Classic Rock 361 Items

In 2019, at a time in which irrationalism seems to be king, with far-right politics enjoying mainstream status worldwide, religious fundamentalists, flat-earthers, and anti-vaccinists testing the limits of freedom of speech, Planet of Zeus return with their highly anticipated fifth studio album, "Faith in Physics" (Heavy Psych Sounds records). Lyrically, this album seems to be Planet of Zeus's most socio-politically conscious release, dealing with themes such as digitalization, religion, social network pseudo-revolution, addiction and lonerism. Musically, it sounds like the band's chosen to take the dirtiest path possible in order to create the highly charged atmosphere needed to get its messages through. 46 minutes of heavy, intellectual riffology and fat grooves, reminiscent of RATM's best days, MC5-esque attitude and energy, coupled with QOTSA's pop sensibilities. An album that flows like water and closes with Planet of Zeus's signature psychedelic last track, that sounds like "the Doors" landing in 2019 Athens via teleportation.

Love Will Tear Us Apart should have been the band's most shining moment, instead it became their tragic swan song. Released just a month after frontman Ian Curtis' heart wrenching suicide, the song came to be seen as the unheeded warning of the impending tragedy. This special edition features all three versions of the song that transformed Joy Division from mere band into legend. In addition to the original single version, we have two versions remixed by American producers Don Gehman of John Mellencamp fame (the 'radio version') and Arthur Baker (who also produced a hit single for Africa Bambaataa around this same time). The remaining tracks include "These Days" (which appeared on the original "Love Will Tear Us Apart" single), along with "Transmission" (their debut single released in 1979) and "Atmosphere" (originally released as a France-only single) in 1980.

Heavy Psych Sounds is really proud to announce a brand new series of split albums that will be called Doom Sessions. We are going to release a bunch of compilations with doom bands from Heavy Psych Sounds roster featuring some of the heaviest bands of the world doom scene. Each volume will host two bands. This record you are holding is VOL. 3 – a split album between the US "Relapse records" legendary sludge-hardcore riffers 16 and the Italian heavy sludge band Grime. All the tracks are new and never released before. Almost half an hour of angry and aggressive heavy doom and sludge riffs !!! Awesome artwork by the mighty Branca Studio.

Summer of '69 - Special Pressing. Pressed on 140g.
Jefferson Airplane’s 1973 live album with the famous “Flying Toaster” cover. This is from their live shows at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago and the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco.

Second volume of Vampisoul's "Czech Up!" series, which compiles 60s and
70s gems from the vaults of Supraphon and Panton labels from the former
Czechoslovakia. Freakbeat, soul, baroque pop, prog-funk, garage rock, psych-jazz...
all that and more is contained within these 22 tracks, wonderfully produced and
now carefully remastered, many of them never reissued before. Includes detailed
liner notes by Lukás Machata

Giacomo “Mino” di Martino started his musical career in several early 1960s Italian beat bands. By 1968 he had found enormous success with pop superstars I Giganti. After a brief split in 1970 –during which Mino formed Il Supergruppo with Ricky Gianco and other greats of the Italian scene– he came back to I Giganti in 1971. With them and with new advanced ideas that set the band pretty far away from the sophisticated pop and beat sounds they had been so successful with, they would record the amazing Terra in Bocca conceptual LP, an adventurous experimental album that explored the obscure connections between the Italian state and the mafia. A delicate topic full of political criticism which also found them having to fight censorship –it was played only once in the radio. This fact, along with the advanced new sound probably being too far ahead from the mainstream audience’s taste, turned the record into a commercial flop. Nowadays Terra in Bocca is a highly regarded album among critics, afficionados and collectors, and a pretty seminal one for the Italian scene of the seventies, since it can even be seen as a precursor to the works on the Cramps label. Gianni Sassi, producer and photographer who founded Cramps was involved in the release of Terra in Bocca –his is the amazing cover concept.

After the Terra in Bocca experience, Mino’s will was to keep exploring new musical paths and free his mind to experimentation. Along with his wife, actress and singer Edda “Terra” di Benedetto, they formed the Albergo Intergalattico Spaziale, just after the brief post-Giganti project Telaio Magnetico (with Franco Batiatto, among others) was over. The Albergo was a venue where artists from diverse disciplines, mainly musica and theatre, could meet and create works together.

On the musical side of the community, Mino and Terra explored the cosmic sonorities that were coming from Germany and mixed them with the Italian experimental scene of names like Franco Battiato, Luciano Berio or Roberto Cacciapaglia. It is from the sessions that took place in the Albergo from 1974 onwards that the Albergo Intergalattico Spaziale LP came out. Originally released in 1978 the compositions had been made during those years of exploration, the goal not being the release of an album but the aim to explore new sounds and experiment with music. Eventually it was decided to present a sample of all that work, and a few copies of the Albergo Intergalattico Spaziale LP were privately pressed.

