Review: Mythic Sunship – Changing Shapes

Mythic Sunship released Another Shape of Psychedelic Music in 2018, this being their fourth album in as many year and with their ability to shape psych, time and musical space, they have become a leading light in European psych rock and this time they bring the listener in to their live experience in Changing Shapes. As the album description notes, Mythic Sunship played three shows at Roadburn 2019 and Changing Shaped documents the most ferocious and courageous of the three.

I know that many bands have put on legendary performances at Roadburn over the years, but to have it documented on an official release elevates the classic performances in to something even more special.

Awakening builds slowly and as it drifts from side to side, each instrument beginning to evolve. The addition of saxophone takes the evolution to another level with its free form jazz like explosion. Once the craziness of the build-up levels off, all roads turn towards the same direction and the space psych journey takes voyage in to the night sky. Lighter interludes on the journey give way to more sax, which tells its own tale of said voyage. The final two minutes really take the listener to the next level with some rock out guitar work, an explosion of drums any cymbals and the ever present bass line holding everything together. It’s a shame the track has to finish on eleven minutes.

A longer version of Elevation follows on with its mind warping space rock journey. The bass is there and hooks you with its constant near hypnotic pull. The drums keep time but take several side trips into explosive territory before returning to let the guitars soar towards the sun and the sax take center stage, taking the listener never to the same place twice. The last four minutes get faster and faster and the bassline implants itself deep in your mind as the journey into the cosmos concludes at quite a rate. If you are holding the record you will notice Elevation is not on it, but the accompanying digital download has it ready for you.

Way Ahead feels a lot more organic, like a jam version of earlier songs. With the majority of the track being driven by the guitars and percussion, the sax implants itself deeper in to the mix when it makes an appearance. From the minute go, each band member lets go of themselves and rocks out with this supersonic cosmic journey into hyperspace.

Olympia is another new jam that takes you above the clouds into eleven minutes of a sonic psychedelic build up. There’s a lot of guitar riffs that role over each other and form big grooves that are plugged by the free flowing sax. It truly turns in to the stand out moment on the record.

Concluding the release, Ophidian Rising is back to earlier material that kicks in like a heavy psych freak out from the start, no build up or atmospheric opening, just killer heavy psych. Like a huge comet crossing the night sky and breaking through the Earth’s atmosphere, the ball of ever evolving fire keeps spinning and speeding up before taking everything along as it hurtles down to make an untimely connection.

With their impressive output of music, I doubt we will have to wait for more new music, but with the new jam’s here, you are again elevated into another Mythic Sunship trance like state. I have yet to experience them live, but this records scratches the itch until they hopefully come to the UK one day.

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Review: Big Scenic Nowhere – Vision Beyond Horizon

The fruition of Bob Balch and Gary Arce’s Big Scenic Nowhere project was 2019’s Dying on the Mountain EP, three songs showcasing their mix of prog rock and desert psychedelia. With their other bands still in full rotation I had no expectation for the band to regroup at any time soon, so the news of their return to the studio and the penning of an album deal with Heavy Psych Sounds showed that they meant business and the collaboration of the various players had already come together to work on something rather special.

With this recording the line-up consists of Gary Arce (Yawning Man), Bob Balch (Fu Manchu), Tony Reed (Mos Generator), Mario Lalli (Fatso Jetson, Yawning Man), Per Wilberg (Spiritual Beggars, ex-Opeth), Nick Oliveri (Mondo Generator, ex-Kyuss, QOTSA), Bill Stinson (Yawning Man) Lisa Alley and Ian Graham (The Well), and Alain Johannes (Them Crooked Vultures, Chris Cornell, Eleven).

I had read a couple of reviews of the record before its release and they talked about this super group had produced a desert rock or stoner rock classic, but after a few listens I have to question if they have really listened to it properly because the core of the band take the listener in several different directions and Vision Beyond Horizon offer so much more than expected. To say it’s just stoner rock or Fu Manchu or Yawning Man can be heard in all the writing does this collaboration a dis-service. As much as I like both the bands, this is a collaboration and release that cannot be pigeon holed or compared to anything else. The first time you listen to the record, you will understand.

The Glim starts with a big stomping riff that hooks you straight in before one of several quick guitar solos. The song as a whole has a mid-pace loud David Bowie channelling a psychedelic space rock Soundgarden kind of vibe, if that makes sense? It sounds big and bold with layer after layer of guitars that roll over you like the oceans tide and the waves of dark psychedelia already have you hooked. 

If your still somewhere between the layers of The Glim then The Paranoid grabs you by the throat for the next ninety seconds with something that took me by surprise. I remember a few years ago talking to Gary about his love of 80’s punk rock and this is definitely a homage to the likes of The Exploited, UK Subs and GBH. Fast, manic and in your face.

Then I Was Gone has a really fuzzy guitar tone to it with the bigger riffs sounding like they’ve been turned up to eleven. Between the surges of guitar, the over-layered dual male/female vocals add a more complex melody to the haunting wizardry that Master of Reality continuously perfected, mixed with the darker vibe that played heavy on many of the tracks from QOTSA’s Lullabies to Paralyse. I really like how the appearance of a few keyboard lines hang nicely off the vocals and fill a gap that you don’t even realise is there.

Mirror Image starts ever so slightly up in the clouds before the big mantra chanting vocal lines implant themselves deep in your mind. Half way through a huge slow monolithic like riff starts with one guitar, then the second guitar adds to it and that’s it, this is the band that I keep subliminally hearing but can’t quite put my finger on, its Cathedral. The riff is pure Cathedral at their finest. The vocals kick straight in after that before the epic sounding guitar solo and it all makes sense now. In no way is this replicating something Cathedral have written, it just has that vibe and gives me that feeling of doomy rock n roll with that haunting like Lee Dorrian voice. 

Hidden Wall floats you to a laid back place that I picture as those moments before the dawn sun appears from the night sky. It’s trippy, it’s psychedelic and it takes you on an adventure across the sprawling landscapes that are seeing the first glimmers of the light. If you wanted a reference point away from any of the members’ bands then the band the King Buffalo have blossomed into is definitely it. The song grows and evolves and has sown the seeds in to what could be an epic 15-20 minute opus, unfortunately it ends on seven minutes.   

Shadows from the Altar slides back into the doom n roll with the deep layered drifting vocals that sit between two riffs which the song is built around. The first being something of a rolling wave and the other being big rock riff that deserves a fist pump and “oi” chant after it. 

En Las Sombras is again going into the territory of King Buffalo but this is the song that takes all the drifting magical waves of the desert mystery courtesy of the Yawning Man connection. The trippy verses roll in and out against the deep meandering baseline which creates a magical journey, taking you “in the shadows”. To top this off, there’s a combination of two kick ass guitar solos.

Tragic Motion Lines is a mix of psychedelic stoner rock and some riffs and melodies that come from the darker side of an Alice in Chains record.

As the album draws to a close with The War Years, the channeling of their inner Pink Floyd concludes what is a quite magical collaboration. The strumming of acoustic guitars, the tapping of keys, the light yet powerful drums and a variety of keyboards and synthesizer work that builds a small passage into the inner mind. You can almost picture the setting on a small boat on a small stream, drifting slowly towards the horizon.

Vision Beyond Horizon is full of musical surprises and will hold its own for many years to come. With the incoming success of the record and a debut live performance planned for Stoned & Dusted, I really hope 2020 see’s Big Scenic Nowhere bring their live performance over the pond in some way or another. I can also honestly say that each of the nine songs has something for the listener, meaning that there is no filler on this record, it’s that good. Shout out for the quality album artwork as well.

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