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Psych Survey: Charlie Saufley, Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound

Charlie Saufley, Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound
5 Modern Psych Faves
1. Comets on Fire’s Field Recordings from The Sun might be my favorite post-punk psych record. It’s completely transportive, unbridled, and ecstatic. It’s effortlessly ambitious, too—meshing a thousand seemingly disparate textures (Fillmore folk-rock, Japanese psych punk, Exuma, Sun Ra, just to name a few) through an unabashed, anti-cynical, and completely non-ironic love of all of them.

2. My favorite Six Organs of Admittance record may be The Sun Awakens, but Dark Noontide is the deeper trip—rainy skies, dark solitude and the invitation to kick down doors to glimpse the light.

3. Essential in my life, but probably mostly forgotten, Teenagers Film Their Own Life by Florence, Italy’s Valvola is a tuneful, moody collection of psych-pop gems, built on analog synth and organ sounds bonky guitars and ethereal whisper vocals. You get the desert and the rain in this one.

4. Perfect Prescription gets the kudos, but Playing with Fire is the Spacemen 3 LP that can deliver you furthest from your studio apartment on a shit-grey day. Lazy, sleepy, fuzzy and free.

5. I can’t think of a band that so deftly danced about that perfect point in the cosmos where Spacemen 3 and Black Sabbath meet as Dead Meadow did with Shivering King and Others.

Man, so many more…honorable mentions to Voice of the Seven Woods, Sun Araw, Twilight Circus, Monoshock, High Rise, Keiji Haino, Sonic Youth, DJ Shadow…..
5 Non-Canonical Faves
1. Tangerine Dream by Kalaidescope UK would probably sound pretty twee to heavy psych heads. But it’s a beautiful collection of genius psych-pop songs that walks the thread linking Barrett-era Floyd, Townshend and Ray Davies “character” studies, as well as The Byrds, Bee Gees and Zombies. “The Sky Children,” an 8-minute psych-folk-rock mantra, is worth the price of admission alone.

2. Erkin Koray’s Elektronik Turkuler is the Godzilla and King Kong of Turkish/Anatolian psych, which is saying a lot given the ass-kicking work of fellow Turks 3 Hur El, Selda, Mogollar, Ersen. But this is heavy shit—funky, sexy, fragrant, spiritual. Like Zep, Jimi, and Pompelli-era Floyd made ancient and cast like bolts of lightning from the minarets.

3. Creme Soda’s Tricky Zingers was a fave of Greg Shaw, who knew a thing or two about subterranean psych. And it’s mighty strange to me that it’s remained as under the radar as it has. The songwriting is inspired, top-shelf shit and is consistently engaging for its ambitious embrace of varied musical styles. Imagine a mid-west garage version of Revolver or The Yardbirds’ Little Games and you start to get the picture.

4. Ghetto Music and Black Rhythm Happening by jazz trumpet player Eddie Gale are like more tune-based cousins to Pharoah Sanders’ Black Unity and Karma and the funky chant throw downs by Sun Ra and Art Ensemble of Chicago. It’s free, joyful, mournful, and fantastically rich with blow-the-house-down ecstatic jazz moves, folk guitar, and gorgeous girl vocals.

5. Gabor Szabo is one of favorite guitarists, bar none. And while more cynical Szabo cultists view his Jazz Raga, recorded in late ‘66, as a campy leap at the raga rock bandwagon, I still find it to be one of the most unique-sounding records of the period, and a genuine and inspired stab at east-west fusion.