Bichkraft Tighten Up Laconic Psychedelia on ‘Ashley’

You can’t tell by listening, but Shadoof, Kiev four-piece Bichkraft’s second LP, was recorded in a sort of studio lean-to: an auditory environment hodgepodged together with old winter coats, classical LPs, Soviet-era refrigerators and other debris. For all intents and purposes, “Ashley” is the band’s first professionally recorded material available, the result of a fruitful analog session at Brooklyn’s KUTCH-1 studio, along with five other new originals. Return listeners will find similarities between “Ashley” and Shadoof. The song traffics in more of the laconic psychedelia emblematic of the band’s sophomore LP, albeit tighter, clocking in just a tick over the four-minute mark. Like the rest of the band’s output, the intricate jazz-influenced rhythm section is helmed by a drum machine, but on “Ashley,” the automation not only frees up the band, but aids in making them sound both bigger and more focused than ever.