(Jag Jaguwar-083, 2006)
PINK MOUNTAINTOPS "Axis of Evol"
(Jag Jaguwar-083, 2006)
From Aural Innovations #36 (May 2007)
I've yet to hear their debut or family-band Black Mountain. This is the first
record I've bought as a result of hearing it on the recordshop's PA. True, it's
closer to the length of an EP, especially if you chuck out the expendable plodding
"Slaves" (well, it's not bad, as plodding desert-psyche goes), but
the remaining six tunes are fabulously classic. The lyrics center around a general
theme of good vs. evil and a dark hippy/folk-psyche christian apolcalypse, inevitably
remeniscent of Velvets at times
"Comas" is a mellow close-miked crooning with acoustic fret-drags,
imbued with intense psychedelic catharsis. The singer's strained throaty breathy
style grows on me, sometimes more like a nasally Sky Saxon/Van Morrison type
whine. "Cold Criminals" is an awesome romper w/thick wobbly '60s bass-line
over guitar-static and american-indian tom-tom/shaker rhythm. "New Drug
Queens" - an excellent heavy driver w/fuzz guitar, lightly-treated vox.
(What contemporary psyche album would be complete without a Neu!-type rythm?
Not many...)
Again, "Slaves" is a decent tune for the right mood, but dry in comparison
to the rest of these. "Plastic Man, You're the Devil" is yet another
epically exhillarating acoustic anthem. We certainly peak with "Lord, Let
Us Shine", a devastating folk-psyche gospel with the most rousing chant
of a chorus, the beauty of the phased guitar and chorale blending w/a basic
drum-machine in ecstatic rhythm. Wow.
"How We Can Get Free" is the come-down, closing on an even sadder
acoustic note, singer's vocals becoming as starkly strained as that of Klaus
Dinger's on his own ballads.
Refreshing...and see again the above adjectives to recap.
Visit the band on the web at: http://www.thewaxmuseum.bc.ca/jwab/
Reviewed by Chuck