This has been the year where the psych revival swam into unfamiliar waters, with Tame Impala and Unknown Mortal Orchestra trying out disco and funk directions, and Stealing Sheep chucking dance and Sarahan folk into the mix. A Dream Outside, the debut album from London outfit Gengahr, doesn’t quite mess with the formula as dramatically as any of those examples, but does offer its own subtle refinements. This is psychpop with heavy emphasis on the pop, its frazzled melodies feeling both unsettling and festival-ready, and noodling kept to a respectable minimum. Lilting lead single Powder finds Felix Bushe’s affected falsetto turning from cute to creepy on a dime, a quality mimicked by guitarist John Victor’s quiet/loud dynamics, while She’s a Witch’s MGMT-like chorus is undercut by disquieting lyrics about a witch that “cries all the time”. Occasionally, as on freak folk opener Dizzy Ghosts, Bushe’s voice gets a little lost among Victor’s tangled guitar lines, but overall theirs is a sound that lingers.
