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 …
Say Psych: Album Review, ‘Horse Stories’ by Josefin Ohrn + The Liberation
The vast majority music that I listen to is, for want of a better word, dirty. It usually has lots of fuzzed up guitar and other effects: sonics that are foggy and dense. Every so often though a record comes along that is clean and clear that I just really take to my heart. Such …
SayPsych: Album Review, ‘Highly Deadly Black Tarantula’ by Teeth of the Sea
Here we are then, around fifteen years late, but it finally feels as if the end of the millennium has arrived. As the forces of power and terror mass within and without a great dystopian darkness seems to be falling on the land. While the mainstream media continues to spew out ephemera to keep the …
Say Psych: Album Review, Minami Deutsch
When I saw that Cardinal Fuzz was bringing an album out by a band called Minami Deutsch I was intrigued but not overly expectant. It was going to be good, well for me the Cardinal does not release anything that is not, and from the name it was probably going to have some sort of …
Say Psych: Album Review, Cardinal Fuzz ‘Stay Holy’ Compilation
Cardinal Fuzz is one of my favourite records labels bringing out a series of, for me, essential releases. This is evidenced by the fact that the label was involved in a quarter of the albums on our ‘Essential Psych’ list last year. This year also saw the label being invited to curate a stage at the …
Say Psych: Live, Cult of Dom Keller, Liverpool PsychFest, 26/09/15
Cult of Dom Keller has been a favourite of mine for some years now. Two cracking albums and a series of enthralling live performances mean that I try to see the band whenever I get the chance. So I was really pleased to hear that they were Cardinal Fuzz Sonic Attack stage, and they did …
Live, Killing Joke UK Pylon tour (Manchester & Leeds) 2015
The Gatherers are congregated, the candles are flickering on stage, the lights go down as the Blade Runner theme sets the scene for the next 90 or so minutes. The moratorium is over as Killing Joke launch into ‘The Wait’ unleashing, albeit slowly, the combined power of the band’s original line up (see my recent review …
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 …
Say Psych: Live, Hookworms, Liverpool PsychFest, 26.09.15
This was Hookworms third appearance at the Liverpool PsychFest, with the band’s rise up the bill over that time matching it increasing prominence and success elsewhere. Following last year’s excellent Hum album (which made the Psych Insight essential list last year), Hookworms have been on something of a hiatus, with most of the band members …
Say Psych, Live Review: Lumerians, Liverpool PsychFest, 26/09/15
Lumerians has been a Psych Insight favourite for some time. The bands most recent album Transmissions From Planet Telos Vol. 3 made our ‘Essential Psych Albums of 2014‘ list saying “This is one of those albums that takes you both without and within, leaving you covered with space dust and the imprints of the therapist’s couch: …