It has become a fine annual tradition for the Psych Lovers Facebook group to vote on their album of the year. So that we get to think about every release we leave it until the beginning of the following year to make our selections, with previous winners including Mildred Maude, 10000 Russos (twice) The Cosmic Dead and Kikagaku Moyo (also twice); so it’s in very good company that Scotland’s very own Helicon win their first award with their epic ‘God Intentions’ album.

But really, all twenty albums here are worth your time and money.

Finally, this is a special award for me because not only is it voted on by the group, but its members provide their own thoughts on what the successful albums mean to them. So as well as exploring the list, enjoy their as ever excellent musings.

1. Helicon – God Intentions (Fuzz Club)

Glasgow’s psychedelic generals Helicon return with their third album, God Intentions. Once again releasing on one of my absolute favourite labels, Fuzz Club. The band are promising their most ambitious, collaborative and psychedelic record to date. For those of you new to the band they were formed in 2011 by brothers John-Paul and Gary Hughes in East Kilbride. Signing to Fuzz Club in 2017 they have since released an incredible amount of music, three singles, nine EPs, three studio albums and a Fuzz Club live session album to be precise. These days the band consists of the Hughes brothers, Graham Gordon, Mike Hastings, Mark McLure, Billy Docherty and Seb Jonsen.

The album emerges from the eternal nothingness, like a signal from the edge of the universe with opening track ‘Dark Matter’. An instrumental piece full of menace and foreboding. It’s screeching feedback and pulsating rhythm resolve back to silence before the album bursts into life.

‘Flume’ gives us our first taste proper of what God Intentions is all about, the juxtaposition of the darkness of this subject matter against the utter joyous music. This has all the fun of the fair; the whirling organ is utterly triumphant. The swooping guitars adding texture whilst the rhythm section keep it tight at the back.

As the album moves into ‘Château H’ it becomes immediately obvious that this band are no one trick ponies. Oh god no, not by a long chalk. What opens as disco driven guitar anthem suddenly evolves into eastern flavoured magic carpet ride. We’re transported into orbit and soaring through the cosmos. The violin pulls off some serious riffs, the kind you’d normally expect from screaming guitar solo. It’s that experimental approach that makes this band and this album. More on that as we go on.

A gentle tabla and sitar intro bloom into this forward leaning rhythm that carries us into ‘Heliconia’. Guitar picks up the mantle and cosmic vibes ensue lifting this song into and another place. Bass walks around in the spaces between picking out the melody and holding it down. More and more textures join the throng before the song absolutely explodes into lightspeed. The unmistakable vocals of Lavinia Blackwall creating a wailing wall of pitch perfect tones that drive this song into memory. This is going to be setting off mosh pits. Giving us a breather next is the sedate and serene ‘Disobey’. The watery lead guitar warbling against the sumptuous lolling bassline is utterly compelling and transportive. Layer that up with the sweeping string section and sitar punctuating the verses and you have what could be the theme music for a euro art film.  Every song is inhabiting its own place within the world of God Intentions, yet all sound at home together. None more so than this vignette wherever it’s played live.

After that small detour we return to the grand lysergic soundscapes of ‘Zen Roller’. The fuzzed-out guitars shoegaze wall of sound makes this an absolute must to experience in headphones. It’s like the guitars are swirling around your head, rattling about your skull. The treated vocals add an extra dimension of “outthereness” is that a word? If it isn’t I’m insisting on it being added to the dictionary next to a photo of Helicon. I’m a big fan of fake stops too. When the song returns the organ ramps up and the maelstrom intensifies not receding until the song climaxes.

‘Whiplash’ maintains the momentum with some really tasty slide guitar work. Whilst only a short number it fairly packs a punch. The riff is absolutely massive and leaves you crying out for more.

It’s the turn of the title track next which takes the feeling of melancholia and slowly evolves it into something epic. We start off quietly enough with a sombre piano refrain before that trademark wall of noise appears ushering in a sympathetic guitar line. When those pauses, full of static and chaos, come around you feel yourself lift and held motionless. That feeling of being completely at the mercy of the music, it’s overwhelming and addictive. I always find myself skipping back to enjoy it just one more time.

‘Last Tango in Glasgow’ is the albums ballad, a beautiful melody to a slow shuffle. It sends you to a smoke-filled dance hall at the end of the night. Whisky on your breath as you take one last turn around the floor. Again, the band make use of some really interesting sonic textures to make this song something really special.

