Hardboiled Wonderland – Hardboiled

Psychonaut’s Loco Breath has a sort of industrial-indie guitar line at the start, picks up nice chug-factor, adds psychedelic nods in the shape pf an ozricsy, jethro tull-like flute, and mooches along quite happily. S.H.E.E.P.’s Hypnoelastic 22 is both hypnotic and – erm – elastic, a smooth 138bpm with a tight-as-hell Germanic feel to it. Think moody progressive slowly becoming more and more psychedelic as it goes along. Dancing Devil’s Down Under is delightfully psychedelic, with hilariously adorable guitars jostling alongside phasers-set-to-stun acidlines, though it manages to keep its lid on nicely, managing to not go too far through the roof but still peaking nicely. Dex’s After All is wonderful, a really original piece of moody progressive. It picks up some slices of oldskool melody, then slides effortlessly into a sort of 80s-tinged phase before relaxing back on its phased, philtered psychedelic backbone with a hint of the sinister coming up over the backend. Infinite from Lifeline Interruption is another corker, and a new name on me. Where to begin?? It’s all about the combination of melody and gnarly bottomend, and the melody at the top is so drenched in depth and reverb it almost sounds like it’s suspended way above your head. The way it drops in from the breakdown into the final run is sheer class, an explosion of energy that just makes you want to listen to it again, except louder. Fucking class. Dancing Devil’s Dark Angel is all about layered guitars, and believe me there’s loads of them – initially, there’s two and they’re slightly out of tune so they sounds nicely psychedelic in a Grateful Dead or Pavement kind of way. Then a crunchy, deep heavy metal monster comes in and dominates the low end, with dancing melodies on top and a proper Sun Project moment later, it escalates again, before falling out of tune once more and fading away. Blimey. Astart’s On The Wave is a classy, airy piece of proggy fullon, moving along nicely and gathering sounds and textures as it goes… with a sort of muddly, bubbly bottom end making it a little more psychedelic than straight progressive trance. Meller’s Baby is a lovely piece of psychedelic house, utterly adorable in a kinda pornographic disco way. Evidently the product of a very deranged mind, its detuned melody is what it’s all about… this simply does it for me, it appeals to the weird and the humorous parts of the brain in equal, mischievous measures. Hardy Heller’s Think About is sheer genius, and has everything you want in an industrial-tinged progressive track. Subtle, it picks up energy along the way, never gaining too much momentum so it sits there perfectly with melodies balanced against stabs against cute little rhythmic changes. Finally HUM’s Fields of Sunflowers eases back to earth at psyreviews’ currently-favoured tempo 130bpm. It’s a relaxed, easy-going pattern of acid and the pads that drive the melody are nothing short of sublime. All in all, Hardboiled Wonderland is a hell of a surprise from a little section of the German scene so underground even you haven’t heard of it. This is most definitely worth a look, as there’s enough variety at a consistent quality here to keep pretty much anyone entertained. Nice.