80s psychedelia revival

[spaghetamine]

hi folks, I was hoping somebody here more knowledgeable than myself could let me know some good tunes in this vein that I might not have heard. I'm looking for stuff similar to Nick Nicely and the first two Julian Cope albums, that kind of mellow but freaky pastoral weirdness, I eagerly await your responses

Nick Nicely - Psychotropia

Julian Cope - Laughing Boy

[BlodwynPig]

The Steppes
Nick Riff
Treatment
The Aardvarks

Maybe a bit too out there for pastoral tastes

[Rizla]

Remember the aardvarks were on James whale's late night tv show once, they were pretty good. Organ player went onto kula shaker iirc.

They're more of a garage band really but the 2nd album by the Wildebeests, "go Wilde in the countrye" might be the sort of thing you're after. Late 90s though.

[daf]

I expect The Dukes of Stratosphear are a bit too 'on the nose' but, they were pretty much kick-started into action in 1985 when 'Sir John Johns' heard Nick Nicely's amazing 'Hilly Fields 1892' record, and thought he'd "better get on with it".

The Mole From the Ministry

Sir John Johns : "In the later '70s, I found myself longing to be doing the music that I loved as a kid of 13 or 14. I'd be listening to the radio then, and there'd be stuff like "See Emily Play," or "Strawberry Fields Forever," "My White Bicycle" -- you know, all these great psychedelic singles, and I thought, "This is wonderful! When I grow up, I'll be in a group, and we'll make music like this!" Of course, as a kid, I had no grasp that this was just the whim of fashion, and that this music was going to last only a year or so, and then it would be gone! But it affected me so profoundly that when I was in a position to be in a group and making records, I thought I should say thank you to the people who made those records, and to say thank you to them by sounding just like them."

 

[Sin Agog]

Paul Roland's got that Bill Fay-esque baroque side covered, with the added benefit that his lyrics often make him sound like a Weird Tales alumni. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WP9f6mwcZhs

[Sin Agog]

The 80s weren't exactly teeming in instances of good psychedelic folk, but Shelleyan Orphan's Helleborine was quite a lovely, pastoral thing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acAbf-DRzJ4

[cosmic-hearse]

The Soft Boys & Robyn Hitchcock nail that post- punk psychedelic sound nailed. Similarly, 'Strawberries' era Damned fits into this category, as does (if you venture past novelty hit single cover versions) Captain Sensible's solo records.

Rochester's The Dentists are one of my favourites of this era - as a Medway band they get lumped in with Thee Milkshakes / Prisoners etc. but they have much more of a tough Byrdsy jangle going on - you could imagine them releasing 7"s on Sarah, Subway or early Creation.

[Sin Agog]

Oh, just remembered I recently finally ticked off an album I had on my wishlist forever, Colin Lloyd-Tucker's Head.  Dude's very much in that Julian Cope/Robyn Hitchcock-esque whimsical psyche with a bittuv bite vein: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbO2CG5IYr0   /  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzMnG_C6qKE

[Sin Agog]

You might say they're more of a minimal synth group, but Solid Space's Space Museum is more unique than that- an extremely English, beautifully naive album full of lo-fi science-fiction themed pop songs with some psychedelic trappings and a bit of a jangle beneath the synth burblings.  Really great album; not sure much else feels quite like it.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i40WftG6_pM

[cosmic-hearse]

You might say they're more of a minimal synth group, but Solid Space's Space Museum is more unique than that- an extremely English, beautifully naive album full of lo-fi science-fiction themed pop songs with some psychedelic trappings and a bit of a jangle beneath the synth burblings.  Really great album; not sure much else feels quite like it.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i40WftG6_pM

Fantastic record! Dark Entries reissued it a year or so ago so you no longer have to pay £100 for an ancient cassette.

The Solid Space guys other band, Exhibit A, are also worth listening to - they have more of an early Rough Trade sound (they appear on one of the Messthetics compilations).

