New releases this week: Psych/Garage Rock

Review: Goat's World Music offers a captivating blend of Aboriginal, Nordic, psychedelia, acid Rock and tribal influences, exuding strong rock overtones driven by powerful female vocals that command attention with their intensity and strength. Throughout the album, listeners are treated to mesmerizing organ leads that add an ethereal dimension to the music, while abrasive and rash guitar work injects a raw energy into the sound. Tribal percussion rhythms further enhance the album's immersive atmosphere, transporting listeners on a sonic journey. With its diverse range of influences and eclectic instrumentation, World Music defies traditional genre boundaries, making this a listening experience that stands out.

Review: Clem Alford's one-shot project presents a captivating fusion of Westernized ragas, featuring Alisha Sufit's enchanting vocals and Jim Moyes's psych-leaning guitar elements. Tracks like 'Alan's Christmas Card' and 'Black Cat' showcase the unique blend of Indian instruments with Western touches, while 'La La' and 'Take Away Kesh' delve into more traditional compositions. This album serves as a fascinating historical piece, highlighting the skill of Alford and Moyes in blending Indian and Western sounds. Recommended for fans of indo-prog and world music, it captures a technical zeitgeist at the intersection of cultural influences. With its creativity and historical significance, this album earns high marks for cultural reasons as much as musically.

Review: Originally released at the turn of the new millennium, America's Volume Dealer marked the sixth full-length from North Carolina sludging southern metal legends Corrosion Of Conformity, and would be the last to feature longtime drummer Reed Mullin before his return a decade later in 2010. Noted for being the band's most accessible or "radio-friendly" project due to the more polished production and increased reliance on melody, there's no denying that while the dank stoner-heft grooves of old are largely absent, the more alternative rock-leaning approach to their signature brand of metallic, southern blues, in hindsight, was a remarkable breath of fresh air within their back catalogue.

Review: Though soliciting some confusion as to whether it was written in 1977 or 2023, Pleasants' latest sonic gut-jab Rocanrol In Mono is a raw and toothy nostalgic throwback. Recorded in its entirety by frontman Al Uminium on four-track cassette, this whirlwind of an album revels in the unserious and fleeting, squashing every blues lick, top-reg solo and/or drum line under flattening walls of compression that nonetheless allow for much hilarity and dynamism and finding joy in the little things in life ('Loose Change', 'Interwebs', Rubix Cube').

Review: Kaleidoscope's Tangerine Dream stands as a quintessential English psychedelic album, often ranked among the most important and influential works in the genre alongside iconic releases like Sgt. Pepper's, Forever Changes, and The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators. Despite its rarity and collectability, with mint copies fetching hefty prices, the album has surprisingly lacked a proper reissue and remastering treatment for over five decades. However, after three years of determined effort, negotiations with major label executives and stroke of luck, the album is finally receiving its long-awaited official reissue. Thanks to painstaking detective work and fortunate encounters with Universal archivists, the original master tapes, previously languishing in the vaults, have been unearthed. Moreover, Sonic Boom of Spacemen 3 fame has meticulously remastered the album from these original tapes in his Lisbon studio, ensuring that it is presented to listeners as intended. This reissue will undoubtedly be a must-have for fans and collectors alike, offering the best audio quality version of the band's early psychedelic masterpiece.