‘Phosphenes’ is an album that reflects these gloomy times in all its aspects, yet provides the hope that gloom will not end up in doom.

That deep knowledge and feel of the Mojave Desert have actually been transferred to the music with ease and a sense of vision that makes it truly work.

The three tracks here seem to have been fine-tuned to the band’s liking, and quite possibly also to the liking of their potential hard rock/alt-metal audience.

Tawni Bias nails it with both his music and the description of it. And yes, it is its unexpected elements that actually do make it healing.

This is stuff that goes beyond being just for fans of Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry and dub experimentation.

Tobin is not standing still but is further developing not only his sound but also bringing new elements to electronic music, no matter how minute they initially may seem.

As is almost always the case, something special from The Specials.

In essence, Squanky Kong and his album make the case that we should forget genre classification and just listen.

No matter what Son Step have done before this, it is certainly a direction they should be pursuing

Plain Mister Smith’s EP is possibly everything else except plain. In the right way, that is..

That retro heavy psych sound is all over ‘Badlands,’ and it is refreshing to hear it all over again.

It is exactly that movement through various heavy metal variations that make ‘Desert of Our Dreams’ an interesting and engaging listen, even for those listeners that only occasionally venture into heavy metal.

On ‘Audio Drag For Ego Slobs’ it all clicks (and pops) exactly as it seems it should.

‘Open for Business’ sounds like a sparse combination between ‘Remain In Light’ era Talking Heads and any phase Yo La Tengo, the two bands never made but Smoke Bellow did.

Drowning Effect does combine various strands of the sounds they like, particularly all strands of heavy and psych, in to something that sounds their own.

‘Metamorphosis’ sounds exactly as it was intended – a black metal album with varying ideas and musical presentation.

‘Time Itself’ actually blurs the line between all the sounds ‘then’ into a sound that is ‘now.’

In combination with Zuydervelt’s usual concept of making incongruous sounds work exactly in the opposite direction, it makes ‘Re: Moving’ an exciting listening experience just as is, without the dance performances it was initially created for.

It is that dance-inducing ‘motorik,’ constant movement, enveloped in a quite heavy dose of psych that makes ‘De Película’ work its charms. With ease.

‘Forest of Things Lost and Found’ certainly is not a light-hearted listen, but one that can bring quite a few rewards.

Well, it might sound like one very long song, as the band put it, but it is actually an excellent one at that. The one that has more layers than a very large onion.