For those who’d go exploring, the World in Sound back catalog provides considerable terrain to cover. Though their contemporary work with acts like The Flying Eyes, Samsara Blues Experiment, Doctor Cyclops, Prisma Circus, etc., is exemplary, a whole other side of the German imprint is dedicated to rereleasing albums of the original psychedelic era, circa-’68 to circa-’74, and they’ve done so over the years with a tally of considerable accomplishments along the way. To get a decent sampling of the scope of some of their wares, I rounded up five discs with a real sense of variety between them and set the controls for the heart of the red sun. Dig it:

C.K. Strong, C.K. Strong (1969)

Bluesy, bluesy, bluesy. California based five-piece C.K. Strong — who took the initials of their moniker from the last names of vocalist Lynn Carey and guitarist Jefferson Kewley — recorded their debut in Hollywood, and it’s easy to imagine how there would’ve been a buzz around them. Though she would’ve been a couple years behind Janis Joplin, Carey was in possession at the time of a stellar vocal range, convincingly soulful delivery and impressive command. Combined with the burgeoning weight in Kewley and fellow guitarist Geoff Westen‘s tones and in songs like the nine-minute “Trilogy,” a jammy meandering comes to ground with crisp and memorable verses. The self-titled trades shorter songs off longer ones until it gets to the closing duo of the shuffling “Rolling down the Highway” and more brooding, smoke-blues plucked “Daddy,” on which Carey — who’d release an album under the name Mama Lion and pose for Penthouse in 1972 — lets loose a series of shrill chirps that sound like the kind of curiosity one hears on old Zeppelin bootlegs, only clearer and more ably performed. The dominance of the vocals and guitar can be a bit much to take at times, but there are a couple gems here that beg investigation.

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Cosmic Dealer, Child of Tomorrow (1973)

The World in Sound version of Cosmic Dealer‘s Child of Tomorrow brings together the original album — recorded in 1973 but never released — with earlier material and live bonus tracks from around their 1971 debut, Crystalization, so it’s a substantial mix that plays out over the course of the CD’s 67 minutes, but the live finale “Cosmic Jam” that closes out is worth waiting for. If the Dutch band had formed in 2011 and sent this to me this week as a live demo, I’d still call it awesome. Eight minutes and instrumental, it soaks what we now think of as vintage guitar and bass tones in wah and provides a decent look at how earlier highlights like “Sinners Confession” and “Julia” came about. There’s some progressive sensibility on display in the well-harmonized “Winterwind” and earlier “You’re So Good,” but Cosmic Dealer — who also win the battle for best logo — did well to shift their approach up, with multiple songwriters taking the fore on the album as it’s presented here. Listening through, there’s a clear divide in production value when “Julia” ends and the rehearsal recording “Don’ You Know (Footprints in the Sand)” starts, but as a compilation and unearthing of the band’s lost second LP, there’s not much to ask of Child of Tomorrow that it doesn’t deliver.

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Darius, Darius (1969)

Somewhere between the tropes of early full-band acid rock and singer-songwriterisms, one finds the curiosity of Darius, who recorded his self-titled debut in 1969. Shades of Elvis Presley show up on “Don’t You Get the Feelin'” and “Sweet Mama,” which is fitting since the rhythm section was comprised of players who had and would work with The King. As for Darius (né Robert J. Ott) himself, he ties the diverse material together with deceptive ease (and, as the cover shows, landmark hair), no less at home in The Turtles-style sweetpop than he is in the fuzzed out blues of “Ancient Paths” and “Dirty Funky Situation.” Most of the songs check in under three minutes long — the most expansive is instrumental closer “Peace and Love” at 4:44 — so it’s almost a collection of accessible snippets, though that’s not to say tracks don’t work well one into the next, because they do. The self-titled would get a follow-up with Darius II in 1971 (released by World in Sound in 2002), but Ott‘s solo career was cut short by a car accident in ’74, though he continued to write and produce into the ’80s with his band The Earthlings and remained active until passing away in 2006 after a fight with cancer. As a legacy piece, I won’t say all of Darius fits my personal tastes, but I’ve never heard quite as efficient a summary of the various sounds of the period from just one artist, so it seems fair to consider the album a significant if largely unheralded achievement.

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Dragonwyck, Chapter 2 (1973)

Even before they get to the multi-vocal/mellotron wash of “Freedom Son,” there’s a significant enough amount of prog influence in Dragonwyck‘s 1973 second offering, Chapter 2 — coupled here with two cuts from a subsequent 1974 single — to trace back to a more fully-toned Jethro Tull. The keys are a major factor in the Ohioans’ approach here, and one imagines they would’ve made a hell of a double-bill with fellow Clevelanders Granicus at the Agora, though that act was more Zeppelin-minded where although Dragonwyck seem to be knocking on the door of early King Crimson instrumentally and The Doors vocally in “Dead Man,” they’re ultimately more concerned with texture than forward drive. Whether or not that was the case on their 1969 debut, I don’t know, but Chapter 2 has underlying sonic heft that isn’t completely lost in the tradeoff for more complex stylization. Bonus tracks in the six-panel digipak include “Lovin’ the Boys” and “The Music” (the latter which also appears on the album), and offer a Who-style theatricality and clearer focus on melody, though that does come at the expense of some of the album-proper’s grit, such as it is with the ready blend of acoustic and electric guitars, keyboards and vocals that, in another context, would’ve been well-suited to psychedelic folk.

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Mystic Siva, Mystic Siva (1970)

Brightly toned but still substantially heavy, the 1970 self-titled debut from Mystic Siva was recorded when the Detroit outfit were teenagers. As the liner notes tell, they were unhappy with the mix at the time, with going direct line instead of mic’ing the amps, but the reissue addresses this with a new mix direct from the original tapes, as well as a new mastering job. As such, what you get is heavy, organ-laced rock that’s raw stylistically but still presented with an overarching sonic clarity — a rare balance. The songs themselves, cuts like opener “Keeper of the Keys,” “Come on Closer” and the penultimate “Touch the Sky,” demonstrate a nascent but already consistent approach on the part of the band, who also rereleased their second album, Under the Influence (1970), through World in Sound in 2002. For those who can’t get enough of the particular vibe and low groove of the heavy ’70s, Mystic Siva should be a welcome addition to the collection, and in this version, has major label sheen and private press dirt in just the right amounts, songs like “Eyes Have Seen Me” and the swirling, lead-topped “Supernatural Mind” offering sonic space and straightforward crunch in no less a satisfying balance.

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