BUTTHOLE SURFERS Vinilo y CD

Review: Originally released in 1984 by Touch & Go Records, Psychic was the startling debut album by a then largely unknown Butthole Surfers. And it laid out their stall pretty convincingly, with elements that nodded to the psychedelia implied in the title, but the record largely rooted in more 'traditional' punk sounds, the emerging surf-skate scene, and, to a lesser extent, country rock. Listening back now, and the collection has lost little of its original impact. From the moment you hit play, you know this is going to be an uncompromising and unstoppable assault on the senses, throwing weird effects, cunning tape edits, samples of Spanish radio stations, spit and (probably) blood into the mix. A reminder of a much more visceral and unleashed time in the history of music, to revisit is both joy and lamentation.