The High Nines tear open a portal to the psychedelic ’60s on their intoxicating new single ‘Shifting Sands’ then send everything crashing through the big-beat turbulence of the ’90s.
Since reforming in 2023, The Manchester five-piece have gone from strength to strength. Releasing their debut EP, Echoes, six singles, 2025’s self titled debut album, (a ThisIsTheMusic top 20 album of 2025 entrant) and sold out their album launch show at the iconic The Castle Hotel. If that’s wasn’t enough they’re played out sold out shows at Manchester Academy 2 and supported The Bluetones.
Shifting Sands immediately lock into a hypnotic groove, surrounding hazy vocals with swirling guitars and Eastern-tinged textures. There is a clear nod towards The Beatles mystical psychedelia era, while flashes of Kula Shaker’s technicolour swagger run throughout. Yet ‘Shifting Sands’ never feels trapped in borrowed nostalgia; The High Nines take those influences and push them into something that’s truly their own.
The drums carry the thunderous groove of The Beatles’ Tomorrow Never Knows crashing through the psychedelic haze with an intensity that makes the song feel as though it is continually gathering momentum. Rather than simply holding the rhythm together, they become the track’s driving personality—restless, explosive and impossible to ignore.
Around them, layers of guitar twist and blur into one another, creating a soundscape that feels simultaneously dreamlike and dangerous. Melody rises through the distortion before being swallowed by the next wave, while the vocals drift above the chaos with a suitably hallucinatory detachment. The title proves fitting: the musical ground is constantly moving beneath your feet.
‘Shifting Sands’ is psychedelic rock with its pulse racing and its speakers pushed towards breaking point. The High Nines haven’t merely looked back at the genre’s past, they unleash it into the present, leaving Manchester’s newest sonic storm swirling long after the final beat has landed.
Shifting Sands is out now.
Gigs
26 September Manchester Academy 2 with Adam Robinson
24 September Middleton Arena supporting Oasis Supernova
The High Nines were guests on episode 172 of the ThisIsTheMusic meets podcast. Check it out on Spotify and You Tube.
The High Nines Socials
ThisIsTheMusic 
Leave a comment