Psychedelic – Page 35 – 7th Level Music

Rewind Review: Oh Sees – Floating Coffin (2013)

Part-psychedelia, part-punk, part-garage rock, Oh Sees’ excellent 2013 album Floating Coffin is a wild race and a heavy trip. I mean, just check out that cover.

The album gets off to a great start with the instant mosh pit-inducing “I Come from the Mountain.” I’ve lost track of how many bodies I’ve collided with in pits during this song at their live shows. Frontman John Dwyer sings about the frustrations of relationships (“No one likes heartache or the kind, everyone’s a problem sometimes.”) while throwing down fierce guitar riffs. “Toe Cutter – Thumb Buster” makes you want to pogo no matter where you are, so be careful if you’re listening to it while driving or operating heavy machinery.

The title track has a manic energy to it that is difficult to describe but instantly recognizable if you’ve heard any other Oh Sees records. I’m pretty sure it’s a song about death (Go figure.) as Dwyer sings about lying down, drinking up the sky, and seeing God. “No Spell” brings in some psychedelic jamming (and wild drumming) for Dwyer and his crew to stretch their muscles.

The driving force of “Strawberries 1 + 2” is damn near unstoppable, with only heavy cymbal crashes and floor tom beats to break up the relentless wall of guitar in it. Songs like “Maze Fancier,” with lyrics like “A grave inside a cave, a maze inside a maze,” make me want to run a Dungeons and Dragons game for John Dwyer. The song has a great bass groove throughout it to boot.

Weird, wobbly synths start “Night Crawler” before orc army drumming comes in to shake us up and Dwyer’s echoing vocals contribute further to the haze drifting around our heads. “Sweets Helicopter” sounds like the name of a lost 1970’s live-action Saturday morning kids TV show, but it another song about death…with soaring solos from Dwyer that almost sound like bagpipes. “Tunnel Time” seems to be about a serial killer stuffing bodies under his house or a caretaker of some kind of tomb (“Can’t remember the faces or even the names. I’ve been cleaning up bodies. They all look the same…to me.”). The mixture of guitar and synths is great in this track. The closer, “Minotaur,” is about being stuck in the corporate rat race maze (“I get sick at my work everyday. There is no cure but to stay. Stay away without pay and the horns on my header are getting thicker with each day.”).

It’s a fun, loud, bold record perfect for getting your blood pumping and your head spinning. If you need something to rev you up while you’re stuck in self-isolation and cleaning your house, here you go.

Keep your mind open.

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Rewind Review: Minami Deutsch – With Dim Light (2018)

“They’re a Japanese band that plays krautrock,” is essentially the first description I read of Minami Deutsch after I heard they were going to play the 2019 Levitation Music Festival. I was immediately intrigued by this notion and decided to look up some music by the band. I heard a couple tracks from their 2018 album With Dim Light and was intrigued further. Their blend of krautrock rhythms and Japanese psychedelic music was a neat combination. Seeing them live at Levitation 2019 was the deal-sealer. They put on one my favorite performances of the festival weekend and I knew I had to hear With Dim Light in its entirety. I learned they are far more than “a Japanese band that plays krautrock.”

Keita Ise‘s opening bass line on “Concrete Ocean” is an unexpected, but more-than-welcome post-punk element that drips into a wicked drum lick and guitars by Kyotaro Miula and Taku Idemoto that incorporate jazz and surf elements. “Tangled Yarn” adds some shoegaze to their 1960’s psychedelia, with Miula’s vocals being reverbed almost to the back of the room and his guitar echoing off the walls to hit you from every angle.

“Tunnel” was the first Minami Deutsch song I ever heard and was the cause of my desire to find more. The instant urgency of the guitar and beat hook you from the outset. It’s like the anticipation before a chase that breaks into a wild scene running through a dark city street, a foggy nightclub, a backroom mahjong game, a modern art gallery, and an aquarium. “I’ve Seen a U.F.O.” has some of Ise’s fuzziest bass alongside slightly muted drums. Miula’s vocals are barely perceptible, preferring to highlight the bass, drums, and guitars instead of the other way around.

