Europa was a very interesting exploito label.

Here a bloke has listed them plus some of the other Euro labels of worth like Maritrim-wotsit and Ken:

http://rateyourmusic.com/list/monoblue/beat_fur_5_mark/

Anyone familiar with these? I have maybe 15 of them.
Curious about LONDON BEAT ,griffin group high life AND THAT big teenage party LP, amongst others.(tHE LINkS THERE NO LONGER WORK)

The second Wild Angels lp Ive seen in a store here( in US it was released on a cheapo-label - I think Aleshire). Not cheap, but going by the tracklist, Wallace should maybe stay clear.

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Also maybe slightly related to this thread:

Someone compared the THEM-same lp (Custom label in US, with lying-down nude on black cover) with some of the music from exploito bands like Firebirds.Anyone heard?

Also I just got VA-All around the mulberry bush. This is a super soundtrack with mainly Spencer Davis Group tracks. I suppose " With their new face on" is their "psychy" one. Think I'd go for it?

Of exploito lps, anyone can remark on GENERATION GAP - UP,UP AND AWAY ? regardless of the shit title track choice, this is said to be good in that freakawful sorta way.

Also Im looking for 31 FLAVOURS-HAIR.

yep Mulberry bush is a great album to my ears not sure about any of the others though wal

With Their New Face On is a great album

With clean into popsike, or still beat/garage traces?

It's not too different from their previous stuff, maybe a bit of phasing here and there but still pretty much the hammond heavy R&B flavoured stuff that went before. You can tell it's '68 though.

Yes, nothing really out and out psych, but lysergic touches and a generally heavier '68 upgrade of their earlier sound. Nice album, as is Mulberry Bush.

Europa LPs are pretty patchy pulling tracks from lots of budget sources, but some are pretty enjoyable. They released Supreme Psychedelic Underground and Animated Egg LPs in Germany. Quite a few promising looking comps with tracks that go from schlager to exploito psych. You should never really pay more than £9.99 for a Europa LP in my view.

Having had a look at the link I have heard quite a few of these and would avoid London Beat, Spots Beat Beat Beat and Dancing à la Diskothek. The John Deen and the Trakk is OK, with one cool psych track and heavier beat numbers. Love is Blue has a few tracks from 1001 Strings Astro-sounds LP. Corporal Gander's Fire Dog Brigade was pretty good heavyish prog/psych from what I remember as was Electric Food. There was some pretty good heavier psych stuff on that Ken label, including The Blues Goes On and those Electric Hendrix things. Bokaj Retsiem is also pretty good psych/prog.

Thanks! Will look into the Deen & Trakk.
What is the Blues Goes On on Ken label? Is this Live Experience Band as well?


The Peet Shaw lp is also Live Experience Band.
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This Sherman/Muller/Miller taking Somerset/Alshire/Crown over to Europa in Germany (and Marble Arch in UK) - tangle is head-spinning in its complexity. And over-use of the word "Electric" doesn't relieve the madness either. (Almost)all these lps have tracks that link elsewhere only differently named, or differently-recorded, sans/with effects slapped on. Such is the nature of the beast.

But if you would be crazy enough to work out a family tree to this mess, pretty well everything would come down to Jerry Cole (Also Paul Griffin(The Mustang), the organ equivalent of Cole's guitar) and the Animated Egg lp.
So many rehashings with different band names, re-titling ,re-editing, stealing of the same go-go girlcover pictures (Haircut & Impossibles shares same picture with The Mustang "Organ Freakout" and I think a 101 Strings Hammond record.That VA London Beat cover was used on two other band coverarts for chrissake! Orange Groove and The Now Generation.)
What rascals.

The cash-in brazenness of recycling same musicians into different fads: surf counter-culture players (that likely werent into the scene in the least in the first place) feeding on a year later into these fake psych counterculture records - fake as the very scene was in England.

The worst happened not when session musicians tried working "psych" bits n' bobs into surf , but when Miller and these rascals full-bloodedly were out to con you - giving you a full-blown arabesqued, Nehru-jacketed, sock-it-to-me-baby-flowerpowered coverart on music that was nothing more than STRAIGHT surf/'63 hotrod/bikes rock .Totally repackaging the old as the new. Such the case of the many many Shadows "Hits" records on Arc label and the -not at all notorious - but damn-well should be - Electric Underground (not to be confused with the band,Underground Electrics, ffs!)"Guitar explosion" lp.

Regardless of all this unbridled nonsense, I always found the simple faux fad-psych music on these knock-off, made-for-supermarket sales,budget labels more interesting than the "real" psych.
As I like the fake clown-Boss-town psych more than the real dark-tripping psych.

wallace im curious about this comment you wrote
"fake as the very scene was in England."

Im speaking of the Carnaby scene specifically.
Fashion, not music.

Anyways...who REALLY experienced any of that London Beat etc. scene? .05% of the city youth population. (aS WELL IT WAS VERY BRIEF.)

The wealthy & jaded.

The spoilt toss.



(Mods was probably another thing altogether though.)

yep not for ordinary hard working folk thats for shaw..the mod scene is still fairly strong over here and very popular in Italy

Wallace mentioned Jerry Cole.
Anyone familiar with the "Kickstarters" lp?


This is fairly early Cole, so Im thinking maybe Booker T-type Stax soul (only ,of course guitar,not organ) grafted onto biker fuzzbeat/ maybe even mod - or is mid 60s too early for that?)