Review Summary: Excellent take on classic psychedelia from this Greek duo.
Musicians and music fans in certain European countries tend to favor some music genres more than others. Like in Italy, the prog rock tradition seems to be quite strong, while in Greece it seems to be all things and variations that have something to do with psych rock. But it would be a misconception that it is some kind of resurgence, it just seems to be part of modern music tradition.
So it is in a way no wonder that the Athens duo The Noise Figures, as evidenced on their third album, Telepath come through as some sort of psych rock traditionalists, keepers of the flame started way back in 1965-66, with their sound being based on fuzz garage of US bands like Count Five, but even more so the British psych tradition of 1967-68, championed by the first two Pink Floyd albums and a multitude of bands that developed that sound at the time.
If you would make some more current comparisons, try the British psych underground champions like Dead Flowers, or the new Australian psych wave lead by Tame Impala and King Gizzard and the Wizard Lizard.
But sticking to something that you can call ‘traditional sound’, does not have to have negative connotations, and in the case of George Nikas and Stamos Samaris, it certainly doesn’t. The duo seems to eat, drink and breathe psych and the stuff seems to be flowing through their bloodstream now. Yes, tracks like “Strange Medium Child” and “Stay Forever Young” sound like they could have been recorded in 1967, 1987 or a few weeks ago, but they do have a flow and identity of their own, and so does the whole “Telepath” album.
Lyrically, the guys seem to have worked with an integral concept which fits perfectly into the psych mind mode, but it is their overall sound that is quite impressive and satisfying. Of course, some listeners will complain that they have heard it all before, but if you are a psych head that still remembers fondly the print edition of the cult psych fanzine “Ptolemaic Terrascope” (it still functions online!), The Noise Figures and their Telepath album are certainly for you (and me).
