I love exploring music from different countries and cultures, and Japan is one nation I’ve been particularly drawn to. Throughout the past few years, I’ve written about the best Japanese doom metal for Monster Riff and then jumped into the best Japanese psych rock for the Third Eye. Recently, I began to look at Japanese […] The post Best Japanese Acid Folk: A Playlist appeared first on The Third Eye ..read more

Mike Horn of the Seawind of Battery project has an uncanny way of turning our darkest moments into something positive and cheerful. In 2022, he accomplished this with his project’s debut LP, Clockwatching, which took the painful isolation of the pandemic era and turned it into something beautiful. Horn has done it again with East Coast Cosmic Dreamscaper, his latest record, due for release on August 2nd. The soothing ambient country of Seawind of Battery’s previous releases is present in the new LP, but Horn also moves in exciting new directions. There are electronic dance beats and lush arran ..read more

And now for something completely different. Ever-Lovin’ Jug Band is a group that answers the question of what a one-gallon jug bass would sound like in ‘50s rock-n-roll, psychedelic, garage, jazz, and wall-of-sound songs. Of course, I’m not sure who posed this question in the first place, but I’m happy the band has answered it in the form of a new album called Move That Thing, due out on July 19th via Jalopy Records. Everything on the new record was written, arranged, played, sung, recorded, and produced by just the two members of the group, a duo comprised of Minnie Heart and Bill Howard. So ..read more

Anandammide is a psychedelic folk project based in Paris led by the Italian singer-songwriter Michele Moschini. The project released a wonderfully weird record of what they call Utopian Psych Folk in early April called EURA, which I’ve been enjoying over the past week or so. Anandammide started in Paris, where Michele has lived since 2007. Michele comes from the Italian rock, prog, and psychedelic scene, where he’s been the singer of an Italian progressive band called Floating State for a decade. In 2018, he gathered a few musicians from a British-French community orchestra to form Anandammide ..read more

Polish songwriter A.J. Kaufmann is back with more psychedelic goodies after releasing a new single called “Ramzes Metamorfozis.” The trippy, astral folk song will be part of a new album Kaufmann plans to release on The Swamp Records in December 2024. Listen to “Ramzes Metamorfozis” below: Ten years after Kaufmann’s LP, Stoned Gypsy Wanderer, he started working on the new song and album. Stoned Gypsy Wanderer was released in 2014, showing A.J. as his best folk troubadour and harbinger of new sounds. Harbinger Magazine said about the album: “Nobody knows it, but A.J. Kaufmann is a national trea ..read more

Daisy Rickman is an artist and musician from Cornwall (U.K.) specializing in painting and folk music, and she recently released the first single from her upcoming album. “Feed The Forest” is the song’s name, and the album Howl will be released on the Spring Equinox on March 20th. Rickman explains that “Howl” is Cornish for “Sun,” the new record is a collection of songs she recorded at home in Cornwall while living in Dorset, created between the Winter Solstice 2020 and Beltane 2023. The songs are an homage to the Sun and the Stars and explorations of the cycles within ourselves and throughout ..read more

Misty Lanes is the moniker for the solo recording project of Sydney-based multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, engineer, and producer Steven W. Schouten. Since his 2017 self-titled album, Misty Lanes has been defined by reverberating guitars, punchy drums, dreamy organ melodies, and delicate vocals that embody the soul of cult classic Sixties bands such as The 13th Floor Elevators and The Kinks. Misty Lanes will return with a new album, Colourless Green Ideas, on March 8th via the one and only Echodelick Records. The idea for the new album came after Steven stumbled on a sentence, “Colourless Gr ..read more

The Third Eye hasn’t covered many musicians who embrace poetry in their music as much as Rory McBride. McBride creates psychedelic folk rock characterized by blues and spiritual music, and it’s all infused by his love and deep study of poetic language. He released a new EP, Sonic Lullaby, over the summer (June 2nd) with three short, gorgeous tracks that you can tell are influenced by the likes of Dylan, Leonard Cohen, and Jim Morrison. McBride was raised in rural Illinois, and he says the “cultural desert of my childhood made me focus on artistic pursuits which served as my window to the rest ..read more

I’ve always thought Americans’ obsession with the British Royal Family was silly. Who gives a shit about King Charles and Prince Harry? I sure as hell don’t. But for whatever reason, many Yankees can’t help themselves by consuming tons of articles and other media about the monarchy. This brings me to an upcoming record by a different type of monarchy, a musical one called The Royal Family, a seven-piece French/English baroque psychedelic group from Toronto, Ontario. The band consists of members of Possum, ROY, Hieronymus Harry, The John Denver Airport Conspiracy (brilliant band name, there), a ..read more

Mystical spirituality is not meant to be understood purely intellectually. From the Sufis to the anonymous author of The Cloud of Unknowing, the best mystics understood that mysticism is about experience. I’ve been thinking of this as I’ve listened to the forthcoming release from Joseph Allred. Joseph’s new LP, New Jerusalem, will drop on October 27th via Centripetal Force records, and, like mystical religion, it’s hard to articulate the effect it can have on you. The trance-inducing sounds of Joseph’s new album transport you to a different state of mind if you’re willing to receive the messag ..read more