Australian pop-psychedelia from the late-1960s
Review
Datura is a plant wth a long, trumpet-shaped flower that, if ingested, induces hallucinations. Datura is not native to Australia, but Datura Dreamtime collects 25 tracks of late-1960s pop-psychedelia from Australia. Although including a number of obscure tracks, Datura Dreamtime features a number of artists who had relatively long and successful recording careers. In most cases, however, these bands were little known outside Australia. This collection contains three tracks by the Atlantics, who formed in 1962 as a vocal trio before finding success as a beat band. Their late-1960s foray into psychedelia was less commercially successful but yielded some interesting music, particularly "Blue Roundabout," which is included on Datura Dreamtime. This track sounds something like the Pretty Things at their most psychedelic. In fact, many of the tracks on this compilation were influenced by British psych. That is not to say that Australia wasn't influenced by U.S. psych. Of the covers versions on Datura Dreamtime, two were originally American (The Dave Miller Set covers "Why? Why? Why?" by Paul Revere and the Raiders and Doug Ashdown does a tripped out version of "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On") and two were originally British (with "Hey Bulldog", Travis Wellington Hedge does the obligatory Beatles cover, and Zoot does Tomorrow's "Three Jolly Little Dwarves"). The combined influences work well for several tracks, particularly "Writing Letters to Nowhere" by Muszak, "Hypnotic Suggestion" by the Vegetable Garden and "Love" by Paster Scene, but too often the material collected here draws from the worst of the eccentric, whimsical sort of British psych. I suppose this depends on your taste, but psych of the cabaret variety has not aged well (and it probably didn't even sound that good at the time). Datura Dreamtime also includes an interview with Australian singer, composer and television personality Johnny Young, who tells of his experience with LSD. "I would advise no one to try it because it's a very stupid thing to do." He notes that, "The Beatles are the ones who start all these things," and that by the time this interview was recorded the Beatles had moved on to meditation. Young's own efforts to meditate were hindered when the authorities confiscated his copy of Kama Sutra, which had been banned. It was a different time.
One other note, this may or may not be a companion to A Forest of Gold Tops. The subtitle suggests that the two compilations are related and some artists are common to both compilations but they are on different labels. My copy of Datura Dreamtime doesn't contain any liner notes but they are available at http://warragun.tripod.com/datura.html. I don't know whether these were included with another version of this release or if someone simply took it upon themselves to write them, but they should have been included with the CD release.
Tracks
1. Twilights - "Devendra" (1:50)
2. Muszak - "Writing Letters to Nowhere" (5:00)
3. Glass Web - "Two Faced Woman" (3:07)
4. Inside Looking Out - "H.M.S. Buffalo" (3:32)
5. Vyt & the World - "Dapper Dan" (2:29)
6. Mike Furber - "I'm On Fire" (2:19)
7. Chocolate - "I'm an Animal" (2:35)
8. Twilights - "Take Action" (2:05)
9. Peter Wright - "House of Bamboo" (2:36)
10. Glass Web - "In a Year Or So" (2:18)
11. Jeff St. John & the Id - "Eastern Dream" (2:30)
12. Vegetable Garden - "Hypnotic Suggestion" (3:05)
13. Jet Set - "Now I Love You" (2:46)
14. The Limit - "Happy Life" (2:29)
15. Paster Scene - "Love" (1:46)
16. Travis Wellington Hedge - "Hey Bulldog" (2:52)
17. Twilights - "Blue Roundabout" (3:17)
18. John Vincent & the In-Sect - "Madge's Charity Badges" (3:11)
19. Doug Ashdown - "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" (2:29)
20. Zoot - "Three Jolly Little Dwarves" (2:16)
21. (Australian) Playboys - "Black Sheep R.I.P." (2:26)
22. Dave Miller Set - "Why Why Why" (2:44)
23. Oak Apple Day - "Oceans of Fire" (3:04)
24. Allison Gros - "Naturally" (2:36)
25. Atlantics - "Light Shades of Dark, Part 2" (8:35)
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