PSYCHEDELIC PROG

Take a trip with ROB HUGHES as he seeks out the latest mind-expanding music.

Followers of the Californian underground may already be familiar with Hannah Skelton and Chris Niles from respective projects Cassiopeia and Maus Haus. Now they’ve teamed up as Abracadabra, whose Shapes And Colours (Melodic) is a delicious blend of dubby psych, experimental pop and percussive funk. Field recordings and effects are expertly deployed too, though chief ingredients are a handful of vintage synths that often make these songs sound like cosmic cousins of Tom Tom Club or Studio One’s blissed-up answer to ESG.

Altogether more pagan in feel, Misneach (Glitterbeat) is the captivating third effort from Ireland/Berlin ensemble

Tau And The Drones Of Praise. The core quartet, led by singer and multiinstrumentalist Seán Mulrooney, examine mystery, myth and ancestral ties on a set that marries ritualistic psych-folk to earthy drones and ringing mantras. Ceol Ón Chré and It Is Right To Give Drones And Praise, with great vocals by Nina Hynes and Kenichi And The Sun, are particularly memorable. Other guests include Irish singer-songwriter Damien Dempsey and Clannad’s

Pól Brennan.

Over in Sweden, Les Big Byrd – featuring various members of Teddybears, Caesars, Fireside and Viagra Boys – push their collective heads into the stars on The Eternal Light Brigade (Chimp Limbs). It’s indebted to Spiritualized (the hypnotic I Used To Be Lost But Now I’m Just Gone), Kraftwerk (September Endless, with vocoder to boot) and classic Neu! (Katamaran’s gliding motorik), with everything pulled together by agile neo-psych guitars.

Not content with issuing two studio albums in a little over a year, Stöner are back again with a five-track EP, Boogie To Baja (Heavy Psych). The desert rock supergroup, comprising ex-Kyuss types Brant Bjork and Nick Oliveri, plus drummer Ryan Güt, evoke the timeless spirit of Blue Cheer, MC5, Black Sabbath and more, from the psychotropic metal of Night Tripper Vs No Brainer to the punishing 10-minute title track. There’s also a terrific version of Pink Fairies’ City Kids.

Meanwhile, those of a quieter persuasion might well prefer On The Wind (Woodsist), the debut offering from Madelyn Strutz, aka Bobbie Lovesong. Recorded, produced and performed entirely by Strutz during a prolonged spell of communal living in Taos, New Mexico, it’s an endearingly strange confection of weirdy folk and retro-futurist jazz standards that owe much to the likes of Stereolab, Broadcast and a whole host of outsider artists from 1960s’ counterculture onwards.

Stony Sugarskull, the alter ego of Berlin/Los Angelesbased Monika Demmler, returns with second album Princess (stonysugarskull. bandcamp.com). Fronting a four-piece band, Demmler is a fine purveyor of postpunk psychedelia and alt-rock scuzz, especially on Lovecraft and Punky Turtle.