Best of 2008 (psych)
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This was a great year for psych, and this knockout LP from Abe Vigoda was one of the genre’s finest offerings. The 14 songs on Skeleton stop and start at a moment’s notice, driven by a bass...read more
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Yes, this has been a good year for Bradford Cox, the frontman for Deerhunter and their heavy Krautrock-meets-shoegaze webs of sound. Let the Blind… is the official first offering from Atlas S...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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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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Too many bands, eager to home in on a profitable genre, undeservedly adopt the psychedelic label, but Indian Jewelry is the real deal. Free Gold! throbs, drones and fuzzes, but the band is way too ...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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In a year of many fine psych albums, this one was near the top. Valet is the solo vehicle of Honey Owens, sometimes member of Jackie O Motherfucker, Atlas Sound and Nudge, and Naked Acid is her sec...read more
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A terrific LP of acid-drenched, spacey rock jams from local band White Hills, now featuring Kid Millions of the great Oneida. A Little Bliss Forever, a limited vinyl-only release we’re lucky ...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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