Preview: Liverpool International Festival of Psychedelia 2017

Clocking up its sixth consecutive outing, Liverpool International Festival of Psychedelia returns with another selection of sonic wonderment for 2017 with US psych kingpins The Black Angels and Malian desert blues collective Songhoy Blues capping the bill.

Held on Friday 22nd to Saturday 23rd of September, the first wave of acts for the UKs biggest psychedelic happening have been announced for the event held in the former industrial spaces of Camp & Furnace, the adjoining Blade Factory and nearby venue District, in the city's Baltic Triangle.

The most extensive line up Psych Fest has staged to date Texan psych titans The Black Angels are one of the major catalysts for the current generation of psych bands, with a storied catalogue that stretches back over a decade. Preparing the release of their fifth LP Death Song in April, the band's live provenance is hugely impressive with a score of appearances at the legendary Levitation Festival (formerly Austin Psych Fest) Texas, to their name.

Hailing from Gao in north-eastern Mali, highly revered desert rock/psych outfit Songhoy Blues named themselves to celebrate their displaced Songhoy people and culture. The group received a break via an invite to record with Nick Zinner of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs in 2013 on the Africa Express collection Maison des Jeunes. Songhoy Blues' debut LP Music In Exile, also produced by Zinner, was released to huge praise in February 2015 with huge anticipation for their rare UK gigs.

Alongside the headliners acclaimed blues/folk psych alchemists Wolf People return to Merseyside following a stunning 2012 Psych Fest appearance, also making the return trip are Californian space rockers par excellence White Manna.

Former Stereolab lead singer Laetitia Sadier, psych trailblazers Loop, revered dub industrialist Adrian Sherwood feature alongside a raft of psychedelic harbingers from Europe and further afield with Belgian jazz trio Dans Dans, French psych explorers Acid Arab, Argentinian drone rockers Hurricane Heart Attacks and storied Barcelona psych quintet Celestial Bums.

From closer to home London based Mercury Prize nominated psych/electronic/jazz outfit The Comet Is Coming are set make their debut appearance as are Newcastle's ultra-loud prog maximalists Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs.

With further acts to be announced alongside a wave of installations, talks, cinema and other assorted happenings, get set for more Weird Scenes Inside the Goldmine this September.

Check out the hallucinatory trailer:

Liverpool Psych Fest 2017 #1 from Liverpool Psych Fest on Vimeo.

Fri 22nd - 23rd September 2017 Camp & Furnace / Blade Factory / District
For tickets visit here For more information visit here