Quality: 3.75 out of 5Trip-O-Meter: 4.25 out of 5
And so we meet Sky Picnic again. These folks seems to be plugging away pretty convincingly as a modern, paisley-shirt freak out, and is thus worth your full attention. The songs and the tones go directly for that 1967 London psychedelia vibe, and they hit their marks for the most part. They're at least attaining that Dukes of Stratosphere "Psonic Sunspot" level of authenticity. This compilation covers their last two LPs, "Farther in This Fairytale" and "Paint Me A Dream."
While "Seven" and "June Sunshine" stand out as very groovy slices of psychedelic pop, the band seems a little more interested in oddball jamming. Some of this works out quite well, with the strange, Floyd playin' "Nick's Boogie"-style explorations of "Universal Mind Decoder," and the slightly less percussive "Slumber's Gate." But some of it does get a little aimless, such as "Freak Out Ethel," which starts off sounding a little too much like the aforementioned Pink Floyd's "Pow R Toc R." I do dig "Ripple," which channels a touch of Slowdive-style shoegazing in a pretty groovy way.
I guess I'm being a little more critical with these folks since they're mining for the gold vein of psychedelic rock. I think this band is capable of a straight up psychedelic masterpiece, though. By tightening up the songwriting a bit, and avoiding the modern hipster twee timbre of some of the vocals, we're likely to get our minds truly blown. There are certainly some moments on this comp that will make a few listens worth your while.
Travel to the picnic:
http://theactivelistener.bandcamp.com/album/the-active-listener-introduces-sky-picnic-al018
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