Phase Zero

The invocation of classic West Coast psychedelia that permeates Morgan Delt’s Sub Pop debut album feels like a continuous sunrise, never concealing its influences yet perfectly putting its songs through a gauzy lens that blurs and obscures. After releasing a six song cassette in 2013 followed by a full length for the Trouble In Mind label, the California native now fine tunes his sound world outwardly rather than honing in on a specific trajectory, allowing all of said influences to coexist together in a unique yet undoubtedly Californian vision.

The resulting ten song collection, performed entirely by Delt, recorded in his Topanga Canyon studio and mastered by JJ Golden, is a home-fi construction with a more subtle, braintickling character than its predecessor and somewhat reflects a realist take on the flower power fantasy of 1967. Doused in echo and haze, slow chords lap in like Pacific waves, flanked by gentle whispers of multi-tracked, cooing vox, phased guitars and fuzz that calmly surrounds the listener’s head less than it jabs at the cortex.

It takes a creative mind to make psychedelic rock music – tablas, drones, hallucinatory vocal effects, and all – without slipping into cliché but Delt can transport what would normally be a dark and druggy blanket into a much more optimistic and friendly listening experience. Despite his voice being channelled through hallucinatory effects it’s warm and inviting, projecting a sense of hope (particularly in ‘Some Sunsick Day’, which evokes the hopeful ‘We’ll Meet Again’ as the world explodes at the end of Dr. Strangelove, later covered by The Byrds).

LP formats packaged in a tip-on jacket with custom dust sleeve and includes digital download code.