Pharmakoi / Distance-Crunching Honchos with Echo Units

Not quite an album by the Church, Pharmakoi captures Steve Kilbey, the recently recruited Tim Powles and the returning Peter Koppes in the mid-1990s while Marty Willson-Piper was working elsewhere in the run-up to the band’s formal return with Magician Among the Spirits. Not so much a precursor to that album as a general side journey, Pharmakoi balances Magician’s calm exploratory energy with shorter songs and more focused arrangements, Kilbey’s impressionistic lyrical poetry in effect and catchy songs like “All See It Now” and “Get Over It” the overall result.