The slow, acoustic start to “Bitter Moon” is a wild contrast to the psychedelic freakout of the previous track, but it’s more of a slow drift at the end of a race than an abrupt stomping of the brake. The closer, “Don’t Wanna Go Back,” has a cool, bouncy guitar riff all the way through it while Ise roots the track with an unstoppable groove and the high-hat / snare work is as crisp as an oyster cracker.

With Dim Light is more than krautrock. It’s krautrock, shoegaze, psychedelia, surf rock, and even bits of garage rock. It’s also worth your time. I hope they release more music soon.

Keep your mind open.

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Rewind Review: Here Lies Man – self-titled (2017)

The debut, self-titled album by Here Lies Man from 2017 was unlike a lot of rock that came before it. Their music was described with a simple question, “What if Black Sabbath played Afrobeat?” It’s a question to make you ask, “Wait…What?” Once you hear HLM, however, you think, “Yep, this is what it would sound like.”

The massive opening riffs of the album on “When I Come To” (the only lyrics in the song, by the way, apart from “Oh God! Wake up!”) grab you by the neck and shake you, and the organ stabs only serve to make you quake further. The African rhythms are immediately apparent and are downright infectious. Those beats roll like a bubbling river on “I Stand Alone.” The drum breakdown halfway through the track is outstanding.

“Eyes of the Law” brings the funky organ to the forefront, and “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” covers one of HLM‘s favorite topics – death (“Your life ain’t goin’ nowhere…You ain’t goin’ nowhere.”). “Letting Go” grooves so hard it will stop you in your tracks as HLM sings about leaving this world to find better things beyond, embracing the beauty of impermanence. “Let go or be dragged,” as the Zen proverb says. The mostly instrumental “So Far Away” is a trippy track, and the African rhythms are back in full swing on “Belt of the Sun” (and check out those wicked organ riffs!). The echoing organ stabs, Superfly-like bass, chant-like drums, and fuzzed-out guitar on the closing title track all combine for a killer ending to a killer debut.

Keep your mind open.

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Review: King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – Live in Paris ’19

Recorded at L’Olympia in Paris, France October 14, 2019, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard‘s Live in Paris ’19 is one of three live albums they released for animal welfare charities during the massive wildfires sweeping Australia (many of which, by the way, are still burning). All proceeds from these albums go to these charities, and all three were released well before KGATLW‘s “official” live album – Chunky Shrapnel (review coming soon).

You can tell right away that the Parisian crowd is ready to go nuts from the opening notes. The show starts with the instrumental “Evil Star” before breaking into a sprint with “Venusian 2” and “Perihelion” from Infest the Rats’ Nest. “Perihelion” hits the hardest of the two. “Crumbling Castle” is the second longest track on the album (at nearly nine minutes), and the crowd never stops cheering for it the entire time. It tears into “The Fourth Colour” so fast it almost makes your head spin.

“Deserted Dunes Welcome Weary Feet” and “The Castle in the Air” are a great pairing to slow things down just a touch before the rocking “Muddy Water.” “People Vultures” is a crowd favorite (as is anything from Nonagon Infinity, really) and sounds like it’s almost at double the normal speed. The swing of “Mr. Beat” is always fun to hear live. Hearing the crowd sing along to Stu Mackenzie‘s opening flute on “Hot Water” is delightful.

They’re grooving ands swinging on “This Thing.” “Billabong Valley” is always a crowd favorite as Ambrose Kenny-Smith takes over on lead vocals to sing a tale of a gunman. “Nuclear Fusion” is a personal favorite because of the cool Middle Eastern microtonal groove of the whole thing. “Anoxia,” the always rocking “All Is Known,” and the always hip-moving “Boogieman Sam” follow, and the show wraps up with a dive back into thrash metal with another personal favorite – “Mars for the Rich” and then over twelve minutes of the wild, swirling, mind-melting “Am I in Heaven?” – which contains bits of “Altered Beast” and “Cyboogie” as well.

You might think that after this whirlwind of an album is finished – just like any show by these wacky fellas.

Keep your mind open.

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Near Death Experience’s “Conquer” is a solid throwback to 60’s psychedelic garage rock.

