Playlist: Liverpool International Festival Of Psychedelia
With space-rock legends Spiritualized heading up this year’s festival, Joseph Viney looks into the other highlights alt-music fans can expect from ’the great psychedelic capital of Europe’…
Yes indeed it’s that time of year again. No, not Christmas, you sadist; that juggernaut doesn’t start rolling for another couple of weeks or so. But it is a time wherein you may be accosted by people in strange hats, forming vaguely sinister and unintelligible monosyllabic incantations, and ideas about flying animals may or may not come to the fore… That’s right, it’s time for Liverpool Psych Fest!
The fourth annual instalment of the festival that led The Guardian to declare Liverpool as ‘the great psychedelic capital of Europe’ looks set to be as wild a ride as ever. Acts and artists who ply their trade in parallel dimensions will be jetting in from all four corners of the globe to terraform Camp & Furnace, Blade Factory and District with their own hazy, dazey atmospheres.
Even with three years of exponential growth under their belts, the organisers appear to have outdone themselves with this year’s line-up. British space-rock legends Spiritualized are one of the main attractions, and are bound to deliver a performance culminating in over 20 years of neo-psychedelia; from Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space (1997), to as-yet-to-be-released Sweet Heart, Sweet Light (2012) follow-up, made in collaboration with Youth (of Killing Joke), due out later this year. They are joined by the likes of Factory Floor, Hookworms and The Heads, rounding off a series of marquee sets from British acts. Liverpool’s own Ex-Easter Island Head will also be giving the home crowd something to cheer about.
Representation from around the world is just as strong. K-X-P finely bring to life the cold climes of their native Finland with icy sheets of noise. Etienne Jaumet – one half of French duo Zombie Zombie — shows some of the best psych our cousins across the channel have to offer; Fumaca Preta are a sign of the global village our world has become with their pulsing latin rhythms crafted by members based in Brighton, Amsterdam and elsewhere; and Arizonan outfit Destruction Unit bring a gnarly, aural sandstorm to our fair city.
If that wasn’t enough, then Brian Jonestown Massacre head-honcho and general man about town Anton Newcombe will be the festival’s very first official Artist In Residence. Long regarded as a pioneer in sound and aesthetic (now working from his Berlin home on projects including psych/folk/space-rock record label The Committee To Keep Music Evil), Newcombe will be one to watch very closely throughout.
But hey, don’t take our word for it… let the music do the talking. ‘Tis the season after all. Just not *that* one.
Joseph Viney
See Liverpool International Festival Of Psychedelia Friday 25-Saturday 26 September 2015, 3pm-4am, at Camp And Furnace, Blade Factory and District, Liverpool – £30 (Friday Ticket) / £35 (Saturday Ticket) / £60 (Weekend Ticket)
