Album Reviews
Say Psych: Album Review, Big Naturals & Anthroprophh s/t
For anyone with any history with Paul Allen, Gareth Turner and Jesse Webb, the trio who make up Big Naturals and Anthropropph; you would expect from the outset that this is not going to be an album of harmonic ballads or even gentle lilting space rock. All three have a reputation of delivering hard hitting …
Say Psych: The Band Whose Name Is A Symbol 3LP Box Set
The Band Whose Name Is A Symbol (TBWNIAS) is a band that I first came across last year when Cardinal Fuzz released ‘Masters of the Molehill’, apparently the band’s ninth album. Such was it’s impact on me that within a couple of weeks it was on our list of essential albums for 2015. Little did …
Album Review: Flame Tree Ft Nik Turner
Original Hawkwind Saxophonist and flautist Nik Turner recently joined Seattle-based experimental jazz ensemble Flame Tree (Dennis Rea on guitar, Paul “PK” Kemmish on bass, and Jack Gold-Molina on drums) for an unexpected way-out album of improvisation and freaky free form adventure. Jack Gold-Molina, who played in Spectral Waves with Dennis Rea, in the autumn of …
Say Psych: Album Review, Inner Journey Out by Psychic Ills
This is Psychic Ills first release since ‘One More Time’, one of my favourite albums of its time and one that helped me cement my love of all things ‘psych’. It was an album that had a beautifully lugubrious approach, so laid back yet with some real bite too it. ‘FBI’, in particular is a …
Say Psych: Album Review, Observed in a Dream by Mayflower Madame
Mayflower Madame are a four piece from Norway, Oslo to be exact, who have been developing an interesting sound over the last few years. In these days where everything that drops into my in box seems to be some for of spurious excuse for psych(edelia) these guys are closer to the real deal than most. …
Say Psych: Album Review, 芒神 God of Silver Grass by 破地獄 Scattered Purgatory
This is such a beautiful album. I could leave it at that because in a sense that is all you need to know. It is an album that would not be out of place in a Zen garden, with all the notes seemingly placed quite exactly in order to create just the right sort of …
Album Review: Cate Le Bon – Crab Day
Cate Le Bon makes music that is happy and sad at the same time. It’s a mix of 60s euro pop and 70s lower east side New York post-punk. The guitars never get too loud, but they’re played with an attitude by Le Bon that brings the Tom Verlaine/Richard Lloyd guitar interplay to mind. 2013s …
Wire : Nocturnal Koreans
Wire have been one of the most quietly profound bands for the last nearly 40 years. They’ve been labeled punk, post-punk, art rock, pop, and I’m sure countless other genres throughout their massive career, all the while being a band that has influenced and inspired generations of alternative and indie bands that have -for all …
Say Psych: Album Review, Failures by Khünnt
If you’re going to call yourself Khünnt then you are going to need to have a sound that somehow backs that up. In this case the band’s moniker acts as something of a gatekeeper for the Khünnt sonic experience. Basically if you are put off or offended by something called Khünnt, then you probably haven’t missed anything. If, …
Say Psych: Album Review, ‘Sweet Chariot’ by Earthling Society
The Earthling Society are one of those bands who really intrigue me. The music that they produce it more often than not beyond classification, and while on their website they claim the primary influences of 60s psychedelia and 70s bands such as Can, Ash Ra Tempel, Popol Vuh and Amon Duul 2, there is something more …