Sugar Candy Mountain

Helping to spearhead a revival of neo-psychedelic pop, California's Sugar Candy Mountain emerged in the early 2010s fusing sunny, retro sounds with lush, sophisticated composition. Ranging from lo-fi experimentation to vibrant Tropicália, early releases like 2013's Mystic Hits soon gave way to a brighter, synth-driven brand of psych-pop on 2018's Do Right. Sugar Candy Mountain's evolution continued with their eclectic fifth album, Impression, in 2021.

The band initially began in 2010 as the recording project of Oakland-based musician Will Halsey. From early on, his partnership with collaborator <a href="spotify:artist:3hQLnPzxBMmBxk3eazSgS3">Ash Reiter</a> yielded a unique sound blending classic '60s West Coast psychedelia with pastoral folk and pulling inspiration from pop experimentalists like Brazil's <a href="spotify:artist:5C0gCCG8N5Dh5dZytIgzLX">Os Mutantes</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:16eRpMNXSQ15wuJoeqguaB">the Flaming Lips</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:4Q82S0VzF8qlCb4PnSDurj">Brian Wilson</a>. The band's self-titled 2011 debut drew largely from Halsey's early, more lo-fi recordings. By the time of 2013's Mystic Hits, Sugar Candy Mountain had evolved into a fully fledged live group with Halsey and <a href="spotify:artist:3hQLnPzxBMmBxk3eazSgS3">Reiter</a> at the helm. The album also expanded on their Brazilian influences and was partially recorded in São Paulo. For their follow-up, they recorded in San Francisco with <a href="spotify:artist:5fN7QZumpTbySswZyiWKXn">Papercuts</a> frontman Jason Quever. The album, 666, arrived in the summer of 2016 via <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22PIAPTK+Records%22">PIAPTK Records</a>. Working again with Quever, Sugar Candy Mountain took a more modern approach with 2018's Do Right, layering in vibrant synths alongside their more organic instrumentation. Following the hazy standalone 2019 single "In My Own World," the group wrote much of their next album during a prolonged 2020 camping trip while escaping the devastating wildfires raging around their home state. Released in 2021, Impression introduced deep '70s grooves and Krautrock influences into Sugar Candy Mountain's already eclectic sound. ~ Timothy Monger, Rovi