What does ‘Psychedelic’ mean to you? Syd Barrett’s disintegrating troubadour songs? David Mancuso selecting the emotional bangers and spiking the punch? Goan trees flecked and daubed with fluro paint? Yes to all of these in varying degrees, but they fail to fully capture it.
They don’t explain what it is that launches us into that bewildering place, as unmistakable as it is impossible to remember.
There is an explanation, one among many of course, that someone is needed. A guide to light the path. To show us where here connects to there. To embrace jeopardy, whilst we sit quietly awaiting our cue, watching as they launch themselves across the infinite crevasse with the single minded belief that others will follow.
On first hearing this album it was immediately and gloriously obvious that Material Object was one such person. Vaulting the crevasse in a single bound like a child leaping a puddle, these six pieces imbued with the fragile power of their immediacy. Created with a single synthesizer, driven live and in every which way over the gap. Freaked, tweaked and exploded improvisations stretching into the next world, barely holding it together. Only one chance to get it right. Make a mistake and you’re done, tumbling forever down into oblivion.
What lies on the other side? That’s up to you and your synapses, but we can’t imagine a better start than this. Once more unto the kaleidoscopic breach, dear friends!
