By this stage, the Brian's Back era, The Beach Boys were post-modern whether they knew it or not. Everything about this is fan-fucking-tastic: The melody, the words, the sentiments, the impeccable Brian production, the expansive harmonies, the hand claps, Brian on the fucking Moog!
You don't hear this ever on golden oldies radio here but it's an undeniable feel good hit of the summer.
The fuckin' best!
Find a ride
In the sum-sum-summertime It's OK
it's alright
Dennis on the outro... two Dennis' in fact!
Dennis
Dennis
*Roy Wood guests on drums
**The sound and vibe here are a precursor to Brian's great 00s solo LP That Lucky Old Sun.
***Also surely this is the inspiration for several sunny tunes on Ariel Pink's Before Today.
Beach Boys fans know this as a tune originally from Wild Honey but some insane people prefer this rerecorded disco version. The legendary Curt Boettcher (The Millennium/Sagittarius) along with Bruce Johnson were behind the production on this one. The ten minute version took up most of side two of L.A. (Light Album) however this is the 7 inch single edit of the tune. Many fans hated it as did guitarist Al Jardine.
[1967]
The Wild Honey LP is an underrated masterpiece. Its got a harder stripped back r&b vibe compared to the sophisticated psych pop of the previous two records. Like the rest of the album Here Comes The Night is heavy on the piano, bass and organ: A very nifty proto lo-fi sound. I do love it when Brian has a sing on Beach Boys songs.
This is a neat medley of the record that the Beach Boys scheduled to put out to follow up the strange synth pop odyssey Beach Boys Love You (1977) but Mike Love and Al Jardine ixnayed Brian's plans for that and made a different album instead called M.I.U. Album (1978).
The Beach Boys - Hey Little Tomboy [1978]
The one tune they salvaged from the abandoned Adult/Child project for the M.I.U. Album was this peak weird Brian tune. A lost classic. Many don't realise that Brian is a fucking hilarious dude because he's often so deadpan. He was one funny fellow!
A dark psychedelic dream pop classic. Mournful tones give way to a mesmerising kaleidoscope of ecstatic sound that gets so fervent it spirals off into the stratosphere leaving the gloom behind for the heavens.
Every Road Leads Home - Breathless (1986)
Another soaring hypnotic tune that detours into hair raising menacing sonic excursions before returning to the waves of celestial atmosphere and empyrean euphoria. Then the swirling gets so frenzied it's confusing and hard to distinguish if it's ominous or uplifting. An incredible dreamscape depiction where puzzling emotions are conjured: Foreboding joy.
Breathless – The Glass Bead Game (Full Album) [1986]
Breathless? Who were they again? You may ask. Well for a start singer Dominic Appleton sang The Jeweller, The Strength Of Strings and I Am The Cosmos on the second and third This Mortal Coil albums. Surprisingly however they weren't signed to 4AD despite being the archetypal 4AD band. Breathless bridged the gap between goth-y post punk and dream pop. At once a throwback and a glimpse into the future, the tried and true gloomy atmosphere and the future ecstatic sonic spirit that groups like Slowdive, The Church, Panda Bear etc. would later incorporate into their sound.
It's surprising a group like Breathless weren't more famous back in the day or even now while Chameleons, The Sound, And Also The Trees, Sad Lovers And Giants etc. who also weren't all that renowned either have fanatical cult followings amongst the younger generations online today. Breathless don't seem to be as highly regarded for some reason yet they might be more innovative with their sonic explorations expanding beyond the limitations of genre. Perhaps it's because those aforementioned groups were more about successfully nailing the tone of the style in that specific moment rather than experimenting by pushing the boundaries and creating new possibilities. Transcending the gloom of the era by injecting surreal trip-outs and euphoria into the mix was their masterstroke.
On The Glass Bead Game gloomy post-punk, eerie tribal ominousness, ecclesiastical tones and dreamy neo-psych gloriously collide in a splendid atmospheric vision....
The debut Neats EP came out the same year as spiritually similar records like Mission Burma's Vs, Dream Syndicate's Days Of Wine And Roses,Chronic Town from REM etc. yet today many aren't aware of these Boston legends. Evocative and moody lyricism was combined with clean edgy dark strumming. These driving instrumental workouts would go on a really intense journey with chiming jangles offering a reprieve. This was supreme shadowy art rock.
Rocking your dystopian nightmare hard in psych-post-punk electro manner.
The Hands Of Cain didn't release a record during their existence in the 80s but somebody tracked down these lost tapes, digitally restored them and in 2009 the compilation LP The Only Sound was released.
The Hands Of Cain - Pristine Passion [1983]
Mental psychedelic goth jam with ott anthemic synth touches.
The Hands Of Cain - Two Steps To The End [1984]
Absurd Bowie-isms, phased drummage, classic goth bass, gloomy synths, Barney-esque one string guitar lines and dark space rock flourishes all put through a gothic echo chamber.
The Hands Of Cain - Deadlips [1983]
These guys could get pretty weird too with their fx, synths, psych guitars and echoed vocals. This one's for fans of early Chrome.
Spotlight paid homage to old school electro with its vocoder robot amongst the woozy noir funk.
The funky trip hop hop sounds of pioneer Wagon Christ get a bit forgotten in the historic lineage of plunderphonics to sampledelia to instrumental hip hop to hauntology to whatever but he was a master of the nocturnal downtempo tune.
Back in the day when it all used to, literally, be all about the beats. Sometimes all I ever heard in a tune was the beats, the actual beats and we were beat connoisseurs.
Apocalyptic noisey ambient drone classic. It's got the feeling and texture of Daydream Nation and F#A#∞ without the Beatles rock band dynamics and instrument definition just a crushing, chaotic and catastrophic looming clusterfuck of a sound. Drowner Yellow Swans is ominous hovering amorphous sludge and yet it still feels a bit like a rock album because of the loud propulsive racket created containing an array of swirling and fluctuating distorted tones and hidden melodies. The band described it as their gonzo psych rock record... er just don't go looking for a beat or anything.
The dawning of a new age with dazzling displays of acoustic guitar prowess. Hedges conjures a trompe l'oeil affect creating picturesque splendour and an exquisite spacious atmosphere. On Aerial Boundaries he explores his instrument to its maximum potential pushing the American primitive folk-prog thing out into another dimension. However daggy it may be, it's an undeniable jam.
