I love the pace and glorious chaos of "Control" - it's probably my favorite track here.
Then there’s a super slowed-down number, a cover of Lou Reed's “Shooting Star” that sounds like nothing so much as a doom rock take on Neil Young’s already slowed-down take on Don Gibson’s “Oh Lonesome Me”, only with a treated saxophone in the background (which eventually takes over the song for about a 45 second outro). And another motorik inspired cut, “We’re Both Lawyers” - an instrumental with some tasty, slowly building guitar solos over the barely-controlled tempo of the drumming, until it all speeds up and explodes, then settles back down into the slashing guitar lines that fade into a beeping synthesizer in the close-out. So, while it all fits nicely under the “psychedelic” label, there’s a good bit of variety here, and elements that make it worth coming back to - falsetto vocal choruses, short guitar solos, and a variety of synthesizer sounds pulse in and out of the steady, drum-driven rhythm.
The penultimate track, “Erasure”, delivers a rollicking 3:45 of drum and guitar blasts:
And the whole thing closes out, fittingly, with a 9:53 workout called "Gone" that includes all elements, including the sax, adding a bit of free jazz that, given everything that's come before, is not at all out of place. There's a lot of creativity here and some inspired playing, and the band claims as influences Bowie, Iggy Pop and Soft Machine. Given that this is their first album full of new (nothing from pre-recorded parts) music, it's evident how much fun they had putting this together. And it's a lot of fun to listen to. It’s out now from Reverberation Appreciation Society.
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