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Rating: Alan Palomo is a twenty-one-year-old from Austin, Texas, probably so obsessed with the Beach Boys, early video games, and cassette tapes that he decided from his first project, Ghosthustler, to devote himself to the effects that acid might have on these passions. For example, by taking childhood soundtracks or theme songs from some '80s animations, reshaping them, cutting and stitching a little everywhere with the heavy use of keyboards, samples, drum machines, and recording on worn-out tapes.
More precisely, he himself declares that the Neon Indian creature was born from a summer afternoon spent with the band's current visual artist, Alicia Scardetta, and the intention to indulge it under the influence of acid, which didn't happen, a real shame but also the necessary inspiration to write "Should Have Taken Acid With You," a lo-fi anthem full of spacey beats and dreamy keyboards that will occupy the heart of "Psychic Chasms." The project initially didn't envision a full-fledged band; rather, Alan was working alone on drafts, then the need to be joined by other musicians arose with the need to reproduce the work live, bringing those melancholic vibes around. The melodies and sounds, in fact, are nostalgic, they leave a bit of a lump in the throat perhaps because they celebrate twenty-year-old memories set aside but indelible for the enormous psychedelic potential they hold (after listening to this album, you'll probably find yourself rediscovering the most hallucinogenic themes of old semi-unknown Japanese cartoons or even better, dusting off Yellow Magic Orchestra).
Psychic Chasms starts with "(AM)," a brief and obsessive intro followed by "Deadbeat Summer," a track that evokes twilight beaches, light winds, and burnt photos. Funk psychedelias ("Terminally Chill") alternate with synth-pop solutions closer to MGMT on opiates ("6669 I Don't Know If You Know") united by lyrics that, to be generous, are nihilistic. Noteworthy, among the best tracks present, are the aforementioned "Should Have Taken Acid With You" and the equally dreamy "Local Joke."
The album flows pleasantly, and the drunkenness it mimics is not burdensome, especially due to its duration (just right in this case) that does not exceed thirty minutes. A debut to remember and a style already well-defined, a record that presents strong characters but above all linearity and homogeneity, an achievement not at all easy to reach given the nature of the developed ideas.
Label: Lefse
Release Date: October 13, 2009
Tracklist:
1. (AM)
2. Deadbeat Summer
3. Laughing Gas
4. Terminally Chill
5. (If I Knew, I'd Tell You)
6. 6669 (I Don't Know If You Know)
7. Should Have Taken Acid With You
8. Mind, Drips
9. Psychic Chasms
10. Local Joke
11. Ephemeral Artery
12. 7000 (Reprise)
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Deadbeat Summer (04:02)
Going blind from the heat
In the middle of a sunlit street
Seeing thoughts on repeat
But I'd rather get something to eat
Feeling senseless and beat
And I wonder at the chance that we'll meet
Deadbeat summer
It's just a deadbeat summer
You're the one that I miss
From last summer when I'd stolen a kiss
Hear the endless hiss
As it rolls into the starlit abyss
All my dreams reminisce
Never thought this time it'd be like this
Deadbeat summer
It's just a deadbeat summer
04 Terminally Chill (03:33)
Seeming stripped of all the faults that you've assessed
You're possessed
To impress
Jilted facades are a losing game at best
Your shadowed face
Scattered hands
Timid shrugs still displaced
Let it spill onto the street
Either way we're incomplete (ah)
You know it doesn't hurt to cheat
Hurt to cheat
Hurt to cheat
Hurt to cheat (ah)
Broken mirror shards layed out and rearranged
Still the same
Just reframed
Inverse reflection you're expecting to receive
But when you seek
Doesn't ring
Any bells so to speak
Let it spill onto the street
Either way we're incomplete (ah)
You know it doesn't hurt to cheat
Hurt to cheat
Hurt to cheat
Hurt to cheat (ah)
07 Should Have Taken Acid With You (02:21)
Should have taken acid with you
Touch the stars and the planets too
Should have taken acid with you
Melt our tongues and become unglued
Should have taken acid with you
Take our clothes off in the swimming pool
Should have taken acid with you
Told my parents that I'm staying with you
08 Mind, Drips (03:08)
Blacktop letters written out of chalk,
that she might see me when school is over,
Dripping thoughts fall onto your sidewalk,
I could only tell you when I'm not sober
It's not your fault
Cryptic message written in the dark,
All that haunts me is surely closure
Locking hands floating through the park,
They always watch me losing composure
It's not your fault
09 Psychic Chasms (04:05)
Mind waves rolling through
carry me far into the tide
where all my thoughts are found
colored haze slowly looms
piercing through like sulfur fumes
While I'm just contemplating sounds
Distant looks from your face
take me to another place and time
where we were never found
Night drains just to wake
In the end, it's always fake
and all your thoughts, been left to drown
10 Local Joke (03:26)
Those kinds of things never bother me
cause I'm the local joke
her sun burnt eyes roll
she calls me 'the broken spoke'
never been late to fuck with fate
and see her phrases choke
but part of me wants to watch and laugh
as they go up in smoke
constantly crossing paths
with all the empty traits
you'd better leave things just unsaid
then left to contemplate
all my words trip as they leave my lips
I've come to set things straight
she needs an excuse to end things and
become the things you hate
11 Ephemeral Artery (02:51)
Seeming stripped of all the faults that you've assessed
You're possessed
To impress
Jilted facades are a losing game at best
Your shadowed face
Scattered hands
Timid shrugs still displaced
Let it spill onto the street
Either way we're incomplete (ah)
You know it doesn't hurt to cheat
Hurt to cheat
Hurt to cheat
Hurt to cheat (ah)
Broken mirror shards layed out and rearranged
Still the same
Just reframed
Inverse reflection you're expecting to receive
But when you seek
Doesn't ring
Any bells so to speak
Let it spill onto the street
Either way we're incomplete (ah)
You know it doesn't hurt to cheat
Hurt to cheat
Hurt to cheat
Hurt to cheat (ah)
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