The debut, self-titled album by Here Lies Man from 2017 was unlike a lot of rock that came before it. Their music was described with a simple question, “What if Black Sabbath played Afrobeat?” It’s a question to make you ask, “Wait…What?” Once you hear HLM, however, you think, “Yep, this is what it would sound like.”
The massive opening riffs of the album on “When I Come To” (the only lyrics in the song, by the way, apart from “Oh God! Wake up!”) grab you by the neck and shake you, and the organ stabs only serve to make you quake further. The African rhythms are immediately apparent and are downright infectious. Those beats roll like a bubbling river on “I Stand Alone.” The drum breakdown halfway through the track is outstanding.
“Eyes of the Law” brings the funky organ to the forefront, and “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” covers one of HLM‘s favorite topics – death (“Your life ain’t goin’ nowhere…You ain’t goin’ nowhere.”). “Letting Go” grooves so hard it will stop you in your tracks as HLM sings about leaving this world to find better things beyond, embracing the beauty of impermanence. “Let go or be dragged,” as the Zen proverb says. The mostly instrumental “So Far Away” is a trippy track, and the African rhythms are back in full swing on “Belt of the Sun” (and check out those wicked organ riffs!). The echoing organ stabs, Superfly-like bass, chant-like drums, and fuzzed-out guitar on the closing title track all combine for a killer ending to a killer debut.
Keep your mind open.
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I’m going to make a bold statement. The Well‘s debut album, Samsara, came out six years ago and might have changed the course of Texas doom metal, and perhaps doom metal everywhere.
Sure, there have been and still are many fine doom bands putting out excellent records influenced by Black Sabbath, early Pink Floyd, King Diamond, Blue Cheer, and Blue Oyster Cult, but what separates those bands from being great doom bands is that they sometimes forget to ease back a bit on all the “Old Ones from a dark hole in space are going to kill us all” stuff and just groove.
The Well (Lisa Alley – bass and vocals, Ian Graham – guitar and vocals, Jason Sullivan – drums) excel at the former and are off the chain in regards to the latter. Samsara‘s opener, “I Bring the Light,” tells a tale of some sort of magic for about three minutes before it explodes into a jaw-dropping sonic blitz that must’ve made everyone who heard it live for the first time stop dead in their tracks or spit out their Lone Star in disbelief.
“I felt the sun upon my face and began to run,” they sing on “Trespass” – a tale of shamans and encroaching dead things suitable for creating a Dungeons and Dragons game based on its lyrics. Speaking of such lyrics, another quest for your adventuring party could start from the opening ones of “Eternal Well” (“I saw a vision in the swirling mist, the stones are bleeding to the lion’s fist.”). Alley’s bass sounds like the heartbeat of a blood-spattered ogre throughout it. Graham’s riffs on “Refuge” sound simple at first but are deceptively wicked when you pay attention.
“Mortal Bones” begins with a sample of Rod Serling talking about ancient Egyptian temples before Graham’s guitar and Sullivan’s thunderous drum fills hit us like a sandstorm. The groove that kicks in near the three-minute mark is a prime example of what I mentioned in the second paragraph of this review. The Well love to groove and began leading the charge to help doom gets its groove back with this album.
Their cover of Pink Floyd’s “Lucifer Sam” is a fun addition, and is fuzzier than the subject of the song. “Dragon Snort” bellows and roars like some kind of 11 hit dice monster, and the weird breakdown of guitar distortion and feedback is disorienting at first, then hypnotizing, and then shaken by Alley and Sullivan’s anvil-heavy thuds. The closer, “1000 Lies,” dissolves like a melting black candle around the two-minute mark into a smoky trip of Alley’s reverb-heavy vocals, Graham’s oozing guitars, and Sullivan’s hypnotic cymbals and then kicks back into head-banging riffs before you get lost in the fog.
The title of Samsara is fitting for The Well’s first record. “Samsara” is the Sanskrit word for the cycle of death and rebirth. The Well started from the fragments of other bands and was reborn into something new, and it feels like they’re turning doom metal into something new as well.
Pagan Science, the second album by Austin, Texas’ doom rock trio The Well (Lisa Alley – bass and vocals, Ian Graham – guitar and lead vocals, Jason Sullivan – drums), has an interesting cover. The image at first appears to be a veiled angel (complete with halo), but closer inspection shows the halo is dim and crude, the silk veil is either a clear plastic tarp or a shower curtain, and the angel is either a store mannequin or a sweaty woman who is either exhausted or euphoric, or both – which is probably how you’ll feel by the time you’ve finished listening to it.
