Psychsploitation

Psychsploitation, or exploito-psych, covers the budget psychedelic records rushed out by studio session musicians and fictional groups in the late 1960s to capitalize on the acid rock boom. Released by labels such as #Alshire# and #Somerset#, these albums imitated the fuzz guitars, sitars, organs and drug-referencing imagery of genuine psychedelia, frequently under invented band names such as *The Fire Escape* or *The Animated Egg*. A parallel European strain produced library-style psych by figures including France's *Maledictus Sound*. Long dismissed as cash-in product, the records are now collected for their concentrated period signifiers and often accomplished session playing.