If you’ve been following Helicon for a while, you’ll know the previous single ‘Tae the Moon’. It’s a full rework of ‘We’re Gaun Tae the Moon’ from their 2015 Gehenna EP. Whilst that guitar riff remains as majestic the song now has a really spacey vibe, like it’s been hit with gamma rays and has started to hulk out. This feels like a technicolour trip at lightspeed into another dimension. The band are throwing everything into the mix creating a sonic whirlwind that blows your mind. Phew, that was one wild ride.

The band bid us farewell with one last tone poem at the end of this rainbow. ‘Starlounger’ closes things off in a celebratory but gentle way as Helicon head off into the cosmos.

In God Intentions Helicon have demonstrated what a collaborative and exploratory approach to making music can achieve. They make the complex feel like child’s play when it’s anything but. That level of ease comes from their collective years of experience, undoubtedly, but it also comes from having trust in each other, and their collaborators to follow the vision. To honour the songs and where they lead. In doing so they have created something truly unique and special.

Written by Mark Anderson (Static Sound Club)

2. White Canyon & The 5^Th Dimension – Gardeners of The Earth (Fuzzed Up & Astromoon Records)

This is a proper psychedelic record. WC&T5D have bult on their earlier releases channeling a late 60s sound, a sinister throbbing bass rolling with spectral guitars and sitars sprinkled on the top, with murmured gothic sounding vocals. There is a check list of influences evident, 13th Floor Elevators, early-Floyd and the Dead, even a bit of The Doors, and a dash of 80s psych sounds – traces of Spacemen 3 and Echo and the Bunnymen lurk within. This is not a tribute act mixing a cocktail of the back catalogue of other bands however…this is band that wears their influences for all to see, but crafts something new and updated from it. 

The LP starts with an intro, Caminho das Padras (Intro), that rather than padding out content really does a great job of preparing the listener for the trip they are about to take…ambient sounds, a hypnotic sitar whirls, the incense starts to burn…then we enter the psychedelic forest of beautiful, laid-back chiming guitars, controlled feedback, tribal drumming, and that late 60s bass plod that evokes foreboding before the pyrotechnics are let off. What seems to knit the whole cosmic stew together are the vocals, with some subtly applied reverb, the male and female vocals weave in and out of the mix adding to the swirl.

I am a sucker for evocative track titles and this LP is full of them…Ancient Secrets of the Green Leaf, Mental Universe (Chapter V), As Above so Below, the names alone are enough to trigger a flashback, the music then delivers this…this is a release to lose yourself in, drift with enjoying the journey. It’s a trip…man.

Written by Dave Voss

3. GOAT – Medicine (Rocket Recordings).

Wow. This is the album that I have been wanting Goat to make since ‘World Music’ burst on to the scene in 2012. This is not to say that what the collective have recorded in the meantime is not any good, rather it is more about direction… and that direction here is to a place that is both harder and more spiritual, if that doesn’t sound like something of a dichotomy.

‘Medicine’ is replete with psychedelic cues designed to take you deep into the music, or accompany you on your own lysergic adventure. ‘Impermanence and Death’ is a meditation on just that, while ‘Raised By Hills’ takes you into an acoustic topography that not only soothes but takes you to wonderful highs with its magnificent melody.

’I Became The Employment Office’ is one of two supreme highs on this album with its rhythm-section relentlessly hidden behind a some wonderfully juxtaposing sounds moving up and down in the mix. This is followed by the late-Beatlesesque ‘TSOD’ which very much holds its own in that company.

After that ‘Vanka’ heads of into the sort of psychedelic territory that those fans of a number of other albums on this list would be all too familiar with… it’s a track that nevertheless also has its own vibe… and a very Goatie vibe at that.

With ‘You’ll Be Alright’ we’re heading off into more dreamy territory, underlining the eclecticism of this set… although one which seems to knit together beautifully as our journey into the third-eye continues. It is bright, delicate and, to this listener, perfect.

Then comes what, for me, is the centrepiece of the album. ‘Join The Resistance’ is the penultimate track, and for me seals the deal as a high point in the Goat discography… it’s wild and totally on the edge for more of its nearly six minutes… super exciting and super intense.

We are finally invited to come down with ‘Tripping in the Graveyard’ with its acoustic and folky vibe which sends us away just nicely with a feeling of having been somewhere glorious and ecstatic…

Written by Simon Smith

4. Smote – Genog (Rocket Recordings)

Daniel Foggin, master shaman of Smote has spoken about ‘the atmosphere that can be created via story-tellling’ and Genog lets us travel into other realms weaving traditional folk music and contemporary instruments to create a tale that reaches through time: the drone and repetition so important for worship whether through spiritual or religious experiences, or just listening to an album – these are not mutually exclusive.

