spidery psychedelics on it’s odd bobbing side.
www.myspace.com/vileandthevain
KALEIDONAUTS – Let’s Start A Country
There must be some kind of unwritten rule somewhere out there concerning writing a review of a song you’ve been involved in, so for once I’m not going to say why it ended up on the compilation instead I’ll stick to the cold hard facts. “Let’s Start A Country” is from the second Kaleidonaut’s album “Tigermouse” released not so long ago through our very own Quixodelic Records. Originally written by me, it was re-worked and re-drafted by Warchalking, and finally was given a touch of vocal sophistication by Jane Gimore. I think what it’s about is pretty self-explanatory.
Download KALEIDONAUTS “Spaniard” and “Tigermouse” at the Quixodelic Record store above.
THE SUGAR SKULLS – She’s Supernatural
The Sugar Skulls are pretty special for a whole range of reasons. For a start the two artists who make up the ranks are geographically poles apart, Mexico and Glasgow to be precise – the fact their combined sound strikes a note of such eerie harmony just goes to show that it’s not where you’re from, it’s how you feel that matters more and more these days. Individually, Celina O and Al Hotchkiss are pretty damn amazing at doing what they do best – Celina with her own brand of truthfully sweet and profound beat poetry, Al with his unnerving ability to craft desert-drenched psychedelic vistas of hallucinogenic guitar cool. Put the two together and you get truly brilliant tracks like “She’s Supernatural” (which incidentally I picked because it shows a whole other side to the combination than “Is This Your Vehicle?” as show-cased on DG5).
www.myspace.com/theesugarskulls
www.myspace.com/yourpsychtunes
UBERFUZZ – As If It Matters
“As If It Matters” is the title track from the most recent EP from planet Uberfuzz. If you rake around on the site you should be able to find a full review of the record – or better still you can advance straight to GO and go download the entire EP for free from our Quixodelic Record store. This track’s arguably the most immediately accessible of the 5 songs, a rolling, pop-rock-psych fusion of ideas, strobe lights blinking in the background. Part-Spacemen 3, part-Velvet Underground, and many parts something you probably haven’t heard anywhere else before, it all sounds like these guys can make songs like this in their sleep. Long may that continue.
Download UBERFUZZ “As If It Matters” EP at the Quixodelic Record store link above.
Disc Two
THE SPACE BETWEEN THINGS – Postcard Crimes
So if you haven’t yet checked out Toronto’s The Space Between Things then now’s your chance. I can’t understate how amazing this guy’s music is – for months I’ve been tuned in as he breathes out song after song on his MySpace player, and to date I’m yet to hear anything disappointing. “Postcard Crimes”, like “Bare Hands” on DG5 is an absolute work of genius, psychedelically perfect, abstract, beautifully produced and as catchy as a winter bug. I mean for weeks I was singing this tune involuntarily in my head, never quite hitting those brilliant notes. As a curious aside for Indie music geeks, I figure it’s worthwhile mentioning that this track also features The Invisible Mouth on bass – so if ever there was a collaboration that was bound to work then this was it. And man did it work.
www.myspace.com/thespacebetweenthings
ROCKETSHIPS OF LOVE – Why Couldn’t I See?
Daydream Generation 6 should probably go down in history as “The Paul Le Keux” compilation because it’s got this guy written all over it. Rocketships of Love is the mastermind behind Uberfuzz’s pet side-project, highly experimental, predominantly cover-versions, and rooted in whatever sounds he can get out of a synthesizer, I always heard this music as a way to let off steam and cut loose and see what was possible (in contrast to the Uberfuzz ethic of creating as close to near perfect space-age-psychedelics). Originally we were going to go for the infectious instrumental “Stylophone” from the Rocketships debut album, but after hearing the record for once I put my foot down about using a particular song. A Spacemen 3 cover version, it’s more like an explosion of technicolour sound, the perfect symmentry of the cool boy/girl vocals, the volleys of feedback, and the whole thing elevating your brain to places you’re usually only lucky enough to dream about. Side-project it might be, but fucking amazing it most definitely is.
