Speak Softly+2086-Bit 'A Sweet

From the West Coast to the East and New York with 'Bit 'A Sweet's' 'Speak Softly' and '2086'. I guess New York is now famous for The Velvet Underground and that Greenwich Village stuff, but listening to this we may as well be back in California, rich harmonies and tones, a sunny vibe and a little of 'The Lemon Pipers/Bubblegum' pop-psych thrown in for good measure.

P.s-2086 must be the only song apart 'Snooker Loopy by Chas and Dave' to use snooker balls as percussion instruments...unless you know better?

Girl In Your Eye+Taurus-Spirit

Legendary West Coast band Spirit here with two tracks. 'Girl In Your Eye' and 'Taurus'.

Girl In Your Eye is a perfect slice of laid back Californian psych, pretty hard to top to these ears. Taurus on the other hand has a more infamous heritage as 'inspiration' for the classic Led Zepplin track 'Stairway To Heaven'...you can decide for yourself if Jimmy Page nicked the guitar figure or not...

Money Man+Follow The Path Of The Stars-Skip Bifferty

A little bit of a lost classic here with a couple of tracks from Skip Bifferty's 1968 self titled album. (though it's been reissued many times, so just how lost I'm not sure) Quality songs all round, great sound and an album well worth tracking down.

Bat Macumba+Panis Et Circenses-Os Mutantes

Here are the superb Brazilian psych band Os Mutantes with the famous 'Bat Macumba amd Panis Et Cirencses from their debut recording. If you're haven't heard of them before I'm sure you'll become a big fan upon hearing these two tracks...particularly love the mad 'trumpet/mellotron?' on Panis Et Circenses.

Pink Ether-The Deep

Coming from the jungle of Psych, or so it sounds, is 'Pink Ether' by The Deep...coming in through the eyes and the ears. Great track,great fuzz guitar and great sounds effects...but what's it all about? We can but guess...here's Julian Cope's take on things at his head heritage site...Pink Ether.

Evolution+My Time- The Golden Dawn

So just what is Psychedelic music? For me it's something to do with the tone of the track. Not just the more familiar 'psych sound effects', echo and the like, but something 'other', something more esoteric...which is where 'The Golden Dawn' come in with 'Evolution' and 'My Time'.

Derided at the time as being 13th Floor Elevator clones, they were from Texas, went to the same schools and were in the same bands as well as sharing a record label, International Artists, but they suffered in comparison in terms of sales and prestige.

And it's true, they're are similarities but also enough differences to make them vital in their own right and of course they provided us with a cracking album in 'Power Plant'...great cover too!

The Trip-Kim Fowley

Moving on/off from Halloween and into a world of psych/garage,.some of my favourites alongside oddities and rarities as well as some classics I suppose...So, we're starting here, appropriately enough with Mr Kim Fowley, his second post on here ...and it's time to take 'The Trip'.