Tag Archives: Fuzz Rock

Netherlands – Audubon

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New York City’s Netherlands may have yet to come across the average metalhead’s dashboard but with the release of their third fuzzed out LP (making their début on Prosthetic Records), they won’t be foreign for much longer. Founder and multi-instrumentalist, Timo Ellis, already has an impressive repertoire with having created and produced music for over 2 decades, releasing work under his own name as well as working with artists like The Melvins and Ween. But now, with the help of Zach Eichenhorn (drums) and Ava Farver (synth bass) since 2010, he’s channeling his heavier side…and it sounds oddly familiar. Not the ‘I’ve heard it before’ familiar but the ‘I totally know what your influences are’ familiar. It’s without a doubt enough to call your ears to attention.

This 9-track journey through distorted astronomy and psychedelia clocks in at a bittersweet 28 minutes. And I guarantee that you’ll feel the emptiness of a trip cut too short. From the Black Sabbath-y falsetto vocals combined with the foundationally Sleep-like wall of guitar riffage and just enough Ty Segall-approved fuzz to tickle one’s fancy, the track ‘Elephuck’ is enough to generate genuine excitement. Especially with the attractively dark lyrical theme of a dying sense of self as a result of religious mind control. What’s there not to like? The fellow slow-tempoed sludgey track ‘Bottom of the Ocean’ is the definite sweet spot of the record for the vocal variety alone. From the preachy chanting to the layered angelic whispers of world disasters and oncoming death (all over top of the gloomiest guitar riff of Audubon), Netherlands has more than honed in on a signature style.

Timo’s talent for intelligently hypnotizing guitar riffs and intriguing vocal organization is apparent in the fact that there is something attractive about each track on the record. Even the weakest track (and regrettably the opening track which is surely to throw some patrons off the scent) ‘L.M.M’ doesn’t get interesting until past the 1-minute mark when chaos and fuzz ensue to better fit Timo’s airy vocals.

Overall, Audubon is a solid release. Netherlands would surely benefit though in moving towards lengthier progressions to develop their tracks from being simply ‘a ride around the block’ to a fully dark and psychedelic experience.

7.5/10

EBONIE BUTLER

 

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We Hunt Buffalo – Living Ghosts

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Imagine, if you will, the offspring that would be conceived by a three-way between A Perfect Circle, Spiritual Beggars and Mastodon. That’s pretty much what we have here, and it’s wonderful.

Living Ghosts (Fuzzorama) is the second LP from Vancouver cab torturers We Hunt Buffalo. They bill themselves as exponents of “Dirty, Grimy, Fuzz Rock” and they ain’t lyin’, brother. Well not about the fuzz, anyway. Whilst the eponymous first album ticked all three boxes, Living Ghosts has had a lot of the dirt polished off, and sounds tremendously better for it. With fatter bass and some actual use of the mid sliders, the upgrade from self-production to a full studio producer (Jesse Gander of Rain City Recorders) is telling. It has transformed this band from local battle of the bands runners-up into a serious prospect for tours with the likes of Baroness, The Sword, Kvelertak or even the mighty Mastodon.

The first track ‘Ragnarok’ is a beautiful, expansive extended intro for the majestic prog of ‘Back To The River’, ‘Prairie Oyster’ is a sludgey fuzzfest with huge echoey vocals while ‘Hold On’ backs off the fuzz for a return to the prog vibe featuring a strident guitar line and choral vocals that are simply captivating.

‘Comatose’ features a riff that’s inexplicably (and pleasingly) reminiscent of Big Country. ‘Fear’ is a slow stoner classic and ‘The Barrens’ gives us more country vibe, opening out into what’s clearly their stoner/prog comfort zone. ‘Looking Glass’ is a very on-trend 60’s homage (complete with Hammond organ) that leads us to the last track of the album: ‘Walk Again’ – an introspective piece of shoegazing that, given the strength and context of what’s gone before manages the small miracle of being engaging and fitting rather than tedious.

A theme running through this album is familiarity – it gives the feeling even on first play-through that you’ve rediscovered an old favourite. Sombre yet uplifting, distorted yet clear, it delivers an almost transcendent experience that very few bands can manage.

If you’re a Canuck, you’re in luck – these guys are stomping the hell out of the home grounds. I hope those of us in the rest of the world are lucky enough to see them on tour some time soon.

 

8.5/10

 

PHILIP PAGE

 


Holy Serpent – Holy Serpent

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It probably says a lot more about my own musical preferences than any kind of emerging movement but I do seem to have spent an AWFUL amount of time during 2015 listening to doom metal. It seems that barely a week can pass without stumbling over another band gloriously in love with Black Sabbath and finding new ways to twist and subvert that great bands art and reputation for new audiences. Whilst I bow to no-one in my admiration for this, it can sometimes feel like deja-vu when another album arrives, replete with sixties styled album cover and riffs the size of ocean liners.

It was with this thought in mind and a degree of perhaps understandable trepidation that I approached the self-titled album from Holy Serpent. Before you assume that I’m about to get all cynical and hyper-critical can I indulge your patience and time a little longer, dear reader? Let me be clear; you need this record. You probably don’t think you do, but yes, yes you do. Holy Serpent are a class act. Trust me on this one – I promise you, you will thank me.

