Posted in Whathaveyou on December 29th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
I know it’s been awfully jammy around here lately. In my defense, the jams have been pretty primo, and I’ll add The Qualitons‘ Seat No. 250208 to on-record evidence of that. The Budapesti five-piece have just issued the assembled collection of soundcheck recordings through Psychedelic Source Records, and though each of the two side-long (and then some in the case of the second) inclusions has more than one stark turn, a stop and a start headed somewhere else, having it all flow right from one to the next for sure has an appeal as well. Whether they’re krautfunking or digging on some Morricone or slow psych-soul’ing 10 minutes into “Seat No. 250208B,” there’s not much that’s going to take you out of the adventurous procession once it gets going.
Yeah, at some point I’ll get smacked in the head by a record of structured, hooky songs, but in the era of escape-into-vibes, I’ll take it. To my knowledge, this is the first time The Qualitons have released through Psychedelic Source, and it would be hard to think of a more fitting home. Before I turn you over to the blue text (snagged from the PSR Bandcamp, linked below, which I recommend you follow), note that The Qualitons will appear next year at Jam in the Psych Castle (info here) in Hungary, which lists this site among its slew of co-presenters (and I’m grateful for that). Psychedelic Source Records has had a hand in putting that together as well and will be hosting a jam session as part of the second day. The lineup is sick and I want to get over for it very, very badly.
Here’s that Bandcamp info, as well of course as the stream:
THE QUALITONS – Seat No. 250208
On the afternoon of 08/02/2025 The Qualitons started rehearsing for their upcoming show. Instead of rehearsing the setlist, though, we started a random jam session in the studio and this improvised set has become this unexpected album. We decided to leave most of our mistakes, comments and in-between conversations unedited. Even the order of the songs remains the same as we played them live. We did have a short coffee break after the ‘A’ side set, hence the unconventional split point. It’s chill, goofy, soulful and was a lot of fun to play. Thanks for listening.
On 06/12/2025 Bence Ambrus and Ernő Hock did a jam session together in the Psych Source studio. During a brake, discussed then decided to release this gem on the Psychedelic Source. The edited version of this digital release will pressed on vinyl soon stay updated.
About The Qualitons:
Formed in 2008, The Qualitons is an open, inclusive musical community inspired by the sound and energy of psychedelic rock, funk, and beat music from the 1960s and 1970s. The Qualitons serve up silky grooves and enchanted moods mixed with Central Eastern European humour and gloom.
The revitalised band embarked on a musical odyssey in 2023, resulting in a unique blend of styles on their new album. From p-funk, disco, and old-school hip-hop to Transylvanian folk music, afrobeat, desert rock, and crime series music, the tracks are a testament to the band’s diverse musical influences. This fusion creates a distinct imaginative, cool soundscape that is uniquely Qualitons. The band was also heavily influenced by the library music albums made mainly for commercials, TV shows and series, the sound of which is also strongly felt on the album.
With a musical journey spanning over a decade and a half, The Qualitons have garnered widespread acclaim. They made history as the first Hungarian band to perform live in the studio of KEXP, a renowned community radio station in the US. Their international recognition is further evidenced by their regular tours across Europe and their performance at the prestigious SXSW festival in Texas in 2019. Their music resonates globally, with regular airplay on esteemed radio stations like KEXP and BBC Radio 6 Music.
Music: The Qualitons Recorded, mixed and mastered by András Weil. Recorded at András Weil’s home studio in Budapest on 08/02/2025 Album artwork: Damján Ocsovay
Levente Boros – drums Ernö Hock – bass Ádám Menyhei – rhodes, farfisa, crumar multiman Barna Szőke – guitar András Weil – synths
Jam in the Psych Castle won’t be the first music festival hosted at the Öreg Tölgy Kastély-Fogadó, an estate-turned-event-space in Pusztazámor, Hungary. Earlier this year, the grounds hosted a punk and hardcore barbecue that went on for two days, so yes, don’t break a window because the place has weddings in — don’t break a window anyway; don’t be a dick — but there is experience on-site for running sound, lights, and all that other festival-type stuff. The partnership between Para Hobo and Psychedelic Source Records — which will also host a jam session the second day — has put together a lineup that runs a gamut through European heavy psych, with Speck and Obsidian Sea, MR.BISON, the proggy Daliborovo Granje and Poland’s Weedpecker in the headlining spot. By next September, they’ll likely have spent much of 2026 on the road for their impending album, V, due in February.
I’ll make no bones about my interest in Hungary. I’m of Hungarian origin and have been taking language lessons with an eye toward acquiring citizenship through my ancestry. My family and I spent four weeks in Budapest last year and I’ve been trying to figure out how to get back since. I’m proud to have The Obelisk’s logo (especially the metal one!) in good company on the poster above, and while I doubt I’ll be there to see it next year, I hope to be able to watch Jam in the Psych Castle grow in the years to come, as well as to be a part of it physically eventually.
