Main image is a screenshot taken from Kikagaku Moyo’s Cardboard Pile video, directed by Katsushika Shusshin.
Kikagaku Moyo – Kumoyo Island
A Japanese group’s possibly the last album ever ”Kumoyo Island” will be released in May. Two songs with crazy illustrated music videos are out already. Especially the immediately catchy ”Cardboard Pile” raises expectations high for the upcoming LP.
Crows – Garden of England
London-based Crows published their second album and the single ”Garden of England” is a fiery piece of Brexit / Covid era psych-post-punk.
Ashinoa – Koalibi
The French Ashinoa, similarly signed and published by Fuzz Club, is one of Mertsi’s early year favourites. Do check out their album ”L’Orée”, it’s fruity.
Mildlife – Live from South Channel Island
A year ago, Australian Mildlife recorded session in a small artificial island South Channel Fort. Now this whole session, live versions of pre-released material, is on Youtube, as well as on vinyl. Mildlife sound is somewhat combination of jazz-funk, disco and psychedelia. A tip for the busy ones: in 15:45, a bit slower song ”Im Blau” with exciting rhythm and bass.
Hi all, this time we won’t list ”best” psychedelic albums or singles – instead, here’s a hand-picked collection of fine and interesting music recommendations without any grades or positions. Hope you enjoy these mind-expanding beauties as we have done – and, let’s hope for a good and better year 2022. //Mertsi & Leo
Great psychedelic music in 2021
Acid Dad – Take It From the Dead There’s a feelgood factor to Acid Dad’s music. Their music videos are a shamelessly great burst of tongue-in-cheek psych clichés with your retro colors and over-the-top green screen effects, and their invigorating psychedelic rock sounds good and fresh.
Acid Rooster – Irrlichter You simply can’t have too many bands named ”Acid [Something]”, can you? Irrlichter by the Leipzig trio Acid Rooster is an instrumental four-song psych platter full of cosmische delicacies.
Jane Weaver – Flock It’s once again a groovy, stylish, energetic and glittery psychedelic pop album by the lovely Jane Weaver.
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – Butterfly 3000 What would my lists be without good old King Gizz? But seriously, they just keep finding new colors and new influences, to produce (quite literally) tons of exiting music. While I personally wasn’t the most fanatic fan of their K.G. (2020) and L.W (2021) duology, I found Butterfly 3000 very organic, adventurous and catchy. It’s filled with synth programming and MIDI sequences (just listen to 2.02 Killer Year and tell me those synths don’t give you goosebumps), differing from most of their previous work, and they have one again put effort and creativity in the album’s vinyl pressing and distribution.
Mt. Mountain – Centre One more band that has featured in our lists more than once, the Australian group Mt. Mountain crafted yet another smoothly hypnotic, aesthetically powerful psychedelic album in Centre. I love Mt. Mountain’s style, listening to them is like lying on a velvet blanket under a tree and watching leaves dance in the sky.
Hilary Woods – Feral Hymns Genre-wise, Feral Hymns by Hilary Woods probably slots more to an ambient/drone departement, but let’s not let dull genre limitations play any role here. Feral Hymns is a powerful album that builds an atmosphere of something dark and primal like nothing I’ve heard in a while. As the artist herself puts it: ”A collection of hymns set at dusk. Speckled memory, dust, earth, grit, ritual and chant – purged in the shadows.”
Mdou Moctar – Afrique Victime If you’re into Tuaregi blues sounds like Tinariwen, you’ll surely enjoy this flowing, balanced and rich-in-sound new album by the Niger-based Mdou Moctar. It has a lovely beat to it and the Tuaregi instruments form a perfect alliance with psychedelic guitar sounds.
Naxatras – Journey to Narahmon If you’re into space rock with trippy neo-psychedelic influences, Greece’s own Naxatras is worth checking out. Their new album ”IV” is out on February and the banger psych-prog-spacerock single Journey to Narahmon implies it’s going to be a powerful one.
OSees – Chem Farmer / Nite Expo (LEVITATION sessions) I haven’t listened to that much of Oh Sees (or any of its aliases), but this piece from Levitation Live Sessions is just so packed with punk rock / psychedelic garage energy, so masterfully mixed that I can’t get enough of it. Those two drum sets, phew.
