Temples, Hookworms and the new generation of psychedelic adventurers
 

Temples, Hookworms and the new generation of psychedelic adventurers

Makes me happy.

I'm going to bump this thread up because I just listened to the new Temples album Sun Structures. It's pretty good - not as catchy as Tame Impala but definitely lots of potential.

I've decided I'm going to use this thread as a place to review new (and recent) neo-psychedelia albums on an ad-hoc basis. I'm on my 2nd listen of Structures right now and will give a complete review of it later.

EDIT: I might also add occasional links to news stories about the current state of psychedelia.

Alright here's my review of Sun Structures.

In my reviews I'm going to be a bit different from most music reviewers: I will focus almost exclusively on the music itself, almost totally ignoring the lyrics -- unless, for some reason, they jump out at me on a particular song. Lyrics are rarely important to me (half the time I can't even make out the words anyway, especially for a genre like psychedelia), so I'm not going to spend time trying to figure out what the song is saying.

I will also not write a review unless I've listened to an album at least 3 times.

Every album will start out with an overall impression. Then, each song will get a quick review/impression, and a rating on a 1-to-10 scale in red. At the end of the review, the album itself will get a 1-to-10 rating, plus an observation about what the album does to the World Psychedelic Music-O-Meter. :)

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Grooveshark link to the album is here.

http://www.daily-rock.com/img/pics/74/7467-kro4247.jpg

So here we have yet another retro-60's sounding psychedelic band advertised by some writers as sounding like the Beatles. Except that they don't sound like the Beatles at all - though the Zombies might be a better fit. Or sometimes the Byrds. Or, especially, the Yardbirds on For Your Love (without the harpsichord). But probably all of the above mixed together into one sound. Somewhat dreamy melodies meander over a fairly narrow vocal range which are backed by, typically, medium-tempo pop/rock arrangements. There is a certain sameness about many (most?) of the songs, but with enough variation so as to leave the listener feeling that only maybe 3 or 4 of the 12 songs sound a lot like other songs on the album. Of the 12 tracks, I find there are no I would call "great" or "outstanding," but there are 2 very good ones nestled next to each other in the middle of the album, one at the end of the album is different enough from the others to merit special mention, and all the other songs are "OK," or "good." There weren't any songs I found I wanted to skip.

The songwriting features some recurring melodic patterns the listener will pick up on quickly. The melodies are decent, but not what I would call "extremely catchy." Most, but not all, songs seem to have long-ish instrumental endings. The album is definitely a lo-fi recording (it was recorded in one of the band member's houses), but I find that to be a strength, not a weakness, as it adds to the retro appeal. There are no epic-length, 10-minute songs - this is definitely psych-pop, not High Art, though they arguably are more "rock" than, say, Tame Impala. But not by much.

Shelter Song: Probably the most retro-sounding song on the album. Sounds like early Byrds, Zombies, etc. circa 1965, down to the tone of the guitar riff. Almost like a pre-psychedelic piece. Main hook is a shout-and-echo routine with a dreamier-sounding refrain. Good opening song, upbeat tempo, really sets the tone for the album. 6

Sun Structures: This is a faster-paced, somewhat tense/nervous song, with a quick fuzz guitar riff interrupting quick-but-dreamy melody lines. Imagine For Your Love quick-processed by a computer with heavy reverb, fuzz guitar and a dreamier melody. The 2nd half of the song is largely instrumental. 5

The Golden Throne: This is a poppier tune with a somewhat slower pace and a somewhat more restrained arrangement. A fairly light melody line is occasionally interrupted with rather harsh, "monster-esque" guitar riff. Last lines of each verse just before refrain are very effective as a short harmonic section kicks in. Here is where I sense better songwriting to come. Song ends with a long, quiet organ line. 6.5

Keep in the Light: This could almost pass for a somewhat subdued/darker Monkees song. I'm almost imagining Davey Jones singing a bouncier tune in higher registers to the same arrangement, with the other Monkees kicking in during the refrain. Or maybe a subdued version of Love is Only Sleeping. 6

Mesmerise: The most interesting song yet. Almost more 80’s than 60’s. The slightest hint of Squeeze shows up here. Imagine "Pulling Mussels From the Shell" with a dreamier melody. And I've probably already over-used the word "dreamy" but it's the only good word for the sounds I'm hearing. :) 7

