Vigorous, that’s how The Birch can be described best. Driving riffs, punchy rhythms and all suited in psychedelic sonority, they create an atmosphere of pure ecstasy. With their sound, the three musicians from Quedlinburg, Germany send their crowd on a spiritual journey of long lost centuries, though never indulge but face themselves the current spirit of time. New album Vicious Mind is a dive into modern psych rock. With its seven tracks, it offers a rather dark side of the bands music on side A, which dissolves in the softer, more rocknroll side B. With a trip abroad, The Birch found themselves recording their second studio album in Miami Beach, giving them a new twist from their impressions collected in the land of the free.Twangy guitars and a rhythm section going straight forward takes the listener to psychedelic soundscapes while being kept alive by an ongoing beat, following you through the 30 minutes of Vicious Mind. Pablo Manresa’s key playing builds a constant carpet of warm Hammond organ or Ragtime Piano. Most significant is the string arrangement in Downpour, which creates a new facet of the Band’s sound. The Birch knows how to develop. Not only is this album a new milestone for the band’s discography, it’s an example how to give it a retro feel without being retro. New album Vicious Mind fits our time, it’s not a look back.