As for a good meal, the sound art of Excessive Visage requires time and leisure. You'll be richly rewarded for that. The band from Berlin succeeds in producing music that is second to none. Her originality comes first of all from the fact that singer Larissa Blau intones her (partly dreamed) poetic lyrics about the abnormalities of modern society like the lovely feminine, naively dreamy counterpart to Pere Ubus David Thomas.
After the release of his "Space Gypsy" album in 2013, Nik Turner visited the 6th Psychedelic Network Festival in Würzburg. There the ex-Hawkwind saxophonist and flutist shared the stage with the German psychedelic Space Invaders for a spontaneous performance. This is now documented in excerpts on "Sonic Noise Opera". As the Space Invaders already belong to the Who Is Who of the German psych scene, this can almost be called a giant meeting.
For one album Circle were no longer Circle, but left their name to a Finnish darkmetal band. And recorded an album during this time as Falcon. But now the only true circles are back. Messrs Lehtisalo, Rättö, Westerlund and Leppänen (accompanied by two other guitarists) now call themselves either Circle or Circle (ex-Falcon) again. Leviatan" is a new album of the well-known Finnish hardcore avant-garde psychedelics.
"Garcia vs. Garcia" was the previously announced title of John Garcia's solo album, which has been postponed for years. Now it is still finished and the title is more simple. Although the working title would have fit well to the Elf Song cycle, because musically it seems almost irrelevant under which banner Garcia acts. To say: His solo work is not really stylistically different from "Peace", last year's album of the quasi-Kyuss-Reunion band Vista Chino.
The exceptional American musician Jolie Holland is busy writing her very own "Female American Songbook". "Wine Dark Sea" is particularly successful. In the proto-blues of "On And On" the Fender electric guitar creaks just as brilliantly as in Neil Young. The voice is most reminiscent of Beth Hart, but Holland operates more like Lou Reed or Tom Waits.
The Italian label Heavy Psych Sounds has launched a series of split CDs featuring several bands from the genre anchored in the label's name. Volume 1, with Naam, White Hills (all from New York), the Italians Black Rainbows and The Flying Eyes from Baltimore is a highlight of this series, because the seven tracks offered here are all true highlights.
To anticipate it right away: pure psychedelic fans won't get their money's worth with "Psychedelic Teatime". The studio project of singer/multi-instrumentalist Lutz Meinert (among others For Your Pleasure) offers rather a stylish homage to the spherical-progressive music of the 70s, as it was celebrated by the above mentioned acts. Organ sounds reminiscent of early Eloy can be heard in the first track, which later recalls the opener of David Gilmour's first solo record.
After his restrained solo debut "Blunderbuss" Jack White finally shows himself in all the splendour of his ingenuity. The sound world of "Lazaretto" is deeply rooted in the seventies. Blues rock bands like the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin or Cream have been godfathers, but also the suspended Memphis Blues has left its mark. Every now and then the playful brilliance of White flashes up, but needle-sharp guitar provocations like with the White Stripes clamp the mature bard.
