PSICOMAGIA

PSICOMAGIA's debut album was something I couldn't wait to get my hands on after reading the glowing praise and especially the comparisons to SOFT MACHINE. Brian Ellis also was a factor in me wanting this as the ASTRA guitarist is on here playing tenor sax plus he recorded and mixed the record. Maybe my expectations were too high but man I have some issues with this. There are a couple of things that really affected my enjoyment but by far the greatest is the sound of the organ. Is that what that is? I love the sound of Farfisa or fuzzed out organ, you know that dirty, nasty sound, but this has a high-pitched "shrill" to it that is beyond annoying. And it dominates the sound. Also I found that they rarely let up off of the gas pedal. This is an assault to the ears that rarely lets up with no apparent structure.

Up first is my favourite song "El Memorioso" and I should clarify here that my complaints above refer mainly to the two part track "El Congreso" which takes up about 27 minutes of this 39 minute recording. Back to the opening tune and it starts with intricate pinging sounds that almost echo before this Eastern vibe arrives. It kicks into a full sound before 2 minutes with the sax playing over top. Just a great sound to this one. Next is "El Congreso Pt. 1" and it really comes across as being an improv with no structure to start. It does settle back as spoken words arrive. He stops around 3 1/2 minutes in then that "shrill" sounding organ kicks in and it's relentless. Where's my codeine? We get a break 6 1/2 minutes in as the drums impress then the tempo picks up. This is good until the organ returns before 9 minutes pretty much to the end, although we get some nice sax that comes and goes.

"El Congreso Pt. 2" is chaotic with that organ sound early on. Spoken words after 2 minutes and they stop around the 6 minute mark. The organ dominates the rest of the way. "Simplon" is more like it as we get this uptempo start with drums, bass and sax leading the way. It does settle right down but then the organ shrills join in as it gets intense. Nice bass though before 2 minutes. It does settle down again and I like this so much better when it does.

I'm a little shocked that i'm not giving this 4 stars after all I read about it but this just doesn't do a lot for me for the reasons stated in my intro. I'm sure many high ratings will be forth coming but that's my 2 cents worth.

I was puzzled with this album for years but I finally discovered my problem with it, thanks to my current audio gear. This album could be excellent but for me it's ruined by a rather poor mixing.

The keyboards have way too much space on the left channel and the rest of the band is crowded on the right channel. I want to get into that relentless groove but the distorted and constantly dominant organ (synth?) keeps me from doing so.

Strangely it was mixed by Brian Ellis and I can barely hear his saxophone most of the time.

The first track is easily the best one though and gives a glimpse of how better this album could have been. It clearly deserves a remix.

3 stars.