HOLD A DESERT, FEEL ITS HAND:
Mystery TRAINing Volume # 3

With the heat of the summer already comin’ on etc., it’s convenient that the third instalment of my vaguely thematic psychedelic compilation series concerns itself with THE DESERT.

Truth be told, I’ve never spent much time in the desert. I’m told it can get pretty psychedelic though. If I were in the desert, I think I would probably want to listen to some lengthy passages of really bad-ass heavy rock, so verily you will find some of them within. The more obvious inclusions aside, I particularly commend Northwest Company’s ‘Grey Skies’ to you – proof that, whilst the vast majority of early ‘70s open air festival blues jams may have sucked ass, there is much to be said for the 5% that went TOTALLY RIGHT. Nod those heads!

And I’d want some eerie, beatific drones too. They’re good for the desert. Yes, definitely some of those. Keijo comes from Finland, so I don’t know what the hell he knows of the desert, but…. he seems to fit in nicely.

Similarly, Jamaica’s no bloody desert, but nonetheless it seems like high time we introduced some dub into this series, so take it away King Tubby. What an astounding record! Same can be said of Haiti, but that hasn’t stopped me throwing in an OMGFamazing slice of horror movie voodoun psychedelic soul/folk/other from Exuma The Obeah Man. Hopefully by the time you get to that point in the comp though, you’ll be stumbling ‘round death valley after dark searching for the hole leading to the centre of the earth to sit out the forthcoming apocalypse, so who cares.

West Africa now - that’s the place for desert! So I couldn’t resist the opportunity to throw in a tune from everybody’s favourite Saharan outlaws Tinariwen, lying down some shit with a couple of guitars and hand percussion to make everyone else in the world who’d claim to be ‘funky’ go weak at the knees. I’ve actually been burned recently on a couple of ‘60s/’70s African reissues that were recommended to me as fuzzed out, psychedelic masterpieces but were actually pretty dreary. As with British/American ‘60s stuff though, it’s often the one-off mystery singles that come through where the album artists fail, and as such, OH MAN - Ofo The Black Company! I don’t know who they were or what they thought they were doing, but… OH MAN - Ofo The Black Company! What more can I say.

The Country Joe & The Fish track by the way is from the soundtrack to the counter-culture western ‘Zachariah’, in which they play an outlaw gang called The Crackers. The bit where they play this song is the best thing in the whole movie. No, scratch that, the best bit is where Elvin Jones shoots three guys with the same bullet and then plays a four minute drum solo. But CJ Fish definitely come in second. The James Gang rocking out in the middle of the desert with big amp stacks comes in third, and, sadly, everything else in the film is pretty crap.

Anyway, I seem to be straying from the point a bit, so let’s wrap this up:

I think everything on this compilation is awesome. Burn it onto a disc, put it on somewhere as you stare into a vast open sky and feel your toes sink into the sand or whatever, and I hope you’ll agree.

Tracklist:

1. Grouper – hold a desert, feel it’s hand
2. Country Joe & The Fish – we’re the crackers
3. The 13th Floor Elevators – livin’ on
4. “The Happening” radio spot
5. King Tubby & The Aggravators – I trim the barber
6. Tinariwen – dualahila ar tesninam
7. Ofo The Black Company – allah wakbarr
8. John Fahey – the portland cement factory at monolith, ca.
9. Charalambides – the good life
10. Northwest Company – grey skies
11. The Grateful Dead, Merry Pranksters & Friends – peggy the pistol
12. Keijo – stellar wind
13. Bhagavad Gita – long hair soulful
14. “Satan’s Sadists” radio spot
15. The Jesters of Newport – stormy
16. Exuma – mama loi papa loi
17. Dead Meadow – beyond the fields we know (live)
18. Moe Tucker – blue, all the way to canada
19. Greg Ashley – apple pie & genocide

Download:

Here.

(90mb .zip file)

Labels: mixtapes, Psychedelia