JERKY DIRT ~ THE TALE OF TIMPSON SQUIRE ..... review

Jerky Dirt are a band from Nottingham, UK and have just released their debut album "The Tale of Timpson Squire",other than that Desert Psychlist has no other information to impart to you dear reader except to tell you that this a band with an album that, in our opinion, needs to be investigated.

"Quirky" is word often associated with Queens of the Stone Age, and other Josh Homme side projects, mainly due to their use of off kilter rhythms and diverse themes and motifs, quirky in Jerky Dirt's case however is a whole different ball game. There is a certain Englishness to what these Nottingham psychonauts do that although has a similar desert footing to Homme's work also has touch of the whimsical and the eccentric to its sonic attack, a sound that has more in common with UK psych/folk proggers Wolf People than it has with QOTSA. Jerky Dirt combine early Floydian psych with its modern underground stonerized equivalent then salt the resulting mix with elements of lysergic folk and experimental pop tinted shoegaze to create a sound that has a totally unique and highly enjoyable groove. Songs like "New Wave", "Magic Roundabout" and "Kill The Idols" pop and fizz with distortion and fuzz and are overlaid with cool clean, clipped and very English sounding harmonies and lead vocals but it is the way the band offset their more stonier endeavours with those of a more organic earthier feel that really impresses. to quote the lyrics from "Eternal Youth" these guys really "kick that old guitar into overdrive"
Check it out ….

© 2018 Frazer Jones

FORMING THE VOID ~ RIFT ...... review

It only seems like five minutes since Forming The Void's guitarist/vocalist, James Marshall got in touch with Desert Psychlist to point us in the direction of his bands debut release "Skywards", that was in 2015 and since that time the band have released a second album, "Relic", plus a split with Houston outfit Pyreship, all of which has culminated in positive reviews from publications as influential as Classic Rock, Metal Sucks and CVLT Nation. After wowing audiences across the USA with their brand of huge sounding prog tinted sludgy doom and stoner metal the band returned to the studio this year with a new drummer and a pocketful full of new ideas to record their third album "Rift" on Kozmic Artifactz (due to be released on August 17 2018).

Losing a member of your band can sometimes result in a complete and utter change of dynamic in said bands sound and style so when Forming The Void parted ways with their drummer, Jelly Boyd, prior to recording their new album, it was with a modicum of trepidation that Desert Psychlist approached their latest release "Rift". Thankfully we needn't have worried ,the addition of White Light Cemetery's Thomas Colley as a replacement drummer may have brought differences to Forming The Void's sound but those differences are subtle and totally in keeping with the musical vision original members, James Marshall (guitar/vocals), Shadi Omar Al-Khansa (guitar),and Luke Baker (bass), explored on previous releases. If you have followed Forming The Void's career since their inception you will know to expect huge swathes of growling stonerized prog and sludge metal offset by moments of lysergic tranquillity and swirling ambience, "Rift" does not disappoint in any of those departments, in fact it would not be wrong to say that there is probably far more growl and far more tranquillity going on here than they have ever delivered before. Marshall's trademark monotone bellow, always a highlight of any Forming The Void release, on "Rift", sounds bigger, rounder and a little more cultured on this latest outing, Marshall croons, growls and bellows over the huge walls of crunching riffage, scorching complex solo's and glistening motifs that he and fellow axe-slinger Al-Khansa bring to the table, his voice competing ,and just about winning, against an onslaught of pulverising fretboard wizardry that is at times breathtaking. Beneath this whirlwind of low slung guitar pyrotechnics and monolithic vocal gymnastics Colley and Baker provide the heartbeat that drives each of "Rift's" seven songs, the pairing steering Forming The Void's grooves through a myriad of differing dynamics and tempos, creating an array of complex and diverse rhythmic platforms for Marshall and Al-Khansa to build upon with a plethora of six-string texturing and colour.

Massive sounding doomic grooves shaded in psychedelic hues and coated in a sheen of metallic prog intricacy make "Rift" not only one of the most anticipated albums of the year but also one of the most enjoyable.
Check it out ….