The record sleeve and notes on the insert reivindicate the fight against nuclear power. The music is dominated by Mino’s keyboards, creating amazing space sounds reminiscent of those from 1950s and 1960s science fiction B movies brought to the most avantgardist experimentation of the moment, exploring new sounds with the newest keyboards available. This intriguing background sets the athmosphere for Terra’s voice to improvise all over.

This is a 500 copies only reissue, housed in its original artwork with the addition of a bonus 7" EP, a reproduction of a giant original poster and 3 inserts.

Things are getting more sophisticated down here. The band just released his debut album and is ready to roll. Second self-titled album is almost there, so a number of key tracks like ‘Pearly Queen’, ‘Who Knows What Tomorrow May Bring’ and ‘Feeling Alright’. Three different radio sessions from winter and the hot summer of ’68.

Mexican rock had a strong renaissance in the eighties, when most bands, majorly coming from the prog scene, turned to Spanish language again. One of the big acts from that era was Jorge Reyes' led Chac Mool. Chac Mool counted on its ranks with Carlos Alvarado, who was an accomplished musician on its own and who would record one of the most interesting electronic prog albums of the era, on which Reyes also collaborated. Originally released on mexican private label Momia in 1980. Carlos Alvarado's Via Lactea (Milky Way) is now reissued on vinyl 35 years later. Eurock was especially interested in electronic Cosmic Music exploring both the inner and outer spaces of sound and consciousness. Of all the great music I had heard from Germany’s Klaus Schulze to Tangerine Dream & Spain’s own Neuronium, the album by Carlos stood apart from the rest. The Wah Wah reissue, made under license from and with the help of Carlos Alvarado himself, comes with remastered sound and will include one bonus track not on the original LP. Like the original, it will be housed on a flapped envelope style cover, this time in luxury silk screened metallic copper cardboard. Features are a colour insert with photos and notes, plus a bonus Momia sticker based on the one given on the original release. This is a limited edition, only 500 copies pressed.

United Sates Of Existence were one of earliest neo-psychedelic groups from the US. Born in Baltimore in 1978 out of the ashes of prog-rock outfit Klangfarb, their goal was to reproduce the sound of their favourite 60s psych bands: Strawberry Alarm Clock, Electric Prunes, Blues Magoos, Nazz, The Assocation… They consisted of Paul Rieger (guitar, bass and electric sitar), Bob Tiefenwerth (organ, electric harpsichord and piano), Dennis Davison – of Jigsaw Seen fame - (lead vocals, acoustic guitar and theremin) and Gary Schwartz on drums and harmony vocals. The group used vintage instruments and antiquated recording techniques to fully embrace the sounds of the first psychedelic era (1967-68). They never got to play live, preferring to spend their time recording in their basement studio or going on record-buying binges at all the discount stores, searching for obscure psychedelic albums with weird names like Harumi, Phulph, Bohemian Vendetta… They were championed by Greg Shaw (Bomp!) who chose one of their first recordings, the killer Return To The Psychedelic, as the opening track for the seminal Battle Of The Garages LP compilation (1981). They also appeared in another famous compilation, The Rebel Kind (1983). Anything Goes!, their first 45, saw the light in 1984, self-released on the band’s own label, U.S. Fidelity Sounds, and featuring members of the Association on backing vocals (no kidding!). In 1986, they caught the attention of the Bam Caruso label from the UK, where they released their only album, Introducing: the United States of Existence, in 1986. The Psychedelic Yesterdays Of Tomorrow compiles all the material released by United Sates of Existence, including their Bam Caruso album along with various single / compilation tracks, as well as a few previously unreleased tracks and alternate mixes. “Surround sound not required – these stereo recordings will transport the listener to the proper state of existence. Recorded in the band’s basement and mixed down on a picnic table - because that’s where it was all happening.”

