VA - Down In The Valley 3 (2019)

The Perfect Toy label continues its righteous quest to unearth the finest rare sounds from way out with Volumes 3 and 4 of its Down In The Valley series and in doing so delivers what is most certainly "A heavy dose of garage rock & psych-funk."

Vol. 3 opens with a characteristically inspiring cut - Sand's cover of Down By The River - one of the best (and certainly one of the most obscure) versions of the Neil Young classic. This is followed by two fine examples of garage rock with a funky twist - Pegasus' Honeysuckle Willow Pride and Enalpria's Sliding, in the slipstream of which follows Heart and Soul's raw psych cut Afterthought. Also featured on this volume are two tributes to Jimi Hendrix that the big man himself would be proud to hear - The Fabulous Troubadores' version of Hey Joe (here literally entitled Tribute To Jimi Hendrix) as well as a psych-soul cover of Stone Free by the The Good Earth. Side B kicks off with Lifeless, the farewell 45 from La Crosse, Wisconsin outfit Today's Tomorrow and also includes two cuts occupying the nexus of garage and psych-funk from Milk & Cookies and Sound Inc., along with the Del Counts's fierce organ-led funk instrumental Who Cares and a very special contribution from GIN whose Louisville Luck is one of two previously unreleased tracks.

Deepest respect goes out once again to crate-digging supremo, Chan The Man, the curator of these two brand-new volumes in the Down In The Valley series. His ambition to search for the impossible and get his hands on private pressings that no one except the freakiest vinyl nerds knew existed has set the path to the release of these two discs. Accompanied by detailed liner notes and never-before-seen photos of the artists, Down In The Valley 3&4 continue the same attention to quality and detail set by their predecessors.