© 2018 Frazer Jones

MILK WHITE THROAT ~ HOUSE OF FIRE .... review

Brighton, UK holds a special place in Desert Psychlist's heart as it was the scene of one of the Psychlist's most drunken and debauched weekends on this planet, but that aside it is also the home of an exciting band going by the name Milk White Throat, a trio consisting of Guillaume Croizon (drums), Tom Humphrey (guitars, vocals) and Brian Thomas (vocals, bass) who are just about to release, onto an unsuspecting public, their latest EP "House of Fire".(3/8/2018).

Skill and quality are not commodities you can easily fake and Milk White Throat demonstrate, over the course of the three songs that make up "House on Fire", that they have both in abundance. As the first, chiming and heavily effected opening notes of "Future History" ring out the listener is left in no doubt of which direction this band are coming from, the songs complex but articulate guitar work, played over a background of liquid deep bass and intricate percussion and coated in clean impassioned vocals, marks this out,if not straightforwardly so, as prog metal or at the very least prog(ish) metal. Now there will be some who will, seeing the word "prog", immediately stop reading and go looking for something a touch more primal, well those that are maybe thinking along those lines should hold their horses for a second or two and delve a little deeper into Milk White Throat's sonic palette. Yes there are a huge prog(ish) elements to be found here, when you have three musicians of this calibre those elements are bound to float to the top, however there is also enough metal to overload a magnet and enough stoner grit to lay a path with. This mix of complexity and metallic growl is perfectly showcased on the EP's second track "House of Fire" a sprawling and undulating sonic journey that gently lifts you up into tranquil blue skies one minute then plummets you into the pits of a metallic hell the next. "Nearly Alive" follows and closes the EP with a hell for leather prog/sludge/heavy metal romp that is as complex as it is brutal, the band ramping up their metallic side to overload and taking off on all sorts of weird and wonderful musical tangents before slowly fading things into silence.

Desert Psychlist's tale, eluded to in this pieces intro, comes under the heading "what happens in Brighton stays in Brighton" Milk White Throat's story on the other hand, and if there is any justice in this world, says "Today Brighton, tomorrow the World"
Check 'em out ….

© 2018 Frazer Jones

BLACK ELEPHANT ~ COSMIC BLUES .... review

"The Blues" gets a little maligned outside of its own genre, many believing it is a style of music that has seen its best days and should retire to the Sunnyside Home for Old Music (that doesn't actually exist by the way). Wrong, wrong. WRONG, the blues has never been more alive, more vital and more exciting than it is today with bands like All Them Witches, Youngblood Supercult and Blues Pills, among many others, taking the form twisting it and turning it to suit their own purposes and then presenting it as something fresh and new.
Add to this list Black Elephant, Alessio Caravalli (guitar/vocals), Max Giacosa (guitar), Simone Brunzu (drums) and Marcello De Stefanis (bass), a quartet from Savona, Italy in whose hands the blues have found a safe and loving home and who have just released their latest collection of songs "Cosmic Blues" (Small Stone Records).

The blues, in a rock context, just doesn't seem to work without a fiery guitarist left of stage throwing shapes and scorching the air with fret burning solos,licks and riffs and Black Elephant are no exception, only this band have two of them! On songs like "Cosmic Soul", "Walking Dead" and "Baby Eroina" this pairing of almost opposing guitar tones pays huge dividends with Caravelli and Giacosa not so much trading off or syncing their tones as weaving them in and around each other. Of course this would not be possible without a red hot rhythm section creating the grooves for them to decorate and in Brunzu and De Stefanis Black Elephant have a rhythm section able to switch from subtle and complimentary to full on and driving in a heartbeat, the bassist and drummer the glue holding everything together. As well as holding down guitar duties Caravelli also handles the vocals on five of "Cosmic Blues" seven songs ( "Chase Me" and the excellent "Cosmic Blues for Solitary Moose" both being instrumentals), his gruff, clean voice booms with raw power above the gritty stonerized delta grooves beneath them and although are far from what one would call traditional nevertheless bring an air of bluesy authenticity to everything they touch.

Black Elephant's "Cosmic Blues" is a stunningly superb album, delivered by a band totally at the top of their game and is one that reinvigorates a genre that has had some bad press of late. And so it's time we retracted those obituaries and refilled the grave hole with earth because the blues 'aint dead, or smelling funny, its alive and well and on holiday in Italy.
Check it out …..

