Desert Psychlist is bringing you something a little different today, something from a band who themselves are a little different. That something is "Grind House" the new album from Kansas City's Merlin, a band we have featured a few times on these pages. Merlin, Carter Lewis (guitar, synth, organ, orchestral arrangements, vocals); Caleb Wyels (drums, percussion, vocals); Joey Hamm (bass) and Jordan Knorr (lead vocals), are no ordinary outfit, they are a band who make music that blurs the borders between genres and styles, a band who may have popped their cherry playing heavy doomic music but have over the years taken their music in so many other directions. For their new release Merlin take a deep dive into the world of cinema the result of which is an album unlike anything they've attempted before.
Remember those times sitting in a cinema theatre waiting for the main feature and being bombarded by adverts extolling the virtues of local businesses and up coming events while ushers directed latecomers to their seats, well opening song "Feature Presentation" perfectly captures that experience with funky-lite guitar textures, cheesy organ flourishes and keyboard generated horns that then fade away to leave the sound of a rotating movie reel and those fondly remembered beeps that always signalled the end of such a segment, its so authentic you almost feel you should be listening with a tub of popcorn balanced on your knees. In 70's Britain we kids had a thing called Saturday Morning Pictures, parents would drop their kids off at the cinema knowing that for at least a couple of hours they could get a break from wiping snotty noses and bandaging scraped elbows, those Saturday mornings sitting in the dark would always start with an adventure movie and next track "Revenger" has that feel to it, an enthralling blend of Giorgio Moroder-like keyboard motifs and Kraftwerk like vocals underscored by a thrumming electronic pulses reminiscent of director/composer John Carpenter's best work. If you are going to make an album inspired by movies and movie soundtracks then you have to dip your toes into Blaxploitation and Merlin do just that with "Master Thief '77", its "Shaft" like lyrics (sung by guest vocalist Elizabeth Wyels) and its "Superfly" meets "Mission Impossible" groove is pure entertainment from start to finish. "Let's All Go To The Lobby" is reminiscent of the annoying tunes some cinema's would play mid show to get punters to buy more treats and sundries and although the song serves its purpose in the context of this album its still just as annoying. Next we have "Endless Calamity" a slow tension building opus that mirrors those intense moments before a big plot reveal when everything is coming together inside the audiences heads, the way Merlin have constructed and arranged this piece is pure genius, the band cleverly teasing us with a crescendo but then frustrating us by leaving us on a time honoured cliff-hanger. "Blood Money" feels like a complete Western movie score condensed down to just over six minutes, a song that reflects, postures and swoons in equal measure, a true homage to the the movies of Sergio Leonne, John Ford and Sam Peckinpah and the soundtrack compositions of Ennio Morricone, Elmer Bernstein and Dimitri Tiomkin. Final number "Grindhouse" is an epic twelve minute tome that in turns revisits and re-examines aspects of all that has gone before it while being routinely interrupted by audience noise and replays of the the opening presentation soundtrack, its a bit disjointed and unarguably weird but strangely compelling at the same time.
Merlin are like the Frank Zappa of their day, you won't get everything they do but you will get some of it and even those parts you don't get will still have you admiring the musicianship and the thought that has been put into those parts. "Grind House" is an eclectic and diverse album, weird and wacky and at times totally insane but it is also innovative, brave and quite brilliant, do not go expecting another "Christ Killer" or "Electric Children" this band have moved on a long way since then.
Check 'em out ...
© 2023 Frazer Jones
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