Blue Horizon

Psychedelic rock never died – it just retrenched in Austin, Texas. The Black Angels have been out in front for nearly a decade now, spearheading a scene that birthed the Austin Psych Fest and threw the spotlight on local bands like Ringo Deathstarr, Christian Bland & The Revelators and Shapes Have Fangs. Indigo Meadow is the Angels’ fourth album, and, at gut level, it recasts the familiar tropes of their breakthrough Phosphene Dream in the same drone-heavy, reverberating haze that made The Velvet Underground, The Electric Prunes and 13th Floor Elevators such a trip in every meaning of the word. Dig deeper though, and the adventurous dynamics bust through, from the pastoral dub of “Holland” to the soporific spy groove of “Always Maybe.” “Don’t Play With Guns” leaps out as a hard-hitting vehicle for lead singer Alex Maas, while the title track shows off Stephanie Bailey’s solid-as-cement drumming. Hyperinventive when it counts, the Angels aren’t just mimicking a late ‘60s garage sound – they’re bending, stretching and molding it in their own image.