The Lay Llamas had something of a delayed impact on me last year. I bought the Rocket Recordings album ‘Ostro’ but it remained on the shelf largely unplayed for several months. When I did get it out again I really wondered why it had not clicked with me before, I loved it to such an extent that it made the Psych Insight Essential albums list for 2014, and it continues to be on regular rotation…especially when the sun is shining.
![Lay Llamas at Liverpool PsychFest 2014. Photo by Simon Delic](https://i0.wp.com/www.backseatmafia.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/DSC_02341-1024x680.jpg?resize=1024%2C680)
Having got into the album I was really looking forward to seeing the band at the Liverpool PsychFest, and they really blew me away. Playing a set which was as much about the beats as the the psych, as much about the African rhythms as the space rock; they delivered a mesmeric performance that really was beyond genre.
Around the same time the Lay Llamas went on a short UK supporting Swedish psych world music collective Goat, and a recording of the former’s Roundhouse set on that tour has now been released on very limited cd and download on 4 Zero Records. The set on this release really takes me back to that night in Liverpool and is a really great recording which really captures what the Lay Llamas are about live on stage, comprising tracks from ‘Ostro’ and some previously unreleased tracks.
![Nicola Giunta of Lay Llamas at Liverpool PsychFest 2014. Photo by Simon Delic](https://i0.wp.com/www.backseatmafia.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/DSC_0214-1024x680.jpg?resize=1024%2C680)
Were that not enough there is also a very fine, and unique to this release, prismatic remix of ‘The Place Where We Come From is the Place Where We’re Going To’ by SILENT PANDA | DEADLY PANDA. Together with the live set this is a highly recommended release both for those who are familiar with the Lay Llamas’ work, and those who would like to hear some unique and very immediate music.
‘Space Jungle Mantra – Live at London Roundhouse’, will be released by 4 Zero Records on 21st June. The CD comes in a vinyl style gatefold sleeve with unique artwork by West Coast rock poster designer and artist, Stacie Willoughby.
- Overmind / Beyond The Time And The Space
- Archaic Revival
- Spiritual Expedition / Something Wrong
- We Are You
- The Place Where We Come From Is The Place Where We’re Going To
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