h o m e
The Broken Face (Magazine, Sweden)
#18
V/A - Further Adventures of the Telepathic Explorers
Free City Media CD
It's no secret that Nick Bensen and Free City Media are friends of
ours, so it's with great joy that I can report that their second
compilation Further Adventures of the Telepathic Explorers is almost
as successful as its predecessor which rightly received the
prestigious "comp of the year" award here at the BF headquarters last
year. What this new comp might be lacking in order to receive the same
status this year is a few more killer tracks, and the fact that it
spreads it tentacles in even more directions this time out could
possibly effect the overall impression. The latter is not really meant
as criticism though as it's clearly so well-sequenced and thought out
to function as a whole despite the wide range of music covered across
its 61 minutes.
The opening "Caught By This Feeling" is by far the best Aquarium
Poppers track I ever heard and that's not only because Karl Morten
Dahl and younger brother Holm chose to team up with Dipsomaniacs'
Xyvind Holm for this one but I can't really say that it hurts
either. Anton Barbeau as well as the Bevis Frond displays just why we
like the Woronzow gang so much while Nick Bensen himself teamed up
with Jeff Sanders of Mountain Mirrors for a long distance
collaboration including progressive psych moves with electronic
touches and some nice storm sounds thrown in for good measure. The
Bitter Little Cider Apples sounds like a mixture between Slint and
grunge music and just to be clear about things that is actually meant
as a compliment. Dipsomaniacs gives way for Limo's (of Fit & Limo and
Discolor) new project The God Box that strikes me as surprisingly
electronic but it's nonetheless a very successful endeavor. The Heads
delivers some head-splicing, acid-fueled rock before the Impossible
Shapes moves into a laidback vista where keyboards come to meet with
mellow vocals and fuming guitars.
The comp mostly offers cuts from familiar names and Texan one-woman
ensemble Kable is no exception from that but Kay Bonya's frenetic
dance mantra that blends with psychedelia is still a true surprise of
the highest order. The slightly Elephant 6-inspired, Hammond-infused
take on 60s psych pop from the UK's Lucky Bishops is one of my
personal favorites and so is the dreamy work of Patrick Porter,
previously cherished as part of Denver's Phineas Gage. Porter's track
sounds like fall itself and how anyone not can dig that guy's voice is
a mystery to me. And then we get Australian Sh'mantra's take on
witnessing cosmic fireballs from afar and in a strange way it manages
to be distantly heavy and abstract at the same time. "What Do You
Know" from the Sunshine Fix Electric Blues Band sounds like an Olivia
Tremor Control track played in slow motion, flavored with
delay-steeped vocals and recordings of the Georgia Children's
Choir. The blissful serenity that occupies the first part of Troll's
"Shattered Venus" morphs into something louder by its end and that leaves us with Joe Turner's "Turn Me Upside
Down". It's a nice little psych pop gem, which thanks to the inclusion
of some pretty great flute playing and meandering guitar lines also
broadcasts a somewhat folky vibe. But not only that, it also has this
feel that signals that something is just about to end and works quite
successfully for that purpose too. If any of the artists
above rings a bell there's absolutely no point in ignoring the obvious
fact, that you need this one right away.
LISTEN TO THE SONGS!