:Episode One Hundred Thirteen: 07.27.2018

Description

Inspired by the compilation album Prog Is Not A Four Letter Word, the opening set consists of four examples of non-insufferable (sufferable?) 70s-era prog rock. No ELP-esque twenty-minute-long organ solos to be found here. Instead we have Krautrockers Between, the short-lived Spanish "grupo progresivo" (gotta show off those three years of high school Spanish somewhere) Pan Y Regaliz, Dutch acid rockers Group 1850, and a Spanish studio project named Wild Havana with some analog synth-heavy, proto-chillout music off their one and only, proggy disco-lite record (once upon a time, when my show was on terrestrial radio, it used to precede a show dedicated to underground 70s/80s disco and dance music, from which I learned that there are scores of low-key tracks from that era that are as spaced-out as any Kosmische numbers).

The middle set features organ-heavy turned synth-heavy Bay Area psych-rockers Lumerians; Italian trio Crimen, who carry the JAMC/BRMC sunglasses-at-night, cool-as-ice pop-psych torch; Los Angelenos Hooveriii, at one time a solo, Suicide-inspired synth-dirge act that has since transformed into a five-piece CAN-esque outfit; Space Program favorites The Myrrors with a track from their recent Fuzz Club session; and Spanish doom metallers Atavismo, with the title track from their most recent album Valdeinfierno (which, once again showing off my incredibly rudimentary Spanish, means Valley... OF HELL!!!, en Español).

I preface the final set with a somewhat long-winded story about how when I was in high school, and first getting into psychedelic music, I read about concerts like the 14 Hour Technicolour Dream that were these all-night, immersive events where bands would play for hours on end, and could hear, in my head, what I thought that would sound like, but could not actually find an example of, among the (severely limited by the lack of the internet) roster of psychedelic acts I was aware of at the time (and how later on, I discovered, from reading a biography of Kurt Cobain, that he had had a similar experience, but with punk rock). A few years down the road, in college, I did find what I was looking for, in the form of CAN, Amon Düül II, Hawkwind, AMT, etc., etc. But the band that probably best aligns with the (admittedly somewhat amorphous) imaginings I had as a teenager of what psychedelic music sounded like is Kosmose (who are themselves admittedly somewhat amorphous), a Belgian group who, a la Les Rallizes Dénudés, never recorded a proper studio album, but of which there exist a number of (middling quality) live recordings, including a recent release on Sub Rosa, from which I play a track. The set, and the show then concludes with NWW-affiliated act Zu93, and Vancouver, BC Fourth World-y ambient artist Khotin.