Please keep in mind that this is a small gathering at a very special venue. Our capacity is limited to only 500 people per day. You should buy your ticket as soon as possible if you want to participate!
Shows: Weedpecker / POL Daliborovo Granje / HR Karkara / FR The Qualitons / HUN (special set) Mr. Bison / IT Roadkillsoda / RO Giöbia / IT Speck / AT Supernaughty / IT Obsidian Sea / BG Da Captain Trips / IT Psychedelic Source Records / HUN (with special guests) Band in the Pit / HUN Endre / HUN Azutmaga / HUN Alas! / HUN Deley / HUN (Sound System special)
Posted in Reviews on November 20th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
It’s all over now, I’ve got momentum on my side. This is day four of the Quarterly Review. The first three days have been nothing but a pleasure on my end, putting them together, and with just today and tomorrow left, I’m feeling pretty good about the entire endeavor. I’m not sure yet if this will be the end of the year as regards QRs, but if it is, it’s a good one to go out on.
And basically to make that determination, I need to look at next month’s schedule and see what’s coming when, when I’ll do things like the year-end poll and my own big end-of-year post. No idea on any of that yet, but I’ll get there. Getting this done in relatively smooth fashion is a help. Thanks for reading and I hope it’s been a good one for you as well.
Quarterly Review #31-40:
Psychedelic Source Records, The Initiation Outlaws
Set to release through Echodelick in the US and Weird Beard Records in the UK, in addition to Psychedelic Source Records‘ own distribution, The Initiation Outlaws brings eight pieces and a full 98-minute double-LP’s worth of cosmic improvised jamming, with a cast of regulars from the Hungarian collective — Bence Ambrus, Máté Varga, Róbert Kránitz, Krisztina Benus, Gergely Szabó — taking part in collaborative exploration with Go Kurosawa of Kikagaku Moyo, who goes from drums to bass to guitar as the release progresses, sliding right into the amorphous methodology of Psychedelic Source Records while distinguishing the heavier push in “Three Golds Reward II” or the snare work on “The King of Magic Colts and Wands I” earlier. Trance-inducing as ever, these captured moments are gorgeously fluid and immersive, active enough in parts like “The King of Magic Colts and Wands II” to defy mellowpsych-improv expectation, but abiding just the same. If you’re not there yet, it’s time to start thinking of Psychedelic Source among Europe’s finest purveyors of heavy psychedelia.
The forlorn folkishness in the midsection of “Waves Become the Sky” bring to mind an extrapolation of emotive doom from the likes of Warning, but that’s understandable with Aerial Ruin and Bell Witch renewing their collaboration for Stygian Bough Vol. II, following on from a first volume (review here) in 2020. The album takes place over four extended tracks from the rolling density of the aforementioned opener through the minimalist-till-it-isn’t “King of the Wood” and the longform folk-death-doom of “From Dominion Let Them Bleed” and the melancholy triumph of heft wrought in 19-minute finale “The Told and the Leadened,” which dwells in spaces empty and full and remains conscious enough to end with tense noise and drumming. This is artistry on its own wavelength, working in its own time, and patient to a point of extremity. But they do it to offer comfort, make no mistake. There’s consolation in these songs, in addition to all the mourning.
Unrepentantly cosmic Italian outfit Giöbia are like a fresh coat of antimatter for space rock. The four-piece obviously hunkered down in their secret lab after 2023’s Acid Disorder (review here) and worked hard to refine their chemical compositions, such that “Voodoo Experience” nods grounded even as its synth and guitars surge beyond the thermosphere. The results show everywhere throughout X-ÆON in their outsider cohesion of classic and neo-space rocks, heavy psychedelia and oddball synthscaping, whether you’re doing the sensory thing with the dream-jam “1976” or embroiled in the four-part side B concept piece, “La Mort de la Terre,” which draws a cinematic curtain for life as we know it in “Dans la Nuit Éternelle,” a wordless epilogue that feels half a world removed from the stomp-and-verse of “The Death of the Crows,” but of course, that’s the whole idea.
