Pub-psych from three continents: GO MAHHH's debut LP Doppelgänger is out now

GO MAHHH call themselves "International Kneipen-Psych aus Berlin" — roughly, international pub-psych from Berlin — and that self-description is more accurate than it sounds like a joke. The band's members come from Chile, Ireland, and Germany, ended up in the same city, and have spent the past few years building toward a debut full-length that sounds like it was made on a separate timeline from whatever the rest of guitar music is doing right now. Doppelgänger, released May 29 through Noisolution, is that album. 1

GO MAHHH's core lineup is Leonard Traynor on vocals, guitar, and flute; Damian Lovazzano Razmilic on guitar; Leo Ávila on bass; and Max Bastian on drums and saz. 1 The saz — a long-necked Turkish lute — is not a typo; it shows up on the record, and it's part of why GO MAHHH's sound lands where it does. Additional studio contributions came from Ben McMahon (bass), Cash Hutchinson (drums and tabla), and Fabien de Menou (synthesizers), with some media credits also listing Josefine Lukschy on keyboard, steel guitar, and backing vocals. 1

Before this album: a 2023 self-titled EP, two singles ("BBSBBQ" and "Blood Transfusion"), and a live record called Live at Monoton. 2 The full-length has been building for a while.

Doppelgänger was recorded at Monoton Studios in Berlin, engineered and mixed by Jari Antti and Fabien de Menou, and mastered by Manuel Ortúzar. 1 The Bandcamp tags cover a lot of ground — krautrock, psych rock, fuzz rock, garage rock, heavy psych — and that spread is honest: this is a record that moves between heavy driving guitars, sitar passages, theremin, and the kind of locked groove that Hawkwind made their name on in the early 1970s.

Noisolution describes it as a sound where, "amidst psychedelic excesses, Oriental-tinged melodies, and heavy, driving guitars, a shimmering sonic landscape emerges — one that is as danceable as it is intense." 3 Classic Rock called it "like a collective fever dream, with a very playful experiential vision. Sound effects, sitar passages, or theremin sounds are king here." 3 Stoner Hive kept it shorter: "I adore this languid, sunny version of kraut and psych." 3

The more pointed observation came from Harald Pfeiffer at SaitenKult, who rated it 8/10 and wrote that the album "seems to have fallen completely out of today's musical framework — and that's its biggest asset. The band doesn't care about the zeitgeist or any musical trend." 4 He placed their sound in the free-creative spirit of the late 1960s and early 1970s, with visuals that evoke hippies and music that doesn't apologize for either reference.

Not every review was unconditional. Robert at Metalunderground gave it 3/5 and wrote that Doppelgänger "is not an album you can listen to while doing something else — it demands attention, patience, and a certain willingness to sink into repetitive sonic spirals." He noted that some tracks feel unfocused and certain passages run longer than they need to. 5 That's a fair tension to name — this is a record built on repetition as a feature, not a bug, and whether that lands depends entirely on how you feel about krautrock's central aesthetic bargain.

BetreutesProggen put it at 13/15 and classified it under psychedelic rock, shoegaze, and fuzz rock, writing that GO MAHHH injects a "dense urban sleeplessness" (urbaner Schlaflosigkeit) into their psychedelic mix — nodding to Black Sabbath while reinvesting Summer of Love energy. 6 The Obelisk landed on the simplest summary: "Some records, you just want to go where they take you." 3

Eight songs, about 38 minutes: 1

The album opens with two five-and-a-half-minute tracks and closes with the seven-minute "Mind Assault — The Road." The lone sub-two-minute cut, "MSAZ-20," sits in the middle as an interlude. "BBSBBQ" and "Blood Transfusion" were previously released as singles, so returning listeners will recognize two reference points before diving into the rest.

Album art by Robert Mirolo. 1

GO MAHHH have a nine-date tour running June through October 2026, across Germany and Switzerland. The Record Release Party is on June 10 at Neue Zukunft, Berlin. 1

Bandcamp (streaming + digital purchase): Doppelgänger | GO MAHHH