One person I know of seems to think independent labels are as profit and fashion oriented as majors, and only tape labels can be classed as the real underground. This is just not true as real independent labels have exactly the same ethics as tape labels, and release music for the same reasons. I won't go into all this again here - there's an article in the archive section about this subject - but I'm mentioning it here as Woronzow Records is one such label that proves that independent labels, in the main, do exist for the love of music and do not compromise in order to acquire money or fame. Woronzow Records, run by Nick and Ade of The Bevis Frond (Ade was also in Hawkwind and various other bands), has been releasing various types of psychedelic music since the 80s. This is a genuine independent label that releases music for all the right reasons; "by artists we admire or whose work knocks us out. What we offer is genuine enthusiasm and total integrity. For us it's a labour of love, and we stick to that ethos whatever. We haven't got a lot of money, there's not much promotion, but we mean it man".

I heard a song by Flyte Reaction in the early or mid 90s on a compilation tape of East Anglian bands. I never heard anything else by them for years, but now they have an album out on Woronzow, Sensilla, which has some very colourful, psychedelic artwork. Candy Girl is 60s psych-pop meets 70s powerpop, similar to the sort of thing the Rainbow Quartz label is putting out. Let It Go is atmospheric, psychedelic indiepop. Swim Around The Moon is quite a laid-back song, with some guitar playing that's reminiscent of The Sea Urchins' My Ship Is Going Down, but janglier. Diamond Geezer is bluesy psych-rock, very late 60s/early 70s-ish. The fourteen and a half minute track Dark Rain Falling is a very 60s, very psychedelic, mostly instrumental track that starts with blues-rock guitar and played-backwards guitar and vocals. It then changes and you get psychedelic guitar, piano and echoey spoken vocals, followed by psychedelic guitar, flute and percussion. Toasty is the quirky side of psych-pop. There's only twelve tracks listed on the cover, but these are followed by alternative versions of Catching Leaves and Diamond Geezer. So, basically a psychedelic album, but with plenty of variety.

Scorched Earth are listed on the cover of their Fed To Your Head album as being Jay 'The Prophet' Pharaoh Curd, Chuck 'The Horse' Kowalski and Randy 'The Snake' Kyser, featuring special guest guitar solo from Bob 'Devilfinger' Kramer. I, however, wasn't so sure, and suspected this was actually a Bevis Frond offshoot band, due to the style of guitar playing which is very like that of the heavier Bevis Frond tracks, and also the voice on Blues for the Universe and Long Black Gown in particular sounds like Nick Saloman. Sure enough, when visiting the Rubric Records site (the label that released this in America), I read that this is The Bevis Frond under a pseudonym! The music is heavy but melodic psychedelic rock, sometimes with a blues influence, that's most obvious on I Ain't Superstitious and Killing Time. Fans of the harder end of psych-rock can't miss this!

Tony Hill, formerly of The Answers, The Misunderstood and High Tide, has a new album out on Woronzow, Inexactness - the first new material of his in years. On here, he is accompanied by Nick and Ade, High Tide bassist Pete Pavli, Matt Kelly and Andy Ward. The music is hard psych-rock, but with a difference as it also features violin and viola that add a folkish touch to some of the songs. There's lots of heavy, twiddly guitar playing on show here, but banish all thoughts of naff stadium rock; this is something much more tasteful. The songs stand out from the rock crowd due to the addition of instruments normally associated with folk (and indeed classical music, but here they're played in a folkish style), yet the music is heavier than your average folk-rock.

thebrotheregg's album Snowflake & Fingerprint Machine includes songs with crazy titles like Billy Barty's Brains, Omniuniminiverse and Cauldrons of Eyeball Soup, suggesting out-and-out psychedelic music. This album certainly has psychedelic elements, but will also appeal to fans of the more adventurous side of indiepop. As well as the usual band instrumentation, thebrotheregg utilise violin, recorder, bassoon, flute, trumpet, and also upright bass, which isn't mentioned on the sleeve but I hear it. In the main, this is brilliant melodic pop that has some experimental elements, but sounds coherent and doesn't stray into irritating wackiness. Unfortunately the band throw the pop out of the window on a couple of occasions (Machine and Hydraulics) and instead take the experimental thing a bit too far. These tracks are noise, based on tape manipulation - the sort of experimental music I don't see the point of - but fortunately they're only short. Ignore these two tracks and you've got a collection of pop songs with interesting and original ideas, that's well worth checking out.

Going back to heavy music for the next release, a self titled album by Gadsby & Skol, who are Chuck Gadsby (vocals/guitar), Rick Skol (drums) and Drew Tjernstrom (bass). Why aren't they called Gadsby, Skol and Tjernstrom then? Well, because the 'And' in Gadsby And Skol is short for Andrew, as in Andrew Tjernstrom. This band were apparently around in the late 60s and early 70s, but never got to release an album until now. The press blurb states "Imagine them somehow still sounding the same 30 years later. Still as loud, still as snotty, still as fresh, still as in your face. Unlikely? Yes, but miraculously true". I've not heard any of their early recordings, but this CD suggests that statement could well be right. You Could Have is pretty heavy blues-rock (similar to Cream I guess) and Who Calls You is also blues-rock but with a difference as the guitar playing in the first part of the song sounds influenced by ska. The rest of the album is even heavier - very hard 70s style rock, bordering on the early kind of metal. Metal normally makes me cringe but this is good stuff. Yes, it's twiddly, yes, it's very loud, but there's something about this that stands out from most other really heavy music. Perhaps it's cos the singer doesn't have an annoying voice; perhaps it's cos the lyrics touch upon topics that you don't normally find in metal songs. The Feel is about pollution and environmental destruction, and I Don't Know ponders what happens after death, meat eating vs vegetarianism and the meaning of life. Or perhaps it's cos Gadsby & Skol aren't actual metal, although their music is pretty close to it.

The Green Pajamas have been around for years and have released a ton of albums. All I'd previously heard by them were songs on compilations, and their 7" on Earworm - I was aware they'd got lots of other stuff out, but being short of cash I never got around to buying any of their albums. I've got the new one on Woronzow though, This Is Where We Disappear. This begins with the title track, which has a rather tinny drum machine that seems a little out of place when you consider the sheer power of the rest of the track, but this is only a very minor criticism. The rest of the album (except for tracks 12 and 13) has real drums (well, if they're not real they're a good imitation). There's basically two sides to The Green Pajamas - tuneful pop songs with psychedelic elements, and out-and-out psychedelic rock songs. Matilda is one of the latter; full marks for having a harpsichord-sounding keyboard on this track! I've often thought that if I was in a band there would have to be a harpsichord player in it. 36 Envelopes is an eerie instrumental that sounds rather medieval. The band clearly have a fascination with bygone centuries, as apart from these medieval and baroque touches in the music, the lyrics are sometimes inspired by art and literature from the past, there are also 15th century woodcuts in the booklet, and the CD itself shows an 18th century magic circle. The supernatural element continues in the song The Moorland Ghost. Good stuff - if you like psychedelic music, but not the really heavy sort, I can recommend this.

Info on all these and other releases from info@woronzow.co.uk

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