Devil Electric- Devil Electric (Bilocation Records ARTIFACT29)

Devil Electric is a pretty new doom rock band from Melbourne, Australia.  They are a female lead four piece that has been around since 2015 and previously released one 7” record.  This album is pretty short, under 40mins and features 9 tracks.  The CD starts off with Monologue (where you once Wailed).  Pretty typical doom rock with an more open sound production. Pierina has a very good voice, similar to a lot of the great woman who seem to sing this genre these days. A very Candlemass like track. Shadowman has a cool guitar riff and is another mid paced track and very vocal oriented as there are few guitar solos (so far), despite the band having 2 guitar players. Lady Velvet, I just love the slow stoney groove on this one and some cool guitar parts.. I wish they had included the lyrics with the CD. Acidic Fire starts slow but really rocks out. Very passionate vocals and powerful. Monolith is a short instrumental track with a heavy bass line before the guitars kick in and it gets pretty psyched out but is over in a little over a minute. The Dove and the Serpent has very mysterious feel to it. Very cool track. Lilith is a slow and melodic yet mysterious instrumental track that leads into Hypnotica, the final track on the album.  This is real classic doom rock.  See the video below.  I have to admit the first few times I heard this CD, I was not that into it but the more I heard it, the better I liked it.  So don’t give up on this one. It grows on you!

 https://devilelectric.bandcamp.com/

http://bilocationrecords.com

Sula Bassana- The Ape Regards his tail (Sulatron Records ST 1705)

This is quite different in some ways to Sula’s other solo works as this is an 8 track soundtrack with tracks ranging from 2 to 20mins in length to a sci fi movie by Michael Yates. I have not seen it but I for sure want to!  All the music was composed and performed on a variety of keyboards with a bit of guitar but not much.  Beginning is a slow building piece with a Fender Rhodes like piano like that is very slowly played and a drone synth in the background.  Some nice floating pad keyboards layer in from time to time.  A lot of the music is different variations of what I just described. This is a cool album if you really want to relax and just float away but I am sure it better in the context of the film, which I need to watch myself.  Some will find this quite boring perhaps, it will just depend on your mood.  If you are a fan of Dave’s work, you will probably like it.

http://www.sulatron.com

Stay- Always Here (Fruits de Mer Regal Crabomophone winkle 29)

Stay is a psychedelic rock band from Barcelona, Spain. IT has been 4 years since their last EP on this label. This 7” single contains 5 songs (3 cover songs), all in the 2-4min range staring off with the title track. This is a pop track produced by Owen Morris (Verve, Oasis) and sounds very English. It is taken from their latest LP called The Mean Solar Times.  Every Christian Lion hearted man will show you (Bee Gees) is next. While I don’t know the original at all, this is pretty dreamy UK inspired 60s pop. The next cover, by the Kinks, Where have all the good times Gone, is more organ driven and less guitar than the original and lacking that punch that the original had but still a cool version. You Know it’s Right, an original, features Andy Bell (Oasis) on guitar.  The 7” ends with Rock and Roll Woman, a Buffalo Springfield track. This last track is probably my favorite. Cool version. This record is released on Sept 20^th! 

http://www.fruitsdemerrecords.com

http://www.stay.cat/

Quad- Quad (Sulatron st1704)

Quad was a Gary Ramon (Sundial) solo project from the early 90s. It is a pretty rare record now (I have the original!). This is a rerelease of that classic record and it is still amazing today. I had not heard it for some years and was still blown away but it. It is very inspired by the German masters of the early 70s including the song titles. It starts off with Tempel (15mins) a spaced out sitar experiment with drums, bass and a lot of delay. Super cool stuff. Projection is the 2nd track ( you can hear both below) and starts with a like 40s horror film organ improve before the drums, sitar with lots of delay and bass kick in. This one also has a very spacey and psychedelic sound but the organ plays a very important role and the sitar (and guitar) a more secondary one. Spaced out sound. Revisitation Mantra is 21min track and takes the entire 2^nd side.  One long trip to blow your mind. A classic record. So cool it is out on vinyl again and also in a double CD format with the 2^nd Quad record due next year.

http://www.sulatron.com