Good old Indie Rock, Funk and Soul is what do best. Wow, what a treat they have given us here with their latest release ‘Conquer’.

Formed in 2016 in London, Near Death Experience have taken the best from the greats of yesteryear and induced their own unique style to create something truly unforgettable. Their new single, “Conquer,” boasts an unspoiled psychedelic vibe with heaps of nostalgia, but yet it stays authentic in the modern scene too, which is remarkably refreshing.

Killer guitar hooks and a sublime vocal from Manchester-born frontman Ian Whiteling are all over the track. Taking influence from the likes of The Doors, T-Rex, Bowie and Roxy Music, the group have put together a solid modern rock track with a strong 60’s influence.

Twitter – @neardeathexperienceuk

Spotify – https://spoti.fi/300HH4k

YouTube – https://bit.ly/3eIfsf4

Keep your mind open.

[Thanks to James and Global Sound Group.]

PAINT releases new single, “Ta Fardah,” from upcoming album – “Spiritual Vegas.”

Having first made his mark as a songwriter and guitarist for Los Angeles’ Allah-Las, Pedrum Siadatian has etched out a place of his own with his solo work as PAINT. After an eponymous debut in 2018, PAINT has now returned with the ambitious Spiritual Vegas – due July 10, 2020.

On Spiritual Vegas, Siadatian’s singular touch is unmistakable. Here we find an emboldened artist coloring outside the lines, unleashing an opus both idiosyncratic and focused – cohesion through diversity. The first single from the album is “Ta Fardah.”

“The song is an ode to 70s/80s Iranian melodrama, with a video depicting a man falling in love with a TSA agent,” Pedrum explains. “Quarantine resulted in a homemade metal detector and security screening room”.

Pre-order ‘Spiritual Vegas’ now to immediately receive 2 bonus tracks “A Short While” + “Ta Fardah (Instrumental)”

Spiritual Vegas Tracklist

01. Intro (Phor Phaedra)
02. Strange World
03. Grape St.
04. Lanolin
05. Flying Fox
06. Ta Fardah
07. Why Not, Tick Tock?
08. Meet Me (In St. Lucia)
09. Land Man
10. Tongue Tied
11. Ballad of Adelaide
12. Well Of Memory/ODAAT
13. Impressions
13. Outro (The Lines I Drew)

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Mexican Summer Records!]

Review: Dead Ghosts – Automatic Changer

Dead Ghosts don’t waste time on their latest record – Automatic Changer. The Canadian psychedelic outfit gets freaky right away with opening track “Freak,” which is heavy on trippy guitars and most of the vocals are heavily reverberated shouts.

The first single from the record, “Drugstore Supplies,” has a fun, fast buzz to it that sounds more San Francisco than Vancouver. “Swiping Hubcabs” seems to bend back upon itself as swingin’ 60’s organ sounds swell around you. The beats, harmonies, and guitars of “Holdin’ Me Down” are positively Beach Boys, but with a lot more fuzz – which is not a bad thing.

“Blackout” packs a loud punch and brings in garage rock elements to great effect, and the breakdown on it (complete, I think, with coughing from someone smoking too much…something) is outstanding. “You Got Away” keeps the garage rock coming, and “Turn It Around” brings in some psych-country to the mix. Check out that lead guitar if you don’t believe me. “Merle” keeps this flavor, but also adds some groovy hippy road music to the mix. It brings to mind images of driving down a sunny road in your shaggin’ wagon with all the windows down and the 8-track blaring.

The weird, warped guitars on “Jerry’s Dead” are as liquid and thick as lava lamp goo, and that addition of distant saxophone squawks is a great touch. The chugging riffs of “It’s Been Too Long” push that shaggin’ wagon’s pedal to the metal as they sing about missing a girl (“It’s been too long since I saw you…”). Is it coincidence that the next song is called “In and Out” (a euphemism for sex in A Clockwork Orange), or that the song lasts under two minutes?

The opening drum fill on “Tell Me How” is worthy of a disco track and then the song becomes a booming psych-surf track. The title track moves along like a rickety but dependable truck hauling a bunch of surfers to the beach or hippies to a love-in. “Bad Vibes” is surprisingly upbeat with surf riffs hopping around the forefront of it. It flows (or perhaps, “oozes” is a better way to describe it) into the aptly named final track, “Say Goodbye” – a short, spaced-out fuzzy jam.

