Music Review: Various Artists, The Dawn Of Psychedelia

By Melissa Bratcher

After listening to Cherry Red Records’ vast two-CD set The Dawn Of Psychedelia, I feel that I can say without a doubt that the humble flute launched the psychedelic revolution. Or possibly the sitar. Or a combination of both.

The Dawn Of Psychedelia attempts to trace back the origins of the Aquarian Age that defined the music of the ’60s. Sometimes, it hits the nail on the head. Other times, it sounds a bit like filler.

Pioneering jazz musicians like Sun Ra and Gabor Szabo, as well as Indian classical musicians like Ravi Shankar, Ustad Vilayat Khan, and Sharan Rani are represented, and the lineage is clear. The oddball tracks are spoken word pieces, like interview snippets of Aldous Huxley holding forth on hallucinogenics, or a drop in from Timothy Leary who posits that “America today is an insane asylum,” a sentiment that never truly goes out of style. These tracks interrupt the flow of the record, yanking you out of your raga-induced reverie and, perhaps, snapping you back to consciousness.

It’s not that all the spoken word bits are out of place. Ken Nordine’s sinister and welcoming (at the same time) “Spectrum” is wonderful and plays out over the cool jazz of The Northern Jazz Quartet. Alice B. Toklas’s plummy tones give us her “Recipe For Hashish Fudge” and the recipe is helpfully included in the liner notes, in case you missed it.

One characteristic so many of these songs share is their length, which helps them to be so immersive. Five minutes of raga is interesting, but 18 minutes is otherworldly and transporting. The Indian music is all quite good and varied; Ustad Ali Akbar Khan’s “Raga Yaman Kalyan: Teen Tala” is mind-blowing, as is Ustad Vilayat Khan’s “Raga Miya Ki Malhar.” You can lose yourself in the music.

I had never heard Gabor Szabo, who is represented with the loose “El Toro” and the sensual “Lady Gabor.” If I had heard the latter as a young flautist, I think it might have changed my life completely. The flute playing is fascinating, the change of air pressure blowing to sharp or flat, and the sheer imperfection of it is so different from the classical way I was taught as a child, that it is wildly inspiring. I didn’t want the piece to end. Sounds, Inc. gives a tropical and exotic (as well as flute-driven) “Taboo.” Sun Ra and his Arkestra’s “Ancient Aiethopia” is enlightening, all chants and flutes and trumpets and deep. strange beauty.

Certainly, The Dawn Of Psychedelia is some challenging listening. Had the spoken word pieces all been bundled together on the second disc, it might have been a better choice. The music, however, is broadening and illuminating. With copious liner notes and as always, wonderful packaging, Cherry Red Records has created a thought-provoking, eye-opening portrait of the origins of an era.

The Dawn Of Psychedelia was released by Cherry Red Records on August 19.