Best of 2008 (psych)
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To date, Abe Vigoda have released a pair of albums—2006’s Kid City and this now Skeleton—characterized by a distinctive guitar tone and an open-minded aesthetic. The 14 songs on Skele...read more
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This time last year, Atlanta’s Deerhunter made a big splash with their groundbreaking Cryptograms”. Deerhunter main man, Bradford Cox, often emerged as the focal point of the band, and ...read more
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What began as a solo project for Ben Vida of Town and Country has developed over the years into something far more than that – a viable and exciting band in its own right. (Hell, I even prefe...read more
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If the Black Angels’ full-length debut, Passover, sounded like the harbinger of an imminent apocalypse to you, then consider this your welcome music to hell. Directions to See a Ghost, the Te...read more
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7 minutes into Cloudland Canyon’s remarkable new record Lie In Light you might be pretty sure you’re listening to the first Neu record. The album’s opener “Krautwerk” ...read more
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Yet another “Crystal” band (Crystal Stilts and Crystal Castles are the others), these dudes from Long Beach, California, have crafted a neat infusion of psych, prog and garage in puttin...read more
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Six glorious songs spanning 23 minutes, the stunning debut from Crystal Stilts is part garage, part post-punk, part-psych, all great. Few albums capture you immediately with the freshness of their ...read more
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Dead Meadow’s latest is already touted as the album closest to an instant classic that we’ll get this year. Ten years in the making, Old Growth is THE album that both fans and critics o...read more
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From the always reliable Holy Mountain label comes this terrific record from Eden Express, a supergroup of sorts featring Kip Uhlhorn (Cloudland Canyon), Kelly Uhlhorn and John David Lovelace. Plen...read more
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Featuring rushing piano cadences and stabs, the sounds of burbling streams and static, softly chanting vocals, spectral, psychedelic ambience, dark koan/drones and endlessly looped guitar and elect...read more
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Free Gold! throbs, drones and fuzzes, but Indian Jewelry is too cool to get excited, so they keep their pace slow. The Houston art rock group, which has over 20 guest members who fluctuate in and o...read more
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Is there any end to the charming psych folk coming out of Scandanavia these days? Finland alone is a hotbed for this kind of enchanting music, with its beguiling vocals and lush atmospherics. No on...read more
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What’s this? Song titles like “This Heat,” “Sonic Youth” and “Pop Group”? Nisennenmondai is an instrumental Japanese-girl trio from Tokyo and thunders like...read more
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Oneida has added more variety to its sound in recent years but here pares back to basics. That said, it’s still a bit of a change from previous albums as this is the closest they have yet got...read more
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This is the highly anticipated second full-length release on Fonal Records from Finland’s Paavoharju, a collective formed around two brothers—Lauri and Olli Ainala and their troupe of a...read more
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Sub Pop churns out so many great hits every year, some of their artists fall between the cracks. Take the Ruby Suns, the work of New Zealand-by-way-of-L.A. pop maestro Ryan McPhun, whose Sea Lion i...read more
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Valet is the solo vehicle of Honey Owens, sometimes member of Jackie O Motherfucker, Atlas Sound and Nudge, and Naked Acid is her second collection of spectral, murky musings. The seven lengthy str...read more
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So Yellow Swans have allegedly called it quits. A pity. No one can say that they haven’t given fans plenty to feast on, however: With some 40 albums to their credit, Yellow Swans are just abo...read more
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From Asa Osborne, the guitarist for Lungfish, comes this album beautiful of minimalist psych. Osborne’s guitar playing has been central to the Lungfish sound, but here he demonstrates a strip...read more
Tags:
folk
,
psychedelic
