Take [me] by the hand and lead [me] through the land

September 20, 2024 12:08 PM

I love early Pink Floyd (pre Dark Side) especially long instrumentals like Echoes and Careful with That Axe, Eugene. Based on that, what else might I enjoy?

I'm leaving it open ended for maximum variety, but I will offer bounty* of a nice sweet and high five for anyone who suggests more indie stuff. A crisp $10 note and a "get me one too" for anyone who suggests more contemporary stuff, especially post 2000.

*OP reserves the right to substitute any promised material or monetary prize with a non-material equivalent in the form of ["Best Answer"] or ["Favorite"]

posted by wanderlost to Media & Arts (18 answers total)

The Cosmic Jokers from 1974. Also, early Hawkwind, like Space Is Deep (1971).
posted by Rash at 12:20 PM on September 20 [1 favorite]

Plus the first King Crimson.
posted by Rash at 12:23 PM on September 20 [1 favorite]

also King Crimson's Fracture 11+ minutes of instrumental madness.
posted by supermedusa at 12:36 PM on September 20

If you're into anything heavy: Swans (late era), Bell Witch, Sleep.
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 12:53 PM on September 20 [1 favorite]

For my money, the best neo-psychedelic group going right now is King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard (Bandcamp page: https://kinggizzard.bandcamp.com), a young Australian group who do basically every flavor of the psychedelic rock rainbow: Garage, glam, prog, bubblegum, proto-punk, hard rock, metal, thrash, doom, etc. with many of their albums (26 studio, 39 live, all recorded in the last 12 years!) sounding quite different than the ones immediately before it. Their discography can be a bit of a mixed bag for folks who prefer a more unified sound, but their adventurousness and eclecticism are a lot of fun!

For fans of bluesy/proggy stuff like early Floyd, I strongly recommend their latest album, Flight b741. which has a retro-'70s jam-based vibe that should hit the spot.

I also strongly suggest these other KG&tLW albums as good jumping-in points from there (among others!):

-- Paper Mache Dream Balloon (mostly twee, playful acoustic folk rock)

-- Nonagon Infinity (hard psychedelic prog with a metal/punk feel, designed to be listened to on repeat)

-- Flying Microtonal Banana (instrumental focused hard prog, played on instruments using microtonal tuning)

-- Sketches of Brunswick East (more jazz-oriented slow jams)

-- Polygondwanaland (more prog, starts off with a 10-minute mostly instrumental jam, "Crumbling Castle")

-- Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms, and Lava (more psychedelic prog, based on studio improvisation)

-- Laminated Denim (a 30 minute EP consisting of two songs that are each 15:00 exactly.)
posted by Strange Interlude at 1:09 PM on September 20 [6 favorites]

Early Porcupine Tree, especially The Sky Moves Sideways
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 1:43 PM on September 20 [1 favorite]

Maybe Tarentel?
posted by farlukar at 2:05 PM on September 20

Our own Devils Rancher recently turned me on to his band, Carbon 7.
posted by Runes at 2:45 PM on September 20

Israliens 7

1 hour and 17 minutes of electronic psy-trance and progressive trance. If you don't like trance, this may not be for you. :D
posted by jjnonken at 4:52 PM on September 20

Just making sure you are familiar with the French band Air and their 1998 album Moon Safari.
posted by credulous at 6:07 PM on September 20 [2 favorites]

Tinariwen
consider the vocals just another instrument and enjoy
posted by OHenryPacey at 7:15 PM on September 20

“Space to Bakersfield,” by Black Mountain.
posted by baseballpajamas at 8:48 PM on September 20 [2 favorites]

So as not to abuse edit:

Here is the YT sample I was unable to provide on mobile: "It Will Rain for a Million Years", the best track from Porcupine Tree's first album.
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 5:39 AM on September 21

Younger brother has a floydy vibe to me.
posted by Sebmojo at 5:13 PM on September 21

Godspeed you black emperor often scratch an adjacent itch, though they don't sound exactly the same at all.

Black Mountain, as noted above. They owe me some of my hearing.

Mogwai, start at their track Fear Satan.

Seedy Jeezus are obscure but had me thinking the other day, these guys have listened to early Pink Floyd. God was the track I was listening to, or its b side. Badly mixed unfortunately.

Funkadelic, sometimes. Always excellent and weird though. Maggot Brain of course but also good thoughts bad thoughts.
posted by deadwax at 9:23 PM on September 21

I've always thought The Pit Of Souls was Robyn Hitchcock's take on A Saucerful of Secrets. He gets compared to Syd Barrett but usually for his melodic psychedelia songs; this one sounds like the random instrumental noodling of 1960s Pink Floyd.
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 1:12 AM on September 23

"Sloth" by Fairport Convention hits me in the very same place as "Echoes", with the vocal sections bracketing a long instrumental that thumps along in a slow 4 while building and building to epic heights. They're both among my favorite songs ever, and listening to them on my Walkman while riding a bus out of Milford Sound in New Zealand was one of the emotional highlights of my life.

"Sloth" and "Echoes" also are kind of uninteresting on first listen, because the arrangement seems so simplistic at the start of the song. But when you listen over again, you've got the big complicated crescendo in your memory, so the first parts are anticipating the excitement. You can hear bits getting introduced that are all going to come together later.
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 1:23 AM on September 23

Check out Oresund Space Collective. Contemporary heavily-improvised psychedelic space rock:
posted by KickTheBobo at 11:59 AM on October 2