“Mirrors” by Earth To Zena

Wellington 4 piece shoegaze/ psych rock band Earth To Zena return with a new single “Mirrors” ahead of their third EP following “Transmundane” (2018) and its semi-unplugged/ part-ambient companion EP “Transmutations” (2019):

“Mirror” doesn’t stray far from the ambitious blend of shoegaze-inspired dreamy guitar+synth pop along with heavier sonic space-rock blast and psychedelic rock overtones the band introduced on the “Transmundane” EP.

However the song adds even more hard crunch to the loudest parts of their quiet-loud-even-louder dynamics, flexing rhythmic and time-change muscle. The added complexity comes without loss of any of the emotional intensity of Earth To Zena’s epic transmissions from the deep space of the heart.

光线 (Train Of Light) by Baihu 白虎

Haven’t had a Psychedelic Sunday post for a while, but there’s something about the unstable power and energy of passing electrical storms that makes “Train of Light” from Power of the Light, Beauty of the Shadow by Baihu 白虎 a perfect soundtrack for today’s changeable weather.

Baihu 白虎 are from Beijing, China, with links to Birdstriking, involving bassist Zhou Nairen and guitarist He Fan, together with members of Carsick Cars, Gate To Otherside, Skip Skip Ben Ben, and Ricky Maymi of Brian Jonestown Massacre.

While Birdstriking are more in the shoegaze pop/ rock realm Baihu are a full Kosmiche Musik psychedelic rock experience, mixing gloriously atmospheric space rock with shoegaze guitar effects, burbling snyth, and some post-rock soundscapes for good measure.

Power of the Light, Beauty of the Shadow by Baihu 白虎 was released in May and is available on CD as well as the digital download via Bandcamp.

“Everybody Cool” by The Belair Lip Bombs

From the bottomless scuzzy pop pit of Melbourne here’s another Mikey Young mastered sound explosion from a band called The Belair Lip Bombs. So far so surf. Their recent three track EP “Songs to Do Your Laundry To” kicks off with “Everybody Cool”, which starts like the ghost of Dick Dale sparring with Thee Oh Sees. But keep listening…

… because, at around the 1 minute 30 mark, “Everybody Cool” shifts gear, transforming from surf instrumental beginnings into a kind of hybrid collision of post-punk and pyschedelic rock which works like a treat.

The Belair Lip Bombs are Maisie Everett on guitar and lead vocals, Mike on lead guitar, Jimmy on bass and Liam on drums. The genre-confounding hybridised mutating sound of “Everybody Cool” is a feature of the whole EP. Even the radio-friendly sophisticated funky soul-pop cheese of the second track “Blah Blah Blah” is a killer mix of Orange Juice and Frente style pop coolness. [postscript: finally figured out what this earworm tune reminded me of – The Cardigans “Lovefool (Say That You Love Me)”]

The trio of tunes is rounded out by the frenetic punk-pop speed-fest of “I Think I Like You” for a bit of a sonic purge to confuse the casual listener even more. It’s like having three favourite new bands on the one three-song EP.

“Family Portrait Revisited” by Kool Aid

Is the Christchurch music scene only about a dozen musicians who are all interchangeably members of all of the vast multitude of fine fuzz & jangle guitar bands sprouting regularly from the South Island’s largest city?  Kool Aid provide further evidence to support this theory via their new single “Family Portrait Revisited”

Kool Aid (thankfully now shortened from a formerly longer variant involving the name of a self-styled NZ bishop and cult-leading bigot I won’t bother naming) include Jamie Stratton, Violet French, Luke Towart (Wurld Series, Adam Hattaway & The Haunters), Ben Dodd (Ben Dodd & His Organ), the ubiquitous Brian Feary (drummer in every Christchurch band this decade*), and Spencer Hall.

On the strength of “Family Portrait revisited” Kool Aid may well be the best of the bunch. Recorded at The Dogshit Factory in Christchurch, “Family Portrait Revisited” manages to combine the essence of David Kilgour’s nonchalant strum and twang with the melodic laid-back psychedelia of Rain Parade.  The more I listen to the song the more perfect it becomes. Looking forward to hearing the whole EP set for release 11 July on prolific Christchurch label Melted Ice Cream.

*Bands Brian Feary has played in include X-Ray Charles, Wurld Series, Shacklock Meth Party, Dance Asthmatics, Salad Boys, Christian Rock, and probably dozens more I’ve forgotten about or don’t know about, and if he hasn’t played drums in a band he has recorded and/or mastered their recordings and/or designed the artwork for their release. He’s the Mikey Young of the Christchurch underground scene and deserves a medal.

“I Can’t See Anything” by Koizilla

Here’s some magic flute-tootlin’ psychedelic-prog rock rifferama for your Psychedelic Sunday from Dunedin band Koizilla, with their new single “I Can’t See Anything”:

Koizilla – Zac Nicolls (guitar and vocals), Hilary Faul (flute, vocals, keyboards, percussion), Connor Blackie (bass, vocals) and Josh Nicolls (drums) – have always had a bit of that accidental early 1970s German psych-prog sound to me, which is why their skillfully executed blend of riff-rock and prog-rock precision time changes has been so easy to enjoy. Koizilla are all about the adventurous risk-taking glee of melodic multi-instrumental synchronicity rather than the joyless mechanical precision of musical theory mathematics exercises that prog-rock forms can sometimes amount to.

