The last time Robert Hampson’s psychedelic warriors Loop released a studio album, the first George Bush was US president. Quite a lot has changed since then, but Loop’s jagged-edge attack remains largely the scintillating same as it ever was.
Thirty-two years after their sumptuous magnum opus A Gilded Eternity, the band’s circular riffs and barrage of hissing, ambient scree are instantly recognisable, but Sonancy is a sharper, edgier and more brittle beast than any of its hypnotic predecessors.
Much like experiencing Loop in the flesh, songs like Supra and Isochrone are designed to pin your psyche to the wall, preferably at maximum volume. There’s a punky, DIY krautrock energy to opener Interference and the Stooges-saluting Axion, while the tweaked-out space rock rush of Halo and woozy closer Aurora come closest to emulating the Loop of Collision and Arc-Lite.
Tumultuous, trippy and brilliantly untamed, Sonancy is a magnificent comeback.
