Much continued respect to the French ‘zine Falling Down and the good people behind the compilation series of the same name. The 2010 installment (review here) brought unreleased tracks from the likes of Ufomammut, White Hills and Across Tundras, and the follow-up, Falling Down IIV, expands on the already successful formula, incorporating exclusive collaborations like that between Year of No Light/Mars Red Sky along with previously unheard material from bands like The Flying Eyes, Monarch, Julie Christmas and Mouth of the Architect, among two discs’ worth of others.

What it lacks in proper Roman numerology, it more than makes up for in the diversity of its lineup. The full tracklist can be seen at Falling Down‘s website, and as it just so happens, Falling Down IIV is out as of today, April 30. If you caught the news of its release last year, then you know it’s been a while coming, but hopefully you got to order one of the limited-to-108-copies metal-box Endless Edition (pictured above), which features an extra disc of material from Pelican, Ahkmed, Hotel Wrecking City Traders, Alunah and others, as well as a DVD of performances from AmenRa, Ufomammut, Ethereal Riffian, and more, as well as the original comp itself, which boasts 20 bands from 11 different countries around the world. No small shakes, and I can’t imagine what a pain in the ass it must have been to put together.

In that spirit of diversity and cultural breadth, I’m fortunate enough today to honor the release of Falling Down IIV by streaming a track from the previously On the Radar-ized Ayahuasca Dark Trip, which features members living in Peru, Brazil, the Netherlands and the US. A compilation in and of themselves, the song they’ve donated to the cause is called “Manantial,” and it’s a ritualistic exploration of oozing lysergic psychedelia, subtle but moving all the while. You’ll find it on the player below followed by the release announcement for Falling Down IIV and a couple links.

Please enjoy:

Falling Down IIV is available for purchase now from the ‘zine’s BigCartel store. The Endless Edition copies sold out on preorder, but the 2CD digipak is still available and limited to 1,000 copies. Full tracklist is posted there or on the comp’s info page, and a YouTube trailer has also been posted. Here’s the release announcement, posted to a Thee Facebooks event page earlier today:

Today is the day. We’re very thrilled to announce that our third volume is now officially released.

We’ve worked really hard everyday since one more year. This new volume contains a lot of amazing bands: we’re really proud to release their new previously-unpublished tracks. We’re still students, and we invested all our money in this volume. We wanted to try to create something unique made by music lovers for music lovers.

If you can, please, support us, this is the perfect moment. You can buy your copy on our BigCartel page. Your help would be truly appreciated.

If you can’t for any reason, please, help us to spread the word to your friends. Do we really need it? Absolutely.

Thanks to all the people who support us since several years! Thanks a lot for your interest!

Usually when I get an email with not much more than a hyperlink, I disregard the ad for either genital or economic growth and go on about my business, but the link that came in pointing me in the direction of Ayahuasca Dark Trip neither stole my credit card info nor broke my computer, so I guess it’s a win. Instead, the multi-continental trio (Peruvian, Brazilian and Dutch) offered Mind Journey: four tracks of sonic transcendentalist mind-expansion intended to capture in sound the natural psychotropic effect of the plant for which they’re named.

To that end, I wouldn’t know how successful they are personally, but the music is some pretty trippy stuff. It’s hard for me to pick a favorite moment between the chants turning to guitars at the beginning of the 15-plus-minute title-track, the sweet, subdued minimalism of “Space Raga” and the switch from backwards to forwards cymbals on Om-esque closer “To the Holy Mountain” — another in the 10-minute-plus club — not to mention the riffy rumble of the relatively straightforward “Astral Sunset” that starts it all off, but fortunately I don’t have to try. I can just post Mind Journey here from Ayahuasca Dark Trip‘s Bandcamp page where you can buy the full download (I think if you want the limited physical copy, you’ll have to hit up their Facebook) and let you decide for yourself.

Hope you dig the tunes:

Special thanks to Edgar for turning me onto this stuff. Much appreciated.