It is around about this time of year that my thoughts begin to turn to the Liverpool PsychFest, being held in the hugely atmospheric Baltic Triangle a stone’s throw away from the old Liverpool Docklands on 25th and 26th September. Now in its fourth year, the event is very much part of the ‘psych’ scene and, for me, acts as my definition for what ‘psych’ music actually is because, year on year, the line-up defies definition, and avoids cliches and bandwagons; yet somehow feels curated and, above all, experimental.
The 2015 event no different with an eclectic mix of over 75 acts, this year over four stages. My initial reaction to the line-up is similar to previous years, a few acts who I know well such as Spiritualized, The Heads, Hookworms, The Cult of Dom Keller, The Holydrug Couple, Jacco Gardner, Lumerians, Carlton Melton, Dengue Fever, Kogumaza, Joel Gion, and Anton Newcome. There are then others with whom I am vaguely familiar such as Destruction Unit, Evil Blizzard, Virginia Wing, Mamuthones, Hey Colossus, Fumaca Preta and K-X-P; bands who I know are going to be amazing…but how to find the time? For me the PsychFest will be a perfect time to finally check them out.
Then there are the majority of acts whom I’ve never come across before, and these are the really exciting ones because I know that amongst them I’m going to find some brilliant stuff that it going to be really out there…music that is most likely going to be indescribable, yet is going to stay with me for years to come. This is why I have been spending much of the summer months over the last few years getting to know the bands of the Liverpool PsychFest bill because, while I know I’m not going to like them all they’re all going to worth a listen; and I’ll be sharing my favourites here.
I’ll be unpacking more about the Liverpool International Festival of Psychedelia in future posts as I get into it more myself, tickets are available here
Here’s my thoughts on and photos of last year’s events: Day 1/ Day 2