© 2018 Frazer Jones

LàGOON ~ L'AFFAIRE DES POISONS ...review

Back in the day, when this writer still had a full head of hair and aches only lasted a day, duos only came in the form of acoustic folk artists and bluesmen, then along came The White Stripes with their electric guitar and drums combination and suddenly amplified electric duos were everywhere. Nowadays it is almost as common to find a two man,/two women,/mixed sex duo strutting their stuff  on the rock scene as it is the more traditional quartets and trio's. The underground doom/stoner scene, never a place to fall behind a trend, has had its fair share of duos in recent years with Iowa's Telekinetic Yeti and Seattle's Year of the Cobra leading the way, both bands creating huge walls of sound with minimum instrumentation.
One of the latest pairings to take up the duo torch and run with it are the Portland, Oregon twosome Anthony Gaglia (guitar/vocals) and Brady Maurer (drums) who have just released their second full release "L'affaire de Poisons" under the collective name of LàGoon.

For just two people LàGoon create a hell of a lot of noise, Gaglia's thick and sticky guitar refrains thrum and growl like an overloaded power cable on the verge of tearing apart while Maurer hits everything in sight with a ferocity that is almost primal. The bands sound falls somewhere between doomic low and slow and punkish aggression, the duo jamming grooves that although are heavy do not fall into the trap of being overly brutal and are balanced out by Gaglia's sneering and snotty vocals, the guitarists tones reminiscent of those found fronting many of NewYork's aspiring new wave /punk bands in the early to mid 70's. LàGoon demonstrate with "L'affaire des Poisons" that not only do they have the necessary musical chops to please the riff lovers and groove guru's out there but also that they have the songs into which they can insert those chops. Songs with titles like "Street Freaks", "Kill The Messenger" and "Distant Enemy" fizz and pop with a punkish energy yet are underscored with a dark doomic undercurrent that makes each song swing as much as it disturbs. Imagine, if you can the Stooges stripped down to a two piece jamming Kyuss songs and you might just get a grasp of what LàGoon are all about.

LàGoon's blustering fuzz drenched rock, with its doomic underbelly and garage rock attitude, is both highly enjoyable and strangely addictive and given that this is just two men with a guitar and a drum kit it is also deceptively and suprisingly loud and heavy.
Check 'em out …..

© 2018 Frazer Jones

#Vinyl format through Norwegian Blue Records is planned for release in October 2018

THE GREAT ELECTRIC QUEST ~ CHAPTER II: OF EARTH ..... review

If there was an award for the hardest working band in rock music then San Diego, California riff merchants The Great Electric Quest have got to be considered as serious contenders, there doesn't seem a day goes by without hearing about them ripping up the stage at some venue somewhere or other in the USA. With their unbelievable work ethic and busy touring schedule you would think it pretty difficult for such a hard working band to actually find the time to head into the studio and record a new album, luckily for us that is exactly what they have managed to do, the results of which can be heard on "Chapter II: Of Earth".(Totem Cat Records)

Rock'n'roll should be fun, yes it should be sometimes intense, questioning and thought provoking just not all the time, for every Rush there should be a T.Rex, for every Dream Theatre a Motorhead and for every YOB a The Great Electric Quest. There is a sense of ballsy hell for leather attitude about what TGEQ do, a feeling that even if the apocalypse was predicted for tomorrow these guys would be planning for the after party. This feeling of "joie de vivre" is reflected throughout the seven songs on "Chapter II: Of Earth", it can be found in the tribal driven and WAH drenched "Seeker of the Flame", in the drum and guitar showcase that is "Of Earth: Episode 1" and even in the torch like dynamics of "Heart of the Sun". These guys have come a long way since their 2016 debut album "Chapter 1" and have matured both as songwriters and musicians, where on their debut there was a tendency for the band to overplay their hand instrumentally here the emphasis is on playing for the song instead of despite of it. Guitar god in the making Buddy Donner reins in his shredding chops on "Chapter II..." and plays more "inside" the songs on offer, the guitarist, along with his usual finger blurring solos and tasteful licks, bringing elements of both texture and colour to the table. The biggest surprise of "Chapter II..." however comes in the shape of Tyler "TSweat" Dingvell's vocals, always an impressive vocalist here Dingvell takes things to the next level, smooth and rich on less abrasive songs like "The Madness" commanding and powerful with a gritty edge on the more metallic songs like "Anubis"and "Wicked Hands" he brings an added level of gravitas to each songs lyrics on "Chapter II..." and gives his best studio performance to date. Driving these grooves of stonerized hard rock and classic rock/metal are Daniel "Muchodrums" Velasco (drums) and Jared Bliss (bass) the pair expertly supporting Donner and Dingvell's fretboard and vocal pyrotechnics with array of pulverising  metallic groove and laid back rhythmic dynamics, locking in with the vocalist and guitarist to complete what is a very tasty musical jigsaw.

