Adventurous music fans that enjoy genre defiance could find the ultimate treat in this splendidly packaged 2-disc musical space saga from Germany's PSYCHEDELIC AVENGERS. While 155 minutes of music and artists spanning 43 different countries may seem like an intimidating listen, in reality this snappy project doesn’t take long to work its charms and settle into regular rotation.

The story of our hero Leo Lucas' recruitment by the Polyphone Herald to join the PSYCHEDELIC AVENGERS in their battle against the planet-raping Decterian Blood Empire is imparted through Euro-psych and desert rock guitar riffs, bass-heavy electronic percussion, swooshing synth interludes, and lots of bleeps and blips. "Inside the Ancient Techamid of the Mutant Monks" sounds like Eddie Van Halen's 80s keyboard obsessions (think “Sunday Afternoon in the Park” from “Fair Warning"), until the female vocals come in and the whole thing ends up sounding like a GATHERING single. THE LIQUID SOUND COMPANY contributes a track (the title is just too dang long to list here) that buzzes in like a SATRIANI piece with abundant lead guitar and robotic bass pulses. Swedish band SOLVI SILVER’s “The Flight of the Silver Moon” is a SABS/SHEAVY sort of affair with tube amps and a heavy melody thing along the lines of “Tomorrows Dream”. German guitar scientist SASCHA KUBIAK whips up a dark, 80’s dance concoction reminiscent of early DEPECHE MODE or that YELLO song from the Ferris Bueller movie, and COLOUR HAZE’s Stefan Koglek contributes a track that sounds like, well…COLOUR HAZE. Disc one seems to include more direct nods to PINK FLOYD, while disc two appears content to jump around, from Syd Barrett-inspired weirdness to tribal NEUROSIS percussive pieces to slick programmed guitar loops recalling U2’s “Zooropa” period and so forth.

Above all, the blending of the songs and interludes is superb. The above-mentioned juxtaposition of artists, styles, and tones never chafe the ears. Somehow it all sounds connected and smooth. The whole album seems glazed with a cartoony "Wizard of Oz" sort of goofiness. Could THE PSYCHEDELIC AVENGERS have all this going for them and a sense of humor too? Jawohl!

Fuck the iPod. At the rate the technology is moving, it won’t be long until the music distributors find a way to beam the music directly into our brains. At that point, we can look back on this PSYCHEDELIC AVENGERS release, telling our grandchildren about this crazy packaging, all the weird symbols, and two shiny discs complete with a downloadable .pdf file of space stories from their website. Sure, it sounds cool now, but by then, it’ll sound like we’re describing a top-loading VCR or something. At any rate, if your collection finds SUZANNE VEGA next to VOIVOD (alphabetically speaking) and KRAFTWERK bumping into KYUSS, then you may need to dock your Silverwing and pick this up. Enjoy the flight.

- Marchman

OFFICIAL SITE: www.psychedelicavengers.de

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