MY OCTOPUS MIND - FAULTY AT SOURCE (BONUS EDITION)
The neo-psych continuum is both mutable
and ecumenical in the 21st century. An audience after good vibes and warmth in
the style of old school psychedelic heroes like The Beatles and Todd Rundgren has
the paisley revivalism of The Flaming Lips and Tame Impala, the consolatory
soulfulness of Syd Arthur for succour. A more aggressive, edgier form dating
back to the acid punk phase of the late 70s/early 80s and further shaped by
post-hardcore, post-metal and math/noise rock in the 1990s and 2000s caters for
those seeking harsher bad trip revelations. Bristol-based group My Octopus Mind
dwell somewhere in the second camp but are capable of a melodicism more suited
to the first. They occupy a position in this musical spectrum adjacent by turns
to the dystopian balladry of Radiohead/The Smile, the carnival grotesquery of
black midi and Mr Bungle or the raw garage psych approach of Osees and King
Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard.
This bonus edition of My Octopus Mind’s
Faulty at Source includes two tracks left off the album due to vinyl limitations upon its original release in 2020. The epic length and
monumental qualities of ‘No Way Outta Here Alive’ and ‘Here My Rawr’ bring necessary
sequential balance and gravitas. Both songs were released separately in 2022; they
form a troika of singles from the album with ‘The Greatest Escape’ that set out
MOM’s stall as a group that combines musical experimentation with social critique
in progressive rock’s grand tradition.
‘New Fiscal Studies’ reveals a
propensity for political commentary more suited to post-punk contrarianism than
Britpop’s nationalistic fervour; its ‘cradle to the grave’ refrain evokes the
faded promises of welfare state support in the age of austerity. ‘The Greatest
Escape’ describes material and psychic chains as it holds out an illusory promise
of liberation. Its musical aesthetic combines a spiralling transitoriness with
the dramatic peaks of Francis the Mute-era Mars Volta. ‘Wandering Eye’
has a rolling groove that evokes the psych pop lilt of King Gizzard and the
Lizard Wizard at their friendliest while avoiding a facile tendency by the Australian
group towards the conceptually facetious that can sometimes mar a musically
rewarding release like Polygondwanaland.
The arrangements bear transplanted
exotic flavours from world folk forms, psychedelia’s great gift to Western
listeners. Vocalist Liam O’Connell throws some konnakol-esque vocalese in with the
acid punkish Adam and the Ants meets Queen of the Stone Age chorus of ‘Hindenburg’.
Guest violinist Rebecca Shelley adds Balkan or Arabic dervish lines to ‘Insanity’
reminiscent of 70s underground rockers Doctors of Madness or Van der Graaf in its
The Quiet Zone/The Pleasure Dome period. By contrast, the short
instrumental piece ‘Interlude’ acts as something of an ambient palate cleanser:
a piano-led chamber piece with strings and added vinyl crackle and rainfall
sound effects; an oasis amongst the treacherous terrain of the surrounding
tracks.
The anti-immigrant sentiments alluded
to bitterly in closing track ‘Fridge Magnet’ bring contemporary relevance to
this revitalised psychedelic rock. There’s a suggestion we’ve come full
circle with the poisonous bloom of seeds born from Enoch Powell’s racist rabble-rousing
during psychedelia’s first golden age. A musical genre can evolve, but the
river of time in which it transforms is still stained with blood.
My Octopus Mind's Faulty at Source (Bonus Edition) is available through Halfmeltedbrain Records on Bandcamp:
https://myoctopusmind.bandcamp.com/album/faulty-at-source-bonus-edition
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