The Black Angels - Directions To See A Ghost
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Music CD Cover
Artist: The Black AngelsEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
CD Release Date: 2008-05-13
Music Label: Light In The Attic
Soundtracks:
- You On The Run
- Doves (Download MP3)
- Science Killer
- Mission District
- 18 Years
- Deer-Ree-Shee
- Never/Ever
- Vikings
- You In Color
- The Return
- Snake In The Gras
Free Music Notes for Directions To See A Ghost
Free Music Review: Rogue sitars and drone machines deliver the heavy goods
Hit: 5 Stars
Any CD that credits not only "rogue sitar" but "drone machine" better deliver fresh assaults, not rehashed revamps from the first peyote era. This betters, as I'd predicted (see my review of "Passover") their début. It stretches out with ominous beats into austere horizons on the 8-minute "Never/Ever" up to the 16-minute closing track, "Snake in the Grass." These bookend a well-arranged second half (more than that in the elapsed time) of the tracks here.
The first half of the album follows more its predecessor, not blazing a new trail yet. It's solid, but not until "Deer-Ree-Shee" with its sitars did I begin to turn up the volume and want to listen harder. From this point on, the intensity builds. The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (BRMC--back when they tried to sound more acid-drenched and less faux-bluesy), 13th Floor Elevators (also from Austin) all come to mind, along with an inevitable nod to The Doors, Mo Tucker of the Velvet Underground, and to me Ian McCulloch's vocal delivery from Echo & the Bunnymen. My son heard early on what it takes track 7 "Never/Ever" to fully prove, an appropriate use of the band Clinic's "Visitations"-era processed spooky, echo-laden, dubbish croon. Like Clinic, The Black Angels build their own pinnacle atop a venerable edifice of neo-psychedelia that improves upon the foundation. As with Black Mountain near them on the shelves, they study the past to enrich their future as musicians able to incorporate the best from forty years ago.
But, as on the first CD, where the Black Angels (like Darker My Love may be doing in a poppier vein) begin to break free of their competitors is in their density of sonic production. I've heard The Warlocks (as in their latest "Freaky Deaky Skull Lover") enter a similar maturity, hammering down a thicker, insistent, and forbidding aura that somehow propels itself rather than miring itself in homage to sludgier pioneers of doom. What helps this for the Angels is the sonic space opened, and an additional member to the band. More guitar allows more diversity.
The vocals do get used more as texture than dominance. Fine in the studio, but I suspect a live concert would embellish these tunes even more. On record, they tend towards a broader spectrum than "Passover," and the self-consciously psychedelic filagree ornaments the songs nicely. As before, it's hard to carry off this music without sounding fey or derivative, but they've done it, improving the promise of album number one. A final thanks for the album design and layout-- this shows a smart group eager to "emboss" upon the same old template their own distinctively complex mark.
P.S. I wish the bonus tracks were available that were only sold at concerts or for pre-order: some of us fans only found out about this too late!
Directions To See A Ghost Poster
Last time we met The Black Angels, they were staring into the desert sun somewhere outside of Austin, Texas. Two years later, night has fallen and the spirits have come out. It's time for The Black Angels to provide Directions On How To See A Ghost. If you're familiar with Passover, the band's 2006 debut, you'll know that The Black Angels's music alone is enough to invoke spirits. There's a name for the band's sound; they call it 'hypno-drone 'n roll'. It's the sound of long nights on peyote, of dreams of a new world order, and of half-invented memories of the seamy side of '60s psychedelia. While the Iraq war is still a major influence on the band's lyrics, there are new forces at work here, including Eugene Zamyatin's dystopian novel We and in Christian Bland's words "psychic information from the past and future." See, The Black Angels really are in contact with ghosts.Alternative Rock Music CDs
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