Drinks deliver beautiful off the cuff psych on 'Hermits On Holiday' LP

There was always a chance that Tim Presley (of White Fence) and Cate Le Bon could end up writing music together when she moved to LA and joined his touring band, yet 'Hermits On Holiday' is far from a head-on collision of Presley's poetic lo-fi experimental psych and Le Bon's adroit and charming folk-rock sound. Their collaborative LP as Drinks feels calculated and measured, yet completely off the cuff and improvisational.

'Focus On The Street' is an urgent, repetitive burst of post-punk which periodically descends into a melting pot of jarring and jagged guitar drones as Presley's vocals come through a lot clearer as they might on a White Fence record. The lead vocals on the record are shared pretty equally, with the pair rarely harmonising. When they do, on warped Krautrock gem 'Cannon Mouth', it's to great effect.

It becomes clear pretty immediately on the record that Drinks write free, experimental psych rock. At its wildest it almost sounds like Dirty Three, but it will always find its way back to some kind of surrealist melody. Nick Murray's (White Fence, Thee Oh Sees, Ty Segall & White Fence) drumming is hugely responsible for ensuring that Drinks never wander too far into the experimental to stop this being a wonderfully catchy record. His ability to probe at psych rock's blurred frontiers with Tim and Cate before injecting a pulse into a song, as on the winding 'Spill The Beans' is a key part of what makes Drinks tick. Speaking of ticking, the title track is pretty much a perfect single for this record. All the signs of the improvised guitar lines and playful songwriting are there, encapsulated beautifully and melodically in under three and a half minutes. On the contrary, the standout track for me is the menacingly lo-fi psychedelic masterpiece that is 'Tim, Do I Like That Dog?'. A recording of the pair playing a game in which Tim guesses whether or not Cate likes dogs that they pass plays above a thick wall of Krautrock drumming and seemingly endless guitar solos, it could well be Les Rallizes Dénudés with Jaki Liebezit on drums, a fitting testament both to their friendship and unrivalled ability to go from sweet pop songs about feeding animals to chaotic and abrasive psychedelic soundscapes.

Tim Presley has written consistently great songs throughout his career with his Darker My Love output, as well as his collaboration with Ty Segall and six White Fence records, as has Cate Le Bon with her three studio albums, and that's the one of few ways in which you can call their first record as Drinks no different. Heavenly Recordings celebrates its 25th birthday with quite possibly its strongest release yet.

19/20

'Hermits On Holiday' is available to buy here

by Marty Hill