An interesting list from Discogs. Any further suggestions?



https://www.discogs.com/digs/music/essential-psychedelic-soul/?utm_source=Homepage&utm_medium=Discogs&utm_campaign=Essential-psychedelic-soul_Music

That's quite an impressive and fairly comprehensive list but I'm sure we'll do our best to supplement it. How about you Paul, have you got a suggestion up your sleeve?

To be quite honest Doc I was into this type of music years ago but I kind of tired of it a bit. While I can appreciate funk, I'm not really a huge fan, and I never quite knew where psychedelic soul ended and funk began. I think I liked the idea of psychedelic soul music more than many of the albums if that makes sense. That said, it's probably better music to dance to rather than to listen to at home.


But to answer your question- Black Merda and Purple Image sprung to mind.

Good points, I'm sure there have been many discussions here before on what defines psychedelia in music in the first place and usually agreed on that individuals will have their own take on what they find a 'mind altering' experience. So, for me, adding another cross-over element such as soul is a double head scratcher. The fact that there was even a track called 'Psychedelic Soul' by Saxie Russell which celebrated the genre but managed (to my ears) to sound not very psychedelic says it all! Having said that I suppose we should give a fair degree of license for suggestions so if someone suggested the 45 Wildflower by Skylark, for example, I wouldn't throw them out of court.

I do love myself a bit of psychedelic soul, though I do sometimes wonder what's the difference between early funk and psychedelic soul as both can feature fuzzed up guitar parts,Soulful harmonies over a groovy danceable beat, usually with heavy basslines at the forefront of the sound, though as the 70s wore on funk took a more commercial slant towards a disco Vibe.

I like the label Black Rock as was an album title for The Bar-kays, though psychedelic soul indeed had it's own vibe and sound compared to those groups that got called acid rock,or indeed psychedelic rock, though a band like Next Morning could rock out as any of those acid rock could!!

Psychedelic soul seems to have been a predominantly Black American thing, made slightly commercial by Norman Whitfield at Motown Records with the likes of The Temptations & Edwin Starr.

Though supposedly hyped psychedelic soul albums can be disappointing as on many cases there are about 4 psychedelic soul numbers among the usual unpsychedelic soul sounds, The Chambers Brothers are an excellent example, they recorded about a handful of psyched up soul numbers though they issued a host of albums that are unpsychedelic,even the album "The Time Has Come"after their magnificent song of the same name is basically an album of soul and gospel.

Though through the years 68-72, there is indeed some mighty Psych Soul numbers by the likes of The Meters, Black Merda, The Politicians, The Counts, Eugene McDaniels,Funkadelic/Parliament and many more including even James Brown, though others would call them funk too, so there seems to be a crossover sound I'd say for a while.

There are compilations of rare funk from small labels covering the late 60s/early 70s that have some really psychedelic sounding soul, though under the funk umbrella,so maybe for a while at this time it was possibly the same thing but recognised differently from different people,as the music press was predominantly White at this time as where the top record execs, who may have coined the term psychedelic soul, who knows, that could be a reasonable explanation to the confusion between early funk and psychedelic soul,as it's possible the musicians in those predominantly black groups called it funk and not psychedelic soul they were creating and recording??

Great points Stuart, I just thought of two more that fit (IMHO) into the psychedelic soul bracket- Lee Moses's Time and Place and Chubby Checker's Chequered. Both excellent albums. I think the Temptations Psychedelic Soul put me off the genre, I just didn't find it psychedelic at all if I remember rightly. But it was a long time since I listened to it!

Hi Guys

I have officially retired now and I am going back to the things I love to fill the void of "work", thank goodness. That includes posting on RZ a bit. As I have not been here in years I thought I would lead off here. I was no big fan of Soul back in the day but over the last 4-5 years I have looked into it a bit more and certainly found my happy place among the Genre. Not that I'm a Soul man now, just that I know what I like, and I like a good fast beat.


I go along with the previous comments on Psychedelic soul LPs. There are good ones but not that many as Stewart said probably because there are not that many psychedelic songs on many of these records to begin with. And the ones that were and have the plaudits and the ones that were not were just not very psychedelic. That is the key to why there are so few obscure Psychedelic soul LPs.

Psychedelic Soul singles is another thing however and there are plenty of quality 45s out there. I will get to that later on my next post.

The way I see the evolution of Psychedelic soul is a lot along the lines that Stuart mentioned. What made soul psychedelic were many things but I would put the key on the term "Trippiness" whether it be musically or lyrically and includes the production itself.

Psychedelic soul morphed into funk. What were the central psychedelic bits that characterized it moved from the front of the mix more to the back with Funk.

As well as this the language had to change too. Psychedelic was a old dated term now going out of fashion and the Term Funk - well it was Modern and Urban as well as "Black" which of course the black community could relate to. It was inevitable.

No Particular order here- just maybe a dozen of the tracks I love with a eye to the lesser known. Read and hunt it out if you like what you see.

DAVID & THE GIANTS Ten Miles High. Not the Byrds track but instead a monster tune packed to the gills with phasing, horns strings and a driving beat. Totally obscure- it seems almost as if I'm alone on the universe for liking this so much. A personal favorite of mine.

RARE EARTHS Land of Nod. The underrated Land of nod is to my mind easily the best example of Rare Earths early psychedelic sound. It starts off with trippy effects and then into a pounding rhythm which then gives way to soft vocals and gentle psychedelic keyboards before powering up again. It continues to alternate between powerful guitarwork and soft dream-scapes before fading into a collage of sound effects and pretty interludes right through to the end. A full experience housed into a deceptively short song.

