VMP Magazine

Psychedelic rock is an increasingly problematic blanket term. Originally coined as a way of talking about music made under the influence of LSD, and often completely bewildering to those unfamiliar with hallucinogens, it’s a term increasingly applied to wah wah-indulgence and a tired brand of faux-occultist imagery; not to mention the insufferable 60’s revivalist image that often comes with the term in the modern day. If you dig a little deeper, though, there’s a mass of great neo-psychedelic records that are worthy peers to the pioneering records that changed subculture forever. It’s entirely possible in the modern day to make transcendent, hypnotic and utterly immersive records - even with such a rapid-paced music consuming culture. Whether it’s psychedelia via mass guitar tumults or bizarre lyrical narratives, there’s a unique energy to the kind of music that can channel attention back inwards.

Good psychedelic rock should never be at the forefront, it should gently probe creativity and emotion from afar, which is why the following ten records are such a necessities to any record collection — and should be appreciated away from the distractions of digital music consumptions.

For all of its stylistic reference points—floods of effects pedals, venue-emptying feedback sections, indecipherable vocal melodie—shoegaze has always been a difficult genre to pin down. The term itself was supposedly coined by British music journalists in reference to the myriad of bands (the likes of A.R. Kane and My Bloody Valentine) who made little eye-contact with the crowd, instead being transfixed by their sea of wah-wah and distortion pedals; From the earlier outings of M83 to Deerhunter, that definition leaves the scope pretty wide.

For the purpose of this list, and in the name of favoring creativity and innovation over revivalism, our definition of shoegaze is the most commonly agreeable one: A niche scene of (mostly) British bands, largely active in the 1990s, who played a sort of dystopian pop music; as comfortable with harrowing feedback-driven assaults as verse-chorus-verse effortlessness. Independent music press won’t let you get away with thinking that shoegaze died out in 1998, though. Endless lists of post-2000 shoegaze bands flood the web, and there are some great ones—Pinkshinyultrablast, Ringo Deathstarr, A Place To Bury Strangers, to name a few—but in 2016, it’s a comfortable formula. It’s a beautiful and strange formula that crashes melody into distortion, and abstract lyrics into striking volume—but a formula all the same. Of course, there’s still experimentation with the blueprint—just take a look at Deafheaven—but it only seems fair to dig at the heart of the genre. So many great, pensive, experimental guitar records became almost instantly redundant when the three-chord yells of grunge came along, and they’re records that deserve to be in your record collection.