Genog opens with the title track as an overture; the acoustic sounds leading the way to find a darker path as the chanting and heavier guitar sounds come forward beckoning us to follow.

I’ve been lucky enough to see Smote twice in the last year – hearing the second track ‘Hlaf’ live and on album with the rhythms of guitar, drums and accompanying flute has been a time to lose myself on each occasion. A personal highlight of this album.

The percussion in’ Fenhop’ feels like it is leading the trilling flute into unknown dangers – the watchful heavy guitars waiting for a misstep in the marshes.

‘Lof’ – or praise – is a heavier track, almost breathing in the main riffs.

The album finishes with ‘Banhus’ – the drums keeping us on track while the guitars and noise build up – we wait for the waves to crash but we are reprieved and guided to safer waters – though not without a warning.

Genog means enough in Old English or sufficient, whether this is a challenge – enough is enough – or being at peace with what one has, the track names on this album reminds us of the appreciation and reliance on the land, our food and ourselves that our ancestors lived with, and we should not forget.

Written by Denise Arkley

5. Acid Rooster – Flowers & Dead Souls (Cardinal Fuzz, Tonzonen & Little Cloud Records)

I’ve loved Acid Rooster since hearing their self-titled album from 2019 and was really looking forward to seeing them last October at the Other Side Festival all-dayer in London. Sadly, Covid decided that that wasn’t going to happen and struck me down the week of the gig. Luckily 2023 gave me this album to listen to as a consolation, and a very good consolation it is indeed.

A three-piece hailing from Leipzig, Germany, Acid Rooster make the kind of scuzzy, tripped-out space rock that really launches my rocket, and this album is no exception. Starting with the gentle float of Sounds of Illusion, the guitar of Sebastian Väth gradually wormholes its way into your skull with a trademark fuzzed-up melody. On the Run follows, with a central section featuring shimmering synths from Max Leicht that remind me slightly of Pete Townshend’s synths on Who’s Next (Baba O’Riley and Won’t Get Fooled Again). Schattenspiel closes out, Side 1 with a pulsing bass sequence and drums (Steffen Schmidt) which have a Can/Jaki Liebezeit lightness of touch, forming a backdrop for gorgeous guitar melodies.

Side two slams in headfirst with Dead Bodies, with a sound reminiscent of a spaghetti western set on Mars, and which morphs into a full-on Brainstorm sonic attack as the track progresses. Good Mourning takes things down a little. Although the title of this one sounds a little gloomy, in reality this is a drifty, floaty, acidic sunrise smile of a track. Lastly, Heaven Scent is a luxurious soak in a hot bath of synths, wafting around your braincells and soothing your soul.

An absolute gem of an album, and I hope they make it back over to the UK again sometime soon so that I can finally catch them live!

Written by Stephen Bradbury

6. Black Helium – Um (Riot Season Records)

One must admit the Londoners of Black Helium understand everything you need to make a great record, their 2nd LP “The Wholly Other” was nothing short of a masterpiece and I was waiting eagerly to see what would come up next. 

They didn’t disappoint, keeping their magic recipe and expanding it always further. The Trio throws trippy melodies, heavy riffs, killer grooves, catchy hooks, mesmerising vocals, and laid-back energy together in a big cauldron, sprinkling secret tone-spices on top, and bringing it to boil. You can feel the tension simmering within you, taking you nicely by the hand to propel you into space, on a smooth trip through psychedelic galaxies. Don’t be mistaken though, it might be smooth in the way it will easily go down your aural canals, but it’s full of curiosities, unexpected turns, foot-stomping frenzies, and full-on mind blowouts, building and releasing tension to keep you hooked from the first until the last note.

With just one track under the 7min mark, and a 15min closer, Black Helium likes to take their time to explore each song, letting it breathe, wander, bringing it back on track, before heading in another direction, experimenting, and playing with every step. Each track is a journey in itself, even the dreamy interlude mid-record, displaying various sides of this gem of a band, while keeping a consistency all the way through, with this dynamic and relentless rhythm section locked-in, letting the guitar swirl freely in the psyched-out cosmos passing by the portholes of the Black Helium mothership, assembling into a wholesome sensorialgasm. 

Open your mind, close your eyes, and jump into this kaleidoscopic space trip that is UM.

Written by Mr Stone (More Fuzz)

7. 10-20 Project – Snakes Go to Soak in The Sun (Echodelick, Worst Bassist & Weird Beard)

The three parts of this album, Chutney I, II & III are an exotic and spicy blend indeed.

A trio of long smouldering, freeform jams which reflect the states of mind of the band (recorded during the darkest times of the pandemic) and of the landscape of its origin, Northern Africa. 

