10 Questions

Hail Voyagers! We return with a new survey from a pair of Belgians! (Further proof this psychedelic meme is indeed worldwide.) Our guests perform as the Cosmic Trip Machine.

Aptly-named says I.

They've just released an album, Lord Space Devil, and are giving it freely on their website. Try it!



Having heard it twice now, they're definitely talented musicians whose reach is far with a knack for surprises within the concept. Stylistic shifts aplenty, just like a trip, eh? (Download and report back to me via comments.)


Will Z. & Majnun, Cosmic Trip Machine

Let's see what their minds are made of, shall we?

1. In ten words-or less, define "psychedelic music."

Will Z: A journey to the center of mind's eye.

Majnun: Exploration, beyond, inside and outside, drugs, relaxation, knowledge, magic and mysticism.

2. What is the most psychedelic instrument, why?

Majnun: The sitar is probably one of the most psychedelic instruments, but I also think about mellotron and some guitar sounds, full of fuzz and phasing, can really blow your mind.

Will Z: In fact, there is no psychedelic instrument, but a combination of various instruments sounds psychedelic. If you put together backward drums, groovy bass, guitar with dirty old fuzz, organ, sitar and a spatial voice with lot of delay, the result will be psychedelic... or horrible.

3. Favorite psychedelic album of all time?

Majnun: "Are you experienced" by Jimi Hendrix Experience.


Will Z: My favorite album… Wow… It's a very hard question, so, please, help me and choose among the following ones : "Piper at the gates of dawn", "Forever changes", "SF Sorrow", "Odessey and oracle", "Pet Sounds", "Space Hymns", "Revolver", "Fifth Dimension", "Their Satanic Majesties Request", "Camembert électrique"...


4. If you could go back in time and sit in on a recording session, what band making what album would you go see? Why that one?

Will Z: Syd Barrett during "Madcap Laughs" sessions. I discover his work when I was 17 and this album, with "Piper", changed my life and definitely my music. So, I think it would be amazing (and, maybe, a little sad) to see this brilliant and brittle artist record the most unique album ever made.



Majnun: I will anticipate the next one with this answer. It could be the work-in-progress of "Bitches Brew sessions" by Miles Davis, to see directions in music by Miles, interplay between all these great players, and editing by Teo Macero.


5. What song or album that wouldn't fall into the classic "psych" definition is, nevertheless, psychedelic to you?

Majnun: Bitches brew is totally psychedelic, a feast of electric sounds, and a great variety of moods.


Will Z: Yeah… You can get high with Miles Davis electric period albums "Bitches Brew", "Big fun", "Live evil" or "A tribute to Jack Johnson".




6. Is there an advantage in being the pioneers (60s psychedelic bands), or being the continuing explorers armed with the knowledge of those pioneers work (the modern psychedelic bands)? Why?

Will Z: We have no choice. Sadly, we'll never be a 60's psychedelic band.

Majnun: It would be cool to take part in original movement, but I feel quite good making psychedelic music today. It's like making music for a secret society.

7. Are there any books or movies which inspire and inform your own psychedelic music? What inspires it the most?

Will Z: Our music is heavily influenced by movies. Lord Space Devil was a concept album about a man travelling through unexplored countries, and meeting strange characters, with strong references to giallo, western and horror B movies. Our next album will be an imaginary 70's psychedelic erotic horror soundtrack inspired by « Vampyros Lesbos », « Easy Rider », « Psych-Out », « Beyond the Valley of Dolls », « The Wicker Man », « Suspiria », « Carnival of Souls », « The Holy Mountain » and many more.


Majnun: And we like books by Huxley, de Quincey, Castaneda, Kerouac, Michaux, Artaud, Joyce, Poe…



8. Is the psychedelic genre still viable today to artists working in it?

Majnun: Few psychedelic artists live from their art. We created Cosmic Trip Machine just for fun and for doin' something quite good sometimes.

Will Z: We're not in it for the money. Ha, ha!

9. Top Ten Psychedelic Songs ?

Majnun : In no particular order…
Cream, Tales of brave Ulysses
The Doors, The end
The Beatles, Tomorrow never knows
Pink Floyd, Echoes
Jimi Hendrix, Purple haze
King Crimson, In the court of the crimson king
Led Zeppelin, Dazed and confused
Rolling Stones, 2000 light years from home
Jefferson Airplane, White rabbit
Pink Floyd, Chapter 24



Will Z :
Druid Chase, Take me in your Garden
Hollies, Maker
Sixto Rodriguez, Sugar Man
Love, Alone again or
Beach Boys, Good Vibrations
Pink Floyd, Chapter 24
Beatles, Tomorrow never knows
Pretty Things, Talking about the good times
Ramases, Molecular Delusions
Strawberry Alarm Clock, Pretty song from Psych-Out and millions of others.



10. Turn the tables, if you'd like, and ask me a question.

Majnun: I have no idea, it doesn't matter...

Will Z: Your name Valis is a Philip K. Dick novel. Do you appreciate his psychedelic book "Counter-Clock World", in which reverse time has started to reanimate deads?

-valis: Will.., being honest, I've not read that novel. Although having read a review/synopsis here, I'd have to say it falls in line with his lifelong obsessions: time & the nature of religious thought. So much of the PKD canon is "psychedelic." (If we take the root meaning, "mind changing.") I think possibly my favorite for that is The Three Stigmata Of Palmer Eldritch.


Like Borges, PKD wrote such unique works of fiction that will continue to boggle and mesmerise for a long, long time. Would that we could all create something as lasting.

Best wishes Cosmic Trip Machine! Thank you for participating. (..and keep bringing the music!)