Ptolemaic Terrascope is a magazine covering old and new music, usually of a psychedelic nature. It has been published irregularly since 1989. Originally published by the Woronzow record label, it covers a wide variety of bands and artists from the 1960s to the present day. Issues typically come with a 7" vinyl record or latterly a CD, and sometimes also special inserts such as artwork, scrap books, and discount coupons.
In March 2005, editorPhil McMullen announced that the magazine would be coming under new management and relocating from Britain to North America. The terrascope.co.uk domain name has been retained by McMullen for the website Terrascope Online, featuring reviews, interviews, articles and artwork by the majority of the former Ptolemaic Terrascope staff.
The Terrascope Online website also acts as a focus for the semi-annual Terrastockindie rockfestivals which, since 1997, Phil McMullen has curated.
According to the magazine, the name Ptolemaic Terrascope has no real meaning. Their official web page explains, "Ptolemy is a tortoise who lives at Terrascope Towers. Terrascope is a word Phil made up because (a) it matched the artwork we'd designed for the first issue, and (b) we like the Captain Beefheart song 'Tarotplane'."
Additionally to the online magazine, McMullen started a new letterpress-printed music magazine, the Terrascopædia in 2012.
Personnel
Phil McMullen, editor (print issues from 1988–2005, since then online as Terrascope Online)
The Bevis Frond is an English rock band formed in 1986 in Walthamstow, London, England. The band is fronted by Nick Saloman and has recorded many singles and albums on various independent labels.
Kerrang! is a British music webzine and quarterly magazine that primarily covers rock, punk and heavy metal music. Since 2017, the magazine has been published by Wasted Talent Ltd. The magazine was named onomatopoeically after the sound of a "guitar being struck with force".
Q was a popular music magazine. Originally published in print in the UK from 1986 to 2020, it was inactive from 2020 until 2023. In 2023, Q was revived as an online publication. It was founded in 1986 by broadcast journalists Mark Ellen and David Hepworth, who were presenters of the BBC television music series The Old Grey Whistle Test. Q's final printed issue was published in July 2020, but began posting new articles to their website in 2023 before being fully relaunched in 2024.
PC World is a global computer magazine published monthly by IDG. Since 2013, it has been an online-only publication.
McMullen is a surname with predominantly Irish origins but also with some Scottish history. It derives from root forenames such as: Maolain, Maelan "Hillock" and Meallain "Pleasant". All of these forenames have over time evolved to the collateral "Son of Maolain", anglicised McMullen.
Fangoria is an internationally distributed American horror film fan magazine, in publication since 1979. It is published four times a year by Fangoria Publishing, LLC and is edited by Phil Nobile Jr.
Pearls Before Swine was an American psychedelic folk band formed by Tom Rapp in 1965 in Eau Gallie, which is now part of Melbourne, Florida. They released six albums between 1967 and 1971, before Rapp launched a solo career.
Terrastock is a music festival organised periodically by Phil McMullen, formerly editor of the Ptolemaic Terrascope and since 2005 the publisher of the Terrascope Online website. The event typically features independent bands playing psychedelic rock. It has been held on six occasions in the USA and once in London, UK.
CCM Magazine is a twice-monthly online magazine focusing on contemporary Christian music, published by Salem Publishing, a division of Salem Communications.
Phil McMullen is a British writer and music journalist. He was the founding editor of Ptolemaic Terrascope magazine from 1989 until 2005, at which time management of the publication was handed over to Pat Thomas in North America. McMullen consequently ran the website named Terrascope Online and from 2012 onwards founded a hand-crafted letterpress periodical dedicated to music named the Terrascopædia. McMullen also founded the semi-annual Terrastock indie rock festivals which have taken place in North America since 1987. In 2013, he curated the first Woolf Music festival. There has also been a series of concerts staged under the name Terrascope Audio Entertainments. Phil lives in the West of England and in addition to owning and operating The Ptolemaic Press writes primarily about psychedelic, improvised, experimental rock and folk music.
Thomas Dale Rapp was an American singer and songwriter who led Pearls Before Swine, an influential psychedelic folk rock group of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Described as having "a slight lisp, gentle voice and apocalyptic vision", he also released four albums under his own name. He later practiced as a lawyer after graduating from University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1984.
Singles and Beyond is a compilation album by American indie rock band the Olivia Tremor Control, consisting of several rare or out-of-print tracks by the band.
Nickolas Laurien, known professionally as Nick Nicely, is an English singer-songwriter who records psychedelic and electronic music. He is best known for his 1982 single "Hilly Fields (1892)". Nicely released only one other record in the early 1980s, the single "D.C.T. Dreams", before retreating from the music industry. The influence of "Hilly Fields" has been noted on Bevis Frond, Robyn Hitchcock, Robert Wyatt, and XTC's psychedelic alter egos the Dukes of Stratosphear, as well as the hypnagogic pop movement of the 2000s.
Abunai! was an American rock band from Boston, Massachusetts, United States primarily active from 1996 to 2001 on the Australian Camera Obscura record label.
The Green Pajamas are a musical group from Seattle, Washington. They formed in the spring of 1984 when Jeff Kelly and Joe Ross recorded and released their first album, Summer Of Lust. They are probably best known for the regional hit single "Kim the Waitress".
Kendra Smith is an American musician who was a founding member of The Dream Syndicate, a member of Opal, and later recorded as a solo artist.
The Linus Pauling Quartet was an American psychedelic rock group which specializes in a specific subgenre known as "Texas Psych", but frequently dabbles also in garage rock, stoner rock, punk rock, and heavy metal at various points throughout their discography. The LP4 was formed in 1994 by veterans of various local groups from the Houston and Clear Lake areas of Texas. Born of the same musical cauldron that birthed such renowned Texas Psych favorites as The Mike Gunn, Dry Nod, and Schlong Weasel, bands which also included later members of Charalambides and Dunlavy, the LP4 got off the ground when guitarist Ramon Medina and bassist Stephen Finley recruited drummer Larry Liska and singer/guitarist Clinton Heider and the quartet began writing and recording songs for their first album, Immortal Chinese Classics Music, released in 1995 on their own Worship Guitars label. The album surprisingly earned considerable attention beyond their native Houston, garnering notable reviews in several music magazines such as Q Music, Factsheet Five, Alternative Press, Crohinga Well, and Ptolemaic Terrascope, and featured "The Linus Theme" and "Hamburger Girl", two songs which came to define the band's early years, and which the LP4 revisited many times throughout their career.
The Amazing Zig Zag Concert was a rock concert held at The Roundhouse on 28 April 1974 to celebrate the fifth anniversary of Zig Zag Magazine. Described as "one of the gigs of the decade", the concert "has taken on legendary proportions over the years" and featured Michael Nesmith with Red Rhodes, John Stewart, Help Yourself, Chilli Willi and the Red Hot Peppers and Starry Eyed and Laughing. The concert was recorded, but was not issued until 2010, when it was released as a 5-CD boxed set.
The Badgeman were a four-piece indie rock band from Salisbury, Wiltshire formed in 1988, although music journalist Pete Frame claims in his book Rockin Around Britain that the band hailed from Melksham. The band has been variously categorised as Alternative rock, shoegazing, indie rock, psychedelic rock, and post punk. The band released two albums on Paperhouse Records, and appeared on two compilation releases, along with artists such as Nirvana, Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth, Echo and The Bunnymen, and The Wedding Present.
Magic Hour were an American psychedelic rock band from greater Boston, Massachusetts, USA and were made up of former Crystalized Movements members Wayne Rogers and Kate Biggar and former Galaxie 500 members Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang.
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