Browsing Tag

Psych Rock

New Earth Farmers share their reverent soul in their psych-tinged compassionate single, Everything Was Beautiful, Goodbye.

Posted on 26 November 2021
Into The Great Unknown by New Earth Farmers

After the pandemic inspired Nicole Storto and Paul Knowles to share pensive narratives with the world by forming New Earth Farmers, the duo delivered the resonance that the airwaves have been crying out for. Instead of musing on the most obvious facets of torment and malaise that gripped the world in 2020, New Earth Farmers delved deeper and explored ego-loss in their latest single, Everything Was Beautiful, Goodbye. Tom Petty and Bob Dylan fans won’t be disappointed with the vintage ease that the single carries through the progressions.

The track would bruise a few narcissistic egos if narcissists were emotionally aware enough to fathom their nefariousness. Considering that they will only ever look in the mirror with rose-tinted glasses, this sweetly psychedelically-tinged single is one for the enlightened.

Everything Was Beautiful, Goodbye, is now available with the rest of their album, Into The Great Unknown,  via Bandcamp.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Sakara’s Son gave grunge a psychedelic kick with their single, Crying Shame

Posted on 23 August 2021
Sakara's Son

Irish alt-rock artist, Sakara’s Son, gave their grungy alt-90s single, Crying Shame, a bluesy psychedelic garage rock kick and proved just how mind-melting Alice in Chains could have been if they were a little bolder with their distortion pedals.

After an early FNM-style intro, the swaying melodies give way to a sonic kaleidoscopic furore, forceful enough to leave the hair on the back of your neck give a standing ovation to Sakara’s Son.

There really is no overstating the level of energy and innovation contained in this scathingly veracious release, paired with the practically pornographic guitar solos, what more could you possibly ask for, other than the opportunity to experience that wall of noise live?

Stream Crying Shame on Spotify and Bandcamp; connect with Sakara’s Son on Facebook.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

8udDha bl0od – 8888: Avant-Garde Glitch Wave Psych Rock

Posted on 5 August 2021

Glitchy electronica meets psych-rock in Brighton-based artist 8udDha bl0od’s latest instrumental single 8888; the avant-garde production allows the static electronic effect to bite into the old school rock n roll guitars which drive you through the indulgent chaos of the soundscape.

As 8888 gears toward the outro, tribal energy starts to tear its way into the release before a sharp and sudden close affirms just how immersive the single was, once your rhythmic pulses are at a loss with the silence.

Even with the artist’s ever-evolving sound, you can appreciate the signature style of 8udDha bl0od that ensures each of his releases come with a psychedelic kick and dirty rock tones that bring familiarity to his otherwise eclectically obscure releases.

Listen to 8888 for yourselves by heading over to SoundCloud now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Owen Hamlin gives us the Green Light in his debut garage rock single.

Posted on 1 August 2021

‘Green Light’ is the melodic psych-pop-tinged debut single from the breaking garage rock artist Owen Hamlin; any fans of The Strokes, The Kooks and The Libertines will want to experience the vintage tones for themselves.

With the inventive use of the wah pedal, we can guarantee that the guitar solos in Green Light hit like no other. Owen Hamlin’s use of brash and kaleidoscopic textures resulted in a soundscape that is as scuzzy as it is soulful.

With his debut album Right as Rain in the pipeline, you will want to save space for Hamlin on your radar.

Green Light is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Bob Ballard invites you to enjoy your lockdown-induced mania in ‘Locked Up’.

Posted on 22 July 2021
Bob Ballard

You can laugh, or you can cry, and we have been doing plenty of the latter during our mania-inducing isolation during lockdown (don’t lie), it’s always refreshing to get a fresh perspective, such as the one in Bob Ballard’s light-hearted lockdown track, Locked Up.

The dusty desert rock hit carries some staunchly rock n roll hallmarks; to amplify Ballard’s playful, freshly ambivalent attitude, jazzy psychedelic tones weave their way into the mix.

In essence, Locked Up proves just how well the devil-may-care attitude would have served us if we’d adopted it from the start. After all of the anxiety, we’re still breathing; we can still enjoy sardonically ingenious tracks such as Locked Up that take some of the sting out of our dystopic existence.

Get a serotonin hit from Locked Up for yourselves by heading over to Bob Ballard’s official website.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The 90s indie rock icons Airbus return with their third studio album, ‘You’.

Posted on 13 July 2021
Airbus

If you paid attention to the UK rock scene in the 90s, you might already be acquainted with Airbus who are set to release their psychedelically sweet third studio album, You, via Spira Records.

