The band’s first show for BBC 6Music, and the first show I missed since their reappearance in 2001. For one major reason: Gaz was meant to be taking the Amorphous Androgynous Psychedelic DJ Experience to Coachella Festival in California, only the festival confirmed the show before the band were 100%; by the time they had confirmed they weren’t available, I’d bought tickets, and thus spent this particular weekend sweating in a field somewhere near L.A.
For reasons that remain unknown, this show was never officially released as one of the Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding in Your Mind mixes in The Pod Room, and has remained only available as a bootleg. Stylistically it fits with other mixes at the time. It begins with an interview section, Gaz talking to present Nick Luscombe about the history of the Amorphous project after FSOL, and playing a few of his favourite tracks. He mentions not caring too much about titles or the history of the band, being more of a lover of sound (which goes some way to explaining the huge number of errors always found in the band’s tracklists!). Interestingly, he refers to the band as The Future Sound of London again, rather than Amorphous Androgynous, which is unusual in context of this show. There’s even a look to Gaz’s past with the appearance of a Cocteau Twins track. The final track played, Leon Russell’s ‘The Ballad of Hollis Brown’, is an opportunity for him to mention Brian (“I hope he’s listening!”) who is described as being just as important a part of the band.
After half an hour, the mix starts in earnest, with sounds that would later be heard in ‘The Wicker Doll’, followed by plenty of whooshing noises and odd background sounds and speech samples. Yes, it’s a proper old fashioned transmission intro environment!
“And if you could hear the whispering of the dream…” – Kahlil Gibran, from the book The Prophet.
“I want real gut reactions. I want the audience…” – the movie The Man on the Moon.
“They say you have visions…” from the movie Minority Report.
The music offers few surprises, with mellow instrumental psych, Indian classical/rock fusion, late ’70s cosmic hard rock. “In the name of God, think what you’re doing!” from the end of The Wicker Man adds a rather harrowing touch to the mood, before Miles Davis’s ‘Rated X’ comes in as the first of a handful of tracks previously played, including the perennial ‘Cosmic Sea’ by Mystic Moods, a track surviving from the first Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble mix in 1997.
“The words falling from those lips, and his eyes…” – from the movie Hedwig and the Angry Inch.
Sun Dial’s ‘Free Sitar’ is the only track in the main mix (other than Amorphous ones) to be released later than 1978, a remarkable feat even for one of these shows.
“Now slowly open your eyes…” – from the movie Man on the Moon, clearly a popular one around The Galaxial Pharmaceutical at this point.
At 46:29 comes something unusual for a Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble show: an Amorphous Androgynous track. ‘The Prophet’ the first of three in the show to preview the band’s then forthcoming album, Alice in Ultraland, took people by surprise at the time, it being a massively expanded version of ‘Yes My Brother‘. It also signifies that this is the beginning of a post-Isness era – remarkably, given the then-recent release of The Otherness and ‘Divinity‘. After a more disjointed first half, the mix moves into a mix of more groove-oriented instrumentals, closer to earlier Monstrous Bubble broadcasts and away from the cut-up hard rock approach of the previous two, with an increasing emphasis on folk music between the heavier tracks.
“”So, what do you have here? A big elaborate joke…” – from the movie Man on the Moon.
“Would that you could live on the fragrance…” – Kahlil Gibran from the book The Prophet.
‘Billy the Onion’ is the second track from Alice in Ultraland to appear – in a slightly different mix to the final version (including a different synth line) – followed a couple of tracks later by ‘All is Harvest’, still called ‘Air’ at the time; between the two is a Mahavishnu Orchestra track which features a very brief appearance of a 3D Headspace Tour vocal sample near the end.
“Ladies and gentlemen, you have all just participated in a happening” – from the movie Man on the Moon.
Over ‘All is Harvest’, a final interview section place, with Gaz giving some track titles for what was played, mostly correct, although there’s a reference to a band called Jerk Machine who… don’t exist. The key part of this tracklist is the official announcement of Alice in Ultraland as the next Amorphous album. This came as a huge surprise to fans who were awaiting the new FSOL album at this point. A lot longer they would have to wait…
With no official release, the show only exists as a bootleg, recorded from the BBC web stream, so not perfect quality.
Tracklist
00:00 Donovan – Get Thy Bearings
02:49 Interview
04:50 Heaven & Earth – Feel the Spirit
09:11 Interview
11:19 Black Sabbath – Planet Caravan
15:17 Interview
19:11 Cocteau Twins – Blue Bell Knoll
22:26 Interview
25:40 Leon Russell – The Ballad of Hollis Brown
27:39 6Music Sting
28:20 Transmission intro
29:21 Interview
30:27 Tommy James and the Shondells – Cellophane Symphony
32:49 Ravi Shankar – Raga Marwa
33:55 Iron Butterfly – Butterfly Bleu
36:14 Miles Davis – Rated X
38:28 The Mahavishnu Orchestra – You Know, You Know
39:43 Mandrill – Universal Rhythms
42:32 Sun Dial – Free Sitar
44:35 Unknown
46:29 The Incredible String Band – Little Cloud
46:52 The Amorphous Androgynous – The Prophet
51:11 Bob James – Nautilus
54:41 Dorothy Ashby – Soul Vibrations
57:24 Miles Davis – Dark Magus (Tatu)
58:47 The Mystic Moods Orchestra – Cosmic Sea
59:07 Genesis – Dancing with the Moonlit Knight
1:00:33 Funkadelic – Super Stupid
1:04:14 Roy Harper – Don’t You Grieve
1:04:27 Joni Mitchell – The Silky Veils of Ardor
1:07:17 Judy MacKenzie – New Song
1:07:50 The Incredible String Band – You Get Brighter
1:07:58 Leon Russell – Carney
1:08:32 Beggar’s Opera – Light Cavalry
1:11:24 Third Ear Band – Stone Circle
1:12:08 Paul Giovanni – Gently Johnny
1:14:23 The Amorphous Androgynous – Billy the Onion
1:17:52 Mahavishnu Orchestra – Pastoral
1:20:44 The Amorphous Androgynous – All is Harvest
1:22:16 Interview
1:23:55 The Amorphous Androgynous – All Is Harvest
1:25:01 Transmission End
Fractional Difference 