Pepe Roni
Well let’s just say these guys are the absolute MASTERS of psychedelic space travel. This album is a must own and instant classic. Greatest thing to come out of the Tucson desert since the Gila monster.
Favorite track: Frost.
Cobra Family Picnic have been their reputation as one of Tucson, Arizona's premier psychedelic exports for the last three years, sharing stages with critically acclaimed bands such as Moon Duo, White Manna, The Myrrors, and Mugstar, and releasing a wonderful debut EP back in 2015. Originally formed by bassist Boyd Peterson and keyboardist Lesli Wood, the band has mined a rich vein of mantric, rhythmically-focused space rock that would have had heads bobbing at the Dom in '66 or Ibiza in '88, a sound that has perhaps reached its apex in their new, debut full-length, Magnetic Anomaly.
Over the album's forty-odd minutes, Cobra Family Picnic create a fuzzy, blissed-out haze that touches on an entire encyclopedia of underground psychedelia: the trance-inducing keys of Suicide, the post-Velvets go-go freakout of Les Rallizes Denudes, the smoky snake-song of early Doors, the pulsating locked grooves of Neu. We're talking eight mind-fried cuts plus 1 bonus track (Contact) of cyclical psychedelic minimalist jams, and when the NASA radio transmissions beam in across the grooves and Randall Dempsey's echo-drenched vocals rend the darkness, you can start to feel your brain being teleported to the outer reaches of the universe.
Magnetic Anomaly is a Cardinal Fuzz and Sky Lantern record co-production, released on both limited blue/lilac recycled color vinyl and standard black vinyl, as well as in limited single-runs of Sam Giles vinyl-replica CDs and hand-numbered cassette. Members of the band recorded here include names from a host of other local Tucson psych ensembles, such as The Desert Beats, The Night Collectors, and Wight Lhite.
credits
released May 22, 2017
All tracks written and performed by Cobra Family Picnic all rights reserved. “Magnetic Anomaly” Produced by Cobra Family Picnic, Engineered by Jim Waters at Waterworks studio Tucson Az, Mastered by Chris Hardman at Cardinal Fuzz UK, Distributed by Cardinal Fuzz / Sky Lantern Records.
Album cover collage art by Mariano Peccinetti.
Cobra Family Picnic:
Lesli Wood (keys, tambourine, space module)
Boyd Peterson (bass)
Daniel Thomas (drums)
Connor Gallaher (electric guitar)
Randall Dempsey (vocals).
Additional guitars on Contact & Elysium - Richard Young.
Special Thanks - Dave Cambridge, Nik Rayne, Oliver Ray, Daniel Martin Diaz, Satyajit Ray, Jeff Lownsbury, Jim Blackwood, Adan Roberto Martinez Kee, Arthur C. Clarke, KTDT 99.1 FM Downtown Radio, KXCI 93.1FM, Wooden Shjips, Serge Gainsbourg & Brigitte Bardot
for inspiration on “Contact” & NASA for original Apollo transmission recordings.
supported by 19 fans who also own “Magnetic Anomaly”
I am just old enough to remember clearly when psychedelia was new. We didn't shorten it to "psych". This is pure and true psychedelic magic, and IMO is far too authentic to be labeled "neo". It works its spell without the need for any mind-enhancing aids. All you need is the ability to hear, plus the willingness to let this take over your thoughts and occupy your whole headspace. The cosmos in your own head. Absolutely wonderful!
Lorcat
Krautrock collides with psych on this rip-roaring EP from El Universo, which pits jagged guitars against lockstep rhythms. Bandcamp New & Notable Oct 11, 2021