RICHARD NORRIS AND ESKIMO RECORDINGS

Over the past few years Eskimo Recordings have invited some of the best crate diggers around to curate compilations that don’t just reveal the hidden contents of their record bags but something about themselves too. Now, following in the footsteps of the likes of Bill Brewster and Psychemagik, producer, musician, DJ, writer and more, Richard Norris, takes us on a globetrotting psychedelic journey with the epic 42 track compilation, Mr Norris Changes Brains released on 23 May 2025.

For over forty years Richard has played a part in many of the UK’s most important music subcultures. Whether sharing stages with the likes of Tracey Thorn as a pubescent punk in St. Albans, or running freakbeat nights in Liverpool and working at the pioneering psychedelic label Bam Caruso, co-producing the UK’s first acid house inspired LP with Throbbing Gristle’s Genesis P. Orridge or riding the wave of creativity that the second summer of love unleashed all the way to the Top of the Pop studios as The Grid, Richard’s career has continually seen him work to expand both his own and the public’s musical horizons. Most recently, he explored his diverse career as a musical tastemaker in his critically acclaimed autobiography Strange Things are Happening (White Rabbit). 

Mr Norris Changes Brains is the most recent part of his mercurial career, drawing inspiration from his post 2006 adventures as one half of Beyond the Wizard’s Sleeve, alongside Trash’s Erol Alkan. This compilation shows how a more connected world has blown the dust off a paradoxically sometimes straightjacketed scene. The result is a dizzyingly wide-ranging collection that explores the further out there reaches of worldwide psychedelia and dancefloor mayhem.

“A lot of these tracks are fairly recent discoveries, things that I’ve discovered from around the time I started working with Erol and going right up to today,” Richard explains. “Whether that’s from going out to play and finding new records in places like Istanbul or just connecting with people online from all around the world. Psych can sometimes be a sort of narrow-minded field,

with everything having to sit in its specific niche, but more and more people are open to new sounds and that’s allowed for a much broader selection.”

That freedom sees Mr Norris Changes Brains take us on a trip around the world and through time, with tracks from the 1960s rubbing up against recent releases. We journey through the US accompanied by heady fuzz monsters like Evolmia by Boston’s Banchee and the lysergic rhythms of Forest of Black by Oakland’s The Dirty Filthy Mud. Elsewhere we encounter mind-expanding sounds that have emerged everywhere from the valleys of Wales to sweaty Parisian basements, from underground Turkish clubs to Italian film scores and beyond.

There’s obscurities aplenty, of course. Many of these recordings have never been officially available outside of their original, often hard to find, releases with some, like Thumbquake and Earthscrew by A to Austr and DAVE’s In My Mind, culled from punishingly rare private press albums. These rarities are accompanied by hidden gems, often overlooked B-sides to otherwise big hits with the likes of Rare Bird’s Hammond Organ stomper Devils High Concern or Iron Butterfly’s Iron Butterfly Theme duly making an appearance.

Despite their disparate origins, what unites these tracks is their infectious danceability. Mr Norris may change your brains but he will also move your feet. Whether it’s killer guitar riffs, oscillating synths, floor shaking drums or soulful Hammond organs, these are all cuts that get people dancing everywhere from festival tents to underground clubs .

“With a lot of these tracks there’s a kind of fun element in them,” says Richard. “It’s still psychedelia, but they’ve also got these solid, funky grooves. They sound phenomenal on the dancefloor and as much as these records might excite old psych heads, this compilation is also for a new generation out there who might have never heard anything like this before and, just like when I was 18 and heard The 13th Floor Elevators for the first time, think ‘Oh, my God, what on earth is this and more importantly what else is out there?’”

NOTES TO EDITORS

SOCIAL MEDIA
https://www.instagram.com/mrrichardnorris
http://www.eskimorecordings.be
https://www.instagram.com/eskimorecordings
https://eskimorecordings.bandcamp.com

TRACKLIST 

Chapter 1 

1. Banchee – Evolmia
2. The Dirty Filthy Mud – Forest Of Black
3. Wool – Love, Love, Love, Love, Love
4. Spencer Mac – Ka-Ka Baya Mow-Mow (Sing A Little Love Song)
5. Trifle – One Way Glass
6. Brainticket – Black Sand
7. Emma De Angelis – Trip