Hell’s teeth! It’s that time of year again. When I make a host of rash promises for what the new year at HFoS may bring, before buggering off to imbibe the Christmas spirit for a month or so.

This year, I’ll dispense with anything that could be held against me at a later date and, instead, leave you with the latest mixtape: The HFoS Prog Rock Xmas Stocking Filler.

Granted, it’s not particularly festive, nor exclusively prog-orientated, but it’s the best you’ll get from me this side of 2012.

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mixtapes, prog rock, progressive folk, psych-pop, psychedelic rock

The constraints of time have decreed that there will only be the one HFoS Selection Pack this year; an amalgamation of three as opposed to the usual singular entities. Time has also put paid to the promised King Crimson reviews, but fear not, they will arrive – like a forgetful Santa – in the new year.

So what festive fare have I picked randomly from the ether for you spend your Our Price vouchers on this year? Read on, my fine fellows and fellowettes:

Rick Wakeman – Journey to the Centre of the Earth

As it’s Christmas, something supremely daft is in order and they don’t come much dafter than this live recording. A man in a cape, with enough electric pianos, organs, Moogs, Mellotrons and what-have-yous to cause an energy crisis on a small Mediterranean island. The London Symphony Orchestra. The English Chamber Choir. Narration from the preposterously eyebrowed David Hemmings (following Billy Dainty’s scheduling conflict). An audience anticipating something with the subtlety of a broken bottle to the throat… What the deuce were they all thinking?

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album reviews, folk rock, prog rock, psych-folk, psych-pop, psychedelic rock

Between now and Christmas, HFoS intends to feature all seven King Crimson studio albums from the 1969-1974 period. A classic era for a band that, from day one, existed in a state of flux; the single constant being, of course, the thinking man’s guitar legend (and occasional Mellotron maestro) Robert Fripp.

With a timorous and unassuming bearing, it’s difficult to equate his appearance with the fearsome sound that King Crimson produced, beginning with the heart-stopping opening to ’21st Century Schizoid Man’, right through to the closer of 1974′s Red, the wonderfully eclectic and moving ‘Starless’.

1968′s The Cheerful Insanity of Giles, Giles & Fripp, featuring Mike and Peter Giles – both of who would feature at some point or another in the ever-changing King Crimson line-up – came out a year before In the Court of the Crimson King, the KC debut, and couldn’t sound any more different to that album if it tried. What a difference a year makes, eh?

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album reviews, prog rock, psych-pop

In general Toytown songs should be at least one of the following: light, bouncy, jangly, slightly off-key or slightly out of whack – Marmalade Skies

Indeed, and although some of the songs on HFoS Goes to Toytown may stretch the boundaries of what the purist might define as “Toytown Psychedelia”, I believe the term “slightly out of whack” can be applied to all.

They also demonstrate, in varying degrees, a jaunty childlike innocence; a harking back to an imagined, rose-tinted past; and an occasional darkness associated with things lurking under the bed. All characteristics that further define the paisley-patterned pathways of Toytown.

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mixtapes, psych-pop, psychedelic rock

In the pantheon of cult bands, the liturgical devotion that surrounds The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band (or WCPAEB, as we’ll refer to them from now on, to save on both space and my fingertips) is up there with the likes of Tomorrow, the 13th Floor Elevators, July and The Barron Knights.

Releasing four, increasingly creepy albums between 1967 and 1969, the band has its place cemented in the annals of psychedelic folklore, via the personal tragedies of its individual members and the sleazy predilections of its vaguely sinister frontman, Bob Markley.

Nevertheless, those four albums live on as a testament to what was going on in the sun-soaked Californian psychedelic pop/folk scene of the late 60s, which beggars the question, what does one buy the WCPAEB fan who has it all? Well, you could do worse than Companion, a compilation of rare recordings made by the band members before, during and after the WCPAEB’s moment in the spotlight.

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album reviews, psych-pop, psychedelic rock

The suspect cover of Bill Nelson’s 1971 debut, Northern Dream, reflects the almost homemade nature of its sound. Written, produced, sung and harmonised by Nelson, with the musical auteur also playing the lion’s share of the instruments, it was recorded on the most basic of equipment and thus enjoys a rawer – dare I say, more honest – sound than one would find on professionally put together singer-songwriter releases of the time.

300 copies of the album were originally pressed, the sessions funded by Nelson’s local record shop in Wakefield. It took the intervention of legendary bumbler John Peel – as was so often the case – to bring Northern Dream to a wider audience and set young Bill on a road that would lead to the forming of unconventional prog act, Be-Bop Deluxe, and numerous other successes thereafter.

