Jacob Cloutier (Twin Ports) decided that there hadn't been a suitably psychotic psychedelic album released in a while, so he got together with a few friends and made one.

Vanilla Bloom Promise (self-released)

An astonishing fusion of shoegaze meanders, total melted guitars and demented vocals (falsetto and otherwise), these songs have no right functioning in any rational way. And yet, through all the madness, there's a form. They do make sense, because the core stays true to its axis. The guitars, keyboards and vocals might strike out for the hills, but the rhythms stay rational.

That plan extends to the production, which is happy to modulate just about every sound, but it doesn't interfere with the backbone. No matter how trippy the proceedings become (often quite very), a listener can just bob along and surf the roils.

The shoegaze elements are an interesting addition to the traditional psychedelia. Just one more port of entry for listening, an idea that works on more than one level. Cloutier has given Vanilla Bloom quite an impressive debut. Bathe in the radiation.

Jon Worley