Album Review: Hazed Dream by Psychic Ills

Psychic Ills' Sacred Bones debut Hazed Dream doesn’t lie about its intentions: the whole album rolls along like a fogged-out vision, albeit a very different one from anything the band has crafted before. Instead of the sonic maelstroms of Dins and the particularly brilliant Mirror Eye, Hazed Dream is a low-hanging fog, misty and down to earth at the same time. Tres Warren, Elizabeth Hart and crew strip their songs down to the bare essentials, adding more structure and even hooks, transforming their music into narcotic dream rock that resembles a sleepwalking Spiritualized.

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If the end-all-be-all point of psychedelic music is transcendence, Psychic Ills have taken a whack at just about every path that shows any promise of getting there. The Brooklyn trio has done space-rock freak-outs, heavy minimalist drones, and abstract synthesizer mulch, all of which has been unspooled across two LPs, a handful of small-press singles, a compilation album, and, probably, a box full of all-night free-form practice tapes. The Ills' third LP, Hazed Dream, finds them taking another approach, sidelining the guitar solos in favor of stripped-down and straightforward songwriting.

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Some music drifts so effortlessly that it welcomes complete resignation and submission to its guile. Psychic Ills‘ latest LP is about as cunning as an apathetic drunk signaling for you across the bar who’s looking for any other bed to sleep in but his/her own. And depending on the kind of day you had, you may just give in. Hazed Dream is a plodding, dusty kind of psych that comes standard with phased guitars, droning organs, and a slurred and sparse percussive backbone.

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