March is here, and it feels like it came on quick. Time flies when you’re having fun, right? This week, we have some space rock from Italy, a creepy English release good for folk horror fans, psych rock from Mexico, and much more. Enjoy!
Psych Jams for This Week
The Second Floral EP by Floral
We’re traveling way back to 2015 for this one. Floral’s first LP was released in 2020, but this was a sampling of their stuff from earlier. This isn’t exactly psych, more of prog/match rock. But the technical ability of the musicians is very good, and the guitar riffs almost three-dimensional.
Off on the Moons by Flashlight Faces
Off on the Moons drops today from the Flashlight Faces, who make what they call “mystery rock.” The self-tiled single and “Wreckage Room,” the other available track right now, have a garage rock edge with dashes of psych, electric folk, and gothic lyrics. Their self-titled debut LP in 2021 is worth checking out, too.
Voyages and Dreams by DOKIS
DOKIS is an indigenous singer-songwriter from Northern Ontario making psychedelic folk and roots music. This is his third full-length album, released in September 2022, which uses a more stripped-down approach than his previous releases. The music is light and airy and has a heavy emphasis on his poetic lyrics, often focusing on relationships and nature themes.
Red Goddess (of this men shall know nothing) by Hawthonn
This is an interesting LP from Leeds, U.K.-based Hawthonn that reminds me of the hauntology books I read sometimes. Red Goddess dropped in 2018, an album filled with spooky, ethereal drones and eerie whispers. It’s an esoteric album with a band fascinated in the occult and, most likely, the haunted landscapes of their home country.
Ben Chasny of Six Organs of Admittance had this to say about the band, “Hawthonn is the real deal. Equally adept at transcribing crow calls into musical scales as they are at creating horizon melting atmospheres, Red Goddess raises the bar for musicians interested in composing straight from the creative imagination. For fans of Jocelyn Godwin, John Dee and Folk Horror as much as the darker spectrum of British music, this is a record of staggering breadth.”
If you’re fascinated in the folk horror revival, the Wicker Man, and spooky stuff, you’re bound to love this. Perfect for Halloween (or Samhain, if you prefer).
Into the Heart of the Sun by Marco Ragni
This album drops on March 23rd, a space-rock adventure from Italian multi-instrumentalist Marco Ragni. The Heart of The Sun is a multi-suite song that clocks in at nearly 30 minutes that I found pretty cool. Marco describes his stuff as “crazy music for weird people.”
Las Mercedes by The Mud Howlers
I found out about the Mud Howlers while researching for a post I did about the top Mexican psych rock bands. Hailing from Northern Mexico, Las Mercedes is the band’s latest release from 2022. The psych indie group sings in Spanish and is good for fans of the OSEES. Sale El Sol is my favorite track on Las Mercedes, with a slick beat that lazily drags on for more than eight minutes.
Stories We Can Tell & More by Out of Time
This release from 2015 is a re-release from Italy’s Area Pirata Records of Out of Time, an underground band from the mid-80s in Italy. The band didn’t last long, but they shared the stage with some talented international acts in the Eighties, including Dream Syndicate and Smithereens. “Stories We Can Tell” was recorded in 1985 and never re-issued until 2015. The album has a definite Eighties vibe, reminding me very much of The Smiths.
It’s Bandcamp Friday, so head to the site and support some of these artists!
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