We at Desert Psychlist will admit to feeling a sense of pride when a band from our home country starts to garner praise and plaudits from an international audience and that pride has never been more felt than when promos of UK stoner/grungers Erronaut's debut album "The Space Inbetween" (London Doom Collective) started circulating among the underground scenes movers and shakers and was met with the sort of positive reactions usually reserved for more established bands. The band, Mikey Ward (vocals/guitar); Pete Hunt (guitar); Simon Wilson (bass) and Sam Gates (drums), hail from the UK's home county of Hertfordshire and cite all the usual 70's big guns as being influences on their sound but also readily acknowledge bands from Seattle's alt-metal and Palm Desert's stoner/desert scenes as being an inspiration. Admittedly there are a ton of bands out there employing a similar blending of musical styles but there is something about the way Erronaut put those styles together that makes them a little bit different and maybe just a little bit special.
As its title suggests space, in all its meanings, is the theme at the heart of the ten compositions that make up "The Space Inbetween" and it is a theme that that permeates not just the albums lyrical content but also the albums overall sound and musical feel, even the extremely brief opening number "5.68º N 98.54º E", with its radio transmitted narration crackling out over droning noise, possesses an air of vastness and spaciousness. Things get properly underway with the "Way Down Below", the song kicks off with drummer Gates beating out a tribalistic tattoo which is then joined by guitarists Ward and Hunt and bassist Wilson in a groove that has all the hallmarks of doom but due to its airy production values, and the musicians reluctance to go overboard with crunch and distortion, feels slightly less cloying and claustrophobic, a factor helped out by Ward's melodic and slightly wearied clean vocals. Space often equates to cosmic and there is an undeniably cosmic feel to next track "Lost Cause" the songs heavily phased guitar tones and slightly echoed lead and harmonised vocals adding a certain gravitas to the songs lyrical tale of confusion and disillusionment. "Per Contra" follows, its grungy desert rock groove supporting a swinging if somewhat gritty vocal melody enhanced by guitar textures that in places border on post-metallic. We get a brief moment of instrumental respite with the spacious and hazy "Echoes Inside" before its all aboard the grungy doom train again for the low slow. slightly angst ridden, and atmospheric "1202". Phased out guitar riffage returns for the circular feeling "Underneath the Sun" a song with a Dopelord meets Bush feel (well to our ears anyway) then its on to "Dark Horizon" a song that sees Erronaut mixing their grunge with their stoner and sprinkling a generous helping of spacious doom over its top. Erronaut finish off their debut with two connected songs "Beyond Sleep I: The Insomnia" and "Beyond Sleep II: The Subconscious Decompression" the former a doom/grunge hybrid sporting lilting sometimes gritty melodic vocals sung over a backdrop of post-metallic guitar textures, the latter a Floydian flavoured instrumental boasting Gilmour-esque lead work.
© 2024 Frazer Jones
No comments:
Post a Comment