With the release of “Nitrogen” back in 2014 that had
followed their “Stage One” EP 12 months earlier, Mantra Machine had found
something special, mixing the hypnotic sounds of space like psychedelia and the
“jam” like feel of desert rock. I have to admit that I didn’t think I would
have to wait 4 more years for another record, but when they dropped a new
single “Hydrogen” in March, you knew something special was coming, and here it
is…..
“Heliosphere” consists of 4 long songs that total 43:00
minutes of Amsterdam’s finest instrumental cosmic rock.
The journey starts with “Hydrogen” and as the track slowly
starts to build and grow, you can already see that the band have spent time
really perfecting the sound they want. The guitars have that sound that only people
like Josh Homme managed to perfect in Kyuss alongside bands from the early
Swedish stoner rock scene. It’s powerful, driving, fuzzy but also manages to
give the impression that it’s floating out to another dimension. I know very
little about pedals, cabs, tubes etc. but once you’ve heard this, you’ll get
what I mean. As the songs keeps moving, it gives the impression of travelling
through the clouds and beyond, like what Colour Haze do, but Mantra Machine
keep turning the song back to a hypnotic beat. Coming to its conclusion, the
work from each instrument becomes more complex and heavier as the song
intensifies, before silence.
“Atmos” brings you right back down and lets you drift
outwards into deep space. Slow fuzzy baselines alongside rhythmic drumming move
you out into the cosmos in what feels like a jam performed in the deepest of
nights. As the guitar starts to add more and more layers over the song, the
track begins to intensify and the drifting turns in to a mission that, with the
help of some killer guitar work, has to be completed.
As keyboards and a solitary guitar riff opens up “delta-v”,
the 3 piece create the perfect mix of a desert rock jam with a space rock trip.
Lie back and you can see the sunrise just starting to break on the horizon whilst
you can still see the stars and galaxies high above you in the night sky. The
track has a hypnotic sense to it with a repetitive “mantra” feel behind the
rhythm section as the guitar takes you to those galaxies far away in the
distance.
Title track “Heliosphere” closes the album with 15 minutes
of showcasing what Mantra Machine can really do. There is a psych riff and back
beat that the song always returns to, but one minute the song is all out stoner
rock with cymbals crashing, the next there is a raw sounding guitar playing
over soaring space like keyboards followed by psychedelia that just melts away.
The whole thing is an absolute pleasure to sit back and enjoy the ride.
The digital version is out now via their Bandcamp page, which also includes the link to pre-order the limited edition gatefold vinyl version of “Heliosphere” on ultra-clear transparent or green clear with black marbled effect.
No comments:
Post a Comment