Black Market Karma – The Sixth Time Around

Wow, sometimes a pair of months seems like a long time to stay away from UK psych, is when I hear albums like Black Market Karma’s “The Sixth Time Around” when I wonder why I ever left at all.
Remembering back when I started give my definitive personal touch to wearethelastbeatniks and was snatching up everything psych in sight and throwing it on the blog, Black Market Karma was one project that really stuck out for me. Their 2011 first EP “All That I’ve Made” seemed to hit that perfect sweet spot of weird, shoegazy, lo-fi psych music before waves of other bands latched onto the sound and drove it into my brain. Listening to those four tracks even now dredges up a lot of odd feelings, really good feelings. Wow, the past.
Supersonic Mark is a really cool guy. He runs the London-based label Flower Power Records and I got to know him through those first releases that he did with Black Market Karma. Since then Supersonic has kept me up to date with everything the label has done.
So, last week he popped up out as of nowhere to let dropped his sixth Black Market Karma full length in the form of “The Sixth Time Around “.
If you don´t known BMK yet , they lists things like The Velvet Underground, The Beatles to the neo psychedelic music of the 80’s & 90’s like Jesus & Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine, Spacemen 3, Brian Jonestown Massacre. as his influences.
After hearing his work a few times,I’d say that they are all pretty obvious indeed, although I didn’t really heard much Jesus & Mary Chain or My Bloody Valentine off the bat,I did however hear a ton of VU, Spacemen and BJM.
So, The Sixth Time Around is a rather cerebral product that incorporate elements of garage,shoegaze, and psychedelia into their grimness, marking as one of the best unexpected comeback of 2015.
They start minimal percussive-looping down nicely,along with intense guitar-drone that glides along Stan breathy hushed vocal style.
On the third part is where the VU element comes into play proving that BMK can take on just about any role they are presented with,and do it with confidence.
From there their music is all over the map,mysterious and inventive, goes anywhere from minimal psych bumps on When The Sound Comes Slow to free-folk campfire vibes on Fourth Time Around naturally .
Maybe much of their charm comes from somewhere amongst the treble-soaked echoes and washes,with a grainy atmosphere swamping the songs.
You know , for downloads of band stuff simply just have to register in Flower Power Records and will have everything for free, ” Supersonic” Mark will take care of it …

Label:Flower Power Records
Format:16 × File, MP3, Album, 320 kbps
Country:UK
Released: 11 December 2015

Tracklist

1 The First Time Around 5:57
2 Timed Response 5:17
3 Coming Down and About 2:59
4 The Second Time Around 2:00
5 Jokerjam 6:14
6 When the Sound Comes Slow 6:13
7 The Third Time Around 3:29
8 Shakey Greetings 5:37
9 Mule Kick 6:01
10 The Fourth Time Around 1:51
11 Wherever You’d Like 4:40
12 At Either End (The Twin) 5:37
13 The Fifth Time Around 2:36
14 Always Everywhere 5:16
15 The Noise in Your Head 5:17
16 The Sixth Time Around 8:10