British psychedelic garage rockers The Crystal Teardrop of the UK have released their anticipated new album ‘…Is Forming’. This album is all analog production, recorded directly to tape with phasing, reverse done without the intervention of digital recording technology. The album has strong, warm, driven vocals from alto singer, guitarist and songwriter, Alexandra Rose. The guitars are fuzzy and hot, with liquid sustained lead guitar with pure vintage tone. Ambient background effects encompass the album with a deliciously warm and natural swell of sound. Released in May of 2025 on Rise Above Records on limited edition vinyl LP (more details below and on the website here).
‘…Is Forming’ comes on the heels of their EP, ‘Running Out Of Time’, which Pow Magazine covered here. The 2024 European and UK tour received rave reviews for the band’s high energy sets and cathartic lives performances. The internet has more live concert reviews than album reviews which is a testament to the fact that this band knows how to rock. The new album is their first full-length production, and the band was well prepared with the stage tested songs and a focused concept for the production. This album includes tracks with Indian musical instrument, the sitar, to capture true ‘with-in and without you’ Beatles vibes especially on the song ‘Into The Unknown’.
“…Is Forming” is classic psychedelic rock straight out of the British invasion, with elements of shoegaze and psychrock. The music might bring to mind underground and popular psych from the 60s and 70s like Jefferson Airplane, Fifty Foot Hose, The Beatles and contemporary psychrock and shoegaze like Vibravoid and Wooden Shjips.
The music on “…Is Forming…” is inspired by the “sounds and experimentation of the late 1960s” according to the vocalist Alexandra Rose. This shines through in their album as the guiding light of their sound. The vocals feature phasing and Leslie rotary speakers making them awash in psychedelic sounds. The guitars rip with gripping melting fuzz and jangling treble boosted rhythm guitars. Vintage organ bolsters the sound with droning atmospheres.
The vocals of Alexandra Rose are a powerful and potent aspect of the music. The strong melodies walk the line between retro-folk and modern rock for a style that is endearing and captivating. The recording and production of the vocals has the compressed, rounded tonality that is a pleasure to hear and is in contrast to the contemporary vocal production techniques. There are no autotuners, no sparkling jagged digital effects, no over-editing to manipulate the natural feel of the vocals. The band instead opted for natural voice with a lo-fi tone; nothing is perfected, leaving the expressive nuance of the voice to shine.
Contemporary recording and editing techniques have greatly changed the way that we hear the voice in music. Producers polish, change the pitch, cut and paste, overdub heavily, and alter the tonality of the voice with digital tools. This is most noticeable in female voices in pop music. There is an industry-wide philosophy about how the voice should sound, and the desired sound is unnatural, leading to a synthesized version of a real voice. Many music production videos online will take classic recordings and run the voice through modern production, completely changing the voice by removing the ‘imperfections’. The Crystal Teardrop is having none of this and have chosen to create an album devoid of modern production.
“…Is Forming” is for the person who loves psychedelic rock and seeks out the analog sound that defined music in the late 60s and early 70s. The album is recorded directly to tape using reel-to-reel, a more expensive way to record that offers far less in the way of editing, do-overs, and production resulting in a recording that is true to the band’s performance.
The first single from the album was ‘Nine Times Nine‘, originally released as one of their first songs available to the public. On the new album, it has been re-recorded and retains its psychedelic pop composition. The music pans between the right and left speakers, pulling the listener into a windblown pool of psychedelic sounds. The guitar solo has reverse delay capturing those 60s sounds made famous by The Beatles on songs like “Tomorrow Never Knows” and “Blue Jay Way“.
The final song on the album is a LSD inspired trip through the ‘White Rabbit‘ hole of trippy rock. It is all instrumental and has the full barrage of psychedelic effects: fuzz, phasing, reverse guitar, and surfy runs in Eastern musical modalities. The music builds to a cathartic climax making it the perfect outro that will have the listener craving more psychedelic goodness.
Rise Above Records is releasing the album in a format that vinyl lovers will appreciate. It is logical that this album would be released on vinyl record. Recorded at London’s Tilehouse Studios, it was produced by analogue master Liam Watson (Toerag, White Stripes, Electric Wizard, etc). The vinyl edition is a 100% analogue pressing, cut direct from tape to lacquer. Full stereophonic psychedelic sound! The first 500 vinyl editions come in a stunning teardrop-shaped die-cut sleeve. The first pressing includes x100 Clear vinyl diehard LP + A2 poster + exclusive extras, x150 Cerise vinyl LP, x250 Black vinyl LP.
The Crystal Teardrop checks many boxes for classic psychedelic rock with psychedelic effects, analog recording and production, classic songwriting and clear inspirations from The Beatles and The Jefferson Airplane. The commitment to classic psychedelic music is surprisingly rare in music today when we consider the impact this older music has had on everything that followed. Few bands look back and embrace the full package of vintage garage and psychedelic rock like The Crystal Teardrop. Their tracks could easily fit into a playlist of rare underground psychedelic music from the past without raising suspicions of modernity.
“…Is Forming” is an album with driving energy, catchy vocal melodies and fun psychedelic effects, complete with Eastern instruments sprinkled into the mix. They created an album that is inspired and true to their unique vision. The whole band is skilled and beautifully dedicated to getting the tones and songs that are perfect for the vibe of the album.
LINKS:
https://thecrystalteardrop.bandcamp.com/album/the-crystal-teardrop-is-forming