“I Can’t See Anything” is all over the place – in the best possible way. Nothing else does what a flute does in rock music. The magic flute melodies here bounce off the riff and rhythms and when the rhythmic pulse drops away for the more pastoral passages here Koizilla head deep into the territory of Swedish psychedelic rock ensemble Dungen, which is a wonderful place to be for all of us.

“Out of It” by Te Huhu

NZ Music Every Godzone Month! sign from Too Tone Records in Dunedin.

Our New Zealand Music Month day #26 song is another Psychedelic Sunday special, the laid-back, borderline-comatose narcoleptic swirl of “Out of It”:

Don’t know anything about Te Huhu but do know the album this is from – “Recychedelia” – was released last month and that it is a excellent collection of woozy slow-motion psychedelic guitar rock likely to appeal greatly to fans of Spaceman 3 and also The Kingsbury Manx. It’s a very good way to spend a relaxing Sunday during “New Zealand Music Month” anyway.

“Líneas En Hojas” by Lorelle Meets the Obsolete

Lorelle Meets the Obsolete are a duo from Guadalajara, Mexico and “Líneas En Hojas” is a track from their recently released (third?) album “De Facto”:

The track combines melodic dream-pop with tense experimental post-punk tinged psychedelia. That minimal drum, bass, voice, guitar, synth repetition, building up into layered constructions and the contrast between light and dark/ dream and nightmare/ soft and harsh is a feature of many of the songs on this intriguing album.

Lorelle Meets the Obsolete are Lorena Quintanilla (Lorelle) and Alberto González (The Obsolete) with “De Facto” featuring a handful of additional musicians.

“Celestial Skins” by Earth to Zena

Earth to Zena are a 4-piece band from Wellington describing themselves – very accurately – as ‘psychedelic shoegaze’. Here’s the remarkable “Celestial Skins” from their debut album, “Transmundane”:

“Celestial Skins” here represents the best of all the bands’ elements combined together. There’s muscular crushing space rock noise (Hawkwind, circa “Space Ritual”, with Lemmy on bass!) to open and close the song, and, in-between, passages of diaphanous dream-pop/ shoegaze wonder, plus a kind of free-flowing psychedelic rock reminiscent of Jefferson Airplane. The outro combines everything – plus added synth – in a celestial celebration of distorted glorious saturated noise.

Lead vocalist Renee Cotton also plays synthesizer, adding extra textures and melodies to the futuristic (and Hawkwind-esque space rock) elements of the sound, with Barton McGuire on guitar, Alex Sipahioglu on bass and Nic Allan on drums.

“Transmundane” is a great collection of strong songs, rendered with confidence and style, and also quite often with the amps and effects turned up past the point of no return. Give it a whirl for yourself!

“Back to Front” by Alizarin Lizard

Day 19 of PopLib’s 31 Days of May marathon for New Zealand Music Month comes from the “Dunedin-transient pop influenced, neo-psychedelic mess” Alizarin Lizard with “Back to Front”

Alizarin Lizard share a couple of members with peripatetic popsters Ha, The Unclear and are similarly spread far and wide around NZ’s great cultural centres – Dunedin, Auckland and Katikati (I think).

The band has a fulsome back catalogue on Bandcamp exhibiting a wild conglomeration of jammy psychedelic rock with observational lyrics and some proggy touches. “Back to Front” is a single released ahead of a new album and it sounds a lot more polished – a finely crafted psych-pop gem with enough ear-popping sonic adventuring to keep it well left of the mainstream.

The guitars chime with sitar-like effects, a fuzzed out lead refrain soars above, keyboards swirl through rotary speakers, and the reverb washed vocals all combine together to give an effect like an NZ take on a sun-bleached lost early 1970s US band blasting out on FM radio as you take a trip through California in a van full of stoned friends. There’s something almost Todd Rundgren-esque about this wonderful song and its weird but listener-friendly earworm pop.

“Acolyte” by I Think Like Midnight

Philadelphia instrumental 4 piece I Think Like Midnight have a new album out in a few weeks. “This Land is Your Mind” is jam-packed with shimmering and often deliciously psychedelic guitar-driven soundtracks to road-trips way out West of Weirdsville – real or imagined. Here’s “Acolyte”:

The album takes in many moods from surf twang to motorik psychedelia and even instrumental power pop. It often travels similar cosmic trails to the instrumentals of New Zealand’s David Kilgour & The Heavy Eights, and also Australian guitarist Cam Butler. So, if you like those artists or if you like what’s on offer here on “Acolyte”, take the plunge and get the album. You won’t be disappointed.

The recording and sound is rich and colourful, and the ensemble playing by the band balances technical skill with feeling, bringing the arrangements alive. And sometimes those arrangements provide imaginative surprises from additional instruments – keyboards and vibraphone – to add even more layers to the sonic variety and atmosphere.

Here’s another song, called “Tuned Mass Damper”, in video form: