PSYCHEDELIC PORN CRUMPETS & GHOST WOMAN
21st Century Psychedelia hits NAC. As Membranes once said, everyone’s going triple bad acid, yeah!
In a world that seems like some kind of hallucinogen-induced fever dream, what better way to finish the working week than a trip to NAC for some mind-expanding psychedelia?
The show opens with GHOST WOMAN. On paper, this is the solo project of Evan John Uschenko. On stage, it is Evan on vox and twelve string guitar with Ille on drums and Nick on bass. Evan breaks a string in the first song but, as he says, never mind, he’s got eleven more. The guitar is droney, bluesy and spacey. Most of the vocals are low-pitched and understated but there are moments where they come on like a more tuneful Neil Young. Ille’s drumming manages to mix krautrock and tribal styles. It all comes together like a stripped back Black Mountain jamming out Velvet Underground songs, with very occasional hints of Drive-By Truckers southern rock opera. And quoting Fatboy Slim/Vinyl Dogs “funk soul brother” line was bordering on genius. Complaints? Well some of the gaps between songs whilst Evan retuned were a bit awkward but that is really a minor thing.
After a big classical intro (which may have been Nessun Dorma but I was meandering in from the garden as it finished) PSYCHEDELIC PORN CRUMPETS burst into life. Urban myth has it the band met through their drug dealer and the name may be a reference to the Mighty Boosh. So, it goes without saying that the five piece from from Perth, Western Australia, are going to live up to the first part of their name. The standard comparisons - Aussie contemporaries King Gizzard and, in particular, Tame Impala - kinda hold true. And yes, there are references to psych’s holy trinity of The Beatles, Zep and Sabbath. Yet, for me, PPC have more in common with anarchosychprogrockers Crippled Black Phoenix, in philosophy, if not in sound. Things are heavier and more boogie-based than any of the recorded work that I have heard. There is a bit of an Endless Boogie-meets-AC/DC-meets-early-Quo vibe when they hit their choogle groove. Blow me, I even caught myself playing air guitar in places and I haven’t done that in public since God were a lad.
Much as I enjoyed PPC, there is nothing new here. I’m of an age where I have seen several psych/prog revivals so I have heard it all before. Much as I want to be challenged by the new, sometimes that doesn’t matter. The Crumpets put on a great show and I’d love to see them again. That said, it was Ghost Woman that blew me away and it was Ghost Woman’s vinyl that I took home.
