It's not everyday that scouring Discogs for rare records lands you a compilation deal on BBE. But that's exactly what happened to DJ Format as he stumbled upon a heavily sweated record considered "too heavy" for most, and proceeded to contact the seller who turned out to be BBE's in-house designer Jake Holloway. In Format's own words - "The idea for this compilation came about because of my search for a rare psych/funk 7″ that isn’t even included here! My friend DJ Oneofakind played me the said record and I totally lost my mind. Some months later after a lot of asking around and searching online, a copy turned up on Discogs.com for a painful amount of money. I contacted the seller to ask a couple of questions and it turned out I was talking to Jake Holloway, BBE’s in-house designer. I’d loosely known Jake for a few years through mutual friends so we quickly arranged a time to meet and take care of business. Jake told me he’d offered the 7″ to a few other DJ/collector friends but they’d passed on it as it was ‘too heavy’ for them. This got us talking about my love for psych records with a funky slant and I explained my frustration at buying so many records that fit that description, that were ‘too heavy’ to play at my typical DJ gigs. Jake had the perfect solution: “why don’t you do a compilation of funky, fuzzed-out psych stuff for BBE?”" Lucky for you guys, the compilation materialized in the form of Psych Out, and as the subtitle says, it is chock full of funky, fuzz laiden gems from around the globe. I've heard of maybe one or two of these tracks, but the rest are in the "impossible to find/elite diggers only" category (I mean several of these artists' discogs pages were made just to reference this comp!). Needless to say, these joints are rare as hell and could easily drain the bank account of even the most loaded vinyl collector - so do the smart thing and cop while this one is around. The way things are going, even these comps end up going for loot down the road! Includes tracks from The Quests, Tijuana Brats, Bana Pop Band, 49th Blue Streak, Friar Tuck And His Psychedelic Guitar, and a gang of artists whose names you probably can't pronounce. 14 cuts in all with gatefold sleeve.

• gatefold sleeve
• music label: BBE 2016

reviewed by Al Pastor 06/2016