.Residual Echoes

The problem with most music today is that it just isn’t psychedelic enough. Of course, grim times call for politically engaged art, but just as crucial to societal well-being is escapist, mind-altering music. That’s where Residual Echoes come in, resurrecting the sounds ricocheting through the Fillmore of your wildest daydreams. The thirteen-minute “Slant” starts the disc with tension-building bass pulsations, spacey reverb, rumbling drums, phlegmy Lemmy growls, revving guitars à la Hawkwind or the MC5 — all failsafe psych-rock tropes that always inspire head-waving and lighter-banging. The track finally evolves into a skronking, lung-bursting freakout, and you may think Residual Echoes’ wad has been shot. Uh-uh. The similarly epic “Diamond Drops” builds rippled metallic hurricane winds recalling J. Mascis’ caustic fretwork, while elsewhere, touchstones like The Velvet Underground & Nico, Sonny Sharrock, Jimmy Page’s acoustic passages, and Spacemen 3’s Perfect Prescription parade through this blustery, bulbous attack like welcome old pals doling out microdots. High and mighty.