Bonus pick: Frekvenssi Cross-country skiing under warm Spring sun with headphones playing well-hosted radio show about experimental music. What could be a better combination? Frekvenssi, launched in 2021 on Finnish National Broadcast Yle, explores ”experimental” in music from different genres. Frekvenssi also covers live music events, and one episode was dedicated to Le Guess Who? 2021 festival in the Netherlands. Listening to it raised a great deal of enthusiasm to be there and cycle back-and-forth different festival venues with endless amount of cool gigs.
8.3. Laurel Halo & Jesse
Jesse lämmittelemässä paljon suitsutusta saanutta, kokeellista elektronista musiikkia tekevää Laurel Haloa G Livelabissa. Jessen uusi levy Fluids julkaistaan maaliskuun lopussa ruotsalaisella Höga Nord -merkillä. Bändi itse kuvaili tulevaa levyä viime vuonna näin: ”Levyllä on rytmisiä kokeiluja, paljon elektronisia sävyjä ja kauniita melodioita.”
Kuuntele eka lohkaisu uudelta levyltä:
9.3. Siinai & Horte Paikkana G Livelab.
9.3. Mara Balls & Autiomaa Paikkana Korjaamo.
10.3. Liima & Kaukolampi Paikkana Korjaamo.
17.3. Black Lizard, Soft Power & Rokets
Arvostettu brittiläinen Fuzz Club julkaisi Black Lizardin kolmannen pitkäsoiton Celebration Of A New Dawnin helmikuussa. Bändin uusi levy todistaakin, että Black Lizard kestää kalpeamatta kansainvälisen vertailun. Ennen liskoja Kuudennella linjalla nähdään Soft Power ja Rokets.
30.3. Electric Wizard
The Circuksen viereisessä sushiravintolassa voi pitkäperjantaina syömäpuikko väristä, kun Electric Wizardin pörinä painaa seinän läpi. Joitakin vuosia sitten dorsetilaisen doom-/stoner-bändin keikka oli niin kuuma jo ennakkoon, että liput kiinnostivat trokareita ja keikka myytiin loppuun hetkessä. Samanlaista hypeä bändin ympärillä ei ole ollut havaittavissa nyt.
31.3. Psychedelirium 2018
The Circuksessa esiintymässä Jess and The Ancient Ones, Virta, Kaleidobolt, Superfjord, Magic Meredith, Onségen Ensemble ja Malamujér.
31.3. Uleaborg Festival of Psychedelia: Psykedeelinen Pääsiäinen
Lepakkomiehessä esiintymässä Warp Transmission, Hadal Sherpa, Laserdrift ja Albinö Rhino.
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The Portuguese band’s upcoming album Sol is worth waiting for, according to this music video.
Much-hyped MIEN shows their quality
MIEN is sort of a ”super group” as it comprises of The Black Angels’ Alex Maas, The Horrors’ Tom Furse, Elephant Stone’s Rishi Dhir and The Earlies’ John-Mark Lapham. Very promising single with a cool video.
Hookworm takes a break from ”Pumped up exercise rock”
The third music video from the new Hookworms LP Microshift calms down from the previous ones. Learn more about the band from our Hookworms interview.
Psychedelic color flow from Pretty Lightning
It’s a colorful video to a rhythmic Pretty Lightning track Tangerine Stream. A classic psych visualization feels like a nice little variation from the many text videos out there..
Holy Wave on the road again
The Texan group Holy Wave announced a new album due this March. Their new music video is a gloomy one, but it has some nice sounds.
A dazing psych-etno-overdoze from JuJu and Goat percussionist Capra Informis
Seven minutes of relentless stream of psychedelic consciousness is for me on a brink for being too much for one video, but have a go at the new JuJu video and decide for yourself!
First of all, warms thanks to all 30 subscribers of our FRESH PSCYHEDELIA playlist!
We’re excited with our recent additions to the list. There’s a bunch of new music: Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, 10 000 Russos, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Helicon, Sonic Jesus, Gypsy Sun Revival, Mt. Mountain, MGMT, Psychic Lemon and Wooden Shjips. Enjoy.
Subscribe to the playlist and enjoy psychedelic treasures while they are still hot from traveling through the atmosphere!
Kolmas korva 