White Manna - Pan

With Pan White Manna are on top form, showing the way for upcoming acts & those of the same pedigree and maturity alike. Not for nothing is this record named after the half man, half goat god of Greek myth, seeping into your consciousness as its songs do yet playfully inspiring acts of great movement with the likes of the full-on rocking 'Evil'.

Having personally enjoyed seeing the band in a live setting last year at the Liverpool Psychfest to finally have the newest tracks from that event set in a home setting is fantastic. As the opening (& titular) track straight away blasts off on a space rock flight you know this is an album you'll be coming back to time & again throughout the months ahead. Big riffs that demand to be played loud all Summer.

Add to that the slower, more head-messing, likes of 'Dunes II' and you're pretty much on the way to having a classic album of the genre on your hands. Landscape & an appreciation of it are cited as informing a great deal of the writing herein and the guitar work on this particular track certainly take the mind on a soaring flight from which you can well visualise seeing the sun-seared inland reaches of Northern California from above.

Following on from 2014s Live Frequencies album, featuring performances from Rouen & Copenhagen, Pan is a triumphant return to the studio for White Manna and a release that no self-respecting psych fan should leave out of their collection. It's at one & the same time as old as the hills and as fresh as a newly cooked up batch of acid, still cooling in its beaker. Except you'll not even need the latter to become fully immersed in its trip over the former & beyond.    

Pan is available from amazon, iTunes & bandcamp.

Speaking of White Manna live here's an hour of them just that way from a couple of months ago.