Futurismo proudly present a celebration of the Paisley Underground scene with TWISTED DREAM MACHINE The Paisley Underground / California’s Psychedelic Renaissance: 1982-1986, the next volume in their Altered Vision compilation series.

This collection draws from the neo psychedelic movement that took hold in California during the early to mid 80’s, one that melded the psychedelia, country, garage rock, avant-garde and pop of the 60’s with the DIY ethos of the then burgeoning punk scene, a hypnotic amalgamation of sound that came in staunch contrast to the blown out sonic excesses of the time.

Twisted Dream Machine takes you on a trip from the city to the desert, as the kaleidoscope of noise drifts from the The Dream Syndicate’s Velvet Underground inspired take on Crazy Horse and The Three O’Clock’s chiming baroque powerpop, to Rain Parade’s dreamy Beatlesesque melodies and the Bangles hook-laden Love inspired pop. Also featured are the wondrous sounds of Green On Red, The Long Ryder’s, Game Theory, True West, Thin White Rope and others highly worth your attention. If you are not familiar with some of the bands here, you will surely question how that is possible. The Paisley Underground, if anything, encapsulated a certain musical mindset, an outlook where the past and the future would collide in the moment. This thread would bond the bands, yet each honed it’s own sound in a twisted incarnation of the seeds planted two decades earlier. Whilst the ‘scene’ did remain contained, its influence did in fact spread throughout mainstream culture as the Bangles stuck a chord into the heart of MTV, whilst Prince took inspiration from the movement in his own songwriting and the naming of Paisley Park, as well as signing The Three O’Clock to his label and writing one of the Bangles biggest hits.

As you listen to the tracks on Twisted Dream Machine you will be reminded that there is still music left to discover and inspire, this compilation is aimed to hopefully delight longtime fans, as well as ignite a passion for those new to the bands. The Paisley Underground was the sound of neo psychedelic rock, it was subterranean pop...in the classic sense, it was alternative rock before the term existed, a distillation of the fundamentals present at the dawn of rock ‘n’ roll, with a twist. The bands of the Paisley Underground may have been writing out of their own time, but as you listen to them in today’s context these songs should be heard as landmarks, rather than throwbacks. After all, nothing this good should stay underground. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: People of a certain age will well remember this mysterious, meandering movement, a new type of psychedelia for the 80's which will certainly have gone on to influence the likes of the Stone Roses and Primal Scream and even the Jesus and Mary Chain. I'd say the Byrds and Syd's Floyd were the main touchstones, but these US modern day hippies made them relevant in the mid 80's. Some beautiful songs on here...

TRACK LISTING

1. The Three ‘O’ Clock - Jet Fighter
2. The Rain Parade - Don’t Feel Bad
3. True West - Lucifer Sam
4. Bangles - Going Down To Liverpool
5. Thin White Rope - Down In The Desert
6. Game Theory - 24
7. The Dream Syndicate - Definitely Clean
8. The Long Ryders - Too Close To The Light
9. Green On Red - Illustrated Crawling
10. 28th Day - Pages Turn
11. The Dream Syndicate - That’s What You Always Say
12. The Pandoras - In And Out Of My Life (In A Day)
13. The Long Ryders - Ivory Tower
14. The Three ‘O’ Clock - With A Cantaloupe Girlfriend
15. Bangles - All About You
16. The Rain Parade - Talking In My Sleep
17. The Three ‘O’ Clock - Her Heads Revolving
18. True West - Shot You Down
19. Wednesday Week - If Only
20. Thin White Rope - Exploring The Axis
21. The Rain Parade - Mystic Green
22. Green On Red - Lost World

‘Small Time Monsters’, the second full-length album from The Dream Machine, is set to be released this April on Run On Records/ Modern Sky.

If 2022’s critically-acclaimed debut album ‘Thank God! It’s The Dream Machine…’ was their first and most wild child, then ‘Small Time Monsters’ is its refined younger sibling. The psychedelia, euphoric choruses, flashes of surf guitar and B-movie references are all there, amongst the familiar reflections of life in their beloved and faded seaside town of New Brighton, but this time the wilder elements are controlled, the songs packed into three-minute pocket symphonies.

Lead single Frankenstein is an anthem for the sugar-rush generation, an infectious, rattling earworm that recalls everything from haunted rockabilly to the sun-drenched melodies of Blossoms. Elsewhere on the album, the pulsating surf-stomp of ‘Cindy’s Eyes’, a small-town story of unrequited love, has a chorus to fill the most cavernous arena.

Produced by The Coral’s James Skelly, the album was partially recorded at The Dream Machine’s rehearsal space, then stitched together in Skelly’s
Kempston Street Studios. There’s a refined, more literary quality to singer and primary songwriter Zak McDonnell’s lyrics; explorations of everyday life, teenage doom, B-movie monsters, family turmoil, and coming-of-age tales in the familiar backdrop of life in modern Britain. ‘Small Time Monsters’ is the sound of a band breaking free from the small town into the big world.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Bold, inventive psychedelic indie that clearly draws influence from the North West's rich musical heritage, and displays that influence without ever sounding like a pastiche. Crisp, full of warmly familiar melodies and brilliantly conceived harmonies.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Frankenstein
2. Cindy’s Eyes
3. My Father’s Son
4. Holding On
5. Cathedral
Side B
6. Tonight, I’ve Got Heaven In My Arms
7. Posters Of You
8. Wind-Up Bird
9. The Horse
10. Wolfman
11. Bring Back The Wonder

In the time-honored tradition of husband/wife duos, (think Yo La Tengo and Sonic Youth) providing the creative core and identity of a band, Burette and Gabrielle Douglas bring a sound and musical vision all their own to The Cush.

TRACK LISTING

1. Heavy Psych
2. One Shot Love
3. Orange Like Water
4. Droids
5. Phantom Girl
6. Highway Brain
7. Broken Radio
8. Summer's Gone
9. Color Your Eyes
10. Distant Light

X Ray Pop are the synth-pop duo of Doc Pilot and Zouka Dzaza from Tours, France. They got their start in the no wave art group Bocal 5 in 1981 and split off in 1984 to focus on their own brand of quirky synthesized electronics. Influenced by Erik Satie, Brigitte Bardot, Suicide and Young Marble Giants, they call their music “minimum naive new wave.” Armed with a Casio PT-20 keyboard and a rudimentary Yamaha MR10 drum machine they recorded their demo cassette and first 7″ “Eurasienne”/ “La Machine à Rêver” in 1984. Upgrading their synthesizers and adding some saxophone and guitar, they recorded the “Alcool”/ “Amazone” 7″ in 1985 and the “DS”/” El Gato” 7″ in 1986.

“The Dream Machine” collects X Ray Pop’s first three 7″ singles plus 8 songs from their demo cassette, never released on vinyl before. Their songs are short, concise and well structured; richly textured, moving at a quick speed with hardly a pause. The demos show a sense of humor, vitality and carefree playfulness. Zouka’s pouting, tongue-in-cheek vocals (sung in French) come together for a catchy, sensuous, danceable, eccentric psychedelic ride. Reminiscent of the Mo-dettes, early OMD or Algebra Suicide, X Ray Pop could be the missing link to Stereolab.

28 years later, this is the first time since the original issue that the songs of X Ray Pop are reappearing on vinyl again, but is the world ready?

TRACK LISTING

01. La Machine á Rêver
02. L´Eurosienne
03. Alcool
04. Amazone
05. DS
06. El Gato
07. Playgirl
08. Mina
09. Analphabelfe
10. Contakt
11. Louphoque
12. Madison Fraise
13. Bobby Bonbeck
14. Revers