An expansive, shimmering metallic sheen awaits the listener of “Brute Force,” the opening track of this Aussie trio’s debut full length. While terms like “nebulous” and “amorphic” are bandied about these days with reckless abandon, they are particularly apt descriptions of the sonic textures nestled within. The multi-layered guitars and electronics of Paul Rigby and Cass Wigley combine throughout with drummer Paul Sloan’s radio transmissions to put you in the same headspace as a Kinski, Paik, Scenic, and SubArachnoid Space, particularly on tracks like “Flight One Hundred.”
The sexy, space age bachelor pad schmoozer, “Le Saboteur” has enough quirky effects and sideways glances to welcome favorable comparisons with former (and, now, sadly disbanded) labelmates Olivia Tremor Control and Witch Hazel Sound, as does the European bistro vibe of the sashaying, girl-watching, Kimbal entertainer organ-driven, “Bohemian Astronaut.” “Echocycle” and “Tryptanology“ are gorgeously cinematic, atmospheric floaters and “Pax Americana” begins with one of the longest rising crescendo intros I’ve heard all year before morphing into a brain-frying collage of Bardo Pond and Linus Pauling Quartet with just a hint of the Acid Mothers Temple off in the distance. Sleepy Floydisms appear throughout the proggy psychedelia of “Silicon and Steel” and the whirling oscillators and electronic effects hint at a not-so-subtly repressed Hawkwind gene somewhere in the family tree.
After several quirky, but nonetheless rewarding wyrdfolk releases, it’s great to hear one of my favorite psychedelic labels back at the top of their game with one of their (and this year’s) finest psychedelic instrumental releases.
|
