Creatively unusual, strangely enthralling music – a rare trait to stumble upon, in this case balancing an intense organic drum pace with dreamy waves of shoegaze guitars and indie bass; something like manic weight and ethereal melodies uniting across a sub-two-minute plain of expression. Psychedelic Coffee is the new album from an intriguingly named SardineSuckerStudios, and it’s everything its title implies.
The Shredda is the opener and is precisely the vibe described above. Then we move into a more electronically intense fusion of the dreamy and the high-octane – It’s All Coming Down, and the subsequent track Part Time Job, both capturing a sense of playful hazy madness that’s again in keeping with this juxtaposed theme of Psychedelic Coffee. We get the ethereal layers of other-worldly calm and wonder, contrasting the gritty rhythmic tempo and anxiety of the excessive caffeine hit.
Things continue to move from seemingly arbitrary to focused and purposeful, as Big Glitch in The System provides an industrial and spacious moment of unexpectedly hypnotic groove. Then the heavy buzz of Malware In The System unsettles distinctly, but also proves bizarrely meditative, before the completely unpredictable guitar bliss of a softly-finger-picked Ain’t All That redirects things entirely.
What is this creative corner of SardineSuckerStudios, and why is it so alluring to make your way through an album that so boldly switches from tentative to menacing throughout its playlist of thirteen original compositions?
Bass Bass suits its name perfectly well, The Worst Rock then takes the punk jam underwater to a degree, before The Club injects a kind of ragga / jungle energy, prior to the retro robotic tones of another sub-one-minute work that is Waiting Room.
Eerie Query is extensive but mellow, a single enchanting rhythm, some rising synths feeling dark or aptly eerie, before an explosive and fearlessly muggy Judgement takes the reigns for just twenty-one seconds of chaos.
Finally, white noise and vocal looping seem to join forces, for an intriguing alarm-style pattern, as AAAA brings things to a mentally confusing but rhythmically and stylistically fitting finish.
If ever an album could perfectly and artistically create its own lane, and maintain a sense of relevance to its title, Psychedelic Coffee seems to be the one. SardineSuckerStudios is a memorable identity, and this project marches to the beat of its own unique drum, but also engages the listener in a totally fresh way. Approach with caution, but enjoy.
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