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Friday 18 September 2015

BEAUTIFY JUNKYARDS – THE BEAST SHOUTED LOVE (Mega Dodo LP, CD).

Following their critically acclaimed 2013 debut album of gorgeous Psych Folk/Tropicália covers, Lisbon’s Beautify Junkyards return with more hauntologic and kaleidoscopic sunshine folk tales that shimmer with the beauty of a spring morning. Using the 60/70s Acid Folk influences/inspiration from the first album as a template, The Beast Shouted Love is full of beautifully crafted original songs that have such a timeless air about them that they sound authentically traditional yet so very modern.
The Beast Shouted Love mines the same rich seams of Acid Folk that Beautify Junkyards explored on their first album, taking in influences from classic artists such as Nick Drake, Donovan, Heron, Vashti Bunyan, Linda Perhacs and……er…….Kraftwerk mixed with a hint of more modern Psych Folk acts like Soy Un Caballo, Espers and Tunng. Add to this exhilarating mix a generous helping of Os Mutantes-esque Tropicália, you then get not just an impressive record but an ethereal, magical and transcendent experience. Opening the album with three exquisite pieces of giddy Acid Folk, ‘Sun Wheel Ceremony’, ‘Canterbury’ and ‘Rainbow Garland’, Beautify Junkyards bring together acoustic guitars, gentle electronica, snippets of found sounds/field recordings and subtle percussion with the shimmering voices of João Branco Kyron and Rita Vian, shaping a musical landscape that is both from now and sometime circa 1969. The rest of the album is in the same vain, a skilfully hewn mix of pastoral psychedelia with sun kissed Tropicália, where the old and the new seamlessly blend together. There are some sublime moments here………………… the trippy fairground swirl of ‘Tomorrow's Children’, the Folktronica groove of ‘Rite Of Passage’…….but nothing can really top ‘Drop City’ and ‘Valley Of Wonders’ which are simply stunning, Acid Folk has never sounded so good. Now that Beautify Junkyards are recording original material they are not restrained by any preconceived ideas of how the songs should sound, The Beast Shouted Love is a melting pot of ideas and inspiration ………beautifully twisted but ever so accessible. This really is a fantastic Psych Folk album and we doubt if there will be many better records released this year.        
Released on the very groovy British psychedeliacentric boutique label Mega Dodo, The Beast Shouted Love is available on limited edition vinyl and CD (250 copies of each) and is available from their web store at http://www.mega-dodo.co.uk/ and Bandcamp site  https://megadodo.bandcamp.com/album/the-beast-shouted-love plus the usual cool online sites like Shiny Beast………….alternatively, go ask your local friendly vinyl vendor to order you a copy.

THEE PSYCHEDELICATESSEN  

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