These are meditative jams which bask in the sun before crawling through the desert heat, up and over undulating terrain in search of shade.

Separated from the confines of time and conventional song structures, the band conjure up a sonic trip through the mind and using guitars, drums as well as saxophone and digeridoo, which add to the trance-like quality of the album. 

Reminiscent in times of the free jazz elements of Funhouse era Stooges or Hawkwind but in a much different environment, different drugs, different times. Sandblasted riffs and desert ruins.

I got lost listening to this in a good way, the album drives eternally onwards yet strangely retains a laid-back quality. Space rock of the highest order.

Somewhere a distant digeridoo hollers and gibbers away like shamanic space-ape, urging the listener to get down in the dunes, to engage and immerse oneself in the unfurling ritual. You should abide.

Written by Ben Moore

8. Lankum – False Lankum (Rough Trade)

A drone in a musical sense is a harmonic or monophonic effect or accompaniment where a note or chord is continuously sounded throughout most or all of a piece. The drone is the most ancient of all musical forms. From the womb – where the rushing of maternal blood is heard loud and clear at 88 decibels – through myriad historical, spiritual, and subcultural pathways, our connection to the drone runs deep.

Irish traditional music is deeply rooted in drones, from the uillean pipes to the harmonium, although you’d never know that from most popular (or at least crossover) Irish of the last 40 years.  And then along comes Lankum, 4 musicians who all started in the alternative/punk/industrial scene before connecting with and exploring traditional Irish music.  2 good albums (‘Cold Old Fire’ and ‘Between the Earth and Sky’) and then along comes producer Spud Murphy who encourages them to explore the drone aspect of their music, and we have a band that sounds like nothing else out there. “The Livelong Day’ (2019) was a massive leap forward – and my favourite record that year – , and this year’s ‘False Lankum’ is another massive leap forward and, for me,   the best record released in 2023

The album opens with a 400 year old song of betrayal and suicide, Go DIg My Grave – almost 9 minutes at a tempo that changes not one bit. Radie Peat’s glorious voice all my itself for over a minute before the music slowly builds behind her, getting more sinister and intense, until I swear it seems that you can actually hear the corpse of the song’s protagonist being dragged to its final destination. Master Crowley’s starts as traditional as you can with a slow fiddle/accordion jig duet get before slowly sinking into a menacing drone finish with treated cellos and what sounds like anvils being struck. Closer The Turn begins as a gentle traditional ballad and somehow over its 12 minutes becomes a maelstrom of feedback and discordant fiddle drones. This is a folk album – most of the songs are traditional dating back hundreds of years – but it’s darker and heavier and more doom laden than any metal album released this year. It feels, in places, like there is a window being opened to a wholly different and scary world that exists outside of the one we know. The fact that there are Beach Boys level harmonies, along with genuine moments of pure beauty mixed in just makes it all the more special.

An album like nothing else released this year.

Written by Mark Burnell

9. Dead Sea Apes – Rewilding (Cardinal Fuzz & Feeding Tube Records)

It starts with discordance. Inputs from all sides, a clash of opinions, no comfortable ride. 

At the start, the DENIALIST, the shout is so clear. “No global panic, nothing to see here”.

“This planet’s not struggling, there’s room for much more. It’ll bounce back, no problem, it’s done it before.”

Witness the planet’s response; flood, fire and extinction, a summons to action, feeding conviction.

Mankind’s a scourge, a PARASITE REX, for too long expanding, population unchecked. Earths industrially scarred, pollution tracks through her veins, rivers choked with detritus, it’s time for a change. She calls to her faithful, take steps to redress, my flora’s destruction, my fauna’s distress.

So, we enter THE SLEEP ROOM, minds focused on solution, cadence takes us to dreams, routes to stem the pollution. Uncomfortable truths, existential awakening, nature speaks in our language, delivers their reckoning. Too much has been taken, too little care given, one species in domination, a world now riven.

But now steps up the TRUTHER, with cries of conspiracy, “the science is flawed, they don’t say what we can see”.  Battle lines drawn, greens versus gammon, the power of Gaia against the forces of Mammon. 

Time passes, progresses, both sides take their losses, with planned interventions each have their successes, through careful REWILDING and calm ecotourism they each take their benefits whilst healing their schism. The pace is heavy, exhausting, emotional, berating.

I wake. Sweat-drenched, quivering. The disc still rotating.

There is no eco-apocalypse, funded by misadventure capitalists.

There is no conspiracy, driving souls underground.

There is no time to lose, disregard the denialists.

But if there’s a DEAD ZONE, just a fraction, there’s still time for action.

Listen. Act. Rewild.

