Category: reviews

The Citradels – Dead Time

If you’re into underground rock and roll music, well then it’s just a matter of time before you stumble upon The Citradels, a psychedelic folk outfit from the faraway yet all too familiar metropolis of Melbourne, Australia.

This is the sort of vibration that sounds as if it was made in an underground cavern, lit only by candlelight, furnished with an old organ, and attended solely by skeletons strewn about the rugged theater of stalagmites and stalactites, listening intently with hollow eyes and dead ears, with nothing but time on their hands.

No matter how hard one might try to pretend, something deep down inside feels as if something went wrong, long ago. What? Well, nobody can quite remember, but at least we will always know that “it’s not meant to be this way”.

And as the last note drifted through the cavernous room, a drip of sunshine dropped from his forehead, and fell forever into the luminous mist of the abyss and into the great fractal ocean of the machine world.

Now take a dive into the colorful world of The Citradels on Spotify, and be sure to give the outfit a follow.

Blume – In Heaven

If one must encapsulate the sonic texture of the underground movement, then one would be hard pressed to find a finer representation of the sound other than Blume, a band flirting with the psychedelic outskirts of the heart of the cryptic movement of dread.

The organ and wavy underlying sound-waves of nostalgic synthesizers takes one on a funkadelic trip through the contemporary chronicles of a project that has indeed been in the presence of Jesus Christ and bathed in his radical glory of holiness.

What seems a fading memory to most, is an antiquated nightmare for others. Indeed, if rest is not in store for the wicked, then who must sleep? The righteous? The meek? When will satisfaction find those who seek it? Will we ever be redeemed and released from this purgatory of suffering? When will we find peace?

These are the manic ramblings of the unforgiven, the lost, the damned, and the fearful. But fear not, for we have the comforting beauty of Blume. Now, check out Blume on Spotify, and give the radical project a follow before you forget again. After all, you are apart of a species inflicted with episodes of amnesia.

Perlin Noise – Glimpse of a World

The brand new single “Glimpse Of A World” is a modern throwback to sixties power-pop encroaching upon the outer-edge of psychedelia. It is the first Perlin Noise recording to feature the full live band of Bret Black, Tom Lessig, Nate Getchell, and Matt Werner.

The track has a unique buildup and combines the nostalgic aura of classic rock infused with a blend of analog and digital sound.

Although the project is not an obscene departure into the underground sound, it bleeds it still, along with a bit of the grunge and a dash of rockabilly grooviness. And at times, acts as the comedic jester of the court.

Listen to Perlin Noise on Spotify and be sure to give the project a follow.

Sawel Underground – Hundred-Sunned Dream Sister I

Sawel Underground is composed of Tristan Hale, Matthew Jones, Stan Taylor, and Ashleigh Moore, all hailing from the Staffordshire Moorlands.

The members of Sawel Underground could be described as rugged, or even “derelict” (in their own tongue) but nonetheless they’re a colorful project with a sense of nostalgic haze, much like the music from the sixties and beyond.

Unfortunately, the lockdowns of 2020 ended their manic spree of live gigs, but allowed them the opportunity to refine their sound within the confines of the studio. In a way, some could say that the involuntary isolation was a blessing in disguise.

Sawel Underground’s debut single ‘Hundred-Sunned Dream Sister I’ delves more into their psychedelic-folk sound featuring a range of antiquated instruments as well as a modified guitar that produces a sitar-like vibration.

It’s a wonderfully delightful exploration into the sound of psychedelia and a must listen as we throttle through the space and time of a new age bleeding with the nostalgic essence of yesterday.

Feel out Sawel Underground on Spotify and be sure to give the band a follow. The outfit also has a radical rendition of “Wild Thing” that is well worth a listen.

SumVivus – Don’t Give Up

The enigmatic track entitled “Don’t Give Up” is a vocal-drunk harmony in direct response to an artist overwhelmed by the feeling of being unsure of their sense of self-worth. It is a track written to inspire one to persevere through self-doubt and those thoughts of darkness that creeps into all of our minds in our weakest of hours.

The track emulates a cyclical ripple effect through the perceived vocal vibrations of both space and time. Vibrations that emit a picture perfect choral ensemble of harmonic dissonance. A paradigm of exquisite beauty we think you should lend your ear to and listen with all your fractal attention.

The release marks the project’s homage to the freak folk tradition of displaying innate vocal undertones while the audience stumbles upon a hushed tone grasped by the fragility of an honest voice left to bare all to those who will listen.

The track was penned to inspire fortitude amidst the psychedelic vibration filled with youthful exuberance and a ghostly aesthetic.

Check out the project on Spotify and if you dig the music, then be sure to give it a follow.

Almelda – Mind

The dreadfully cool outfit from Hull, Molly Beacock and Harry Oetegenn, proposed the idea of forming a band after they discovered their shared love for the blues, jazz music, and folk.

