Laguna’s 'Sweetlips" is a fuzz drenched Psychedelic Rock gem
There’s something undeniably special about a track that feels like it was plucked straight from a long-lost reel of ‘60s acid rock and yet somehow radiates a modern pulse. With Sweetlips, James Guida, who’s the self-producing mastermind behind Geelong, Australia’s Laguna, pulls off that feat with effortless cool, crafting a fuzzy psych-rock anthem that sounds both timeless and undeniably fresh.
From the moment the first guitar tone hits your ears, you’re transported. The production is drenched in vintage warmth, a swirl of analog textures and reverb-soaked vocals that could be mistaken for a lost B-side from the Nuggets compilation. However, this isn’t retro cosplay rather Sweetlips carries a subtle modernity in its bones — a slightly sharper clarity, a knowing sense of how to pace nostalgia for a generation weaned on playlists and bedroom pop experiments.
Guida’s vocal delivery is lofi in all the right ways, floating through the heavier instrumentation. It’s ethereal and perfectly suited to the themes he so often navigates: rebellion, decay, the fragile threads between isolation and beauty. His voice doesn’t command the track so much as haunt it, weaving in and out of the kaleidoscopic wash of guitars and deep, undulating basslines.
The instrumentation here is textbook psychedelic rock but executed with an inventiveness that prevents it from ever feeling like cosplay. The electric guitars snarl and shimmer, their fuzzed-out textures bleeding into one another like watercolors on paper. The drums keep a steady, hypnotic pulse that are loose enough to feel alive, and tight enough to drive the track’s momentum. And that bassline? It’s pure muscle, thick, grounding the song’s trippier moments with a visceral energy.
Through his Mountain Girl Records imprint, Guida isn’t simply releasing tracks into the void, he’s cultivating a tactile, DIY community around this sound. At the center of it all is Laguna: a project that doesn’t just tip its hat to the golden era of psych rock, but actively channels its anarchic spirit while dragging it into new territory. Sweetlips is immersive, euphoric, and soaked in the kind of analog mystique that’s increasingly rare in a hyper-digitized music culture.
For fans of the genre, this is the good stuff — a track that respects its roots while refusing to stay buried in them. It’s a swirling, lofi head trip that leaves you wanting to hit repeat, dive deeper, and get blissfully lost in the fuzz. If Laguna keeps mining this vein, James Guida might just be the new face of Australia’s modern psych underground.
As lovers of the genre, we typically tend to judge a bit harder, but this hits so hard in the best way possible. Please go ahead and click those links below to immerse yourselves and pay attention for more!
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