Saturday, 18 May 2019

Psychic Lemon - Live at the Smokehouse (Album Review)


Release date: April 26th 2019. Label: Tonzonen. Format: CD/DD/Vinyl

Live at the Smokehouse – Tracklisting

1.Interstellar Fuzz Star 10:19
2.Satori Disko 06:57
3.Hey Droog! 06:01
4.Jonny Marvel at the Milky Way 11:31
5.White Light 07:26

Members

Andy Briston - guitar, synths
Andy Hibberd - bass
Martin Law - drums

Review

I will admit that I’ve never heard of Psychic Lemon before I listened to their new live album – Live At The Smokehouse. Though I was intrigued to see what this Psychedelic Krautrock/Space Rock Band had in store with me. I love listening to Live Albums and I wanted to hear what Psychic Lemon sound like on the live arena and I must admit this album surprised me in so many ways.

Lets start off with the album itself. The album sounds great from start to finish and sounds like how a live album should. Raw, Intense and full of passionate energy. Even though I didn’t know the songs I fell in love with Psychic Lemon’s blend of Instrumental Space Rock. The ambient sounds, heavy guitars and trippy droned out noises reminded me of HAWKWIND and BO NINJEN on certain parts of the album.

The albums first 3 songs - Interstellar Fuzz Star, Sakori Disko and Hey Droogl are tracks from the bands most recent album Frequency Rhythm Distortion Delay and they are epic slices of Spaced Out Progressive Rock which adds different layers of Psychedelic Rock and Krautrock for a hypnotic and very loud experience.

The final two songs Jonny Marvel at the Milky Way and White Light are two unreleased songs. Jonny Marvel at The Milky Way is a tribute to a friend/fan of the band. This song is perhaps my favourite song on the entire album as it starts off really slow before building into a loud WALL OF NOISE with epic and violent sounds that shouldn’t be made possible by 3 members. As this song feels like there are more members within Psychic Lemon than the current 3 members.

White Light is the perfect end to finish this epic live album. It’s a shame the album is only on for 42 minutes as I wanted to hear more of Psychic Lemon addictive style of Instrumental Rock. Other than that, Live At The Smokehouse is one of the best live albums I’ve heard in 2019 and it’s a must have release no matter genre of music that you follow.

Excellent and Highly Recommended.

Words by Steve Howe

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