Here is the contemporary group you keep hoping exist, but can never find. Mind-melting tropical psych-rock, pitched-down cumbias soaked in dub brine, swirling solar instrumentals, and surrealist shamanic lyrics laid across guitars, drums, tapes and electronics ? bringing together multi-fidelity electric and acoustic psychic sound-forms from the greater depths of sound and surprise.
The group hails from the town of Curuz? Cuati?, in Corrientes, northeastern Argentina ? in the area known as el Litoral. Inhabitants of this region are known as Litorale?os. Los Siquicos Litorale?os (The Psychics of el Litoral) aren?t running from their musical heritage, they are staring straight at it ? spinning it around, refracting it, and transmuting it into something that is probably one of the most genuine things that has happened to folk, rock, experimental or psychedelic music in many years.
Strong allegations, but it?s not often you come across a band who dispel the notion that invention and sincerity in music has had its day. The ways we listen to, purchase, and believe in music have shifted significantly over the past decade or two. It?s a post-post-post-post world, and many music lovers ? let down ? have found themselves either celebrating derivative throwbacks or trying to forge excitement from redundancy and rehash ? wading the shallow pools of nostalgia. It?s the major reason I started re-tuning my own musical and cultural interests so many years ago, and began searching for them in different parts of the world. In an increasingly globalized cluster-fuck of a planet, cultural difference, inspiration and intrigue are something more valuable than any tangible commodity. And just when you?re expecting the curtains to be drawn on originality, a band of Psychics descend?