Written by Tristan Robinson

10. Carlton Melton – Turn to Earth (Agitated Records)

Dive into the cosmic waves of sound with Carlton Melton’s latest masterpiece, ‘Turn to Earth.’ A perfect combination of freak-out space jams, synth-laden ambient tunes, and a healthy dose of krautrock, the album weaves together intricate layers of guitar riffs, synths and percussion, creating an immersive experience that almost (but not quite!) replicates their incredible live shows.

The album intro, title track ‘Turn to Earth’ has a slow, ominous build-up, with drums and synths creating the atmosphere, and leads straight into the heavy, psych-rock groove of ‘Cloudstorming’. If you’re not headbanging to this tune, what’s wrong with your ears?! The freak-out continues with ‘Vanquished’, before letting you take a big, deep breath with the beautiful, spacey ‘Cosmicity’. 

We have some loose experimentation between synths, loops and percussion next with ‘Canned Heat’ and then we are treated to ‘Sundering’, where the band demonstrate again how well they can start with a mellow jam and build it up so gradually, you hardly even notice until you are dancing in your seat.

The album continues in this vein – veering from stunning ambient music to heavy, guitar-noodling rock with splashes of doom. ‘Unlock the Land’ has it all in one ten-minute-long soundscape! But then we have the slow, dark techno of ‘Roboflow’, just in case you started to get too complacent.

‘Last Times’ begins with some lovely, soulful kosmische vibes and gradually sinks heavier and heavier, before finishing on a lighter note once again. This leads perfectly into ‘Migration’, a purely electronic track.

If the final track, ‘Mutiny’, doesn’t get you up dancing round the room, then I don’t know what will. It’s a 16-minute-long banger and is a perfect finish to a truly excellent album.

‘Turn to Earth’ is a sonic journey that captivates from start to finish. Carlton Melton have shown once again that they really are masters of creating music that transcends the ordinary.

Written by Alison Sunshine

11. GÅS – Vol.1 (Svensk Psych Aften)

When this was first announced very early in 2023 it was a no brainer to pay the nearly £45 it took to get this direct from the awesome Svensk Psych Aften label. At nearly £10 a track it seemed expensive but on first play it was clear these weren’t just songs, they were epic journeys and would be an instant contender for album of the year.

Join the Resistance opens the album with heavy Sabbathesque riffs calling us to look for hope in a negative landscape before sucking us through an otherworldly swirling cosmic wormhole on to a middle eastern party train to who knows where and for how long.

Second track Distance is recorded with faders up at the maximum bordering on distorted. Like Dead Meadow songs  you can’t help but sing the guitar lines as well as the lyrics ‘It’s the greatest distance bramm bramm bam baum, ba ba bapa bah!! Whilst punching the air! It beckons to be played at top volume. Introverted lyrically, extroverted sonically.

Illusion is the most up-beat track on here and could easily sit on a Goat album. Are GÅS anything to do with them? Who knows, but there are definitely similarities. They can also be compared with older Swedish psych forebearers but personally I think they transcend them with ease.

The final journey is 25öre with the mighty Centrum. A harmonium driven single note drone carries you west to meet your fellow insurgents. Like songs on ‘Fur Meditation’ by Centrum this track just swallows you whole and spits you out at your destination leaving you with your head swimming.

I personally would go on any trip with GÅS and all of their resister friends and look forward to Vol 2.

Written by Darryl Clarkson

12. Firefriend – Decreation Facts (Little Cloud Records & Cardinal Fuzz)

Keeping up with these psych rockers from São Paulo, Brazil can be hard. Their latest effort was released by Little Cloud Records (USA) and Cardinal Fuzz (UK). With the continuous release of official studio recordings and a barrage of self-produced live and demo CD releases, it’s sometimes hard to know if they are coming or going. One thing is for certain. The music is always great. Decreation Facts continues that trend. As always, the recording has a somewhat lo-fi aesthetic, which I have been informed is how they like it. They do mix things up a bit on a few tracks. “Acid Rain High-Speed Clouds” is a fast-paced punky number that starts a bit away from the usual slow and sultry bass-driven grooves. The closing track, “We’re Going In The Wrong Direction” adds some piano and keys in a more subdued mood. For the most part, however, the record is dark, slow, and heavy, which is what they do best. Vocal duties are split between tracks per usual. I don’t know many in my psych music circle who have come away from a Firefriend performance and have not been blown away. If you ever get the rare chance to see them, it’s a must-attend event. Grab a copy while you still can and while you are at it visit their website and grab some of the CD’s or Tees to support the band and get a hold of some hard-to-get tracks.

