40 years ago, the psychedelic sounds of the Moog synthesizer played an important role in the “head music” of the era.

Nic Raicevic’s Head, from 1970, features three tracks, Cannabis Sativa, Methedrine and Lysergic Acid Diethylamide.

Starting to see a pattern?

Lysergic Acid Diethylamide is embedded above.

Raicevic’s has about the best AllMusic bio ever.

Nik Pascal Raicevic

This interesting artist was active in the ’70s before selling off all his synthesizer gear to Steve Roach, a former racing car driver who became known as an electronic music performer in his own right. Often credited in various combinations of the names Nik Raicevic and Nik Pascal, he made one of his earliest albums on the Buddah label as simply Head, attempting to cash in on the psychedelic drug culture by naming his extended synthesizer noodlings after illegal drugs such as “Cannabis Sativa” — worth a 17-minute album track, no less.

Raicevic eventually put out five albums on his own Narco label after being dumped from Buddah for being too influenced by drugs. Despite this judgment and the name of his own imprint, Raicevic was clearly about something more serious than stoning; his analog synthesizer work has been considered ahead of its time, setting the standard for what other performers from scenes such as Berlin would come up with. The obscuro label seems to have been invented to fit performers such as Raicevic, who also apparently made use of the stage name Flemming, as if things weren’t confusing enough already. Nonetheless, he has one solid mainstream rock credit, playing percussion on Goats Head Soup by the Rolling Stones.

via zwarteraaf, mutantsounds, boingboing