If you're a fan of overblown druggy chaos in music, whether it's Acid Mothers Temple, and the overwhelming sound of Kawabata's guitar-Overlord overload; or the reverb 'n' echo laden narcotised dub-noise stomp of Terminal Cheesecake; or the righteous holler of prime Comets On Fire; or hell even the dirgey lo-fi wierdness of Twin Infinitives era Royal Trux - if that kinda stuff takes yr fancy then Californians Residual Echoes' self-titled debut WILL rock your dirty little head full of smoke-addled synapses.
Things proceed with a Fuck Buttons-esque pulsing and some radio-sounding chatter, before a clattering of drums lurch and tumble before gradually forming into a coherent driving rhythm, around which forms clusters of various bleeps and squeals... tension and release as the drums settle into a steady snare bash... the riff emerges from the soup, the vocals are all yelp and slur, the band sounds like it's playing in a giant biscuit tin somewhere deep unnerground...about half way in and we've calmed down to a lazy, watery jam, frazzled quasi blues, bubbling and buzzing along, before the final passage returns to more sonic maelstrom. Screaming distorted wind instrumentation and random crackles and pops see out the first number, and it should be obvious to anyone in the know by now where this here ride is going to take us.
The album continues in this vein; ultra lo-fi basement noodlings, interludes of Kosmische style drone, frantic drums, storming passages of scuzzy flanged and phased psyche-stomp erupting from the murk. Vocals indistinct and unfathomable. Space-blues-noise improv. This bunch really know how to lock down a groove when they need to pull some form out of the roiling mass though, and boy are they having a ball doing it.
A must for fans of the above, and anyone who likes the idea of throwing Midnite Snake and Cave into some kind of sonic blender and snorting the results.
90%
