Kennelmus ~ USA ~ Phoenix, Arizona

Folkstone Prism (1971)

Folkstone Prism is one of the more unusual albums coming from the American underground, and that's quite a statement considering the competition. Side 1 is something special: An instrumental mix of Can and The Beat of the Earth baked into the 120 degree Arizona desert, then cooled into a Morricone soundtrack for a Clint Eastwood 60s western. Highly melodic, yet very psychedelic. The instrumentation is all underground sounding, including organ. Essential listening.

The B side is more problematic, though no doubt it's just as unique. It's a mix of vocal folk psych numbers containing some cartoonish vocals with instrumental interludes that King Crimson might come up with. The final track is its own thing, more of a hard psych composition and some narration of Edgar Allan Poe.

A tough album to evaluate given its inconsistent nature, yet anything this different deserves a place in a well researched collection.

Ownership: 1999 Sundazed (CD). Booklet contains historical essay, photos, and recording details.

1999 (first listen); 6/24/15; 11/20/24 (review / new entry)

Clark-Hutchinson ~ England

A=MH2 (1969)

It's always an interesting phenomenon at what point you hear an album. I bought this CD new at Other Music in New York City near the time of release. I really didn't have a point of reference at that time. On first impact, and later listens, the music of Clark-Hutchinson was entirely unique to me, though not excessively enjoyable to my ears. On this revisit I heard the sound of Gabor Szabo via an eastern Indian psychedelic lens. Perhaps had this been a jazz release on Impulse, its historical acceptance would be more widespread. An interesting perspective I hadn't thought of prior. Now that I have a different foundation, maybe not truly accurate but who cares, makes me appreciate the album at a much higher level. To ponder.

Ownership: 1998 Repertoire (CD). Booklet includes historical essay and recording details.

6/8/99 (first listen); 6/30/16; 11/20/24 (review)

11/21/24 (new entry)

Roland Kovac New Set ~ Germany

Love That (1972)

What does Oblivion Express, Vampires Sound Incorporation, Embryo, Sincerely P.T., and Amon Duul II have in common? Roland Kovac. An otherwise ordinary library incidental music composer put together an A-list of underground jazzers to create a very haunting Krautrock album. I use the latter term carefully as the atmospheres created here belong just as much to that genre as it does to jazz rock. Brian Auger is the star here, with his trademark organ all over the recording. But he's not playing in his usual melodic fashion. And Siggi Schwab's well played fuzz guitar really cements the aura of 1972 Germany. The only diversion here would be 'Sivertime' which is a somewhat ordinary organ soul jazz piece. Kovac is credited on piano, but he doesn't appear to have been sitting in the recording sessions. But he did write all the music. While this was originally intended for TV / movie incidental background sounds, the tracks are way too developed for that and work better as a cohesive album. These are not sketches of ideas.

Despite having heard this CD four times prior, I had no memory of the music. It's certainly not catchy but it is pleasurable. I hadn't given it the proper focus prior.

Ownership: 2002 Garden of Delights (CD). Full historical liners, typical of the label. Interesting to note that GoD defended themselves for not putting both Kovac albums on one CD, saying that "serious collectors" would find that "appalling". I disagree with that assertion. Serious collectors would likely find CD reissues appalling in the first place. For me, who I consider a serious collector, a two album / one CD package would have added that much more personal value to the package. I eventually will be in a position to hold onto one or the other - likely The Master Said. But that's for another day. This CD has space for some time.

3/31/07 (first listen); 2008; 12/14/10; 4/22/16; 11/12/24 (review)

11/12/24 (new entry)

2024 Psychedelic / Garage Journal Vol. 3 - Complete

The First Edition. 1967 Reprise (LP). From a store in Pueblo (Oct). Fine popsike from Kenny Rogers' first band. Safe and harmless psych with a couple of underground moves to attempt street cred. No chance. Good Housekeeping would approve. Second tier Mamas and Papas essentially. Not a sound any rational person would associate Kenny Rogers with. Gotta start somewhere.

*The Amboy Dukes. 1967 Mainstream (LP). From a friend's garage sale (Aug). Ted Nugent's debut psych album. Pretty good effort, mixing his hard rock tendencies with flower power sounds and ideas. B1 is fairly dull but most of this is satisfying on some level. Is that Nuge playing the sitar? Hard to even fathom. I'm keeping this for now, though it does lack catchy themes.

*various artists - Psych Funk Sa-Re-Ga! 2010 World Psychedelic Funk Classics (1970-1983) (CD). Online acquisition (Aug). As I noted on those African comps from Now Again, I really enjoy these compilations of obscure cuts from areas of the world not known for rock music. In this case, India. Especially when you get a thick booklet chock full of interesting liner notes for each artist and piece. Most of these come from Bollywood soundtracks, a genre known as Filmi. Not particularly psychedelic or funky, but the title isn't misleading either. Unique but rather conservative on the whole. Atomic Forest being the primary exception, and they are quite famous for just that.

* - Keeping for the collection