Hour of Power 02/02/13 (playlist)

Highlights from the week of 01/27/13 - 02/02/13

First off, thanks to Mats from Ozium Records for bending my ear towards the blistering sounds of Mushroom Caravan Overdrive who start this week's Hour of Power.  MCO are yet another collection of heavy / hard rock giants from Sweden.  It's getting really boring to say/hear that "{insert band name} are yet another great band from Sweden."  Ho hum.  This video is a few months old but it's new to me.  After that we've got a pair of new tunes from some great heavy bands. "Submissive to Evil" by Vestal Claret, featuring the vocal talents of Phil Swanson (Hour of 13, Seamount), from their new album 'Bloodbath' which comes out next week and "Bright Land - Black Death" by Pet The Preacher from their new double EP 'Short Stories', which doesn't have an official release date as of yet, but be on the look-out for that one come Spring.  After that we run down a quartet of review highlights from this week including tunes by Bright Curse, Cpt. Kronos, It's Not Night: It's Space and Stone Machine Electric.  Sometimes I really wish I wasn't so hopeless with this youtube thing so I could upload some videos myself.  Maybe one day I will, maybe one day soon ... Last but not least, a new doom band in the shape of Mount Salem grab a spot on the playlist with "Hysteria", which is currently streaming on bandcamp and will be available on the band's 'Endless EP' in about three weeks hence and I thought that the title track from Dawn of the Dead (which I discussed in this week's mailbag) would make a good follow-up to Mount Salem and a good outro.  Enjoy ...

1. Psychedelic Lady (Mushroom Caravan Overdrive) 2012
2. Submissive To Evil (Vestal Claret / Bloodbath) 2013
3. Bright Land - Black Death (Pet The Preacher / Short Stories: Papa Zen & Meet the Creature) 2013
4. The Hermit (Bright Curse / ST) 2012
5. A Criminal Mind (Cpt. Kronos / The Invocation EP) 2012
6. Blue Mountain Freedom (It's Not Night: It's Space / Bowing Not Knowing To What) 2012
7. Hypocrite Christ [live] (Stone Machine Electric / ST) 2013
8. Hysteria (Mount Salem / Endless EP) 2013
9. L'Alba Dei Morti Viventi (Goblin / Zombi) 1978

Stone Machine Electric - ST (album review)

Stone Machine Electric have been hanging around the outskirts of the underground stoner doom scene for a couple years now, refining, polishing and honing their skills.  The time has finally come for the duo of Dub (guitars, vocals) and Kitchens (drums) to unleash their helping of Texas psychedelic blues upon the world at large (the sheer physical presence of the band has grown by as much as 33% since the recording of this album to include Mark Cook [bass] in early December!).  It should be noted early that the album was recorded and mixed by Kent Stump of Wo Fat as his fingerprints seem to be all over this album.

Guitar wanders in and out of the general mix, free to roam like a hippie child.  Ideas and sketchy moments abound creating a full and busy atmosphere.  Structures are fluid and complex rarely settling in to anything one would recognize as habitable. Opening track "Mushroom Cloud" sets the table with a song structure that could only have resulted from the decimation of such a blast as the song's subject.  Empty, eerie and expansive wastelands of wah bass dominate the landscape from horizon to horizon, the largely instrumental song bookended by verses.  Stone Machine Electric like to jam and explore, leading one to believe that they must write their music in the same way Stump & co. do in Wo Fat, by endless jamming, adding pieces here and there until the results are satisfying.  But that's pure speculation.  As the line from "Hypocrite Christ" goes: "I have suspicions of what you call truth / Without proof you're selling lies".

The warm and thick tones of Dub's guitar and the full pounding and resonant crashes of Kitchens' kit give this release that swampy funk feeling, reminiscent of Mr. Stump's aforementioned trio.  Texas feelings abound, but it's a different musical state altogether.  A post-apocalyptic vision of crumbling towers and kipple-littered streets and survivors locked in a deadly battle for resources and philosophical / spiritual higher ground.

From jump street, as they (used to) say, it's obvious that Stone Machine Electric want to try new things, do things just a little differently, while still respecting their chosen genre(s).  I doubt very much that a lot of bands would have the courage to open their album with a song like "Mushroom Cloud" because it's very much a "this is what we're about, if you don't like what we're doing here, you might as well just tune out now" kind of song to open with with it's desolate landscape of extended jams and cyclopean rampart-like structure.  But all the bumps and curves are in the right places, the instruments are pure and true, thick, heavy and pulsing with real life, the effects are not used gratuitously but are like a gateway to other sonic dimensions.

'Stone Machine Electric' is one of those albums that only get better and more rewarding with each successive listen.  As layers are pulled away, deeper ones are revealed.  There's no shortage of highlight material here as regards individual songs, but the album is more properly ingested as a full on feast rather than taking the songs on as hearty snacks.

Highlights include: "Hypocrite Christ" and "No/w/here"

Rating: 4.5/5

Total Run Time: 39:18

From: Arlington, Texas

Genre: Doom, Psychedelic, Stoner, Blues

Reminds me of: Spider Kitten, Wo Fat

Release Date: January 11, 2013

Suggested listening activity for fellow non-stoners: Cut the barbwire, hop the fence and commandeer the adjacent office tower.

Better Reviews:
The Obelisk

The Obelisk Interview

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