www.myspace.com/rocketshipsoflove
THE LUCID DREAM – The Twilight End
At the risk of alienating a whole compilation of egos (though I try my very best to avoid involving anyone like that and fingers crossed we’re ego-less again) I’m going to come right out and say that The Lucid Dream are the most exciting band we’ve got on these two discs. By exciting I don’t just mean the music, but also the potential impact that they might have on the future of music. A few months ago I was lucky enough to hear a handful of songs from this Carlisle psych-outfit that blew me away, where dirty Iggy-style fucked up rock & roll walked hand in hand with shoegaze brilliance such as we’ve got here with “The Twilight End”. It’s been a long time since I heard anything as immense and atmospheric as the early Verve singles – but I’ll stick my neck out and suggest that this even surpasses that. For a few years people have been talking about the UK psych-scene breaking into the mainstream, and finally perhaps here is a band who have got all the credentials (and the songs) to tip it over the edge.
www.myspace.com/theluciddream08
THE LOADED WHISPERS – Easily Loved/Easily Hated
Another gem from seemingly nowhere. Stephanie Lane and Jermiah Jones are Dublin’s The Loaded Whispers, a collaboration soaked in poetry and lushly dense psychedelic soul sounds. The brilliant “Easily Loved/Easily Hated” is undoubtedly the tip of the iceberg, with hints of The Brian Jonestown Massacre or Mazzy Star, but at the same time wonderfully unique and straight to the point – don’t just take my word for it, go follow the crumbs back to their MySpace page and band website where you can download a load of mp3s for your listening pleasure. That’ll be one of my very first stops when I finally get this compilation out from under my feet… a dose of The Loaded Whispers to counteract potential future winter blues. Ahhh.
www.myspace.com/theloadedwhispers
WILLIAM CARPENTER – Grey Dawn
From the forthcoming album “William Carpenter Sings”, “Grey Dawn” is just another example of how great a songwriter this guy undoubtedly is. There’s something about people who are able to write timeless songs – either you can do it with ease, or you can spend your whole life trying (and failing). William Carpenter falls guitar in hand into the sparsely populated former category, folky philosphical tunes with catchy melodies, everything sounds original and yet so familiar that you can’t help but dig it immensely. This Christmas I’m simply putting “William Carpenter records” on my list – the drums can wait, my clothes can be holey for a few more months, and I’ll gladly sacrifice the idea of a digital camera in favour of an extended play of this music if the melancholy glimmer of “Grey Dawn” is anything to go by.
www.myspace.com/williamcarpenter
THE REVOLUTIONARY PATRIOTS – Lights and Drums
Sometime during DG5 I got sent this song by L.A’s The Revolutionary Patriots and thought it was great. So great in fact that I promptly visited their MySpace page and stumbled over the genius acoustic howl of “Glass Daughter”. I must have listened to those two songs back to back for over an hour trying to figure out which I liked the best and eventually had to refer it to a third party (Mrs Smally). She prefered “Glass Daughter”, messages were sent, and thus “Lights and Drums” lay dormant in my inbox for several months. From the moment I got it into my head to do a 6th compilation I had this song in mind for inclusion. A frantic flurry of emails in the days prior to the compilation going out and at the 11th hour I got an ok from the band to use it, but that they had some new songs they were recording and wanted to go back and redo this one. By this point we’d circled way past the 12th hour into something resembling pure panic. Whereas “Glass Daughter” was an instant hit in the musical mainline vein, “Lights and Drums” had been a slow burner ascending to an almost unbearable addiction of ritually playing it last thing before my bed every night over a 2-week period. It’s a song that will stick with me for life, and even more frightening when I later heard the quality of the newly recorded songs. The moral of the story I suppose is: approach this band with caution as music doesn’t come labelled with health warnings and addiction is highly possible – Dr. Smally.
