Why Is the Colour of the Sky?

If it wasn’t already, Australia’s position as the new centre of the psychedelic universe is surely confirmed by Bananagun’s second long player, Why Is The Colour Of The Sky? (their question mark, not ours). The Melbourne outfit’s 2020 debut, The True History Of Bananagun, served up a heady brew of freak-fried psych and frenetic Afrobeat, but here they’ve opened their third eyes even wider to encompass an entire history of mind-altering music. From the mannered whimsy of post-Pepper psychedelic pop to astral plane-traveling space jazz, thunderous krautrock, wobbly Tropicalia, gnarled acid folk and beyond, it’s all swept up in these ten, fleet-footed songs. Miraculously, given the stylistic plates spinning throughout, it all holds together magnificently, thanks in no small part to the prodigious skills of drummer Jimi Gregg.