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‘Psychedelic Sex’: The revealing retro coffee table book of trippy titillation
02.16.2015
01:59 pm
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Taschen has released a titillating title called Psychedelic Sex written and compiled by Yippie co-founder and Realist publisher Paul Krassner with self-proclaimed obsessive collector, Eric Gotland. The racy retro collection is edited by Dian Hanson whose job title at Taschen appears actually to be “Sexy Book Editor.” Nice! Hanson produced a ton of men’s magazines from Juggs to Legshow between 1976 and 2001 and is also responsible for other Taschen titles like The Little Book of Big Penis and The Big Butt Book 3D, so obviously you might want to get your hands on Psychadelic Sex. The addition of Paul Krassner’s penchant for countercultural hilarity makes this kind of a must have in my humble opinion.

From Taschen’s website:

In a brief golden span between 1967 and 1972, the sexual revolution collided with recreational drug exploration to create “psychedelic sex.” While the baby boomers blew their minds and danced naked in the streets, men’s magazine publishers attempted to visually recreate the wonders of LSD, project them on a canvas of nubile hippie flesh, and dish it up to men dying for a taste of free love.

Way Out, Groovie, Where It’s At—each magazine title vied to convince the straight audience it offered the most authentic flower power sex trip, complete with mind-bending graphics and all-natural hippie hotties. Along the way hippies joined in the production, since what could be groovier than earning bread in your birthday suit?

At its height, psychedelic sex encompassed posters, tabloids, comics, and newsstand magazines, but the most far-out examples of all were the glossy magazines from California, center of both hippie culture and the budding American porn industry. It’s these sexy, silly reminders of peace, love, and pudenda we celebrate in Psychedelic Sex.

Do I really need to tell you that these images (except maybe the one of the book cover) probably aren’t safe for work?  I’m assuming the little winking smiley faces are added by Taschen for the website and don’t actually show up when you buy the book.
 
Article Cover - Psychedelic Sex
 
Psychedelic Sex1
Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama and friends.
 
Drugged and Liked It
 
More after the jump…
 

READ ON
Posted by Jason Schafer
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02.16.2015
01:59 pm
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Happy birthday to The Legendary Pink Dots’ Edward Ka-Spel!


 
We wish a very happy birthday to the leader of that durable yet obscure British/Dutch psychedelic band The Legendary Pink Dots, Edward Ka-Spel, who turns 60 today.

Possessing a distinctive singing voice that easily walks the center line between Pink Floyd founder Syd Barrett and apocalyptic folkie David “Current 93” Tibet, Ka-Spel has been an astonishingly prolific artist, and not even The Fall can touch the sheer mass of his discography. Since 1981, there are over three dozen Legendary Pink Dots full-length albums—The Crushed Velvet Apocalypse and The Maria Dimension are among the greats—AND he’s released almost three dozen solo albums, of which Tanith & the Lion Tree from 1991 remains a standout. And as if he needed to run up the numbers, there are side projects, as well. He formed The Tear Garden with Skinny Puppy’s cEvin Key in 1986, and Mimir with Christoph Heemann in 1989. And I’m not even going to get started on guest appearances. Anyone trying to become a Ka-Spel completist collector has quite a lot of digging to do.

For a representative sample of one of the better LPD albums, here’s 1985’s Asylum in its entirety.
 

 
A YouTube user by the handle of Virgil Pink has seemingly made an avocation of uploading Pink Dots/Ka-Spel fan videos (Residents, as well—his channel is full of treasures). Here’s “Third Secret” from The Maria Dimension set to cut-up visuals from the wonderful animated film Fantastic Planet.
 

 
For a taste of something more recent, here’s “Cloud 6” from 2013’s Code Noir. No idea the source of the footage, but it’s a great match. One might wonder if there isn’t an experienced videographer behind the Virgil Pink curtain.
 

