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BANGTWISTER - "The Moon On A Stick"
BLACK MOSES - "Emperor Deb"
ELECTRIC WIZARD - "Let Us Prey"
ETERNAL ELYSIUM - "Share"
FIREBALLS OF FREEDOM - "Welcome To The Octagon"
>> More RoadBurn Picks...
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BANGTWISTER
"The Moon On A Stick" [ CD - Trepanner Headmusic ]
If I had one of those magical crystal balls we used to read about in fairy
tales, I would look in it to discover how many extraordinary heavy-psych
outfits like Bangtwister still languish in the UK underground running the
risk of prematurely disbanding!
After 6 years of drive spent in the absence of any decent exposure, the band
led by Gordon 'Go-Go' Brady (vocals and guitar) unfortunately split up just
before the releasing of "The Moon On A Stick" due to the departure of
bassist/vocalist Alasdair Mitchell. But this must not relieve you of the
obligation of becoming one of the owners of this fantastic piece of vinyl;
it comes in a limited edition of 500 copies.
We are talking about the spiritual testament by a prodigious power trio that
(like its British brothers and sisters in The Heads and Gorilla, and
American cousins 500 Ft. Of Pipe) revamps acid rock formulas in vogue by the
end of the Sixties, blending the old 'Blue Cheer' dope with
'Stooges/MC5'-branded fuzz additive, to a new and irrepressible lysergical
subjection!
But in Bangtwister, the psych component follows wider trajectories, moving
out on a particularly deep melodical groove ("Control", "The Very Next Pop
Song"), with harmonies of a garage rock style which in "Birdman" and
"Rave-Up" collide with the acid-fuzz frenzies of guitars and the explosive
Keith Beacon's drumming. "Sleepwalking" and "Super Heavy Black Number" (this
last among the nicest songs we've listened to in recent years) also show a
predilection to epic refrains of great impact, emphasized by the choruses of
the two vocalists; and the psycho-funk of "Get On A Move" is comparable to
the hottest numbers of Black Moses. The hypnotic "Downside Up" is instead
enveloped within those same psychedelic coils squeezing mystery and madness
out of prime Pink Floyd...
I don't need any crystal ball to foresee you will unconditionally love "The
Moon On A Stick"! Fresh and original, Bangtwister blends the expressive
urgency of American acid rock together with the melody and eccentric
creativeness of British freakbeat. They play with their heads lost in the
paisley coloured Sixties... and with the moon miraculously and precariously
poised on a guitar neck!
luciano gaglio for Vincebus Eruptum; translated by ilario camurati
T R A C K L I S T
1. White Knuckle Ride
2. Control
3. Super-Heavy Black Number
4. Birdman
5. Downside Up
6. Rave-Up
7. Sleepwalking
8. Get A Move On
9. The Very Next Pop Song
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BLACK MOSES
"EMPEROR DEB" [ CD - Lunasound Recording ]
While England's music magazines were (as always) raving about some new "pop
sensations" nowadays absolutely forgotten, in 1989 four young prophets from the
UK were looking over the ocean, with their Rock History books open on the
yellowed pages of Blue Cheer, Jimi Hendrix Experience and The Stooges.
Their moniker was Thee Hypnotics, and their first release - the "Live'r
Than God!" live mini-album on Situation Two/Beggars Banquet Records - was an
inextricable accumulation of hyper-electrified acid rock with a punk
attitude and clear roots in the music of those aforementioned glorious bands
of yore.
Among the tracks, there was also B.B. King's "Rock
Me Baby" that Blue Cheer interpreted in their own twisted and cacophonous
way on "Vincebus Eruptum"...
Time passed by, and with subsequent releases Thee Hypnotics got even deeper
into the Stooges' sound, 'til 1994's last full-length, "The Very Crystal
Speed Machine" which came out on Rick Rubin's American Recordings and was
produced by The Black Crowes' singer Chris Robinson. With that effort
singer/guitarist Jim Jones' band moved into a more ecumenical kind of rock,
incorporating in its' sound the typical black and southern music trademarks.
A "soul-beam" through an Hendrixian electric storm, one could say...
Jones' new band, Black Moses, starts from where Thee Hypnotics left off.
After the initial help from The Heads' rhythm section, Jones found his
perfect companions in ex-Penthouse bassist Graeme Flynn and drummer Chris
Buncall (who collaborated with ex-Melvins Mark D Volcano on his recent solo
album), and the trio had given birth to a hybrid far more surprising than
the algebraic sum of Thee Hypnotics' heavy-fuzz rock and Penthouse's
punk-blues.
In fact "Second Skin" -the opening track on their debut album "Emperor Deb"-
clarifies one thing, first of all: Jones, Flynn and Buncall's new epidermis
is now "blacker" than ever, and the whole album sounds like a homage to
Soul, R'n'B and Funk... but played with Blue Cheer's distorted guitars ("Cut
It Out"), The Stooges' garage attitude ("Yr Gonna Get It") and MC5's leonine
roars! On the other hand, isn't "Black Moses" the title of a famous Isaac
Hayes album from early Seventies?
"Emperor Deb" is a matter of sweat and uncontainable erotic expulsion;
you'll start footstomping on the opening notes of "Slow Mama". But when the
electric infection reaches every fiber of your body, the meowing guitars,
the gigantic bass and Beavan's guest sax gone crazy on "Won't Let Go" will
suggest you do a frantic wiggle. A wiggle as it can only happen with the
best things from The Make-Up, The Afghan Whigs and The Jon Spencer Blues
Explosion!