Written by John Waskiewicz

13. Speck – Eine Gute Reise (Tonzonen Records)

What makes Krautrock so captivating? The repetition, of course. Kraut is to rock music lovers what minimal is to electronic music lovers. Drums and bass have ONE line, and they follow it for as long as the song goes. But then, once you have that rhythmic, you can build other tunes on it, and that’s what makes the fusion of kraut and psychedelic rock so fascinating. 

The rhythmic part speaks to your animal brain, to your instincts. It creates the trance, the background of your trip. The lead guitar will then speak to your consciousness. It will create the flow of the trip. You’ve got the best of both words. But it’s a subtle equilibrium: too much of one or the other and the trip might fall flat. 

Funnily enough, Speck are good at delivering balanced kraut-psych. Being German helps, probably. Rhythmics are flawless, with subtle deviations, accelerations, or decelerations. The mark of the great. The guitar part goes from dreamy and eerie to fast and furious with ease, though always staying in the “angry cat screams” (that’s how the bands themselves describe it) tuning. 

I love it, it works wonder on me, and I can only hope it’ll work wonders on you. Eine Gute Reise is Speck’s second album, and we can only hope for more.

Written by François Momo (More Fuzz)

14. Hey Colossus – In Blood (Wrong Speed Records)

2023 was the year I nearly died. Genuinely. And the soundtrack to the sound of my failing kidneys turned out to be Hey Colossus and their two mega gigs in Glastonbury and London. That means the songs on “In Blood” carry a resonance probably beyond what was intended for me. But there is something here about finally shedding the old ways and battered, bruised, and altered accepting a new way of going about business.

Here are 8 songs of finely-honed modern-day Colossus. No more storm und klang like “Witchfinder General Hospital” or “I Am Bunga Bunga” but instead 8 tunes that have pulled back from the edge and can reflect on the horrors that have been witnessed in the void. Interesting to hear the genesis of this album was a possible collab with the late Mark Lanegan because what tarpits of despair would that have reached down into?

As it is the Colossus pull a nimble trick of uplifted gloom. There is both triumph AND despair here. All done so skilfully that I can see the chaps breaking free of our small scene shackles and running free in the wider world. We all live to fight another day.

Written by James Smith

15. Craven Faults – Standers (Leaf)

Music as place, place as music. Where I used to live in West Yorkshire, it was all greenery and fields and hills. Yet a cursory investigation revealed that in years past this was a thriving hotbed of Industrial Revolution activity. What was now an idyll of birdsong and calm was previously a snorting, throbbing, smoke belching hothouse of activity. I’d stand on those moors imagining the acrid smells and thump of machinery of times past as I simultaneously bathed in the sunlight.

And this is what Craven Faults captures so brilliantly on the “Standers” album. In thirty seconds of music all past and present and indeed future are captured. The high point for me is the 18 minutes of “Sun Vein Strings”, eighteen minutes of standing above the Calder Valley, the sunlight morphing and changing the view. Old dilapidated workers cottages, fields then towns, a motorway snaking across the landscape, a train glinting in the watery sun, a power station far in the distance. All of time all at once. Stunning

Written by James Smith

16. Verstärker – Jenseits (Fuzz Club)

Psych Lovers welcomes you to the inaugural Intergalactic Battle of The Species (Aliens Vs Humans). On the lefthand side, big it up for the aliens who have arrived with their expertise and love of all things spacey, synthy and a general love for all things MOOG. On the righthand side we have your bang average humans, who generally love to bash it out with yer bass, drums, and guitar. Together they will be collectively battling it out to the latest Verstärker album titled ‘Jenseits’, which translates as “Beyond” or “The Other Side”. Cue dry ice and cheering!

We kick things off with the opening track ‘Ankunft’. Translating into the word ‘Arrival’, you could say, the aliens have arrived early in the proceedings with a 70s Moog type spacey opening to the track. It’s got a lovely drone ambience mixed in with the sound of shooting stars in the background. What’s this? The humans have jumped in to spoil the party with an intergalactic guitar note….and BAM. Straight in with drums and bass creating an endless cacophony of high powered droneness, which has everyone up on their feet/tentacles dancing. Closing out the track, all you can hear is the fast heartbeat coming from the alien combo, knowing they had the opportunity there to win this one. Safe to say the humans will take as draw at this early stage of the contest. Aliens 1 – 1 Humans.

So buoyed by the opening track, the humans make an early start with a steady drum solo which starts off proceedings to track two, titled, ‘Ad Unum Ad Astra’ which translates from Latin to ‘One of The Stars’. Oh, what’s this?? The humans have pulled a cheeky one out of the bag by creating a shimmering reverb with a Supermoon Chrome pedal, giving it that synthy space vibe. All the aliens can come up with towards the end of the track is a flatline drone, handing the humans the win. Aliens 1 – 2 Humans.

