Psychic Chasms is an excellent album of balmy psychedelia and breezy infectiousness.
Sure, he takes his cues from old sources, but the result -- dreamwave, or chillwave, or whatever -- is so unique and lush that Palomo should be content to ride off of the high you imagine he might get from making something so effective.
Another triumphant release from an indie buzz band – cut past the retro blogosphere-hyped nonsense and you’ll uncover an album that’ll make you feel as warm and as satisfied as you did 10 years ago, when you finally reached the elusive level 12 on Super Mario Land.
But the thing Psychic Chasms does really well is when it conveys the most confounding thing about nostalgia: that muddled melancholic bit that serves as happy times' backdrop.
Even if the sheer amount of sounds Palomo crams into Neon Indian’s music is occasionally overwhelming, Psychic Chasms is a distinctive, adventurous, and heartfelt debut.
A dreamy collage of samples and synth tones, Psychic Chasms succeeds both as pop ... and as affecting art.
Psychic Chasms ... strikes a keen balance between the antiquities of the technology and the more modern compositional structure, and in such creates a distinct and notable middle ground.
Never ominous and always bright, Psychic Chasms is fantastic brain candy in the vein of electronica or millennial psychedelia.
Bluntly put, Psychic Chasms sounds like my Nintendo had sex with a Theremin and then got run through the washing machine.
The very first chill-wave record I've heard and still trips me out every time. Supremely infectious.
Why did no one make music as crunchy and blasted as this ever again? This album is super warm and sunbaked in all the best ways. This is the definition of 2009 indie. (Also don't sleep on that Amazing Toro y moi remix of deadbeat summer!)
Favourite Tracks:
6669 (I Don't Know If You Know) - 79
Should Have Taken Acid with You - 81
1 | (Am) 0:25 | 68 |
2 | Deadbeat Summer 4:02 | 79 |
3 | Laughing Gas 1:43 | 75 |
4 | Terminally Chill 3:30 | 82 |
5 | (If I Knew, I'd Tell You) 0:47 | 71 |
6 | 6669 (I Don't Know If You Know) 3:20 | 88 |
7 | Should Have Taken Acid with You 2:21 | 91 |
8 | Mind, Drips 3:08 | 78 |
9 | Psychic Chasms 4:06 | 70 |
10 | Local Joke 3:26 | 79 |
11 | Ephemeral Artery 2:51 | 72 |
12 | 7000 (Reprise) 0:58 | 85 |
#14 | / | Pitchfork |
#40 | / | Stereogum |
#41 | / | Drowned in Sound |