From expanding the minds of the free-thinking, to opening the doors to whole new philosophical and creative worlds, LSD has a lot to be responsible for. The hallucinogen-gobbling hippies of the '60s pathed this ground, seeing the space around them for the first time in limitless technicolour hues, as their drug-induced states shifted old ideas out for the new, countering and recalibrating culture.
Surging through brain waves, psychedelics soon found their way into sound, capturing this transcendental spirit through indulgent, spacious guitar riffs and tantric rhythms via bands such as The Beatles, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd and Jefferson Airplane, to name but a few.
Though psychonautic exploration might have laid the groundwork for the genre, today it's hardly necessary; the heart of psychedelia is found in its sound, and there's countless weird and wonderful bands keeping its essence alive, with or without the help of hallucinatory experiences.
Here's the top ten psychedelic rock bands you need to hear right now.
Psychedelic Porn Crumpets
Clearly, Psychedelic Porn Crumpets dived into the same outlandish waters as fellow Aussies King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard to come up with their ear-pricking moniker. Having connected through their drug dealer, allegedly, the PPC offer up a glittering smorgasbord of whimsical and witty ideas, often inspired by Noel Fielding’s cult TV show The Mighty Boosh.
Like so many of their pysch peers, the Crumpets have a penchant for unconventional song titles - see Cornflake, Lava Lamp Pisco, Mundungus and Hymn For A Droid - but their gloriously-intricate prog-rock riffing and mind-expanding lyrics offer a uniquely poetic approach to presenting psychedelic culture; Cubenses Lenses sees frontman Jack McEwan ponder his glasses whilst on magic mushrooms, while The Tale Of Gurney Gridman follows the story of a sound engineer who underwent jaw surgery due to excessive gurning whilst under the influence. Oh, and Found God In A Tomato really does recount a spiritual revelation experienced via a vegetable. Well, duh.
Earth Tongue
Given that they share a similar inclination for drenching riffs from top to bottom in fuzz, it's no surprise that psych rock legend Ty Segall made this New Zealand duo special guests on his 2024 EU/UK tour.
Though they might only have two albums, Earth Tongue - named after a species of mushroom - have been quickly making their way onto the radar of the biggest stoner/desert rock darlings, including Queens Of The Stone Age, who they supported recently on their home turf. New album Great Haunting reintroduces more of the same disorientating off-kilter time signatures as 2019's Floating Being, but with a retro 70's horror focus, conjuring scenes of medieval plagues and supernatural entities filmed on hazy old 8mm film cameras. Through their endless contorting riffs, creepy synths and dissonant deadpan chant-vocals, Earth Tongue take listeners to that liminal space between dreams and nightmares, the good trips and bad.
Earthless
Cosmic, instrumentally indulgent, and with a name pinched from a song by a '60s garage psych band called The Druids of Stonehenge, though they might contain all the hallmarks of a band who charge their sound with the help of various substances, Earthless maintain that they're wholly chemical-free.
Sober or not, their classic-rock-meets-krautrock-wizardry has been sending listeners into euphoria for the better part of two decades. The Californians stand out from the underground with their unique strain of largely instrumental, dizzying jam-led psychedelia, which oscillates between spacious tripped-out sections, shimmering with David Gilmour-esque guitar majesty, to bell-bottom-boogieing, Zeppelin blues.
Slift
The music of Toulousian psych-wizards Slift may sound as though it belongs to an alternative dimension, but their last two albums, 2024's Ilion and 2020's Ummon, were actually based upon their shared love for Greek mythology, using the grand themes of The Odyssey and The Iliad to serve as a time-warped backdrop, fusing antiquated myth with celestial psychedelia and the science fiction stories of the future. Formed of brothers Jean and and Rémi Fossat, and school friend Canek Flores, Slift pair calamitous percussion with overwhelming, ever-climbing riffs and woozy vocals that together, feel as intense as some kind of momentary ego-death.
Elder
As most of their songs veer close to the 10 minute mark, the work of Massachusetts-born, Berlin-based Elder rarely makes for a casual listen, but promises an epic odyssey full of many twists and turns. Across their seven albums - one a collaborative effort with fellow psych stoners Kadavar, aptly titled Eldovar - Elder have become one of the leading faces of psychedelic prog rock, intertwining sparkling space rock and Mastodon-like progressiveness with sprawling song structures. Swirling, groove-driven riffs often launch the journey, ascending into mountainous summits of head-pounding noise, before respites of transcendent psychedelia are ushered in like a refreshing breeze.
Gaupa
Formed in 2017, Sweden's Gaupa - which translates as ‘lynx’ in English - are what you'd get if Björk joined a heavy metal band. Their two albums - 2020's Feberdröm and 2022's Myriad - intertwine surrealist lyrical poetry with earthy stoner rock and ethereal psychedelia, inspired by the mountainous, majestic landscapes of their homeland in Falun. Gaupa's encompassing mantra rests upon creating music that forges a connection to nature, the intricacies and complex workings of the outside world echoed through elaborate guitar riffs, storming percussion and see-sawing song structures that waver like the weather.
Sacri Monti
Sacri Monti are the modern day lovechild of King Crimson and Led Zeppelin, a retro-revival twist on heavy psych where tantric riffing and spacey synths meet bluesy, whisky-edged vocals in a time-slip back to the '70s.
As balmy as the Californian climate, the five-piece swaddle their sound with warm, patchouli-scented pillowy production that helps give it that hazy edge. Experienced live, the haziness is replaced by a tantalising intensity, where complex jam-like stretches of harmonising riffs, glittering organs and crashing drums overlap and climb into jaw-dropping crescendos.
Maidavale
Though Maidavale's latest album Sun Dog (2024) takes more of a laid-back indie-influenced approach to psych rock with its jangly guitars and tropical rhythms, 2018's Madness Is Too Pure and 2016's Tales Of The Wicked West are marginally heavier, with tracks such as (If You Want The Smoke) Be The Fire, Heaven And Earth, Gold Mind and Späktrum seeing the Swedes fuse together neo-psychedelia and krautrock with elements of post-punk, funkadelia and North African blues. Over their wandering bass lines, lush psychedelic guitars and endless grooves, the Janis Jopin-esque timbre of vocalist Matilda Roth keeps them sounding unique, and drives the sound forward with a distinct urgency.
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard
As well as being the ruling kings of the neo-psychedelia scene, this Aussie sextet trump just about any band when it comes to their album release rate. Since their formation in 2010, they've dished out a whopping 26 LPs, spanning a multitude of genres, from oddball synth pop (complete with robot voices) to D&D-flavoured thrash metal, bridged together by their idiosyncratic eccentricity and love of all things psychedelic.
At the top of their prolific bounty we'll direct you to 2016's Nonagon Infinity, overflowing with nutty melodies and whimsical riffs, 2017's offbeat mythopoetic Polygondwanaland, 2017's Flying Microtonal Banana - which featured the band exploring microtonal custom-built instruments - and 2023's thrashy headbanger PetroDragonic Apocalypse..., though there's plenty more great records in their catalogue to explore. It might take you a while...
Goat
Supposedly originating from the 'cursed' town of Korpilombolo within a commune shadowed by the ancient practices of voodoo witch doctors - over their decade-long existence (though they claim to be the result of multiple generational reincarnations), the Swedish Goat have remained an enigma, their identities concealed under ritualistic mask and costumes steeped in the mysterious lore of their mythological beginnings. Deriving their sound from the traditional music of their home village, the masked hypno-rockers are built upon native influences as well as music from across the globe, working over an alchemic cauldron of bubbling acid rock, world music, trance-inducing psychedelia and afrobeats.
