Browsing Tag

60s Psych Pop

Take an Avant-Garde Psych Rock Trip with Chase Hagerman’s single, ‘Scarlet, Crimson, Purple and Blue’

Posted on 19 June 2021

‘The Rainbow Opus’ is the ground-breaking debut album from the up and coming, classically trained psych-rock artist and producer Chase Hagerman. Through each single, the Californian artist brings kaleidoscopic colour, yet, ‘Scarlet Crimson, Purple, and Blue’ is irrefutably the best introduction to Hagerman’s eccentric post-punk-tinged style.

Starting with a cutting and angular intro that wouldn’t be out of place on a Legendary Pink Dots single, the entrancing feat of psych-rock smoothly shifts into a sonic smorgasbord of avant-garde psych-pop, post-punk, 70s electronica. By mixing light accordant tones with harsh fuzzy synth notes, immersing yourself in Scarlet, Crimson, Purple, and Blue is as close as you will get to falling into a rabbit hole aurally.

The Rainbow Opus is now available to stream via Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

La Palma drop a ‘delightful mix of dreamy old-school’ with Nostomania

Posted on 4 April 2021

While many of us over the last twelve months have either been burrowed down and tucked quietly away or fighting the desperate urge to flee our houses and go somewhere – anywhere – else for a while, nostomania’ is an intense homesickness, an irresistible, almost pathological compulsion to return home. There’s a beautiful, folky melancholy yearning to the references to California, underpinned by some rolling, resonator guitar-style picking and soft, delicate vocals. The track has an old-school, 1970’s California hippie vibe, something that would be utterly at home in the ‘commune’ section of the Easy Rider soundtrack or sitting on a playlist between Big Brother and the Holding Company and the Fraternity of Man. It’s evocative of a time and a feel, but also of dust and sunshine and a nostalgia and pining which seems perfectly suited to the current Covid-19 rootlessness and ennui.

La Palma released their self-titled debut album in 2019; ‘Nostomania’ is taken from their forthcoming follow-up, ‘Moonflower’, a delightful mix of dreamy old-school indie-folk, psych-pop, and dashes of 1960’s stoner and surf-rock. It’s submersive, expressive, and uplifting; a perfect sunlit antidote to lockdown, locked-up blues.

‘Moonflower’ is released on the 1st April. You can check out La Palma on Facebook and via their website.

Review by Alex Holmes

D. Marin Perez – Los Angeles: 60s psych pop-tinged blues

Posted on 27 February 2021
D. Marin Perez

Through exposure to the Beatles and Mormon hymns in their formative years, Cuban-American singer-songwriter, D. Marin Perez’s signature sound is laden with soul so strident it practically shimmers.

“Los Angeles” is the first single to be released from their 2021 album ‘Change Is’. Their infusion of 60s psych pop, accordant Americana, blues and soul unravels as a burst of visceral sun-bleached optimistic-in-spite-of-awareness-suffering euphoria.

With vocals as tender as Elliott Smith’s and instrumentals which find their roots in old school blues, Los Angeles is a track which blossoms as a compassionate snapshot of the trials and tribulations of modern living without allowing you to be depressed by them. You may just find yourself with a renewed sense of gratitude and purpose to invoke positive change once Los Angeles has faded to a close.

You can hear by heading over to Bandcamp or the artist’s official website.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The Tapples created a convergently timeless hit with their indie jangle pop-rock release ‘Where You’ve Been’

Posted on 18 February 2021

Massachusetts six-piece, The Tapples, has garnered plenty of local hype since making their debut with their 2019 EP ‘Bus Recovery’, with their most recent indie jangle pop-rock release ‘Where You’ve Been’ they’ve proven that their convergently electric sound oozes international appeal.

With a touch of Rolling Stones-style swagger to the guitars, punchy bass growls, rancorous percussion and nuances of 60s psych pop to the high-energy vocals, Where You’ve Been pulls together a myriad of different styles and eras to create a timeless hit which will always be happy to feed you aural ecstasy. These may be dark and trying times, but there’s no amount of ennui which the fuzz-laden optimistically sweet track can’t dissipate. Take my word for it.

You can check out Where You’ve Been by heading over to Spotify now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Do The Jimmy Jimmy, and The Ballad Of Tin Shaker

Posted on 8 December 2020

Beatles-y, Kinks-y, Small Faces-y, harmonious, sixties-mixed-with-nineties, classic indie-influenced pop-rock, ‘The Ballad Of Tin Shaker’ is a glorious, catchy pop song in the absolute best sense of the words.

Hailing from the small town of Claymont in the state of Delaware in the US, Jimmy Jimmy, and his new seven-track album ‘Do The Jimmy Jimmy’, is proper, lasting singer-songwriter americana-influenced pop with a delicious, laid-back hook that worms its way into your head and stays there. Relentlessly. And refuses to leave again.

Try it. Go on. And tell me that you’re not still wanting to be a ‘tin shaker’ by this time tomorrow.

Check out Jimmy Jimmy here, and watch the video for ‘The Ballad Of Tin Shaker’ on YouTube now.

Review by Alex Holmes

Offload ennui with Dave Sheinin’s sticky-sweet Americana Psych-Pop single “Existential Dread”

Posted on 28 October 2020
https://davesheinin.bandcamp.com/track/existential-dread

Baltimore-based singer-songwriter Dave Sheinin released their cathartically connectable Psych Pop-infused Indie single “Existential Dread” on October 9th. Hit play and experience the weight dropping from your soul as you embrace 60s Psych nostalgia, viscerally evocative elements of 90s Power Pop and timeless Americana.

The blissfully sweet tones felt like rays of sunlight breaking through the bleak ennui which I’m sure that we’ve all been feeling lately. Dave Sheinin playfully finds ways of conveying they’ve been dwelling in a pit of their own despair while never letting their own disdain resonate in the soundscape. So, if your playlists are crying out for feel-good hits which are still grounded in realism, you won’t go far wrong with Existential Dread.

You can check out Dave Sheinin’s single Existential Dread for yourselves by heading over to Bandcamp.

Review by Amelia Vandergast