ø The art of psychedelia is something that may seem like an easy thing to accomplish, but it’s something that is so fantastically hard to pull off in a way that can be considered anywhere that can be called even half masterful. When I heard Arcadian Child a few years ago, I couldn’t shake the feeling that this act out of Cyprus had great potential in absolute spades, and it’s with every inch of their newest offering that is “Protopsycho” that the band has done so much more than come into their own.

It’s a slow burn where something like this is by far the most effective, and, even then, that’s a technique that requires so much talent to do well, and to incorporate it into music is something else entirely. There are very few styles where a slow burn is more tantalizing than psychedelic rock, and if you ever needed an example (as if the style isn’t overflowing with examples) then Arcadian Child has made an album filled with eight pieces of prime real estate for just what exactly the style is capable of becoming in the right hands. With each offering, “Protopsycho” proceeds to get more and more intrinsic as Arcadian Child continuously shows us what they’re really made of as we’re granted a large swathe of what makes psychedelic rock the powerhouse that it still is today, and I cannot help but feel immensely swayed by what has been accomplished here. In every minute, we’re bathed in the golden light which Arcadian Child crafts with both saint-like patience and godly precision with each track playing off each other gloriously such that “Protopsycho” is constantly building off itself without a shred of difficulty as if we needed any more proof that what’s being done here was made by true masters of a craft that can never have enough glory. Surely, this is just the beginning of Arcadian Child truly coming into their own as the past few years have been slowly building up to this release, but I cannot shake the feeling that there are even bigger and even better things on the horizon for this act that will leave “Protopsycho” in the dust even if it’s tremendous in its own right.

The realm of psychedelic rock is something that is never lacking in exceptional acts no matter what time period we’re talking about, and I cannot help but feel that Arcadian Child is quickly becoming one of the need to know names of the style in our time without exception. Everything about what they’ve done before has been worthy of investigation by all accounts, but it’s single-handedly with “Protopsycho” that the band has not just come into their own but shown to us that they are clear and true masters of the craft that are, surely, not going to stop providing golden glory any time soon.

LISTEN to “Protopsycho” on Bandcamp here.

LIKE Arcadian Child on Facebook here.