It’s a fun record filled with groovy guitars, indiscernible lyrics, garage rock drums, and solid bass that will automatically change your mood when you hear it.

Keep your mind open.

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Rewind Review: Rare Earth – Ecology (1970)

Rare Earth‘s third album, Ecology, picks up where Get Ready left off a year before it – with even more fuzzy funk that brings to mind the pinnacle of the hippie and psychedelic era.

“Born to Wander” is a great theme for the idea of chucking your day job, sticking it to the Man, and becoming a free spirit. Gil Bridges‘ flute solo on it is also a great touch. “Long Time Leavin'” was a big radio hit for the band, and it’s easy to see why. It’s both a nod toward young men being drafted in the military and going to Vietnam, possibly to never return (“I tried so yard, but we’re just livin’ in a grave.”), and toward youth culture at the time looking for something meaningful (“I’m been a long time gone searchin’ for my dreams.”). Kenny James‘ organ solo on the track is sharp, and the breakdown of the song into a brief, fuzzy psychedelic jam is groovy indeed.

Their cover of The Temptations‘ “(I Know) I’m Losing You” is legendary and elevates the original to places that blew people’s minds in 1970 and still does today. Bridges saxophone stabs during “Satisfaction Guaranteed” will get you moving, as will Pete Rivera‘s slick chops – which might be the best on the whole record.

Rod Richards turns up the fuzz on his guitar on “Nice Place to Visit” (written by bassist John Persh) and the band’s addition of Eddie Guzman on conga on this (and the entire album, really) is sharp. They go blend psychedelia and garage rock on “No. 1 Man,” with Richards playing to the moon and the band singing about winning a woman’s love. The album ends with their somewhat operatic cover of The Beatles‘ “Eleanor Rigby.” Rivera’s groove throughout it is rock solid and the additional lyrics of “Take a good look around. Tell me, what do you see? Everybody is lonely. Why must there be lonely people?” reflect the counter-culture movement of the time. The words still hold resonance today.

Like Get Ready, this is essential listening for lovers of psychedelic soul music and the last album with the band’s original lineup.

Keep your mind open.

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Rewind Review: Rare Earth – Get Ready (1969)

Rare Earth‘s Get Ready is their second album, but many consider it their first since it launched them into the stratosphere of popularity in the late 1960’s. The all-white psychedelic soul group signed to Motown was the first (and pretty much only) rock group to bring Motown hit records – to the point that Motown named it’s rock sub-label “Rare Earth” after the band (Gil Bridges – vocals, saxophone, and tambourine, Kenny James – vocals, organ, and piano, John Persh – vocals and bass, Rod Richards – vocals and guitar, and Pete Rivera – vocals and drums).

There are only six tracks on Get Ready, and all of them are good. I mean, the album did do Platinum-level sales, after all. It opens with “Magic Key” and Richards fuzzed-out guitar and Rivera’s wicked grooves and vocals about equality and mutual respect being the magic key to a better world. Their great cover of “Tobacco Road” is full of sweet solos: James’ great organ riffs, Bridges’ sax work, Rivera’s vocals that bring out the blues and don’t try too hard, and Richards’ quick, trippy solo is top-notch.

Rivera’s groove on their cover of Traffic‘s “Feelin’ Alright” is so tight that it could perform in a military parade. The funky, trippy “In Bed” is both a tribute to shagging and to life and death. Persh’s bass on “Train to Nowhere” is deceptively wicked.

The standout track is, of course, the title track / cover of The Temptations‘ “Get Ready” – all twenty minutes of it. It begins with a spaced-out instrumental jazz-rock solo with Bridges’ saxophone taking front and center stage while Persh slowly builds up to the groove of the track and you realize you’re listening to a live recording that proceeds to race off at eight miles per hour. The bass and drum breakdown around the six-minute mark is killer. Richards gets to stretch his muscles as well for a wild space rock solo that flows perfectly into Bridges’ sax solo. All these solos last about thirteen minutes before blasting back into the chorus.