www.myspace.com/therevolutionarypatriots
JAMES REDMOND – History
There are of course many sides to the music of James Redmond – pop comedy, psychedelic experimentalism, ska racket-making, sci-fi spoofs, motown lampoon… I could keep on going… but I think this here is the side of his music I dig the most. “History” is all about the song, bristling with Liverpudlian melodic charm, so great that you barely even notice that it’s simply a guy and his guitar home-recorded for fun. It would have been a complete travesty if this song had been left to fade away on a cassette at the bottom of some drawer somewhere (which by the sounds of it, it very nearly did), so it’s with equal amounts of relief and pure listening pleasure that we’re proudly featuring it on the compilation. Makes you wonder what other magic might just fade away in that drawer doesn’t it?
www.myspace.com/dirtyticketband
Download JAY REDMOND “Too Much To Think” at the Quixodelic Records store link above.
LOVE KNOT – Tonight You Belong To Me
Sometimes bands get involved in these compilations through random bulletins I post looking for kindred daydreamers who want to get involved, sometimes we feature people we already know who are making great music, but sometimes someone gets involved and I can’t even remember how it happened. A year and a half ago we featured a song by Indian Givers called “Until We Have Faces” that was quite possibly one of the most kookily amazing things I heard in all of 2007. One half of these (Ricky) later contributed to DG3 with a cover of “What A Wonderful World”, and now the other half (Rebecca) is back with a cover of “Tonight You Belong To Me” (does anyone know who wrote the original because I for one don’t have a clue). And once again its one of the most kookily amazing things I’ve heard again all year, lo-fi folk-pop brilliance and a voice that hits heavenly notes “just for fun”. Amazing eh?
FIG MINTS (OF YOUR IMAGINATION) – Pinky’s Valentine
Well a DG compilation wouldn’t be a DG compilation without Bobby Rogan on board would it? As always, “Pinky’s Valentine” sounds typically Figs – crashing drums and guitars, spikey vocals and harmonies, and a killer melody that leaves you grinning from ear to ear. The track itself was written by and features one of the Cozy Home’s most talented individuals (Jenny Penny) as well as backing vocals from Electric City Subway’s maverick frontman Pete, and together the three create a shambolically loveable rogue of a take on it. You can download for free records by all of the above at www.cozyhomerecords.com - well worth a visit and your listening time, however biased I might be.
Download FIG MINTS”The Passionate Misunderstanding” at the Quixodelic Record store above.
CODY HIGH SCHOOL – Sunshine, Girls, and Drugs
Well if this is anything to go by, then be prepared to be blown away by the new CoDY High School record that rumour has it is in its final stages of being put together. You would have thought that after the intensely admirable musical free for all that was “Baddest Fastest” that this band would have been taking some kind of extended vacation from the rock & roll lifestyle their songs capture so well… but the truth is far from it. Gil De Ray and friends go back to doing what they do best (in fact they somehow manage to go back and do it even better) with the genius “Sunshine, Girls, and Drugs”. Rarely has guitar wizardy sounded so necessary, as the track goes off like a fire-cracker in your hands, and there’s an electronic feel behind the Stones-style rock & roll frenzy that even seems to add to the depth of the CoDY High School sound. Bring on that new record.
www.myspace.com/codyhighschool
Download CODY HIGH SCHOOL “Baddest Fastest” at the Quixodelic Record store link above.
RIOT OF THE CENTURY – You’ve Given Me Something I Can’t Give Back
Manchester’s Riot Of The Century are surely destined for bigger and better things. Their sound falls somewhere in the vicinity of 21st century indie rock & roll, full of youthful enthusiasm and swagger, each component of their 3-man set-up working in perfect tandem to produce something loaded with energy and style. You can easily imagine how songs like “You’ve Given Me Something…” could potentially go down a storm in a live-set up, and equally should it ever be recorded in a full studio, because somehow you sense that the galloping hookfest crescendo of this track deserves the kitchen sink of production toys to be thrown at it. Describing themselves on MySpace as sounding like “beardless indie”, I’d not be at all surprised to see their name splashed across the music papers someday.