The music on Northern Dream transverses various styles, soaking up the psychedelic, folk, blues and even a smattering of country rock (‘Sad Feelings’). As the artist himself states, in this new CD reissue’s liner notes, he “wandered the fields of Yorkshire trying to live the ‘peace and love’, post-hippie dream… some sort of psychedelic troubadour or something.”

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album reviews, progressive folk, psych-folk, psych-pop

Rare. Obscure. British. Psychedelic. Four words that effortlessly pique the interest of HFoS, whenever they’re employed in a healthy context. String them together in a single sentence and there’s every chance you could be onto a winner, as was the case with We All Live On Candy Green.

Its follow up, and volume two in the Electric Sound Show series, In King Solomon’s Minds, continues in a similar vein to its prismatic predecessor, trawling the lesser known arcana of late 1960’s psychedelic pop.

Unlike the first outing, In King Solomon’s Minds lacks anything as wonderfully awful as Rodney Bewes’s ‘Meter Maid’ to recommend it. Never mind though, as a frisky selection comprised mainly of jangly guitars, Hammond organ melodies and typically idiosyncratic lyrics still awaits those in search of some of the more inaccessible terrain of the psych-pop era.

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album reviews, psych-pop, psychedelic rock

Chances are you won’t find a Clouds song on any of the prog rock compilations that have recently hit the rainbow-hued ether, following the genre’s apparent rehabilitation.

It may no longer be necessary to secrete a prog purchase inside a copy of Razzle, to avoid the embarrassment of being seen out with something as shameful as Rick Wakeman’s The Six Wives of Henry VIII, but the smorgasbord collections that have emerged to cash in on this newfound respectability tend to stick to very much the same blueprint, taking few chances and recycling the same artists and songs over again. The two-disc edition of Wondrous Stories is a perfect example of this and what to expect from any number of similar releases hoping to bag their share of the prog/curious pound.

As I said, it’s extremely doubtful you’d find any songs by Clouds gracing these cynical exercises in bandwagon jumping, as this three-piece ensemble, originally from Scotland, flew just a little too low beneath the radar. Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.

Clouds’ debut album, 1969’s The Clouds Scrapbook, is a curious mix of prog, jaunty psychedelia, flowery pop and balladry. Even with the largest of shoehorns it would be difficult to prise this album into any singular category, where the likes of HFoS could point at it and say “yes, that goes there.” Such is our wont.

As such, Scrapbook is an uneven piece, benefitting from flashes of brilliance that are all too often countered by moments of the mundane.

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album reviews, prog rock, psych-pop

What’s this? Another offering from the Fruits de Mer label? Hell’s teeth! Are they trying to spoil us or something?

The fourth FdM release in a matter of a month is by the Sidewalk Society. They appeared on A Phase We’re Going Through, the fine Fruits de Mer album released earlier this year, performing the rare Bee Gees psychedelic excursion, ‘Red Chair, Fade Away’.

For this EP, released on limited edition vinyl as per, it’s once again a case of lesser known tracks from household names. Four, in fact.

There’s ‘In the First Place’, originally by George Harrison and The Remo Four; ‘(Tell Me) Have You Ever Seen Me?’ by The Small Faces; ‘Lazy Old Sun’ by The Kinks; and finally, ‘Dandelion’ by The Rolling Stones.

These are all given a jolly good seeing to by L.A.’s own, Sidewalk Society. That’s right; it’s our colonial cousins reinterpreting songs by some thoroughly British bands. I say, dashed unsporting, what? God Save the Queen and all that!

But wait. Before questions are asked in the House and heads encouraged to roll, let’s take a listen.

By George! I do believe they’ve got it. The rain in Spain does fall mainly on the plain, or, in this case, the Mojave Desert.

Such Rex Harrison caddishness aside, Fruits de Mer Vol. 14 is a rare vintage indeed. One bottled in 1967 and decanted now, just in time for Christmas. All four of the tracks were originally recorded in that year and Sidewalk Society manage to capture the essence perfectly.

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psych-pop, psychedelic rock

If I had my way, everybody would have at least one song by Rodney Bewes in their record collection.

“Rodney Bewes?” I hear you say. “He of Bob Ferris/Likely Lads fame?” The one and same, I retort. The man with the helmet hairdo and sad eyes. It’s true that the singing talents of Bewes may not be what he’s primarily known for, but 1969 did see him make an assault on the charts with ‘Dear Mother, Love Albert’, the theme tune to his post-Likely Lad sitcom of the same name. The B-side was called ‘Meter Maid’, and it’s that song that features here on We All Live on Candy Green.

