Psychic Ills at Dusted

Okay, gotta day that 2013 hasn't blown me away yet, but my three favorite records so far are Psychic Ills' One Track Mind, Lisa Germano's No Elephants and Kinski's Cosy Moments. My review of the Psychic Ills albums went up a day or so ago at Dusted. Have a look if you want:

Psychic Ills
One Track Mind
Sacred Bones

Psychic Ills has been moving away from free-form drone and toward songs for a couple of albums now, starting with 2011’s Hazed Dreams and accelerating with this year’s One Track Mind. If you last checked in around Mirror Eye, you might be surprised by the relative conciseness and structure of the songs, and by the fact that nearly all put their melody in the vocal line. Make no mistake, Psychic Ills is still trippy, still laid-back, still fogged in with effect-driven haze, but it’s more in line with Brian Jonestown Massacre or Royal Baths these days than Bardo Pond or MV+EE.


Consider, for instance, the title track, with its loping, looping guitar line. That’s Tres Warren wandering out on a long tether, spinning the kind of head-nodding licks that arc up and trickle down, that buffet a single note into a mad, dramatic crescendo and then trail off into smoke and dissolution. Underneath, bassist Elizabeth Hart keeps ragged, pick-scratching time, the low notes bobbling and bumping at the under-edge of audibility. There are slow drums, electronic bits, a feedback haze floating in the mix, and over it all, surprisingly clear and dominant, Warren singing, a murmur but not a monotone, the vocals drifting out over lazy cumulous clouds of guitar. The singing’s not a texture, but the wind-up spring that drives the whole song, though slowly, deliberately, without any angst or aggression. It’s like The Jesus and Mary Chain at a hallucinogenic crawl, or Satanic Majesty-era Stones heard through a sandstorm.

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Psychic Ills' One Track Mind

I missed the last Psychic Ills album, but from what I can remember about the one before that, Mirror Eye, they have evidently taken a turn away from the extended free-form drone and towards the VU-Stooges-Jesus & Mary Chain fuzz-crusted rock 'n roll.  I like One Track Mind a lot...and here's an interesting factoid -- Neil Hagerty is singing back-up. 

What do you think?
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One Track Mind is out in February on Sacred Bones.

Cool drones from Psychic Ills

Here’s a good one for all you fans of space rock, experimental improv and freaky-ass guitar effects…recommended for people who like Bardo Pond, Spaceman 3, NNCK, the Vocokesh and, in general, that crazy Terrastock vibe.

Psychic Ills
Mirror Eye
The Social Registry

Psychic Ills slips a bit further from songcraft, a bit deeper into shadowy ethno-drones in this, their second proper full-length, splicing the tribal sounds of caravan percussion to space-age guitar effects and synthesizer sounds. Though usually compared to interstellar overdrivers like Spaceman 3, here the band sounds more like NNCK, improvisatory, foreboding and tethered loosely to Middle Eastern and African rhythms.

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“Fingernail Tea”

Also the Social Registry label is also giving away a mixtape with cuts from their 2008 stable of artists…interesting stuff, give it a spin. (MP3s don’t actually spin, do they? Well give it a try. You know what I mean.)