Listeners will rest during the beautiful ballad "Strange Life",
but then Jones starts whispering and shouting again, especially on the
lascivious groove of "Yr Friend" and the final acid braodside of "Under The
River"...
"The ultimate goal is to create a record that makes you want to 'get nasty'
without you even realizing why," Jones says; and that's exactly what
"Emperor Deb" does. A "sexual healing" in a psych key, as you like it.
luciano gaglio
T R A C K L I S T
1. White Knuckle Ride
2. Control
3. Super-Heavy Black Number
4. Birdman
5. Downside Up
6. Rave-Up
7. Sleepwalking
8. Get A Move On
9. The Very Next Pop Song
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ETERNAL ELYSIUM
"Share" [ CD - Meteorcity / People Like You ]
Another excellent release by one of Japan's finest heavy riffrock bands.
"Share" is a much more varied album than its predecessor "Spiritualized
D" and it features a significant shift towards 70's rock.
However, it is still unmistakeably Eternal Elysium: large downtuned
guitars burning into your brain while the rhythm section pummels you
relentlessly. The strength of EE is that they write unexpected riffs in
a familiar style. "Share" shows off these interesting-as-hell riffs and
matches them with equally odd and off-kilter vocals to breathe new life
into a genre that sorely needs it.
They can do doom and morph it into 80's AOR guitar hero rock and then
into 70's hard rock without losing the thread of continuity. They can do
9+ minute epics and 2:30 punk/metal ragers. And then they do
gothic/country/metal into early Pentagram. They do it all damn well and
the production is large and clean, so there is no reason whatsoever to
miss this release.
drew
T R A C K L I S T
1.Shizy
2.Feel The Beat
3.Movements And Vibes
4.Waiting For The Sun
5.Maschine
6.No Answer
7.Love Is All
8.Dogma
9.Fairies Never Sleep
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ELECTRIC WIZARD
"LET US PREY" [ CD - Rise Above Records ]
They're back. Not that they really went away, but Electric Wizard have
returned to the gut rattling depths of "Come My Fanatics". The subsequent
album "Dopethrone" was good, but definitely not of the same caliber. The
newest effort not only blows "Dopethrone" away, it goes some distance toward
topping "...Fanatics" to be their best album ever.
The components of greatness? Let's dissect.
The trademark anvil-over-the-head rhythm section is here, topped off by the
effortless riffs that put to shame the majority of wanna-be stonerrockers.
The gritty, tube-saturated production is here too, bringing "Let Us Prey"
out of the studio and placing it a near-live setting. There is a great deal
of spacerock here too, mucho flange/reverb/delay for far out headspaces.
Then things take a twist as there is some unabashed experimentalism here.
"Night of the Shape" features piano (!), saxaphone [!!], and a swinging drum
beat [!!!].
It all works too, both as an individual song (could be on a
movie score) and in the context of the album. Also present is a greater
sensitivity to dynamic variation, making the album seem fresher and easier
to hear after repeated [loud] listens.
The Wizard combine Come My Fanatics-inspired songs like "...A Chosen Few",
"Priestess of Mars" and "Master of Alchemy" with the punk/metal grittiness
of "Dopethrone" in songs like "We, The Undead". All of this plus the
newfound adventurousness of "Night of the Shape" make this THE album to have
by the Wizard. Congratulations are in order.
drew
T R A C K L I S T
1. ...A Chosen Few
2. We, The Undead
3. Master of Alchemy:
I. House of Whipcore
II. The Black Drug
4. The Outsider
5. Night Of The Shape
6. Priestess Of Mars
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FIREBALLS OF FREEDOM
"Welcome To The Octagon"
[ LP/CD - Estrus Recordz ]
Raw, snotty, loud & furious. That pretty much sums up what the Fireballs
Of Freedom are all about. This bunch of ex-art school students from
Portland, Oregon are whipping up another storm on their third
full-length record, following hot on the heels of their "Total Fucking
Blowout" album from 1999.
Whereas the previous album mainly consisted of straightforward 3-minute
blasts of rock, the band mixes in healthy doses of funk and soul on
"Welcome To The Octagon" (kinda similar to what the Jon Spencer Blues
Explosion does). Although the songs are more diverse and
the pace drops from time to time, these kids are still committed to delivering the
raunchiest brand of 70s-inspired hard rock on the scene today.
With enough power to blow the balls off a rhinoceros from a fifty yard distance,
they scorch through the sheer riff-o-rama of "We Do It Everyday", "Out Of My Head"
and "Swamp Wolf".
"Western Wield" is a fine example of the Fireballs' new style: its catchy drum intro
leads you straight into a white-hot noisefest with some truly original breaks and
plenty of groove. There's even a hint of psychedelia in the
the jumpy "Panties Off" (ooh, that organ) and the spaced-out trippiness of the closer
"Vs. The Universe".
If you dig bands with a nod towards the proto-punk of MC5 and The Stooges,
the Fireballs will be right up your alley. File next to Gorilla & The Make-up...
chris
T R A C K L I S T
1. We Do It Everyday
2. Out Of My Head
3. Skalawag
4. Western Wield
5. You Get Off [On Getting Me Down]
6. Got My Soul Back
7. Swamp Wolf
8. Crumblin' Stone
9. Panties Off
10. Fryin' Up
11. Vs. The Universe
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