COSMIC LETDOWN - Венера

And here we are with another psychedelic album. It's a bloody takeover I tell you. This time we travel to the wintry land of Russia, not exactly the typical setting for the bright, sunny sounds that hearken back to the Summer of Love. But regardless of expectations, 'Венера' (or 'Venera' in English) is the genuine article. Fuzz-coated shoegazing moods and spacey grooves in the traditional psychedelic idiom, right down to the odd middle eastern inflected guitar solo, One thing that intrigues me about in music is how the native language of the songwriter affects its melodic structure. With that in mind, I always find Russian, Finnish and Japanese music to be quite different from that written by English speaking artists and Cosmic Letdown definitely fits that bill. The album is available for absolutely FREE DOWNLOAD on bandcamp, but you can also pick yourself up a CD or cassette is you're so inclined.

MY EXPANSIVE AWARENESS - Self-Titled

My Expansive Awareness are a classic neo-psych band in the Brian Jonestown Massacre mold (the good years), giving us good riffs, driving rhythms, groovy moods and just a hint of darkness. Music for dusk. Not quite day and not quite night, the in-between time when life is at its most exciting and all things are possible. Organs are used judiciously, not gratuitously and never obnoxiously. This is a very good album, not entirely unlike After Glow in smoothness and vibe or a more "together" C.A. Quintet. It's available for NAME-YOUR-PRICE but what swayed me in the end is the band photo, who could I not be charmed by this group shot:

YOU'RE SMILING NOW BUT WE'LL ALL TURN INTO DEMONS - Population IV

You're Smiling Now But We'll All Turn Into Demons: ridiculous name but a serious band. These guys plays psychedelic music over doom riffs. Call the songs paisley nightmares, call them whatever you want but for the Godhead's will you call them? This is solid stuff. It's remarkable when they play a "smiling" kind of riff, then turn into honest-to-goodness demons before your very ears (see "Chapel Perilous"). The album is streaming only over on the band's own bandcamp page, but you can purchase and download the album, or pick yourself up a vinyl copy over at the Cardinal Fuzz Records page (see player below).