The included acoustic guitar, organ and FM-radio classic rock vibes in the eight-and-a-half-minute closing title-track aren’t a coincidence. They’re part of a stated intention the band had in taking on more of a traditional sound, coming down from some of the harder-hitting doom of 2020’s Acid Communion and working in more of a ’70s-inspired style. That manifests to varying degrees throughout, as leadoff “Electric Execution” feels like it’s working in the vein of “Neon Knights” or “Turn Up the Night” in Dio Sabbathian raucousness (I know that was 1980-81, don’t @ me), and while “Lucifer Rising” has a weighted march, it’s more Scorpions than Sleep, and “Goin’ to Texas” brings in the organ to emphasize the Southern geography of the album’s centerpiece. It’s a striking turn but they pull it off for sure. “Muchachos Muchachin'” has mid-’70s charm to spare, and “Bone Boys Ride Out” seems to bridge the more modern attack of Bone Church-prior with who they are today. Not every progression plays out like you think it will, and if this is the band Bone Church have wanted to be all along, they sound accordingly right to have made the redirect.
The ‘soft scream’ vocals give Js Donny‘s Death Folk an immediate sense of extremity, but it’s a quiet extremity. The French solo artist — who also plays bass in adventurous Marseilles sludgers Donna Candy — released an EP with a full lineup in 2023, but this six-song/33-minute offering is more intimate. Js Donny dwells in the quiet, creepy spaces the songs create, the vocal gurgle giving shades of otherworldliness and malevolence alike. It’s called Death Folk, but especially with the electrified/distorted wash that takes hold in “Not Like That” and again at the outset of closer “Black Heart” — a biting tone, like harsher blackgaze — I can’t help but wonder if Js Donny isn’t working in a kind of post-death-metallic framing. There are no drums, which is a fair trade for what’s gained in grim ambience, but even without, the album is clear in manifesting both sides of its title, and while Js Donny isn’t the only one laying claim to death-folk as a style, how it happens here sure feels like an act of genre creation.
In some distant future, when the history is written of our idiotic, persistently awful time, no one will ever say, “and the right-thinking people of the day had no choice but to seek refuge in avant garde cybergrind,” and that’s why history is bullshit. Skeletal Blasphemy is the third album from Nuclear Dudes and second of 2025 behind September’s Truth Paste (review here) — keep ’em coming — and is the solo-project’s most vicious and realized offering to-date. Spearhead Jon Weisnewski (Sandrider, ex-Akimbo) brings powerviolent catharsis on “Victory Pants,” the title-track and assorted others, working in collaboration with guest drummer Coady Willis (High on Fire, Big Business, Melvins), and whether it’s the punker push in “Bad Body” or the slow, undulations of the closing “The Octopus” and the burgeoning thread of progressive melody throughout these songs, it’s exactly the sort of self-bludgeoning that being alive right now requires. Album of the year? Fuck you, fuck the year, and fuck capitalism.
With an instrumentalist foot in progressive, horn-inclusive jazz, heavy psychedelic fluidity and a resonant warmth of tone alongside a will to meander, Kronstad 23 feel tailor-made for El Paraiso Records, run by members of Denmark’s Causa Sui. Sommermørket is the Norwegian outfit’s debut album and without sounding consumed by its own ambition to do so, it organically nestles the band in a stylistic niche that allows for the explorations in “Caesar” and “Astralreiser,” the latter of which will seem barely there in its early going at low volumes, to exist along the daring-toward-dancey opener “Dølgsmål” and building a kind of dreamy tension between the guitar and drums on “Trosten,” with none of it feeling out of place. They’ll invariably get comparisons to Kanaan, but the foundation is different and the delivery gentler, with “Helgen” finding its way on drum rolls and key/guitar drift into a classic-prog horn section in a payoff that’s somewhat understated until you look back across the five and a half minutes and see how far you’ve come. I can’t wait to hear how they grow.
“Love of Driving” is the debut single from newcomer New Jersey-based krautrock-minded two-piece Rolls the River. The band brings together Dan Kirwan of Pyre Fyre on bass, guitar and vocals, and Victor Marinelli on guitar, synth, drums and vocals for a sub-five-minute cosmic reachout, obviously schooled in where it’s coming from — that is to say, one doesn’t krautrock by accident; it is a form to adopt and refine — but still feeling like an initial exploration of both style and composition. Fading in on an initial keyboardy drone, the guitar and drums come in together and the neospace shuffle is mellow as layers are added, guitar, keys, but the sense of movement brought to “Love of Driving” is enough to explain the title, whatever you might think of the Garden State’s highway system. Rather than get caught up in jughandles, though, Rolls the River harness tonal presence and linear development and still find room to include voice as part of the atmosphere. Formative, and an encouraging start.
Belgium’s Psychonaut may yet teach progressive metal a lesson or two. The post-metal three-piece reach what sure feels in “Endless Currents” like a new level of expression and craft, and while at 11 songs and 60 minutes, World Maker isn’t a minor undertaking — one could easily argue making a world takes time — the utter consumption achieved in “All in Time,” which I won’t spoil any further, the blissful wash of “…Everything Else is Just the Weather” are not to be missed, and worth whatever minor investment of attention span might be required. Exciting as the intermittent metallic surges are, “Endless Erosion” caps in a quiet place, and the atmospherics across the first two and a half minutes of “Origins,” just as one example, help to bring a feeling of place (of ‘world’) to the procession. It is a vivid place Psychonaut have made, and there are listeners for whom the melodies of World Maker will be transcendental.