Altın Mikrofon (Golden Microphone) is a music contest organized in 1965 by "Hürriyet", one of the biggest newspapers of the time. The first Golden Microphone contest was organized in 1965. The qualifiers of the 2nd Competition organized in 1966 were held in 9 hours in front of a jury including the famous artist Zeki Müren. This time 7 finalists were selected and their contest tracks were released as 45 rpm singles. They gave concerts in Izmir, Ankara, Istanbul, Bursa, Bursa, Eskişehir, Samsun and Konya. The last concert was again held in Istanbul. Silhouettes won the contest with 4563 votes. Second place was Blue Lights with 2850 votes, just like last year. The third with 2382 votes was Selçuk Alagöz. The finalists Kent Yedilisi, T.P.A.O.Batman Orkestrası, Cahit Oben, Siluetler, Ali Atasagun, Mavi Işıklar and Selçuk Alagöz Orkestrası shaped the Turkish Pop Music and Anatolian Rock movement

Originally recorded in 2010, the highly sought after Midnight To 666 sold out in record time. Quickly regarded as a garage punk classic, this album features thirteen dark seething tracks, full of ferocious vocals, grinding organ and a primitive rhythm section with the ever present fuzz guitar sound you've come to expect from the Lords of Altamont. From the painfully relatable F.F.T.S., through the stomping energy of "You're Gonna Get There",the crowd chanting anthem - and alternate version of - "Get In The Car" up until the moody closing track "Faded Black", this is a soul bearing, primal two wheeled scream into the void. Originally released on the French Fargo Records label, Midnight to 666, with Harry ' Full Tilt ' Drumdini from The Cramps on drums, now finds a new home on Heavy Psych Sounds Records. Featuring the original artwork the band intended before the blood red version went to print, as well as a bonus outtake of "Faded Black", this re-release is a sure bet.

Press releases are rubbish! The band who wrote the music don't write them, so some oik who didn't write the music is wheeled in and then, with a Thesaurus propped open on their lap, they attempt to describe sounds with words. As I said, rubbish! So I asked co-founder and frontman of The Cravats, The Shend, to describe 'Dustbin of Sound', their first new LP in 37 years. "As always, it's unique" he said enigmatically. The Thesaurus gave me, 'distinctive', 'individual', 'idiosyncratic', 'different', 'eccentric' and 'unusual' for unique (flipping writing itself this).
The Cravats have indeed always been all of those things, but 'unique' sums it up just fine. Okay, you may prefer to be dragged along the motorway under a rusty Land Rover than have to listen to that sax-riddled, bass-laden Dadaist weirdness again but you can't deny they're unique. And with 13 brand new slabs of peculiarity from these particularly peculiar people (even oscillator overlord, Simeon Coxe of Silver Apples pops up for a few seconds on 'Motorcycle Man'), DoS is still the Cravats that John Peel loved (4 sessions) back in 1978, but with an extra 35 years of life on Earth soaked into their bones.
The two critically acclaimed singles from last year, Blurred and Jingo Bells which Marc Riley, Gideon Coe and Henry Rollins amongst others, played a wad on the wireless are here, as well as songs involving buried cattle, hatcheting Toyotas, death ray vapourisation, the mud-soaked sibling of Neptune and, of course, atheist yacht-owning crocodiles. Er, help me out here, Shend. "Music should always be passionate, preposterous, atmospheric and above all entertaining. We fulfill the remit." They do. It's like watching 13 magnificent mini-movies at your local multiplex but you're eyeballing them with your ears. And talking of Thesauruses, who the hell uses words like, 'maliloquent' and 'predilection' in Pop songs? If Shakespeare, Max Ernst and Beefheart had a radio show, this LP would probably be on heavy rotation.

Mixed by the man who brought you Wu-Tang vs. The Beatles, Tom Caruana.

Mixed by the man who brought you Wu-Tang vs. The Beatles, Tom Caruana.

Mixed by the man who brought you Wu-Tang vs. The Beatles, Tom Caruana.

Limited edition for Record Store Day 2018!

A n d w h a t i f t h e i n f a m o u s
UNDERGROUND and OVERGROUND
albums had a third psychedelic
chapter, still secret and unreleased
until today?
Yes, you heard correctly: this
SUPERGROUND LP is sonically akin to
the legendary pair for which composer
Sandro Brugnolini will always shine
worldwide, and ideally brings the
trilogy to a close. Composed and
recorded in two sessions between July
1969 and November 1970, the album
echoes the shocking 1969's Charles
Manson massacre, with tracks
dedicated to the villa at Cielo Drive, in
Hollywood, where Sharon Tate e Roman
Polanski lived for six months. Some
music was also used for an animated short movie signed by Pino Zac, “Radice Quadrata di 3”, a little art-film
gem about the consumer society.
The recordings have all in common the terrific line up, featuring MARC 4 members Antonello Vannucchi
(organ), Maurizio Majorana (bass), Roberto Podio (drums), along with Angelo Baroncini (guitar) replacing Carlo
Pes. An incredible groovy combo that plays a strange psychedelic rock and r’n’b with funky and prog flavor.
Another lost masterpiece from Italian golden age soundtracks finally rescued and brought back in life to see
the light of the wax for its very first time.