Get Ready is a fine mix of funk, soul, and psychedelia and essential listening for fans of those genres.

Keep your mind open.

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Khruangbin’s new single, “Time (You and I),” is a stunner.

“Time changes everything.” — Khruangbin

Khruangbin, the Houston-based group comprised of bassist Laura Lee Ochoa, guitarist Mark Speer, and drummer Donald “DJ” Johnson, are pleased to announce their new album, Mordechai, out June 26th on Dead Oceans, in association with Night Time Stories. Mordechai comes two years after the release of their beloved and acclaimed breakthrough, 2018’s Con Todo El Mundo, and was preceded earlier this year by Texas Sun, the group’s collaborative EP with Leon Bridges. Today, they present the vibrant, Felix Heyes & Josh R.R. King-directed video for Mordechai’s lead single, “Time (You and I)”.

Khruangbin has always been multilingual, weaving far-flung musical languages like East Asian surf-rock, Persian funk, and Jamaican dub into mellifluous harmony. As a first for the mostly instrumental band, Mordechai features vocals prominently on nearly every song. It’s a shift that rewards the risk, reorienting Khruangbin’s transportive sound toward a new sense of emotional directness, without losing the spirit of nomadic wandering that’s always defined it. And it all started with them coming home.

By the summer of 2019, Khruangbin had been on tour for nearly three-and-a-half years, playing to ever-expanding audiences across North and South America, Europe, and southeast Asia in support of both Con Todo El Mundo and their 2015 debut, The Universe Smiles Upon You. They returned to their farmhouse studio in Burton, Texas, ready to begin work on Mordechai. But they were also determined to slow down, to take their time and luxuriate in building something together.

It’s a lesson Lee had recently learned with the help of a new friend, a near-stranger who had reached out when she was feeling particularly unmoored, inviting her to come hiking with his family. That day, as they’d all made their way toward the distant promise of a waterfall, Lee had felt a dawning clarity about the importance of appreciating the journey, rather than rushing headlong toward the next destination. When they reached the waterfall at last, Lee’s friend urged her to jump, a leap she likens to a baptism. As she did, he screamed her name—her full name, the one she’d recently taken from her grandfather. In that instant, Laura Lee Ochoa was reborn. She emerged feeling liberated, grateful for what her friend had shown her. His name was Mordechai.

Ochoa’s rejuvenation found its expression in words—hundreds of pages’ worth, which she’d filled over a self-imposed day of silence. As Khruangbin began putting together the songs that would make up Mordechai, discovering in them spaces it seemed like only vocals could fill, they turned to those notebooks. Khruangbin had experimented with lyrics before, but this time Ochoa had found she had something to say. Letting those words ring out gave Khruangbin’s cavernous music a new thematic depth.

Chief among those themes is memory—holding onto it, letting it go, naming it before it disappears. The sun-dappled disco of lead single “Time (You And I)” evinces the feeling of a festival winding down to its final blowout hours. Its accompanying video features comedian Stephen K. Amos and Lunda Anele-Skosana. The duo wander around London, placing singular sandcastles throughout the city’s various scenery.

Musically, the band’s ever-restless ear saw them pulling reference points from Pakistan, Korea, and West Africa, incorporating strains of Indian chanting boxes and Congolese syncopated guitar. But more than anything, Mordechai became a celebration of Houston, the eclectic city that had nurtured them, and a cultural nexus where you can check out country and zydeco, trap rap, or avant-garde opera on any given night. It is a snapshot taken along a larger journey—a moment all the more beautiful for its impermanence. And it’s a memory to revisit again and again, speaking to us now more clearly than ever.

Watch the Video for “Time (You and I)” –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oc50wHexbwg

Mordechai Tracklist:
1. First Class
2. Time (You and I)
3. Connaissais de Face
4. Father Bird, Mother Bird
5. If There is No Question
6. Pelota
7. One to Remember
8. Dearest Alfred
9. So We Won’t Forget
10. Shida

Pre-order Mordechai –
https://khruangbin.ffm.to/mordechai

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Sam at Pitch Perfect PR!]