Review: Psychic Lemon - The Unheimlich Kingdom
Psychic Lemon will always have a place in my heart; not only have they featured heavily in this blog (previous reviews here and here) but they were also the first band I put on in Chelmsford (under the 'Dayz of Purple and Orange' banner) and played the Chelmsford Psych Fest. Having met them numerous times I can also attest that they are damned fine fellows. To the uninitiated Psychic Lemon play a spicy melange of space rock, psychedelia and krautrock that can be as heavy as fuck but spellbinding and entrancing.
A brief recap - 'The Unheimlich Kingdom' is their fourth studio album and finds them once again in the welcoming bosom of Drone Rock Records who released their first and third albums. They have also released a live album and a series of 'Studio Jam' tapes during COVID when the band couldn't get together. Time has seen their personnel being whittled down from a three piece to a duo (Andy Briston: guitar, synths & loops and Martin Law: drums) following the departure of bass player Andy Hibberd.
If I may digress for a minute in order to set the scene as it were. This country (UK) is going to hell in a handbasket; our public services are being run into the ground, money is more important than people and the politics of division make any good act or thought to be seen as 'woke' (by Christ I hate that word) or 'virtue signalling'. The concept of someone just being nice is an alien one thanks to the right wing media, F***book and T*****r, sorry, X. We are right royally fucked and yes, pun intended. Add to the this the after effects of COVID and the less than sunny uplands of Brexit and you get a country in decline, morally, financially and socially. Now, that wasn't just a rant for the sake of it but it puts into context both the title of the album, Unheimlich being a scary sense of unease, and the vision of the UK that the band successfully attempt to portray. To use the band's words: "A cruel austere hand chokes the life-breath of public services and plunges a knife into the heart of kindness... haunted by a mythic past and paralysed by an unthinkable future, as we stare out of the window, horror fictions transform into reality.Let the bodies high and the land sink into the sea". Sounds cheery eh? Fear not gentle reader for from the seeds of our collective misery grows a mighty oak of defiance
So, to the music. The album kicks off with 'Trepanning for Gold' and from the get-go you know you are in for one hell of a ride. Waves of spacey distortion and a tribalistic drum beat ever growing and morphing until it reaches an acme of monstrous proportions. It is a muscular herald for the rest of the album. 'Cognitive Dissidents' is just as megalithic but there is something subtler underlying the sturm und drang, Stoogian riffs play beneath the hazy wall of sound, giving things a vaguely nostalgic hue whilst remaining defiantly contemporary. 'National Psycho Geographic' (loving these titles by the way) weaves a different path; Law's normally Jaki Liebezeit-esque drumming takes a distinct Ginger Baker turn, the drum patterns becoming more florid but never overshadowing the deep layers of deeply spacey and psychedelic guitar... a magnificent track that is genuinely invigorating. The album closes with the 20 minute title track, a true magnum opus with its running time matched by the heft of the music. It is a more considered, complex beast that is driven by a motorik rhythm but where the former tracks had waves of trippiness this has a more discordant feel - sharp jabs of guitar giving things a spikey edge that is somewhat ameliorated by some cosmic synths. One of the things that puts me off a lot of modern 'plug and play' neo-psych is its lack of 'intelligence' but one cannot level this at Psychic Lemon - this is thoughtful psych for thinking people. 'The Unheimlich Kingdom' (the track) is an incredible piece of music and a lesson in how to 'build' a track in a studied and astute manner.
'The Unheimlich Kingdom' is, in my opinion, Psychic Lemon's best yet. It showcases a band at the height of their powers who are not afraid to mix things up a bit but still retain their raison d'etre. It is a magnificent beast; muscular and powerful, borne of righteous rage. It is the sound of a band finding catharsis through music, a way of communicating their disquiet about modern life in the UK but without resorting to shouting into an echo chamber. That alone is something to be applauded. Bravo lads, bravo. It is out on Drone Rock Records the end of February with pre-orders now live.
LINKS
Psychic Lemon Bandcamp
Psychic Lemon Website
Psychic Lemon Facebook
Drone Rock Records Website
Drone Rock Records Facebook
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