[cosmic-hearse]

The Soft Boys & Robyn Hitchcock nail that post- punk psychedelic sound nailed. Similarly, 'Strawberries' era Damned fits into this category, as does (if you venture past novelty hit single cover versions) Captain Sensible's solo records.

Rochester's The Dentists are one of my favourites of this era - as a Medway band they get lumped in with Thee Milkshakes / Prisoners etc. but they have much more of a tough Byrdsy jangle going on - you could imagine them releasing 7"s on Sarah, Subway or early Creation.

With hindsight these aren't entirely 'pastoral', but these sorts of bands do - to my ears anyway - evoke a vision of sunny autumn afternoons in a new town, of crocuses growing aside a Lynn Chadwick sculpture facing a Frederick Gibberd housing estate...

[Brundle-Fly]

You can't go wrong with a bit of Martin Newell in your life, His two eighties acts The Cleaners From Venus and The Brotherhood Of Lizards might appeal. Check out his solo albums too. They're more the poppier end of psychedelia though. Spacemen 3 they are not.




https://daily.bandcamp.com/lists/martin-newell-cleaners-from-venus-list



https://www.popsike.com/Brotherhood-of-Lizards-Lizardland-LP-Martin-Newell-Captain-Sensible-Deltic/122867049119.html

[Bently Sheds]

Do The Rain Parade fit the criteria?

[Absorb the anus burn]

Children of Nuggets:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children_of_Nuggets:_Original_Artyfacts_from_the_Second_Psychedelic_Era,_1976–1995

Is a fine compilation and touches loads of the essential 80s psychedelia revival songs.

[BlodwynPig]

Reefus Moons (ok this is from 1991, but he was active in the 1980s) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtorFfVPDOw

actually you can't go far wrong with this compilation

A Psychedelic Psauna

The Colored Plank - Black Ferris Wheel

[purlieu]

Cleaners from Venus are definitely worth checking out. Plenty of lo-fi mellow psych-pop from Martin Newell and friends. Some good entry point songs:

Here She Crashes
Victoria Grey
The Jangling Man
Night Starvation
Drowning Butterflies
Wivenhoe Bells II


His next band The Brotherhood of Lizards were quite similar and equally worth a listen:
Hey Hey Hey We're the...
On Planets Where I Was Young
Clockwork Train

(edit: Brundle-Fly got in there first, but just remember who provided the links!)



That last one was co-written with Captain Sensible, who Newell worked with for a few years - mostly on Sensible's '90s material, which was where his real love of psychedelia and space-rock came out, but his '80s albums have a few psych-pop gems, like the Syd Barrett-esque A Nice Cup of Tea and the moody Phone In. The Damned's two '80s albums with the Captain in definitely had strong psych leanings, although with the energy of a punk band so largely fall outside of the 'pastoral' descriptor. I'd still recommend the wonderful Under the Floor Again, however, as one of their mellowest in the style, complete with sitar-sounding guitar.


On a different tangent from Martin Newell, Andy Partridge produced his first solo album, and was also a member of XTC - who, like The Damned and Captain Sensible, have also been mentioned in this thread under the Dukes of Stratosphear moniker. I actually think Skylarking fits the pastoral psychedelia mould better than the Dukes material. If you're not already familiar, it's definitely worth listening to the following:
Summer's Cauldron
Grass
1000 Umbrellas
Chalkhills and Children
Sacrificial Bonfire



And loosely related, Talk Talk's Spirit of Eden is worth a listen if you've not heard it before. Definitely pastoral, and heavily inspired by Traffic, albeit more their early '70s jam-based material rather than their '60s psychedelia. Opening track The Rainbow is as good an introduction as anything.



Ooh yes, some of Guided by Voices's early stuff has a strangely warped psych sound.
Liar's Tale
Slopes of Big Ugly
Navigating Flood Regions

[Brundle-Fly]

Cleaners from Venus are definitely worth checking out. Plenty of lo-fi mellow psych-pop from Martin Newell and friends. Some good entry point songs:

(edit: Brundle-Fly got in there first, but just remember who provided the links!)

