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Psych Insight: Album Review, Zement:Werk by Zement
I’m going to break with tradition here and begin with a the band’s press bio, basically because it tells you all you need to know: “This duo is less about an inorganic building material and more about an improvised jam to drift away. More analog meets digital as a bulk product. Repetitive meet psychedelic sounds, …
Psych Insight: EP Review, Raw Desire EP by Kill West
Kill West are a band who will be familiar to many regular readers. With two previous releases to its name, a self-titled EP and debut album ‘Smoke Beach‘, the band have already built an strong reputation for blues drenched psych/ surf rock; but ‘Raw Desire’ sees the band develop away from both the smoke and …
Psych Insight: Premiere, Shivers by Kill West
Very exciting news, because here is the first new track from Buenos Aries band Kill West since its very well received 2015 ‘Smoke Beach’ album. This new track, ‘Shivers’, is part of a new EP entitled ‘Raw Desire’, which is being released jointly by Argentina’s Crang Records, and the UK’s Drone Rock Records (who debuted …
Psych Insight: Album Review, Sabdatanmantra by Ramayana Soul
After what seemed like a slow start Japanese label Guruguru Brain really seems to have taken off this year with a string of releases from different parts of Asia. In the coming month or so I hope to be reviewing quite a few of them, culminating in seeing quite a few of the bands on …
Psych Insight: Live, Henge, Electrowerkz, London, 26.2.16
As a band Henge are well named, a unit that is strangely archaic and yet solid; a band whose music batters through to your very soul. On the evidence of its self-titled debut album Henge is also a band that is pretty difficult to categorise being just about ‘post’ everything that you might throw at …
Psych Insight: News, 5 new Cardinal Fuzz & Captcha Records releases announced
The collaboration between Captcha Records and Cardinal Fuzz seems to be going from strength to strength this year with the simultaneous announcement of no less than five new albums, all of which have been reviewed here on Backseat Mafia/ Psych Insight (click the album titles for links). Three of the new releases are re-pressings of …
Psych Insight: 20 Essential Psych Albums 2015
Following the overwhelming feedback from last year’s Psych Insight ‘Essential Psych‘ list, Adam Harmsworth of Drone Rock Records and myself have embarked on the mammoth task of getting a list together for 2015. Once again it has been hugely difficult to settle on a final 20 albums which are a reflection and representative of the amount of quality …
Psych Insight: Live, Carlton Melton, Liverpool PsychFest, 25/09/15
In ‘Out To Sea’ Carlton Melton have produced one of my favourite albums of the year so far. I think that it is their most complete work to date, being more focused than previous outings, yet without losing that looseness and improvisation that marks out their sound for me. It is an album that can …
Psych Insight: Live, Kandodo5, Liverpool PsychFest, 26.09.15
Kandodo3 is a project founded by Simon Price, along with fellow Heads Wayne Maskell and Hugo Morgan. Considerably less raw and brusque than their former band, Kandodo3 is more about expansive soundscapes and aural topology that the full on sonic assault that marked The Heads oeuvre. Having heard the k2o album, and especially the live …
Psych Insight: News, Fire Records at the Liverpool PsychFest
It is less than two weeks to go until the Liverpool International Festival of Psychedelia and I must admit that I am feeling a little overwhelmed by the number of bands I want to check out before I get there. While I always come away from the event feeling like I have had a brilliant …