A Whale's Tale: An Introduction to Psychedelia
By Claudia Hockey, Music Writer. Edited by Chiara Wilkinson, Editor.
For those who don’t listen to much rock music, the genre may just seem like a sweaty cesspit of Lemmy-lookalikes and screaming emos with snapbacks. Others might listen to The Beatles on occasion and characterise it as distinctly classic rock- but only in the way a non-vegan faintly registers the difference between soy and almond milk. If you are one of these people, I’m here to tell you that psychedelic music is the gateway you’ve been looking for.
Situated at the boundary between pop, rock, and a range of undetermined influences that artists are often too tripped-out to name, psychedelia is firmly rooted in the 1960s. Its defining characteristics across later genres such as acid-rock and trance are debatable, but it can often be recognised by the use of foreign instruments such as the Sitar and a sense of “out-of-body” depersonalisation. After being gradually side-lined by mainstream music groups in the 1970s and beyond in favour of more ‘tangible’ sounds such as heavy metal and progressive rock, Australia and the US West Coast have quietly given it a new lease of life. In the blistering heat of Perth and San Francisco, bands such as Tame Impala and Sleepy Sun appear devoted to the infinite potential of psych and its relatively elastic nature.
For the following play-by-play, I’ve picked out a few of my personal favourites in the hope that you’ll disregard any misconceptions and give the music a try. At the very least, you can listen to it in the bleak winter rain, imagine the sun beating down on your face, and maybe rack up some new summer gig tickets.
(Scroll to the bottom for a full Spotify playlist, for those of you just looking for a new dish-washing soundtrack)
Melody's Echo Chamber, Some Time Alone, Alone
French musician Melody Prochet has had a tough time in recent months, an unspecified “serious accident” heralding the abrupt cancellation of her upcoming “Bon Voyage” album and its scheduled summer tour. In an update on the 20th of November, she thanked fans for keeping her in their thoughts, and an earlier Facebook statement from family suggests that we can expect new music from her soon. Chances are that it will be as carefully crafted as earlier solo-projects, helped by the backing of a number of influential bands. Having joined Tame Impala on their 2010 European tour under the pseudonym My Bee’s Garden, frontman Kevin Parker produced her follow-up debut as Melody’s Echo Chamber. Reine Fiske and Gustav Ejstes of the Swedish outlet Dungen also contribute to "Bon Voyage," placing her firmly into the context of this re-emerging scene.
Support her here: https://fatpossumrecords.bandcamp.com/?filter_band=2732495855
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, Sense
Arguably the forerunners of new-psychedelia, certainly some of the best-known, King Gizzard have experimented within virtually all of rock’s parameters. Working at a feverish pitch unmatched by any other modern band, they’ve successfully released eleven albums in the last five years, along with numerous singles and EPs. Titles such as “Oddments,” “Flying Microtonal Banana” and the harsher “Murder of the Universe” all carry a distinct tone, and this month alone they released full-length album “Polygondwanaland” for free. By issuing masters and giving anyone the ability to self-print or sell digital, vinyl, and CD copies of the album, King Gizzard have aligned themselves with a generation of listeners increasingly looking towards vintage alternatives to digital giants such as Spotify. Some might argue that the quantity of their output negates quality, but no list would be complete without them, so I’ve included one of their softer tracks, “Sense”.
Support them here: https://kinggizzard.bandcamp.com/music
Post Animal, A Whale’s Tale
Clearly drawing influence from aforementioned bands, Post Animal won’t be winning any prizes for creativity just yet. The brunt of their current success comes not from their music, but their very recognisable guitarist Joe Keery, otherwise known as Steve Harrington in Stranger Things. Regardless, the shaggy-haired six-piece all contribute solid vocals in what are two impressively focused albums - especially given that they started out in country, not psychedelia. The mutual decision to leave Keery behind on tour due to scheduling conflicts will hopefully lead more people to recognise their raw musical potential.
Support them here: https://postanimal.bandcamp.com/
Mac DeMarco, Go Easy
Mac DeMarco’s self-proclaimed brand of “jizz jazz” is generally characterised as indie rock, but those unfamiliar with his starter moniker, Makeout Videotape, might not realise he also produced an early series of trippy music videos. Those weird, dreamlike creations helped to successfully propel him into the public eye, and hints of the experimental still accompany most of his current work.
