8 Great Psychedelic Albums from Summer 2025
We’re only about 10 years removed from the psych-rock boom that exploded in California almost as quickly as it vanished, with the pinnacle event being the too-big-for-its-britches Desert Daze. As indisputably talented as Ty Segall, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Osees and other exciting and entertaining bands were and continued to be, the reality is that retro revivals in the 21st century have a lifespan of about five years—perhaps because corporations co-opt them so quickly, and—combined with social media—burn everyone out way too quickly, or perhaps because psych-rock has been around for some 60 years now and hasn’t really gone away long enough to be sorely missed.
I’m not going to attempt to settle that dispute here, in the first edition of Treble’s new psych column. Rather, we’re going to take a different tack instead, one that will hopefully benefit us all in the long run. For starters, the main focus of this quarterly column isn’t going to be, at least not always, the latest shaggy-haired dude adept with effects pedals and has the stamina to play a song lasting longer than six minutes.
What I hope to do with this franchise is show that psych can be melded with virtually every traditional music genre, and if done right, create fresh new hybrid sounds, or at least hybrid sounds that fall way under the radar. I won’t go so far as to suggest that psych music is merely a state of mind, just that its presence and influence can be found in some aisles of the record store that you may not typically frequent. And at a time when we all feel like the powers that be are driving us to entrench ourselves more deeply into the kinds of music that algorithms know we already like, maybe this column will inspire some of you to think out of the box and “open your mind.” Because, if psych music has a mantra, that is it.
SWRM – Lights Out
A witches’ brew of psych, prog, space rock, minimal wave and post-punk, what’s most deceptive about this tremulous affair is that it was created by just two musicians from Providence, of all places: Alec K. Redfearn and Matt McLaren. They both play the role of wizards of Oz by employing a slew of curious instruments and using them as a curtain behind which they carry out their hypnotic hijinks. Vocalist Redfearn alternates between—count ‘em—four skronky-sounding synths (a Moog Matriarch, the Sequential Trigon 6 Analog Synthesizer, the Korg MS-20 and a Eurorack modular synth). All the while, McLaren keeps busy—and keeps up with Redfearn’s puzzling plotting—by biding most of his time slaving over his drum kit and percussion, whilst also dabbling with harmonica and neyanban (a Persian bagpipe, in case you didn’t know). With a guest spot by Mary Sullivan of Yawni, Lights Out succeeds in that its tempo remains mostly steady through the six songs, which allows listeners to not get distracted by the exotic instruments but rather gives them a chance to soak in the range of synths. That strategy worked for Gary Numan, and it works for longtime collaborators Redfearn and McLaren with their shadowy SWRM project.
Listen: Bandcamp
Zabus – Whores of Holyrood
The founder of Washington, D.C., avant-garde/psychedelic-rock collective Zabus is one Jeremy Moore, a former US Navy Captain who worked in the Medical Corps before retiring and pursuing his dream of making music. And boy did he ever: After playing in bands Zero Swann and Gorazde, he spawned Zabus as a cathartic project to deal with the death of his father, and he expresses his grief on its second effort through his use of guitars, six-string bass, synthesizing string and drums. The “collective” aspect of the equation is fulfilled by compatriots from his former projects providing a musical and emotional support system for Renaissance Man Moore as he grapples with existentialism. After all, he’s only one human being, and as he clearly learned in the service, it takes a team of trusted companions to carry out a mission. Unbelievably for a musician, but sensible for a military vet who mastered the art of self-discipline and efficiency, Whores of Holyrood—his most post-punk-learning effort so far—is the fifth LP that Moore has released in under two years. For that accomplishment alone, he deserves a medal. But Moore isn’t just all about quantity; the quality of his messaging can be evaluated as extremely elevated by this quote regarding the Whores of Holyrood single “Strangers of Non-Being”: “I wanted to convey what I believe are the two primary contributors to systemic generational discrimination and oppression—human instinct and established societal power dynamics. In this reality, the power dynamic has been perpetually lopsided in one single direction. In an alternate reality, if the roles were switched, who’s to say it would be any different? The irony is that a human’s capacity for evil is the grand unifier beyond religion, race, ethnicity, or gender identification… Yet a human’s capacity for kindness in the face of primal instinct connects us in a transcendental way, and has the power to destroy fear-based barriers permanently. The choice is ours…” Is it too early to start saying, “Jeremy Moore for President”?
Listen: Bandcamp
Spaceface – Lunar Manor
Founded in 2012, Spaceface used to tout themselves as a “Retro Futurist Dream Rock” band whose founder, Jake Ingalls, was obsessed with the concept of alternative realities. Their allegiance to psychedelic music was more of the funk, disco and pop variety, despite Ingalls’ tenure as a keyboardist and guitarist in The Flaming Lips from 2013 to 2021. Spaceface—also featuring Flaming Lips guitar tech Matthew Strong—sowed their oats in Memphis but eventually all shipped off to L.A. Initially, their main draw was the light show that supplemented their live performances, but with Lunar Manor—which, remarkably, is only their third full-length—music is front and center. Fusing dream pop, electronica and new wave, it’s Ingalls’ and co-leader/co-vocalist Eric Martin’s songwriting that this record showcases more than anything else, with seven additional musicians helping the multi-instrumentalist co-captains realize their vision of an idealistic world that they imagined when attending the same elementary school and, later, the same college. Thus, there’s a warmth not only in a litany of synths, percussive instruments and backing vocals that imbue the songs on Lunar Manor, but also in the palpable camaraderie and mutual respect that Ingalls and Martin have for each other.