“Black Eyed Gods” (Maybe the ones who drew that crude halo?) opens with fiery riffs from Graham and Alley and Sullivan being in lockstep from the first beat drop. Graham sings about crimson skies and literal and metaphysical fires burning everywhere. A brief interlude called “Forecast” (“I think the golden age is ahead…Pagan science.”) proceeds “Skybound” – a song that chugs along like some sort of blood-fueled war tank.
The band’s love of Cream (and, to be sure, Black Sabbath) is on display in “A Pilgrimage” with its tuning and rhythm and Graham singing about his deep hate: “Can you feel the hate inside me? Hate that drags me on? Only happy with my sword beside me, keeping me strong.” To be blunt, how fucking metal is that? The back and forth vocals between he and Alley on the track are outstanding, as is the addition of Alley’s moans / cries to those black eyed gods mentioned earlier.
“The children of the forest didn’t know if they should dance or run,” Graham and Alley sing on “Drug from the Banks” – a song about something found in a creepy forest. I love how The Well doesn’t rush this song, they let it bubble like a witches’ brew until they’re ready to serve it hot and pungent.
“No mercy for the sinners, we’ve drawn a line in blood,” Graham and Alley sing at the opening of “Byzantine” while Sullivan hammers out a beat that sounds like chanting orcs. One could argue that this drawn line was done in challenge to other doom metal bands who might try to ape The Well‘s power. “One Nation” is a tale of war and what, if anything, is left behind after it.
The instrumental “Choir of the Stars” follows and drifts like a smoky haze into the fuzzy, heady “Brambles.” “Serpents on the land crossing paranoid sands,” Graham sings, perhaps reflecting a state of constant worry so many of us find ourselves in each day when we are faced with things beyond our control (or even comprehension). The groove of “I Don’t Believe” rocks with not a little bit of swagger, and Graham and Alley’s vocals have that same swagger…and a touch of menace as they face harsh reality (“I don’t believe in anything anymore.”) and “Sacrifice illusions to the sun.”
“I Don’t Believe” closes the album, but picking up the digital version of Pagan Science will score you the bonus track “Guinevere” – which is well worth it. It sounds like a dark(er) Alice in Chains cut and Alley’s vocals are prominent throughout it.
The sorcery / science of this album is powerful stuff, indeed. You should experience it head-on, lest it creep up on you from the shadows.
Keep your mind open.
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Rare Earth‘s third album, Ecology, picks up where Get Ready left off a year before it – with even more fuzzy funk that brings to mind the pinnacle of the hippie and psychedelic era.
“Born to Wander” is a great theme for the idea of chucking your day job, sticking it to the Man, and becoming a free spirit. Gil Bridges‘ flute solo on it is also a great touch. “Long Time Leavin'” was a big radio hit for the band, and it’s easy to see why. It’s both a nod toward young men being drafted in the military and going to Vietnam, possibly to never return (“I tried so yard, but we’re just livin’ in a grave.”), and toward youth culture at the time looking for something meaningful (“I’m been a long time gone searchin’ for my dreams.”). Kenny James‘ organ solo on the track is sharp, and the breakdown of the song into a brief, fuzzy psychedelic jam is groovy indeed.
Their cover of The Temptations‘ “(I Know) I’m Losing You” is legendary and elevates the original to places that blew people’s minds in 1970 and still does today. Bridges saxophone stabs during “Satisfaction Guaranteed” will get you moving, as will Pete Rivera‘s slick chops – which might be the best on the whole record.
Rod Richards turns up the fuzz on his guitar on “Nice Place to Visit” (written by bassist John Persh) and the band’s addition of Eddie Guzman on conga on this (and the entire album, really) is sharp. They go blend psychedelia and garage rock on “No. 1 Man,” with Richards playing to the moon and the band singing about winning a woman’s love. The album ends with their somewhat operatic cover of The Beatles‘ “Eleanor Rigby.” Rivera’s groove throughout it is rock solid and the additional lyrics of “Take a good look around. Tell me, what do you see? Everybody is lonely. Why must there be lonely people?” reflect the counter-culture movement of the time. The words still hold resonance today.
Like Get Ready, this is essential listening for lovers of psychedelic soul music and the last album with the band’s original lineup.
Keep your mind open.
