Psychic Baos - Society’s Lien on Piece of Mind/Can’t Keep Us Down (2015) review

Psychic Baos - Society’s Lien on Piece of Mind/Can’t Keep Us Down EP – 7” (Magnetic South Records, 2015)

I instantly fell in love with Psychic Baos when I first heard 2014’s Our Friends Call Us Horse and Magnetic South hooked me up a copy of their first cassette The Death Of Bob Plant. Both releases are just absolutely killer and left me craving more. I don’t toss around the lo-fi moniker much, as I think most people either don’t pull it off or are just trying way too hard. Psychic Baos on the otherhand are the kind of band that effortlessly defines the label in the best possible senses. The warm attractive sound of their recordings welcomes you in from the moment you hit play or drop the needle until that last note of sweet psychedelia drips out of your speakers. With their latest release, again for Magnetic South though this time on much deserved wax in the form of a seven-inch, Psychic Baos delivers a four track blow to the dome in the form of this year’s Society’s Lien on Piece of Mind/Can’t Keep Us Down EP. Starting off with “Fluicide” Psychic Baos have the organs cranked up on this sucker and the shimmering guitars sit just below it, melting in and out of the mix with the tambourine and the taught, rhythmic tapping of the percussion. If you can keep from bopping your head and tapping your toe to this one I’m not sure you like psych rock. Delivered here in one of its purest forms, this is some gorgeously stripped down and melodious music. The echoing glimmer of feedback that ends “Fluicide” leads directly into the second track “Poisoned Man”, which for whatever reason is just synonymous with Psychic Baos’ sound in my mind and clearly shows off their roots. The music’s clearly extremely rooted in garage rock and filtered through the gaze of psych and Psychic Baos’ unique refinement process to create the final mind altering unction. “Sudden Living” is probably my favorite track on the EP. The dark ominous drone in the background of the music perfectly teams with the repetitive chanting vocal line to create a perfect storm. The vocals reverberate and bounce down a hallway of organ grinder tunes and looped lines of dialog and feedback. It’s a kind of timeless sounding song, owing as much to the hollow booming echo of 80’s music production as it does the down and dirty garage and psych rock of the late 60’s and early 70’s, although I’m still not quite sure how they pull it off so masterfully or make it seem so easy. “Wallet is Dead” finishes off the small collection of songs perfectly, delivering a hefty dose of droning psychedelia, reverberating and bouncing throughout the entire song, along with the finely tuned garage rock sound that makes the music so accessible and Psychic Baos is quickly becoming synonymous with. This has got a little something for the entire family in a small package and I’m beyond stoked not only to just get another Psychic Baos release, but to see them finally getting some wax out there as well. I’ve still got my fingers crossed for a full-length LP from them sometime, and hopefully sometime soon. That’s enough how wind out of me though! Click on the link below and check out some music, make sure you buy an EP if you like what you hear and once you’re done join me in the collective call for Psychic Baos to get a LP out there, because this is one of the best singles you’ll pick up this year and it only begins to hint at what they might be capable of with forty-five minutes to play with…