Pinkunoizu - The Drop (2013)

There's something so incredibly indulgent about listening to an album while doing nothing else. To turn off literally all other sensory inputs and just concentrate on the music is almost debauched. And while lying on the couch in the dark in an empty house with curtains shut and the volume turned up to picture frame-rattling volume with a blindfold on is how I like to enjoy Bolt Thrower and Sunn O))), not many other bands are accorded the same privileges. Fuck you late capitalism and middle age for insisting I always be doing three things at once - even when I'm enduring my five hours per night sleep, I'm usually working out how to pay bills while processing a catastrophically ill-judged supper of cheese and having a terrible nightmare all at the same time.

Luckily, several plane flights, a good pair of headphones and a dark hotel room have given me the ideal conditions to immerse myself fully in the new album The Drop, by psychedeclic pop group Pinkunoizu this week. The Danish four piece have already released a mini-album (Second Amendment) of note this year - only the excellent tracks 'Moped' (OOIOO-style J-psych) and 'Tin Can Valley' (faux Middle Eastern surf rock a la Devil's Anvil) appear on both. This is the proper follow-up to last year's Free Time! but is also their most assured, playful and satisfying release to date...-John Doran