UK heavy psychedelic rockers Longheads release their new EP, Mars Doesn’t Feel Like Home Anymore, on Nov. 2 through their own Longreel Records label, and with it present 31 minutes of space-faring lysergic adventures, immersive enough to ensnare tired, older acid freaks and fresh and progressive enough in its delivery to draw next-generation let’s-go-hiking-in-the-cosmos types as well. In the New Dawn of Weirdo Psych, propelled into the stratosphere by the likes of King Gizzard, Slift, even Earthless to a point, Longheads‘ five-songer is a left turn enough to not sound directly like any of them — though shred is a common factor, and well accounted for here in the guitar work of Al Bishop and Benjamin Reeve — with the declarative vocals of “Glossolalia” coming through like a mellow Hawkwindian ritual, too cool to be stoned, too stoned to care.

The narrative (blessings and peace upon it) is that the five-piece of Reeve (also vocals) and Bishop, bassist/lead vocalist Sam Mitchell, drummer Nick Oakes and synthesist Mitchell Corrigan recorded in an old theatre in South London, in which they lived at the time, having set themselves up under the ‘Guardianship scheme,’ which in my limited understanding I think is like what would happen if ‘squatters rights’ both actually existed and went legit. When you get evicted under guardianship of a property? You have a month to leave. In the US, they just run your ass over with a steamroller. Must be nice to be civil in that way.

Maybe that’s true, though if you’re thinking it’s going to make the drums sound cavernous, that’s not really the case. There’s plenty of room in the sound, to be sure, but Longheads‘ sound is more concentrated on blending the dreamy and the drifting, groove and trip. They begin with “One Step Further,” on which the synth demonstrates that just because the guitars are doing frenetic runs over the jazzy drums and bass that doesn’t mean it’s going to get lost in the mix. A bit of organ there for good measure as well. “Glossolalia” is a little more on solid ground, structurally, and makes a focal point of its bright-toned solo, with fair reason, and ends in a push of low-key multilayer madness.

That is to say, there’s more going on in the track than the overarching flow makes it appear, and it should be no surprise that the same applies to the manner in which “Longheads” takes a classic stoner rock riff, strips it down to its rhythmic strum, and uses it as the foundation of an eight-minute, going-and-not-coming-back exploration, some highlight dual-vocals and ’70s-epic synth dropped along the way like they just happened to bump into krautrock on their way to Pluto. You or the music: who digs whom?

If you catch it, “Longherder” has a break at about 4:50 where it basically stops and starts its finishing build from near-silence. That’s enough to make me wonder if the piece wasn’t born out of two song ideas put together, and if so, it’s all the more a credit to the band for following that particular whim. By the time they’re done, they’ve left scorch marks on the edge of the universe, and come on, guys — you know you can’t just buff that out. Check the bass though. Still kind of rumbling out that initial riff? Yeah, there’s a plan at work here. Thinky-thinky. Clever. Not as all-the-way-gone as it might seem on first blush, and there’s nothing wrong with that so long as you don’t mind when somebody steers the spaceship.

A twist arrives with the acoustic/synth interplay of the penultimate “In the Beginning,” a shorter turn at 3:13, with a vague hint of Britfolk via Zeppelin, that’s probably mostly intended as an interlude to put some distance between “Longherder” and the finale title-track, which tops nine minutes, but on a record that’s so much about vibe and atmosphere anyway, it’s not at all unwelcome as it leads directly into the closer, which leans harder into classic space rock as it emerges from its gradual beginning into more fervent thrust, not quite motorik, but maybe what motorik would be if it cared less about the rules. If you’re waiting for the part where I tell you about the big finish, yeah, there is one, but I dig the stretch before, with the two guitars having a chat over some tense let’s-go-already drums and steady bass, the kind of noodly calm before the ion storm.

It shows Longheads are thinking about live performance at least in the recording if not the actual writing process — I also don’t know how much of parts like this were made up on the spot, but I suspect some — and makes the payoff all the more satisfying when they get there in their own time. I wouldn’t call it patient, but it’s not trying to be. They’re establishing both ends of a dynamic that was nascent on last year’s Higher Than Bacteria, which also had a nine-minute capper, and feeling their way into planetary alignment, and that’s where they should be. But if you can’t hear the potential in these tracks for developing a vital space boogie, I can’t help you, because it’s all right there in the songs themselves. If this band tours hard, you’re going to want to watch out.

All of which is to say I hope you enjoy the stream. PR wire info follows, as well as a live set the band played at Longreel Studios, the aforementioned theatre space they had while the getting was good.

Dig:

Preorder: https://longheads.bandcamp.com/album/mars-doesnt-feel-like-home-anymore

Mars Doesn’t Feel Like Home Anymore follows the release of 2021’s debut EP Higher Than Bacteria. The new EP has seen the band take a much looser approach when it came to both writing and recording, incorporating improvised jam sections and capturing the band’s incredible live energy to the songs on record.

“When gigs started happening again last year we found ourselves in a position where we needed to write songs to fill up the space in our set. Because of this we started playing the new songs live as soon as they were finished and we continued to change and refine them based on how they went down.” Comments guitarist Al Bishop.

Originally hailing from Norfolk the band who are completed by Sam Mitchell (lead vocals & bass), Nick Oakes (drums), Benjamin Reeve (guitar & vocals) and Mitchell Corrigan (synths) are now based in South London where a few of the members live in the Guardianship scheme occupying various sites and spaces across London. This is where they recorded the EP at their very own ‘Longreel Studios’ in October last year, which was a space the boys had set up in an old theatre opposite the oval cricket ground.

Here the space of their surroundings allowed them to dive deep in writing with no limits and a week after they had finished all the live tracks they were handed their one month notice and had to dismantle the studio.

Now to celebrate the release of the forthcoming EP, they will be headlining the Black Heart on November 24th with tickets available here: https://linktr.ee/longheads

Tracklisting:
1. One Step Further
2. Longherder
3. In The Beginning
4. Mars Doesn’t Feel Like Home Anymore
5. Glossolalia

Longheads are:
Sam Mitchell (lead vocals & bass)
Al Bishop (guitar)
Benjamin Reeve (guitar & vocals)
Mitchell Corrigan (synths)
Nick Oakes (drums)

Longheads, Live at Longreel Studio

Longheads on Instagram

Longheads on Facebook

Longheads on Bandcamp

Longheads website