THE WYLDEWOOD GREEN – Tales of The Wyldewood Green (2026, LP LOTAH Records) 

RELEASE INFO:

Label: LOTAH Records

Format: LP, Album, Limited Edition, tip-on gatefold sleeve, Wyldewood Green Vinyl, 200 copies

Format: LP, Album, Limited Edition, tip-on gatefold sleeve, Black Vinyl, 300 copies

Release Date: 7 Aug 2026

Los Angeles, Hammond organ, fuzz, sweat, groove and a serious obsession with obscure 45s. That is probably the quickest way to enter the world of The Wyldewood Green. Formed in 2017 by vintage-vinyl specialist, DJ and musician Marco Scarsone, this L.A. instrumental quintet has been digging through the sonic debris of the 60s and 70s and turning its favourite discoveries into something loud, gritty and wonderfully alive. Their debut LP, “Tales Of The Wyldewood Green”, finally brings together eleven instrumental pieces and around forty minutes of Hammond-led garage, mod soul, psychedelic rock, deep funk, jazz, prog and heavy psych — a kaleidoscopic trip through the many faces of vintage underground music.

The story of The Wyldewood Green is already a small piece of underground L.A. history. The band began playing live in 2017, eventually releasing a 45 in 2019, before the pandemic brought everything to a halt. During the following years, Scarsone — who adopted the name in tribute to his mother’s Sicilian maiden name — remained deeply involved in the local soul, R&B and garage scene, playing keyboards with artists and bands including Trish Toledo, Latasha Lee, Miriah Avila, Adrian Carmine, The Sound Reasons, The Fantastic Fellinis, The Magnificent and Tony Saxon, while opening for names such as Gene Chandler and The Chocolate Watchband. When The Wyldewood Green finally returned, the project had evolved into an even more focused vehicle for his Hammond-driven musical imagination.

On “Tales Of The Wyldewood Green”, Scarsone is joined by Jonathan Yang on drums and Mike Davis on congas and bongos, with the current live line-up expanded by Tim Conaway on bass and Zach Jones on guitar. Scarsone himself handles Hammond A-100, Mini Farfisa, piano, guitar, bass, percussion and, essentially, the entire recording process. Recorded between 2023 and 2025 at the band’s Chinatown studio, Black Poseidon Recorders, the album is defiantly analogue in both spirit and execution. Real instruments, real players, real amps, real Hammond and Leslie — no samples, pre-recorded loops, drum machines or AI. Just musicians playing together and allowing the grooves to breathe.

And those grooves are where the real magic happens. The ghosts of Brian Auger, Lonnie Smith, Ian McLagan, Booker T. & The M.G.’s, The Meters, Deep Purple and countless forgotten garage and funk 45s are all lurking somewhere in these eleven tracks, but The Wyldewood Green never simply imitate their heroes. They splice together mod soul, freakbeat, psychedelic garage, deep funk, jazz-rock, soundtrack atmospherics and Brown Acid-style fuzz into something that feels distinctly rooted in the L.A. underground. Sometimes the Hammond takes command; sometimes the rhythm section drives the whole machine forward; sometimes a fuzz guitar suddenly turns a sophisticated groove into something wonderfully heavy and dirty.

There are 11 tracks spread out on the 2 sides of the vinyl LP album. “Spires” opens the album with a short, deeply sentimental instrumental introduction, and from the very first notes it is hard not to think of Procol Harum’s timeless “A Whiter Shade Of Pale”. It sets a beautifully atmospheric tone before “Mindsplitter” arrives like a genuine Hammond mind-killer. Its opening immediately recalls Wildwood’s “Plastic People” (from 1968), but the track soon transforms into a heavy psychedelic missile, adding Middle Eastern-flavoured keyboard lines, tribal percussion, acid-drenched guitar and a tremendous, almost pompous cinematic grandeur. “Carnaby Nights” shifts the mood towards a dance-a-delic psych-funk stomp, the kind of irresistible instrumental groove that naturally brings the great Brian Auger to mind. “Smith And Strange” takes a mellower and more sophisticated route, blending Jazz, Mod and Soul into a wonderful late-night atmosphere, with a gorgeous electric-guitar solo emerging in the middle section. The whole thing feels like stepping into one of those magical Soho Jazz-Mod clubs of the early-to-mid 60s, where sharp suits, smoky rooms and groovy sounds were all part of the same psychedelic equation. “Souvenirs” is dominated — and I mean dominated — by the Hammond, riding over a strong, steady and powerful rhythm section with a funky, deeply groovy pulse. The organ seems to lead the whole band onto the stage of some late-night Soho club, and once the groove locks in, it becomes almost impossible to stand still. This is music that can genuinely make you sweat on the dancefloor. “Maldedo” slows things down again, introducing a more emotional, loose and slightly melancholic atmosphere with clear Beatles-inspired touches.

It feels like a track deliberately letting its guard down, carrying a wonderfully reminiscent quality before the second side kicks in with “Tangerine Whiskey”. Now this is Heavy! Drawing strongly from the early Heavy Rock days of Deep Purple and their “Shades Of Deep Purple” (1968), the track stages a magnificent battle between Hammond organ and electric guitar, with neither side willing to surrender. Hard Rock meets Heavy Psych, the riffing is killer, and the whole thing sounds perfectly capable of setting any stage on fire. There is also a familiar “later” Deep Purple flavour hiding inside the main guitar riff — but I’ll leave that particular revelation to your imagination. “The Queenmaker” brings us straight back to the groove, the funk and the Mod-Soul territory, developing a delicious mid-tempo pulse with a strong cinematic character. This is Groove-a-delicious instrumental music, the kind of track that feels equally at home on a dancefloor or as the soundtrack to some long-lost 60s spy movie. “Rude Britannia” introduces a little more psychedelic flirting, combining a garage-y, punky attitude with an unmistakable early-70s Hard Rock flavour. Short, dirty and energetic, it has just enough fuzz and attitude to keep the temperature rising. “Cadoi” takes us somewhere completely different, offering a relaxing, atmospheric excursion that flirts with Easy Listening and Exotica while maintaining a strong Jazz character. The acoustic-guitar passage in the middle suddenly transports the whole scene somewhere around the Mediterranean Sea, adding warmth and sunshine to the album’s otherwise distinctly British-American psychedelic landscape. Finally, “Murder In The Electric Cathedral” brings us straight back into late-60s Heavy Rock-a-delic territory, shamelessly flirting with British Psychedelia and delivering one of the album’s most mind-bending moments. A fantastic track that suddenly explodes in the middle, transforming itself into an unbelievable Psych-Rocker and creating an almost cinematic vision of 1969, with the spirit of Deep Purple’s self-titled third album looming large over the whole affair. What a way to close the record — the Hammond screaming, the guitar burning and The Wyldewood Green turning their vintage influences into one final, glorious psychedelic inferno!

“Tales Of The Wyldewood Green” is a wonderfully dirty, groovy and psychedelic trip through the back alleys of 60s and 70s music, where Hammond Soul, Mod, Garage, Funk, Jazz, Heavy Rock and Psychedelia all collide under the same roof. It is vintage music with a very alive pulse, made by musicians who clearly understand that the past is there to be played with, twisted and turned up loud. And perhaps the best way to leave the record is with the band’s own words: “This is an anti-fascist recording.” No samples, no machines, no nostalgia without attitude — just real people, real instruments, real grooves and a very real reason to turn the volume up. Turn on and turn it up. TimeLord Michalis 

Tracklist

Links

Listen / Buy through THE WYLDEWOOD GREEN Bandcamp

Check THE WYLDEWOOD GREEN Facebook