Herbcraft announces new LP on Woodsist, hear a new track now

STREAM: “No Land” –

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Three years on from the initial Herbcraft blurt, this third Herbcraft LP sees a full blossoming of sonic seeds sown in previous wax transmissions. Once the isolationist bedroom-psych project of Matt Lajoie, the intervening years have found Herbcraft sprawling out in many different full-band incarnations-duo, trio, quartet, sextet-for tours and heady super-sessions at their HQ in Maine. The Astral Body Electric finds the most enduring lineup of the band at its peak: songs half-composed, half-improvised, and played with freewheeling first-take intensity. Recorded direct to tape by Doug Tuttle (Mmoss) in an 18th-century New England barn, the focus on analog recording techniques (spring reverb, tape delay, hands-on flange) captures the Herbcraft soundworld in its most-natural habitat. Matt’s unhinged electric guitar swirls around Dawn Aquarius’ wah’ed organ riffs, Nicholas Barker’s kosmische-inspired drums and synth, and Corinna Marshall’s trilled-out flute and circular bass, complete with nebulous groop vocals and auxiliary support from Doug and Aaron Neveu (Woods). “Aurally massaged” into the 4th dimension by Matt “MV” Valentine with his signature “Spectrasound” mastering technique, The Astral Body Electric is psychedelic, mantric, free-rock music for the mind and body, and the most expansive, fully-realized, and confident Herbcraft record yet.

(Photo by Sean Turley)

Press Quotes:

“… stunning navigation of druggy Matthew Valentine / Spectrasound-styled psychedelic folk, with a thick smoke of F/X masking some fantastic rural rock that at points sounds like a 90s underground take on Skip Spences Oar or a Dead bootleg on Majora. Either way this is a solid winner.”- David Keenan, Volcanic Tongue

“Meandering in the best possible way, Herbcrafts Road to Agartha sounds like it bloomed fully formed from a thick wall of weed smoke.”- Sam Hockley-Smith, FADER

“Pure psychedelic indulgence in the greatest of terms and a great extension of Lajoies work in Cursillistas.”-Raven Sings the Blues

“… blissed-out, bonged-to-the-eyeballs psych-rock of the highest calibre.”-Norman Records