Each week I am going to write a short (under 200 word) review for an album from my collection chosen at random by iTunes. You can expect anything from Slayer to Salmonella Dub to (Ravi) Shankar and that is all part of the fun. Enjoy.
Week 2: The Black Angels – Directions To See A Ghost (2008)
Country: USA / Psychedelic, Rock, Retro
The Black Angels hail from Texas and make music as bleak as their name suggests. Their style of claustrophobic rock owes a debt to the Velvet Underground (the band are in fact named after a VU song) and the darker side of 60s psychedelics. Walls of ominous guitars, reverberating vocals, washed-out keyboards, and even sitars layer and build to blanket each song in a permanent narcotic haze. Directions To See A Ghost, the band’s second album, starts on a menacing note with ‘You On The Run’ and the atmosphere of existential panic does not subside throughout the entire album. ‘Never/Ever’ owes more than a passing debt to The Doors’ bad-trip baiting opus ‘The End’. These songs are tribal and visceral but not at the expense of creative a cohesive sonic vision. In fact by the time the album ends, after the grueling 16 minute ‘Snake In The Grass’, you might feel a twinge of unfamiliarity with your surroundings. You have been on a journey through the nether regions of the soul only to return to exactly where you are. Your enjoyment of this album depends on your tolerance for oppressive sonic textures and feel-bad vibes.
Rating: B-
For fans of: The Velvet Underground, The Warlocks, 13th Floor Elevators
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