As this is a compilation of obscure and arcane psychedelic/power pop from the late sixties, the aforementioned ‘Meter Maid’ slots in perfectly. It’s a sub-Beatles, child-friendly interpretation of psychedelia, of course, with shades of Keith West whimsy thrown in for good measure, and, to be quite frank, it’s bloody awful. But that’s awful in a quite wonderful way. It’s like the bumblebee; it shouldn’t be able to fly but it does. Rodney Bewes’s ‘Meter Maid’ is terrible but endearing at the same time. His camp “oohs” towards the end are a particular joy.

But that’s just one song on a collection of 25, and we’ve spent more than enough time on it, so how’s about the rest?

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album reviews, psych-pop, psychedelic rock

Status Quo. Apparently, if you incant the name of The Quo five times in front of a mirror, Francis Rossi will appear and kill you with his three chords of repetitive boogie rock. Please don’t try it at home. Too many good men and women have already fallen foul of the pony-tailed one’s Telecaster axe.

But it wasn’t always so. If you were able to step back in time and follow the multi-hued swirl of marijuana smoke that emerges in 1968, then you would find a none too shabby psychedelic pop act, featuring a younger, mop-topped Rossi, along with full-term partner in crime’s against music, Rick Parfitt, and a cheeky little bassist known as Alan Lancaster. These three would form the kernel of Status Quo, a band that would go on to strike fear in the hearts of small children, the elderly and those of a nervous disposition alike.

The late 70s and the 80s were a particularly desperate time for listeners of Radio One, with The Quo rehashing the same song over and over again and unleashing it like a dirty bomb across the airwaves of Great Britain. It wasn’t until 1995, when The Quo was named as part of the axis of evil, that their reign of terror subsided.

Bu, as I’ve already said, it wasn’t always so. In 1968 they were called *The* Status Quo. They basked in the technicolour sunshine of the musical experimentation prevalent at this unique moment in history, and, most importantly, they banged out some highly agreeable tunage.

Allow the defence to present ‘Pictures of Matchstick Men’. It may be the last track on Picturesque Matchstickable Messages From The Status Quo, but it’s easily the most enduring. Everybody knows that opening riff, and if they don’t, then where have they been for the past forty years?

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album reviews, psych-pop

It’s a psychedelic frenzy that informs Cranium Pie’s 2009 eccentric cover of the 1967 Dantalian’s Chariot classic ‘Madman Running Through the Fields’.

Recorded for the now OOP Fruits de Mer Vol. Seven, Cranium Pie take the psychedelic-pop oddness of the original and turns up the insanity factor.

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music vid, psych-pop, psychedelic rock

The Wind in the Willows. Now what does that bring to mind? David Jason? Peter Sallis? Cosgrove Hall Productions? If you failed to grow up in Britain during the early eighties then there’s every chance you’re now scratching your head, wondering what blend of Rastafarian Old Holborn I’ve been toking on.

I failed to grow up, but I was there in the early eighties. Alfie Shepherd wasn’t, but it didn’t stop him writing a concept album based on Kenneth Grahame’s 1908 children’s novel, The Wind in the Willows. Ah, the innocent aspirations of the psychedelic age, when nobody would bat an eyelid if such a record were released.

Except it didn’t get released; not in 1969, as intended, anyway. You see, young Alfred wrote the piece for Angel Pavement, the psych-pop band with whom he played lead guitar. He recorded the whole thing in a home studio as a set of demos to play to the rest of the band. However, due to various unavoidable circumstances, what was meant to be, wasn’t to be, and the band split in 1970 leaving Alfie alone with his demos and his memories.

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album reviews, psych-pop

One look at the cover for the World of Oz’s sole, self-titled album, and you’d be forgiven for thinking you were in for a pick’n'mix assortment of toytown psych treats. Alas, this is not so.

Aside from the occasional exception, we are in the territory of orchestral-infused flowery pop, which, don’t get me wrong, is no bad thing.

The World of Oz, released in 1969, sees the four Brummies responsible deliver a collection of melodic and instantly likeable songs that steer well clear of anything too far out, but set themselves apart, both lyrically and musically, from the standard pop fodder of the time.

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album reviews, psych-pop

The World of Oz were four Brummie lads who took it upon themselves to stage an onslaught on the charts during the efflorescent days of 1968 and early 1969.

Their brand of flowery-pop tickled the underskirts of psychedelia but never managed to make an impact on their home shore. However, the brightly-attired troupe did manage a minor hit in Holland with the Toytown psych of ‘Muffin Man’.

‘The Hum-Gum Tree’ is a slightly harder-edged example of their output, and an absolutely splendid one at that.

