Somewhere in the late 1960's, in a country of mild manners and traditional values, amid a dictatorship that had started roughly 40 years earlier, there was a small music scene starting to draw attention in Portugal. A movement led by young people, following the footsteps of the musical scenes in the UK and US, in the search for individual freedom and fighting against the system.

Psychedelic rock was a representation of liberty and free spirit, reflected in the introduction of new instruments, melodic ramblings and long improvised guitar sounds. Influenced by the counterculture movement and the psychedelic sounds coming out of the Anglosphere, bands like Quarteto 1111 managed to thrive despite the censoring constraints of an authoritarian regime that ended officially in 1974.

After having started gaining traction during the 60's, the 70's saw a rise in investment from record labels in psychedelic rock bands. But in the early 80's, mirroring the decline in popularity in the UK and US, psychedelic rock slowly started fading away in Portugal, giving way to other genres that seemed to be "easier to sell" by record labels.

Following a couple decades of social and political transformations in the country and a relative stagnation of the genre, the turn of the century brought a new wave of artists that helped bring back the psychedelic sounds.

With their revivalist and avant-garde approaches, this new generation of artists blends psychedelic rock with different sounds and rhythms, while also cherishing the Portuguese identity that makes them unique. They are not only keeping Portuguese psychedelic music alive but are also continuing to push the boundaries of the genre.

Now, we put together 19 songs that marked this kaleidoscopic avalanche of the XXI century. PORTUGUESE PSYCHEDELIA serves as a guide for the best of psychedelic rock made in Portugal in the last two decades.

ALLERGY INFORMATION: It may contain traces of folk, psych pop, krautrock, progressive-space-noise-stoner-math rock.