Dunlavy - The Navigator Closes His Eyes
(Camera Obscura)
The Dunlavy is a highly prolific Texas-based psych project controlled by former Mike Gunn guitarist Scott Grimm (with help from another former Gunn member, John Cramer, on vocals and guitar). On his latest, The Navigator Closes His Eyes, he unleashes track after track of good and heavy guitar rock.
Grimm's talents are obvious from the start with the strong psychedelic grooves of the opening track, "Unknown." Propelled ever forward by a rolling and hypnotic bass line in addition to highly complementary drum work, the track never wavers from its tone-setting purpose. In case further proof was needed that the rest of the album was going to be one dense ride, faded in radio signals and conversations act to finalize the mood for the rest of the listener's journey.
"Lance's Story" comes next and keeps the album's tone bizarrely off center. The first sounds are those of a lady whose straightforward conversation recounts a man on a serious acid trip sitting in a diner. While in the diner he witnesses an argument in a nearby booth which turns fatal and, still tripping, does the best he can to act like nothing's really going on. The narration is sharply punctuated by seriously effect-covered bass plucking, and occasionally the story is simply paused for a heavy blast of acid-drenched rock. Definitely fun, but not the album's strongest track.
"The Crushing Weight" acts to help define both the strengths and weaknesses of the Dunlavy within the same track. At a little over eleven minutes, the track has ample time to expand and search for an extended jam. After some slight feedback, the track really kicks into gear with some seriously heavy Sabbath-esque riffage that gets a groove moving. This heavier sound wanes from time to time, but always comes back with a vengeance to really, really rock. Tonally and spatially, the track is a real killer and probably the best on the album—it plays to its strengths of hard and artful psych—guitar rock. It does make a few missteps along the way, however. Very early in the track there are 2 passages of vocals, one straightforwardly performed and the other from under a thick veil of reverb. These vocals do little other than to distract from the overall power of the other portions of the track. Since both vocal excursions come and go within the first couple of minutes, the song is able to stretch out.
After the intensity of "The Crushing Weight," an untitled ambient track allows the listener to catch their breath, especially before moving on to the epic ten minute "Little One." Again, as on "The Crushing Weight," the song really excels whenever the vocals are pushed aside in deference to a skilled rock performance. This is still a strong, strong work despite these criticisms.
"Mohawk Valley" throws some acoustic guitar rock out to calmly close the record. It operates along a blueprint similar to the rest of the songs on the album but is simply calmer. A nice finishing touch.
Clocking in at an even 40 minutes, The Navigator Closes His Eyes is the perfect length to showcase this sort of heavy psychedelic rock. For the uninitiated, such as myself, the album offers plenty of opportunities to find appealing portions to really get absorbed in. Well-crafted and executed, this Dunlavy album is a great listening experience.
|
