Rating: * * *
Swirling and atmospheric, Amazing Baby's debut album is all about the psychedelia; like giant, spinning daisies on a rippling, fluoro wall.
But unlike fellow psych-rockers and college alumni MGMT, the Brooklyn five-piece don't manage to make it sound unique or new - or even particularly
interesting.
Sticking determinedly to the psych-rock genre, the album is predictably obscure and experimental.
Strange sounds fly at you throughout the 11-track offering, laden with dreamy atmos and bleeding guitars. Slow, ponderous tempos dominate the album, making the experience seem much longer than it really is.
Deerripper spins out like an acid flashback in a made-for-TV Woodstock special. We get it - you've expanded your mind. Now get on with the music.
Fortunately, it is not all such spectral self-indulgence. The pulsing bassline and organ flourishes of Old Tricks in Hell has a distinct Jarvis Cocker swagger and groan to it, while the tribal call of The Narwhal is the closest the band come to actual intrigue.
But as soon as the lads begin to redeem themselves, they fall back into the repetitive boredom of Roverfrenz and Pump Yr Brakes.
For all their experimentation and excessive instrumentation, Amazing Baby are strangely lacking. Rewild fails to invigorate or stimulate the imagination - which is surely the whole point of good psych rock.
Joanna Hunkin
