THE JOURNAL
Bacurau (2019). Photograph courtesy of MUBI
It’s a fool’s errand to predict the future. But you don’t need to consult the tarot to sense that the 2020s are going to be pretty far out. The signs are there already: fashion has its freak on; politics is of the mind-bending variety. And culture chimes directly with this psychedelic vibe, which is why we’ve dedicated our spring update to all things round the bend. It’s time to get seriously weird.
Events
Golden Plains Festival 2019, Australia. Photograph by Mr Steve Benn, courtesy of Golden Plains Festival
Golden Plains
Held just outside Melbourne, Golden Plains is Australia’s most idiosyncratic festival and is so chill there are slots in the schedule for silence and sunset. On the bill are Pixies, Hot Chip, Stereolab and Electric Fields.
**7-9 March **
Tucson Gem and Mineral Show
Some 60,000 people might flock to the Tucson Gem Show in Arizona to trade in stones, fossils and crystalline structures, but more often than not they are really there for the sorceresses, tarot readers and tie-dye merchants who provide the real fun.
3-16 February
Consciousness Hacking at Esalen
The Esalen Institute at Big Sur, California, is a pilgrimage site for creatives, offering a chance to get away from tech with a drop-down, drop-out menu including Consciousness Hacking and more.
Consciousness Hacking: Meditation + Technology Workshop, 28 February to 1 March; Being In The Body: Enneagram And Inner Work Retreat, 1-6 March
LSD And The Future Of Medicine at SXSW
The annual arts showcase at Austin, Texas, features new films and music but all eyes this year will be on a presentation of the findings of the first large-scale controlled study of the use of psychedelics, including LSD and psilocybin, for the treatment of depression and alcoholism.
15 March
Music
From left: The Slow Rush by Tame Impala. Image courtesy of Caroline Records. Masana Temples by Kikagaku Moyo. Image by Ms Phannapast Taychamaythakool courtesy of Kikagaku Moyo
The Slow Rush by Tame Impala
Australian five-piece Tame Impala, led by Mr Kevin Parker, have gone from shoegazing stoners to festival favourites, with a knack for instigating seriously psychedelic crowd scenes. This new record is the follow-up to 2015’s Currents.
Out 14 February
Mr Tommy Cash
Estonian rapper Mr Tommy Cash’s influences include Soviet kids’ cartoons, novelty 1990s records and sex, drugs and American hip-hop. Mix all this together and you get a freakish blend of sound and vision that, if you want to check him out live, can be done at his one gig announced so far this year.
Atlas, Kiev, Ukraine, 27 February
Kikagaku Moyo
Tokyo five-piece Kikagaku Moyo are the most psychedelic rock band on the planet, deploying wah-wah guitars, sitar drone and trippy lyrics to whacked-out effect.
Neck Of The Woods, Auckland, New Zealand, 28 February
Film
Mr Ben Whishaw in Little Joe (2019). Photograph courtesy of BFI
Little Joe
The healing power of plants takes a disturbing turn in this Austrian sci-fi from director Ms Jessica Hausner, whereby a plant with mood-altering pollen unleashes havoc. This has a whiff of Invasion Of The Body Snatchers and a drop of Mr David Cronenberg’s visceral style.
Out 21 February
Bacurau
Co-directors Mr Kleber Mendonça Filho and Mr Juliano Dornelles go stir-crazy in the Brazilian outback with this fever dream about a human safari that rapidly descends into an all-out bloodbath. Sound bonkers? The Jury Prize winner at Cannes, it’s inspired by Brazilian politics.
Out 13 March
Books
From left: Bad Island by Mr Stanley Donwood. Image courtesy of Penguin Random House. The Great Pretender by Ms Susannah Cahalan. Image courtesy of Canongate Books
Bad Island By Mr Stanley Donwood
Radiohead’s dystopian mood was always complemented by artwork from in-house design guru Mr Stanley Donwood, a graphic novelist whose latest is a brilliantly executed, stark parable about the end of the world.
Out 13 February (Hamish Hamilton)
The Great Pretender By Ms Susannah Cahalan
Ms Susannah Cahalan’s new book on a controversial investigation into US psychiatric diagnoses of the 1970s is a deep dive into dodgy methodology and the nature of madness and casts doubt on some of the accepted results of the original report.
Out now (Canongate)