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Rare Earth‘s Get Ready is their second album, but many consider it their first since it launched them into the stratosphere of popularity in the late 1960’s. The all-white psychedelic soul group signed to Motown was the first (and pretty much only) rock group to bring Motown hit records – to the point that Motown named it’s rock sub-label “Rare Earth” after the band (Gil Bridges – vocals, saxophone, and tambourine, Kenny James – vocals, organ, and piano, John Persh – vocals and bass, Rod Richards – vocals and guitar, and Pete Rivera – vocals and drums).
There are only six tracks on Get Ready, and all of them are good. I mean, the album did do Platinum-level sales, after all. It opens with “Magic Key” and Richards fuzzed-out guitar and Rivera’s wicked grooves and vocals about equality and mutual respect being the magic key to a better world. Their great cover of “Tobacco Road” is full of sweet solos: James’ great organ riffs, Bridges’ sax work, Rivera’s vocals that bring out the blues and don’t try too hard, and Richards’ quick, trippy solo is top-notch.
Rivera’s groove on their cover of Traffic‘s “Feelin’ Alright” is so tight that it could perform in a military parade. The funky, trippy “In Bed” is both a tribute to shagging and to life and death. Persh’s bass on “Train to Nowhere” is deceptively wicked.
The standout track is, of course, the title track / cover of The Temptations‘ “Get Ready” – all twenty minutes of it. It begins with a spaced-out instrumental jazz-rock solo with Bridges’ saxophone taking front and center stage while Persh slowly builds up to the groove of the track and you realize you’re listening to a live recording that proceeds to race off at eight miles per hour. The bass and drum breakdown around the six-minute mark is killer. Richards gets to stretch his muscles as well for a wild space rock solo that flows perfectly into Bridges’ sax solo. All these solos last about thirteen minutes before blasting back into the chorus.
Get Ready is a fine mix of funk, soul, and psychedelia and essential listening for fans of those genres.
I have no idea why it took me so long to get around to hearing and buying Gary Wilson‘s 2015 album, Alone with Gary Wilson. It might be because Mr. Wilson was prolific in the last decade and that I was too busy buying his Christmas album, his outer space-themed album, his album about returning to Endicott, New York, or any of the other ones he released in the 2010’s. Shame on me for missing this one, because it’s one of his funkiest.
The album starts with the short jazz oddity, “Last Night I Kissed You,” which makes one think Wilson’s head was swirling from the kiss. “You Called Me on the Phone Last Night” follows. It’s a tale of Wilson crying “all night long” as he wishes his dream of a phone call, just a phone call, from his lost love would happen. The electric piano in it is delightfully peppy, making you think that Wilson isn’t too glum.
“Let’s Walk in a Dream” puts down a funky beat as Wilson sings about dancing with his girl in the park, but his band, The Blind Dates, sing, “Gary walked away into the park. He was all alone crying in the dark.” during the chorus. It’s all a dream, but at least in his dreams he can “make the scene” with his girl. “I should’ve listened to Dear Abby’s advice,” Wilson sings on “Linda Walked Away.” The whole tune slinks along as seductively as the tick-tock of Linda’s hips, but Linda still wants nothing to do with him.
Wilson reveals that he’s the (in)famous “Chromium Clown” in a quirky track that reveals he just wants to make his girl laugh, but she’s too full of despair to enjoy a ride on a merry-go-round or anything else he has planned. The groove of “Every Night Is Friday Night” is smooth. Damn smooth. “A Thousand Trees Were Dancing in the Park” has Wilson feeling as cool as he did in high school, but then feeling weak when he sees his girl’s lovely eyes. All he can do is walk into the North Side Park and wonder how he can build the courage to approach her. Why can’t she tell (judging by the groovy swing of the tune) how cool he is?
“I Know That You Kissed Me” has some of Wilson’s sauciest lyrics as he puts down some great electric organ riffs and sings about wrapping his girl in a sheet. “Please Don’t Make Me Cry Tonight” has him lying alone as the sun goes down on another Friday night and he can only dream of taking a walk to the lake with his girl. The song dissolves into a weird nightmare.
“You Looked So Cool While You Were Dancing” is serious bedroom rock. Wilson and the Blind Dates are at the top of their funky forms on it. “I Really Dig Your Smile” has this cool beat breakdown in it before Wilson whispers the names of his secret loves. “Sea Cruise” isn’t a cover of the song by Frankie Ford (although that would be amazing), but rather Wilson singing a nice little love song about taking his girl on a nice cruise to get the both of them away from their troubles and dance the nights away at sea.