www.myspace.com/riotofthecentury
WARCHALKING – Steady The Hand
I had to work to get this song on here. The heady days of Warchalking’s second album “Stratum”, and the birth of Quixodelic Records seems a long long time ago. But in actual fact, this track and that record are only 6 months old and we’ve packed so much into the last half year that perception of distance in this instance is askew. “Steady The Hand” has never been too far from my most played list on my iPod since he finished that record, with it’s menacing, yet harmonious acoustic underbelly and the explosive vocal fanfare of its chorus (“steady the hand boy it’s gonna get worse for you…”). So in the off-chance that there are late-comers to this particular adventure I figured it would be a useful sign-post to you to go and download that album for free at the Quixodelic Record store., and a reminder about how inspiring that record was and still is.
Download WARCHALKING “Stratum” at the Quixodelic Record store link above.
THE REAL BURNOUTS – Listen Inside
I think you either get The Real Burnouts or you don’t. It’s the only logical explanation I can come up with to explain why they’re not one of the biggest bands in the world. Let me just explain to you what I “get” from their music – for a start there’s the fact that there’s nothing else out there quite like it, Paul Burnout takes a unique look at the world through his magic glasses and translates what he sees back to the rest of us. Sometimes it is uncomfortably great listening, sometimes it is pure psych gold, almost always it is spontaneously unpredictable, and sometimes still he beams back a song like “Listen Inside”. Beneath a lo-fi acoustic shell there sleeps a monster of an idea where words stick out of the void like arrows and the lullaby evaporates into an epiphany of understanding . You can take the slow train of multiple effects, the fast train of a genius melody, or else you can hitch a lift on the back of beautifully weird bands like The Real Burnouts. The destination is the same, it’s just that it’s up to you how you get there…
www.myspace.com/therealburnouts
THE GREAT VALLEY – Ugly Animals
I’ll be honest, not many bands and not many songs leave me feeling like Dylan’s Mr. Jones, but The Great Valley and “Ugly Animals” are one of those bands, and one of those songs. Can it be possible that there could exist within the same timeframe and running parallel to each other a feeling of something so right happening, expressive, ambitious and entertaining, and a feeling that something is horribly wrong, like a figure at Halloween who somehow looks just too real. Diamond Mouse and The Big Dipper make music from Kennedy’s Garage (if such a place exists) – think Twin Peaks with even more exotic drugs and a ferocious appetite for sucking every last possibility out of limited technology. I don’t know what’s happening here, but fucking hell I like it.
www.myspace.com/kennedysgreatvalley
MOTHERBIRD – June
As much as I love my folk-pop, shoegaze-psych, and lo-fi poetry, there’s always a part of me that looks forward to the weird “other” sections on the DG compilations. And at the heart of this alternative experimental and chaotic universe you’re pretty certain to find the Motherbird of weirdness, flying barely visible through the fog of bewildering minutes. That such bewitching and calustrophobically unusual songsmithery can come from someone who to speak to is above all else very fucking funny, makes it even more extraordinary. “June” is another example of something from the black motionless ocean of the unconscious brain, poetic fragments and jagged guitar structures crissing and crossing like two threads of a web being spun in your eardrums. You’ll struggle to find anything more coherently weird than that.
GHODBANE – K.E.T Fear
We’re talking Ketamine and not Key English Tests right? Return to the underground universe of Ghodbane, sounds from the edge of civilisation. For a moment before I first listened to this I experienced a wave of trepidation, no doubt owing to the author describing this track as some “serious oddness”. But when it played I actually experienced an almost contrary sense of alert calm, the multitude of noises and effects lapping at my head like waves of colour. Ghodbane himself refuses to divulge the instruments and non-instruments that he got these sounds from, and actually for that I’m glad. To me, this is how it must sound out beyond the periphery where we abandon not just our own sense of comprehension, but also our trumpets, and guitars, and pianos, and voices.
