Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Fuzz Manta- The Stonewolf (Bilocation Records ARTIFACT 12)

What can I say. This double vinyl record by our local Copenhagen stoner-70s rock band Fuzz Manta just blew me completely away… Here is a band that was bold enough to take a major leap of faith with its fans and create a fantastic and unique piece of music that is unlike anything the band has done before.. Very fresh, exciting and gripping in nature.. The record starts off with the over 30 min Epic, Stonewolf track, which is split over sides A and B and in 7 parts. Queen of Sorrow starts the Stonewolf journey with a cool synthesizer line before the organ slowly fills the soundscape as the drum and bass keep a steady groove. When Freddy comes in with the guitar it reminds me a bit of the Faith Healer by the Sensational Alex Harvey band. Lene starts to sing after about 3 mins. Freddy plays some really spacey guitar all the way to when the sort of croaking toads ends and the beginning of the part II called The Seal, which starts with a cool organ (panned to the right) and a more hard rocking track kicks in, where they want you to go see the Stonewolf as the band go into psychedelic rock and Freddy rips it up! Man’s Ache starts off with a cool riff and guitar and Jonas lays down the nice bass line while Pelle keeps the groove steady on the drums. Legend of the Stonewolf is the last part on side A and Freddy plays some psyched out guitar as this part starts. Intense track. Side B starts with Timewarp, and this track features an organ solo by Mogens (The Univerzals, Øresund Space Collective), who briefly played with the band in 201T different after the last intense and psychedelic track. Nice bluesy solo by Freddy. The Journey is a really trippy instrumental track with a lot of keyboards and synthesizer. The Epiloque closes out the amazing Stonewolf track…  The next two sides feature 6 new tracks, only one had I heard before. Sooner or later starts things off, in a real riff rock track with a slow smooth groove and almost doomy riff at times and some nice guitar parts and the occasional organ and very psyched out section before the kind of Robin Trower like ending. Baby in Vain, is one the band had been playing live before they had an extended live break and is an uptempo track with an intense organ at times.. Clearly, a real rock and roll party track! Mindtcadet features some great bass lines and dynamics before getting quite psychedelic again with a cool wah guitar solo and strange synthesizer line each panned to the sides. Side D starts off with When I Sleep. This has a lot of really cool guitar parts and Lene’s voice sounds amazing on this expressive track. Marble Queen starts with some spacey guitar stuff and develops from dreamy parts to a 70s Spanish prog movie music state and back.. Far out song.. but I liked it. Land of Sleep brings back the heavy rock and groove. This record is just fantastic. So many cool music elements and just cool song after cool song. Probably the best album from Denmark so far in 2014... 


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