TGEQ hold quite a unique place in today's underground scene the San Diego quartet are neither a fuzz drenched stoner outfit, a retro classic rock combo or a heavy metal band yet at the same time they are all of these things, the band standing at a crossroads where all these genres meet, cherrypicking what they need from each and blending them into an enthralling hybrid that is part nostalgic and part fresh and new. "Chapter II: Of Earth" is an album that shows a band moving in the right direction, maturing in both writing and arrangement yet maintaining their sense of fun by not getting overly complicated and intense,  a band still preparing for the end of the world by ordering another round of drinks
Check it out …

© 2018 Frazer Jones

MAN IN THE WOODS ~ BADLANDS: PART 1 ....... review

Almost dead centre between Northern Ireland and England, surrounded by the cold waters of the Irish Sea, lies an island, an island with a mix of both Nordic and Celtic heritage, an island the locals know as "Manx", an island we from the outside know as the Isle of Man. The Isle of Man has never been much known for its musical exports, its only claim to musical fame being that all three of the Bee Gees were born there, but that might all be about to change with the emergence of a four piece Manx quartet going by the name Man in the Woods, Marc Vincent (bass/vocals, James Oxtoby (guitar), Dave Murray (guitar) and Christian Hardman (drums),who have just released their debut EP "Badlands: Part 1".

The addition of "Part 1" to this EP's title suggests to Desert Psychlist there is a distinct possibility of a future "Part 2" and that, readers, is the first piece of good news in a review brimming over with good news. Ok we are getting a little ahead of ourselves here so lets take a moment and examine why the prospect of another release from a band who have only just released their debut is such a mouth-watering prospect.
Shimmering guitar arpeggios picked over a backdrop of thrumming bass introduce first track "Icarus Landing"  going slightly askew and dissonant as the song progresses then fading away briefly before reappearing, drums in tow, to explode into a huge sludgy desert groove overlaid with big throaty vocals. The songs aggressive, full on attack, tempered by Oxtoby and Murray's deft guitar work and driven by Vincent and Hardman's bass and drums, has a dynamic somewhere between heavy desert rock and swampy sludge and sits probably closer to the latter mainly due to Vincent's big throaty vocals, the bassist/vocalist sounding on occasions like a pissed off bear with a toothache. Next track "Speedeater" sees Man in the Woods initially jamming an up-tempo stoner/desert groove but as the song progresses this gradually makes way, mid section, for a dark doomic interlude that finds Hardman laying down an almost tribal beat over low, droning bass and guitars before the song returns full circle to it's desert root to take things to the close. "Toxicology" is up next and its cloth is cut a little slower and a little less in your face than its predecessor with Vincent telling us "I'm no good" over a low, but not slow, backdrop of grizzled bass and crashing percussion fractured with swirling dark guitar colouring, the song dropping down mid song  into a short but totally effective lysergic groove before exploding back into life for the finale. Final song "Angel of Gasoline" goes straight for the throat, the song taking "Badlands: Part 1" to its close on waves of raucous circular riffage, hard edged rhythms and screaming guitar solos all topped off by Vincent's meaty,rasping vocal tones.

There is a bridge on the Isle of Man that is known as the "Fairy Bridge" and to cross this bridge without first greeting the fairies is said to bring bad luck. Well if this legend has any grain of truth in it then Man in the Woods must have, before going into the studio to record "Badlands: Part 1", not only said hello to these magical folk but also given them an almighty hearty hug.
Check it out ….

© 2018 Frazer Jones