Named for the type of webs weaved by spiders who were fed flies laced with LSD (they were said to have been "lazily spun"), this quartet has been honing their craft for nearly a decade (John (Stone Roses) Squire and Clint (Inspiral Carpets) Boon were early fans), although this is their official debut full length, following a 7" on Earworm ("Double B-Side EP") that gained airplay on John Peel's Radio 1 [U.K.] programme and a widely distributed demo tape recorded back in 1996. The album includes tracks from all phases of their career, from the lengthy, cotton-mouthed, esoteric and avant garde psychedelia of earlier tracks like "Blue Mask of Pan" and "Psurreality Psong" (featuring ex-members, guitarist Anshu Asthan and tabla player Sandeep Singh) to the more recent pop sheen, which benefits from founding guitarist/vocalist Matt Woolham's commendable songwriting skills.
After a slow beginning (although "New Kneads" sounds remarkably like an outtake from an early Matt Keating album), things pick up immeasurably on "Neither Dreaming," a mellow synth-driven mood enhancer highlighted by some tasty guitar licks from Juan Bercial-Velez. The intricate guitar interplay on "Cubic Zirconia Smile"—swirling acoustic from one speaker, southern-fried twang from the other recall the fine work of Quicksilver Messenger Service and Help Yourself or 80s guitar gods, Felt and The Chameleons. The punny name games continue on "Doziac Escapes" (an anagram for "zodiac?") and the song itself is a melting pot of styles, from medieval wyrdfolk a la Incredible String Band and Gryphon, to phased backward guitars, sitars, mellotrons, autoharp and assorted "weird Chinese shit" (as Anton Newcomb classifies his Brian Jonestown Massacre's ephemeral instrumentation). My beloved mellotron also graces "Halcyon Days," a navel-gazing, progy suite of moods and emotions, complete with the sound effect of a needle scratching across a record to wake you up if you get too far into your rumination. (The effect reminds me of a similar stunt from an earlier Camera Obscura release—Salamander's Birds of Appetite.)
The noisy fuzzfest, "Big Laughing Gym" borrows its title from a psychedelic mushroom (Bardo Pond used the same mycological reference as the title of an early compilation album) and the track may intimate what the Bardos would sound like on 'shrooms. "Sea of Me" is a gentle, psychy folk ballad complete with the sound of a cool, bubbling brook running through it (or is that the sound of another bong hit?), and "Non-Ionic Surfactants" (dictionary, please!?!) is a tasty, hard-driving rocker in the style of Abunai!, Alchemysts, and, particularly, Lucky Bishops.
The 15-minute centerpiece, "Psurreality Psong" is psurely the track folks will be talking about in hushed, reverential tones at "Anniversary Party"-type gatherings amongst the underground cognoscenti. It's actually a pastiche of several tracks from Lazily Spun's demo tape that has previously made the rounds among collectors. As with most songs of this ilk, an altered state of consciousness will greatly improve its reception. Teetotalers and weed-wackers may find it boring and pretentious, but fans of Hapshash & The Coloured Coat, Cary Loren's Destroy All Monsters and Nightcrawlerz projects, The Imaginary Tapes, Olivia Tremor Control, and other remnants of the Elephant (6) graveyard may enjoy the clever cardboard cut-ups.
Things come to a heady close with Sumnall's "Blue Mask of Pan," which was actually the name of a brief side project he worked on during Lazily Spun's downtime. "Pan" closely approximates the sound of whales fucking with the TV on in the background, playing a soundtrack full of bells, whistles, sitars, tamboura, theremin, and moans and groans that will fascinate fans of White Noise, Buzzy Linhart's Seventh Sons (Frank's at 4 A.M. is essential listening) and Delia Derbyshire's work at the BBC Sound Effects Workshops.
Overall, a varied work that occasionally takes a kit(s)chen (out-of-)sync approach and tries too hard to please too many tastes at once. Not uncommon for debuts, particularly when recorded with different personnel over a three year period. But it scores more often than not and is recommended to the more discerning psych heads among our readers.
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