Sweaty riffs and tie-dyed pandemonium: Melbourne’s Beans drop psychedelic ‘Boots N Cats’
The Australian band share their third album.
Photo: Danysha Harriott
Beans put out Calling from their new album just a month or so ago, but such was its strength it left us wanting more. Well, the full album — Boots N Cats — is here, released last Friday via Fuzz Club Records. Is it worth all the dreamy, psychedelic hype? In a word, yes. Yes, it is.
The whole record feels like a descent into the (eleven, here) circles of Hell, laid bare in sonic form. Beans’ latest packs those levels of chaos, experimentalism and exploration into the vast unknown, whilst proving effortlessly delectable and tempting for all the senses. If the fallen angel had this one on the turntable, Virgil would be clawing for the ladder down.
I hate to keep drawing comparisons between Beans and another Aussie psych powerhouse, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, but the link’s not without merit, especially when a lot of people might know these boys through the latter’s blood ties – Beans frontman Matt Blach plays drums for The Murlocs, also boasting a couple of Gizz founders.
Boots N Cats is a weird, wonderful acid-trip of an album. Tracks like Toxic News and Kookaburra are straight out of Gizzard’s Flying Microtonal Banana, one of their best albums by a country mile.
Meanwhile, there’s neurotic groove-rock a-plenty in anthems like Silhouette and Dreaming Daisy – the latter of which is a Stone Roses-esque slice of psychedelic fuzz. Calling, which we reviewed previously, is still the best moment on the whole album, rich with swagger and acid-drenched cool.
The whole thing is rounded out with garage staples like Haunted, Strung Along and One to Four, which at times blend the lines between psych rock and outright metal. There’s a lot of fuzz, plenty of crunch and no shortage of bite in Beans’ third studio album. Even its final track, the strangely muzak-inflected Casio Casino, stays on the right side of restless.
I could go on for hours, but I’d rather just keep listening to this instead. It’s a hectic record, with roots in the era of Covid-19 lockdowns; that sense of chaos only adds to the trippy concoction. Boots N Cats is a garage-psych headbanger’s wet dream, more addictive than any tab.
Boots N Cats is out now via Fuzz Club.