The album unleashes singles penned and recorded back in the 1990s; the band lifted the audio from master tapes using a 24-track 2-inch tape machine to keep the warm analogue glow of the original recordings. Short of hopping in a TARDIS and pushing your way to the front of the crowd when Mazzy Star performed at the Shoreline Amphitheatre, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better way to transport yourself back to the 90s.

If you can imagine what an aural cocktail of The Zombies, Elliott Smith and the Beatles would sound like, you’ll get an idea of the dreamy, colourful accordance that is weaved in the standout single ‘I’. Reminiscences aside, the band’s masterfully melodic presence on the airwaves once more is a breath of fresh kaleidoscopic air. The lead track carries that dreamy feel of wholesome wild abandon that most have forgotten how to offer in the 21st century.

Airbus’ upcoming album is due for release in September 2021. You can check out the band on Spotify, Facebook and YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The Unwriters deliver serious sonic flavour in their blues-funk-rock single, ‘The Devil’s Run’.

Posted on 23 June 2021
The Devil's Run (Freedom & Justice) by Tᕼᕮ ᑌᑎᗯᖇITᕮᖇS

Italian alt-rock outfit The Unwriters have unleashed their latest blues-funk-rock single, The Devil’s Run (Freedom & Justice); any fans of Black Midi will want it in their ears. Despite the, quite literally, devilish sensibility to the single, there’s a potent amount of soul weaved into the psychotropic release.

The funk-riding bass lines, reverb-drenched choppy guitar chords, snapping percussion, and psych-heavy synths all pull together to offer some serious sonic flavour that you’ll want to devour time and time again.

The Unwriters may be relatively fresh from their inception, but between them, they have over 25 years of experience in the industry, which goes a long way in explaining the level of maturity in their highly nuanced sound that dabbles in everything from old school hip hop to gospel.

The Devil’s Run is now available to stream and download via Bandcamp.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Take an Avant-Garde Psych Rock Trip with Chase Hagerman’s single, ‘Scarlet, Crimson, Purple and Blue’

Posted on 19 June 2021

‘The Rainbow Opus’ is the ground-breaking debut album from the up and coming, classically trained psych-rock artist and producer Chase Hagerman. Through each single, the Californian artist brings kaleidoscopic colour, yet, ‘Scarlet Crimson, Purple, and Blue’ is irrefutably the best introduction to Hagerman’s eccentric post-punk-tinged style.

Starting with a cutting and angular intro that wouldn’t be out of place on a Legendary Pink Dots single, the entrancing feat of psych-rock smoothly shifts into a sonic smorgasbord of avant-garde psych-pop, post-punk, 70s electronica. By mixing light accordant tones with harsh fuzzy synth notes, immersing yourself in Scarlet, Crimson, Purple, and Blue is as close as you will get to falling into a rabbit hole aurally.

The Rainbow Opus is now available to stream via Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Matt Jacob has made his spacey psych-rock debut with ‘Chakra Song’.

Posted on 19 June 2021

NYC-hailing singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Matt Jacob has released his spacey psych-rock debut single, Chakra Song. Any fans of the Fall will want to take the cosmonautical trip the single invites you to embark.

Matt Jacob has performed throughout NYC alongside some seriously high-profile names, but perhaps most notably, he has performed in hospitals and taught music to girls in a Cambodian orphanage via Zoom; which goes some way in explaining why the soul on offer in the indulgently mellow single feels so sincere.

The meditatively cathartic single is an incredibly promising debut that will no doubt leave the artist on the radars of post-punk and psych-rock fans alike.

Chakra Song is now available to stream via Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The Television Of Cruelty go out of this world with ‘The Winchcombe Meteorite’

Posted on 18 June 2021

Eclectic is a word that gets overused in music reviews, but there are few that fit The Television Of Cruelty better; unexpected, often eerie and unsettling, ‘The Winchecombe Meteorite’ is a narrative tale telling the story of a big chunk of space debris which landed on the driveway of a house smack in the middle of Suburban England in February 2021, amongst the lockdown of the Coronavirus pandemic and the echoing divisions of Brexit and the Black Lives Matter protests.

Musically, there’s a mixture of folk, prog, and out and out rock; guitars, yes, and drums, but also flutes and a melodica. It sounds a little like New Model Army back in their ‘Vengeance’ and ‘Thunder and Consolation’ perfection heyday, mixed with ‘Space Oddity’-era Bowie and dashes of Pink Floyd and Yes. It’s gentle, poetic, storytelling folk-prog that’s a perfect introduction to the ToC’s new album ‘England’s Wyrding’. Stellar (sorry).

Check out ‘The Winchcombe Meteorite’ on Soundcloud; follow the Television of Cruelty on Facebook and Twitter.

Review by Alex Holmes