The first band announcements have been made for the 2016 edition of Lisbon Psych Fest, produced by Killer Mathilda;

LISBON PSYCH FEST 2016 | Teatro do Bairro | 15 & 16 de Abril

Day 1 of Fuzz Club Festival had set the bar impossibly high. There had been 6 outstanding performances on Friday, the promise of 8 more on Saturday was a dizzying prospect.

The dizziness is quickly reigned in, with the inevitable news that Wall Of Death, understandably, would no longer be joining us. The sickening reality of the slaughter in Paris inescapable. “Terror” will not prevail, the show must and will go on…

By my reckoning, this is something like my 23rd post in connection with Fuzz Club Records.

For those of you familiar with this blog, this will come as no surprise. To those fledgling acolytes, I would urge you to seek out that which will make you whole again – just as Fuzz Club did for me, back in 2013.

Fuzz Club Records have become synonymous with what it means to be a champion of, “independent, experimental rock n roll, influenced by psychedelia, shoegaze, noise, garage, blues, folk and experimentation”.

That this, “record label, record store and production company”, can muster 14 prime movers within the current “scene”, over two magickal nights in London tells you all you need to know about their pedigree.

Photo by: Christian Apolo

‘Caballo Negro’ or Black Horse by Sudakistan is an album I was destined to hear.

In the week leading up to Liverpool Psych Fest 2104, if El Lobo first came to me in the guise of ‘Dale Gas’, then ‘Rabia‘ literally injected me with Sudakistan’s rabid frenzy. My pack allegiance was immediately assured.

Luke Reilly, co-founder of PNKSLM Recordings, at the time described Sudakistan as a group of five South American guys, living in Stockholm and as being, “the best live band around today”.

Liverpool certainly fanned the flames of Sudakistan’s glowing reputation, whetting the appetite with the promise of much more to come…

Who the fuck is Fyrskeppet I hear you cry…

In this instance it is not so much a who, as a what.

In the truly idiosyncratic style to which we have become addicted, Fyrskeppet – or Swedish for Lightship is the latest incarnation of Daniel Westerlund, aka The Goner, aka E Gone.

That he returns in a guise, hauntingly familiar to my sea faring lineage, is a particular delight.

I spent most mid-70’s school holidays aboard my father’s trawler, in and around the Faroes and Iceland. An unwitting observer and participant in the last instalment of the “Cod Wars”, even being rammed on occasion by the Icelandic Gunboat!