“I Will Do What It Takes” proclaims Wilson on the next track. He will do what he needs to do to take his girl fall in love with him – be it take her on a sea cruise, a date at the bowling alley, or just a walk in the park or to the beach. The slow jam sexiness of the track practically drips like honey off a spoon. The album ends with another freaky instrumental, “One More Kiss.” That’s all Wilson wants. That’s all any of us want, really.
Don’t miss out on this album like I did for five years. It’s too good for that.
Keep your mind open.
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Recorded and self-produced in their Berlin apartment, The KVB‘S 2018 album, Only Now Forever, is a neat mixture of contrasts. It is melancholic, yet ebullient. Somber, yet hopeful. Moody, yet joyful. It’s an honest look at modern living and a warning against its trappings. The title of the album itself is a suggestion of presence. We only have now, this moment, forever. The past never existed. The future never will. We can embrace this divine truth or we can stay buried in a past long gone or worry about a future that doesn’t yet exist – and will be completely different from what we expect when it does arrive…in the now.
Opening single, “Above Us,” is a shadowed electro-pop tune with definite Berlin krautrock influences to its beats and bass as Kat Day and Nicholas Wood sing about rising above the drudgery of modern life. “On My Skin” is a beautiful track with haunting synths by Day and playful ghost-like guitar work by Wood as he sings a tale of a relationship that’s come to an end for reasons unknown to him.
The title track opens like a lost early 1980’s film score that backs a race on some sort of futuristic motorcycle. Day’s synth bass and beats are like android heartbeats. “And the past has all been done. The circle comes ’round again. All I fear will go away. It’s only now just begun,” Wood sings. Fear, like all things, is impermanent (if we allow it to be), and The KVB encourage us to step off the treadmill of fear and move forward under our own power. I’m sure “Afterglow” has been remixed and spun in multiple Berlin industrial / dance clubs by now because it evokes images of Replicants seducing humans and vice-versa.
“With everything, there comes a price,” Wood sings at the beginning of “Violet Noon,” which the band describes on their Bandcamp page as “a romantic ode to the apocalypse.” I can’t describe it any better than that. Day’s breathy vocals on “Into Life” will make your pulse quicken and your spine shiver. “Live in Fiction” is another warning from them. “Everything in the world has changed. I cannot find the truth,” Wood sings. People have embraced fiction over truths that upset their comfortable realities, even when those truths would improve their lives and the lives of those around them.
“Tides” is appropriately named because Day’s synth swell and ebb like the tide, almost catching you off-guard now and then with their sudden burst of energy. “No Shelter” slinks into the room like a femme fatale walking into a detective’s office in a 1950’s dime novel. The album ends with the upbeat “Cerulean,” which has Day laying down a wicked synth-bass groove and her backing vocals feeling like a cool mist as Wood’s feel like a warm canyon wall echo.
Only Now Forever encourages us to accept truth and embrace the present. It’s themes resonate even more in 2020 than they did two years ago.
Released just a year after their split EP with Night Beats, The UFO Club (Christian Bland, Danny Lee Blackwell, and Skyler McGlothlin) took the four tracks they had on the EP and added seven more to create a spooky, trippy, solid album.
It starts with “July” – a song I once presented to a woman who described herself as “an original hippie.” She loved it. It’s hard not to love with its opening acoustic guitar chords, Blackwell’s heavily reverbed vocals, McGlothlin’s stumbling drunk beats, and Bland’s warped electric guitar. Their cover of The Ronettes‘ “Be My Baby” follows with its guitars that sound like a swarm of stoned bees. Blackwell is a known Bo Diddley fan (Night Beats often covers Diddley’s “Keep Your Big Mouth Shut” live), so their song “Bo Diddley Was the 7th Son” is a roaring, sweaty tribute to him. It almost sounds like they told McGloghlin to just go nuts on the drums, and he did.
“Wolfman” is another track from the EP that’s wild, crazy fun with Blackwell taking on the role of a werewolf and Bland and McGloghlin howling behind him. “Doubts” slows things down before we totally lose our minds. The sad organ and sorrowful drumming highlight Blackwell’s pleading vocals for love. “John the Cat” has such a swagger to it that it might topple your speakers and puts Bland’s love of early Pink Floyd on full display.
