Night Beats
By Kit Macdonald
This is the first of six summer tour dates in Spain for a long-standing psych-rock band whose sound and aesthetic have always struck a chord with audiences in this country. Dallas native Danny "Lee Blackwell" Rajan formed the group in Seattle in 2009 and it has always been a one-man operation in some regards, with a rotating cast of musicians joining Rajan as needed, for tours and recording sessions.
Night Beats' sound has progressed from the raw, retro-inspired rock of their self-titled debut in 2011 to become a more nuanced and refined proposition in recent years, bringing their still-present psych-rock instincts together with influences from the east (Rajan is half Indian on his mother's side). Explaining the inspiration for Night Beats' evolution in an interview in 2021, Rajan correctly pointed out that "If you listen to a lot of the music coming out of India, Iran, Thailand etc during the 1960’s you can hear similar tones and phrases dominant in Western rock'n'roll of the same era.
”Support comes from a new local band named Morganita, who pitch themselves as "an ode to shoegaze, kraut and post-punk".