Swirling Soundscapes & Subtle Hooks: Evolfo’s ‘Of Love’ Finds the Sonic Sweet Spot (ALBUM REVIEW)

The seven-piece psych-rock outfit Evolfo returns with the most relaxed, mind-expanding album of their career, Of Love. The Ridgewood, Queens-based players sifted through hundreds of hours of jams developed in their new studio to piece together the thirteen swirling tracks presented here. 

The group, Ben Adams – Guitar, Synthesizer, Vocals, Matthew Gibbs – Guitar, Vocals, Ronnie Lanzilotta – Bass, Dave Palazola – Drums, Kai Sorensen – 12-String Guitar, Rafferty Swink – Keyboards, Sound Manipulation, Vocals, and Jared Yee – Saxophone, took the last few years to build a studio and work out their relaxed, hive mind jamming style. Produced, engineered, and mixed by Swink, Evolfo took full control of their sound, which never moves into jamband or prog territory, but rather tinkers on the edges of pop perception. 

The record opens with two short, superfluous numbers, “Am I the Butterfly” and “City Mind,” that feature chanting vocals tough to pin down amid echoing layers of sound. The group comes into better focus on the album highlight “Rest Your Head on the Stone”. The smooth psych rock eases out into stratified layers that mesh and flow like a rainbow river.   

Gone are the days of their ‘rat rock’ youth. Of Love sounds very far removed from the off-kilter garage tunes of their debut and is much more in line with Site Out of Mine, aiming for a full-length collective psychedelic experience. The vibe sounds like Khruangbin hanging out with Syd Barrett, especially on efforts like the slowly swelling “Restless Seed,” which pulses and is echo-laden, with ominous pop hints flowing throughout.

“Silver Dog” is heavily inspired by Captain Beefheart, while “Anywhere But Here” is a sonic collage with modern jazz touches. The acoustic-based psych-folk effort “Adrian” at the heart of the album threatens to drift into blandness but is saved by an end-of-song shift towards warbling static-laced rock that kicks the energy up. “Detach” is a bit motoring, but the group is much more comfortable zoning out these days.

The album ends with a run of these songs via the la-la-la laced “Under The Eye Of The World”, the slight groove of the philosophically bent “Modern Prometheus”, the warbling R&B adjacent “Aquarian Blue”, the bubbling/babbling oddball “The Committee”, and the breezy exhaling closer “Wandering Wondering”. 

Very Flaming Lips in flavor, Evolfo keeps the extended jams at bay but still manages to infuse their psych-rock with a lot of hallucinogenic elements throughout the hazy Of Love.