It’s both testament to the enduring popularity of the stoner/psych scene and the affection London’s STEAK have garnered over the past 13 years that the Ballroom’s teeming when they hit the stage. The warmth percolating through their bluesy riffs, building up into states of lead-break-aerated nirvana go down a storm. Norway’s SLOMOSA are keepers of agroove that feels like you’re constantly being punched in your pleasure centre, a bass sound so phat you want to straddle it, while keep-on-truckin’ headshakers like There Is Nothing New Under The Sun, steered by Benjamin Berdous’s nasal, momentum-driven vocals, answer the age-old question, what would the Ramones sound like if they played desert rock? Such is ELDER’s reputation for exploring the most prismatic reaches of the psych rock spectrum that the anticipation in the room is electric, and as Catastasis splays out like a sunbeam-dappled solar sail, the room is filled with acommunal sense of awe. Reaching back past last year’s Innate Passage album, songs like Lore remind us that even at their heaviest, there’s a swirling, open-ended Utopian magic at work that transports us to imaginary, more noble ages.
JONATHAN SELZER