THE PSYCHIC PARAMOUNT

Musically, this is an obvious sequel to the band's first album, and it's unlikely that the band's fans would have wanted anything less. The band's songs are still catchy, melodic, full of complex instrumental interplay, and often lengthy; they still take you on a journey through space at light speed. If anything, a strong case could be made that this album is more enjoyable than their first, due to the improved production.

This is not in any sense of the word an album for the faint of heart, but for those attuned to its wavelength, it will be a rewarding listen.

If you can get past the production, this is highly energetic and surprisingly catchy stuff. I'd even go so far as to say it's melodic. The band actually has pretty credible prog credentials; their lengthy instrumental compositions stretch out at length, with all the twists and turns you'd expect from the best prog rock, and they use unorthodox time signatures and bizarre composition techniques you'd expect from the genre. It's probably best described as a mixture of noise-rock, prog, psychedelic/space rock, and post-rock. I don't really know of many other acts that sound like them, though to be fair, I haven't explored the genre too much. It's probably worth also mentioning the works of spiritual predecessor Laddio Bolocko, which contained two of the same members but was prone to stretching out even more than the Psychic Paramount do and was rooted somewhat more in avant-garde jazz. If you like TPP, you'll probably like LB as well.

This band's other works aren't mastered quite as loudly as this one, and II is probably every bit as fun as this one, so it's probably a better starting place. I was introduced here, though, and I find there to be something special about it. I have to knock off a star for the production, though. I get what they were going for, but there's a point where even something that's supposed to be loud is still too loud. If the production were a shade less harsh, this would get an enthusiastic five stars.

Intro gets along with repetitive bass, monotonous drum playing where DBB simply shows the band acting like furies. Drew's crashing high-pitched guitars are leading everywhere. The hypnotic workout RW is my favourite - a wonderful combination of dynamics and melancholy - tribal drums, some playful bass lines in between, multiple sparkling, spreading and soaring guitars. Never heard something like that before!

Woaaarrrr - the asskicking N6 will shoot you into the orbit at the latest. Don't forget to care for an ambulance before coming back. The closing NS Coda finally has more of an industrial kraut flavour in the vein of Faust and Cluster. Ambitious - another album by this threesome featuring a huge portion of experimental approach. Dedicated to fans of SubArachnoid Space, Escapade, Oneida and similar. Strange - as for my taste too much of a good thing overall, the crashing sound demands a great deal from you.

When I think "space rock," I tend to think of compositions like Pink Floyd's "Shine on You Crazy Diamond," where the melodies float around in a sea of pleasant ambience. That is not what this is. This is space rock, alright, but these guys are not gently floating, they are hurtling through at light speed, crashing into asteroids.

Silly metaphors aside, this is really a great album. "Megatherion" and "Para5" are almost noise rock, with very little proper melody to speak of but a lot of really cool and crazy sounds coming from the band's instruments. "Echoh Air," is a bit more structured, but not much, and the jamming has a very sixties kind of feel, to my ears anyway. The best point of reference I can give would be some early Pink Floyd like "Careful With That Axe, Eugene," but that' an admittedly imperfect comparison. There's probably some Krautrock that would be a better reference point, but my range of knowledge in that genre is pretty limited so I can't give a perfect example. "X-Visitations" I would almost describe as a dark ambient track, with a lot of scary sounding noises and effects. "Gamelan," reminds me quite a bit of Can's "Halleluhwah," where a fairly consistent drum beat is held steady while the sounds around it get crazier and crazier. Again, that's an imperfect comparison, but it's a similar sort of song, and with this kind of music it's hard to find good comparisons.

Overall, this all-instrumental album is a very good one, but certainly not for the faint of heart. Personally I think I'm a bit lucky this wasn't the floaty space rock i was envisioning, because I can't imagine that would have been anywhere near as interesting to listen to.

4/5

No, that is not an excerpt from the recipe to making an Alfred Hitchcock movie score, it is a description of a few of the many different experiences one may encounter on this incredibly strange, yet unorthodoxly delightful musical extravaganza. From the cover until the end of the last track, this is one big giant freak out party.

The opening track, "Lyon" is a shocking mix of feedback and screeching guitars that almost sound like nails sliding down a chalkboard, but somehow I get the strange feeling that it was meant to be that way. This screeching atmosphere continues into "Paris Pt. One" and halfway into "Paris Pt. Two" before our madman behind the kit, Tatsuya Nakatani starts bringing some major skill into the picture. The band actually starts to jam with a fixed beat and only limited guitar wanderings and Nakatani drives the whole show home before erupting into a drum solo of monstrous proportions with about 1:30 left in the track. "Napoli/Perpignan Pt. One" starts out with an almost haunting mixture of rhythmic backgrounds and spinning sound effects that sound vaguely like screams in the darkness. Silence comes around 4:00 in, and then a fixed rhythmic jam starts, and this is actually quite relaxing compared to the unstructured romping of the previous tracks. "Perpignan Pt. One" is one of my favorite live snippets of all time, mainly due to the fact that the band finally tames a little bit and kicks the structure up a notch. The bass and drums match beats for the first time on the album and the guitar actually has a sense of direction that it lacked for the first few tracks. "Ex-Visitations" brings that show to a close, and this is not a good way to end it. Repetitive chords with random percussion smashing? Doesn't work for me, sorry.

All in all, I guess this is one of those shows that you need to experience live, right before your eyes. I'm sure all of the guitar wandering and drum pounding is much more appealing when you can actually take a visual glimpse of the skill of the musicians, but on CD, it just doesn't transfer to something that is listener friendly.

A great attempt to fuse psychedelia and avant-garde, but let's keep adventures like these for a live crowd only.

3 stars, go see these guys live instead.

The Psychic Paramount may be just a trio, but man can they pack a punch! This guys play their music with the volume up to 11 and no less than 11. This can be slight of a problem for people with sensitive ears or don't want their speakers to be severely damaged by the sheer power of this band. You've been warned...

Now to their music. This is jam band often echoing Guru Guru circa UFO, but dirtier and rawer than them. The first song is the intro and it's pretty much made up of pure noise and nothing more. It may annoy you or you may enjoy it, but whatever it does to you it will keep your blood pumping and it will stay that way for the rest of the album. The album is pretty versatile in their own context of sound. From trippy noise passages to aggressive jamming from the three members. All of their sound is revolved around their over-distorted sound. This may put off many people at first, but after repeated listens their sound becomes more tolerable and enjoyable. Luckily, by the end of the album their sound isn't as harsh as the rest of the album. The last song, "Paramount", is probably the more trance inducing tune in the album with its repetitive theme echoing into nothingness for almost 7 minutes. It's a well needed brake for all of the slaughter your ears experienced in the previous songs.

So by the end of the album your ears will be ringing badly and you will probably need to buy some new speakers. This band is definitely not for everyone, but if you can tolerate high amounts of distortion and white noise this band will be greatly enjoyable. My only complaint is that the album is criminally short. Only 35 minutes! It leaves you wanting for more, but we'll have to wait for later this year for new material.

Not for the faint of heart.

3.7