Psychik Atters - "Mystic Minutes" (Twink Records 1995, TWKCD4)
Psychik Atters - "Mystic Minutes"
(Twink Records 1995, TWKCD4)
From Aural Innovations #3 (July 1998)
A UK band, Psychik Atters plays part psychedelic jam instrumentals and part Jefferson Airplane influenced songs. The band consists of Dani Speakman on guitar, keyboards and vocals, Barry Coombs on drums, Kozmic Andy on bass, Rob Jackson on keyboards, and guests contributing additional guitars and drums.
The two main instrumental explorations are the 18 minute "Voyager 7", and the 10 minute "Made In Sheffield". Psychik Atters' trademark seems to be jamming around a set melody or rhythmic pattern. Voyager 7's multi-layered guitars produce every psych sound in the book. Wa-wa's, fuzz, and distortion, dance, drip, and careen off the walls. "Made In Sheffield" is similar to Voyager 7, though it has more interesting rhythms and melody lines. In both cases, the atmosphere changes little, though they are both solid psych freakouts. I didn't get bored with them, but the tunes would have been stronger if they were either shorter or some more effort was put into developing them musically.
Another instrumental, "Psychik", differs from the others in that it is a more purely electronic effort. Though it's nothing amazing, it is a musical departure from the rest of the disc. Kind of like of cross between Kraftwerk and The Residents. However, like Voyager 7 and Sheffield it develops little for a 10 minute length.
"Won't Go Back", "Lightning At My Door", and "Mystic Minutes" are the vocals numbers on the disc. The first two bear a strong Jefferson Airplane influence and "Mystic Minutes" even has a bit of a pop feel to it. Good songs. Mystic Minutes is an eerie, tribal dance tune and features more varied percussion work than elsewhere on the disc. It has the most simplistic instrumentation, but the most interesting rhythms.
Overall, Psychik Atters seems to be stronger when working in a song format. They show great potential here for instrumental psych jams, but they'll need to either shorten the length of the tunes or take their explorations into more varied directions.
Reviewed by Jerry Kranitz