Following an apparent 2024 EP called Anachronist that is below because this debut album isn’t streaming yet that I can find, The Sea Between Stars — a suitably romantic framing of what you might otherwise call ‘the void’ — brings a progressive take to classic-style doom rock. The Oregonian five-piece roll out a genuine feeling of dynamic across the album’s 10 tracks, from the proto-metal shove of “Knightrider” at the outset to the later rush and wail of “Sky Sized Heart,” to the doom-epic ballad reach of “Bridge of Irreconcilable Sorrow” to the acoustic turn in the last movement of “The Words We Don’t Speak” and variable but unifyingly soulful vocal arrangements throughout, up to the minimal voice-and-piano closer “Ghost Notes” or the duet in the crescendo of “Still Breathing.” Ambition set in balance with organic production and songwriting. I don’t know when The Sea Between Stars is coming out, if it’s now-ish, early 2026 or what, but if you want to take this as an early heads up, do.
Posted in Bootleg Theater on October 17th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
The story being told in music throughout the seven tracks of Diablo in Alpujarras‘ self-titled LP — part of the Psychedelic Source Records collective in Hungary — is presumably the same story told by Bence Ambrus in the liner notes for the release. I’ll present them here to save you my paraphrasing:
About ten years ago in Spain I had a crazy experience in the Granada night with a Colombian coke-guy who held a knife in his hand. All I had with me was my backpack, its contents: some water and clothes. No map, no phone either.
I decided to escape the knife-police-situation and the city itself, so I decided to walk all the way down to the coast… The only problem was I hadn’t realized that the highest mountain range of Spain would be in the way between Granada and the coast.
So I walked “down” into the Alpujarras, then on towards the Almijaras, then down to Almunécar. The trek took a few days, during which all I had to eat were almonds and pomegranates.
In this release, I’d like the listeners to accompany me on my trip: washing your underwear in mountain springs, scavenging for edible seeds and fruit, having to keep on going all night because there are only cliffs both left and right, with not a single flat place to lie down to sleep at. Not to mention nights being cold as hell, of course.
When you finally reach the coast, buying a few beers and drinking them by the sea is a definite must.
Ambrus, who is at the center of Psychedelic Source and organizes many of the get-together-type jams that result in the releases on the label, has also released solo outings under his own name, and Diablo in Alpujarras is close to that in terms of what he’s playing. But it’s also a band name. Band and self-titled album, in the vein of Psychedelic Source Records offerings like River Flows Reverse, :Nepaal, and so on. And Ambrus is joined on the 45-minute (not days-long) outing by Sándor Nagy, who solidifies the ethereal guitar and bass at the foundation of the material, while Mátè Varga adds further percussion hither and yon along the way.
In telling his tale — whether it’s true or not, I don’t know and it doesn’t really matter; given the proclivity for improv, I tend to believe it — Ambrus goes on to say that the guitar parts across Diablo in Alpujarras, whether it’s the wistful meandering of “Consolamentum” or the cool night air wrought in “Solanaceaes,” were recorded at home in August, following the birth of his (I think second) child. Nagy‘s drum parts had already been tracked, and one assumes those became the backbeats around which the atmospheric, psychedelic meander takes place. I don’t know how much editing was or wasn’t involved, but the clever play between rainsticks in the penultimate “Sleeprain” and actual rain in the subsequent “Sleeprain Pt. II,” Ambrus finds a balance between droning minimalism and intimacy.
Especially as “Sleeprain” has no drums to speak of and “Sleeprain Pt. II” dials them way back from the level of activity, say, on opener “Diablo Oscuro” — still plenty mellow, by the way — or the 11-minute “Beneficio,” where after seven minutes into the total 11 the drums allow the listener to stay grounded as the guitar prefaces the float one finds in the “Sleeprain” duology, the balance between Diablo in Alpujarras seems to be between solo-album-type expression and a fuller-band presence.
There’s a whole other layer to the release when one considers the narrative unfurled above next to the birth of a child, and whether it’s escapist nostalgia from an overloaded brain — if you don’t have a kid, I’m sorry but I can’t think of a situation to compare it to in terms of what’s happening in your body chemically and emotionally; its like crazymaniajoypanichorrorreliefplusnosleep — or just thinking of new life and the ways one has spent one’s own, the fact of putting the listener in a different space by going there musically makes for a fascinating aspect of the material’s persona. Sometimes I think about driving out 12-15 hours to go to a doom fest in the Midwest like 15 years ago, or that time The Patient Mrs. and I got lost in Rome on our honeymoon (20 years ago and then some) and wandered along the side of a highway for however many kilometers it was before we gave up. Never did make it to the catacombs. Alas. On the most basic level, it’s not the kind of decision you would undertake if you had a kid with you.