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music vid, psych-pop

Vanessa Williams once warbled, “save the best till last,” and though her insipid brand of asinine drivel is as welcome at Head Full of Snow as a particularly nasty bout of necrotizing fasciitis, as far as Compilation Week is concerned, we find ourselves obliged to heed her advice and have, indeed, saved the best till last.

Real Life Permanent Dreams – a cornucopia of British psychedelia 1965-1970, from Sanctuary Records, is exactly what it says on the tin, a veritable abundance of psychedelic joy that’s as essential as it is comprehensive.

With four discs (yes, four), a 46-page, oversized glossy booklet, and a monumental 99 tracks that kick off with the original demo version of The Smoke’s ‘My Friend Jack’, is there really any need for me to continue this review?

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album reviews, prog rock, psych-pop, psychedelic rock

Anybody who reads this nonsense on a reasonably regular basis may recall at the start of the year I said I would be covering newer bands, as well as the usual stuff from the 60s and 70s, reissues, and so on.  So long as they slotted in to the relevant genres (ie. prog rock, psychedelic rock, etc.) these Johnny-come-latelies and acid-rock apologists would be welcome here.

Well, as I’m never less than a man of my word,  I shall be featuring some new stuff in the not too distant future, possibly under a big, flowery banner bearing a self-assuring title such as “New-Psych” or “New-Prog”,  just so that I remain fully aware we’re not wandering too far from my original remit and I can continue to sleep at night.

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music vid, psych-pop

It would seem that Head Full of Snow is one year old this very day. That makes us six months older than my own shouty daughter.

Jeff Lynne and the Idle Race boys react to the news HFoS is one year old

365 days may have passed since the first proper posting here, but as I promised at the start of the year, we shan’t be doing anything to celebrate.

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music vid, news, psych-pop

Such was the nature of a musical genre taking its name from the mind-altering effects of acid intake that psychedelia was inevitably going to produce thinly veiled references to the drug’s popular acronym within song titles.

Probably the most famous example of authority-baiting via the medium of song is The Beatles’ ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’, although John Lennon dismissed such speculation as mere coincidence. Billy Nicholls was another such artist willing to nail his colours to the mast, penning ‘London Social Degree’, taken from his 1968 album Would You Believe.

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music vid, psych-pop

If one were to think of a psychedelic rock band that was largely ignored during its day, yet has gone on to acquire a cult following in the intervening years, rocketing them to the status of psychedelic legends, then Tomorrow would fit the bill perfectly.

Despite being the first band to record a BBC Radio 1 John Peel session, commercial success eluded them, and even a firm, if brief, following on the underground wasn’t enough to make 1968′s self-titled debut anything more than a lone shot at album glory.

The fickle nature of swinging 60′s musical adulation may have prevented Tomorrow from recording beyond 1967, but it doesn’t stop the eponymous record from being anything short of a minor classic.

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album reviews, psych-pop, psychedelic rock

Within the never-ending, idyllic summer days of perhaps the strangest – and very much uniquely English – of all musical sub-genres, Toytown Psychedelia, ‘Grocer Jack (Excerpt from a Teenage Opera)’ surely remains its most successful export.

Taken from a proposed, yet aborted, rock opera by Mark Wirtz, ‘Grocer Jack’ is possibly the only song featuring a man suffering and dying from a heart attack to reach No. 2 in the UK charts (Madness’s ‘Cardiac Arrest’ having peaked at No. 14). Typifying a good deal of the Toytown psych pop genre, ‘Grocer Jack’ harks back to a bygone era that probably never existed. Keith West of short-lived, but long remembered, Brit-psychedelic band Tomorrow, sings the poignant tale of Jack, a forgotten relic in a world of apathy, who frets about how the unappreciative town will function if he can’t make his deliveries, even as he breathes his last.

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music vid, psych-pop

Head Full of Snow’s 100th post coincides with the launch of Procol Harum Week. It’s almost as though I planned it that way. And where else would one kick off a Procol Harum Week than at the moment in time where it all began? The debut single that has gone on to be named the UK’s “most played record ever”.

Whether you love or hate it, there’s no denying that if at some point over the last 42 years you’ve heard a bit of music, there’s more chance of it being ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’ than anything else.

Though not their best song, it managed to capture a moment in the summer of 1967 when, if you were fortunate enough not to have to work for a living and bought into the whole flower power freedom movement, anything seemed possible. The fact it caught on with the mainstream too, quickly elevated AWSoP to the legendary stature it enjoys today.

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music vid, psych-pop, psychedelic rock, song reviews