Northern California psychedelic sorcerers Carlton Melton are brain surfers, mind trippers, … “psychlists,” if you prefer. The band will take your head for a ride, occasionally rushing at superluminal speeds through a wormhole or gliding softly on a gentle breeze in a leafy glade. Sometimes your brain needs to rage, and sometimes it needs to repose.
But with two new releases in 2023, the band has evolved. Whether psych rock or ambient trance, their sound remains driving, organic, and flowing. With the addition of Anthony Taibi (White Manna, DDT), however, the group’s metal freak-outs are Hawkwindier and their droning kraut trances are Spacemen 3-er. In January, the quartet released the playfully spacey Resemble Ensemble, recorded in Taibi’s home studio 3D Light. October now sees the band Turn to Earth, a work with scents of autumn, a season of death and transition – its “psychleway” exemplified in our mesmerising, mind-melting premiere.
As exquisite as Turn to Earth is, Melton are best appreciated as a live act: their recordings as well as their gigs are largely improvised – not so much composed as birthed. After the rockus interruptus of that 2018 tour and the tantric tease of the intervening Covid lockdown, Melton have some unfinished business. An October 2023 tour is poised to set the freshly minted quartet back onto the stages of Europe and within the cerebral folds of its fans.
Turn to Earth is released on October 6 2023 via Agitated Records and can be pre-ordered HERE
CARLTON MELTON EUROPEAN TOUR 2023
Oct 11 – GHENT, BE – @ Kinky Bar • Oct 12 – LONDON, UK – @ Strongroom Bar w/ Black Helium and Psychic Lemon • Oct 13 – GLASTONBURY, UK – @ King Arthur w/ The Cosmic Dead • Oct 14 – HEBDEN BRIDGE, UK @ The Trades Club w/ Dead Sea Apes • Oct 15 – GLASGOW, UK @ Ivory Blacks w/ Nebula, The Cosmic Dead, Lucid Sins • Oct 17 – SALISBURY, UK @ Brown street • Oct 18 – BRISTOL, UK @ Crofter Rights • Oct 19 – MARGATE, UK @ Bar Nothing
Oct 20 – ANTWERP, BE @ Trix Desert Fest • Oct 21 – AMIENS, FR @ TBA • Oct 23 – ANNAY LE CHATEAU, FR @ Bristrot Culture • Oct 24 – ROUNE, FR @ Le 3 Pieces • Oct 26 – ZWOLLE, NL @ Hedon w/ The Warlocks • Oct 27 – AMSTERDAM, NL @ OCCII w/ Sex Swing • Oct 29 – PARIS, FR @ La Martinique w/ The Warlocks