RITA & THE TIARAS Gone with the wind is my love. This is more Northern soul territory than a Psychedelic one. . While its psychedelic stylings are more background I include it here as it is a wonderfully dramatic song, driven by a pulsing beat , great great vocals and powerful string sections. This is without a doubt one of the best soul songs ever. No Lie.


REPARATA & THE DELRONS Saturday night didn't happen The group were more of a one hit wonder with their psych pop tinged Captain if your Ship. They tried to generate another hit following this including a few more ventures into psychedelic territory without success . The most psychedelic track they ever did was Saturday night didn't happen which was a quite wonderful piece of psych soul. It starts with spooky whispered vocals which then become more impassioned and featured some major echoplexing treatment. The song ends with a “all in” burst of denial - wailing and calling. Truly great stuff. The similarly unhappy B side Panic is another psych tinged classic too.

JOHN LUCEIN Search for the inner self. Paul Weller mentioned it as a personal favorite which rose it from complete obscurity to a more known obscurity. A really pleasant piece of psychedelic soul thats worth investigating.

JUDY TENG The search for love. Judy was one of three sisters who all became music stars in groovy Singapore. One sister was big on ballads, the other went more onto pop and soul and Judy was the experimental one who went with the out there psychedelic sounds of the time. Sadly her career was easily the shortest of the three but there is no doubt that she shone the brightest as shown in this example - a great combination of soul and psych-pop.

THE CONSTRUCTION Hey little way out girl. Another song with an irresistible combination of a psychedelically haunting atmosphere paired with a solid dancefloor beat. It became a notorious song in the mid 70s where influential DJ Richard Searling played the track at the famous Wigan Casino but kept the artist's real identity a secret to prevent other DJs from finding copies. It was issued on the grapevine label under the pseudonym The Del Capris which ensured the original group went unacknowledged. In any case its a great song and has what collectors describe as a "hovering oohing choir" which sounds irresistible to me.



KIM JUNG MI I can't forget about you ( 못 잊어). Shin Joong Hyan was a Korean producer who fully embraced western music of the late 60s and early 70s. He wrote songs and bought in musicians to create his albums. One of his favorite finds was Kim Jung Mi who's breathy dreamy voice was perfect for his psych tinged experiments. She became popular and eventually released records under her own name which have since become highly valued among collectors. This song is from her 74 LP and quite atypical of her normal natural light airy tones -becoming deeper and smokier as it melded with the funky tones, surrounded by Shin Joong Hyans murky psychedelic atmosphere. A classic.

The WHATNAUTS – “Why Can’t People Be Colors Too?” This comes from their third LP. Its a really pleasant low key groover. The singing is top notch, they can harmonize with ease. There is a understated sparseness to the whole track which stands in contrast to my other picks here. This extends from the vocal parts to the swinging instrumental section in the second half paring down to horns and percussion at one point. A song to be savored.

THE 5TH DIMENSION. The Eleventh Song (What a Groovy Day)” The 5th Dimension did have hits and were not really unknown but always seem to be underrated. They are often left off the top tiers of these lists – probably as they were seen as too poppy and not as cutting edge as the major contenders. But their catalogue is littered with great catchy songs – this being one such example. Let this be one of those secret delights.

TRIO TERNURA A grita. You need some Brazilian representation in any collection of dance music - and from the land of wonders I have chosen this - Soulful vocals swirling arrangements, and a spiritual trance like groove. A perfect blend of soul and Brazilian psychedelia. One critic described this as a tribute to nature, spirituality and mindfulness – you can't go wrong here.


The TAMMYS Egyptian shamba. If you consider mind blowing lunacy as psychedelic than this it is. A true cult classic of something so mind unhinging-ly bad its... good(?) . I'm not including it officially -but its here because everyone should experience this once.

The JACKSONS Skywriter From the 73 LP of the same name. Also its not official on my list as Michael and his brothers are far from unknown but if you like a trippy song with phasing than this is one of the few ventures into the psychedelic for the boys. Its a good song too.


There you go. There's plenty here to enjoy even if it isn't all to your taste.

Cheers.

Del Jones - Court Is Closed album is well worth a listen. There's two versions though, the one with the map sleeve is the more psychy of the two, the other has more of a funk feel but both are great. There's also a 2 LP reissue with both versions.

Aahhh recommendations from New Zealand..... glorious to see you Daniel,I hope you're feeling well and keeping well, and that retirement is treating you well.

I've a cd comp titled "Function Underground"released by Now Again in 2017,which features obscure psychedelic soul & early funk from the States.

It's a top listen,with trully trippy psychedelic soul, and a booklet featuring photos of the band's included, and man they look tripped out freaky.Think George Clinton and Funkadelic in their colourful over the top get up,some of that is certainly a influence on some of those mainly black bands.
Bands with names like Ebony Rhythm Band,Creations Unlimited, Black Conspirators,l.a.carnival, Purple Snow & Black Mafia.

It's unfortunate that there seems to be few genuine comps of psychedelic soul & Black Rock music,as there's a gap in the market screaming for something like that, maybe a comprehensive 4 cd box set would I think be a remarkable object.

Someone with the time,knowledge,know how and record collection to genuinely provide a comprehensive collection of psychedelic soul & black rock music.