ninehertz

The Cosmic Dead have been a steady presence within the UK psych scene for quite some time now, a regular release schedule dating back to 2011 and one that shows no sign of abating. This is cause for celebration as few others create in such colourful manners the semi-improvised deep dive psychedelia as the Glaswegians.

Beyond the Beyond is their latest, out on the powerhouse Italian label Heavy Psych Sounds, featuring four tracks across near on 45 minutes, as per their standard drawn out approach. Furthur opens and is the longest, taking us immediately into light and dreamy worlds, drenched in Eastern mystique, where vocals are half whispered and half chanted into the void. It is everything we know of The Cosmic Dead yet it doesn’t feel like they’re close to exhausting the sound, instead taking us on voyages afresh, riding with them to new regions of the vast infinite. The repetition locks you in, moving you from your mundane setting to envisage something astrally alien and exotic.

There’s a nice change on Stronger, a surprising sub-four-minute track with an up-tempo beat to match, its sounds from another galaxy still completely psych frazzled. Aurora has a spiritual feel in its slow progression – long, drawn out looping lines could elsewhere delve into drone or even jam session feel instead feel vibrant and alive.

I listen to the closing Aether for the first time on a lazy Sunday morning, which proves the perfect setting, as it is super chilled even by The Cosmic Dead standards. Half the track is given to the lightest touch, airy and dreamy rhythms, after which a gonzo vocal arrives, presumably warped from the cavalcade of tripped out substances of the music that precedes it, taking it into Acid Mothers Temple and deeper into a Japanese psych history style.

It is another gorgeous slice of deep heavy psych from a band that have long had it mastered yet still are able to find new avenues for their craft to sound exciting each time.