“Corsican Shores” by Deradoorian

Former Dirty Projectors bassist Angel Deradoorian has been operating as a solo artist since 2013, releasing her first solo album “The Expanding Flower Planet” in 2015. “Find the Sun” is an intriguing new album, released a month ago. Here’s the hypnotic locked-groove motorik exploration of “Corsican Shores”:

“Corsican Shores” has the feel of a hypnotic Can groove from Tago Mago, the understated vocals of Young Marble Giants and the esoteric melodicism and otherness of early Stereolab.

There’s a refreshing organic minimalism and simplicity to the album. Three musicians – Angel Deradoorian (vocals, guitar, synth, flute), drummer/ percussionist Samer Ghadry, and bassist Dave Harrington – have created songs that sound fresh, mysterious, and with space for the music to breathe.

It’s the ethos of keeping things simple that makes this Deroodian album sound like nothing much else, while also throwing occasional reminders of the above-mentioned Can, whose experimental Ethnological Forgery Series mode is an additional reference point (ie: “The Illuminator”, a lengthy drum & flute & electronic sound piece, which also evokes the spirit of Sun Ra for good measure).

There are also moments of transcendent kosmiche-folk (“Monk’s Robes”, “Mask of Yesterday”), high-flying psychedelic folk-rock (“It Was Me”), minimal lounge jazz-funk (“Devil’s Market”), and all manner of individualistic goodness in between, often layered with Deradoorian’s mesmerising vocal incantations.

For something crafted by a trio from such simple and under-stated ingredients, the album is a rich exploration of sounds, and a deep dive into the infinite cosmos of Deradoorian’s imagination.

“Burning Wooden Ship” by The Heliocentrics

Today’s Psychedelic Sunday offering comes from London jazz-adjacent psychedelic underground ensemble The Heliocentrics. “Burning Wooden Ships” is from their just-released new album “Infinity of Now”. It’s their 10th album, and 2nd to feature vocalist Barbora Patkova:

I wasn’t familiar with The Heliocentrics until I heard them playing on the store sound system in Relics record store in Dunedin this weekend. “Burning Wooden Ships” here sets out their stall, so to speak. It combines a wide range of analogue instruments, sounds and tones along with the interstellar overdrive of Kosmiche musik psychedelic space-rock, all assembled upon the foundation of some of the finest motorik locked drum grooves I’ve heard since Can’s Jaki Liebezeit human-drum-machine burned itself into my conscious decades ago. 

The Heliocentrics approach is explained far better on their Bandcamp page so I’ll use their own words:

“The Heliocentrics’ albums are all confounding pieces of work. Drawing equally from the funk universe of James Brown, the disorienting asymmetry of Sun Ra, the cinematic scope of Ennio Morricone, the sublime fusion of David Axelrod, Pierre Henry’s turned-on musique concrète, and Can’s beat-heavy Krautrock, they have pointed the way towards a brand new kind of psychedelia, one that could only come from a band of accomplished musicians who were also obsessive music fans. 

They have been playing together for nearly two decades and their collective drive is to find an individual voice. The Heliocentrics search for it in an alternate galaxy where the orbits of funk, jazz, psychedelic, electronic, avant-garde and “ethnic” music all revolve around “The One.”  The Heliocentrics have returned to develop their epic vision of psychedelic funk, while exploring the possibilities created by their myriad influences – Latin, African, and more.”

And yes, this is all as great and as weird and as wonderful as that explanation suggests it will be. Recommended for fans of Can, Broadcast, Jane Weaver, Sun Ra, and Fela Kuti.

“A Flaw in the Iris” by Death & Vanilla

It rains almost as much in Malmö, Sweden as it does in Dunedin, NZ, so let’s brighten a rainy grey Psychedelic Sunday in Dunedin NZ with the eerie atmospheric psychedelia of Death & Vanilla and “A Flaw in the Iris”:

“A Flaw in the Iris” is from the album “Are You A Dreamer?” released mid 2019 on Fire Records. Death & Vanilla are Marleen Nilsson, Magnus Bodin and Anders Hansson, and this album seems a lot less wilfully old-fashioned sounding than earlier Death & Vanilla recordings.  Lines between past, present and future are blurred, their  reverb-heavy dreampop given some psychedelic soul and a cosmiche music heart of gently motorik hypnotic beats.

 

“What’s Love” by Blair Parkes

Christchurch musician Blair Parkes (All fall Down, The Letter 5, etc.) released “Always Running” back in July. Here ‘s “What’s Love” from it.

“What’s Love” is only two minutes long and in that time mixes in the essence of motorik synth-heavy psychedelic space rock. If your attention span is too short for Hawkwind’s extended astral excursions take this short trip around the sun instead.

If you like this there’s plenty more such sounds on “Always Running” which continues on from the heavier pulsing space-rock/ shoegaze development throughout Parkes’ previous album “Saturations” which PopLib featured a song from last year.

