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rchecka
Here's a few that I've been digging lately...



King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard with Mild High Club - Sketches of Brunswick East LP (Flightless Records)

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^Australian psych rock / throwback heavy metal gods. Again, I have eight of their albums and while each is very different and lovable in their own ways, this one is probably in my top 3 of theirs. People often make the assumption that they are simply a jam band but this proves they are way more than that. Countless instruments playing on this from both bands with abrupt tempo changes and style changes within the same songs and everyone is on board perfectly. Stones Throw Records of all people finally took attention to them from this and offered them a record deal and at this point it's only materialized as a 7" single from Stones Throw. Still, that single is on this album and it's probably the best song on this album "Rolling Stoned". I'm not even going to try to describe that song, whatever I say will not do it justice. BTW, you'll find this song along with many other killer King Giz songs on my Helio Goat Gizard mix.







Earthless - Black Heaven LP (Nuclear Blast Records)

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^This dropped just last week on the unlikely death metal label of Nuclear Blast. This one is fairly straight forward rock and stoner rock in a lot of ways but they still ride that psych sound enough to make this list for me. Reminds me of old Black Sabbath album with fuzz guitar and a baritone Jimmie Paige on vocals. Really interesting to say the least.



Merlin - The Wizard LP (the Company Records)

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^Really cool stoner rock / psych rock styled minimalist rock here. It has a nice blend of horns and saxaphone and fuzz. If you told me this dropped in the 70s or 80s I'd believe it, it has a very retro sounding vibe to it.



The Routes - Dirty Needles and Pins LP (Greenway Records)

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^Speaking of retro sounding, this truly takes the cake there. It sounds like it could easily belong on the legendary classic psych compilation Nuggets along side 13th Floor Elevators or any other of the 60s Psych songs that grace that comp. This is a Japanese Quintet from Oita Japan and they did a spectacular psych revival on this one.

It's on the mysterious indie rock label Greenway Records which emphasizes psych and left field rock pressed on elaborate colored vinyl. Follow this label on Instagram and you'll see what I mean. Like DWG records, everything they drop is fairly limited, not cheap at all, strictly dope and obscure, and pressed with a lot of love and attention to detail. One of those "Do it for the love of music" labels that are finding happiness and success with a cult following of modern psych buyers. I am not a sucker for "colored vinyls OMG!" but lets face it when it's done right it looks cool and as long as it sounds good I'll buy it. I could just as easily enjoy this music on plain black vinyl, but I think that's becoming less and less common as more newb collectors seem to gravitate to all the pretty candy colored records. And why not, I ain't mad at it as long as it sounds cool.



Acid Mothers Temple and the Melting Paraiso UFO - Those Who Came Never Before LP (Nod and Smile Records)

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^Don't even try to follow these guys they are almost impossible to collect and way too prolific. More prolific than King Gizzard and they dropped 5 full length albums of various styles in 2017. This is another Japanese psych rock group, a sub group of the Acid Mothers Temple Soul-Collective. Like free jazz, this is wild music, moments of insanity followed by sweet melodies followed by madness. Each side is one long track of ear candy. You need to be in the mood for Sun Ra and other free jazz styles to tolerate this. I love it, I can listen to this on repeat because it's so thick I often catch things later each time I listen.


Special thanks to Gordon for hooking me up with a few of these. I can't tell you how much I appreciate that man, you have impeccable taste!