#28: When Spaceships Appear

Why Summer Sucks for Records, Argentinian Psych from the 70s, Sun Ra Doc

Hey Folks. Doing a quick check in as the insane heat in the Northeast (and all over?) melts my brain, cognitive abilities and all other good things. I actually haven’t stepped foot in a record store in a couple months for a couple reasons:

1. Summer is for being outside for me so any spare moments I get are for running/hiking/swimming.

2. The daytime temps around here haven’t dipped below 85 for weeks. That’s too hot to even speak and too hot to be schlepping records around.

It seems to not affect the kids, so we’ve been run ragged this summer with, of course, truly beautiful moments interspersed with insanity.

Thanks to all the new free subscribers. Bummed to note we lost a paying sub in the last couple weeks. Times are tough, I get it. But we only ask 5 bucks a month. Adding up the time spent writing this newsletter, preparing, hosting, archiving the weekly radio show and coordinating with artists and labels, I make way less than minimum wage with these endeavors. I do it because I love it but I do need to justify all that time not being with my family. So, seriously, a HUGE thank you to paying subscribers. It’s so appreciated.

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We returned to the air and net waves this week with The Trailhead 140. I’ve been riding this wave of doing an hour of new music followed by a specialty set of country specific psych/prog from the 70s. After having delivered France, Sweden, Germany, England and Poland, we visited Argentina this week. Thanks to blogs and social media, it’s probably no secret that there was a thriving psychedelic rock scene in Argentina starting in the late 60s and cruising most excellently through the late 70s.

For the new stuff we dove back in to the incredible new Seawind of Battery and Skyminds records issued on WarHen and Inner Islands respectively. We are living in a golden age of meditative and unclassifiable sound and song and sometimes I feel I just can’t keep up. We also heard from Matthew De Gennaro, a really fine musician from the midwest who has a new one on the always reliable Soft Abuse label out of Minneapolis. It was a pleasure to share some incredible new vibrations from AKP Recordings in the form of NYC’s YAI—who do the Jon Hassell/Fourth World thing so beautifully—as well as a rhythmic and tonally uplifting work from the Netherlands’ Luke Elliott. We also heard new jams from other favorite labels like Portland’s Beacon Sound, Italy’s Lontano Series, London’s Erased Tapes and Texas’ Full Spectrum.

Have listen to the show here and check out the playlist below.

1. Seawind of Battery - Stay - East Coast Cosmic Dreamscaper (WarHen, 2024) 00:00

2. Skyminds - Agua Escondida - Echoes on the Shore (Inner Islands, 2024) 06:20

3. Matthew De Gennaro - Fireflies - Fireflies (Soft Abuse, 2024) 11:08

4. YAI - Tides - Sky Time (AKP Recordings, 2024) 16:13

5. Shuttle358 - Reverse Flow - Optimal.lp (12k/Keplar, 1999/2024) 22:04

6. Luke Elliott - Go With Curiosity - Every Somewhere (AKP Recordings, 2024) 26:00

7. Purple Decades - Interlude Crash - Fraction of Centuries (Beacon Sound, 2024) 30:21

8. Masayoshi Fujita - Tower of Cloud - Migratory (Erased Tapes, 2024) 35:28

9. Cody Yantis - Sky Shape - Half Moon Field (Full Spectrum, 2024) 40:32

10. XU - One With Everything - The World Between Breaths (Lontano Series, 2024) 46:29

11. Pescado Rabioso - Cantata de Puentes Amarillos - Artaud (Talent, 1973) 1:05:56

12. Aquelarre - Parte Del Día - Brumas (Talent, 1974) 1:15:03

13. Crucis - Abismo Terrenal - Los Delirios Del Mariscal (RCA Victor, 1976) 1:21:10

14. Espiritu - Sabios De Vida - Crisalida (Talent, 1975) 1:33:39

15. Bubu - El Cortejo De Un Dia Amarillo - Anabelas (EMI, 1978) 1:39:42

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Even though they’ve reached their funding goal, I still wanted to mention this forthcoming Sun Ra doc as we really need it and similar projects on a myriad of legendary musicians with limited mainstream appeal.

It’s unlikely any of you need an introduction to one of the 20th Century’s major visionaires so I’m just gonna copy/paste from the doc’s Kickstarter to get you psyched:

“SUN RA: Door Of the Cosmos (working title) will be the first historically complete portrait of the origin, impact and living legacy of SUN RA and his ARKESTRA. Part oral history, part audio-visual feast, and concert performance, SUN RA: Door Of the Cosmos will bring the 60-year history of the Arkestra together with a meditative sensory experience featuring artifacts from the SUN RA Estate including interviews, poetry-readings and philosophical musings to deliver a sort of "midnight movie" theatrical journey through the SUN RA Omniverse.” 

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I want to give a quick shout out to the new Steven Wilson remix of Gentle Giant’s heavily neglected (even by fans) 1977 LP The Missing Piece. This was actually the first Gentle Giant LP I ever heard/owned having come across a very cheap US copy in my early days of collecting. I, like many other prog purists I’m sure, thought the first side was kind of shitty with the punk, funk and pop influences having crept in. I thought side B was amazing. A lot of life and listening has happened between then and now and cueing up the new version on Tidal a couple weeks ago made me appreciate the album for all that it is. The new mix definitely makes the album sound pretty modern and it hits harder than my old LP. I never really connected how similar ‘I’m Turning Around’ was to what Strawbs were doing around this time. Strawbs arguably integrated pop into their sound more seamlessly (or at least they did a lot more of it) but GG weren’t really missing the mark. The Missing Piece is a really great sounding recording no matter what mix you land on but the Steven Wilson piece is so crisp, younger heads may appreciate it more.

It’s the perfect Gentle Giant album for summer daze, check it out and let me know what you think.