Local Psycho is a cracking collaboration between KLF’s Jimmy Cauty, and The Pogues’ Jem Finer. Their debut release, The Hurdy Gurdy Song, lifts its title from the mediæval instrument, wielded by Jem, that gives the single its repetitive, reed / bagpipe-like riff. The original and Back To The 90s mixes are mad, banging EDM, whose drums resemble a frenzied free-jazz freak-out. Frantic barrages of hardcore and drum & bass. Reminders of when Extreme Noise Terror joined Cauty’s other outfit for a rousing rendition of What Time Is Love? at The Britts. That circling, scything, hurdy gurdy hook taking the top of anyone within range’s head clean off. The mysterious Mothers Of The New Stone Age slow the track right down, strip it back, and dub it out. Radically reimagining it as slo-mo gated, psychedelic, gear. Saucy siren-like sound effects, echoed shouts and chants, rattle its room-shaking boom, but it’s somehow, strangely, unexpectedly, meditative. Even managing to tame the hypnotic, churning hurdy-ing and gurdy-ing. 

The Stone Club Mix, though, steals the show. A 23 minute ambient epic, in sort of 3 parts, this begins with birdsong and low-end drone. Bleeps blinking like a busy life support system on the fritz. A sampled someone talks about tapping into the spirit of the land, and there are looped readings of ancient rites, doubled, tripled, in delay, as an initially intense ringing relaxes, transforms, into soft fuzzy frequencies. Then, 10 minutes in, a peep of chickens squawk, and soothing new age melodies start to surface. The voices are time-stretched into infinity, the ether, and things, subtly, subliminally, shift toward the serene. Given that Cauty’s involved, it’s hard not to make comparisons with The KLF’s baked landmark, Chill Out (or The Orb for that matter), but this ain’t quite as bucolic as that. Its buzz is more of a beast. More Midsommar magick than Ecstasy-fuelled trip. Attempting to summon something primordial. Something not exactly malevolent, but a force to be, if not feared, then respected. A superior, industrial strength, sonic narcotic, it should come with one of those warnings about not operating any machinery if under its influence. I was “deep” listening while driving, dictating review notes into my phone, and, by the end, I was heavy-lidded. Zone-ing out. Fighting to stay focused on the road. 

Local Psycho’s Hurdy Gurdy Song is out now on Heavenly Recordings.