Les Big Byrd

Les Big Byrd formed in Stockholm in 2011 around Joakim Åhlund, previously of the Swedish band Caesars. The group works in a krautrock-derived idiom — steady motorik drumming, repeating bass figures and layers of analogue synthesiser and guitar haze — with vocals often buried in the mix as another texture. Their records, including They Worshipped Cats and Iran Iraq IKEA, favour long, gradually shifting pieces over conventional song structures, and the band has worked with figures from the wider psychedelic underground, among them Anton Newcombe.