PSYCHEDELIC TEATIME

"Psychadelic Teatime" is the debut full-length studio album by German psychadelic/progressive rock act Margin. The album was released through Madvedge Records in June 2014. Margin was founded in 2011 by Lutz Meinert (Spielte, For Your Pleasure), who sings most vocals and plays most instruments on "Psychadelic Teatime". He is joined here by Carola Meinert (additional vocals) and Arne Spekat (acoustic guitars).

The music on the album is psychadelic/progressive rock, highly influenced by late 60s/early- to mid 70s Pink Floyd. The music is laid back and slow building towards louder and more epic climaxes, but always pleasant to listen to. Organic drumming and bass playing, emotional guitar playing and some nice vintage keyboard/organ sounds spiced up by the occasional sedated vocal line (Lutz Meinert´s voice and way of singing remind me slightly of a more ordinary sounding Roine Stolt). The musicianship is top notch and you don´t notice that this is basically a one-man project.

"Psychadelic Teatime" features 9 tracks, but the first 5 tracks on the album seque into each other to form the 20 minutes + long "A Mysterious Cup of Tea" suite. While the Pink Floyd influence is heard throghout the album, it´s on this track that it´s strongest. The long suite is followed by the shorter "Psychedelic Underground - The Short Trip", which is an almost radio friendly catchy track. "Landscapes On The Sky" features a folk influence while still retaining it´s psychadelic rock foundation while "Last Exit to Pluto" is a bit more ambient and atmospheric. The album closes with an extented version of the "Psychedelic Underground" track titled "Psychedelic Underground - The long Trip". While there is satisfactory variation throughout the album there is also a good flow, so you´re never in doubt that it´s the same band playing.

While I wouldn´t put the sound production in the same catagory as some of the top notch sound productions of a band like Pink Floyd, "Psychadelic Teatime" is still relatively well produced and organic sounding, which suits the music well. All in all "Psychadelic Teatime" is a pleasant listening experience and a decent quality psychadelic/progressive rock album by Margin. They don´t really cover any new ground and I´m not sure that was the purpose either, but for what they do, they do it pretty well. While the musicianship are generally on a high level and the sound production decent, the album´s real strength is that the tracks are easy to tell apart and that the music flow well for the duration of the album. Although the music can be very laid back and slow, it´s never boring and my attention never wanders during it´s playing time. A 3 - 3.5 star (65%) rating is deserved.