 
And lastly, something delightful in a totally different way. As a fairly omnivorous music collector geek, I find that a great way to get to know a person is to go record shopping with him or her. Los Angeles’ Amoeba Music seems to agree. They’ve got a Webby Award winning series called “What’s In My Bag?” which examines the purchases of notables who visit the store. Here’s The Legendary Pink Dots’ episode. And it should probably go without saying, but all of the stuff they bought is worth checking out.
 

Posted by Ron Kretsch
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01.23.2014
10:26 am
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Insane Vangelis improvised synth freak-out, 1982
08.07.2012
07:03 pm
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This vintage footage of Vangelis playing around on his synthesisers at Nemo Studios in London, is equal parts beautiful and terrifying. What an incredible, intense, truly psychedelic sound he is creating! And what a crazy head space he must have been in to live and work in this environment every day.

According to YouTube uploader Nimanty:

[The] recording of this performance took place [on] Spanish Television in 1982, [and] also when Neuronium (Michel Huygen) visited Vangelis to perform together.

Some enhancement of the original video tape with denoising, contrast improvement and color correction.

Sound remastering for better clearity and stereo imaging.

The sound on this is great - thank you Nimanty!
 

 

Posted by Niall O'Conghaile
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08.07.2012
07:03 pm
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‘Hold Me Upsetter’: Free download from The Orb with Lee Scratch Perry

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Lee Perry and The Orb? That’s a match made in psychedelic dub heaven!

Taken from the forthcoming collaboration album The Observer In The Star House, which is out in September, ‘Hold Me Upsetter’ is a neat little slice of bass-heavy shuffle-house. You can download it for free below, and if this is a good example of the rest of the album, then both electronica and dub aficionados have a lot to be excited about.

There’s more info on the album (and some funny pictures of a very young Dr Alex Patterson) over at theorb.com.
 

Posted by Niall O'Conghaile
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06.22.2012
12:24 pm
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Smoke this: 15 Years of the excellent Tummy Touch label, In dub and for free

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Tummy Touch is a label I’ve been a fan of since it started putting out records in the mid-90s. It has veered from the offbeat disco slackness of Tutto Matto and early Groove Armada to more recent “artist” based fare like the solo troubadour Tom Vek and the live sensation The Phenomenal Handclap Band, all the time being steered by the eccentric and “extravagantly bearded” dj Tim “Love” Lee.

The label’s website describes its sound as “Bohemian disco rock, sci-fi electro soul, unruly latin mash ups and oddball urban exotica”, and I’m not gonna argue with that, except to add that analog warmth is a key element of their sound. Oh, and that the split Groove Armada/Tim “Love” Lee twelve inch called “Disco Insert/Again Son” is one of my favourites from that period and should be in every discerning DJ’s box. “Again Son” in particular is a twisted delight, an early 90s breakbeat classic that samples a Christian preacher admonishing his own son to beat him “again, son… harder!”

Now based in New York as opposed to London, Tummy Touch is currently celebrating 15 years of releasing fine music by giving away a free compilation album, Fully Bearded: 15 Years Of Tummy Touch, featuring many of the labels best known acts remixed in a dub style.

This is simply some of the finest downtempo music around right now. From the Police-esque post-punk of Circuits and the psych-pop-funk of Bing Ji Ling, to the more dancefloor aimed grooves of New Young Pony Club and the previously mentioned Phenomenal Handclap Band, this is definitely worth a click of the mouse and the donation of your email address. 

In fairness, I should have posted this ages ago, as it went up on the Tummy Touch Facebook wall 3 weeks ago with a note that said it would available for a limited time only. Which I guess means you should just download it now before it gets yanked.
 

 
Posted by Niall O'Conghaile
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05.01.2012
09:20 pm
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Hippie Thanksgiving
11.23.2011
02:22 pm
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Have a Hippie Thanksgiving.