I think a lot about family, about music, about what it means to be a ‘lifer’ in some form of creative existence. There are always balances to strike, to adjust, work and rework, and in my experience over the last eight years as a parent, there’s nothing more consuming or difficult that parenting. Nobody likes to talk about that aspect of it — I can’t speak for everywhere, but where I live the broader cultural expectation is that you should be like an advertisement for parenting while doing so; “isn’t this great and rewarding and something you’d definitely want to do even if you weren’t genetically compelled to do so?”– but most of parenting is a job. It’s work. I’ve had more hard days than easy ones, and part of that is my personality and mode of parenting and part of it is just the nature of the thing. Unless your idea of ‘raisin’ ’em right’ involves putting them in a basket and floating it down the river, sooner or later you’re going to have to put some effort in.
Maybe that means less time for other things just then, and it can be hard to keep the broad-view in mind when it’s seven-plus years later and all of a sudden you’re not allowed to sleep through the night again and you have no idea why, but when something is a part of you, whether that’s art, music, woodworking, whatever, you find ways to do it and maybe even share it that, hopefully, you can appreciate as refreshing and a new kind of experience unto themselves. I don’t know that that’s what’s happening here or not, but at the very least Diablo in Alpujarras is evocative, and that’s where my head went with it. This world is mostly garbage. Find your satisfaction where, when and how you can.
As always, I hope you enjoy. Thanks for reading.
—
I don’t have a ton to say here. The Pecan has strung together a few good days at school — we see the updates on an app they update in the classroom; I both hate it and it’s pretty convenient at tracking basic compliance with what’s happening in the class — and that feels good in the cautious way of having seen the rug pulled out from under such things before. But the point is she’s working hard and I respect the shit out of that. They’ve got her trying to ‘earn points’ to get to play on an iPad at the free period at the end of the day. All carrots at the ends of all sticks rot eventually, so I’ll be curious what the next thing will be when this wears itself out.
Next week, as much as I can review, I will review. That’s my plan. I was honestly thinking of doing another 50-release Quarterly Review, but no. No. Not yet. November, maybe, or early December ahead of year-end-list time. It’s too soon, having just finished one on Monday.
That made the week kind of weird, but so it goes. I’m glad the week is over. The Pecan’s birthday party is this weekend (her actual birthday is next weekend) and we’ve invited like 20-something kids to go ice skating at Mennen Arena — a North Jersey staple — for it. I don’t skate. Or party. That’ll be Sunday. Saturday night I’m going to see Kal-El in Brooklyn. I’ve been dreading the drive for two months. Not even kidding. That’s what it’s like to be in my head at this point. Once the music starts, it’ll be fine.
Have a great and safe weekend. Hydrate. Fuck fascism, free Palestine, death to the corporate overlords. Never forget who the assholes are now so you can hold it in front of their faces later at fantasy tribunals that’ll never happen.
Posted in Reviews on September 3rd, 2025 by JJ Koczan
The Tail, the Head and the Snake Itself is the second vinyl to be pressed by the Páty, Hungary, collective Psychedelic Source Records, and while it keeps with the label/group’s common modus of improvisation and exploration, the four-song procession feels carved out with specific intent all the more because they’re telling a story with it. To wit, from the album info on Bandcamp:
Cause we are strong. We are creating what we see.
We are creating through our thoughts, as we destroy through our emotions, and it makes up the endless circle. The roundabout is not evil, it just exists. The evil is the faceless, the unreal, the monster, the fake glitter, the wheel, the rush and it is the SNAKE.
The snake which bites on its own tail, symbolising the circle which misleads all humans, makes life worthless, to make you begin its path again and again and again.
Be aware of the impersonal.
Be aware of the wheel. BE AWARE OF THE SNAKE.
The soul mirrors through the voice, the life mirrors through the rhythm, but its true self could be manifested only through improvisation, a wave-like motion instead of spinning. You cannot access reality through impersonal monotony, or sticking to habits.
It reads almost like they’re building their own modern ouroboros mythology, though certainly that’s not the only instance of snakes as malevolent actors in folklore — from Eden to the Hungarian folktale of Snake Johnny, European culture is replete — and if the cycles of our age are to be represented by the snake continually eating itself, well, fair enough. If you’ve ever been in a car crash and you could extrapolate into an entire year that slow-motion millisecond just before impact where your body goes preemptively into shock to lizard-brain prepare for the impact, that would be 2025. It’s to Psychedelic Source Records‘ credit that there’s more to the movement in these songs than escapism, though invariably that’s something the listener will bring to their own listening experience anyhow.
