MaidaVale

MADNESS IS TOO PURE

THE SIGN SWEDEN’S TRIPPY, PSYCH-BLUES QUARTET RAISE THEIR SIGHTS

Following up their underrated 2016 debut, the cosmic Swedes plunge deeper into the psychotropic vortex with a campaign of sprawling, peyote-laced electric blues. Mingling 70s psychedelia with flashes of new wave and krautrock, their sophomore effort is tighter and more ambitious than its predecessor. That said, Deadlock and Oh Hysteria! make curious choices for openers. It’s not that either song is uninspired but stacked against the album’s stronger fare, they feel a bit tame. Third track Gold Mind sees the band whip into a mesmerising ritualistic tempo with a rangey, dual-fretted attack that suggests the Black Lips dropping acid with Jefferson Airplane, while Dark Clouds is a slow-building trip with lurching basslines and fuzz-drenched climax that sits comfortably alongside the bluesy freakout of sharper cuts like

She Is Gone. If it’s a late night, ceiling-examining headtrip you’re after, your spaceship has arrived.

FOR FANS OF: KADAVER, DARK MOON, AMON DÜÜL II

JOE DALY