The pair loved Mazzy Star and Big Thief, among many others. And in due time, the duo eventually embarked upon a collaborative journey that is still unfolding to this very day. And although their thoughts came together like bread and butter, it became more and more apparent that they wanted to share their music with a wider audience, so that’s precisely the moment the band truly came to fruition, and decided to share their gift with the world at large.

Dubbing themselves Almelda seemed like the natural thing to do at the time, after all, Molly was a transient vocalist and sound songwriter, while Harry was the aloof music producer.

“Mind” was fully recorded and mixed in a home studio during the isolation period of 2020.

The project set out with the intention of creating a good old folk track, but in the pursuit of finding their own unique sound, the finished product ended up just a bit dreamier and psychedelic in nature. A beautiful ending to a never-ending love tale of ballads and broken hearts.

The lyrics wrap one up in a feeling of love and a sense of a fleeting hope. The feeling of no matter where you are or what you’re doing, you feel helplessly obliged to be thinking about that one person and doing all of the things that you used to love to do with them, before the death of illusion once again rears its ugly head and snuffs out the candle.

Check out the delectable project on Spotify and if you dig the single, then be sure to give the project a follow you filthy animal.

Aloa Input – The Other Rainbow

“The Other Rainbow”, a track from the kings of Neo-Kraut, Aloa Input, is a delightful piece of twisted psychedelia written in a vacant movie-theatre in the bustling metropolis of Mexico City.

Last year, as the project came to view the cosmos from a fresh perspective, Aloa Input focused their attention upon fixed stars: The concept album and mankind.

On the third album by the Munich Kraut-pop band, members Angela Aux, Marcus Grassl and Cico Beck compile a kaleidoscope of anti-hymns that tell of the doom and reinvention of the evolution of humankind.

A true treat for all you lovers of psychedelic folk-rock. Enjoy with your substance of choice, or clear headed if you’d like. It sounds good either way.

“The album’s making was expansive in time and space as the last 5 years saw the band work on sessions between Mexico City, Montreal and Munich…Hypnotic choirs over complex polyrhythms, singing robots on top of cinematic synth-arrangements, flutes, sparkling hits and lost scientists. Aloa Input creates a hybrid of anti-pop, audio drama and music…full of surprises and magic twists. The first single “Desert Something” is a piece of twisted psychedelica written in an empty movie-theatre in Mexico City and is a guiding light to the brand new album “Devil’s Diamond Memory Collection.”

Check out the intricately faded project on Spotify and if you dig the sound, then be sure to give Aloa Input a follow. You will not regret it my friend.

Plastic Birds – See Me

Plastic Birds are a psychedelic rock project with some lovely garage undertones that some may equate to bedroom pop music, but we like to think of the sound vibration as a subtle throwback to a golden era now dead and gone, but not completely forgotten.

A faded resonance that some feel is a tired reflection of a fragmented nightmare. But we like to remember it as a nostalgic work of folk art. A seed of an ancient breed, planted in fresh soil, and nurtured with clean water.

The vocals are nice and smooth like the bones of Richie and the gang, but deep down inside the harmonic vibrations, one can hear a fresh energy mixed with the faded emotion of a blurry past.

Check out the radical project on Spotify and if you dig the vintage sound, then be sure to give the group of petroleum-based songbirds a follow. Now go take a load off.

The Uncle Steves – Stargathering

“Stargathering” is a psychedelic garage folk jam from The Uncle Steves’ tenth album, Flora and Fauna Rule the World, an eclectic mix of cosmic desert folk art intertwined with the animistic folkloric tradition of mystical song and dance.

The project is a celestial journey through the arid Arizona desert with the likes of a harmonica, acoustic guitar, electric piano, fuzzy guitar and a bunch of other bells and whistles. A truly romantic trip through the wasteland of psychedelia.

To us, the sound is just perfect for a night drive out to Joshua Tree. Or better yet, the Sonoran desert, with a sack full of fungal delights and a dear friend of close acquaintance.

Although you may not believe us, The Uncle Steves is made up of just one individual, multi-instrumentalist Chris Picciuolo, who is the sole producer and mixologist of the project.

Flora and Fauna Rule the World is a genre-bending instrumental soundtrack for a drive through the arid desert, with subtle elements of psych, folk, indie, garage, soul, 80’s synth-pop and more obscure elements of sonic experimentalism.

The project is one of true individuation. An obelisk amidst a wasteland of plastic talking heads. A true and honest psychedelic treat.

Check out the radical project on Spotify and if you dig the sound, then be sure to give the The Uncle Steves a follow.

Back in time, back to the country, and back to a lost love. Melissa Carper’s single “Back When” is a wistful recollection and admitted longing for the love of a past relationship that has since ended. Heartache is a popular acquaintance that Carper knows and shows on her new track. With strong distinct vocals, her lyrics ring poignantly as she sings, “You couldn’t get enough of my lovin’, why can’t back when happen again?” Her own heartache mixes with the humming violin and a bluegrass beat that cuts through the melancholy soundscape. 