“Fuck shit up!” the band yells at the beginning of “Surf Shitty,” a dangerous track best suited for 1960’s juvenile delinquency film soundtracks. “Chapel” follows it. It’s a stand-out track on the EP as well as here. It’s fuzzed-out psychedelic bliss about inward meditation. “Up in Her Room” is over seven minutes of psychedelic garage rock with Blackwell singing about gettin’ his freak on in his girlfriend’s apartment. “Natalie” might be that girl up in the room. She’s a weird one if that’s the case because the song is a wild, organ-heavy freak-out that sounds like someone slipped something funky into the band’s tea at the recording studio. The closer, “Last Time,” is a short, warped version of the Rolling Stones‘ classic track.
The EP Lazerbeam from Los Angeles, California shoegaze rockers Cosmonautsis a great introduction to their forceful and hypnotizing sound if you haven’t heard it before now.
The title track opens the EP, sounding a bit like a Hanni El Khatib track at first with its echoing vocals and early 1960’s garage rock beats, but then that fuzz comes in and takes you to another dimension. The song’s about realizing a relationship is coming to an end and not being able to do much about it (“Please don’t leave me, man. You’re the only one I can stand. Begging you not to leave me, babe. You’re the only thing that is sane…”).
“Cut Your Hair” gets off to a heavy start with guitars set to maximum growl and the dual vocals about embracing “the dark side of pain” set to heavy reverb. “Crocodile Teeth” keeps the fuzzed-out shoegaze sound going as the dual vocals of Alexander Ahmadi and Derek Cowart bounce off each other so much (and so well) that you’re not sure where one ends and the other begins. Oh yeah, their dual guitar work does the same thing, producing a mind-altering effect that’s hard to describe.
You might think a song called “Slower” would be a mellow way to end an EP, but Cosmonauts flip the script a bit and end the album with a rocker instead. The drums are like a chugging freight train while Ahmadi and Cowart’s vocals boom off the back walls of your house and the guitar riffs hit you in brisk waves.
Lazerbeam is short, but loud and bold. It takes you by surprise and immediately makes you wonder what else these cats can do. Check out any of their full albums for more great shoegaze.
This eight-song EP is split between bands hailing from Austin, Texas and Seattle, Washington. Side A is four tracks by Austin’s The UFO Club (who would go on to release a full album a year later – review coming soon). Side B is one of the first official recordings of Seattle’s Night Beats – even before their first full album was released by Austin’s Reverberation Appreciation Society label.
The UFO Club melds Austin and Seattle together by combining the powers of The Black Angels‘ Christian Bland and Danny Lee Blackwell of Night Beats (both sharing duties on guitar, vocals, farfisa, drums, bass) and producer / bassist / organist Skyler McGlothlin to create a heady brew of Pink Floyd, 13th Floor Elevators, Phil Spector, and Howlin‘ Wolf.
“(My Love Is) Waiting” is a pleading love song with Blackwell’s distinctive voice calling out in soulful wails while crystalline guitars surround him. “Chapel (in My Mind)” is an instant stand-out with creeping fuzz bass, spooky drums, and haunted house guitars as Bland sings about engaging in self-introspection and not caring what others think of the idea. You’ll want “Wolfman” on every Halloween-themed playlist you create from now on, as it’s a fun, rocking track with Blackwell trying to keep his lover calm as he transforms into a monster and Bland and McGlothlin howl and bay in the background. Side A ends with their power drill-fuzzy cover of The Ronettes‘ “Be My Baby.”
Side B is all Night Beats, consisting of the original lineup (Blackwell on vocals and guitar, Tarek Wegner on bass, James Traeger on drums). It opens with one of my favorite Night Beats tracks, “Hex,” a trippy psychedelic cut that has Blackwell’s opening guitar riffs hitting you like black helicopters coming over the horizon. “A Night with Nefertiti” brings Wegner’s bass to the forefront and makes the vocals a bit sleepy (in a good way). The Egyptian theme continues on the funky “Drowning in the Nile” (which includes some wild harmonica work by Blackwell). The closer is “18 Glowing Phantoms.” Blackwell’s acoustic guitar takes on a tribal sound as he sings about being taken to an otherworldly dark forest to learn he has no soul. Creepy? Yes. Good? Absolutely (especially at the break-down).
This split 10″ EP was a good warm-up for both The UFO Club’s self-titled album a year later and Night Beats’ first full record. It’s a fine addition to any collection of net-psychedelic music.
Keep your mind open.
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