World Maker, Psychonaut’s third offering, is a masterful exercise is sonic chiaroscuro (my wife has witnessed me typing this statement and pledged to “throw something at me”, but I wholeheartedly stand by its veracity), effortlessly weaving the relentless, juddering sludge and psych-freakouts that were the hallmark of their previous efforts with delicate moments of ethereal bliss and triumphant harmony, to say nothing of the inclusion of one genuine contender for “riff of the year” (circa 1 minute 30 seconds of And You Came With Searing Light for the impatient amongst you, and I double-dog dare you to tell me I’m wrong).
Whilst I would naturally offer the aforementioned track as the album’s standout, there is an absolute smorgasbord to be sinking one’s teeth into; the titular opener and follow-up Endless Currents are a wonderful one-two to kick off affairs, and Psychonaut only begin to tease full-throttle-mode at the latter’s close, stretching out the tension to Stretch-Armstrongian-degrees.
You Are The Sky… follows closely at a thunderous pace with the kind of wholehearted drumwork that would put a smile on any Tool fan’s face (a lazy comparison, perhaps, but not undeserved, and besides; not getting out of bed until Saturday afternoon is also “lazy” and that just might be the best thing going) and Everything Else Is Just The Weather offers the first of the album’s moments of reprieve, slowing things down for a catch of the breath before laying the groundwork for the behemoth that is Searing Light, the band’s manifesto offered in it’s entirety in one track.
The playful, tribalistic drums that open Origins are a satisfying diversion before the trademark-arpeggio guitars make their return, followed thereafter by the album’s most anguished howls and angry growls throughout All In Time.
Stargazer is the ambitious “marathon-not-a-sprint” moment, clocking in at just shy of 8 and a half minutes of psychedelic drives and overwhelming walls of noise. All Was Quiet is the album’s last moment of ambient respite before we head to the conclusion and Endless Erosion, which at this point feels like it might be walking a path well-worn by what has preceded it.
A bonus offering on the version reviewed by yours truly was a very welcome psytrance remix of Origins by Ghesso (Belgian producer Mathias Ghesquière) which turns the main guitar riff into the sort of absolutely monstrous TB-303 synth-line that the likes of Infected Mushroom or Astral Projection would be proud of (if it’s one thing this writer considers themselves an authority on more than the overuse of unnecessarily pretentious words, it’s 90’s trance music). This has done absolutely nothing to disabuse me of the notion that the marriage of EDM and post-anything-guitar music would be the best combination of anything since the first pepperoni slice was added to a pizza.
Review by Gareth Roberts