“…a proper psychedelic record…”
02/11/2016 Sons of the Void / Thee Psychedelicatessen
Now living in Switzerland, David Max has a pretty impressive psychedelic CV, the former bassist/songwriter with cult 90s Hoboken/NYC Psychedelic/Space Rock band Tadpoles has worked with, amongst others, Ex Spacemen 3 member Sonic Boom and Gibby Haynes of the Butthole Surfers along with a five year stint playing guitar in Psychic TV. Now based in Basel it can’t just be a coincidence that he has rocked up in the same city where Albert Hoffmann was working in the Sandoz Labs. Following the more folky Simple Psychedelic Pleasures released on the Chicago label Mind Expansion Records, Sons Of The Void is the latest project from David Max in collaboration with guitarist Nick Nobody. They describe themselves as an “experimental rock band attempting to marry the beauty of the pop song with the magical elixir of other-world modalities” and judging by how their debut album sounds Sons Of The Void have succeeded in mixing together the potent essence of early Pink Floyd, The Velvet Underground, The Red Krayola, The Byrds and 1980s Neo-Psychedelica into a swirling maelstrom of Sixties influenced psychedelic sounds.
Released by those fine purveyors of immaculate taste Sunrise Ocean Bender, the debut album from Sons Of The Void is somewhat of an oddity in 2016, being a proper psychedelic record in an age where a great deal of Psych Rock is effectively 70s heavy rock dressed up in groovy threads (although we would happily pay good money to see Black Sabbath, Can and Hawkwind fight in a sack, it would no doubt become tedious after a while). Sons Of The Void take their inspiration from the sonic experimentation of the Sixties (the “golden age of psychedelia”????) following the path where the journey to the centre of the mind coexisted with the primal force of music but have made it relevant to the now………it is music fuelled by the finest psychotomimetic and hallucinogenic drugs known to man as opposed to cheap speed, mushrooms and whiskey. Opening with a headrush of sparkling guitars, the Sons Of The Void debut album takes you on a twisted trip through eight acid drenched tracks that at their core all have a rock solid pop sensibility, it’s as if pop history has been rewritten and the Byrds made lo-fi records with Timothy Leary. There are some great, lysergically warped tunes on this album………’Kolliderscope’ is a fantastically trippy track, part West Coast Sunshine Pop and part Acid Test freak out while ‘Absorption’ is a beautifully psychedelic head swirler. Flip the disc for more fantastic lo-fi psychedelia from Sons Of The Void with the folky ‘The Things We Wish’ and the acid whirl of ‘Little Children’ being the stand out tracks here. This is a really great record from a bunch of people who really understand the acid experience………check it out people, it’s electric music for the mind and body. After hearing this we must now go and check out the Tadpoles records from the 90s………if they are anywhere as good as this, they are going to be pretty special.
Methinks that this is a labour of love for SOB (check the track listing for Tadpoles album Whirlaway). Released on 4th March, Sons Of The Void is available to pre-order from the Sunrise Ocean Bender web store or from Bandcamp (also check Clear Spot as they will be dealing with the European distribution). Housed in some of the grooviest psychedelic artwork we have seen for quite a while, Sons Of The Void is available in a limited edition run of 250 copies on cyan coloured vinyl and if you need the digital version to play on your phone while you have a crafty spliff at the back of the magic bus, a download is also available. Turn On, Tune In and Trip Out with Sons Of The Void.