Young Marco Sterk and John Moods have teamed up as the somewhat ominously monikered, Dead Sound. The name might be wink to The Grateful Dead, since their album, Into The void, is a psychedelic song suite. Their music and words guiding you in and out of a short but intense trip. Have your incense, candles and / or lava lamp at the ready.

The opening couple of numbers are calming, hypnotic, only hinting at the nocturnal ritual to come. Pure Blue’s tribal bass drum thumps, but not threateningly. It’s focus instead on wisps of flute and woodwind, and soft, vocoder vocals. On The Illusion, Moods’ love lorn lyrics suggest some privately-pressed singer-songwriter shot into the future. Fragile and strange, while Sterk adds an aura of percussive shimmer to the song’s edges. The closing two tracks are also ballads. From The Perspective Of A Stone is piano-led, while the angelic pop of A New Kind Of Love rides racing electronic arpeggios.

In between, however, is another story. As Moods says in the press release “Do not skip the darkness, let that door open and swallow you. And maybe you’ll find it’s not as you perceived at first”, and he’s perfectly right, since the scariest moments here are, I think, the most interesting. Force Of Nature is a murmured multi-tracked mantra bound to a banging dance beat. A plugged-in progressive raga. Beguiling and bewitching listeners with its subliminal 6-string details, which spin and stretch backwards. Into The Void itself is a big, buzzing, distorted fanfare. Beatless and built from dark twists of synth and guitar. The music morphing and moving through shadow toward some sort of epiphany and the light. The following Eye In Disguise, in stark contrast, consists of pretty acoustic picking and choirboy harmonies. This juxtaposition of technology and tradition made me think of `70s folk horror scores. A sense of something uncanny, that’s underlined by the caw of sampled crows.

Coming Home is the record at it most “easy” and accessible. Groovy,. Busy but bucolic. Lullaby-like, it surfs a gently rolling rhythm. Serenaded by ethereal exclamations and rocked by tiny euphoric explosions.

Dead Sound’s Into The Void can be ordered directly from Music From Memory.