Listen: Bandcamp
Nate Smith – Live-Action
Psych music comes in many forms, as I aim to show you through this series, but one of the less likely linchpins of a psych project is a drummer. And that’s exactly why jazz master Nate Smith belongs on this list of overlooked psych records from the summer. On paper, Smith jumps out, as his credits include collabs with Michael Jackson, Brittany Heard, Jon Batiste, Childish Gambino, Paul Simon, Norah Jones and…we’re gonna go over our word count if we continue. Still in his early 50s, Smith—who is also a member of Chris Potter’s Underground—is all about going where no drummer has gone before on Live-Action, shuffling with ease into avant-garde jazz, post-bop, jazz-funk, Afrobeat, neo-soul and yes, of course, psychedelic jazz fusion. Using only analog gear, bucking programming and sequencing, and welcoming a large cast of instrumentalists to play along on his easy-going competitions, the two-time Grammy nominee’s latest record is truly a diamond in the rough. The reason why he decided to pursue and perfect this particular project? “It was a way to activate all of these relationships that I’ve been building over the last five or six years since the pandemic, many of them through social media,” he said in a statement. Maybe social media has its benefits after all.
Listen: Bandcamp
Late Again – Clearly It’s All Staged
It seems impossible that Rafael Melo, born in Brazil and exposed at a young age to his best friend’s Brazilian psychedelia LPs, wouldn’t become a lover of psych music, if not a professional musician who performs it for a living. Indeed, his fate led him down that latter path, and his move to Brooklyn inspired him to integrate a long list of other genres: indie pop, film soundscapes, groovy Japanese city pop and even—looking back on his roots—bossa nova. Melo manages to jam-pack all those styles into his percolating Clearly It’s All Staged EP, which belongs on this list because of the masterstroke of coherence he applied to the short-player. He includes a couple of guest performers on the seven-song collection—Ella Walton on “Nothing by It” and Heal Mura on “Koolbloom”—but the spotlight holds steady on Melo and his ability to evoke as many emotions as he does musical styles. Apparently he’s also a Spotify icon, award-winning act, video game creator and ad whiz, but all we care about is his knack for musically eclectic excellence. Bonus points that this wunderkind put out this must-have, or at least must-hear, EP all by himself.
Listen: Bandcamp
Go Kurosawa – Soft Shakes
As busy as psychedelic songs and albums can be, it’s important to remember that, as with any other genre, it started with a blank slate. That’s exactly what the Japanese drummer did with his first solo outing—which, unlike most if not all of the other recommended releases on this list—he instructed and performed entirely by himself. Those familiar with Kurosawa know him as the vocalist and skin-slapper for highly influential Tokyo psychedelic band Kikagaku Moyo; their name translated to “geometric patterns,” which should give you an idea of the level of complexity Kurosawa cut his teeth on during the band’s stretch from 2012 to 2022. Also a multi-instrumentalist, producer and co-founder of indie label Guruguru Brain, Soft Shakes finds Kurosawa erasing the chalkboard altogether and turning over his debut project to forces outside himself. The approach he took to making the record was as primary as it gets: He’d pick up whatever instrument he stumbled across and put his tinkering with it to tape. A sampling of those instruments includes acoustic and electric guitars, a Buddha Machine, chimes, clarinet, cowbell, drums, bass, keyboards, organ, piano, shaker, tambourine, trumpet, whistle, bongo and melodica. Talk about an army of one.
Listen: Bandcamp
Orsak:Oslo – Silt and Static
Post-rock deconstructionism and psychedelic dreamscapes come together to provide a krautrock-lacquered foundation for Orsak:Oslo, a Norwegian–Swedish collective that quietly materialized about 10 years ago but is now getting a push because, well, this new record of theirs is fuckin’ great. Featuring a distinctly distorted guitar sound that is as dark as it is mild-tempered, it serves the role of the vocalist in this instrumental band. While Orsak:Oslo might not have as much dexterity as a Mogwai or DVNE, the chill psych sound they grab hold of and never let go makes it painful to press the pause button and almost impossible not to keep the repeat button lit up till your phone battery goes dead. Listening to Silt and Static, it suddenly becomes apparent just so many so-called “crescendocore” bands write their songs: the quiet intro, the slow build, the explosive climax, the denouement. Orsak:Oslo doesn’t play by those rules, leaving us to wonder where their songs will take us next. And because they establish early on that we’re in good hands, any concern is allayed by trust. Even if these guys lingered in obscurity for 10 years by choice, it’s a damn shame. And yet still not too late to familiarize yourself with them, because even if they do catch on, don’t expect a bandwagon to suddenly appear driving down the road, taking all trendy comers.
Listen: Bandcamp
Insomniac – Om Moksha Ritam
It’s tricky to rephrase the way Atlanta heavy rockers define themselves, so we’ll present it as is: “transcendent post-doom architects.” Now, “post-rock” and “post-metal” always made sense—bands that claimed that mantle suggested they were defying key conventions and constraints of those genres. But “post-doom”? The inverse can only be a speedier sound, which would call for the band to be associated with maybe sludge or stoner rock. We’re clearly overthinking this—after all, doesn’t the term “psych” suggest getting stuck in your own mental loops?—so instead, we’ll get to the heart of the matter: Insomniac, which previously featured now-deceased guitarist/vocalist Mike Morris of Zoroaster, have delivered a righteous record in Om Moksha Ritam. Rare is the heavy-rock band, even of the psych (or doom) variety that sounds as comfortable in its skin as Insomniac does here—and this is their debut, mind you. This is about as chill as heavy music can get, and in putting the listener at such ease, every note, hook, riff and what have you can be savored like a delectable gummy. Press play, sit back, prepare to get connected to the universe, and know that you might just experience a spiritual awakening along the way.
Listen: Bandcamp
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