Music

Until recently, psychedelia was viewed as a kind of musical Sanskrit: influential, in an alien sort of way, but ultimately dead. All that changed when the capital’s internet cafés started selling magic mushrooms, and a whole new wave of bands with flowers in their hair and drugs in their brains were signed. Even now this far-out resurgence continues. Of course, while it’s easy enough to spot the psych influence in modern hippy rock bands like Dungen, or Espers, or newcomers The Occasion (see Reviews), the real freak-out action is taking place in a different world entirely – the normally buttoned-down funky world of hip hop. Feature continues

The most obvious homegrown practitioner of the craft is Forest Gate native Plan B, whose collaborations with Anglo-Texan lysergists The Earlies form a contrapuntally trippy soundbed for his eviscerating raps about the underclass. But the chief steward behind this is undoubtedly Danger Mouse, the musical engine behind Gnarls Barkley and the Gorillaz and, lest we forget, the man behind legendary bootleg ‘The Grey Album’, which mixed Jay Z and The Beatles to mind-bending effect. And now he, in conjunction with Time Out, wants to turn YOU on, with his collector’s guide to the best of psychedelia old and new.

‘The thing about psychedelic music that was so powerful for me was the great mixture of experimentation and melody,’ muses the Mouse himself. ‘So that’s why psychedelic music in general was so big for me. How they did it, and the energy they put into it and how much they did it for the right reasons – doing it to see what would happen. The passion that was put into that, as opposed to “Hey, we’re gonna be rich and famous”.’

Most people associate psychedelia with such passé artefacts as incense, kaftans and peace and love, rather than groundbreaking records like The Zombies’ ‘Odessey And Oracle’ or frankly furious firebrands like Arthur Lee of the sardonically named Love.
At the heart of psychedelia is a true don’t-give-a-fuck attitude which every band since the Sex Pistols has at least pretended to possess (this doesn’t make Rotten’s ‘I Hate Pink Floyd’ T-shirt any less cool, though). Whether it’s because they were brave, stupid or stoned, the great psych bands weren’t afraid of making mistakes.

‘Exactly,’ says DM. ‘There’s no shame in trying it, is what I learned from watching all these groups. Because they were doing it as much for themselves as they were for other people to get something good from it. I would have never started releasing records had I not been reinforced by that idea, because I would have been too afraid. I could have just spared myself the embarrassment. With their attitude, it didn’t really matter to me, I wasn’t afraid to learn in front of anybody.’And where did DM’s conversion to psych occur – Frisco? The Mojave? Tim Leary’s Sunbrook Drive pad?

No. It was in that bastion of flower power, home of the Floyd, Hawkwind, Soft Machine and Norman Lamont – Notting Hill.‘That’s where I got into a lot of this stuff – when I was living over here for a couple of years, and also when I was working on the Gorillaz record.’ Dangey also has a hot tip for anyone looking to psych him out. ‘There’s this really great record store right on Talbot Road that’s only open on Friday and Saturday. The guy behind the counter there knows my taste, and he’d recommend stuff to me. Most of the stuff I’ve bought was from there. I’m always bummed when I’m in town and it’s not a Friday or Saturday and I can’t go in there.’

You do realise that, having said that, there won’t be any records left next time you swing by.

‘That’s OK, man, spread the wealth.’

The Gnarls Barkley single ‘Smiley Faces’ is out on Warner Bros this Monday.