Eduardo Bort

Spanish Progressive Psychedelia never really got better than this piece from Eduardo Bort. The album this track was taken from is a fantastically intimate affair, with some superb musicianship from his band and some killer guitar and vocals from Eduardo himself.

Everything sounds loose without falling apart, the instrumentation is very free-flowing and the overall sound is one of a band at the top of it's game.
The track I've chosen here contains a little bit of everything and is totally representative of the whole album.

The album is available on CD, so try and find a copy. It's worth it.

Eduardo Bort - Thoughts Part 2

Deerhunter

As we wait for February's icy blast, this five-piece from Atlanta can warm your heart. Formed in 2001, it appears to be Deerhunter's ambition to revisit two previously diametrically opposed genres and send them crashing together: the hypnotic wash of ambient and minimalist music with the sturm und drang of garage rock. At any moment recalling some of Spacemen 3 or My Bloody Valentine's finest moments, this is a post millenial neurotic fog of delayed guitars, lo-fi drums and distant vocals.

Almost inevitably they have been picked up by that bastion of edgy and out there, Kranky, and clearly show the company's desire to break free from any cliches that might remain caught up in their back list. So Krank104, Crypotograms, has exploded into existance and is a schizophrenic collection of tracks. At times forming long drawn-out washes of sound revisiting Eno and Budd, at others angular psych-rock recalling Sonic Youth or bursting with dream-pop colour.

Two tracks really can't adequately cover the range of Deerhunter's ambition, but they are typical of the quality of the album as a whole.

Deerhunter - Spring Hall Convert on Kranky
Deerhunter - Heatherwood on Kranky

Fever Tree

Fever Tree were just a normal folk-rock band until they left Houston, Texas in 1967 and headed for the lysergic love-in that was San Francisco.

They soon changed their sound to the fuzzy pop of flower power and whilst not being a huge name in that field, they still managed to break into the Top 100 with the San Francisco Girls single.

But we’re heading for their second album for this weeks instalment.

Ninety Nine and One Half = 2 Minutes and 49 seconds of dirty, scuzzy garage psyche.

The guitars wail, the bass and drums groove and Dennis Keller shrieks his heart out over the top.

Fever Tree - Ninety Nine and One Half

Enjoy.