MIND DE-CODER 5

"Just relax...keep it cool..and let your head go where it really wants to."

(Originally broadcast 18-03-10)

FORTYONE BUCKETS

Crazy-super-magical-funtime-goodness from cut-and-paste genius Fortyone. This track is taken from the CD NO MORE MAYONAISSE, which is available for free, along with 29 other CDs, simply by writing to him at http://41music.net It's a bit like listening to cartoons on the radio, too much and your teeth begin to ache, but there is a whole world of Fortyone out there for you, if you but only choose.

TOMORROW MY WHITE BICYCLE

This is one of two singles released by the band, inspired by the Dutch Provos, an anarchist movement based in Amsterdam which reportedly instituted a community bicycle programme. Recorded at the EMI studios in London, this is the kind of psychedelic pop single that was blaring out of the nation's transistors in 1967.

FAUST FLASHBACK CARUSO

Taken from the legendary FAUST TAPES, released in 1973, an album I return to time and time again for all my trip needs. Released for 49p by a nascent Virgin Records, the story goes that Jim Kerr of Simple Minds threw his copy off the roof of a Glasgow tenement, which pretty much tells you everything you need to know about the Simple Minds, I think.

BONGWATER MR SOUL

A brilliant cover version of Buffalo Springfield's Mr Soul by Bongwater, not so much a band as a particularly disturbing bad dream, taken from the Neil Young tribute album THE BRIDGE, released in 1989.

NEU! SPITZENQUALITAT

A dominant motorik beat taken from Neu!'s second album NEU! 2, released in 1973. This is the album on which they famously run out of money and had to make Side 2 by speeding up and slowing down bits of Side 1. Spitzenqualitat is from Side 1 - it's supposed to sound like this.

MELLOW CORRIDOR

A track taken from the soundtrack to the film CQ, a retro-futuristic romp about something or other that no one has ever seen, including me. But the soundtrack is fabulous - a mix of campy, sci-fi, retro spy-chase, swinging 60's mod grooves with a touch of pastoral folk and woozy psychedelia thrown in for good measure, released in 2002. The band Mellow are French and from the same stable as fellow Parisiens, Air. I think they may have been in the same proto-band at some point or other, before splitting off to follow their more prog-y groove.

JULIAN COPE SAFESURFER

The mighty Julian Cope in full-on psychedelic mode with the epic Safesurfer, taken from the extraordinary PEGGY SUICIDE, released in 1991. This particular track can take you so far out you'd be wise to leave a trail of breadcrumbs behind you in order to get back home again - if you ever wish to return, that is.

PAUL WELLER KOSMOS (LYNCH MOB BONUS BEATS REMIX)

Taken from the eponymous Paul Weller album released in 1991, this is a big, spacey, dubbed out bit of psychedelic bliss that can, at points, take the enamel off your teeth. That's two references to the teeth in this blog. It must be a metaphor, or something.

TANGERINE DREAM FLY AND COLLISION OF COMAS SOLA

A 13 minute drum and flute freak-out epic that sounds like there's a planet passing through your living room while you're next door making a cup of tea. As Julian Cope says in Krautrocksampler - it's as if the musicians feel each other vibrations but can't actually hear the music they're making. Brilliant, expansive, and to be found on their 1971 album ALPHA CENTAURI.

LOOP GURU THE THIRD CHAMBER

I once listened to this track under, what we'll euphemistically call, 'enhanced circumstances', and got taken off to some pretty mysterious and far out places, mercifully free of dentists. I got back just last week. This is an excerpt from the track that otherwise takes up all of side three of the 1994 album DUNIYA (THE INTRINSIC PASSION OF MYSTERIOUS JOY), the title of which pretty much tells you everything you need to know about the album.

STRAWBERRY ALARM CLOCK RAINY DAY MUSHROOM PILLOW

West coast vibes from San Francisco's 1967 hippy scene. The song title says it all, really. Taken from the album INCENSE AND PEPPERMINTS which, once again, pretty much sums it up. Elegant, dreamy and baroque.

BEYOND THE WIZARD'S SLEEVE THE FIFTH NOTE

In which Erol Alkan remixes Chitra Neeogy on Beyond The Wizard's Sleeve second release, the vinyl only SPRING, released in 2006.

BRUCE AND MISS NELSON SOUL TRANSPORTATION

One of the weirdest records in my record collection, which is saying something, this comes from the album DANCE TO THE MUSIC, one of a series of LPs released in the 1970's (this one was released in 1972) recorded for children by composer Bruce Haack and dance instructor Esther Nelson. It scares the life out of my kids so I don't play it as much as I might.

COMUS THE HERALD

It wasn't all peace, love and pass the sugarcubes in the early 1970's acid/folk scene. Comus seemed drawn to the dark side. Their album First Utterance, released in 1971, evokes many feelings, but most dominant are fear, confusion and despair - the lyrics often invoke images of violence, murder, rape and mental disorder; so not an album to listen to late at night with a few joss sticks glowing and a handful of magic mushrooms, then; it's not a date album. It does have one moment of transcendent beauty, however, the tranquil yearning of The Herald.

FAUST CHERE CHAMBRE

One final track from the FAUST TAPES to complete tonight's show - the wonderful Chere Chambre. Have I mentioned that this is my favourite trip album?

Download podcast

Audio File: