Astral Visions #77 Mixcloud Show now online!

It's been a great year what comes to music! Here's my last show this year, have fun...

www.mixcloud.com/AstralVisions/astral-visions-077

Tracklist

• 1 You're No Good (from Frequency Rhythm Distortion Delay)by Psychic Lemon
• 2 The Same Sun (from The Same Sun 7")by The Pretty Things
• 3 Ring the Albanian (from S/T)by Helicon
• 4 Follow Mw (from Follow Me)by More Experience
• 5 Strange Space (from Intro / Outro)by Moths & Locusts
• 6 San Pedro (from Oscilador)by Fonez
• 7 Sunrizer (from Quiet Pass)by Sleeping Pandora
• 8 The Storm (from Before the Storm 7")by Into the Sky
• 9 Steve Machine (from Thought Zero)by Crystal Cloisters
• 10 United Fruit (from V/A - Return Of Son Of Gutbucket - An Underground Canadian Psych Explosion)by Shooting Guns
• 11 Deep Throat River Holy Mountain High (from Freak Out Orgasm!)by Hibushibire
• 12 Light of Love (from Dark Weave)by Mark McDowell
• 13 The Orange Coat (from Mushroom Mantras)by Vibravoid
• 14 Even Though My Mouth Is Silent (Chromlech Chronicles II)by Sendelica
• 

The best albums of 2017!

This is my top 30 of foreign studio albums this year, in alphabetical order:

3rd Ear Experience ‎– Stones Of A Feather
Anthroprophh ‎– SRR 2.5 Special Love Songs For Hard-Working People In Alarm Clock Britain
The Black Angels ‎– Death Song
Blown Out ‎– Superior Venus
Chrome – Techromancy 
The Cosmic Dead ‎– Psych Is Dead
Cosmic Trickers ‎– Homo Fraktaliens
Earthling Society ‎– Zen Bastard
Ecstatic Vision ‎– Raw Rock Fury
Electric Moon ‎– Stardust Rituals 
Electric Orange - EOXXV 
Grails ‎– Chalice Hymnal
Hawklords ‎– Six
Hawkwind ‎– Into The Woods
Helicon ‎– S/T
Julie's Haircut ‎– Invocation And Ritual Dance Of My Demon Twin 
Uffe Lorenzen ‎– Galmandsværk
John McBain ‎– Accidental Soundtracks Vol. 1
Moon Duo ‎– Occult Architecture Vol. 1 & 2
Moths & Locusts ‎– Intro/Outro
The Myrrors ‎– Hasta La Victoria
Plastic Crimewave Syndicate ‎– Thunderbolt Of Flaming Wisdom
Sendelica ‎– Lilacs Out of the Deadlands
The Sonic Shamen ‎– Tribute to Lemmy
Nik Turner ‎– Life In Space 
Vert:x ‎– From Now to Now
Vespero ‎– Shum-Shir 
White Manna ‎– Bleeding Eyes
Vibravoid ‎– Mushroom Mantras
Øresund Space Collective ‎– Hallucinations Inside The Oracle


And here's my top 10 Finnish albums in 2017:

Circle ‎– Terminal
Deep Space Destructors ‎– Psychedelogy
Hisko Detria ‎– Mal Du Siècle
Mikko Joensuu ‎– Amen 3
Kairon; IRSE! ‎– Ruination
PH ‎– Eternal Hayden
Siinai ‎– Sykli 
Soft Power ‎– In a Brown Study
Steel Mammoth ‎– Atomic Oblivion
Warp Transmission ‎– Tamám Shud 

Sendelica - Cromlech Cronicles II

Strange Fish (strange fish 10)

Welsh psych heads Sendelica returned in summer 2016 to Mwnci studio beside the ancient burial cromlech in West Wales. One year before they came up with the magical Cromlech Chronicles album (check out my review) and this is a natural successor to that great album. Like usual, they invited some friends with them and the instrumentation is now even more varied than usual with lots of cello, saxophone, Tibetan singing bowls, shaman drums, sansula, ting sha, mbira etc. Although the album is almost instrumental, there is also female chanting in Sanskrit, for example! As you might have guessed, the overal atmosphere on the album is very ambient, laid-back and atmospheric, and there is actually NO hard space rocking at all. I can live with that, since the album has a sacred, ancient and mystical vibe that I really enjoy. If you liked the guitar player Pete's recent The Fellowship of Hallucinatory Voyagers project, you will also dig this for sure.

There are only two, side-long tracks on the album: "Ripples of the Megaliths" and "Even Though My Mouth Is Silent". Both are based on improvisation and flow somewhere in ether like some mystical tides from the past. The electronics enhance the spacey mood. It's all very soft, melancholic, sort of jazzy and ethereal and there is not much guitar to be heard. All in all, if you want to chill out and float in magical atmospheres, this album is for you.

www.facebook.com/Sendelica-191174294239796/

The Pretty Things - The Same Sun 7" EP

Fruits de Mer Records (crustacean 83)

The Pretty Things are of course one of the most legendary survivors of the 60's UK r'n'b/beat/mod/freakbeat/psych scene and, as it happens, Fruits de Mer boss Keith's favourite band. The Pretties are still going strong and I must say that their performance at Roadburn Festival in 2013 was one of the best and most memorable that year. I will always remember when I wished Dick Taylor a great gig just when he was going up from the backstage area to stage and received a heartly smile and a very polite English thank you... What a great moment!

Anyway, what we have here is a four-track 7" EP. Things (!) start off with Keith's fave song from the new album The Sweet Pretty Things (Are In Bed Now, Of Course...). "The Same Sun" is a really nice, mid-tempo hard rocker that brings to mind their Parachute album a bit. I also love the vocals that really give some perspective to being a human being. It doesn't matter where you are on planet Earth, it's still the same Sun we all see, although it is seen through different eyes. Great vocals and solo guitar work as well! Yes Keith, you were right: this IS a single track for sure! The other studio track is the wonderful "Renaissance Fair" originally released by The Human Instinct in 1968. The original 7" is now very collectable and expensive and it's easy to understand why! I love The Pretty Things version too, of course. On the B-side we've got two raw and energetic live tracks somewhere from the late 60s: "She Says Good Morning" and "Alexander". I wish I could have seen the band back then but I wasn't even born yet! Great stuff.

www.theprettythings.com

Moths and Locusts - Intro / Outro

Cardinal Fuzz / Noiseagonymayhem Records (CF080 / NAM 032)

I found out about this great Canadian band last year when their second album Helios Rising was released. I was so convinced that I just had to get their debut album Mission Collapse in the Twin Sun Megaverse as well. That was another killer slab of vinyl! This band had something different going on, something of their own. Unlike so many other bands riding on the psych rock bandwagon Moths and Locusts did indeed sound original and different. There were also elements of indie rock and punk that I usually don't really care for that much, but this band made everything sound great. You can imagine that I was really looking forward to their third album Intro / Outro and oh buy how pleased I'm now that I've got it!

This album sees the band going deeper into the space/psych rock realm still keeping some of their great melodies and catchy songs. The music is now much more trippy, spacey and hallucinatory, which is just perfect for me. They have not lost any of their originality, but I am sometimes reminded of bands like Lumerians making hybrid babies with Chrome. There is a powerful, otherwordly experimental vibe on some of the tracks like "Hymn to Hathor". The album starts off with the hypnotic and mid-tempo "Acid Cloud (Part 1)" that gets more intense little by little. I like the use of wordless female vocals on this one and a couple of more. You can also hear some proggy flute on some tracks, for example. Some of my favourites are the heavy "Strange Space" and the krautrock / stoner hybrid "Acid Cloud (Part 2)" that also gets rather heavy and simply fucks up your brain. There are also some beautiful, celestial moments like the instrumental "Scream" and semi-acoustic "Roadside". But everything sounds at least a bit weird and twisted, believe me... "He Who Has the Most Strings" includes one of the dirtiest bass sounds I've heard for a while and the weird, experimental last track "Martian Sunrise" sounds exactly like its title suggets. This album might not be for everyone, but for me it's one of the best in 2017. Check it out if you dare!

www.facebook.com/mothsandlocusts

Electric Orange - EOXXV

Adansonia Records (ar021)

Electric Orange from Germany have been celebrating their 25th birthday in 2017 and this massive 3LP box set / 2CD full of previously unreleased studio material is the highlight of the year. I've been a big fanboy of their cosmic, psychedelic krautrock sounds since the beginning and I'm happy to say they have only gotten better and better along the years. The 3LP version has one long track on each side and the 2CD has one more track that is also available on the download of the vinyl version.

The album starts off with the 23-minute "Continuum" that gives us a flight to some spacey alternative universe through a warmhole. It's a very trippy, hypnotic mysterious ride that I enjoy very much! "Under the Nun" is a bit shorter at 16 minutes, and has a cool laid-back groove going on until things get pretty weird and experimental. There is some more grooving later on, though. The 2CD and download now continue with the ambient piece "Gnosis" where tons of sacred information is being transmitted directly into your brain. "Misophonia IV" is another rather atmospheric, laid-back number but also has a tribal beat later on. "Misophonia V" pretty much continues the journey and I'm somehow reminded of Pink Floyd's live show in Pompeii although the sound is more modern here of course. "Faint" builds up slowly and turns into a real mind-bender with groovy rhythms, cosmic synth layers and electronic sounds. It even rocks hard at the beginning! Wow. It's nice to have some more guitar in the mix for a change. The last track "Residuum" is very ambient and floating for the first eight minutes or so but slowly grows. What can I say, these guys really know how to transport the listener into some strange, far-away galaxies. Just take it easy, pay attention and surrender to the cosmic captains. One of the best albums this year for sure!

www.facebook.com/electricorangeband