Various

Retrodelic Vibes 2

Avatar (Israel)

We all know someone who bemoans at every opportunity how it’s not as good as it used to be. How the music then was better, the parties were better, the drugs were better (actually, let’s let that one stay.) And these people, instead of doing the decent thing and retiring from the “scene”, getting that scholarship to Cambridge to study medicine or whatever, they insist on hanging around and spoiling it for everyone else who quite likes what goes on more recently as well. Now, finally, they can put their money where their mouth is (normally their mouth is a few inches away from their backside) and check this, a collection going back donkeys and bringing in labels including Dragonfly, Psy Harmonics, Spirit Zone, Aurinko, and other reminders of fluoro-tastic days…. Initially my point here was that the music was so dated that this album’s a flight of fancy, a cute little picture at what we used to get up to. But on reflection, the music’s…. it’s…. it’s f*ing GOOD. Yes maybe it is complete nostalgia, maybe the novelty on hearing these again will wear off soon, and yes maybe I only happen to be enjoying these so much because my old tunes all happen to be in storage still, from when I went away last year. I mean, the CD cover even has temples and that on it!! And mandala things!! And photos!! From “back” “in” “the” “day”. Anyway. I guess my conclusion is what you knew already before you started reading this review – if you’ve got this stuff on record and want it on CD, if you want a blast of older sounds to temper all the new stuff you’ve been buying, or if you just want to pretend you were “there” before goa got “commercial”, then check it out. But with Doof, Electric Universe, Joti, Psychaos, MWNN, Space Tribe, Kopfuss and Tim Shuldt it’s a very well-sourced collection. What the hell, it’s good. And it saves hanging out on ebay for someone to flog their old copies of Distance To Goa or whatever.

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