Occult Stereo is a self-produced project from Alex Eliopoulos, previously of the San Francisco band, Impuritan. Recorded over three years in Athens, Greece, but with songs written in San Francisco before the pandemic, this is truly a unique album with high levels of experimentation and creativity. This project is an open collaboration with other artists as well, adding to ’its complex tapestry of “Occult” sounds. The band “embraces aural freedom in many forms, from ambient soundscapes to fuzz-guitar freak outs and drone-like psychedelic oceans.” Abrasive, yet soothing at the same time, the record speaks to the whole spectrum of musical tone, a yin yang of styles that can’t be described…
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Mediterranean Meets Middle East – La Piramide di Sangue’s Tebe
The psychedelic music of Italy has a certain flair that you can’t find anywhere else. The Italian psychedelic scene of Psichedelia occulta italiana (Italian occult psychedelic), or POI, boasts a unique blend of genre influences, including krautrock, post-punk, and Italian progressive rock. This blend sets itself apart from the massive soundscape of the psychedelic genre, with a foundational sound that can be a bit more structured in comparison to other psychedelic subgenres. Psychedelic music tends to have a musical influence from some type of traditional or folk music, with many acts being inspired by Carnatic music or Hindustani classical music, some even citing Ravi Shankar specifically as a main source…
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HUGE MOLASSES TANK EXPLODES | “III”
Residing in Milan, Italy, this neo-psych band is back with a new release on Tidal Wave Records. A spacey, instrumental, electronic, pulsed opener sets the vibe leading up to the first song, “Bow of Gold”. The shimmering of guitars and octave bass line now kicks in, taking us on a cosmic ride. Reverberated vocals gloss over the prevailing musical landscape as a blend of clean, pristine Fender guitars are mixed in over a wash of sound pulsating into tremolo waves. “Tenuous Form” has a grungy, thick baseline that drives the entire track with ethereal guitar and synth sounds, enveloping the lyrics in an abstract echo followed by a big, washed-out, heavenly…
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Branching out from the Traditional Psychedelia – Daliborovo granje’s Hainin
Coming to you from Čakovec, Croatia is one of my favorite psychedelic groups: Daliborovo granje. Branching out from some of the usual psychedelic influences, Daliborovo granje creates a unique psychedelic infusion with some Balkan flair. Daliborovo granje is comprised of five members: David Lesjak on bass, Andrija Munđar on drums, Tomica Oskoruš on trumpet, and Filip Toplek and Alan Horvat on guitar. Hainin is their sophomore album, served up with a dose of Balkan folk music, which is a refreshing take on the timeless, classic psychedelic genre. To me, this instrumental album is about as close to perfection as you could possibly get. I can’t tell you how many times…
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SPLIT MOON | More Clouds More Stars
Los Angles band Split Moon has released a new “dark dream gaze” style album with lush production and a trilogy of music videos to go along with it. The album starts off with a nice little palate cleanser intro, “Speak the Sky.” The record has a few interludes like this providing a break between long conceptual songs, ending with “Everything Ends.” The album starts and ends with these “musical bookends.” The album explodes with the song, “More Clouds,” with accompanying video showing a bird’s eye view of frozen ice landscapes and water. The video reflects the dynamic changes heard in the music, and the simple concept captures the blurred sonic landscape…
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A Theremin and Psychedelic Space Rock: Stephen Hamm’s Live From Planet Earth Album Review
This week I was brought on a journey through the cosmos with Stephen Hamm – everyone’s favorite theremin man. When presented with this album, I was told to expect “space rock and psychedelic electronic music” and theremin. Going into the album, I was absolutely unsure of where it would take me, but I was so curious to find out! For those unfamiliar, the theremin is an incredibly unique instrument. Originally developed in 1920 by Russian inventor Leon Theremin, this electronic instrument sets itself apart from all others with one extremely unique characteristic: it is played without physical touch. Music is produced by controlling volume and pitch, which the instrumentalist does…
