Mushroom (Experimental Psychedelic)

mushroommyspace

Seattle Weekly: The Krautrockin' cadets of Mushroom hit their marks throughout, additionally serving up a handful of 'shroomy originals, notably a droney space-jazz instrumental called "Even the Beatles Had Beards"

by Keith Boyd (May 2010):

Perhaps not since the early 60’s has the music industry been more about single songs. While a 2-3 minute piece of perfection is a wonder to behold, it is rarer that an entire album is a cohesive and satisfying listen. Thankfully that satisfaction is to be found here. From the first strums of “Infatuation” to the closing, sing-a-long take on Kevin Ayers’ “Singing A Song In The Morning”, this album enchants and enlightens. Amongst the treasures are Nuevo takes on Jazzy/Folk acoustic guitar in the vein of early Tim Buckley and Nick Drake. The wonders don’t stop there though. Taking its title from Pete Townsend’s lyrics to “Bargain”, this album is a stroll through the various and deep roots of 60’s music. At times it is scans like a compilation of John Peel’s old label Dandelion Records. There is that same scrappy drive to explore and then deliver quality. The broad-base sonic footprint of the project was conceived as a “cross-continental Cinema Verite travelogue of time and space”. Acoustic, ambient and blending Eastern and Western sensibilities, the music floats on an ether-soaked cloud of sitar, violin, pump organ, celesta, vibraharp, dulcimer and flutophone. Beneath this hypnotic cloud are African, Latin and Indian percussion and rhythms that move the pieces and the sound-story along. While the truth is that every bit of music on this disc is wonderful, I suppose a few extraordinary highlights would include; “Celebration At Big Sur (The Sound Of The Gulls Outside Of Room 124)”, “Infatuation” and the afore mentioned, re-imagined Kevin Ayers, “Sing A Song In The Morning”. The wealth and riches embedded in these grooves deserve your full attention. “Naked, Stoned and Stabbed” is a gift to the senses. It evokes the British countryside, The Big Sur coast, African nightclub pulses and the great late 60’s Jazz/Folk scene. Remarkably it does all this while remaining contemporary and vibrant to the modern ear. Simply put this is best thing I’ve heard so far in 2010.

Jeff Penczak:

The Mushroom's 10th album—a double CD at affordable single-disk prices!—opens with the smooth and mellow "L'Auberge." Glazed Popems proceeds apace to the more experimental "Pink Island," featuring an avant-guitar solo (from Erik Pearson) that slices through the brain likes shards of glass. The woodwinds (Ralph Carney), congas (Pat Thomas), various Eastern percussives (Dave Mihaly), and celeste, melodica, and vibes (courtesy of newcomer Matt Henry Cunitz's vintage '60's Mellotron) on "(Hats Off To) Bert Jansch" place you in the middle of Hyde Park, ca. 1968, or at the early Glastonbury fests a few years later. The track is an obvious reference to the similarly titled tribute to Roy Harper on Led Zeppelin III and is perfect for freaking at the folk freaker's ball, although only the hardcore Jansch fanatic will hear any of Bert's melodies lingering within. It's all about the mood, dude!

"Isle of Wight," a tribute to the site of Britain's Woodstock, features synth swashes from ex-Loud Family keyboardist Alison Faith Levy, although fans of her Sonoptic project will also recognize her soft and fluidly uninhibited ruminations. The grooves are perfect for sitting cross-legged in a big, open field, staring at the clouds and having a heart-to-heart with a hookah-smoking caterpillar. Most of the Mushroom regulars sit this one out, Pearson trades his guitar for the flute and tenor sax, and guests Dan Olmsted (acoustic guitar) and Monica Pasqual (piano) pick up the slack. But if, like me, you occasionally dig out your well-worn copy of 1971's Glastonbury Fair Revelations 3LP and enjoy groovin' to the sounds of Mighty Baby's "A Blanket in My Mousli," then this will be right up your pink half of the bongpipe.

Pitchfork:

Space-rock has almost always been something of a jack-off: a remote, phallocentric, cerebral trafficking in fantasy, produced and consumed largely by the usual host of Moog aficionados, fluent Klingon speakers and hobbits. But Mushroom's thrilling 1999 space-psych-jazz-rock fusion opus, Analog Hi-Fi Surprise managed to bring some much-needed levity and play to the genre. Mushroom tossed the analog weirdness of Füxa, and the jagged experimentalism of Can into a dark, smoking concoction alongside acid-fried Funkadelic, Jack Johnson-style Miles Davis and even some groove-addled Medeski, Martin & Wood. The result was some of the most instantly accessible outrock around, exploratory, up and infectious.