Followers/fans of Sheffield, UK's hard rocking groovsters Regulus might want to take a moment to check out guitarist Luke Jennings other combo Deltanaut, a mainly instrumental trio, formed with Santiago Kings bassist Niall Kingdom and fellow Regulus drummer Joe Milburn whose sound is, in Jennings words, "very much on the psychedelic end of stoner rock". The band are about released their debut album "Part 1" on an unsuspecting world (June 29 2018) so let's see how psychedelic their end of stoner rock actually gets..
"Bells of the Skychurch" kicks things of in fine lysergic style with Jennings heavily effected guitar, sounding very much like a Jew's Harp, reverberating over a deliciously seductive Kingdom bass line superbly backed by Milburn's solid and effective drumming. Laid back and dreamy seems to be the initial vibe here but Deltanaut don't want their listeners to getting too comfortable and so into the mix they throw elements of stoner raunch, bluesy bluster and metallic crunch and it is this blend of hard rocking grit and lysergic gentleness that makes this song and the other four songs on "Part 1" such an enthralling and satisfying listen. Deltanaut are not a band who put up signposts indicating the directions their songs will take, there is an unpredictable element to Deltanaut's grooves that surprises and amazes at every turn. Take "Horror Vacul" for instance, its crashing hard rock beginnings leading the listener into believing that he/she will be taken on a raucous ride of crunching riffage and punishing rhythms to a noisy final crescendo only find themselves suddenly and unexpectedly confronted, mid song, by ambient shards of chordal colouring, liquid bass and jazzy percussion with no prior indication beforehand that this would be the case. The band repeat this trick on "Jam ∞", "Deltanaut" and "Sorceress" to great effect, pulling the listener in one direction then suddenly yanking them in another the next and in doing so maintaining the listeners interest and underlining the fact that with this band you cannot take anything for granted.
Beautiful, brittle, bruising and brilliant are all descriptions you could throw at "Part 1" and each one has its place somewhere on this sprawling and quite wonderful release. Deltanaut's end of stoner rock is, on the evidence here, very psychedelic indeed.
Check it out ….
© 2018 Frazer Jones
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