With the humans taking the lead, the aliens know they must pick up the pace, otherwise they will fall behind in the competition to win ‘Battle of The Species’. They head straight in with track three, titled ‘Nachthimmel’. The aliens showcasing some heavily shimmering inspired by the night sky. The humans at this point are transfixed and eventually add some textured guitar ambience, but all is too late, and the aliens take the next point. Aliens 2 – 2 Humans.

This is now a close affair with only 2 tracks remaining. The humans take no chances and take full control of track 4 titled ‘Hinter Dem Spiegal’ (Behind the Mirror) with all drums, bass and guitar bashing it out as if their lives depended on it. In this moment, the aliens are left standing/floating with their collective jaws stuck to the ground.  To have any chance of winning, the aliens need to have a long look ‘behind the mirror’. With a collective bashing of heads, the aliens come up with a ferociously hypnotising drone that incorporates all the instruments together into a volcanic eruption of mass magma.

The humans don’t stop there with the pace on the final track ‘Jenseits Des Jenseits’, which translates to ‘Beyond the Beyond’. It is clear that the humans are trying to achieve getting there by the end of this contest. The camera pans over to the aliens as they wave their arms/tentacles in the air in disgust as their instruments seem to of somehow faltered. The humans pulverise on till the end, taking the contest easily in the end 4 – 2.  

The aliens may have lost this ‘Battle of the Species’ but one thing is clear, when you add the two species together, you get an intergalactic masterpiece by Verstärker. See you again next time as we take on the ‘Battle of the Species’.

Written by Ian Mc Glynn

17. Sonic Jesus – Badway (Don Rhajin)

From the moment the needle touches the first grooves of the spiral scratches, there is a realisation of a giant leap, a huge evolutionary shift in the SONIC JESUS sound.

“Badway” has more in common with a NINE INCH NAILS album than anything we have heard from the band previously. Gnarly, Gritty Post-Punk is where this monster treads. Full of Self Assessing, Reflective, Searching, a making sense of the previous couple of years of Cancelled Tours, Internal Upheavals, Lockdowns, Label Discontent and Worldwide Situations.

Tiziano’s Vocals are venomous, Pure Expression, deliveries of Hard Emotion without the Alienation.

This is a challenging album for sure, especially to anyone expecting another “Neither Virtue Nor Anger”, the bleakness with atmospheric instrumentation. If that was Gothic infused Psych, then this is Industrial Post- Punk with very little if any Psych staining. An 80’s influenced Revelation springing thoughts of SUICIDE and DEPECHE MODE to the forefront.

This is Brutal and Honest. Yes, there is some of that sound reminiscent of “Reich” era SONIC JESUS interwoven but this is something completely fresh, throwing any previous rules into the flames. More Electronics and Drums take the lead from the expected more Guitar driven tracks.

All Production for this album was taken in as a full in-house project with Don Rhajin taking on all those responsibilities.

Self-Arranged, Self-Produced, Self-Released, is this the way SONUC JESUS will present themselves from here forward? With previous Label Issues it seems the control is the aim with the past holding doors closed and so much uncertainty, SONIC JESUS seem to be holding the doorhandle securely for the time being.

Surely this has got to be a Goodway.

Written by Brian P Dennis

18. Night Beats – Rajan (Fuzz Club)

Longtime psychtraveller and man of the hour Danny Lee Blackwell can look back over a decade of musical history in form of distinctive releases of his music since 2010. And me considered as a follower as since back then.
Before this PsychLovers AOTY2023-Vote there´ve been live recordings released (Levitation Sessions 2021 / At Valentine 2022). Iconic peyote psych delivered in the form of Outlaw R&B (2021). Both sets share the similarity of including H-Bomb. Merely the first ever recorded and released Night Beats song on same titled 7“ EP in 2010. And despite the following dirty garage years everything which will come is already there. 
The  track „New World“ from 2^nd album ´Sonic Bloom´ (2013) is also included in both sets. A dimming psychsurfapproach of later releases to come. Last but not least several tracks from ´Who Sold My Generation´ (2016) are part of the setlist. A part-collaboration with Robert Levon of the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. As a special treat the 7“-only track “That´s all you got“ concludes this two live sets. Also a collaboration with Levon Been and B-Side for the Outlaw R&B album teaser “Never look back“.
Sadly neverywhere mentioned in song or sound is the episode ´Myth of a Man“ (2019). 
In my lists a clearly TOP12 shot produced by (HORRAY) Dan Auerbach, surely known as one part of ´The Black Keys´. Catchy, souly pop snippets accompanied with the crooner voice of Blackwell. Rejoice. WHY I am telling you all this?
When you follow a certain artist for years and years and years, in my humble opinion it would be the cleverest trick to subdue and culminate every gone and done appearance into the next one. That includes surely also ´Myth of a man´. And there we are.

