Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound
(Tee Pee Records TPE-095)
From Aural Innovations October 2009 update
This is the second record by this cool band from the USA. I saw them perform at Roadburn in 2008 and despite the terrible sound mix they were pretty cool. This record is a bit more laid back and has a nice 60’s vibe on some tracks and has really nice artwork. Two Stage Rocket starts things off and this is a pretty cool track with male and female vocals, spacey sounds, a sort of surf like riff at times and also sounding like early Hawkwind. Two Birds is a more 60’s style track with some organ and the band has more time in this over 7 minute track to experiment and a really nice long guitar solo is played. Drunken Leydes has a more garagy sound and a very melodic thread to the track. The Slumbering Ones has male and female vocals and is quite psychedelic and folk inspired and beautiful with some flute and other instruments as well. The band has a very special sound production, which is quite airy and psychedelic. Kolodo Canyon is a pretty amazing track with Byrds like vocals, a semi-fast pace that just slowly builds up and the vocal parts let go and the track begins to live. Nice melodic guitars and spacey sounds to fill in the spaces. By the Rippling Green features some very nice guitar and viola by Cindi. A bit of Neil Young in this one. Clive and the Lyre is again a faster paced track but very melodic. End Under Down, features acoustic guitar and is a sort of folky ballad with flute. It ends this pretty damn cool new record by this US band. I hope they make it back to Europe in 2009. Psychedelic rock, yeah.
Check out the band web site at: http://www.myspace.com/theassembleheadinsunburstsound
Check out the Tee Pee web site at: http://www.teepeerecords.com
Reviewed by Scott Heller