Mandragora ~ England

Earthdance (1992) 

You can read my thoughts about Mandragora in the reviews below. I don't have too much to say beyond that. To summarize, Mandragora are one of my favorite bands from the original UK Festival Psych scene. They had a unique disparate approach though their sound is largely familiar. Earthdance is their 4th album (counting their debut cassette), and is closer to the previous Head First than the follow up Temple Ball. Mostly it's the eclecticism that makes me think that. This is the kind of album you just hit play and let 'er ride. Good music from a good era. This is a title I first bought on LP and switched to CD quickly. Today they're worth about the same.

Ownership: 1992 Mystic Stones (CD) 

1992 (first listen); 1/20/25 (review)

Phil Thornton with Mandragora - While the Green Man Sleeps (1993)

--- 9/29/09

Phil Thornton is the main man behind Mandragora and they were one of the great UK festival psych bands. And while this goes under the Phil Thornton name, most of Mandragora is on it, and it sounds like a Mandragora album to be honest. Or perhaps a more electronica version of the band, something the group eventually moved to anyway on their 1998 opus Pollen. This particular release reminds me a bit of Ship of Fools actually, given the relaxed nature and flow of the music. 

--- 10/7/22

As noted already in a couple of places, I'm quite fond of Mandragora, who I felt added a bit more than your garden variety space rock and UK festival act. And this listen resulted in a +1 as well. I didn't mention this above, but While the Green Man Sleeps is a mixed release. The first two tracks are from a concert in Scotland circa 1987. And for whatever reason they included 'Xylem' from Earthdance which is superfluous. The remaining three tracks are newer recordings and apply more to my initial review. The final track 'Rainbow Chant' is nearly 25 minutes, and is worth the price of admission alone.

Ownership: 1993 Mystic Stones (CD)

1994 (first listen); 9/29/09 (review); 1//10; 10/7/22 (update)

Head First (1991)

There was a time - in the early days of the UK Festival Psych movement - that Mandragora were one of the bigger names of the scene. Perhaps only second to Ozric Tentacles in name recognition. But by the end of the 90s, the band more or less died like most of the genre. And are now largely forgotten. Which is really too bad.

Head First is Mandragora's second proper album, and possibly their first fully realized one. It's disparate in style, but unmistakably Festival Psych. For example 'Pendulum & the Pit' is a solid hard rock number, not too far removed from a late era Hawkwind sound (the aforementioned were Mandragora's idols). 'Talking to God (Pt 2)' is one of the more wacky pieces here, very psychedelic with phasing, warbled voices, and wicked fuzz guitar. 'Raga' goes out East for the obligatory Indian psych trip. Both 'Yesterday's Tomorrow' and the title track offer the best representation of the album as a whole, and includes all of which they bring forth here. 'Grooving in the Dog House' gives us a glimpse to their sound at the end of the decade - more electronica and less rock influenced.

Overall a very solid entry into the English late 80s / early 90s psychedelic underground. I've owned this CD since it first came out, and it only gets better with age.

Ownership: 1991 Resonance (CD)

1991 (first listen); 1/1/19 (review)

Temple Ball (1994)

For my money, Mandragora were one of the top UK festival / space rock bands of the 1980s and 90s, perhaps only bested by Ozric Tentacles and Omnia Opera (though really obscure bands like Crow and Blim were just as outstanding, but those are more recent discoveries for me).

Mandragora's trajectory was a bit different, however. On album at least, they started with hard rock, moving ever slow slowly to space rock, then onto ethnic tinged electronic rock, some techno, etc... I like all of their albums, but it was on Temple Ball that the band finally unleashed their ferocious guitar fronted space rock style. Like many of the bands of their era, Mandragora mixed in recorded TV and radio bits to add to the ominous atmosphere, before launching into another intense jam.

The banger (hipster talk) here is 'Talking to God (Part IV)', but other great pieces include 'Zarg', 'Inside the Crystal Circle', 'Rainbow Warrior', and the title track. The album claims to be recorded live "in the Crystal Feb '94", but I don't think it's an actual concert. If it was, then it's been completely edited like a studio album and there's no audience noise. I prefer it this way myself.

This is definitely the best album on the space rock specialist Mystic Stones label, and sadly, very close to the label's last release.

Ownership: 1994 Mystic Stones (CD)

1995 (first listen); 11/17/11 (review); 7/6/22

11/17/11 (new entry)