It says something about the current state of hallucinogens when the latest crop of psychedelic groups seem to be taking their cue from the murky narcotic haze of the Velvet Underground and their disciples, rather than peeking behind the doors of perception. Whatever happened to all those pretty colours?
To be fair, once Cumbrian quartet the Lucid Dream ease up on the wall of dirge after a couple of tracks, they start distilling some broader influences, ranging from the cavernous Spector-ish production to an encyclopaedic knowledge of North West bands in general and The Verve’s Nick McCabe in particular.
What stops The Lucid Dream from tripping over their own nerdy shoelaces is a sense of purpose and determination from guitarists Mark Emmerson and Wayne Jefferson, who revel in extracting every last tone from their combined wall of sound, from Roger McGuinn to, er, Nick McCabe.