The session took place earlier this year at some unspecified time, and despite the story-enhancing, packed-in layers of iconography in Toth Tamas‘ (that’s family-name first, which is how it goes in Hungary) artwork and the scenes there of death, life and rebirth in a cycle that might be hopeful — arrow in the eye notwithstanding — were it not for the tail, head and snake itself (hey, that’s the name of the album!) surrounding, the flow within and between the songs is unmistakable. I’ve said this before with PSR outings — the latest prior to this Aug. 31 release was Flaming Hurricane (review here) from July, and that is indicative of the pace they keep — but despite the fact that the lineup for any given session can consist of different players, there has grown to be a collective chemistry between them such that the four songs and 46 minutes of The Tail, the Head and the Snake Itself can emerge carved via editing from the jams at their foundation and feel, if not directed, then certainly aware of themselves in time and space in a way that connects with the audience to build trust.
That is to say, performing as the instrumentalist five-piece of drummer Megyeri Krisztian, bassist Kranitz Robert, guitarists Ambrus Bence (who also mixed and helmed the digital master; Debreczi Akos did the vinyl master) and Karancz Akos and keyboardist Benus Krisztina, none of the parties involved here are strangers to each other, and the sound they’re able to hone, especially in the two extended pieces “The Snake Itself Pt. 1” (19:02) and “The Snake Itself Pt. 2” (14:06) respectively closing side A and opening side B, bears out that chemistry in a surge of cosmic push and scorch that’s both thrilling and atmospheric. With a clear divide between them — that is, it’s not the same jam continuing one into the next, but two distinct beginnings and endings — these pieces of course characterize The Tail, the Head and the Snake Itself by the sheer fact of their taking up more than half an hour of its runtime. And no, I assure you, that is not a complaint.
But whether it’s the subtly funky start given to the LP by the four-minute leadoff “The Tail” (it’s got some wag, that tail) or the serene post-rock that grows thicker, denser and noisier as its sub-nine-minute run plays out with its comedown preserved in the fade, these shorter cuts are not incidental or haphazard either. They obviously don’t have the same gravitational pull as the “The Snake Itself” two-parter, but a body is most of a thing compared to a head and tail, so this too seems like part of the plan and the story being described through printed words, art and music. It’s worth emphasizing this because “The Tail” demonstrates that in order to immerse the listener, the crew from Psychedelic Source Records — and again, who’s in that crew can vary from jam to jam — can enact that level of engagement without leaning on temporal sprawl as a crutch. I’m saying don’t discount the effect the short jam up front has on the mood of what follows.
A vinyl outing from Psychedelic Source Records is rare. There have been various band releases through the label-arm, for When River Flows Reverse, Black Batik, Protoaeolianism and others, but Psychedelic Source Records operating under its own moniker is a mostly-digital endeavor to-date. The Tail, the Head and the Snake Itself, by virtue of the concept applied, feels all the more tied together and solidified as an LP. Certainly there’s no lack of fluidity, as one would expect from these players at this point, and they highlight a sense of craft-in-the-immediate — everybody realizing they’re part of the build and the direction they’re headed; Megyeri is crucial in this — that still feels like it’s only beginning to unfold in terms of possibilities. Further, that they not only take the opportunity to unite their material in a concept, but then to use that concept as a chance for social commentary, speaks not only to classic outsider-art of the ilk to which PSR belongs, but again to the continued forward potential in the various incarnations they take. On practical, musical and organic levels, they have more to say now than they have yet said.
Psychedelic Source Records, The Tail, the Head and the Snake Itself (2025)
It’s been a minute, so a bit of context to welcome the uninitiated (and that’s no judgment; good on you for checking out something you’ve never heard before): Hungary’s Psychedelic Source Records, despite the name, isn’t a record label in the traditional sense. Though it’s also that sometimes, pressing and releasing LPs or, occasionally, CDs, in limited batches. Mostly, Psychedelic Source Records is a collective of players and bands operating under the banner. These players, sometimes whole or parts of other bands, come and go throughout different improvisational jam sessions recorded sometimes in a special place (there was that time on the goat farm, for example) or with an outside collaborator, as last month’s Sokkyō (with LP pending) teamed a group of players in the collective’s stable with Go Kurosawa of Kikagaku Moyo.