Move with the Season: Here we have the best song. Almost a Led Zeppelin, Kashmir-esque deliberate pace with heavy beats but an airy and dreamy melody (there's that word again!). Almost could be a big hit, but not quite. Melody and feeling very good, almost Tame Impala quality here. I'm getting the impression I could get more into this song with more listens. 8

Colours To Life: This sounds more like filler, similar to the other songs without standing out. Decent but not great melody. 6

A Question Isn’t Answered: Hard-driving, standard rock ¾ beat. Another decent but not great melody. I could swear I've heard at least 7 songs similar to this before. Maybe as many as 39. Still, it's listento-able. 7

The Guesser: Another faint hint of Squeeze here. Sort-of. I think if I listened to this album some more I'd find more (deliberate or not) Squeeze hints. But, this being (British) pop, the band is obviously borrowing from a tradition, of which Squeeze happens to be a prominent member. 6.5

Test of Time: Better melody than some other songs on the album, but still not a standout. Not filler, but not a main song either. Formula starts to get a bit tired here, even though the song is decent. Nice refrain. 7

Sand Dance: Big break in feeling here, acoustic opening, but quickly breaks into the same feeling/sound as the other songs. Seems like a missed opportunity ... 7

Fragment’s Light: ... Was the opening of the previous song a teaser for this one? Nice acoustic tune, nice melody to close out the album. Biggest problem with the song is it's too short! 8

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Final thoughts: This is good for a first album, though reading the band's bio on Wikipedia the two main band members had been members of previous bands, so they're not really newbies. This definitely isn't hard-core psychedelia, and I definitely wouldn't call them prog either, but I think they definitely fit into the "psychedelia light" category. I'll rate the album a 7.5.

"Move With the Seasons" is good-enough to merit its own Youtube link.

I enjoyed reading that review! :) I too have been listening to this album repeatedly over the last 24 hours. I'm on my 3rd listen right now I think. I pretty much agree with the overall rating you have given. It's decent for a debut album but could be better.

Thanks Musikwala. :)

For my next review I'll be doing The Terror by the Flaming Lips. In contrast to Sun Structures retro sound, this is spacey psychedelia.

Not sure when I'll get to it. Soon.

At long last, my next review. Grooveshark link to the album is here (with some bonus or repeated tracks, I only reviewd the official tracklist as shown on Wikipedia).

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...rror_cover.jpg

This one didn't turn out to be as "psychedelic" as I thought upon my first glance through it. Instead it was more dark and spacey. But I suppose it was still a bit psychedelic - most likely like some bad acid trip - so I suppose it's a close-enough fit for this thread.

Anyway, if you like dark, moody, plodding, spacey stuff, this is your album. Nearly every song, sans the last one, is dark, moody, plodding and spacey. Frankly, I have nothing against dark, moody, plodding and spacey music. But when an entire album is filled with song after song in that category, I get tired of it. Quickly. After about 4-5 songs I found myself eager for the album to end. They're obviously going for a theme or 'concept album' here, but for me the incessant darkness was a bit overbearing.

Look...The Sun Is Rising: Here we have an airy, yet industrial opening song. Scratchy guitar riffs and occasional metallic ambient sounds back a somewhat spacy sounding melody at a moderate pace. Yet darkness prevails, obviously an introduction to an album entitled “Terror.” Not so much psychedelic as just a dark, moody song with some added effects. Good for an opening song given the mood it’s trying to establish, I’ll give it a 6.5.

Be Free, A Way: This is a slower-paced song. Nervous soft background beat against a very slow and deliberate melody sung in constant 1-beat, 3-beat pairs. Long, slow instrumental fade-out at the end. Even airier than the first song. Shades of Pink Floyd here a bit. Nice song, but nothing to write home about. 7.

Try to Explain: This song is similar to the one above except that there’s a bit of crescendo during the refrains. Otherwise you’ve got another nervous background beat set against a plodding and deliberate melody, plus some “spooky” background ambient noises added in. 6.

You Lust: When the opening of this song started the first thing I thought of was, “Kraftwerk.” Once the singing began it wasn’t so Kraftwerk-y, but was instead another slow, dark, moody, “spooky” tune. That said, several times the words “Lust to succeed” are spoken/whispered in a German accent, so maybe the Kraftwerk influence is there after all. Also it has a very minimalist, techno-synth vibe to it, not unlike the German band. I found the “Lust to succeed” a bit annoying. The last 2/3 of this 13+ minute song is mostly a couple of repeated dark synth segment with that “Lust to succeed” repeated once in a while. A couple brief singing segments kick in during the long coda, the last one of which vaguely reminds me of “O Fortuna” in Carmina Burana. 5.

