THE NEW PSYCHEDELIC TRENCH

Tame Impala  is about to release their new album: it will be titled The Slow Rush, and it will be officially published on February 14 (yes, coinciding with Valentine’s Day) and it will have to take on the difficult task of being the successor to Currents. After all, it’s not just that the previous work from the band led by Kevin Parker is considered to be their fans’ absolute favourite, but, in some way or another, it is an essential album to understand a certain sound from the last decade.

To understand why everyone suddenly sounded like Tame Impala, including Lady Gaga with Parker’s production. And, to also understand why psychedelia is living a second youth which we already witnessed its rebirth with MGMT and others, but that, thanks to these Australians, it is now on the musical forefront at an international level. The global scene is assimilating the precepts of Yankee psychedelia and it’s bringing it to local sounds. Or is it that the primitive folklore of most cultures doesn’t already have that touch of hypnotic psychedelia on a loop?

Some call it neopsychedlia. Others even say that there is already a posterior wave that will be starred by Tame Impala and that, for this reason, we should already be talking about postneopsychedelia… Whichever way you want to see it, and before The Slow Rush enters our lives, we need to take a moment to talk about five other formations that are defining the psychedelic trench in the present.

POND. People are saying that Pond’s latest album so far, Tasmania, has already surpassed in quality anything that could ever come from Tame Impala. Which, fundamentally, is a big mistake in perception… Because the bands’ leads, Nick Albrook and Kevin Parker, are friends, they shared a group together in the past and, in fact, the latter is one of the former’s favourite producers. And so, more than competitors, they’re closer to being family.

ALTIN GÜN. The interesting intrarelationship between psychedelia and folklore seems to be more alive than ever in the songs of Altin Gün. This is because Jasper Verhulst’s band has specialised in digging into the depths of traditional Turkish music to come up with albums as exciting and unique as their most recent On.

BASANTA. In Spain, there is also a folklore tradition that is heavily interweaved with psychedelic sounds. Basanta, a band that loves to play with mystery and whose members usually hide their faces behind disturbing masks, likes to dig in with their naked hands into the swamp of the most obscure Galician folklore.

KHRUANGBIN. Turkish folklore, Galician folklore… Why can’t we spice it up with a bit of Thai folklore? Khruangbin’s starting point isn’t only Thai music from the ’60s, but also pop, rock and local funk from South East Asia. With all of these elements put together, the band from Houston has released such celebrated albums like their debut The Universe Smiles Upon You.

KING GIZZARD & THE LIZARD WIZARD. But, wait a minute, what about that touch of multicolour fun from psychedelia that seems to be lacking in such serious musical offerings? To solve this we have King Gizzard & The Lizzard Wizard, who are Australian and also have an extremely bizarre name that is able to release albums non-stop and who are unmatchable when it comes to their energy and frenzy onstage.