A lot of things that allegedly exist out there in the world of rock do not, and dozens of “scuzzed out” “psych pud” “mindfuck” records I bought in the Eighties turned out to be weak Sixties retreads. What I wish I had found were Amon Düül II albums. The splinter group from a commune (of which Amon Düül I was also a part), AD II was an absolute stew of urges, a real combination of improvisatory bravery and rock urgency. There is nothing fussy or polite or timid about this band. Squalls run into weird comic barking then into straight pounding and back out into hairy wandering and jazzy dissolution. Punk hippies or hippie punks, with some amazing tambour and tabla, to boot. A really beautiful and insane record, still charged to the brim with lifeforce.

One of the most truly inexplicable bands to emerge from the late 60s German psych/Krautrock scene, these lords of the fly transformed their radical politics into some pretty radical art. They emerged from their commune with a killer combination of sounds: Summer of Love freakouts, jumbled jazz, bombastic blues, fearsome folk, raging raga, intense improvisation. Sometimes all at the same time. This debut outing featured them at their most accessible and concise, and even then the B side is a single 20 minute-long suite. Entire sections of Bandcamp originated here.