LEOLIPS – Isthmus (2025, Digital / Bandcamp, Self-Release) 

RELEASE INFO:

Label: Self-Release

Format: Digital / Bandcamp

Release Date: 2 Jan 2025

Behind the enigmatic name Leolips, is the multi-instrumentalist Leonardo Panelli, who lives in Pisa, Italy, and likes to experiment in music, trying to externalize all his “visions”. There’s no further info on him, except a few digital tracks on his Bandcamp page, a solo album called “Bardo” released in April 2024, and a few lines:

“Sound visions, often obsessive and confidential, indebted to sounds internalized over time.

Played and assembled in a modest home studio.

Independent.”

“Isthmus” is a new album by Leolips, consisting of 9 tracks, and in general, the music here can be described as Psychedelic, blending rock, acid, folk, psych, and new wave… The album starts in the most trippy way with “Islands”, the scenery is dark, full of mystery, mind-bending, slow, with a serene hallucinogenic atmosphere and whispering hypnotically trippy vocals. “A Rising Awakening” literally dives into the Middle Eastern cosmology, the scenery has changed, remaining, though slow and trippy, there’s a lysergic beat, some spacey effects, and an addictive Psych guitar sound that, after a while, becomes improvised with an experimental mood, the flirt with Acid Psychedelia is more than obvious while the use of some Paramahansa Yogahanda’s speech adds a mysterious late 60s acidly drenched Psychedelic edge making the whole thing here, a Mind Expander! “Breathe” is a cool balladesque track, soft and mellow, with a poppy edge. It is a song that gives you the feel of a film theme by Tarantino and Morricone, composed by both! The self-titled “Isthmus” is another slow track, the atmosphere is dark, foggy, acoustic, and psych-flirting a bit, making it sound like a lost Pink Floyd ballad from the 80s. “Nothing” is an 84-second acoustic psych-folkie interlude, while “A Better Time” is New Age Psychedelia, trippy and vibrating, with a magical ghostly atmosphere, a rather weird-a-delic track that probably could fit in “Murder Ballads”. “Contact” is another strangely orchestrated track but with an irresistible Psych attraction, psychedelically folkie, acoustically trippy, mind-bending for sure… A lovely Bedroom Psych tune! “Exhibition” has acoustic guitar, the soundscape is slow and serene, while the track acts like a guitar fingering Psych exercise! The album comes to an end with “I Saw Something That’s Not There”, the scenery has by now become dark, still slow, deeply PSYCH-effected, this is an acoustic ballad with eerie and somehow “distant” vocals, a bit creepy, I must say… In conclusion, “Isthmus” is one of these underrated albums that all you Psych-seekers out there will “accept” with joy. Leolips, is a kind of “loner”, making psych-related music at his modest home studio… “Isthmus” is full of beautiful musical ideas, Psychedelia is there for sure, and I will be longing for his next move… TimeLord Michalis   

Tracklist

Links

Listen / Buy through LEOLIPS Bandcamp

Check LEOLIPS YOUTUBE