Titan - "A Raining Sun of Light & Love, For You & You & You"
(Tee Pee Records 2007, TPE 074)
Titan - "A Raining Sun of Light & Love, For You & You & You"
(Tee Pee Records 2007, TPE 074)
From Aural Innovations #35 (January 2007)
Ok folks, we're barely into the new year and I've already got what will easily be one of the genuine monster releases of 2007. Titan are from Brooklyn, New York and this is the their second album, their first having been a limited edition release on the Paradigms label, as well as some improv based CDRs they released themselves. Come along and I'll step you through this gem…..
"Annals of the Former World" is first and starts off as a mellow acoustic guitar song. But barely a minute into it the band bust out into a crushing heavy prog blast with stoned power chords, and keyboards that will have fans of early 70's progressive rock drooling. A few more minutes go by and Titan really start to rock out with ripping heavy psych guitar solos, blazing fuzzed rhythm guitar, powerhouse drumming and STILL those awesome keyboards! A potent progressive rock foundation with lots of fuzzed, spaced out, wring-yer-neck and slap the shit outa ya psychedelic guitars. "Hashishin Ohel" is next and picks up right where Annals left off, just beautifully further developing the same theme and veering off into various directions, at all times maintaining the same mercury bursting energy level. Nothing stays the same for long, with the Titanauts rocking hard and tripping out, yet there's some serious compositional sophistication and kick ass playing from all. Tight as a knot and out to kill. There were parts of this that made me imagine Yes morphing into Acid Mothers Temple! But then there's a slowed stoned bluesy segment too, kind of like a spaced out Robin Trower.
Right off the bat the third track, "Obelisk Orbit Overdrive", goes deep into Acid Mothers Temple/Comets on Fire molten lava rocking freakout territory. Monster acid laced space rock that is utterly relentless. Eventually those good 'ol heavy prog keyboards join in and it's like Jon Lord or Thijs van Leer getting all punked out and sitting in with Acid Mothers Temple. Then in the last couple minutes it mellows out, coming in for a landing with a single pulsating drone, which segues into the quirky, motorik "Aufruf der Pilze". The rhythms are totally Neu!, but Titan take it into much heavier freight train realms than Neu! ever explored, making this an outstanding closing track that helps demonstrates the variety of Titan's influences and the nifty way they blend them all together.
Phewwwww…. the whole CD is just over 41 minutes but it'll wear you out, though in the most blissful way. I'm pretty sure I've seen Tee Pee Records releases in stores so this should be fairly easy to find (release date February 6, 2007). And after making contact with the band they were kind enough to send me their first album. According to the Paradigm Records web site the first album is still available, but I'd hurry up and grab it because it's a limited edition of 750 copies, which probably won't last long once word starts getting around about these guys. It's got three lengthy jams on it. The first is clearly a homage to Amon Düül II. Honestly, if you told me this was a track from the Yeti sessions that didn't make it on that album I'd have no reason not to believe you. The second one is a heavy progressive number with alien electronics and spaced out drones. And the third track is a 16 minute mind-bending piece that starts off simple and drone based, but soon evolves into beautiful floating space infused prog jam that's like Pink Floyd, Hawkwind and Goblin mixed together. A real potpourri of 70's progressive, space rock and krautrock influences. HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION for these guys. Waste NO time seeking out their music, especially the new album.
For more information you can visit the Titan web site at: http://www.titanaut.com.
Hear Titan at their Myspace page at: http://www.myspace.com/titanaut.
Visit the Paradigm Records web site at: http://www.paradigms-recordings.com.
Reviewed by Jerry Kranitz