Reels Psychadeliques - Freak Out Total Volume 1

Tracks

Side 1

		Track Name	Length
	1	Reel de la Grosse Jeanne	02:13
	2	Reel pour dede	01:52
	3	Ballade des bibittes a Feu	03:42
	4	Reel de St-Tite	03:39
	5	Reel du pharmacien de Ste-Anne	02:16
	6	La ballade du trappeur	01:40
	7	La modiste de Bertha	02:20

Side 2

		Track Name	Length
	1	Reel du saumon	05:55
	2	Reel de l'oncle Fred	02:45
	3	Reel de Frontenac	04:20

Photos

Videos

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Information/Write-up

Reels Psychadéliques were a fleeting but unforgettable product of Montréal’s late-1960s counter-culture — a spontaneous studio experiment that united four of the city’s most restless musical spirits: Tony Roman, Michel Pagliaro, Denis Lepage, and Andy Shorter. Conceived amid the ferment of Québec’s psychedelic underground, the project took shape in 1968 at Roman’s Revolution label, where a loose circle of friends and fellow musicians began meeting for marathon, drug-fuelled jam sessions. The goal was not to make a hit record but to capture the sound of a generation stepping beyond pop structure into pure improvisation.

Recorded live in a single take, without overdubs or edits, Reels Psychadéliques – Volume 1 stands as one of the wildest and most curious artefacts of Canada’s psychedelic age. Folk reels collide head-on with distorted guitars, echo-drenched organs and bursts of laughter and tape noise; traditional fiddling from rural Québec melts into electric chaos and free-form experimentation. The musicians play as though discovering a new language together — Roman steering from his guitar, Pagliaro tearing through feedback and melody, Lepage anchoring with elastic bass and percussion, and Shorter weaving surreal keyboard and violin textures. The back cover’s proclamation of “Freak Out Total” was no idle boast: the album was a document of unfiltered energy, recorded in one sitting, under the influence, and left untouched.

Issued around 1969 on Revolution RE-8002 and distributed by Capitol Canada, Volume 1 was swiftly followed by Volume 2, drawn from the same sprawling sessions. Together, the two LPs form a diptych of pure instinct and musical mischief — a joyous, narcotic blur where Québec folk, psychedelic rock, and musique concrète collide in real time. Like its companion, Volume 2 pushes the formula even further into absurdity, trading structured themes for sonic delirium, improvised chants, and mock-traditional motifs that unravel as quickly as they appear.

The Reels Psychadéliques recordings are closely linked to Ouba, another offshoot from the same sessions that plunged even deeper into abstraction. Alongside projects like L’Expérience 9, they defined the wild “Freak Out Total” micro-series that emerged from Roman’s Revolution label — brief flashes of studio freedom and countercultural excess that captured Montréal’s psychedelic moment at full tilt.

Though Reels Psychadéliques never became a performing group, the four participants were already shaping the direction of modern Québec pop: Roman as producer and label head, Pagliaro as the province’s next rock star, Lepage on his way to disco fame with Lime, and Shorter continuing to explore the experimental fringe with Ouba and The Triangle. What survives of Reels Psychadéliques is less a band than a moment — a single, ecstatic experiment when Montréal’s pop craftsmen threw caution to the wind and let the tape run. The result remains a cult treasure: raw, anarchic, and distinctly Québécois, a joyful collision of reel and reverie that captured the sound of a city losing its mind and finding its freedom.
-Robert Williston

Tony Roman: guitar, vocals
Michel Pagliaro: guitar, vocals
Denis Lepage: bass, percussion
Andy Shorter: keyboards, violin

Produced by Tony Roman
Published by Canusa Musique
Distributed by Disques Capitol (Canada) Ltée

Recorded circa 1968–1969, Montréal, Québec
Issued with the “Freak Out Total” designation on back cover

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