Saffron Sect

Toronto’s the Saffron Sect comes a-lilting through the outer recesses of your mind with psychedelic pop and folk melodies dripping like the sweetest candy and whimsically disorienting flourishes a-gushing with flashes of enlightenment. Reminiscent of the golden psych-pop era of the mid-to-late ’60s, this four-piece (led by Gaven Dianda, previously a member of power-poppers the Flashing Lights and cult favourites Thee Gnostics) draw a little more from the British side of the psychedelic tide, with moments here and echoes there recalling Syd Barrett’s days with Pink Floyd, Donovan’s afternoons hosting love-ins in the sun, and Pentangle’s nights spent worshipping medieval gods and spirits of nature. The band’s debut EP, Phosphorous Flash comes to you as an edition of 500 hand-silk-screened daddies, and within its golden inks are one brief, swelling introduction and five cheerfully inspired songs that will be sure to leave you wanting another dose of mystic fancy. The Saffron Sect specialise in masterfully filling out their sound and visions with instruments as diverse as crumhorn, jugs, mandolin, dulcimer, recorders and even some gong. Light trips of fancy for the slightly skewed reality orbiting us all.