Alan Palomo è un ventunenne di Austin, Texas, probabilmente tanto ossessionato dai Beach Boys, dai primi videogames e dalle musicassette, che decide sin dal primo progetto, Ghosthustler, di dedicarsi agli effetti che gli acidi possano suscitare su queste passioni, ad esempio prendendo colonne sonore d'infanzia o sigle d'alcune animazioni anni '80, rimodellandole, tagliando e ricucendo un pò ovunque con l'uso massiccio di tastiere, campionature, drum machines e registrando su nastri malandati.
Più precisamente egli stesso dichiara che la creatura Neon Indian sia nata da un pomeriggio d'estate trascorso con l'attuale visual artist della band, Alicia Scardetta, e l'intenzione di consumarlo sotto l'effetto di acidi che andò a monte, un vero peccato ma anche l'ispirazione necessaria per scrivere "Should Have Taken Acid With You", inno lo-fi colmo di beats spaziali e tastiere dream che andrà ad occupare il cuore di "Psychic Chasms". Il progetto inizialmente non prevedeva una band a tutti gli effetti, bensì Alan lavorava da solo sulle bozze, poi la necessità d'essere affiancato da altri musicisti s'è fatta sentire con l'esigenza di riproporre il lavoro dal vivo, portare quelle vibrazioni malinconiche in giro. Le melodie e i suoni infatti sono nostalgici, lasciano un pò il magone forse perchè celebrano memorie ventennali accantonate ma indelebili per l'enorme potenziale psichedelico che detengono (dopo aver ascoltato quest'album probabilmente vi troverete a riscoprire le sigle più allucinogene di vecchi cartoni animati giapponesi semi-sconosciuti o ancor meglio a rispolverare gli Yellow Magic Orchestra).
Psychic Chasms parte con "(AM)", una breve ed ossessiva intro seguita da "Deadbeat Summer", traccia che evoca spiagge crepuscolari, vento leggero e foto bruciate. S'alternano psichedelie funk ("Terminally Chill") a soluzioni synth-pop più vicine a dei MGMT sotto oppiacei ("6669 I Don't Know If You Know") accomunate da testi, se vogliamo esser buoni, nichilisti. Degne di nota, tra le migliori tracce presenti, la già citata "Should Have Taken Acid With You" e l'altrettanto onirica "Local Joke".
L'album scorre piacevolmente e la sbornia che emula non pesa soprattutto per la durata (giusta in questo caso) che non va oltre i trenta minuti. Un debutto con i fiocchi ed uno stile già ben definito, un disco che presenta caratteri forti ma soprattutto linearità ed omogeneità, traguardo per nulla semplice da raggiungere data la natura delle idee sviluppate.
Label: Lefse
Data di pubblicazione: 13 Ottobre 2009
Tracklist:
1. (AM)
2. Deadbeat Summer
3. Laughing Gas
4. Terminally Chill
5. (If I Knew, I'd Tell You)
6. 6669 (I Don't Know If You Know)
7. Should Have Taken Acid With You
8. Mind, Drips
9. Psychic Chasms
10. Local Joke
11. Ephemeral Artery
12. 7000 (Reprise)
Elenco tracce testi e video
02 Deadbeat Summer (04:02)
Going blind from the heat
In the middle of a sunlit street
Seeing thoughts on repeat
But I'd rather get something to eat
Feeling senseless and beat
And I wonder at the chance that we'll meet
Deadbeat summer
It's just a deadbeat summer
You're the one that I miss
From last summer when I'd stolen a kiss
Hear the endless hiss
As it rolls into the starlit abyss
All my dreams reminisce
Never thought this time it'd be like this
Deadbeat summer
It's just a deadbeat summer
04 Terminally Chill (03:33)
Seeming stripped of all the faults that you've assessed
You're possessed
To impress
Jilted facades are a losing game at best
Your shadowed face
Scattered hands
Timid shrugs still displaced
Let it spill onto the street
Either way we're incomplete (ah)
You know it doesn't hurt to cheat
Hurt to cheat
Hurt to cheat
Hurt to cheat (ah)
Broken mirror shards layed out and rearranged
Still the same
Just reframed
Inverse reflection you're expecting to receive
But when you seek
Doesn't ring
Any bells so to speak
Let it spill onto the street
Either way we're incomplete (ah)
You know it doesn't hurt to cheat
Hurt to cheat
Hurt to cheat
Hurt to cheat (ah)
07 Should Have Taken Acid With You (02:21)
Should have taken acid with you
Touch the stars and the planets too
Should have taken acid with you
Melt our tongues and become unglued
Should have taken acid with you
Take our clothes off in the swimming pool
Should have taken acid with you
Told my parents that I'm staying with you
08 Mind, Drips (03:08)
Blacktop letters written out of chalk,
that she might see me when school is over,
Dripping thoughts fall onto your sidewalk,
I could only tell you when I'm not sober
It's not your fault
Cryptic message written in the dark,
All that haunts me is surely closure
Locking hands floating through the park,
They always watch me losing composure
It's not your fault
09 Psychic Chasms (04:05)
Mind waves rolling through
carry me far into the tide
where all my thoughts are found
colored haze slowly looms
piercing through like sulfur fumes
While I'm just contemplating sounds
Distant looks from your face
take me to another place and time
where we were never found
Night drains just to wake
In the end, it's always fake
and all your thoughts, been left to drown
10 Local Joke (03:26)
Those kinds of things never bother me
cause I'm the local joke
her sun burnt eyes roll
she calls me 'the broken spoke'
never been late to fuck with fate
and see her phrases choke
but part of me wants to watch and laugh
as they go up in smoke
constantly crossing paths
with all the empty traits
you'd better leave things just unsaid
then left to contemplate
all my words trip as they leave my lips
I've come to set things straight
she needs an excuse to end things and
become the things you hate
11 Ephemeral Artery (02:51)
Seeming stripped of all the faults that you've assessed
You're possessed
To impress
Jilted facades are a losing game at best
Your shadowed face
Scattered hands
Timid shrugs still displaced
Let it spill onto the street
Either way we're incomplete (ah)
You know it doesn't hurt to cheat
Hurt to cheat
Hurt to cheat
Hurt to cheat (ah)
Broken mirror shards layed out and rearranged
Still the same
Just reframed
Inverse reflection you're expecting to receive
But when you seek
Doesn't ring
Any bells so to speak
Let it spill onto the street
Either way we're incomplete (ah)
You know it doesn't hurt to cheat
Hurt to cheat
Hurt to cheat
Hurt to cheat (ah)
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