Smoke, Dalton (guitar/vocals); Ben (guitar); Alex (drums) and Braxton (bass), hail from Virginia, an area of the United States with a rich and varied musical history that has given the world artists ranging from jazz legend Ella Fitzgerald to Clutch's Neil Fallon. Obviously Smoke have not been around long enough to even come close to reaching the heady heights of those two names mentioned but with their debut album "Groupthink" just released these Virginians may soon see some well deserved attention coming their way.
Smoke's sound is probably one of the hardest Desert Psychlist has had to describe on these pages and this is because Smoke do not really conform to any one style or genre. Take opening title song "Groupthink" for instance, here is a song that has more variants than a virus, its musical gearbox shifting from monastic voiced low slow stoner doom through head spinning psych to swampy space rock all in the space of just over six minutes, its a trip from start to finish and one well worth the undertaking. "Temple" on the other hand begins with an almost Colour Haze-like vibe with slightly phased vocals incanted over hazy lysergic grooves before exploding into something more akin to heavy grunge with the vocals taking on a much more anguished and angsty tone .Epic centrepiece "One Eyed King" seems to be a merging of Manga fantasy and a play on the old adage "in the country of the blind, the one eyed man is king" set around a groove that is constantly swinging between languid and blustering while "Davidian" finds the band taking a (sweet) leaf out of Black Sabbath's book by jamming a lysergic laced "Planet Caravan" style groove for much of the songs duration but then sprinting to the close on a wave of heavy bluesy bluster, Next up is "The Son of Man" a song that after its hazy opening morphs into a swaggering behemoth that lurches and lumbers with an angsty grungy doominess and sees the singer spitting out lyrical pearls of schizophrenic wisdom such as "I have collected broken discarded things pieced together in the image of me, a mirror reflecting a mirror reflecting a mirror, staring for eternity", in wearied venomous tones. If Smoke's genre defying dynamics haven't quite confused you by now then the bands penultimate song "Supplication of Flame", with its its lilting vocals floating over a gloriously heady mix of acoustic doom, Americana and folk, most certainly will. Final song "TELAH" is a quirky off-kilter but totally compelling tome that boasts ear catching guitar motifs, spoken word passages and vocal harmonies decorating an ever changing backdrop of rhythms and tempos, it is the perfect full stop to an album that never stops giving and keeps you guessing right up to its very last note.
Smoke have with ""Groupthink" crafted something very special, an album packed with tunes unhampered by genre, style or fashion that occupy a space between lysergic exploration and blustering heaviness, it is a space uniquely their own and one you will never get tired of visiting.
Check it out
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