#7 Liverpool Psych Fest’s Nu-Psych Playlist

LIVERPOOL INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL Of Psychedelia returns this weekend for two days of “worship and sonic discovery” set in the Camp & Furnace and Blade Factory complex in the heart of the city. And to kick the spaced ritual off early, the MOJO staff have all taken hits of DMT and asked the festival organisers to put together a playlist of hot contemporary psych action. Underlining the impression that we’re living through a new golden age of grass roots psychedelic music, a reaction surely to the clipped-beard faux-esoterica of consumer hipsterism and the ever-constraining bonds of the musical mainstream, it’s a menu of mindblowers ranging from the heavy krautpunk of Leeds’ Hookworms to the Nico/Grace Slick dramatics of Lola Colt and the Floydtastic ebb and flow of Holydrug Couple.

Running across this Friday and Saturday, September 27/28, the festival features live performances from many MOJO faves including Clinic, Sonic Boom, Dead Meadow (pictured above, with drug yeti – or is it Endless Boogie frontman Top Dollar?) Carlton Melton and the aforementioned Hookworms, plus post-rock legends Trans. Marc Riley, Pete Fowler and Andy Votel are among the DJs providing third-eye-dilating tune-grout and purveyors of visual stimulation including Heretic and Innerstrings will keep things tweaking. Feeling some last-minute vibes coming on? Some tickets are still available.

“This is not an exercise in nostalgia or UFO Club regurgitation,” organizer Chris Torpey tells MOJO, “but a celebration of a culture very much at the vanguard of artistic exploration… Join us, and be a part of our global psychedelic village…”

For more reasons to take up Torpey’s very tempting invitation, check out his playlist below…