Following a nine-month gestation, the mysteriously monikered PZYK 2020 finally comes blinking into the daylight. The new incarnation – and ultimate realisation – of what was formerly known as Liverpool International Festival of Psychedelia, PZYK 2020 is a continuous, 16-hour immersive journey through sights and sounds of future psychedelia. What was previously a hedonistic marathon has been reimagined as a distilled affirmation. A technicolour transformation that will provide the ultimate re-tox; the first 16 hours of the rest of your life… As with previous years, BSM will be there to bring you a full report on the action.
PZYK 2020 will be housed within a complex of interconnected, industrial recesses in and around Liverpool’s Invisible Wind Factory. Leading the line-up are Grammy-nominated, Anatolian fuzz-purveyors Altin Gün and AGRROcultural Punktronica oddballs Snapped Ankles. They are joined by Lancaster’s finest lo-fi psych-punk collective The Lovely Eggs and the physical, anthemic force of nature that is Black Country, New Road. The recipients of Piccadilly Records’ Album of the year, W.H. Lung, and the much-lauded Vanishing Twin also join our interstellar soiree.
As ever, PZYK is a celebration of our collective oneness. No matter the boundaries bestowed upon us, ours is a cross-border collective, a blissed-out international communion. Niger’s Kel Assouf melts Tuareg trance into a Moon-Duo-esque energy hit; Hong Kong’s Gong Gong Gong utilise heavy garage and distortion to channel the anger of a people; Yīn Yīn (Maastricht) and Helsinki’s Kaukolampi (i.e. Timo of K-X-P fame) add to this borderless silo of joyful international energy. Iconic underground Boston legends Sunburned Hand of Man are joined by Black Dice’s Eric Copeland who, along with Jackie Lynn, cement a characteristically heavy Stateside anchor at PZYK 2020. Kavus Torabi, Michael York and Steve Davis (yes, that one) present The Utopia Strong, a bold forward stride into the unknown for Romford’s finest. As is the newly-unleashed, gorgeously-sinister alter ego of Happy Valley’s Keeley Forsyth – the “new Scott Walker” according to The Guardian.
Tickets on sale now
No Comment