Psych Insight: Album Review – Hypnophobia by Jacco Gardner
Well Jacco’s caught me out again. When I first came across his music ahead of the Liverpool PsychFest in 2013 I was fairly unimpressed by what I heard that I didn’t have him on my list to see. I caught him quite by mistake while finding myself in the same room as he was performing, …
Say Psych: Album Review – Eyes In The Melancholy Palm by Cathode Ray Eyes
It’s weird where music takes you sometimes. During my second listen to this album by Cathode Ray Eyes, a solo project by Ryan, guitarist/ vocalist from Psych Insight favourites Cult of Dom Keller, I went off of a mind riff on what would have happened if Ian Curtis had not tragically killed himself. I think …
Live: The Stranglers, O2 Academy, Leeds, 17.3.15
It’s been a particularly full on build up to this year’s Stranglers tour, and I don’t think I’ve missed one since the 1980s. I achieved a lifetime ambition to interview bassist JJ Burnel, and also read a newly published book on the band, by long-time fan Phil Knight. The book, Strangled: Identity, Status, Structure and the …
Say Psych: Album Review – Wicked Sun by Narco States
Narco States are one of those bands who, on the surface, sound like many others who you could safely file under ‘garage’. There are the MC5/ Stooges wails and lo-fi drums, and thrumming bass. There is the sort of wailing organ swirling in and out of the mix which is redolent of any number of …
Live Review: Dead Sea Apes – Shacklewell Arms, London, 09.04.2015
In some ways the Dead Sea Apes were in an unenviable position at the Cardinal Fuzz showcase at the Shacklewell Arms in London last week, part of the Bad Vibrations Label Mates season. This was a special night where all three bands (You’re Smiling Now But We’ll All Turn Into Demons and Anthroprophh were also on …
Psych Insight: Live Review – Anthroprophh, Shacklewell Arms, London, 09.03.2015
When Paul Allen (ex-Heads guitarist and Anthroprophh founder) announced that there was a new Anthroprophh album available on CDr I jumped at the chance to own one, and was very keen to listen to it. I had been blown away by the Rocket Recordings album, Outside the Circle, and, with several hundred other people, was pinned …
Psych Insight: Album Review – Shadow of the Sun by Moon Duo
The first time I listened to this new Moon Duo album I have to admit that I was rather dismissive of it. I didn’t think it was that different from their previous outing, Circles, and, if anything, I thought it also sounded more like Ripley Johnston’s other band Wooden Shjips. After a few listens, including one …
Meet: JJ Burnel talks about The Stranglers upcoming tour & past/ present relationships within the band.
After more than forty years of touring and releasing records it seems that The Stranglers are a band that can still electrify audiences, they have been playing to increasingly packed venues over the last ten years with an exciting live show that showcases the band’s hugely underrated back catalogue. I spoke to bassist JJ …
News: The Stranglers announce ‘March On’ Tour 2015
There are very few bands that I want to see every year, there are even fewer that I first watched as a teenager and still want to see now, and there is only one band that I have seen over the course of around 30 different tours. That band is The Stranglers, and there are …
Say Psych: New Music, A Quest EP by Wall/Eyed
Wall/Eyed are a four-piece from Paris, who formed in late 2013. They describe their music as taking inspiration from ‘post-psychedelicism and Bauhaus’, which is an intriguing combination which would suggest to me that it might be in the direction of Shoegaze. Indeed, while the band’s music does consist of elements that are both introvert and …