TheWuss
Reviewer at Headphone.Guru
About six years ago, I picked up an issue of Record Collector (a British mag), and delved into an article titled something like "The 100 Greatest British Psychedelic Albums."
When I finished the article, I realized I only owned a few of these records (Beatles mostly), and I hadn't even heard of the majority of them.
An unexplored treasure trove of music? "Wow. I'm in," I thought.
And so I began a long an arduous search for all 100 records on the list. At the time (2004), many of them weren't available on compact disc. So I settled for needle drops and Russian and Japanese bootlegs where necessary.
The years leading up to the present, British Psych slowly became my favorite genre of music.
But sadly, since joining head-fi in January, it has been a largely ignored section of my music library.
Why? Well, you see, from 1965 to 1968, "stereo" was a fairly new concept. And, the albums from these peak psychedlic years tend to have very hard panning, and therefore difficult to listen to on headphones. (YMMV)
Or so I thought. In comes crossfeed to save the day.
Now, listening with crossfeed, my brain can relax and just enjoy the music, instead of trying to process two mono signals.
So, now that I'm happily reunited with some of my favorite albums, I figured I'd start a thread that extols the wonderful world of British Psych.
I haven't started a thread of this nature. (All my threads have been self-serving. Time for me to "give back." Hahaha.)
Maybe somebody will read some of this. Maybe they'll see something and give it a listen.
That's what I did.
And do chime in. Let's chat. Share some of your favorites with me. Ask questions.
I'm no expert, but I do love me the heck out of some British Psych.
And I'll add fresh entries to the thread from time to time, so check back.
(My goal is to avoid the obvious entries, and sharing some of the more obscure and underappreciated artists/albums.)
And so, without further ado...
The inaugural entry in the British Psych thread:
S.F. Sorrow by The Pretty Things
This album is, arguably, the first rock opera. Though fans of The Who's Tommy might contest this. (The album was recorded before Tommy, but held up and released after because of various circumstances.)
The album is, basically, a life cycle about some fictional dude named Sebastian F. Sorrow.
But, no, I don't really know what it's all about.
Just that it sounds really amazing, and contains some of the most creative moments from this period of rock music.
The Pretty Things took a couple years to follow this album up. And in 1970, Parachute was released. (Not to be confused with the Coldplay album of similar name.) Also a masterpiece of late psych. And worth looking up.
And, of course, crossfeed is highly recommended, if not necessary...
When I finished the article, I realized I only owned a few of these records (Beatles mostly), and I hadn't even heard of the majority of them.
An unexplored treasure trove of music? "Wow. I'm in," I thought.
And so I began a long an arduous search for all 100 records on the list. At the time (2004), many of them weren't available on compact disc. So I settled for needle drops and Russian and Japanese bootlegs where necessary.
The years leading up to the present, British Psych slowly became my favorite genre of music.
But sadly, since joining head-fi in January, it has been a largely ignored section of my music library.
Why? Well, you see, from 1965 to 1968, "stereo" was a fairly new concept. And, the albums from these peak psychedlic years tend to have very hard panning, and therefore difficult to listen to on headphones. (YMMV)
Or so I thought. In comes crossfeed to save the day.
Now, listening with crossfeed, my brain can relax and just enjoy the music, instead of trying to process two mono signals.
So, now that I'm happily reunited with some of my favorite albums, I figured I'd start a thread that extols the wonderful world of British Psych.
I haven't started a thread of this nature. (All my threads have been self-serving. Time for me to "give back." Hahaha.)
Maybe somebody will read some of this. Maybe they'll see something and give it a listen.
That's what I did.
And do chime in. Let's chat. Share some of your favorites with me. Ask questions.
I'm no expert, but I do love me the heck out of some British Psych.
And I'll add fresh entries to the thread from time to time, so check back.
(My goal is to avoid the obvious entries, and sharing some of the more obscure and underappreciated artists/albums.)
And so, without further ado...
The inaugural entry in the British Psych thread:
S.F. Sorrow by The Pretty Things
This album is, arguably, the first rock opera. Though fans of The Who's Tommy might contest this. (The album was recorded before Tommy, but held up and released after because of various circumstances.)
The album is, basically, a life cycle about some fictional dude named Sebastian F. Sorrow.
But, no, I don't really know what it's all about.
Just that it sounds really amazing, and contains some of the most creative moments from this period of rock music.
The Pretty Things took a couple years to follow this album up. And in 1970, Parachute was released. (Not to be confused with the Coldplay album of similar name.) Also a masterpiece of late psych. And worth looking up.
And, of course, crossfeed is highly recommended, if not necessary...