Through Carper’s artistry, she creates a bittersweet sonic manifestation of how it feels to miss someone, a someone who may have been “the one”. She offers her own unrequited feelings that ring true to her listeners and tell the simple yet familiar story of longing that is not especially unique, but is powerful and perceptible.

As her lower tones bellow and reminisce with clarity beneath the acoustic texture of the soundscape, Carper communicates that such painful personal experience that although this track may be new it feels quite old. It’s the point where life has built up inside and pain tries to polarize, that Carper decidedly cuts through to release truth and play the blues. The result is an open heart that offers solidarity to the many in similar shoes. 

As predecessor to her upcoming album Daddy’s Country Gold, “Back When” points to a promising album filled with honesty, gravity, and swinging liveliness. She contrasts heavy emotion with playful musicianship, as well as a classic maturity to her modern circumstances. With a long history of musical collaborations including Arkansas’ “Sad Daddy” and “Buffalo Gals Band”, Carper has taken striking steps with her new track and soon to be released album. Listeners will find the satisfying vintage sounds of soul, blues, and country, all culminating in rooted authenticity. She doesn’t shy away in her vocals, lyrics, or composition from the honesty and potency of more difficult feelings. Instead, she writes and creates from an internally emotional place that pours out and manifests externally as well-lived music.

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Follow our playlist on Spotify in order to discover other emerging underground artists similar to Melissa Carper. It’s updated regularly and is loaded with fresh tunes. And one last thing, give Melissa a follow on Spotify.

You can feel it. The long drawn hand of a sliding guitar reaching out, sweeping travelers up to floating heights and old sights of the past. It appears a seamless rise as a sweet voice wraps around the hand only to offer a fuller sense of ascent to this flight of sadness and forgotten fancy.

Future and destination sink to the outlying regions of the mind’s eye as LA’s very own Eve Adams’ lulls listeners into what she calls a “place between places” in her opening track, “Blues Look the Same”. This introduction to the nostalgic world of her third album, Metal Bird, amasses a merry-go-round of grounded melodies and sounds that collectively creates a jet-setting atmosphere of a modest, yet melancholy track steeped in the blues. Like a dreamy surrender from the past, Adams’ smooth soothing vocals daintily directs her fellow travelers through the bittersweet turbulence of a fading memory. 

Traveling to such an altitude rarely comes without the fuel of great lows. Living without landing. Presence in the past. Existence apart from arrival. All commonplace feelings in the traveler’s mind who experience the weight of life, the uncertainty of circumstances, or the shattered senses of a great loss.

Here lies the catalyst of Adams album and the heart of her artistry. Through her own personal loss, Adams offers companionship and a guiding hand to a communal experience she calls “exploring the sky.”  Allowing personal vulnerability to sit as the cornerstone of her craft, she transformed her hardship through great honesty and understanding into music that reaches far, wide, and inside.

Gifting life’s great pains as a romantic getaway in the sky is generous but far from self-indulgent. Like a fine-tuned radar, Adam’s navigated introspection with an emotional agility that lands lightly but just enough to collect companions. Through the extraordinary juxtapositions of lost loves and lovely losses, great heights and looming lows, Adam’s gives her listeners the truth that while they are lost in the sky, they are not alone. 

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Follow our playlist on Spotify in order to discover other emerging underground artists similar to Eve Adams. It’s updated regularly and is loaded with fresh tunes. And one last thing, give Eve a follow on Spotify.

“Rivera” is the second single from Los Alcos, a brand new jam band out of Austin, Texas. The track is a psychedelic Latin waltz through both space and time that we think you’ll really enjoy (particularly the catatonic vibrations of a motherly moonlit nature).

The project blends rhythmic Latin funk with tasty indie psych-rock vibrations and rolls them into a heavenly reverberating energy of existential glory. We feel that the track is a true slow dance through the cosmic skies of dark hues of both purple and red. Now, listen and lose yourself in the noxious vibrations of Los Alcos’ “Rivera”.

“Rivera” is Los Alcos’ “Icaro” or medicine song, “the guitar has this haunting sway that lulls you into a trance.  It is an ode to the moon because of its hypnotizing light that illuminates our shadows. It doesn’t eliminate them, we have to recognize our own shadows and do the inner work.  Letting go of what no longer serves you can be painful.  Yet there is freedom in the healing.” Said Vanessa Burden, lead singer of the outfit. “For me, “Rivera” is like my own Icaro, or medicine song, where I am constantly shedding layers of an old self and mourning that part of self, while finding beauty in the process.”

The project was Recorded, Engineered, and Produced by Mike Machinist at Sound Machine Studios. Keep up with the outfit on Instagram and be sure to give our Spotify playlist a follow. Here, you will find a ton of similar music.