I posted some nice pics though?

You always have impeccable music tastes, purl. It's tempting to through in your faves, the superb Amorphous Androgynous in too even though they're not 80s.

[purlieu]

I posted some nice pics though?

You always have impeccable music tastes, purl. It's tempting to through in your faves, the superb Amorphous Androgynous in too even though they're not 80s.

Where's that karma button? <3

[Rizla]

You can't go wrong with a bit of Martin Newell in your life

Thirded. Follow him on Facebook too, if possible, he's good value.

Not quite within the remit of the OP, but Mercury Girl is one of the most beautiful things ever put on tape imo.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjt0WhBuBd0

[Brundle-Fly]

Where's that karma button? <3

Ha!

I meant 'throw' not 'through'. The mushrooms must be kicking in.

[purlieu]

Thirded. Follow him on Facebook too, if possible, he's good value.

Damn lovely chap, too. My girlfriend and I have chatted to him quite a bit online, often about Asperger's (he and I both have the diagnosis), and the track 'Call Me Aspie' on his latest album is supposedly partially inspired by me. Which is nice.

Not quite within the remit of the OP, but Mercury Girl is one of the most beautiful things ever put on tape imo.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjt0WhBuBd0

Yeah, one of his best. Between 1986 and 1996 he's just about the most consistent songwriter ever by my reckoning, not a bad song in the 60 or so he released in that time.

[jobotic]

The Bevis Frond must be one? Not all heavy wig-outs.

[BlodwynPig]

The Bevis Frond must be one? Not all heavy wig-outs.

In that case, here is a good compilation of that sort of stuff. I actually don't like this sort of dry US psych / indie much, I remember really hating Charalambides and The Green Pajamas

https://www.discogs.com/Various-Succour-The-Terrascope-Benefit-Album/release/392079

[gilbertharding]

The Bevis Frond must be one? Not all heavy wig-outs.

There are a few episodes of The Bevis Frond's extremely impressive turn on Channel 4's Countdown on youtube, but sadly the last time I checked, the episode where they played his cover version of the theme tune was missing.

I don't know his stuff very well, but I absolutely love the record he did with the WalkingSeeds (the Sensory Deprivation Chamber Quartet mini album) and that *is* on youtube: (eg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1rdkIV1s1E)

[jobotic]

Ooh my ex from back then had that album (and a few Bevis Frond ones), it's really good. Didn't realise he was on it. I only know a few tracks off BF's first five albums - it's a mixed bag but when he's good he's excellent.

[gilbertharding]

He produced it, apparently - and he plays guitar on the first two tracks on the B side (so not the one I linked to...).

The rest of the WalkingSeeds output is also pretty patchy (IMO).

[spaghetamine]

some good shit in here for sure, was already a fan of Martin Newell but the Brotherhood of Lizards stuff somehow passed me by, think I might even prefer it to the Cleaners

[Neville Chamberlain]

You might say they're more of a minimal synth group, but Solid Space's Space Museum is more unique than that- an extremely English, beautifully naive album full of lo-fi science-fiction themed pop songs with some psychedelic trappings and a bit of a jangle beneath the synth burblings.  Really great album; not sure much else feels quite like it.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i40WftG6_pM

Oooh, this is right up my alley. Why've I never heard of them before?

[Sin Agog]

Oooh, this is right up my alley. Why've I never heard of them before?

That album seems to have blown up quite a bit in the last couple of years, possibly thanks to RYM.  I remember when I first played it on my old podcast it felt like my own baby.  Really pleased to see it getting some listens (quite a few lovely old LPs- usually from the '80s- seem to be edging into the millions of plays on youtube).  Closest thing I can think of to them is Lives of Angels' Elevator to Eden, though that sounds a little less like some magical, intimate bedroom creation .  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cz5BYejpElE

[BlodwynPig]

Another recent compilation featuring the familiar and the unfamiliar

https://www.discogs.com/Various-Losing-Touch-With-My-Mind-Psychedelia-In-Britain-1986-1990/release/13505915