WOAH DAD! RECORDS 26th August, 2016
Spacey, trippy, dancey, happy. Carrying the torch of albums like Air’s Moon Safari, Hashish move from a swirly opening to delicious bass grooves in an effortless summer breeze of an album. One of those soulful albums that lifts the spirit and inspires to action, whilst relaxing the listener. Woodwind and synth make frothy melodies and female vocals add the perfect amount of 70s cheesy listening glamour. Somehow it is mainstream-approachable while being as psychedelic as a Serge Gainsbourg film soundtrack.
The debut for this Swedish band fuses Kraut-rock, euro-movie soundtrack and noughties synth into something as mind-lashing as a sauna in a lava lamp on mushrooms. But they make it tuneful as hell and utterly accessible. Then there are funk tracks, like Outer Spaced, carrying the spirit of Funkadelic. This could damage the brains of our pop kids – something must be done!
Tracks run from three to nine minutes, however long it takes to warp the mind or move the feet and are never long enough, though sometimes we take a pause with burbling synths or other white-noise-ish effects, then it’s on with the mindwarp. Not only does this album slink and groove, it is thoughtful and winds down gently with plinky-plonky, after-hours, chill-out calm.
This is an album to run on repeat on your headphones.