The Terror: At last we have a faster-paced song. But not by much. Another dark, spacey song with a deliberately-paced melody and a long, drawn-out ending. 4.

You Are Alone: More of the same. Instead of repeating “Lust to succeed” as in two songs above, this time they’re repeating “You are alone” (or is it, “You’re not alone?” I can’t tell). At this point I’m only finishing the review because I’ve committed myself to doing so. 5.

Butterfly, How Long It Takes to Die: This is definitely a faster-paced one. And so far, it’s the “happiest” tune yet. But that’s not saying much. More industrial-sounding guitar punctuations with a somewhat faster, but still deliberate, melody and background synths. 6.5.

Turning Violent: Another slow, minimalist, dark, spacey and plodding song. Kinda what you might expect of a song entitled “Turning Violent.” Nothing new here. 4.

Always There...In Our Hearts: At last we have a genuinely fast and somewhat “upbeat” song. I suppose the lone song on this album like that had to be the last one, no? Can’t make out all the lyrics but it sounds like they’re actually pretty dark, maybe. Lots of solo synthesizer space. I’ll give this a 6.5 not because it’s a particularly interesting tune, but only because it’s a relief from the darkness of all the other songs.

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Final thoughts: In the future I'm going to scrutinize albums a bit more before I commit to reviewing them. It's not a bad album with badly-written songs, per se, it's just over-repetitive and gives me the feeling of having over-dosed on some depressant. If that's your thing you'll like this album, but personally I'll give it a 5.5 overall rating.

Anyway, my tentative schedule for my next 3 reviews is as follows:

Cyclops Reap by White Fence
MGMT by MGMT
Hobo Rocket by Pond

Seems like a pretty good mix. First one is about as retro as you can get, second one is more modern but I already know I dislike it but will review it anyway (:)) and last one is retro but not overly so.

Another article on the current crop of psychedelia.

Weird Scene

I'm close to doing my review of Cyclops Reap. Really!

In the meantime, another article on the trend. Listened to the Dead Meadow album mentioned in this article, might do a review of it later.

Psychedelic resurgence does Dead Meadow a world of good

I'm reeeally getting behind on my reviewing here ... have written notes for about 3/4 of Cyclops Reap but am dragging my feet on this ...

EDIT: Not going to do Jaguar Ma after all, it's a bit too far from the genre I'm trying to get here.

tame impala is really the only modern psych band worth a **** IMO. Lonerism was a masterpiece

Finally I finished Cyclops Reap!

http://nme.assets.ipccdn.co.uk/image...600G080413.jpg

This is even more low-fi than the Temples album. Singer sounds like some combination of George Harrison, Bob Dylan, some more George Harrison and a bit of Tom Petty, depending on the song, and sometimes a vague combination of all four in the same song. Oh, and a lot of the songs sound like Harrison songs, too, maybe with a dab of Dylan thrown in for good measure. Like the Temples album I reviewed above, this would be considered a copy of early psychedelia, circa 1965-66, and with a bit of a folksy edge, rather than 67-68 with all kinds of wild electric sounds. That is, low on the psychedelia scale, but there nonetheless.

Link to songs on Grooveshark are here. Unfortunately, Grooveshark doesn’t have all the songs for some reason, so the ones it doesn’t have, I’ve placed links to Youtube videos for the song in the title of the song (those are the underlines ones).

Chairs in the Dark – Fuzz guitars, simple instrumentation, a little Byrd-esque sounding. Fairly catchy tune, but not a standout, somewhat rapid tempo but nonetheless moody melody. Fuzz guitar punctuates the singing. I’ll give it a 6.5.

Beat – Mellow folk-y tune. Acoustic guitar with some distant electric riffs in the background. Sounds like something Tom Petty might do on an “unplugged” album. Nice but not original. I’ll give it a 7.

Pink Gorilla – More punctuating fuzz guitars, but this has other retro-sounding guitars too. A sign of progress? Not really, similar to the first song. Really, really low-fi stuff here. 6.5.

Trouble Is Trouble Never Seen – Medium-paced song, not loud, not soft, and another dose of low-fi, retro-sounding guitars. At least this had minimal fuzz to it. Not unpleasant, but not anything to write home about. 5.5.

