Various Artists: Talking About the Good Times Volume 1

With Talking About the Good Times, Past & Present have unearthed another treasure trove of psychedelic obscuria dripping with acid illusions, backwards looped tape, fuzz guitar and whimsical orchestration from the tail-end of the ’60s.

Through the crackle and acetate hiss comes the echo of turned-on unknowns who use a Jews harp to fuel claustrophobic psych-folk jam sessions like “Red Admiral”. Rare numbers by psych-beat collector faves the Creation, a band that once described their music as being “red with purple flashes” are highly recommended, as is the Smoke’s “Thus Spake Alice”, a trippy Toytown tribute to Little Miss Wonderland’s recreational drug-taking that previously appeared on Castle’s definitive compilation High In the Room in 2002. Elsewhere, things get hard ‘n’ heavy with primal garage-punk by Bruno Castiglia and I Bisonti and Hard Meat’s bluesy six-minute progressive rocker “Burning Up the Years” – – reminding us that not everything was rainbows and daisy chains back in the day. But best of all has to be John Williams’ (no, not that John Williams) track “She’s That Kind of Woman”, a gem of a pop song that rocks out on cello. Bring on volume two.