No ... it’s not mono garage psych crawling across your musical threshold as Them [with Van Morrison] did back in 1966, riveting you in place with “Mystic Eyes”; though should you momentarily time-slip, that’s all the better. Christian Bland [of The Black Angels] and Lee Blackwell [of Night Beats] open a door to a room filled with indulgences, delivering hazy neo-psychedelic meanderings that sound as if they’ve been channeled in on a vacuum tubed radio who’s signal has shifted due to atmospheric conditions, beaming in an aery of songs, some filled with illusive tinny guitar gestures and nonchalant deliveries, while others are full and rich, enticing, walking a fine line between reality and a dream.
Take “Bo Diddley Was The 7th Son” ... it’s musically keyed to the original take of “Who Do You Love” while paying homage to the song “7th Son,” delivered uptempo, cutting, and filled with so much fire and negro [to us a bygone jargon draw from the 60’s] dance beats you’ll wish it would never end. Other songs such as “John The Cat,” harken back to Syd Barrett and “Lucifer Sam,” but take the song one step over the line, filling it with more imagery and magic than Owsley could have conjured from a sparkling vat of Lysergic 25. Yes there is even a cutting edge and brilliantly short take on The Rolling Stones’ “This Could Be The Last Time,” and an unexpected version of The Ronettes “Be My Baby” ... a group Christian’s been smitten with as of late.
The duo seem not lost, but searching for that explored side street that will allow them to re-imagine the music of the late 50’s and early 60’s though the prism of the Summer of Love, and dilated eyes ... presenting an intoxicating combination of guitar work that may have you thinking they’ve discovered some missing Pink Floyd material, and it's being handed to us without reservation, just some magnificent revisions.
Interview with Christian Bland of The Black Angels.
Review made by Jenell Kesler / 2012
© Copyright http://psychedelicbaby.blogspot.com / 2012
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