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Various Artists — Psychedelic Underground 19
(Garden of Delights CD190, 2020, CD)

Various Artists — Psychedelic Underground 20
(Garden of Delights CD200, 2024, CD)

by Peter Thelen, Published 2026-01-23

Psychedelic Underground 19 Cover artPsychedelic Underground 20 Cover art

The Garden of Delights label specializes in reissues of lost classics from the annals of German rock music, often what would be classified as psychedelic or progressive, but occasionally blues, jazz, and straight-up hard rock, whatever the major labels have no interest in anymore, yet still have plenty of value to those who seek more unusual forms. The label was born back in the early 90s as Penner Records, and around 1997 changed their name to Garden of Delights, after which most of the releases that originally were on Penner were reissued on Garden of Delights. In the beginning, the label started a series titled Psychedelic Underground, a compilation CD featuring one song from each of the labels previous nine releases, the compilation being the tenth, a summary of the previous nine, each with a paragraph about each artist in both German and English, a listing of all of the releases to date, and on the final page a ‘soon to come’ section about upcoming releases currently in the works. These excellent sampler CDs offer a way to hear a little bit of all the artists that the label releases without breaking the bank purchasing every full release.

Psychedelic Underground 19 was released in 2020 and covers the releases CD181 through CD189, which includes “Mysterious Pyramids” by Dr. Aftershave, which is really Missus Beastly using an alternate band name, a glorious six-minute slab of German jazz-rock fusion. Also included are a live cut by Embryo in 1977, a track from the reunited Xhol Caravan’s Scream of Joy album from 2019 (not a reissue), a ten minute cut from Morpheus’ 2017 Restless Dreams album (again, not a reissue), plus sidelong cuts from Carol of Harvest and Epidermis’ “A Speck, a Dream” from their June 1975 album which went unreleased for decades, finally released in 2020. It also features tracks from Tin Pan Alley, Upperseption (from Neo-Gourage), and Eela Craig (from Virgin Oiland).

Psychedelic Underground 20 was released in 2024 and covers the releases CD191 through CD199, the latter being “Monkey Man,” an early live performance by Tibet from their CD Porta Westfalica 1975. Also featured here are cool slabs by Embryo (“Knast-Funk” from the 1978 album Apo-calypso), Missus Beastly from their live album Minden 1976, the nine-minute epic “Far in the Sky” by Tritonus from their self titled debut album, and a live take of the classic Gershwin number “Summertime” by Xhol Caravan from an NDR broadcast of a gig from Hamburg in 1969, from the CD Hamburg 1969. Other tracks include a take from Epidermis’ Genius of the Original Force, which was actually their second album but the first one that was released, an exemplary track “Things for You and Me” by the Chris Braun band from their debut Both Sides, a nice nine-minute live sample of Release Music Orchestra’s Vlotho 1977, and “Dream of Peace” by Dhope from their only album Musical Exhibitions. Taken together, these two compilations present a set of outstanding tracks culled from the most recent eighteen CD releases by Garden of Delights.

Filed under: New releases, 2020 releases, 2024 releases

Related artist(s): Embryo, Xhol Caravan / Xhol / Soul Caravan, Various Artists, Morpheus, Eela Craig, Dr Aftershave, Upperseption, Epidermis, Carol of Harvest, Tin Pan Alley

More info
http://diregarden.com/god190.html
http://diregarden.com/god200.html

 

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