Headroom

New Haven, Connecticut-based experimental musician Kryssi Battalene was already a storied explorer of the outer reaches of psychedelic guitar sounds when she formed Headroom in 2016 as a solo project. Affiliated with projects like Colorguard, Mountain Movers, and Medication, Battalene centered Headroom around her distinctive guitar style, winding noisy, textural guitar explorations around improvised rock structures. The band first released a few small-scale collections online and as limited-edition cassettes, each release finding Battalene joined by a rotating cast of players in New Haven’s closely knit experimental community. Headroom’s first proper album came in the form of Head in the Clouds, a sprawling five-song collection released by the Trouble in Mind label in late 2017. ~ Fred Thomas