The compilation album is a curious mistress. It seems a new one is released every day in the increasingly clueless CD marketplace, from honest, down-home label samplers to the faceless ‘club anthem’ CDs you see advertised with soft porn in the middle of the night on ITV. And, of course, most indie fans in their late twenties will look back on the Shine compilations from the nineties with intense nostalgic wistfulness.
Very rarely, a compilation album comes along that is genuinely seminal; that sums up a scene, a movement or a generation. Those albums that artists refer to as an influence just as much as any single band. The ultimate of these must the Nuggets compilation of underground psychedelia from the mid to late sixties, an album released in 1972 that spawned a veritable institution, with 15 volumes released in the eighties. More recently, the excellent Dark Was The Night compilation summed up the modern experimental folk trend of the past half-decade.
The Amorphous Androgynous’s second instalment of psychedelic hymns is not like that. Not seeking to capture the essence of a moment in time, the duo seek to express a single theme of joyous lysergic abandon, taking music from throughout the decades and throughout the genres, as long as it is at least a mild freak-out. This is A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding In Your Mind: Volume 2, and like Volume One, it is a thing of great beauty.
The Amorphous Androgynous are actually electronica veterans The Future Sound of London (Garry Cobain and Brian Dougans) in disguise, indulging their love of mind-expanding rock by searching through the annals looking for wonderful, overlooked gems that deserve a reappraisal. The new record is launched with an almighty concert at Matter, London on 30 October, featuring those who feature on the collection such as Hawkwind, Cranium Pie and a rare appearance from re-discovered pagan-folk weirdos Comus.
Indeed, Cobain and Dougans have shown remarkable imagination (and stamina) in presenting their album live. As well as getting those still alive to play live for them, the album acts as a superb DJ device – at this year’s Green Man Festival the duo performed for seven hours, sending the crowd into a psychedelic stupor, experiencing this wig-out of a record in the best way possible.
As far as home listening is concerned, there are some remarkable artefacts to be found here. Particularly satisfying are Ultimate Spinach’s ‘(Ballad Of ) The Hip Death Goddess, Melanie’s ‘(Lay Down) Candles In The Rain’ and The Transpersonals’ ‘Silver Star’. Of the 44 tracks, most are unearthed from the 66-75 era of rock, although contemporary acts to get a look in include Brightblack Morning Light, Circulus, Animal Collective and Holy Fuck. Volume Two doesn’t quite outdo the remarkable Volume One, but in its breadth and staggering sense of funk, Cobain and Dougans are doing a moribund rock scene a massive service. The only letdown is the inclusion of a remix of an Oasis track. But nevermind.