www.myspace.com/splendidisolationpodcast
ROLLERCOASTER – Put Your Faith Back Together With Mine (Ubercoaster Sessions)
There are several bands/artists who haven’t missed a single DG compilation from the first time they contribute, but there are only 5 individuals who have contributed to every compilation from Volume One, and Rollercoaster’s Helter Skelter is one of them. It’s easy to take Rollercoaster songs for granted – you know they’re going to be great before you hear them, you know they’re going to be part-psychedelic, part-gospel, part sound-exploration, and you know that you’re going to be carrying the tune around in your head for days after you hear it. But consistency can be a wonderful thing – where some bands spray songs wildly like bullets from a machine gun hitting targets they never even knew were there and completely missing others, Rollercoaster is something of a psychedelic sharpshooter. He knows what works, and you know what works, and needless to say “Put Your Faith Back Together” with it’s ascending platforms of sound from the tremelo bottom to the soulful top hits the mark first time and every time you hear it thereafter.
www.myspace.com/rollercoasteruk
Download ROLLERCOASTER “From Darkness To Light” at the Quixodelic Record store link above
THE GROSVENOR SUITE – Too Good To Be True
This song first appeared on the DG radar as the closing track of Uberfuzz’s “As If It Matters” EP, but with a little bit of hindsight it quickly became apparent that this song was a whole lot more than it was intended to be – in fact it quite possibly could be the beginnings of a psychedelic supergroup. When I first wrote a review of “Too Good To Be True” I described it as “Arthur Lee’s Love walking in on the Screamadelica sessions”, and it still sounds pretty much exactly like that a month down the line. The individual components are Scott White of Elfwoodprattali and Tin-Town (vox/guitar), Milky White of Regal 360 master sound technician (bass/programming), Kelly Le Keux the sometimes amazing voice of Uberfuzz and Rocketships of Love (synth/vox), and of course Paul Le Keux of Daydream Generation 6 (haha) (no doubt has a hand in pretty much everything). And all I can say is please let this be the start of something as special as its beginning, all the ingredients are there and space is the very least of its limits.
www.myspace.com/thegrosvenorsuite
DANIEL LAND AND THE MODERN PAINTERS – Within The Boundaries
For a change here’s a band name you might be familiar with even if you’re new to the Daydream Generation compilations. Normally I’m 100% behind the unsigned, bizarrely unchampioned and relatively unheard, but if you can’t break the pattern for something this special every once in a while round here then where can you break the pattern? Championed by Sonic Cathedral and Northern Star Records, lauded by the NME and the Guardian alike, I sort of feel like I don’t even need to be saying anything about why you should listen to this. Oh fuck it, I’ll say it anyway. When I was 17 there were bands like Slowdive and Chapterhouse and Ride and My Bloody Valentine that made music like nothing before – ethereal, elegant, cool, intelligent, layered and experimental. 15 years later and nobody really seems to be making music like that anymore – or at least not with the same natural ease. Daniel Land and The Modern Painters would seem to be the exception to this pattern – “Within The Boundaries” begins like the sonic waves of early Slowdive before 30 seconds of bewitching, incredible singing kicks in and blows your mind. There, that should do it.
ALLAN DOUGLAS AND THE TRAGEDIES – Riverside
So I really hope you made it this far through what is undoubtedly a jungle of compilation, because we saved something really special for the very end. I once wrote that “Riverside” on it’s own was worth the price of Allan Douglas’ “Lipstick Pickup” – and though not strictly true as that’s one record packed with diggable goodness – it’s still true that this song sticks out like a solitary star in a sky of possibility. Beatlesque in it’s orchestral ambition, Beach Boys-esque in the complexity of it’s harmonies, “Riverside” is a giant epitaph of a song, profound, full of poetry and fire, hauntingly beautiful, kaleidoscopically intricate, and a burning example of the heights that this songwriter and this band are capable of scaling. It’s an absolute honour to spin a track like this on one of our humble compilations – I honestly can’t give it any more kudos than that.
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