Psych collective Mandrake Handshake turn on, tune in and drop out on “Gonkulator”

London neo-psych ensemble Mandrake Handshake draw on the billowing hookah-induced ether of early Pink Floyd coupled with Hawkwind’s cosmic transcendentalism, heady motifs that adorned recent astral-hopping number “Mandragora” as well as the sprawling acid-dropping space-rock of “Hypersonic Super-Asterid”.

The second track lifted from their upcoming debut EP, “Gonkulator” proves a cyclonic tour de force indebted to late '60s bohemia: a direction of travel supported through a dizzying order of gyrating guitars, glitch-tripping electronic pulses and bucolic flutes.

Stereolab’s Andy Ramsay affords an expansive production glint to the collective’s mind-melting mission, spearheaded via the rocketing dual bombast of lead singers Liv Duval and Trinity Oksana, uncannily replicating the supersonic vocal scale of Jefferson Airplane’s Grace Slick.

Highlighting the song’s all-out feel-good intent, the outfit proclaim: “This is our 3-minute party tune, but in swung 5/4 ‘cause who doesn’t love a good 5/4 groove!? It’s a song about sheer joy, happiness and freedom for two-and-a-half minutes - can’t be any longer because it’s too much otherwise!”