Live on Genevieve – This is George Harrison reincarnated. Voice sounds like Harrison, guitars sound like Harrison, melody sounds like Harrison. But I don’t think Harrison would have made a deliberately lo-fi sound. Three out of four ain’t bad, I suppose. Another 6.5.

To the Boy I Jumped in the Hemlock Alley – Another George Harrison copy, slower-paced however. More acoustic, too. I’m tempted to give it something other than a 6.5 for variety’s sake, but when the song really is about a 6.5, that’s hard to do.

New Edinburgh – Very Byrds-esque. Almost tempted to sing “Turn, turn, turn” somewhere in there. Or maybe “Eight miles high.” At least he’s good at imitating, I’ll give him credit for that. I guess the originality here is make the song a little more chaotic and ragged than the Byrds would ever have done. Song ends messier than it starts. It’s OK, I’ll give it … ta da! … another 6.5!

Make Them Dinner at Our Shoes – This is a bit different, I guess. More like a quieter Byrds song. Nice classical guitar line. And no fuzz guitars! Singing sounds like a combination of Dylan and Petty. Later in the song a passage *really* sounds Dylan-esque. I’m wondering why he didn’t name the song “Clear Open Skies,” but maybe that would be too obvious. I’ll be adventurous and give this a 7.

White Cat – Mellower, but more of the same. It just occurred to me this guy is big on (reasonably nice) instrumental arrangements, but the melodies are rather lacking. I wonder if he doesn’t have a big vocal range. I’ll give it a 6.

Only Man Alive – Here we have a mostly acoustic, folksy ballad. Almost could pass for a Leonard Cohen song, kinda sorta, but more uptempo. I actually kinda like this song, so I’ll give it a 7.5.

Run by the Same – More George Harrison guitars, more or less. With some Tom Petty-esque singing. Decent tune, but like all the others, I feel like I’m listening to someone other than White Fence. Back to the 6.5. Outre has a somewhat different feel, like an ending thought, with a harmonica thrown in for the heck of it. I’ve give it a 6.5 again.

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Final thoughts: Retro is nice and all that, but when you’re not really adding much in the way of originality, it gets kinda “meh.” It almost seems like he’s trying so hard to sound as retro as he possibly can, that he’s neglected the actual art of writing a catchy tune. Most of the songs are listen to-able, which keeps their scores above the “5” mid-mark, but they’re just not memorable at all. And while there’s a bit of variety, there’s still too much sameness among the songs. I’ll give the album overall a 6 rating.

They're definitely the best, but a few of these other bands are OK.

I’m not going to bother with much of a preamble for this one. This is only a borderline psychedelic band/album. In fact, the psychedelia on this album is purely an afterthought. All I can say about this one is, I’m glad I got the review over and done with! The link to the album on Grooveshark is here.

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/...09/MGMT220.jpg

Alien Days – Is this the theme song for a cartoon? Or maybe a sitcom? I’m not sure it’s quite the same quality as the Cheers theme song, but it sounds to be roughly in the ballpark. Maybe. However I think the Mary Tyler Moore theme song is better. Psychedelic effects in the last 1/3 of the song are about as forced and out-of-place as you could imagine. Imagine the Cheers theme song with psychedelic sound effects. It just doesn’t work. 0

Cool Song #2 – No, this is NOT a cool song. Not even close. This sounds like a caricature of something. No, I take that back: It sounds like a caricature of a caricature of something. I’m not even going to bother describing what the song sounds like: Let’s just say it sounds like a 6-year-old’s rendition of what a “tribal” song might sound like. 0

Mystery Disease – Once they started singing I just couldn’t help but to start laughing. I mean, it’s really that bad! I can’t believe anybody takes this band seriously! Anyway, the song sounds like … I dunno, maybe a vague James Bond-esque tune, kinda sorta. With some special effects. When it ended I went, “Wheh!” 0

Introspection – More of the same. This might be of similar quality to stuff the Partridge Family put out. Or maybe Bobby Sherman. Or worse. It’s got this military beat type of thing over a standard (but poor quality) pop tune. All very corny and predictable. With a few psychedelic effects thrown in, purely as afterthoughts. 0

Your Life is a Lie – Still more of the same. I’m not even going to bother doing a description. The more I hear, the harder a time I have imagining anyone takes this band seriously. I dunno, there’s something about the song titles and lyrics which are telling me that, maybe they’re not supposed to be taken seriously, and they're just being ironic, but that’s hard to tell. But if that’s the case, why do so many people actually take this band seriously? 0

