Someone recently told me that October is one of the busiest months for new releases, and boy, he wasn’t lying. The depressing Bandcamp layoffs were the big news this month, but despite that, it was an excellent month for new psychedelic music. If Bandcamp eventually goes down the shitter, we might as well cherish it while it lasts. All things must pass, I suppose.
The Third Eye stayed super-busy this month, and I likely posted more than I should have. I tend to be obsessive about things. It was a weird month for me personally, as we came up on the anniversary of my father-in-law’s passing, but we did manage to have some fun, and not just because of Halloween.
My wife and I saw Jason Isbell for the first time at the Ryman in Nashville, and it was a great show. But, back to the psychedelic music. This month, we have a potent dose of acid rock from bands like Volume and The Heavy Minds, a new album from the mysterious psych-rockers Goat, and many other fantastic releases.
Since there were so many great new psych records, I also included a short list of honorable mentions. Now, let’s get to the list!
Best Psych Music of October 2023
Requesting Permission to Land by Volume
Release Date: October 27th
Subgenre: Acid Rock/Heavy Psych
Bandcamp Link
October brought an excellent treat for stoner rock fans with a 20th-anniversary edition vinyl pressing of Volume’s 1993 debut record, Requesting Permission to Land. Patrick Brink started the group in ‘93 after performing with various groups, such as early incarnations of Fu Manchu.
Volume formed during the emergence of the desert rock/stoner scene, and it’s a band I’d somehow never read about or heard of. Unlike some desert/stoner pioneers like Fu Manchu and Kyuss, though, Volume has a distinctive heavy fuzzed-out psych rock sound that makes them perfect for readers of the Third Eye.
The band drew influences from The Stooges, MC5, Black Flag, and Blue Cheer, and you can hear it all on Requesting Permission to Land in the primal, hard-driving acid rock noise. Grab the limited-edition 20th-anniversary vinyl of Requesting Permission to Land while you still can.
Sci-Fi Psychedelic by Professor Jefferson
Release Date: October 7th
Subgenre: Experimental/Psychedelic Pop
Bandcamp Link
Arkansas isn’t exactly known as a hotbed of psychedelic music, but a band called Professor Jefferson released an excellent album in October called Sci-Fi Psychedelic. From the looks of it, Professor Jefferson is a psychedelic collective, which I guess makes them similar to the Hungarian Psychedelic Source Records. Take a look at Professor Jefferson’s website here, and you’ll see they have a large section of other artists that are a part of their collective/label.
Whatever the case, Sci-Fi Psychedelic is a fun experimental record with tons of interesting sounds and a retro feel. All the tracks are relatively short and have a psych-pop feel, coming to you straight from Rogers, Arkansas. You can grab it on Bandcamp digitally or in vinyl or CD versions.
Birds Nest by The Bures Band
Release Date: October 20th
Subgenre: Krautrock/Cosmic Country
Bandcamp Link
Birds Nest by The Bures Band may be my favorite release of October, and it feels like taking a trip back in time. The five-piece folk rock band from Perth, Western Australia, is part Grateful Dead, part Byrds, and a treat for fans of the cosmic corners of country and Americana brought to us by Cardinal Fuzz Shop. The band formed in 2022, and this is their debut record, which reflects their shared love of Sixties and Seventies Americana, folk rock, and blues.
Though the band is new, the members aren’t new to the stage. Stephen Bailey has been recognized nationally in Australia as a solo artist and for his lead vocals and keys for the psych-rock band Mt. Mountain, which has shared the stage with KGLW, Moon Duo, and Thee Oh Sees. Callum Anderson and Noah Symmans play together in a blues/rock band, The Sleep Police, and Danny Miles and Tom Beech are part of a six-piece folk act band, Clove.
Filled with catchy, jangling harmonies, Birds Nest is a terrific album for fans of other cosmic country acts The Third Eye has covered before, such as Tommy and The Ohs and California’s Kareeta. My favorite track is “Big House,” which bounces with infectious psych-country energy.
Pink Fish by The Silver Linings
Release Date: October 11th
Subgenre: Acid Rock/Heavy Psych
Bandcamp Link
Take a trip to the galaxy’s outer reaches with this psych and space rock album from Málaga, Spain, released on October 11th. Here’s how The Silver Linings invite us to the journey: “By getting together to create the sonic landscapes we always wished to travel through, we express our belief that there is a side to this reality that will always pull us through. May it be through space traveling, guitar riffs, or lysergic dreams.”
Pink Fish was released by Spinda Records, and it could be the strongest pure psych-rock record of the month. It’s at times heavy, always catchy, and has enough beautiful touches of krautrock to take you on a special listening journey.
Easy Portals by Dire Wolves (Just Exactly Perfect Sisters Band)
Release Date: October 27th
Subgenre: Experimental/Improvisation
Bandcamp Link
Philly-based Jeffrey Alexander may be the hardest-working man in the psych-rock underground today, with his numerous creative projects constantly releasing great new music. This new release from DWLVS is no exception, adding to the band’s and Alexander’s already impressive catalog.
Like most of the Dire Wolves’ work, Easy Portals is an improvised recording session. The core members of the band got together for the first time in a while in the autumn of 2022 after not being able to see each other due to the pandemic, and from most reports, they had a great session with which Easy Portals is the first of the fruits of their labor. This means more great material is likely on the way. Another great thing about this record is the collaboration between the excellent labels releasing it: Centripetal Force (North America), Cardinal Fuzz (UK), and Ramble Records (Australia).
Easy Portals was released on October 27th under a full moon, which is indicative of the darker tone of these recordings, as the band takes a more progressive approach to their communal jamming. Is the darkness due to the pandemic’s effects? The current geo-political state of the world? It doesn’t much matter, really. Just sit back and enjoy the ride.
