As debut albums in the currently burgeoning psych scene go The Dawn is right up there with this year’s best. Hailing from Copenhagen the duo initially paved the album’s way with the release of the title track as a single as many as seven months ago, as well as a notable performance at the 2013 Liverpool Psych Fest.

Backed with the non-album track ‘Totem’ that single is about as trippy as you can get, with its opening line of “Magic beans & broken dreams”, effect-laden vocals and woozy guitar parts. Suggestions to “go and get it on” and other refrains do not though ever tip the balance over into one of cheesy mimicry – there’s a clear underlying seriousness of purpose and obvious talent amid the acid-drenched colours.

And so it remains with The Dawn. Opening track (and recent single) ‘Sound Of The Machine’ is a pleasingly playful, fuzzed-up drone of a song. Naïve images (abandoned toys, pseudo-Lost Boys ready to pick a fight) abound, backed up by a firm grounding in the music of the likes of The Pink Fairies etc. This is no Lenny Kravitz crossover but the real deal.

Pace-wise The Wands maintain a pretty easy one throughout but ‘She’s Electric’ chugs along at a livelier, head bobbing tempo as well as featuring some of the album’s stand-out guitar and organ work. ‘Get It Out Of Your System (Don’t You Wanna Feel Alright)’ also induces a fair bit of movement as you let it inveigle its way into your system. Whilst a few of the songs could do with slightly more length (‘She’s Electric’ being a prime example) that feeling of wanting more is never enough to bring the listener down to earth with a bump, so well does the album fit together as the sum of its parts.

Fully returning on the faith many people put in them upon hearing their initial Hello I Know The Blow You Grow Is Magic EP The Wands have delivered, on one hand, exactly what was expected of them whilst simultaneously managing to show that they were capable of better and could well exceed that best next time around.    

The Dawn is available from amazon & iTunes.

Kicking off with ‘Family Tree’ & ‘Modern Art’ from previous album Arabia Mountain, the Black Lips brought their Underneath The Rainbow show to a packed and very receptive Electric Circus just before Hallowe’en. Which explains the guy right at the front of the stage in the pumpkin helmet.

Having of late been surprised at the lack lustre nature of Edinburgh audiences tonight’s performance is strong enough to inspire scenes seldom seen since the closure of the much loved Venue – stage diving, crowd surfing, pole climbing & finally a full on stage invasion (forcing Jack Hines to remove a couple of punters lest he be squished).

Seemingly sponsored by Andrex, given the number of loo rolls being flung across the stage, the band took no time to whip the crowd into the seething mass that was required to birth the above mentioned interaction. Add to that their own balloons being bounced around all over the place and the atmosphere was ripe for raucous but good natured partying by all concerned.

Looking more clean-cut than when last seen three or four years ago in Glasgow, the quartet’s easy blending of Fifties attitude with punk from all eras saw later songs in the set (including ‘O Katrina’, recent single ‘Boys In The Wood’ and a slight tease of ‘Dirty Water’) successively meet with heartfelt cheers and resounding applause. Banter was in short supply but inter-city rivalry was stoked when the Glasgow crowd was unfavourably compared with tonight’s throng. This time though you could well believe that was no empty compliment.

True to the punk ethic there was no encore after they’d blasted through 60 minutes but all four of the guys were in evidence upon leaving the venue, engaging with passing fans & no doubt keen to try out a pub or two before closing time. If anyone in the city deserved a pint tonight it was them so fingers crossed they found plenty.