Review: Bristol Psych Fest V, Various Rooms

Bristol Psych Fest celebrated its fifth year with a mighty lineup on a scorchio day – an international selection to delight an international audience of discerning music fans. Bloody good value for money too…the most you would have paid for a ticket was £25 and if you really ran around like a loon you could conceivably have seen 23 bands at £1.09p per band. Bugger me that’s value for money. Of course seeing all the bands was not really practical so difficult choices had to be made by all.

Yo No Se (Rough Trade) were lucky enough to open proceedings with fifteen minutes grace before anyone else took to a stage and were rewarded with a pretty packed room. They pulverised the room with a behemoth of a set – skull crushing riffs, clever time changes (breakneck riffs sandwiched between glacial riffs) and a masterclass in reinventing the steel. Squalling solos tried to escape the riffs, the bass lead the charge and both were underpinned by fills of thunder. An invigorating set, never mind three lions on a shirt, three overdriven Marshalls on a stage was what the crowd wanted. And what they got.

Anthroprophh (SWX) built up tension with drums and percussion, before belting out the first of their tar black, monolithic constructions. The three piece managed an array of sounds: bass played / discarded / played; extra percussion pounded; samples and effects all over the place with primal vocals and all decorated with quicksilver solos. The perfect blend of space rock and metal with invigorating post-punk tribal drums. The tunes were not straightforward, but were free from artifice and it was easy for the listener to lose themselves in the crushing edifices pounded out without let up or mercy.

Agarimo (Rough Trade) were arguably lighter than their predecessors but no less powerful. A busy, dense sound – forceful rhythm section and what sounded like invigorating leads over muscular rhythm guitar but a muddy mix somewhat tarnished the tunes. The set gained momentum and the crowd were digging the post-punk wig out brewing as the band built up a head of steam and the mix cleared.

Slift (The Lanes) played an absolutely relentless set of groovy, powerful and incredibly danceable songs that sucked punters in to a heaving, sweating room. Scrappy, virtually inaudible vocals did absolutely nothing to distract from the tunes, a beaucoup mix of space rock, psych-punk rock and the odd bone crushing riff; the groove interspersed with time changes giving respite to the dancers before each drop bounced the crowd back in to the inexorable groove. This would have been a trippy set except the unremitting pace (drums on the nexus of Overkill and the funkiest krautrock beat) just kept the crowd moving. More than one person commented “best band so far” as they exited for the next band, the next fag or just a breather.

Fumaca Preta (SWX) took absolutely bloody ages to tune up, warm up and start up but oh boy, given the set they played, it was worth the wait. Slinky grooves; Santana meets Hendrix vibes, riffs and solos; Arabic flourishes; burbling but forceful bass; a punk thrasher sneaked in amongst the slinky dance numbers. A band willing to throw in prog flourishes and crescendos and a singing Portuguese drummer who managed to meld the discipline of prime James Brown funk with the phun phunk of Funkadelic and put a grin on the face of every dancing punter in the room. A great set that was received with rapture.

Sunflowers (The Lanes) were a refreshing dose of the primal after the complexity witnessed so far – fuzzed out riffs, heads down Stooges worship with a delightful intensity that contrasted with the danceable grooves from Slift and Fumaca Preta. Straight out of the garage this was a punky little set that both contrasted with and complimented the preceding sets.

The Heads (The Lanes) opened with a dense, swirling instrumental side that grew and throbbed and ebbed and flowed…like a steam punk space cruiser drifting into an event horizon. Their crowd pleasing set took no prisoners, as the crowd grew, the grooves grew. The guitar interplay was elightful throughout – stage right, quicksilver Dave Brock solos and melodies; stage leftpunk scratch & itch and MC5 force with both players hitting the riffs. This was a synapse frying, hip pushing, headfuck of a set that was met with evident delight. And good luck to anyone who went to the merch seeking to complete their Heads collection…

Stonefield (SXW) continue the fine Australian tradition of bands that somehow manage to blend Sabbaff & the Byrds into a uniquely Antipodean psych, the four Findlay sisters providing a somewhat cleaner sound than the Heads, and displaying a knack with a chorus too. Whilst lead vox came from behind the kit all four musicians joined up for some great sunshine harmonies and the organ conjured up that Sixties garage pop sound.

Nebula (The Lanes) are incapable of a bad show, despite a misfire in the opening number. The room was rammed for their set, and it didn’t take long for the crowd to get moving as the band played a tight set of stoner tunes – heavy yet with a nimble sense of dynamics, tight but with a desert swagger that mesmerised. An animated crowd roared their approval as heads were banged and the air was punched. Oh, and t-shirt of the night was awarded for the vintage Hawkwind Angels of Death shirt stage left.

Night Beats (SWX) dragged in a crowd that still had energy aplenty for their RnB grooves, powered by a psychedelic sensibility they drove their set with considerable pace and considerable heft, darkly catchy numbers but the pull from Nebula was remorseless for those of us who’d basked in their dark star and besides, a decent vantage point was required for the final band of the night.

Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs (The Lanes) ended the night with the heaviest set of the day, their unique sound owing much to classic Sabbaff and yet they’ve forged their own monstrous, mesmerising take on metal. It was a minimal set with simple components but the less is more (MUCH MORE) riffs and bombastic rhythm section were welded together with an unerring sense of dynamics and topped by the vocal performance of the day. The room was rammed with the most animated crowd of the evening: despite the heat all present were carried away by the skull crushing riffs, a pit threatened to form but never quite took off but then the room was packed from wall to wall. A raucous finale from one of finest exponents of modern metal.

Once again the heads behind this event provided a delightful, invigorating and varied set of bands somewhat linked by an occasionally tenuous psych sensibility but united in pursuing new music formed from old tropes – twisted tunes for twisted times. See you next year. No really, you need to be there next year, other festivals may be available but this is the one to get involved with…

Bristol Psych Fest SWX, The Lanes & Rough Trade Bristol, Saturday, July 7 2018. For more info, visit bristolpsychfest.com

All pix by Falk-Hagen Bernshausen