Psych
Album Review: Quilt – Held In Splendor
As soon as Quilt’s new long player Held In Splendor begins playing you get the feeling you’ve been transported to 1968. The room is a little wobbly, the air is thick, and the beanbag you’re sitting in is strangely comfortable. A goofy grin forms across your face and opening track “Arctic Shark” has done its job. …
Psych Insight: Album Review – Hello Griefbirds! by The Shine Brothers (Cardinal Fuzz)
To say that Cardinal Fuzz are on a roll would be an understatement. The label has a series of vinyl releases under its belt which have, to my ears, all been winners; and my previous recommendations of albums by The Dead Sea Apes and Vision Fortune might lead you to believe that I have some …
Album Review: Brad Laner – Nearest Suns
Seconds into “Be Gone”, the lead off track from Brad Laner’s newest solo album Nearest Suns you know this isn’t going to be your average listening experience. Part psych-pop, part Eastern-influenced, and all aural sunlit grandeur, Laner takes his Medicine magic and spreads it over 60s-influenced pop and makes a record that sounds quite magical. …
See: New video from Half Loon for Swearword
I’ve got to thank Half Loon this morning. I was up early, very early for a Saturday because I’ve got to go up to Scotland. It was dark and cold, and I could barely drag myself out of my bed when the aloff went off. I was barely dressed when my lift arrived. So it’s …
Psych Insight: Album Review: Wooden Shjips – Back to Land
There have been few new albums out this year that I have been eagerly awaiting more than the latest Wooden Shjips album, Back to Land. The problem with this is that this can mean that I will almost certainly be disappointed with the outcome, so high are my expectations. When I was thinking about this …
Say Psych: Album Review – Stars Are Our Home by Black Hearted Brother (Sonic Cathedral)
Neil Halstead will be familiar to many as one of the main driving forces behind shoe gaze stalwarts Slowdive and country folk band Mojave 3, and is part of the trio, along with Mark van Hoen (Seefeel, Locust) and Nick Holton (who produced and appeared on Halstead’s recent solo albums), who go to make up …
Say Psych: Album Review – Lupus by Dead Sea Apes (Cardinal Fuzz)
Ding! The bell at the beginning of this album seems to tell us that we are entering some sort of sacred space, and certainly the processive drone of the first track, Pharmakon, sounds to me like it could be set in a Buddhist monastery. Although the title of the track would suggest otherwise, it is, …
Track: Triptides release the brilliant psych-pop of Prediction
Once in a while something slithers by my ears that makes me perk up a bit. Something with a certain upbeat charm that doesn’t float by as often as it should. Hell, maybe it’s me. Maybe I’m getting too old to appreciate that “new” sound. Maybe I’m too much of a curmudgeon to really enjoy …
Album Review: White Hills-So You Are…So You’ll Be
White Hills are one of those bands that are pretty much fearless. They’ve run the gamut on their records over the years from Sabbath gut busters to spaced-out Hawkwind to Tangerine Dream-esque ambient interludes. And the crazy thing is that they can pull them all off quite well. Their 2010 double album H-p1 seems to have …
Meet: From Florence With Love…The Psych-Pop Sounds of The Vickers
Once in a while you have to look beyond what your know to find that next great album. Sometimes in order to expand your mind you have to say the hell with what you do know and open that noggin of yours and let something you don’t know soak in. Around May of this year …