Short Reviews [ PsychoYogi - 2021 - "Digital Vagrancy"]

Back with their seventh album, PsychoYogi have maintained the line-up from the last album with Chris Ramsing (guitar, vocals), Justin Casey (drums, percussion) and Izzy Stylish (bass) again joined by Toby Nowell (alto & soprano saxophones, trumpet) who played on half of the tracks on ‘Dangerous Devices’ as he took over from John McNaughton. Yet again they have released a complex Canterbury-driven art rock album which is a melting pot of styles from jazz through prog, Beefheart and Zappa into Caravan and Can as well as the likes of XTC, yet somehow making perfect sense throughout. One can imagine this being released in the late Sixties as there is a naivety within, with horns being an important part of a sound which is massively complex and complicated at one level yet so simple on another. Follow any of the musical lines and wonder how the quartet manage to make them all sound as if they belong together as the threads are often incredibly disparate and apparently moving in multiple directions, all at the same time. This is music to get lost inside, and definitely benefits from being played on headphones so the nuances and switches do not get missed. There is a lot of space within the arrangements, and all four musicians have the opportunity to move around and find their own place, and often take quite different journeys to get to the same end point. The lyrics are also an incredibly important part of the overall effect, with lots of words, and it is not unusual for Chris to use a limited range which also ensures the overall impact is quite different. It is a very English album, and one cannot imagine a prog band from any other country coming up with an album quite like this as there is some wonderful eccentricity within, music which makes sense yet realistically never should. When I reviewed their last album, I mentioned Cardiacs, and while they rarely sound like them, there is no doubt that albums such as ‘Sing to God’ have had a significant impact on these guys, and ‘Digital Vagancy’ is all the better for it. Fresh and new, dated and delicious, this is some album.