Ghosts Of Hobbs End - Amsterdam/America

Treehouse Orchestra Recordings. TOR58.

01 Amsterdam

02 America

The latest offering from my own label of friends and artists is a new one; Ghosts of Hobbs End is myself, Jill Wallace (Brocken Spectre) and Davis Thompson (Cat of Tomorrow, The Dead West).

This cassette release is a mix of improvised jams, radio, field recordings and drones. Recorded over the last year and a half, the final collages were performed in May and July of this year.

Artwork by Britany Gunderson.

As always, there is a free download at Bandcamp. The cassette version is available for a limited time.

Taj Mahal Travellers - Oz Days Live

Oz Records 1973

01 Oz Days Live Improvisation

As a bonus to any Taj Mahal Travellers fans out there, here is the live recording from the 1973 Various Artists album 'Oz days Live'.

The Oz Rock Cafe in Tokyo staged a benefit concert in which various Japanese underground artists performed and had the recordings make up this album.

The first two sides of this double album are straight rock 'n' roll performances from the likes of  Miyako Ochi and Acid Seven and unfortunately they're not particularly interesting. 

The Taj Mahal Travellers performance takes up side 3 and is represented here. Rougher sounding than their albums, this is a mesmerising performance, with field recordings and other instruments being as dominant as drones.

Side 4 was taken up with recordings from the Les Rallizes Dénudés performance. Next year, I shall start posting on this most intense, psychedelic and ground breaking band.

Robbie Basho - Live in Germany

Basho Productions 1983 / Grass-Tops Recordings 2016

01 Redwood Ramble
02 Fandango
03 Easter
04 Rocky Mountain Raga
05 Cathedral et Fleur de Lis
06 Chocolate Cake (Ackermann Special)
07 Silky Jane
08 The Grail & The Lotus
09 Pavan India
10 Variations on Clair de Lune
11 California Raga

This release from Basho should really be considered canon; it was distributed by Robbie himself. He sold at shows and via mail order, a practise he did a lot in later years.

Thanks again to Kyle and Grass-Tops Recordings for preserving this cassette from total obscurity.

Taj Mahal Travellers - Live Stockholm July, 1971

Drone Syndicate 2000

01 Live '71, Pt. 1
02 Live '71, Pt. 2


The third and final available album from improvisational drone ensemble Taj Mahal Travellers.

Released a few times throughout the 2000's, this recording pre-dates the two official contemporary TMT albums.

Wonderful abstract drone.

Various Artists - September 2011

01 Dominic Frontiere - The Invaders - Main Title Theme

02 Damon - Don't You Feel Me

03 Gandalf - Can You Travel In The Dark Alone

04 Bread, Love & Dreams - Brother John

05 Flames - Solitude

06 Lula Cortes & Ze Ramalho - Nas Paredes Da Pedra Encantada, Os Segredos Talhados Por Sume

07 Can Am Des Puig - The Cauldron Of Regeneration

08 Mike Tingley - It's Time To Leave Her

09 The Golden Dawn - My Time

10 Michael Yonkers Band - Boy In The Sandbox

11 Fuchsia - Shoes and Ships

12 July - The Way

13 Principal Edward's Magic Theatre - Sacrifice

14 Dominic Frontiere - The Invaders

Another old mixtape. Still holds up well, with a lot of rare psychedelia. 

It pre-dates this blog and along with other early mixtapes, is the inspiration for the start of all this.

Cover star is Soledad Miranda.

Dillard & Clark

Bootleg 1969

01 No Longer a Sweetheart of Mine

02 Why Not Your Baby

03 Wall Around Your Heart

04 Through the Morning, Through the Night

05 So Sad

06 Dark Hollow

07 Kansas City Southern

08 Four Walls

09 Polly

10 Don't Let Me Down

Another fan made Gene Clark album, this time, re-arranging the second and final album from Dillard & Clark.

1968's 'The Fantastic Expedition Of Dillard & Clark' was a classic from start to finsh. A little confusing coming after the psychedelic, beat and baroque 'Gene Clark With The Gosdin Brothers' (clues can be found in unreleased recordings), but collaborating with banjo player Doug Dillard produced a beautiful album of folk, country and bluegrass.

Unfortunately most critics agreed that 1969's follow up 'Through The Morning, Through The Night' was a bit of a come down. More cover versions, less Gene originals and vocals and the introduction of Donna Washburn as a further vocalist all contributed to this.

There is however, some wonderful songs on the released album, as well as some songs that weren't.

I retained 'No Longer a Sweetheart of Mine', 'So Sad', 'Kansas City Southern', 'Four Walls', 'Polly', 'Don't Let Me Down' and the title track from the original album. I added two outtakes from the album sessions; 'Dark Hollow' and 'Wall Around Your Heart'. Finally I included the wonderful non-album single 'Why Not Your Baby'.

The Electric Prunes - I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night)

Reprise 1967

01 I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night)

02 Bangles

03 Onie

04 Are You Lovin' Me More (But Enjoy It Less)

05 Train For Tomorrow

06 Sold To The Highest Bidder

07 Get Me To The World On Time

08 About A Quarter To Nine

09 The King Is In The Counting House

10 Luvin
11 Try Me On For Size
12 The Toonerville Trolley


The Electric Prunes were a psychedelic garage rock band from L.A. and this is there debut album from 1967.

There seemed to be no end of absolutely terrible contracts given out to bands throughout the 1960's. The burden for The Electric Prunes was they were contractually bound to record the songs of songwriting team Annette Tucker and Nancie Mantz. On this first album, the band only had one original they wrote themselves.

There are a couple of songs that sound out of place and the band made no secret of their frustration with having to record these compositions. Some tracks though, like the title track and 'Get Me to the World On Time' are garage classics.

The real highlight is that the band were allowed to apply their recording ideas and experiments to these songs. They employ fuzztone, tremelo, sound effects and electronic composition.

The Electric Prunes had a strange career and we'll be looking at their other releases in the coming months.