Keep On Funkin' · Barefoot Jerry

[1977]

Even more groovy baby. This one's from their sixth LP. A choice country funk hoedown it is. Some excellent banjo and cosmic guitar workouts. It makes you wonder if maybe The Meat Puppets were fans.

Turn it up and let the good times flow!

Smokies · Barefoot Jerry

[1971]

Groovy baby! Chuck this on your i-pod immediately.

Pretty cool funky southern rock tune with a west coast psych tinge. Like that other great barely recognised group Cowboy these guys were totally unknown to me when they appeared on that great swampy southern rock compilation cd on Soul Jazz Records 15 years back. Since then this tune has turned up on some dumb show on the telly and now the normies have steamed it millions of times so it's pretty surprising that the debut Barefoot Jerry LP Southern Delight has not been reissued on vinyl since its initial release. Maybe the people who stream songs coz they were on the telly aren't your physical media vinyl buying artist supporting music fans. 

Orkiestra Ósmego Dnia / Jan A. P. Kaczmarek - Muzyka na koniec

[1982]

When psychedelic and ambient meet in an apocalyptic folk based extravaganza. It's unbelievable that this LP isn't a massive cult album in avant/psych folk or new age-y ambient circles because this pioneering work is a masterstroke of atmospheric ethno-psychedelia. 

An orchestra of two Polish men Grzegorz Banaszakon on guitars and Jan A P Kaczmarek playing a zither (Fidola Fishera), Synthesiser, piano, flute, recorder, vocals and percussion

Muzyka na koniec, I think, translates as Music For The End. A totally compelling cosmic-pagan jam that's mysterious, mystical and sometimes unsettling. One of the great unknown and unconventional records of its ilk, this has surprisingly never been issued on cd or had a reissue since the 80s. 

Helga Pogatschar - Mars: Requiem

[1995]

Spooky ye olde voices. 

Mars: Requiem is an impressive blend of oratario and 90s industrial flavours. Placing liturgical vocals amongst a dystopian post industrial landscape creates a creepy and ominous effect then at other times it feels pretty sacred and devotional. Some relate these ancient vocal stylings as demonic opera but that probably has more to do with pop culture's inclusion of such music in horror movies but then again who knows what the intentions were. Actually some of the more bombastic tunes from Mars: Requium would have been perfect for a game or movie soundtrack while the more solemn songs would be more suited to being heard in a cathedral. 

Luciano Cilio - Dialoghi del presente

[1977]

It would be pretty hard not to be touched by this minimal avant-folk LP. It's an improv chamber jam like no other. The opening eight minute track Primo Quadro della Conoscenza is the spectacular high point here: Gorgeous, delicate, mysterious, sparse and haunting. 

It all puts me in mind of a time when my younger self romantically thought there was a possibility of living a life like an art film where the aesthetics of the surrounding landscape were to feature in importance and prominence. It was going to be wintry secluded hills in the woods in a minimally furnished cabin-esque farmhouse where the evenings would feature wine, women and song and society and the state would be far from your mind. A life combining the voluptuous, epicurean and contemplative to an integrated cosmic level was the dream not the wretched unrelenting circumstances of reality.

Ksiezyc - S/T

[1996]

Ye olde and modern collide in this ambient medieval psych-folk jam from Poland. Haunting folk horror vibes. Apparently the subject matter is rather grim and macabre. The sorta thing you would have expected 4AD to release back in the day and as good as anything they did put out in this vein. I mean the closest thing to this record is early His Name Is Alive. Perfect music for tonight, the bleakest midwinter's night this year. Despite the fire crackling away me and the dog aren't sure who is coldest. 

With You Every Night · Ariel Pink

[2025]

"Can't lock me out when I'm the voice within"

Total dream-gaze-ment.

LO-fi hypnagogic goodness that goes from romantic to creepy to ecstatic and more. He's tapping into the lost subconscious for a peak deep sonic dreamscape where all sorts of forgotten and unthought things are bubbling away. A hazy and haunted trip-out of glorious proportions. 

The pint size psych pop maestro is in unexpected fine form in 2025.

DURUTTI COLUMN - Lips That Would Kiss/Madeleine

Durutti Column - Lips That Would Kiss/Madeline [1980]

You will be charmed and enchanted by the debut 7" of Vinni Reilly's sublime mesmerising guitar exploits put through the Martin Hannet ringer. Fragile, sweet and odd. 

Durutti Column often get lost in the history of post-punk, the development of 80s guitar music, all things ethereal and being a key influence on future genres like dream pop, shoegaze, UK post-rock, hypnagogia etc. Durutti Column are not just some footnote though, they are the big bang... well more like the gentle rippling waves of the oscillating universe... 

Vinni Reilly captures the beauty and melancholy of our lives, everything in between and more. Capturing the ineffable is what art is for and Reilly excels in this pursuit. There is so much unnecessary bullshit put out into the world it's hard not to be touched when somebody is generous enough to create such poignant and exquisite music for you to enjoy. 

Warning - Warning

[1982]

If Gary Numan turned into Cookie Monster and started playing doom metal maybe it would sound like this. One of the stranger anomalies in the history of 20th century pop. Disco-Doom or as somebody said aesthetically it's Disco Grover meets Cookie Monster. It's got vague hints of French cosmic, 80s action/sc-fi/horror soundtracks, zuehl, Goblin, Archaïa, Heldon, Chrome, F/i, new wave, synth-pop, space-rock, heavy metal etc. but really this German duo's debut LP defies categorisation and is in a genre all of its own. 

Swans - I Am The Sun

I Am The Sun - Swans [1995]

Keeping up the theme of all things sunshine. Beach Boys and Swans are pretty much the same really, sun and fun.

You know what's funny, when this came out Swans were perceived as so passé hardly anybody even noticed. I recall a small article in The Wire and one dude on the radio in Melbourne played tunes from The Great Annihilator so I would be curious what the sales figures were. A year later after releasing the follow up LP Soundtracks For The Blind they broke up because the lack of financial stability had become so stressful they couldn't even sustain running the band.  

In a turn of events that is still surprising to me Swans returned in the 2010s after a thirteen year hiatus to immense critical acclaim and an unforeseen surge in popularity. Somehow in their absence a huge cult following featuring a younger generation of devoted fans had formed. Soundtracks For The Blind had become a cult phenomenon online to rival other cult records of the 90s like Spiderland, When The Kite String Pops, Stratosphere and In An Aeroplane Over The Sea. I'm guessing their influence on Godspeed You Black Emperor was also a key factor to their meteoric post-millennial rise.

Song For The Sun - Swans [1991]

Another Beach Boys-esque tune to get you in your Little Deuce Coup headed to the coast for some surfing fun in the sun and beach babe action. Michael Gira the most fun man in rock with the sunniest disposition!