Fourteen radically different artists compiled into a cohesive whole; the link is guitars and guitars and imagination. This is an update on garage - psyche, contemplative or aggressive, making an unholy noise and stretching out. The ethos has been underground since the 60’s but this is a snapshot of some of the artists who picked up the flame in the 80’s and 90’s. While the music is unlikely to tickle the underbelly of the chart behemouth and gain wide recognition, it can be treasured as a real alternative and there’s much more where this comes from...

Many of the tracks were released as singles at the time or were the lead tracks from their respective albums, so at £5.50 (less than the price of 2 singles or, in the UK, 2 packs of cigarettes + skins!) the album is a total bargain and, we hope, well worth your while taking a chance on buying, with something there to satisfy any fan of alternative rock or substances. Treat yourself, you deserve it!

This is an exceptional collection of modern psychedelia, and all the more so for all 14 of the artists featured sharing the same label. That many of them - Darkside, Ripe Shady - might be unfamiliar names makes no odds. So skilful was the compiling that, for all its variety, Pspyched seems tighter than most single-band projects.
Of special interest will be the urgent, surging rock of Mercury Rev's "Young Man's Stride" (from their 1995 LP, See You On The Other Side), and the warped and arty tribalism of The Del-Byzanteens' Girl's Imagination" (1981), with vox and keyboards courtesy of the profoundly hip Jim Jarmusch. Best though are the all-out Stooges acid attack of Melbourne's Ripe, the filthy rock grind of Thee Hypnotics, and the impeccably structued cosmic freakout of Loop's "Arc-Lite".
Heavily melodic throughout, this is head-spinningly effective stuff.

**** (4 stars) - Dominic Wills - UNCUT - August 1999

Kevin Cowen - guitar / Pete Bassman - bass / Roscoe - drums

Formed from the rhythm section of Spaceman 3, Darkside took their name from the Shadows Of Knight single. ‘Guitar Voodoo’ is the one-take jam which opened their debut album and encapsulates the groups pot-pourri of 60’s influences; from garage to Stax, psyche and beyond.

Brian Leary - vocals, guitars, bass, drums, percussion / Elvira Corral - vocals, percussion

Having paid his dues as drummer in various LA bands, Brian Leary moved out to the Coachella Valley, in the southern Californian desert and, with Elvira Corral’s support, became proficient at overdubbed home recordings, employing these techniques on both their albums to magical effect.

Jim Jones - vocal / Ray Hanson - guitar / Will Pepper - bass / Mark Thompson - drums / with JJ Maessone - keyboards

The garage ghosts of the motor city drove Thee Hypnotics’ early recordings, though they subsequently travelled south via Georgia and the Bayous to concoct their rock-gumbo. Maybe they never quite succeeded in capturing the energy of their best live shows on vinyl, but ‘Justice’ comes close.

Alan Laird - vocal, guitar / April Tippens - bass, vocal / Shannon Kerr - vocal / Richard English - drums

With a former Flaming Lips on drums, and production assistance from Mercury Rev’s Dave Fridmann and Jonathan Donahue, what to expect? “The spume-flecked gizzard of the new face of America. Nipple-chafing, mould pounding aural oddities. Spector’s wall rebuilt, Oklahoma style” according to a contemporary press release!

Daniel Ash - vocal, guitar, keyboards / Glenn Campling - bass, keyboards / Kevin Haskins - drums, programming

The psychedelic antithesis of their former band, the short-lived Tones explored a stripped-down, acid-funk, surf-punk agenda with anything else they fancied thrown in. Their entire catalogue was recently re-issued on a delicious double CD.

Jimi Shields - guitars, vocals, drums / Ger Griffin - guitar, vocals / Stevie M - bass / Ken Griffin - lead vocal, guitars

"Combining the classic sounds of overdriven guitars like they've never been meshed before, Rollerskate Skinny augment that unholy sound with Cello's, Celtic Beats, Bodhan trumpets and more guitars, ultimately spawning distorted and wonderful musical landscapes underpinned with a refreshingly disorienting pop sensibility" - you can’t beat a press release!