A Good Sadness – This one started out with a slow/soft instrumental. But once they starting singing, it immediately went downhill. But I think this one's a wee bit better than the others. I think I could imagine this being turned into something halfway decent, with some serious re-working. This was the first song I actually managed to tolerate. 2

Astro-Mancy – This is kinda-sorta like the above song. It sounds like they’re trying to make a Tangerine Dream song sound a bit psychedelic, with a sort-of trace-like quality, or a rapid electronic drone. There’s not much to the song, it’s almost background music. Really badly done, completely forced and artificial sound effects. Better than the first 5 songs (which isn't saying much), but it’s still pretty much a waste of notes. 1

I Love You Too, Death – What IS it about this group where, as soon as they start singing, everything goes downhill? This song is really bad. In fact it might be one of the worst songs I’ve ever heard. It’s so bad I’m going to not just give it a zero, but a negative rating. I couldn’t even finish it. -18

Plenty of Girls in the Sea – This sounds like a really bad version of the Monkees “All of Your Toys.” But at least the Monkees song was unabashedly a light/joking, schmaltzy, non-serious song. Like most of the tunes from this band, they take what sounds like is supposed to be a non-serious song, and try to make it a serious work of art. Or maybe I’m not giving them enough credit and they know they’re being deliberately bad, but are trying to pull one off on everyone by making it sound like it’s supposed to be serious music? 0

An Orphan of Fortune – Another plodding, supposedly “dreamy” sounding psychedelic-esque song, somewhat like "I Love You Too, Death" (not quite as bad, however). It sounds like a really, really badly done imitation of Pink Floyd, maybe from Dark Side of the Moon. Apologies for writing Pink Floyd in the same line as an MGMT song. The outre to this song was this really arbitrary thing. Now, I know of many songs that have similar endings, where the outre is completely different from the rest of the song, but this was just amateur. Unless of course, once again they’re being deliberately bad while duping people into thinking they’re being serious. It’s hard to tell. 1

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Final thoughts: Anyway, after I wrote all that I listened to the album once through again. It did no good, it was just as bad as the first pass (which was about my 3rd or 4th listen of the album). I don’t know if this happens to be this band’s worst album and I picked a particularly poor example of their work, or if this is a “typical” album of theirs, but after listening to this it’s going to be difficult for me to pay attention to this band ever again. Unless they disband, which would be wonderful news!

I’ve listened to musical works where the composer/songwriter is trying to make a mockery of something while simultaneously trying to make it sound like a serious piece of work. The classic example is Shostakovich’s 5th Symphony, wherein the composer wrote something which, on the surface, sounded like it was something sufficiently traditional and non-bourgeoisie to satisfy the Soviet censors, but which, upon closer examination, was actually a mockery. And of course Shostakovich was mocking the censors, not any particular form of music (it’s not like he would mock Beethoven, which is what that symphony was surficially imitating). But in the case of MGMT, I’m not sure what they would be mocking, if indeed they are. Perhaps they’re mocking the listening public, as in, “Gee, let’s see how many suckers we can get to buy our music.” If so, then a whole lot of people are being duped, and maybe this band is more clever than I’m giving them credit for. Maybe they’re mocking the experimental/avant-garde musical scene, but if they are, they’re not doing a good job of it. They could be mocking pop music in general, but I could think of a lot better ways to do that than what they’ve put out on this album.

But maybe they’re not mocking anything at all, and they’re just so bad it sounds like they are. Because unless this album is supposed to be some sort of hidden parody, it’s impossible to take it seriously. And even if they are supposed to be parody, or maybe a kind-of tongue-in-cheek protest band, they don’t do a good job of it. Overall I’ll give it a 0. In other words, DON’T BUY IT!

Here's a new band out of LA whose first album will be coming out later this month. Based on these two songs they sound Temples-esque, much "cleaner" sound though, not so low-fi.

Wand - "Flying Golem"
Wand - "Broken Candle"
Track listing of the new album, which will be called Ganglion Reef:

New Pond album coming out in January.

Speaking of Pond, I'm going to do my review of Hobo Rocket soon. Really! Honestly! Have bought the album and listened to it a few times. Just haven't gotten around to doing the review.

Tame Impala Offshoot Pond Announce Man It Feels Like Space Again, Share "Elvis' Flaming Star" Video

^
My mom just surprised me with tickets for Pond's show in Toronto tomorrow. Crazy coincidence!

Freaky! You can give us a review of the concert. ;)