Thighpaulsandra: Acid & Ecstasy LP

A hugely imaginative outlier of UK industrial and psych rock with roles in Coil, Spiritualized, and currently Hawkwind, the shapeshifting Thighpaulsandra properly tangles up aspects of prog, krautrock and acid rock in the controlled, delirious sound design of this significant follow-up to their Editions Mego albums. Dished up on the Retractor label he set up to issue ‘Double Vulgar’ in 2003, and since home to a string of live recordings with Coil, ‘Acid & Ecstasy’ is a brilliantly complex and psychoactive session that veers between leading edge studio suss and endearingly hoary blasts of prog and even psych-funk bombast with a compelling swagger. We hear echoes of Mr. Bungle-esque hybrid innovation, Tool-ed rock melodrama and Graham Lewis-like post-post-punk experimentation, plus flashes of all their previous bands wrapped in seven odd raptures, which more often take up to and over 10 mins to say their piece, and each contain enough ideas for an album in their own right. Living up to the potency of its title, the album advances in stop/start fits and spurts from the pared-back prog intricacies of ‘Then Not Speaking’ channelling Maynard James Keenan via latter Coil, to art-rocky turns of phrase reminding of Anthony Moore’s ‘World Service’ in ‘The Rococo Foindler’, and Mr. Bungle via Wire angularities on ‘Vultures an Crows’. It settles into a sublime, blissed lull midway for the first half of ‘The Curtain’, which reserves the right to ascend Spiritualized heights and ’80s funk metal pomp by the end. And it only gets brilliantly weirder with something like a dosed up Queen on ‘Princess Margaret’s Mellotron’ (one of thee titles of 2025), thru the closing 20’ of acid peak sorcery on ‘The Brown Hare Remains’. Not one for everyday; keep it in the freezer until needed.