The Rubble Collection, Vol. 7 - Pictures In the Sky

With The Rubble Collection, Vol. 7—Pictures in the Sky, the good folks at Bam-Caruso Records branched off from the preceding Rubble volumes’ freakbeat and mod tunes to dig deeper into the heady realm of British psychedelic obscurities. The Orange Seaweed’s “Pictures in the Sky” opens with lysergic baroque-pop that shares some DNA with The Left Banke, but with its blend of wah-wah guitar and classical piano, you can envision these fellows adorned with ruffled cuffs, powdered wigs, and all the aristocratic trappings of 18th-century dandies. Even with a danceable backbeat and a catchy melody, Orange Machine’s “Real Life Peppermint Dream” is as psychedelic as the song’s title alludes—check out the backmasked fuzz guitar melting all over those Ringo Starr–inspired beats like cheddar seeping from a grilled cheese sandwich. If the exaggerated blues leads coming out of The Primitives’ token rave-up number “You Said” sound somewhat familiar, that’s because they’re played by a pre–Led Zeppelin Jimmy Page, who was still a session man. He also plays on their bouncy cut “Help Me.”