Joe Meek
For me, truly psychedelic music starts
with London’s eccentric genius producer,
Joe Meek. One listen to Joe Meek and
the Blue Men’s 1959 album, I Hear a New
World, will cause a polarising effect in the
listener—they will either flee or bask in the
strangeness and let it tan their mind to new
Technicolor hues in its otherworldly glow.
I have never played this record for anyone
and had an indifferent reaction. My favorite
track is “The Bublight” with its eerily elastic
lap-steel licks that lap around the ghostly
haunted-honky-tonk piano tinkling and
bassoon-like bassline. The silvery serene
atmosphere here evokes fever-dreams of
Santos and Johnny Sleepwalking on the
moon in a space ritualistic showdown. This
record shows one just how far they can
push the limits with a compressor, some
mechanical reverb (such as plate or spring)
and a bit of slide guitar. Grab a Strymon
Deco and a Catalinbread Topanga and get
Meeked out for some proto-psychedelic
vibe. Let the out-of-tune instruments add
character and do away with the pedal tuner.
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