Medicine by Goat
Release Date: October 13th
Subgenre: Neo-psychedelic
Bandcamp Link
The mysterious Swedish psych-rockers Goat returned in October with a new LP, Medicine, that brings a slightly mellower psych-folk sound to their fans. The overall theme of Medicine is “the impermanence of life in different ways: sickness, relationships, love, death, and how our time is finite.”
Goat has never shied away from chasing after transcendence in their music – though you could say they shy away from other things, such as dropping the masks and revealing their true identities. The new record is another entry in a busy year for them, coming off an original score called Gallows Pole in July and an EP entitled Seu Sangue in April. They’re a band that consistently delivers the goods, and psych fans of all stripes should enjoy this one.
Zuma 85 by Allah-Las
Release Date: October 13th
Subgenre: Neo-psychedelic
Bandcamp Link
Los Angeles-based Allah-Las is a popular indie-psych band that’s proud of its West Coast roots, saying on Bandcamp they have “a sound cultivated from the annals of California culture; the perfect mixture of the sands, the seas, the streets and cities of the Golden State.” Zuma 85 is their first new music since 2019, a long-awaited release for the band’s loyal fanbase.
The band took a much-needed rest between 2020-2022 during the pandemic after years of adhering to an album a-year/tour year schedule. The result was more space to reflect, focus on their own interests, and re-envision what their creative processes could be like. This is an admirable feat in our culture that constantly demands “content” and staying relevant. The new record results from this rest period and is a welcome return for Allah-Las.
Pointe by Hooverii
Release Date: October 13th
Subgenre: Neo-psychedelic
Bandcamp Link
Hooveriii (pronounced Hoover 3) is another LA-based indie psych-rock band that released a new album in October, Pointe, via the vaunted Reverberation Appreciation Society. The album is less guitar-driven than the band’s previous effort, 2022’s Round of Applause, and includes more spacey grooves, synth-friendly ballads, and general esoteric neo-psych goodness.
Hooveriii is a band I didn’t know much about until finding this new record, and I’m glad I stumbled upon it. Pointe is chill, laid-back krautrock that shows the band “wisely armed with bliss to fight our age of calamity.”
The Cortina Protocol
Release Date: October 6th
Subgenre: Krautrock/Jazz Rock
Bandcamp Link
The London-based Cortina Protocol was formed in 2021 by Matthew Rozeik and explores the “darker side of cinematic noir.” The project features a fluid cast of like-minded musicians, and this debut self-titled album is billed as the first of many deep explorations.
The band says this about its sound: “Briefcases exchanged against a grey brutalist skyline. A nameless man wiretaps a phone call while tape spools silently whirl. A stolen dossier slides across a pub table. ‘The Cortina Protocol’ is the sound of these images.” That sounds pretty sweet, right?
The album was recorded in three days to tape in North London in early 2021 and blends the sounds of Seventies Crime Movie soundtracks, cinematic atmospheres, hypnotic krautrock, and a touch of psychedelic funk. The music was spontaneously composed, “taking many unexpected paths yet creating a cohesive aesthetic throughout.” Like a car bomb in a Seventies crime flick, the grooves on the record may make your mind spontaneously combust while listening.
Beyond Gloom by The Heavy Minds
Release Date: October 6th
Subgenre: Acid Rock/Heavy Psych
Bandcamp Link
Austria-based The Heavy Minds is a garage-heavy psych band that returned in October with their third LP, Beyond Gloom. The band is influenced by a melting pot of genres, including garage, progressive, krautrock, lo-fi, neo-psychedelia, and more. The result is a raw, interesting underground psych sound.
Released on October 6th, Beyond Gloom is acid rock that’s heavy without overdoing it and still includes plenty of finesse. Fans of both stoner rock and slicker neo-psychedelic bands should enjoy this album.
Honorable Mention
The Falling by Aiwass
The Texas-based solo project Aiwass, led by Blake Carrera, takes a significant artistic leap with this spine-chilling psychedelic doom trip via King Volume Records.
Venal Twin by Emergency Group
Straight outta Brooklyn, the psychedelic jazz-rock fusion Emergency Group puts on an impressive display of free jazz improvisation on Venal Twin, their third release of 2023, this one via Centripetal Force Records.
Saguaro
Saguaro’s self-titled LP via Perpetual Doom is a fine piece of psychedelic country good for a lazy Sunday that’ll bring some oddball sunshine into your life.
SLOTH
LA-based SLOTH presents a truly wicked acid doom from beyond the grave with this self-titled LP that’s fuzzy, psyched-out, and funeral-paced.
Astral Highway by Heavy Moon
Astral Highway is a follow-up to July’s Astral Blackout, which sees Canadian multi-instrumentalist Jakob Rehlinge’s Heay Moon project continue its psychedelic explorations.
Dreaming in Dystopia by Dirty Sound Magnet
Swiss psych-rock trio Dirty Sound Magnet returns with their most eclectic and ambitious album yet, combining their love of classic rock influences like Zeppelin with more modern influences like Queens of The Stone Age.
Helichrysum by Hippie Death Cult
Portland, Oregon’s Hippie Death Cult is back with new heavy psych and rock ‘n roll delights, another LP worshipping at the altar of the riff gods.
That’s a wrap! Shoot us a message if you think we left out any albums that deserved a spot on this list – we’re always open to suggestions. Head to Bandcamp to support these hardworking artists and labels, as well.
I included a Spotify playlist below if you want to try before you buy these albums:
Parting words: “Listen! The wind is rising, and the air is wild with leaves. We have had our summer evenings, now for October eves!” — Humbert Wolfe
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