It reads:
Bekki Bemrose dives deep underground into a scene that to-all-intents-and-purposes seems to be thriving, despite largely subverting perceived wisdoms regarding the industry in 2019…
Psychedelia readily suggests the LSD fuelled hippies of the sixties and the failed ambitions of that subculture’s brief infiltration of the mainstream, but mind-expanding music didn’t die with turncoat baby boomers, it evolved through krautrock, funk, soul, hip hop and rave. Roll forward to present day and UK psych has taken a noisy, and ostensibly successful turn.
‘I think the music industry has always underestimated the appeal of heavy bands. I mean just look at metal, it’s perennially underrated, both critically and via radio, but it sells fuck loads of records.’
Anthony Chalmers, promoter of Baba Yaga’s Hut at Corsica Studios, is considering the recent successes of bands like Goat, Snapped Ankles and the ludicrously dubbed Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs who frequently create challenging, experimental music that requires investment beyond the dip-in culture of streaming.
‘We could sell two or three hundred tickets to a Pigs show, but then they got played on 6 Music every day and now we can sell a thousand tickets to a Pigs show,’ he elaborates.
It’s a phenomenon that Jimmy Martin of psych rock outfit Teeth of the Sea finds delightfully curious: ‘I don’t really remember a band that heavy being played on 6 Music… I don’t know exactly how it’s happened, but I can only applaud 6 Music and Pigs for that.’
Read the rest here: M Magazine
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