Kicking off this year’s reviews on Strange Things Are Happening we have a very cool EP from Italian band The Hacienda who have been based in London for the last couple of years. Judging by the Anglophile sound of their self-titled EP, moving to England to make music has been the perfect place to explore their Northern Soul, Rock and Psychedelia influences and have released a record full of dreamy melodies, wild riffs and groovy rhythms that would be not out of place amongst the Manchester/Liverpool psychedelic scenes (the band’s name has been…….err……..borrowed from the legendary Manchester club). They already have heavy friends in the North with Liverpool designer/film maker Dominic Foster creating the video for the track ‘North Pole’ (watch it here…….it’s a total headswirler!!) and Ian Skelly (The Coral/Serpent Power) putting the artwork together for the record cover.
There is no denying who The Hacienda’s influences are………….they sound loads like The Coral, which is not a bad thing, and Oasis when they attempt to turn their hand to Beatlesque psychedelia, which is possibly a little more debatable. However they are not just a bunch of post Brit Pop copyists but do bring something of their own to the psychedelic party which you can also hear. Although the opening track ‘Indian Love’ has a hint of “Oasis do Revolver”, The Hacienda swirl it up more than enough to make it very groovy and while you are possibly not going to dig this if you are a psychedelia purist, it’s the kinda heady music that will get girls dancing plus the track has a very dreamy, very far out coda. The majority of the EP has the vibe of the early, poppier Coral records mixed with more of a classic 60s Mod/Soul groove that the better Brit Pop bands mined ……….. ‘She's Mine As The Sun’ and ‘Too Late’ are both absolute ass shaking floor fillers. The Hacienda EP is a cool little five tracker that you don’t have to be ripped off your tits to enjoy…..it’s very groovy, sharp, danceable Psychedelic Pop music that British bands used to make.
Released on 12” vinyl by Black Candy Records and also available as a digital download, you can find a copy at the Black Candy on line store or from The Hacienda’s merch page. Alternatively you can see if your local vinyl emporium can order you a copy. The digital download is available from the band’s Bandcamp page at https://thehacienda.bandcamp.com/releases where you can also stream the tunes.
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