Wednesday 21 August 2013

Review: Strangers Family Band – S/T


Strangers Family Band – S/T (Xemu Records)
Strangers Family Band take their influences from ‘60s pop-combos (The Kinks, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones) as well as obscurer stimulus, including The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, Os Mutantes and Strawberry Alarm Clock, and their debut (produced by label mates, Dead Meadow bassist, Steve Kille) shows this clearly.

Lead track, “Yaer Time”, set to a fuzzy jangly riff, is a lethargic and fear fuelled deal and to be fair their Pink Floyd laced catch line, “hello, is there anybody out there” outstays its welcome in the drawn out ending - which is a shame. There’s a major preoccupation with elevation running throughout the record, tied in to themes of space travel (“Starship to the Sun”, “Cosmic Wine”) or drugs (the punny “Elle S Dee” - whose sitar adds eastern promise - and “Mary Jane”).

They save the best until last with “Jenny 3003”, expanding from a Syd Barrett-esque frail and naive intro, to include alien abduction and sun-kissed Tropicalia, before returning to the cosmos and kicking into an echo drenched space-stoner groove.

Keeping to a vinyl LP’s length restriction, this is a brief and enjoyable ride, and if like me you’re a sucker for ‘60s psych, you’ll dig it.
Willsk

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.