01. “Love Years Coming” - Strawberry Children
02. “Walking Through The Streets Of My Mind” - Beethoven Soul
03. “I Don’t Mind” - Fat Mattress
04. “Better Way” - The Rainbow Press
05. “AM I The Red One” - Mick Sofetly and The Summer Suns
06. “Now” - The Paisleys
07. “The Man In The Moon” - Village
08. “Flashing Lights” - Screaming Lord Sutch
09. “Bottom Of The Soul” - Bonniwel Music Machine
10. “Machines” - Manfred Mann
11. ” My Degeneration” - The Eyes
12. “Lemonade Kid” KAK
13. “Pink And Green” - Shirley Hughey
14. “She Moves Me” -  The E-Types
15. “Don’t Let It Bring You Down” - Neil Young
 

Posted by Marc Campbell
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11.23.2011
02:22 pm
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‘The Art Of Sounds’ - terrific documentary on the French composer Pierre Henry

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Some more vintage electronic French pop to round out the week on Dangerous Minds. Some folk may not know the name Pierre Henry, but they definitely know his music - well they would know his music, were it not for the fact that what they are hearing isn’t actually him. I’m talking of course about the Futurama theme tune, and how it is a blatant rip-off of Henry’s classic ‘Psyche Rock’ from 1967 (more specifically, the Fatboy Slim remix).

Now, don’t get me wrong I love Futurame, but it’s to Matt Groening’s eternal shame that he did not just stump up whatever cash was required to purchase the original track. What we now have in its place every week is a lame facsimile, that some people even confuse with the original track. Oh well. That’s entertainment!

Regardless, The Art of Sound is an excellent French (subtitled) documentary directed by Eric Darmon and Franck Mallet from 2006 that follows Pierre Henry as he collects unique sounds for his compositions, sets up an even more unique live concert in his house, and generally looks back over a career in music that spans over fifty years. It’s intimate and revealing, and its central figure comes across as quite the character.

No, scrub that - Pierre Henry is the shit. He went from being a pioneer of musique concrete with Pierre Schaeffer in the 1950s to creating psychedelic sound-and-light shows in 1960s Paris that could match anything dreamt up by Pink Floyd and the Grateful Dead. He composed music for abstract ballets that still sounds genuinely psychedelic and like nothing else today. He may come across as crabby and extremely eccentric in this film, but I still hope I end up as cool as this guy if I get to be his age. I mean, you have to be pretty awesome to attract a steady fanbase to abstract electronic recital shows in your own bloody house, right?
 

 
BONUS!
More psyche-pop magic, this time with Henry & Colombier’s “Teen Tonic” (1967) set to footage of the 1960s German TV fashion Show Paris Aktuel by YouTube uploader Cosmocorps2000:

Pierre Henry & Michel Colombier “Teen Tonic”
 

Posted by Niall O'Conghaile
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11.19.2011
09:14 pm
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Your weekend dose of Orange Sunshine
06.03.2011
11:14 pm
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Here’s your weekend dose of psychedelia.

Visuals: loops from the Joshua Light Show, Mark Boyle and Joan Hills’ liquid lights for London’s UFO club, Jerry Abrams, Robert Breer and Derek Jarman.

Music: Country Joe and The Fish, Nico, Soft Machine, Docdail and Exitmusic. The Abrams clip says Blue Cheer, but it’s Country Joe in this mix.
 

 
Thanks to Gary for the UFO loop. Animated gif from Lysergioacid

Posted by Marc Campbell
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06.03.2011
11:14 pm
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Psychedelic poster reader
05.30.2011
12:46 am
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In 1967 I went to school to be a psychedelic poster reader. But I dropped out. I later became a jive talk translator. The pay was good but the drugs sucked. I was recently offered a job writing subtitles for mumblecore movies but you get paid by the word and no one really says anything in slacker flicks. So, I’ve decided to enter the lucrative field of teaching urban slang sign language to deaf hipsters.
 

Posted by Marc Campbell
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05.30.2011
12:46 am
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Psychedelic nudes
09.16.2010
01:58 pm
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Posted by Tara McGinley
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09.16.2010
01:58 pm
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