RAJAN

´Hot Ghee´ opens with flirting sitar jingles and drifts off into Kraut Exotica. Always present are the underscorechoirs of well-tuned voices. Short term very dark coloured jazzy nightmares starring motion pictures with anxious minds. Thank you. Sunny?

The B-Side kicks it off instantly and finally. A pleasure to get dropped into ´Osaka´ like a bomb, swirling in a 60s triphop magnet. The following tells us in slower tunes of jungle book rules and cautionary tales. Myths of a man. Mr Blackwell can merely lead you down from the bottom of the well to the sunny gleaming’s of a Sunday morning to stuck there. All outlaw. All the time. ´Morrocco Blues´ waves the sitars away and leaves into the dust, clearly states the tyre prints of a well-known motorcycle. Let´s see what happens next.

I am curious, always.

Written by Holger Schilling

19. Kombynat Robotron – Frohe Zukunft (Drone Rock Records)

It’s fairly uncommon for me to buy everything a band releases, especially in these austere times, so when I do it’s because the band are consistently producing incredibly interesting and varied sounds, music that I don’t want to regret passing up when they inevitably sell out. And so, it is with Kombynat Robotron, the 4-piece improvisational outfit from Kiel who have endeared themselves to the Psych Lovers group through the promotional efforts of drummer Tommy Handschick. It therefore stands to reason that when Drone Rock Records (another Psych Lovers favourite) announced a new album towards the end of 2023, I duly signed up for the pre-order and waited for it to drop without having heard a note.

Fortunately, DRR don’t do long waits for pre-orders, so it wasn’t long before I was listening to it and instantly digging the superb production that reveals every instruments contribution as the varied jams unfold, each one a journey with varying numbers of twists and turns, some there and back, others just heading way out there, but all taking the grooviest route.

Side one is upbeat from the off and powers through its two tunes in what feels like no time at all, although paradoxically while you’re there and constantly moving in the musical dimension, you’re covering a lot of ground that belies the feeling it’s over all too soon. Throughout, the band urge us along with an agile style that allows them to constantly up the ante, build and destroy, or just strut their subtly evolving repetitious stuff as they see fit, and you just have to go with it because it’s so good!

Side two starts with a funerary note before the fuzzy bass begins its seemingly relentless march, urged along by thunderous doom-laden drums while droning effects and guitar threaten to coalesce into a dark choir in the background… fantastic stuff, with the resultant soundscape evoking SFF landscapes and architecture in this addled old brain of mine.

In summary, it’s an album that you can play on repeat without it becoming too familiar, as the music charts its seemingly random course in such a way that all of its secrets are never revealed at once, encouraging the listener to dive in again and again to experience them.

Roll on the Summer and their first UK appearances!

Written by Sean Gibbins

20. Daiistar – Good Time (Fuzz Club)

Good Time, the debut LP from Austin’s Daiistar (pronounced Day Star, in case you’re struggling with that), is a good first effort with a few standout tracks, particularly on the front end, but it does tend to get a little monotonous as it reaches the midway point.

“Star Starter,” the first song, recalls the music from the early Madchester era, sounding like a lost track from The Charlatans’ Some Friendly, sans the Hammond B-3. That vibe carries on through track two, “LMN BB LMN.” The guitar work on this album drips with fuzz and phasers, and the rhythm section holds things down tightly, with the bass taking a backseat to allow the drums to really shine. 

Track three, “Repeater,” slows things down and heads into a more shoegazey territory, with an understated but fantastic guitar solo. Moving into the next cut, “Tracemaker,” things begin to sound like more of the same, even though this is one of the strongest tracks on the album.

The instrumentation on “Purified,” the next track, sounds a bit like Disintegration-era Cure, but by the time this listener reached this point, the vocal effects, which are pretty much constant through the album, have become boring, and that feeling continues through the rest of the album. The instrumentation is solid throughout, and the vocals work for each of the tracks, independently, but as a collection, they seem repetitive and detract from some really great playing, particularly the guitar work. 

That said, Daiistar are a really fun band to see play live, and I would give this album a B. Hopefully their next release will abandon the overdone effects on the vocals and show the world what these Texans are really capable of.

Written by Bill Morton