Many, many psychedelic groups were active in Texas in the late '60s. This compilation devotes one side each to two of them, the Lemon Fog and the Nomads, Houston bands that both recorded for the small Orbit label. No, this stuff isn't going to redefine anyone's idea of garage or psychedelic music, but that doesn't mean it isn't worth paying attention to if you like those styles a lot. Each band takes a lot of its cues from Californian psychedelia and folk-rock, the influence of the Doors being especially prominent on a few cuts; others sound something like a garage Buffalo Springfield. These were two different groups, and though they might take offense at the comment, they don't differ from each other much; the Lemon Fog are somewhat heavier. (allmusic.com)

22 tracks of psychedelic garage rock from Texas 1966 til 1968. A very fine collection!

Enjoy

         Frank

      Various Artists - Three O'Clock Merrian Webster Time Texas Psychedelic Bands 1966-68 

    

                                                           Flac part1  &  Flac part2       -  mp3@320

This replaced Collectables' mid-'90s collection, The Best of Sandy Posey, as the best overview of the artist's 1960s material, and hence the best Posey record available. It has 23 tracks where The Best of Sandy Posey has only 14, and has extensive liner notes with quotes from Posey herself, whereas the Collectables release had typically (for that label) scant annotation. Actually The Best of Sandy Poseydoes have four songs that don't appear on A Single Girl, but the latter album does include the hits that anyone searching for a Posey best-of would demand: "Born a Woman," "Single Girl," "What a Woman in Love Won't Do," and "I Take It Back." Though on the whole the music is rather unadventurous, in its time it struck a peculiar chord: countrypolitan songs that on occasion crossed over to the pop audience (sometimes even in Britain) in a big way, with some echoes of rock, soul (particularly on "What a Woman in Love Won't Do," "One Man Woman," and "Hey Mister"), easy listening pop, and dippy submissive teen idol/girl group vocal flavors that were anachronistic by the time these were made in 1966-1968. There are some big name writers here -- Dan Penn-Spooner Oldham, John D. Loudermilk, and Joe South -- but their contributions aren't nearly as memorable or biting as the songs for which they're most famous. Even though many of these tracks frankly aren't striking, there are some fair non-hits here, particularly those that go into some (for countrypolitan) unusually brooding pop melodies, like "Shattered" and "Patterns."(allmusic.com)


The most songs of this very fine collection are from the 1966 to 1968 years. Personally, I prefer this period of her career where she mainly performed pop songs.

Frank

                                         Flac   &  mp3@320  

A Swiss '60s band that have sometimes been mistakenly identified as a British group due to their 1968 single "Dream Machine," a quite catchy and enjoyable facsimile of British flower pop with high harmonies, psychedelic lyrics, and driving guitars. The band had actually been recording since 1965, and established themselves as one of Switzerland's best and most popular groups. That's a status that isn't conferred upon most, Switzerland being a small country. Much of their first LP (1966) was filled with covers of popular rock hits. These were interpreted, however, with a brash energy that makes the record stand out above the scores of similar covers-oriented albums produced around the globe during the era. "Dream Machine" was a more original effort, and an album from 1968, View to Heaven, also had a more pronounced folk and psychedelic feel than their earliest outings. Les Sauterelles continued recording all the way into the early '70s, and several of their songs (notably "Dream Machine") surfaced on collector-oriented reissues in the '80s. (allmusic)

In my opinion, this is a typical European sixties album with that certain charm attached to the better albums. The band tried to sound international which, of course, didn't work out, but that's the charm of many songs. On the album there are some really good songs but also some weaker songs can be found here. What still fascinates me so much about these bands today is that it was a typical European sound, but Dutch bands sounded different from German bands. This in turn differs from Austrian or Polish ones. Swedish bands had a more pop oriented sound as in example Norwegian bands. All this despite the geographical proximity. And all in all, it was an interesting stew of European pop music in the 1960s.

Hope you will enjoy

                                 Frank

                                                    Les Sauterelles - View To Heaven (1968)

                                            Flac part1 & Flac part2         -  mp3@320

Synthesis is an apt name for an album that, like its predecessor, A Scratch in the Sky, proved the Cryan' Shames to be among the most versatile mainstream pop/rock groups of the late '60s. Versatile does not mean great, though, or especially interesting, and can also mean an absence of a solid identity. This record is more eclectic than it is exciting, though the material is well arranged and the group were accomplished harmony singers in particular. On "Greenburg, Glickstein, Charles, David Smith & Jones" they get heavy; with the cover of Hoagy Carmichael's "Baltimore Oriole," they get jazz/folk-rock progressive; on "It's All Right," it's jaunty country-rock; on "First Train to California," there's an almost-self-conscious straining for an MOR AM radio hit. The segueing together of tracks and occasional insertion of spacy instrumental and production flourishes indicate that they wanted to leave the impression of making a progressive statement. But it sounds for the most part like 1960s AM radio filler trying to get hipper with a touch of the far-out, the problem being that 1960s AM radio filler intrinsically cannot get too hip or far out. The 2002 Sundazed CD reissue of this odd mix of sunshine pop and mild pop-psychedelia adds eight bonus tracks. No less than six of them are single versions of tracks from the LP; the other two present both sides of their 1969 single, "Bits and Pieces"/"Rainmaker," which matched a country-rock original with a Harry Nilsson cover.(Richie Unterberger, allmusic)

A good pop album of the late sixties and if you like sixties sunshine/radio pop this is for you.
Hope you enjoy
                        SB1

                                       The Cryan' Shames - Synthesis 1969 (Sundazed 2002)

                                            Flac  &  mp3@320