These sessions are taken home and edited down, generally by Bence Ambrus, who plays guitar and bass and starts the recorder and so is about as close to a top-banana as Psychedelic Source has, but if it’s a hierarchy, it’s the most casual of them. To wit, Flaming Hurricane is the latest offering from the prolific, semi-amorphous group. It is the 10th release Psychedelic Source has had in the seven months of 2025 so far, and it brings two-thirds of Budapest’s Band in the Pit — guitarist Szabolcs Kesmarky and bassist Vilmos Schneider — into the fold with regulars like Ambrus (on guitar), guitarists Ákos Karancz (aka Pilot Voyager) and drummer Krisz Megyeri, the latter of whom proves to be the glue holding it all together as the three guitars go wandering through an expanse of psych drift, dynamic fuzz and at least partially improv processions.
Flaming Hurricane runs nine tracks and is two hours and 21 minutes long (2:21:34), so it’s probably safe to call it a productive day. In the spirit of past Psychedelic Source outings, it is presented in as organic a manner as possible, to the point that, on the Bandcamp release page, Ambrus posted the timeline of the day. Here it is for posterity:
The chronological order of the session: 11am: Bence arrived at the place, set the studio up. 12pm: Szabolcs and Vili arrived from Dunaujvaros, Krisz appeared too. 13pm: Session started, first five songs played in order, nothing weeded out. 15pm: Bence left the room. Around 17pm Akos arrived. second four songs played in order, nothing weeded out except a final one. Later some drunker mates arrived (David, Pali), all the rest of the songs weeded out. Enjoy
Note that in that, it’s stated that there was more, maybe a lot more, put to tape that day — presumably just weeks or maybe a month ago — but the jams didn’t work so they were “weeded out.” Flaming Hurricane, then, brings the best takes of the day. There are no overdubs, and right from opener/longest track (immediate points) “Glyphosate on Socials” (29:59), the troupe on tape dig into the moment with suitable gusto, Megyeri‘s drums — look out for “The Less We Speak the Better” (11:58) later on if you’re keying in on his performance — provide the backbone for movement through mellow dream-tones and the ebbs and flows around them. Schneider acquits himself well on bass late in the opener, and in the early going of “Self-Burial” (17:23), underscoring a skronk that builds through the song’s midsection and devolves nearly to complete silence before an epilogue of quiet standalone guitar leads the way out.
It’s more than a listener would probably be able to engage with in one sitting, because who the hell has two hours-plus to sit and actively vibe with heavy jams, but certainly “Glyphosate on Socials,” “Subliminal” (18:15), the fuzzblast-then-post-fuzzblast “Mahakala” (15:35), “Self-Burial,” and the finale “Robot Influences” (20:58), which meanders through a long drone and lead guitar only to be given shape in its second half by — you guessed it — the arrival of the drums, present the audience hearing them with broad soundscapes in which to immerse, get lost, dwell, really whatever you want to do with them. “Robot Influences” and “Glyphosate on Socials,” though the latter would need editing, could be a single LP on their own, and would satisfy as one, but “The Less We Speak the Better” — a fun title from a generally-instrumentalist outfit — and sub-10-minute pieces like “Throbbing Pulse” (9:28) and its apparent companion, the later “Pulsing Throttle” (8:40), as well as the penultimate, howling, heavy tube-blower “Atman Versus Brahman Cagefight” (9:17) extend the atmospheric reach of Flaming Hurricane such that, if you do sit down to give the album its requisite front-to-back time, the journey undertaken will be that much richer, even as the recording remains fairly raw.
Like a lot of what Psychedelic Source Records does under its own name — as opposed to putting out albums from Pilot Voyager, Band in the Pit, River Flows Reverse, Satorinaut, etc. — Flaming Hurricane offers documentary value as well as an engaging listen, and for those who’ve followed the imprint/group for some measure of time, there is perhaps extra satisfaction in the listening experience in terms of the chemistry and musical interaction between stable players. That is, while Schneider and Kesmarky are new, Ambrus, Megyeri and Karancz have done a career’s worth of jamming together at this point, and through the changes of “Self-Burial” the mellow desert-jazz of “Pulsing Throttle” and the hypnotic working-the-long-game build of “Robot Influences,” the instrumental conversation is happening at a level that, even just three years ago, wouldn’t have been possible.
If that sounds like I’m slagging off the older Psychedelic Source outings, I’m not. Sticking to their root methodology has given this collective their own kind of nascent maturity that one can hear throughout Flaming Hurricane, whether it’s in the smoothness of the changes from one part to another — not that all transitions are so smooth, as is natural — and that can’t replace the freshness or spontaneity of past sessions, even if it means their work has become more complex and farther ranging over time. Pastoralia continues to be a major factor in what they do, but the evocations of Flaming Hurricane — something that this climate-wrecked century seems likely manifest in a literal sense before it’s over — are limited only by the imagination that the listener brings to it. You could spend the rest of 2025 with these jams, but given that it’s Psychedelic Source Records and there are more sessions happening all the time, you probably won’t have to.
