Ciolkowska: Psychedelia

Hailing from Saint Petersburg, Russia, the space rock quartet Ciolkowska released their eighth album in 2020 titled Psychedelia. I have previously reviewed Tsiolskovskaya Showed Her Face (2016) and Avtomat Proshlogo (2018), both fine albums.

Ciolkowska is quite a unique band as they are able to accentuate the guitar with ukulele, creating a kind of tripped out sound with jangly melodies and quirky rhythms. Stop/starts are used to add drama as the band offer up dense walls of sound with plenty of textural elements and unusual chord sequences. With “Angelina� the sound is quite soft and mellow with subtle doses of trippy spaciness before a nice bass groove settles in. The opening track “Glue� has a cool ukulele opening and when the textural guitar is added the soundscape gets positively mesmerizing making it easy to get lost in the sound. More stellar guitar work with cool echo effects can be heard in “Gingerbreads� while the rhythms get more dramatic in the progressive and spacey “Mohavishnu�. I should also mention the singer has a good voice and he generally has a laid-back approach which serves to match the spacey vibes quite nicely. More spacey moments can be heard in the somewhat dreamy and atmospheric “Room (Part 1)� and “Slippers (Part 2)�. Cool stuff for sure.

Psychedelia is another fine effort from Ciolkowska, certainly one of my favourite Russian bands at the moment.

An Addicted Label release.

Band members:
Egor Svysokihgor (vocals, guitars)
Alesya Izlesa (ukulele)
Alexandr Monah (bass)
David Aaronson (drums)

Track Listing:
1. Glue (5:03)
2. Gingerbreads (5:00)
3. Mohavishnu (3:48)
4. Angelina (Imandra cover) (7:26)
5. Room (Part 1) (2:28)
6. Slippers (Part 2) (5:53)
7. Psychedelia (Silence cover) (4:00)

Added: April 14th 2022
Reviewer: Jon Neudorf
Score:
Related Link: Band @ Bandcamp
Hits: 621
Language: english

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