I like this album a lot. It has a lot of varied sounds from psychedelia to space rock and even things like King Crimson. It’s a compelling set that really just works quite well. It’s one I’m sure I’ll be listening to for years to come.
This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2014 Volume 6 at lulu.com/strangesound.
Track by Track Review
Down On Us
The first couple minutes of this are ambient, with weird sound effects serving as the premise. It’s almost like insects, but also mechanical. Then it powers out to some modern progressive rock sounds that seem to have elements of King Crimson and Djam Karet. The vocals bring it into more psychedelic territory. This piece is weird, but also quite cool.
Doppelganger Space elements start this. Then it works out with that and some psychedelia in the mix. In a lot of ways this is like a more psychedelic Hawkwind.
Dirty Little Homewrecker There is some dialog at the start of this. Then it launches into a hard edged, rather chaotic jam based on the same psychedelic space elements we’ve heard so far. That dialog continues as the piece works forward.
In Crowd I love the rocking groove on this piece. It’s very much a Hawkwind like thing. It’s a little punky at times. In some ways, it makes me think of “Silver Machine” a bit.
Odd A** Silence This is a noisy space rock instrumental. It’s short and tastefully weird.
Girl Like You The groove driving this is just so cool. It oozes with both space rock and psychedelia. It’s a lot of fun. There’s more of a sparse electronic space section later in the track. That dissolves to spacey psychedelic weirdness. Then it eventually powers back up into the song proper.
Baxty This is hard edged, weird space rock. It’s got a lot of odd elements to it. Yet, it works really well. It gets just a bit a parental advisory on the lyrics. Some of the mellower sections include some symphonic things. As odd as this is, it’s compelling.
Eroica Horns Noisy, backwards tracked and strange, this instrumental seems to go on way too long as far as I’m concerned. It’s too repetitive and tedious. The forward moving space at the end, though, helps to redeem it.
Magnetic Amphibian Hydrated Gills This is arguably the strangest thing here. It’s noisy and quite strange. It has a rocking kind of vibe and almost some Latin sounds at times. Horns are included in the mix here. This gets noisy and punky at times. It’s crazy stuff.
Feeding Friendzy Here we get a mellower and more melodic space rock number. It’s got a lot of Hawkwind like elements at play, but it’s not a Hawk-clone by any means.
The Pit out Back Punk and Hawkwind-like space music merge on this cut. It’s high energy and pretty cool. There is a spoken section later that is backed by some especially Hawkwind-like music. It gets pretty crazed after that segment.
Doppelganger’s Doppelganger Weird sound effects start this. Then it moves out to an instrumental that’s got a lot of bluegrass along with psychedelia. Musically, it feels like the old kids song, “There’s a Hole in the Bucket.” This is fairly short and a bit of sound like a needle dropping onto the start of a worn record ends it.
