After two years of extensive crate-digging and foraging the Amorphous Androgynous return with the latest instalment in their award winning series ‘A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble (Exploding In Your Mind) - The Wizards Of Oz ‘, released through Monstrous Bubble Recordings and Australia’s iconic Festival Records on 23rd March 2015.
‘The Wizards Of Oz’ is devoted exclusively to the rich heritage of cosmic space music of our Antipodean brothers and sisters and in common with previous volumes traces the lineage from the sixties to the present day with sonic delights from every decade in between.
Across the double CD there is a 2 hour DJ mix of 34 tracks where we are treated to everything from Kiwi Krautrock to Aboriginal space jazz to OZ dream pop to cOZmic funkrok: Cybotron/Tame Impala/Kanguru/Russell Morris/ Geoff Krozier & The Generator / Hiroshi & Claudia /Madder Lake /Rob Thomsett/Mandu/ Doug Jerebine/Pond/Sons Of The Vegetal Mother/Railroad Gin & Air are just a few of the delights contained therein.
Once again the Amorphous Androgynous show themselves dab hands at unearthing the absurd, the obscure and the downright wonder filled from over 4 decades. The tracks are expertly woven and mashed together to form a trip as enjoyable as it is both enlightening and educational, As has always been their want they reappraise what the 'psychedelic' might mean in the present day adopting the role of the DJ in the process rather than as band or producers/remixers as has been known, showing that a new 'psychedelia' exists as much in the surprising juxtaposition of style and variety of song as it does in the individual songs themselves. As the Future Sound Of London they first went in search of the lost chord over 18 years ago when in 1996 at the height of their success as FSOL they pulled away from their trademark sound having just achieved a number 12 single with ‘We Have Explosive’, to pursue a radical new interpretation of psychedelia with equal parts devotional homage to its lineage as the Amorphous Androgynous.
It commenced in 1997 with several legendary broadcasts of the fledgling ‘A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble’ DJ mixes on radio and continued for years as one off radio mixes on numerous radio stations until finally in 2007 the now legendary ‘A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding In Your Mind) Vol 1' Cosmic Space Music' was released to a rapturous reception by fellow artists, critics and media alike and by the time of the release of Volume 3 – ‘The 3rd Ear’ they were able to effect a wide ranging reappraisal of the word psychedelic which they claimed (unlike all other psychedelically themed compilations) was in fact a timeless living breathing evolving form and not merely something stuck and immortalised between ‘67-‘69 as history liked to dictate. ‘A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble’ went on to curate a full psychedelic 12 hour happening at the Green Man Festival in 2010, which saw the Amorphous Androgynous DJ and play in full 12 piece band regalia alongside the Yellow Moon Band, Cranium Pie, Hawkwind and Nick Nicely, as well as supporting Kasabian along the way.
They have managed to push this psychedelic manifesto far and wide in no small part down to the far reaching influence of these compilations but also in the Amorphous Androgynous’ own radical psychedelic re-imaginings of other artists which have used the ‘A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble’ mantle and have seen the likes of Oasis, Paul Weller, Syd Arthur, Pop Levi, DJ Food and Noel Gallagher radically psychedicized. In addition the Amorphous Androgynous produced Noel Gallagher’s infamous ‘lost’ album of which two tracks feature on the forthcoming album ‘Chasing Yesterday’ released in March 2015.
As foretold by them there is certainly something afoot and something akin to the dawning of a new psychedelia and the fascination and reappraisal for the psychedelic seems set to continue as both rock music searches for something more exotic and the studio gizmos of the last decade searches for a song worthy and more exotic to attach itself to.
Unlike previous volumes 'The Wizards Of Oz' majorly features music and bands that the Amorphous Androgynous had never previously heard (though some like Tame Impala rose meteorically within it's 2 year inception) and as the collection evolved the question that arose with increasing regularity was ' how and why have we not heard this before?!" and then ' if this band had been from the UK or the USA would they have been unheard and unknown? " The answer to this was a resounding no so an almost political fervour was born to bring the treasure of ‘The Wizards Of Oz' forth so that ‘A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble’ could continue its ongoing legacy to reinvigorate the psychedelic potential of both now and future generations by bringing and tracing the timeless psychedelic music through the years together in order to activate future revolutions of cosmic space music.
