A sublime second solo effort from Syd Barrett – and maybe his most perfectly-formed album ever! There's a sinister balance to the record right from the start – a gentle approach to the offbeat themes that is almost more unsettling than if the matter was undertaken more forcefully – weird little bits just tossed off by Syd as if they're really the ramblings of the madman promised on the cover of his first LP – almost with a deadpan quality that makes the whole thing even more unsettling with repeated listenings! Instrumentation is relatively lean – almost a folksy mix of acoustic guitar, electric, sullen bass, and some haunting keyboards – all as if someone picked apart Pink Floyd, then started to construct a rough sketch from the parts that lay scattered on the floor. The album's had an influence from psych through punk and many years beyond – and titles include "Baby Lemonade", "Gigolo Aunt", "Wolfpack", "Effervescing Elephant", "Winde & Dined", "Rats", and "It Is Obvious". LP, Vinyl record album

One of the most unusual albums ever released on Island Records – a gem from the early days of the label, and one that's especially interesting for fans of UK sound library work – as the sounds within are handled by library maestro Syd Dale! The music is nice and jazzy – covers of a fair bit of late 60s tunes, but done with some nice woodwinds and breakout solo moments. LP, Vinyl record album

An early 70s collection of previous work from Pink Floyd – and a crucial display of the younger group's charm to folks who'd only discovered them in the longform jamming years! The set's got some great vocal gems from the Syd Barrett years, plus the kind of fantastic guitar work that the group could pack into a three minute cut – long before they were letting loose with extended cuts. Titles include "Arnold Layne", "Interstellar Overdrive", "See Emily Play", "Julia Dream", "Careful With That Axe Eugene", "Cirrus Minor", and "Bike". LP, Vinyl record album

Pink Floyd rose out of the same London scene that gave the world a huge amount of psychedelic records in the late 60s – but with a set like this, they're clearly head and shoulders above most of their contemporaries – already working with a boundless sense of imagination and impeccable instrumentation, on a record that's full of delight and surprise at every single twist and turn! The group still sport Syd Barrett vocals and lyrics here, but are also really opening up their guitar spaceship too – soaring to the heavens on the tremendous "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun" – and sending the whole thing home with the cuts "Let There Be More Light", "Corporal Clegg", "Jugband Blues", "See Saw", and "A Saucerful Of Secrets". LP, Vinyl record album

A brilliant bit of psychedelia – still as fresh today as it was many decades back – and the crowning achievement of Pink Floyd during the early Syd Barrett years! The album's got all the best elements of the group firmly in place – the penchant for long-jamming tracks that still manage to always maintain a sharp edge – mixed with some of the wittier, more playful lyrics that Barrett brought to the group – all wrapped up with a sense of depth and darkness that goes way beyond most of their contemporaries. The record's a masterpiece through and through – from its first guitar-heavy jam on "Astronomy Domine", through the strutting, vamping madness of "Bike" – all up and down other gems that include "Lucifer Sam", "The Gnome", "Take Up Thy Stethoscope & Walk", "Interstellar Overdrive", "Chapter 24", and "The Scarecrow". LP, Vinyl record album

A seminal set from 70s Pink Floyd – a set that took all the energy of Dark Side Of The Moon, and refined it into an even more complex sonic setting! The songs here move out spaciously – still very unified as an overall album, but often with all of these longer-form musical ideas, and mature textural elements that really show the progression the group had made in just a few short years – almost as if they were revisiting the open-ended feel of their immediate records after the departure of Syd Barrett – but with a massive amount of new information about the possibilities of the recording studio, and their own skills as musicians. The whole thing's wonderful – always taken better as a whole than in just small slices – and titles include "Shine On You Crazy Diamond", "Welcome To The Machine", "Have A Cigar", and "Wish You Were Here". LP, Vinyl record album

A seminal set from 70s Pink Floyd – a set that took all the energy of Dark Side Of The Moon, and refined it into an even more complex sonic setting! The songs here move out spaciously – still very unified as an overall album, but often with all of these longer-form musical ideas, and mature textural elements that really show the progression the group had made in just a few short years – almost as if they were revisiting the open-ended feel of their immediate records after the departure of Syd Barrett – but with a massive amount of new information about the possibilities of the recording studio, and their own skills as musicians. The whole thing's wonderful – always taken better as a whole than in just small slices – and titles include "Shine On You Crazy Diamond", "Welcome To The Machine", "Have A Cigar", and "Wish You Were Here". LP, Vinyl record album

A swirling, mangy psychedelia drenched pounder from the Paisleys – who kind of took an acid-steeped Syd Barrett approach to the garage formula, making for one of the densest, bluntest, heaviest lumbering mastodon's of the era! Seven tracks from the original LP: "Cosmic Mind At Play", "Rockin'", "Now", "Smokey Windows", "Diddley", "Wind", and "Musical Journey". There's seven bonus tracks, too, including "Something's Missing", "The Fool With The Jewel", "Elf In A Magic Bottle", "In Dreams" and more! LP, Vinyl record album

Classic level psych pop pastiche from The Paperhead – a young Nashville core trio (and just a little over a handful of studio collaborators) with an incredible ability to channel the coolest sounds of the late 60s-late 70s into a transcendently catchy sound of their own! We don't even know where to start in trying to describe the stylistic range – maybe we'd just start by saying the songs, one after another, are as solidly tuneful and accessible as their influences are far out and diverse – incredibly so on both front! They've got strains of both obscure and uberclassic psychedelia from early/Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd, to late 60s psychedelic soul, to Byrds-y psych country, and well beyond. Arrangements-wise the songs all have tight core groove, and additional horns and strings when duty calls. Another proud Dusty Groove salute to Chicago's Trouble In Mind label for discovering and releasing such great stuff! Includes "The True Poet", "Pig", "Love You To Death", "Fairy Tales", "Porter's Fiddle", "Reincarnated", "Over And Over", "Little Lou", "Duly Noted", "Dama De Lavanda" and "Chew". LP, Vinyl record album

A brilliant bit of psychedelia – still as fresh today as it was many decades back – and the crowning achievement of Pink Floyd during the early Syd Barrett years! The album's got all the best elements of the group firmly in place – the penchant for long-jamming tracks that still manage to always maintain a sharp edge – mixed with some of the wittier, more playful lyrics that Barrett brought to the group – all wrapped up with a sense of depth and darkness that goes way beyond most of their contemporaries. The record's a masterpiece through and through – from its first guitar-heavy jam on "Astronomy Domine", through the strutting, vamping madness of "Bike" – all up and down other gems that include "Lucifer Sam", "The Gnome", "Take Up Thy Stethoscope & Walk", "Interstellar Overdrive", "Chapter 24", and "The Scarecrow". LP, Vinyl record album

Arranged and conducted by Syd Dale and Rod McKuen, with Ellis Larkins on piano. LP, Vinyl record album

An incredible blend of southern and modern soul – the second album by soul songwriter Sydney Joe Qualls, recorded in both Chicago and Muscle Shoals, with a stone mellow sound that's outta site! The groove here is extremely well-done – tight, but never too slick – and with a soaring quality that marks the best late 70s soul coming out of Chicago at the time, but which also has some rootsier vocals from Sydney. The album's a classic for the standout groover "I Don't Do This" – but the whole thing's pretty darn great, and tracks include "Bad Risk", "I'll Run To Your Side", "Let the Woman Know", "I Could Be So Good For You", and "Where Have You Been". LP, Vinyl record album