Support him here: https://macdemarco.bandcamp.com/
Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, High Visceral
A relatively new addition to Perth’s psychedelic rock scene, Psychedelic Porn Crumpets have just three singles and one split-LP to their name. Mixing progressive, garage and psych, PPC often take a more aggressive approach than some of the more whimsical bands listed here. Their first official music video for “Buzz” presents a world overrun by small children, and they’re seemingly unafraid to skimp on vocals in favour of a denser sound. I’ve included “High Visceral”, which comes around half-way through their first album “High Visceral, Pt. 1”, at around the same point in the accompanying Spotify playlist to this article, as a soft interlude.
Support them here: https://psychedelicporncrumpets.bandcamp.com/music
Tame Impala, Feels like We Only Go Backwards
With fifteen awards and twenty-six nominations under their belt, the biggest of Australia’s synthy pop international exports, Tame Impala, began on MySpace. Frontman Kevin Parker is heavily invested in the digital sphere, saying:
“There’s something narrow-minded about thinking an album is the only way you can put out music, especially in the world we’re in at the moment. Anything is possible. There’s so many people doing interesting things with the internet and technology, there could be so many ways of making music and listening to it” – Interview with Denver Post Reverb, 2013.
The quality and range of Tame Impala’s work, as well as their imaginative approaches to standard techniques such as reverb and phasing, remain unmatched among modern psychedelic bands.
Support them here: https://official.tameimpala.com/
Dungen, Fretag
Before Tame Impala, there was Dungen. Although they started out around the same time in 1999, Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker has admitted the influence that Stockholm collective Dungen had on his own work. Many of the band’s tracks are accompanied by folksy Swedish vocals, but “Fretag” differs in that it relies exclusively on instrumentals. Heavily influenced by the Scandinavian contingent of 60s counterculture psychedelia, Dungen has nevertheless retained a measure of individuality throughout their long career.
Support them here: http://www.dungen-music.com/
Sunbeam Sound Machine, In Your Arms
Melbourne’s Nick Sowersby, otherwise known as Sunbeam Sound Machine, is another Australian musician that prefers to produce music from within the confines of his bedroom. Rolling Stone has compared his work to the Elephant 6 collective (Neutral Milk Hotel, The Minders, The Sunshine Fix), and this song is a smooth opener to the kind of music you can expect from him.
Support him here: https://sunbeamsoundmachine.bandcamp.com/music
Sugar Candy Mountain, Windows
This psych-pop band may be comparable to Tame Impala, however their organic and chilled-out tone makes them easily distinguishable:
“If Brian Wilson had dropped acid on the beach in Brazil and decided to record an album with Os Mutantes and The Flaming Lips, it would sound like this.” - Bandcamp
Support them here: https://sugarcandymountain.bandcamp.com/music
Mild High Club, Skiptracing
Alex Brettin’s solo project, Mild High Club, feels less derivative than Sunbeam Sound Machine or Sugar Candy Mountain. He has been highly rated recently by the likes of Mac DeMarco--with the two even going on tour together--and there is the sense that he’s found a tighter musical focus since his first LP, “Timeline,” dropped. The King Gizzard and the Wizard Lizard album, “Sketches of Brunswick East,” was done in collaboration with Mild High Club, contributing to its relatively gentle sound and giving it a slightly more dreamlike twist. This song in particular seems to address his personal progression as an artist, with lyrics reading;
“I got to see, learn this history
Pull another record from your sleeve
A mystery, if you don't believe
Slip another coin in my machine”
Support him here: https://mildhighclub.bandcamp.com/
The Beatles, Within You Without You
The Beatles tend to polarize people, with some seeing them as well-deserving of their title as, “the world’s most influential rock band,” and others deeming them overrated. Either way, they were at least the first band to label their rock “psychedelic” in 1965. George Harrison’s “Within You Without You” was the soundtrack to one room at the V&A’s exhibition, “You Say You Want a Revolution? Records and Rebels 1966-1970,” which I visited about a year ago. I couldn’t help but include it here, and anyone who still isn’t convinced by psychedelia should hopefully still acknowledge the seminal role it played in its heyday.
Learn more about George here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/George-Harrison-Living-Material-World/dp/1419702203