Melbourne’s Holy Serpent are at the very psychedelic end of the doom metal spectrum but what’s compelling about this record is it’s lightness of touch and graceful inspiration. The band’s low-end fuzziness is determined and hypnotic, coaxing the listener into a bliss-laden trance of metronomic brilliance. Clearly, like all doom metal bands, this is a band in love with Black Sabbath; what I was perhaps less expecting was a cumulative effect that was not dissimilar in its trippiness and woozy, aural dynamics that one gets from their fellow countrymen Tame Impala. Don’t get me wrong, these bands inhabit very different universes but their understanding of how to discombobulate the listener is clear and pronounced.

On the obviously drug induced ‘Shroom Doom’ or ‘Fools Gold’, there is a trance-like aesthetic running through the songs that is hard to resist, so we don’t, but more than that, Holy Serpent (RidingEasy) conjures a truckload of creative and innovative imagination and puts it firmly to good and effective use. On the eleven minute ‘The Plague’ you have a startling realisation of how ambitious this band are and then, once you factor in how young these guys are, the level of potential that they have is absolutely jaw dropping.

Holy Serpent are confident without being arrogant, respectful without being facsimile, trippy without being self-consciously arch. It’s a record that you will keep coming back to and a record that will easily sit alongside those from which it has taken its rich inspiration.

 

8.0/10

Holy Serpent on Facebook

 

MAT DAVIES


Wake Up Lucid – Gone With The Night (EP)

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Ye Gods, it’s The Strokes vs. The Ramones!

Let’s get something straight here – I do know the difference between a lo-fi production, and an inferior one. The latter is riddled with poor judgement and imbalance, and is a shocking crime deserving of heavier punishment than docked points in a review. So there. Thankfully there’s no such (lack of) quality afflicting the Gone With The Night EP (self-released) from Los Angeles trio of cousins Wake Up Lucid; just a delightfully warm fuzz leaving a layer of dust atop a seriously sleazy, often laconic sound. Riffs hit perfect time with hi-hats in the drifty yet energised Punk-Blues ballad ‘Let It Roll’, the descent of the lead riff producing a serious, irresistible cab hum.

Opener ‘White Collar Love’ is the definitive embodiment of the initial comparison: a twisty, laid-back, wasted Indie, drenched in that delicious fuzz, Ryan Baca‘s voice blending the drawl of Joey Ramone with Julian Casablancas‘ aural swagger and sexy grit; whilst lead flexings evoke Jet‘s similarly snot-nosed yet emotive irreverence. ‘Don’t Fear’, paradoxically, is a dreamy ballad, its attitude encased in the lazy yet plaintive melodic vocal; the twangy, sparing lead riff smacking beautifully of a Country Americana also reflected in the Acoustic Folk-driven, closing title track. It’s completely at odds with the waspish fizz, pummelling rhythms and anguished roars of the rolling, driving ‘I Want’ and it is this diversity, whilst still retaining the core sound of filthy old Blues Rock, that really gives these boys an added spark.

The deliberate, pensive ‘Get Fucked’, laden with psychedelic effects, lights up with wrought leadplay and a fiery, bitter vocal that ain’t a million miles away from Cobain country. The increasingly vital bassline and riff completes the most radio-friendly (despite the title) yet still credible rock sound I’ve heard for some time, and in the case of these naughty chaps that’s a good thing.

 

7.5/10

Wake Up Lucid on Facebook

 

PAUL QUINN

 

 

 

 


The Midnight Ghost Train – Cold Was The Ground

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Whatever their time machine of choice, be it hot tub, DeLorian, magic red shoes (what… they are from Kansas…) or a stack of records, power-trio The Midnight Ghost Train have reset their clocks and gate-crashed the peak of the arid desert rock party that was the late 90’s and returned with all the big phat riffs, albeit with a darker and more nihilistic tone to their narratives in comparison to their Californian cousins, on their third album, Cold Was The Ground (Napalm).

New bassist Mike Boyne, often taking the role of prominent protagonist, fuzzes languid moves underneath Sabbathian grooves, as unhurried guitars roll out riffs that could be out-takes from the recording sessions of Fu Manchu’s The Action Is Go (Mammoth), and there really is a feel of enjoyment of their craft and making it seem effortless both in construction and delivery of the rockier moments, a confident nonchalance that makes ‘BC Trucker’ and the roil of ‘No 227’ simple, enjoyable bluster, while ‘Straight To The North’ shows a doomier side, with a tale to be told.

There is a sand-gritty heavy blues overtone to Cold Was The Ground , while the Ben Ward-esque gruffness of vocalist Steve Moss is suitably brusque, adding to the lo-fi bar-brawl charm, and his rhythms, patterns and storytelling lock with the riffs in a manner reminiscent of Neil Fallon and Clutch, particularly on ‘The Canfield’.

The Midnight Ghost Train don’t tend to do complicated, but on ‘The Little Sparrow’, all bass meander and spoken word account of (I assume) Moss’ relationship with music and the downsides of being in a band, they show there is more than one hoss in this town, before the Kyussed to the max downtuned blues ‘Twin Souls’ rambles in.

While neither the most original nor most challenging of listens, Cold Was The Ground  is humble, modest, ramshackle and more than effective, with rockier tunes like ‘Gladstone’ and bluesier moments like instrumental ‘One Last Shelter’ showing that the desert is still an appealing place to get your rocks off.

 

7.0/10

The Midnight Ghost Train on Facebook

 

STEVE TOVEY