“Quiero Otoño De Nuevo” by Mint Field

Hailing from Tijuana, Mexico, the duo Mint Field –  Estrella Sanchez (vocals & guitar) and Amor Amezcua (drums & synths) – are about to release their first album “Pasar de las Luces” next week. “Quiero Otoño De Nuevo” (which translates as “I want autumn again”) is one of two tracks available to stream ahead of the release.

It was a difficult choice to pick one to share here as both are very different and also very wonderful. I’m a sucker for a motorik drum-beat though so “Quiero Otoño De Nuevo” wins out over “Ojos on el Carro” which takes more of a post-rock via shoegaze trip through reverb-washed quiet-to-loud territory reminiscent of the early sounds of Icelandic adventurers Sigur Ros.

“Quiero Otoño De Nuevo” channels that Neu! styled drum/ bass groove for sure, but the guitar and vocals here take the song in all sorts of interesting directions – part psychedelic rock, part dream-pop.

These two tracks are a good enough reason to want to hear the rest of the album. Once again it’s a pity the postage costs for both the LP and even the CD format are so expensive so digital format it will have to be.

“Arrow” by BEACHES

BEACHES (photo by Darren Sylvester)

Continuing the heavy psych theme, here’s a blissful Sunday Psych-out fuzzfest called “Arrow” from Melbourne five-piece band BEACHES:

BEACHES have just released (September 2017) a double album of ultra-melodic psychedelic rock called “Second of Spring”. Actually, it’s a bit more than *just* psych rock, as the double LP format allows the band to mix their usual 60s/ 70s psych-rock via German 70s experimental motorik and 80s New Wave goodness with even more shoegaze melodic pop stylings to great effect, as “Arrow” here shows.

Some songs may even remind anyone who has established a long-running relationship with Australian alternative guitar music (guilty here) of the fuzzy melodic power-pop goodness of the likes of 80s/ 90s bands The Hummingbirds or Someloves. To my ears BEACHES more natural propulsive and joyful psychedelic stylings are way more preferable than the over-worked self-indulgent noodling of some of their much more vaunted Australian psych-rock contemporaries. Enough said!

BEACHES are Antonia Sellbach on guitar and vocals, Alison Bolger on guitar and vocals, Ali McCann on guitar and vocals, Gill Tucker on bass and vocals and Karla Way on drums and vocals.

They’ve been playing and releasing singles, EPs and albums as BEACHES since 2008. You really ought to dig back into their catalogue for stunning gems like the 2013 release “She Beats” which features even more motorik psych+melodic fuzzrock wonders.

“In a Coil” by Kikagaku Moyo

Japanese sonic adventurers Kikagaku Moyo are back with a new album called “Stone Garden” out 21 April. Here’s the pulsating kaleidoscopic swirl of “In a Coil” to set your mind on fire:

Kikagaku Moyo came to PopLib’s attention a few years ago with the beautiful album “House in the Tall Grass” which mixed heavy-psych rock, Krautrock and more pastoral acoustic psych-folk together into an accessible album.

This track is the only preview track available for the new album so we’ll have to take the word of their label – Guru Guru Brain – that this album is more experimental, built around lengthy improvised jams. “In a Coil” comes over like the most frantic passages of the previous album condensed into one mesmerising 6 minute trip through space and time, a quivering sitar coda adding an Eastern air to this Neu! influenced pulse of cosmic music. It’s an understatement to say this is a promising introduction to the new album.

“75 Watts Frosted” by MarineVille

MarineVille from the cover of their “Face” 7″ from 2012 on Epic Sweep Records

MarineVille hail from Wellington and play a raw and distinctively New Zealand version of “driving rock” music. “75 Watts Frosted” is the opening track from their 4th album “Penguins Ate My Chips” which is out in a few weeks on LP on Zelle Records.

The line-up of the band which recorded “Penguins Ate My Chips” is led by guitarist/ vocalist Mark Williams and includes a few names folks may remember from some other NZ bands. Denise Roughan (Look Blue, Go Purple, 3Ds) plays bass, Greg Cairns (The Renderers, The Verlaines, Constant Pain) plays the drums, and Jeremy Coubrough (Tlaotlon) plays  keyboards.

“75 Watts Frosted” is a rip-snorting opening track. Part motorik beat, part wild fairground ride. Imagine Deep Purple’s “Highway Star” mixed with The Sweet’s “Ballroom Blitz” played by the Able Tasmans and you are on your way to understanding the loopy genius of this classic slice of urban New Zealand storytelling rock and roll.

“Penguins Ate My Chips” was originally self-released by Williams in 2015 on cassette. The LP version (out 15 March 2017) on Austrian label Zelle Records, which specialises in Southern NZ sounds, is a suitable acknowledgement of an album that fits comfortably into the beer and sweat-stained fabric of the NZ alternative rock underground.  The download also contains the live album 15 Wax Tears, recorded in 2011 and originally released on cassette in 2012.