Review: Big Scenic Nowhere - Lavender Blues

Big Scenic Nowhere released their full length Vision Beyond Horizon only months after their debut EP Dying on The Mountain, and less than a year after that they return with a new EP Lavender Blues. With the band being more of a project between members of other bands, you would think that getting everyone together and writing would only happen a couple of times a year, but even if it is, Big Scenic Nowhere have a magic sixth sense between them and just turn on the tape over a long weekend, and a wealth of creativity and musicianship just spills out every time.

Towards the end of 2019 the four continuing members: Bob Balch (Fu Manchu), Gary Arce (Yawning Man), Tony Reed (Mos Generator) and Bill Stinson (Yawning Man) were joined this time with: Per Wiberg (Kamchatka, Opeth), Daniel Mongrain (Voivod) and the legend that is Chris Goss (Masters of Reality), and have managed to put down on tape 3 songs that have the distinctive Big Scenic Nowhere sound, but this time

The whole of side A contains the 13+ minute title track Lavender Blues, which starts like a slow meander into some place warm and distant. There is a real feeling that Lavender Blues has been jammed out and evolved into something so unique right in front of the players with the warm psychedelic feel it gives out, their inner-prog just blossoms.

As the first real synthesizer solo kicks and lifts you up to the next level, I am getting that feeling like I’m being pulled away into one of those vast Roger Dean paintings, with all its organic world within another world complexities. It’s like taking desert musicians out of the warm dusty sun soaked open sprawl of the low desert and putting them into a world of blue and green with long winding rivers and upside down trees.

As a song, Lavender Blues has that much through the 13+ minutes, every time I listen to it, I hear something different.

Like a complete contrast to side A, Blink of an Eye is your favorite soundtrack from a 70’s movie that you used to dig in your teenage years. The opening chords have the feeling of closing a door for the final time and heading off to pastures new. With a mid-paced hook that is extremely catchy, there a positive vibe to it, as though you’re nodding at that person you recognise as your walking off into the evening sunshine.

I wouldn’t say it has the radio rock feel, but it’s a close as Big Scenic Nowhere have come to giving you an upbeat catchy track that will be stuck in your head all day. It is though, the kind of song that Tony’s voice is made for, be it the rich vocal strength he has or the ability to fit perfectly in harmonies.

As Blink of an Eye concludes, the guitars start to pick up and drift towards a place that they can soar into those huge open spaces, before the synthesizers take over and spill out a range of 70’s prog power which will make each and every one of us remember how to rock the air keyboard.

Labyrinths Fade starts with a fade-in, something I haven’t head in a while, but it works well as the riff rolls in a repeats with more of a classic rock feel to it. There is some truly epic solos that intertwine some technical mastery over the big soaring layers of guitar, that sound like they have input from the fingers of Daniel Mongrain. When the vocals do appear that have a deep hypnotic chant to them, which play well off solo after solo. The big synthesizers appear again so that you know they’re still about, before the rest of Labyrinths Fade shows off a bunch of killer musicians coming together and producing something quite magic.

At the time of writing this, I wouldn’t be surprised if they have already turned the tape on again in the studio and pressed record. It’s just a shame that the ongoing pandemic halted their planned live shows, but you know that something good will be just around the corner. Roll on 2021.

Big Scenic Nowhere – Bandcamp – Heavy Psych Sounds

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.

Bandcamp – Facebook – Heavy Psych Sounds