OCCULT WISDOM ~ Heavy psych trio release debut album

When Dzjenghis Khan guitarist Spencer Grau and Chief Nowhere drummer Andy Campanella got together with David Calder Ure (bass) there was never any doubt in their mind in which direction they wanted to take Occult Wisdom. Having been schooled in the sounds of bands as diverse as British 60/70's underground heroes Hawkwind  and The Pink Fairies through to current stoners Dead Meadows and QOTSA, Occult Wisdom were always going to play it psychedelic and slightly left of centre

NOTE: David Calder Ure although playing on "Occult Wisdom" has now departed and has been replaced by Donovan Jesus Hernandez

 "Occult Wisdom" is a sprawling monster of an album that takes in all those elements from the bands mentioned earlier but mixes them all together in a unique blend of yesterday and today.
Songs like "Reflections On Elephants" and  "Canned Man" show that this band are not ones to be stuck in the rut of verse/chorus/verse, no these guys like to mix it up a bit by adding moods and colours with subtle, and sometimes, brutal changes of pace and time signatures, going off in tangents of glorious psychedelic madness, bringing it all back to the song just as you start to think they've  lost their way . Add to this the mixture of lone and harmonised vocals combined with scintillating guitar solos and tight rhythms and what you have is an album that although references the past is wholly original in its delivery and content.

If you are a fan of intelligent, articulate music that likes to push the boundaries a little but you also like your grooves to be a little down and dirty and fuzzed around the edges then you won't do better than  Occult Wisdom.