Atomic Forest

Atomic Forest was first brought to light when compiled by Academy Records’ Mike Davis on his Obsession LP. For a while, much mystery surrounded the band as well as the album as no one could definitively source who released it and when. Few copies were known to exist and on the rare occasion they came up for sale, they sold for big money. Much of that changed upon discovering that Dhas (aka Madhu), Atomic Forest founding member, was living in New York City.

What made this album so special was that throughout the 70s India had an underground psych rock scene, although this is the lone recording produced within that era. The Anglo influence is so strong that one may not believe that they are a band native to India. From the searing instrumental opener, “Obsession ’77 (Fast)”, it sends the listening into a fiery realm of fuzz and fury that continues into psych rock nuggets including a cover of Osibisa’s “Sunshine Day” and Deep Purple’s “Mary Long” only later to reprise “Obsession ’77 (Slow)”. The mid section of the album was sourced from album Hit Film Themes and appended to the album are six unreleased tracks that were restored from cassette.

An odd chance encounter, as pointed out from the liner notes by Weirdo Records‘ Angela Sawyer, Atomic Forest’s equipment manager rented out all their gear to the Vietnamese psych rock outfit CBC Band when they toured through Bombay, causing the band to have their contract revoked and later Dhas was invited to join CBC to play in the US where he would eventually settle.