Demos

The Transpersonals - Hey Yeah Come On

Owain Paciuszko 16/05/2010

Rating: 2/5

Self-consciously psychedelic rock from Bristol based three piece; opening track The Girl Was Never There sounds very much like a cousin of Donovan's Hurdy Gurdy Man with the sheen of Kula Shaker - this vibe drips through onto second track Nothing, with Eastern-influenced guitars and layer vocals creating a dream-like sound typical of the genre. Sure, this band can do psych-pop well, but what they do well has been done better elsewhere. A pseudo-rap section finds the band getting dangerously close to sounding like Butterfly by Crazy Town, which is something even Crazy Town should have avoided.

Further awkward rap vibes infect The Spirit Molecule, and it's not that hip-hop and psychedelia shouldn't mix, it's that this isn't the right mix. The track meanders along an organ-driven track, throwing in some spoken samples that start to push things into Mr. Scruff territory. A story that draws the track to a close discusses Terence McKenna, the late American philosopher whose Stoned Ape and novelty theory ideas are infinitely more fascinating than this track which loses momentum fast. Fortunately the title track Hey Yeah Come On has a nice vibe, echoing vocals creating a pleasingly creepy and lucid soundscape, but aside from some escalation in the drumming and a light drone there's little else going on in this track to push it beyond being a reasonably diverting little groove.

Closing track Everytime begins with a stammered call of 'I Love You' over light piano and jazzy drumming that, alongside the falsetto, makes this unavoidably comparable to the kind of optimism tinged with the bittersweet done so well by The Polyphonic Spree. But, whilst this is the most successful track on the record, it doesn't reach the dizzying highs that it strives for, feeling - no pun intended - impersonal.

This sophomore EP is a soggy record, ideas seem borrowed or unfinished and it lacks the carefree, buoyant excitement of its title.