Psych albums
Say Psych: Album Review – Keeper of the Dawn by Ancient River
At a time when every man and his bong can be said to be exploring the final frontier with cathedral reverb plastered all over their stoned guitar noodling, it is becoming increasingly difficult to stand apart from the rabble. Ancient River try their best at saying something new by, perversely, not saying very much at …
Psych Insight: New Music – Open Visions EP by Kobadelta
There is something of the night about Kobadelta, in the way that there is something of the night about The Amazing Snakeheads. The band’s songs are reminiscent of drunken late nights in back alleys where under the haze of darkness and incoherence, they stumble across liminal realities which the band crystallise through their music. I …
Album Review: Sonic Jesus – ‘Neither Virtue Nor Anger’
‘Neither Virtue Nor Anger’ by Sonic Jesus, is perhaps 2015’s most eagerly anticipated debut LP, certainly for those fortunate souls who take their music with more than just a pinch of gravitas. Few releases have me contemplating the juxtaposition of Platonist preponderance over Aristotle’s ‘Ethica Nicomachea’, combined with Blake’s adherence that “there is no suffering except …
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 …
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 …
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 …
Album Review: A Place To Bury Strangers: Transfixiation
Transfixiation is the best album A Place To Bury Strangers has made. That’s not to say anything that came before it wasn’t worthy of hurting our ears. But this time around Oliver Ackermann has given the already harsh, dark sound he creates something it really needed: a groove. It’s not all about the numbing squall of …
Say Psych: Album Review, Create and Consume by The Love Dimension
The thing that strikes me about the opening to this album is how it manages to sound both hot and cold and the same time. There is an icey tingle infused by the warmth of the Californian sun as the West Coast melody kicks in. Thereafter, this opening track (the beginning of ‘Side X’), ‘And …
Album Review : Language of Shapes :: Mother Mountain
Language of Shapes inhabit a musical world all their own. Not that they don’t allow certain musical influences to seep into that world and show themselves now and then, but for the most part LoS score their wonderful little universe all their own. Their self-titled debut from 2012 showed a band brimming and bursting with …