Ganglion Reef

That so many musicians continue to explore the psychedelic sounds birthed in the \'60s is proof that the electronic innovations made in those days were of major importance. Jimi Hendrix was the virtuoso musician who brought it to the masses, but garage bands like The Seeds, The Chocolate Watchband, and hundreds of other lesser-knowns were all just as spellbound by the sounds they could suddenly make, as were the kids who grew up in subsequent decades. Electric guitar players love effect pedals, and the Los Angeles–based Wand seem pretty consumed with them too. The acoustic-based “Growing Up Boys” starts as an effect-free portrait of the group, but even here the need for experimentalism augments the gentle ballad. Other tracks like “Strange Inertia,” “Send/Receive (Mind),” and “Broken Candle” are obsessed with otherworldly textures.

FILE UNDER: POP – STOMP – THICK – MAJEST Y – PHASE – MELODY –UTOPIA – DISTORTO – CREATURES – BACKWARDS –REVERB – MIRROR – RIFF – RIPPLE – SHIVER – PSY – SILVER – KEYS – FUZZ – AIR – SENSORY – DRU M – DREAM – LARVAL – CRYSTAL – MUD – SHEETS – PLEASE

The debut album from Los Angeles psych-rock project Wand is all about: the passageways between one place or state of mind to another. Accordingly, it moves, what makes Ganglion Reef so euphorically hypnotic is the way it translates bandleader Cory Hanson's itinerant, hyperkinetic tendencies into song.

After a handful of singles, Los Angeles power psych band Wand arrived with Ganglion Reef, their debut full-length and a nonstop parade of acid-dipped, pop-minded forays into both heaviness and wavy folk detours.