May 8, 2008

The Black Angles - Directions To See A Ghost (2008)

I am always a little skeptical of contemporary psychedelic rock bands; however, I am always psyched on bands with female drummers. The Black Angels tackle a genre of music that when in the wrong hands can very easily make for boring, repetitive and forgettable albums, that have a tendency to be noticed only by those who have a retrospective appreciation of music, or a taste for home-cooked hallucinogens. Directions To See A Ghost mixes the trippy LSD laden flavors of Jefferson Airplane's psychedelic folk rock, The Velvet Underground's psychedelic garage rock, and The Doors' psychedelic pop rock (the vocal tones mimic Morrison's at times) into a concoction that is both nostalgic and scintillating. I admit that this album does have the drone and buzz that is typical of the genre—which alone can be enough to turn some people away—and at times wanders deep into the psychedelic woods, but I feel that The Black Angels revert to enough discernible pop-based hooks to be appreciated by even those who normally shy away from psychedelia. This is one of the best neo-psychedelic albums I have heard in quite a while, and the fact that The Black Angels are anchored by a female drummer only makes it that much more awesome.

Enjoyable trip tracks: "You In Color," "You On The Run," & "Deer-Ree-Shee"

Watch this for a sampling of their sound from their first album, Passover:

3 Comments:

sandenuts said...

Sweet review man, after watching that video I might have to go to REI and pick up some heavy duty umbrellas*. I also liked the comparrison to Morrisson, I picked up on that as well. Dude, you could have mentioned that the drummer has a pretty face, which makes her even more hot by times a million.

*Okay, maybe not, as of 6 beers I cannot even read this stupid word verification thing. Is that a W or a V and a Y really close together?

Nightrain said...

I understand your point, (duly noted) but I didn't want to make a superficial comment that would ultimately take away from the focus and my point that chick drummers are rad whether or not they have statuesque bone structure, sultry eyes, and pouty lips.

That's just one man's opinion.

Doctor Diggs said...

i need to buy a laptop so i can enjoy these music reviews better and experiece the audio/visual action without risk of getting in trouble at work. but in the end, the entertainment/info i get reading is worth every cent of company time wasted. my first review of the slackers show should be coming shortly.