PSYCH COLLECTOR
Going one small step beyond selftitling their 1970 debut album, ATOMIC ROOSTER plumped for Atomic Roooster (★★★★ Music On Vinyl) (note the extra “o”). The band’s first line-up featured Vincent Crane and Carl Palmer, ex-members of The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown, along with Nick Graham. Together they made a phat old stomp with proggier elements which served to embellish the sound without undermining its essential heft. Despite this promising start, Palmer and Graham left the group a few months after this album’s release. Crane kept the band name and recruited a new line-up for the mighty second effort, Death Walks Behind You. He really should’ve called it Atomic Rooooster.
Overlooking the chance to shoehorn extra letters into their debut LP of the same year were
QUATERMASS who simply opted for Quatermass (★★★★ Music On Vinyl). Perhaps they preferred to shove additional notes into it instead. Like Atomic Rooster, they were a power trio with prominent organ. They got pretty funky on Up On The Ground. Post War Saturday Echo mostly resembles a ballad before going off the rails towards the end of its 10 minutes. Make Up Your Mind splits into a jazzy detour. Black Sheep Of The Family later had the honour of being covered by Rainbow. Quatermass split in 1971 after which bassist and singer John Gustafson was invited to join
Hard Stuff, with two more musicians who’d passed through the ranks of Atomic Rooster. In the 90s, drummer Mick Underwood launched a new version of the group with Nick Simper of Deep Purple. They named it… Quatermass II.
If twin guitar harmonies are your kink, then check out Feeling
The Ceiling (★★★ Guerssen) by LUIGI ANA DA BOYS. Only 1,000 copies were pressed back in 1978 making originals sought after and this reissue welcome. The crazily named Leeds-based outfit made music with shades of Thin Lizzy and Wishbone Ash. In its rockier moments the LP reaches towards the New Wave of British Heavy Metal although the vocals, when they do interrupt the long instrumental passages, feel more rooted in older folk-rock. It’s definitely one for the air guitarists out there.
Fortune did not favour shoegazers once Britpop and its champions declared war on Slowdive and their brethren. After a strong start, SWERVEDRIVER increasingly sounded a bit knackered and fed up with circumstance. 99th Dream (★★ Outer Battery) was their final album (until reforming more recently) and while it does have some nice melodies and cosy textures, the tempo is often low, it lacks the earlier material’s chutzpah, and songs like These
Days feel cynically and misguidedly designed to appeal to the 90s’ bucket hat brigade.
Coinciding with that reissue, Swervedriver’s Adam Franklin has a new project called BOLTS OF MELODY, named after one of his solo LPS. Film Noir (★★★★ Outer Battery) was originally conceived as an instrumental record and that will explain its propulsively sparkling krautrock vibe. Occasional voices do appear, from Franklin and guests, but the overall effect is that of the soundtrack to a sci-fi thriller, with moments that recall Mogwai’s more synth-oriented work.
Ex-queens Of The Stone Age bassist, Mondo Generator frontman, frequent Dwarves ally and all-round bearded lunatic NICK OLIVERI has unleashed two new editions in his long-running rarities series. N.O. Hits At All Vol. 8 (★★★★ Heavy Psych Sounds) includes a collaboration with Slash and cover versions of songs by the three greatest recording artists of all time: GG Allin, Ween and Ringo Starr. Released on the same day, N.O. Hits At All Vol. 9 (★★★★ Heavy Psych Sounds) has more where that came from, packed as it is with feral helpings of renegade rock and a whole lot of shouting.
Anyone who enjoyed reading our Under The Radar feature on HEY
COLOSSUS in RC550 might like to know that 2019’s Four Bibles
(★★★★ Alter) has just been reissued on “nicotine smoke” coloured vinyl. At that stage it was the group’s most accessible studio album to date (and their 12th in total), with Paul Sykes’ clear and croonsome vocals drifting atop big riffs and the kind of gothy undertones that would be revisited on last year’s In Blood. You Laugh At My Face (★★★★ The state51 Conspiracy) is not an album per se, though it lasts as long as one. Side A hosts a rendition of the titular song, originally recorded by disco innovators Patrick Cowley and Jorge Socarras. HC unwind their version for over 20 minutes, transforming it into a lunging kind of post-rock epic. The second side has a remix, virtually the same length, by Bass Clef which returns the song to the dancefloor in a radically chopped up fashion.
In comparison to the no-nonsense Blue Cheerisms of Bob Balch’s principal group, Fu Manchu, BIG SCENIC NOWHERE offer a floatier take on desert rock. The band also features members of Yawning Man and their latest album, The Waydown
(★★★★ Heavy Psych Sounds) is heavy in an almost elusive way. Synthesizers add a touch of The Cure to the verses which lead up to the anthemic metal chorus in Summer Teeth. Other moments recall the trippier end of Soundgarden. The biggest surprise occurs five songs in, when they cover Sara Smile by Hall & Oates. On paper, the stoner and yacht rock genres might seem miles apart. Then again, both scenes are known for their moustaches and denim.