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 4th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
If you’ve been keeping up for the last several weeks as Psychedelic Source Records has been making its way through releasing four three-song collections culled from two sets this past February. And there have been various evocations across the first three editions — part one here, part two here, part three here — but that it would end in the future, with keyboardy sounds and a duly cosmic expanse, should probably be no surprise. The Hungarian collective rarely rest on laurels long enough even to press vinyl before they’re on to the next thing, and you can see in the update below, there’s mention of two other upcoming releases. One is a collab and one is a third session at the goatfarm, which immediately sends my brain down a sentimental rabbithole since I was there for the first.
And if you’re saying to yourself that surely such a rad, once-in-a-lifetime-for-some-schlub-from-New-Jersey experience would bias me in favor of Psychedelic Source Records forever and so of course I would think a four-week series of jams, as always, improvised and recorded live, is awesome, then my answer back to you is yeah, you’re probably right. I think that’s kind of how being a fan works, and if you want a reason to be a fan, Psychedelic Riffage From Under the Ground of Budapest, the whole series right up to what these tracks bring to it, should serve handily. All the more if you’re the type to admire creative openness. From where I sit it’s been a pleasure to keep up. A little spoiling, even.
The info from Bandcamp and all four streaming players follow here. Would be a decent way to spend your day, is all I’m saying. Either way, enjoy:
Psychedelic Riffage From Under the Ground of Budapest Vol. 4
Hi All, the last piece of our live release pack is out now. 4 sessions on 4 albums.
Mellow stuff with heavy parts, trumpet, keyboard in sight.
Anyway, we have some surprise vinyl releases in the pressing plant now, and the third goatfarm session is planned to get done in June.
Also another beautiful vinyl release is in process and we jammed with a surprise dude from Japan, who is the member of our far-favourite psych rock band ever ;) We recorded that session, progression just started.
Thank you for all your support have a great springtime.
1. Feel of Fuel 12:10 2. Echoes From the Future I 07:29 3. Echoes From the Future II 17:21
released April 4, 2025
Bass – Gergely Szabo Drums – Nikosz Tasos Vangelisz Guitars – Bence Ambrus Trumpet and keys – Miklos Kerner Art – Parahobo
Posted in Whathaveyou on March 28th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
It’d be real easy to get spoiled with Psychedelic Source Records dropping weekly jams like the Hungarian collective have been these last couple weeks with the four-part series, Psychedelic Riffage From Under the Ground of Budapest. As the Vol. 3 in the title indicates, this is part three — part one here, part two here; both also below because I’m not here for money and don’t actually care about or even track clicks — and it comes from the second of two nights the PSR collective took stage at Riff Budapest to support Great Rift and Black Flamingo playing improv jams.
Getting one live record out of one set is pretty solid. Getting two out of two sets, doubly impressive. With Psychedelic Source Records, since it’s all made up on the spot, unless something breaks — and if it does, there’s always a bit of clever editing — the point is exploration, so anytime these folks are somewhere with a tape running, they can potentially get something out of it. Four releases out of two sets? Well that’s just unmatched psychedelic efficiency, my friends.
On Psychedelic Riffage From Under the Ground of Budapest Vol. III, once again the format and cover art are consistent — killer hippo and three jams of varying length. In this case, the spirit is a little mellower as noted below, but with the bit of dub divergence in “Flowers and Baguettes,” and the soothing breadth of the entirety, given jazzy fluidity through slow pulls of trupmet, effects and so on. As regards methodology, it’s standard practice for Psychedelic Source Records to show up and do this kind of thing, but the results across these last couple weeks have been something special. I look forward to another chapter next week as the series wraps.
Here’s the info and such from Bandcamp, plus all the streams:
Psychedelic Riffage From Under the Ground of Budapest Vol. 3
Happened on 21 and 22 February: Parahobo organized a double gig for Great Rift and Black Flamingo at Riff Budapest, one of the last bastions of the real underground in Hungary.
Asked us to jam instead of a simple support band. So we set the gear up, played and recorded 4 sets in this 2 days. All sessions turned out nice, so we decided to release all of them.
This was the first session on the second day, one of the best for sure. The mellow psych rock, Máté sit behind the drums (appears in Slight Layers and a lot of sessions) Microdosemike’s Miki on trumpet and keyboard.
1. Laudanum Drops 15:18 2. Flowers and Baguettes 13:12 3. El Campo 08:09
released March 28, 2025
Bass – David Strausz Drums – Mate Varga Guitars – Akos Karancz and Gergely Szabo Trumpet and keys – Miklos Kerner Art – Parahobo
