Preview: Liverpool International Festival of Psychedelia 2015

Sounding the klaxon to signal there is only a month until take-off, the fourth Liverpool International Festival of Psychedelia returns on the 25th and 26th September for its biggest year to date.

Showcasing a kaleidoscopic swirl of otherworldly sonic alchemists, this year’s shindig is headlined by the UKs greatest space rock band of the past three decades, Spiritualized.

Following last year’s sold-out, critically praised event which scooped the ‘Best Small Festival’ gong at the 2015 NME Awards, Psych Fest returns to Baltic Triangle and the renovated factory spaces of Camp & Furnace and its adjoining room The Blade Factory, with burgeoning venue District a new addition as a performance area.

Taking place on Friday evening and all day Saturday, the event has grown exponentially this year with a broad expansion of the PZYK Gallery and Village, which were successfully introduced last year alongside the festival’s trademark mixture of DJs, label curations, audiovisual explorations and installations.

Focusing on the acts at this year's happening alongside Spiritualized, following their revelatory show at 2013s festival, psych troupe Hookworms, return to Liverpool for their fourth gig in the city in as many years.

Also occupying space near the top of the bill, venerated London duo Factory Floor stretch psychedelia out into the realms of Detroit techno as they bring their pulsatant industrial infused textures to the city.

Storied psych-prog maximalists The Heads marking the 15th anniversary of their cult LP Everybody Knows We Got Nowhere will cement their position as one of the most influential UK psych groups of recent years. Elsewhere, journeying into more psych-folk pop oriented pastures, is BBC 6 Music favourite Jane Weaver who re-issued last year’s slow-burning triumph The Silver Globe to superb reviews in April.

In another new development for the festival, Anton Newcombe, leader of legendary psych ensemble The Brian Jonestown Massacre will be serving as the festival’s inaugural Artist In Residence, with a programme of activities set to be announced.

Elsewhere the BJM mainman is busy as newly discovered and highly venerated combine with Tess Parks + Anton Newcombe who issued woozy desert rock opus I Declare Nothing to excellent notices recently.

Following a mesmeric show at Camp & Furnace in 2013 Californian heavy hitters Carlton Melton return to air their latest set of sonic leviathans, heard on their lauded recent album Out to Sea.

Alongside acts from Britain and the States, the Festival plays host to a bewildering number of international psych adherants with returning Dutch baroque-pop auteur Jacco Gardner and US-Cambodian psych innovators Dengue Fever.

From Russia, creators of arguably this year’s best album, shoegaze titans Pinkshinyultrablast return to Merseyside to commence their autumn UK tour at Psych Fest.

Elsehwere Portuguese noise rockers Gala Drop, German garage punks ZHOD (Zentralheizung Of Death des Todes) and Julian Cope approved Italian prog-psych set Mamuthones are demonstrable proof of Psych Fest's global focus.

The UK is represented meanwhile by amongst scores of others Leeds alt rock doyens Menace Beach and London experimental drone duo Vision Fortune.

The festival is also set to hold a series of special one-off events Sacred Bones Records (USA) and BYM Records (Chile) are set to collaborate at the event.

Amongst a clutch of acts representing the latter, the sparkling narcoleptic pop of Chilean duo The Holydrug Couple return to Liverpool while the former are showcased via experimental psych project Blanck Mass led by John Power, one half of venerated electronic act Fuck Buttons.

One of the neo-Psych scene’s finest imprints Cardinal Fuzz will be present at the festival to host the Cardinal Fuzz Sonic Attack stage, a unique live presentation of their roster and beyond featuring the aforementioned The Heads alongside Lumerians and The Cult of Dom Keller.

The above mentioned acts only begin to cover the audio/visual/sensory delights on offer four weeks from now, as the Baltic Triangle reverberates to finest Laser Guided Melodies out there at present.

Check out the trailer:



For more info visit here For ticket info visit here

Tickets in person available in-store from Probe Records (Liverpool) / Piccadilly Records (Manchester) / Jumbo Records (Leeds)

Launch Party at Bold St. Coffee Fri 4th Sept ft. Pete Bassman (ex-Spaceman 3)