Thursday, May 23, 2019

Live: Hibushibire / Dead Otter – Newcastle Trillians 21.05.2019



Due to traffic and road works on the way to Newcastle I managed to miss The Contact High and I just caught the last few minutes of Cave Suns, who sounded good and being advertised as Blue Cheer crashing into The Groundhogs hit the nail on the head. 
Dead Otter dropped their record “Bridge of Weird” 6 months ago, gaining a load of positive feedback. The first time I sat and listened to the full 35 minutes it was obvious the Glasgow based 4 piece had raised the bar for British Stoner/Space/Heavy Psych rock. You can’t really pigeon hole them in to one of these genres but they fit them all in a good way.
They play through 45 minutes of what seems like a well-structured “jam” that live reminds me of Euro Psych bands such as Rotor and Monkey3. Closing my eyes and nodding my head I get that repeat feeling of the image of bright coloured spots of oil being dropped into a dark coloured water and expanding again and again (I hope you know what I mean). The stoner rock part drives forward with heavy riffs that have a slight prog feel, and the psych/space rock have an emotive feel that has you drifting away. They finish with the 14 minute LP title track “Bridge of Weird” and it really is something special. You all really need to hear it.

Hailing from Osaka, Hibushibire are really leading their psych rock scene. They’ve just released “Turn On, Tune In, Freak Out!” hot on the heels of 2017’s “Freakout Orgasm!”, taking their sound to the next level. This is the first time I have managed to catch them live. Others have spoken about how good they are live and I have seen the YouTube clips and listened to their bootlegs, but nobody told me they were this good.
Freak-out heavy psych rock embedded deep in the 60’s/70’s that bring together the finest guitar action from Hendrix or Cream or early Deep Purple with lots of wah-wah and fuzzy madness. Its riff after riff after riff. The rhythm section of 821 and Takashi just don’t stop and Chang Chang kicks that leg and off he goes with that guitar wizardry. Just as you think the song is closing, the drums slow down, the bass rolls in, the pedal is pushed and away we go again. The Hendrix like finger action of the guitar is something special.

With the final 23 minutes bringing us the epic “Rollercoaster of the Universe”, Hibushibire close the night out leading a musical journey, taking you to several corners of their psychedelic universe. It was something rather special.

Riot Season Records are dropping some seriously good records at the moment that all sit musically, somewhere outside the box. Both Hibushibire and Dead Otter have must own music out on the label. Check it out.

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