Gunslingers - Massacre Rock Deviant Inquisitors

Gunslingers – Massacre Rock Deviant Inquisitors

Riot Season/ Lesdisques Blasphématoires Du Palatin

I think its fair to say the paired down titles of this extended player (erm… Part One and erm… Part Two) are somewhat at odds with the less than minimalist approach employed by Gunslingers. Imagine , if you will, some primetime Japanese Psych band playing a wild Comanche beat Train Kept A Rollin’, half cut with some mean biker speed and given limited studio time. If this sounds like your idea of (White) Heaven, then really, you are in for a treat.

Gunslingers are based around guitarist/singer Gregory Raimo, who perhaps articulates the band’s raison d’être best himself when he says (verbatim) ‘If you really ever fancied getting some true menacing power juice wherein nothing is to gaze at with hygienicoaseptic envy, it's heavily recommended that you experiment with these Deviationist French ‘garçons’, supreme Head Extraordinaires of San Pedro Ville and whose futuristic morality & vision led to the founding of the mysterious outfit.’

Well, Quite. But it’s this kind of splenetic word play that runs through Raimo’s vocal outbursts, so much that you’re never quite sure if he has a crazed preacher’s zeal or is simply just wired to the moon. Likewise his guitar playing splutters forth with a similar electrified freneticism, escaping in between his manic vocal refrains like snakes escaping a sliced bag. Needless to say - Julian Cope is a big fan. Aluk Todo’s rhythm section Antoine Hadjiouannou and Matthew Canaguier have been drafted in to  keep the backing just about on the rails with a surging amphetamine drive, giving Raimo free reign to fire of Sonny Sharrock style guitar expulsions.

This is by no means a long album (actually, it’s more of an EP) and given its frantic delivery, it seems like its over in a blink of an eye. Two tracks (the aforementioned Part One and Part Two) rattle along at full pelt. It’s definitely not for the faint of heart neither, but if thrilling, electrified proto-punk psych is your bag, then this is most definitely for you.

(first published on Beard Rock)

Smoke Drip

Website:	Official Site
Label:	Agitated Records
Writer:	Brett Savage

I was taken with Carlton Melton the first time I read about them, especially when I read that they record everything inside of a wooden geodesic dome up in the mountains of northern California. I have a fascination with geodesic domes, see. All their tracks are one take improvisational jams that crystallise the essence of their performance. There is no ‘fix in the mix’ here, it is, as George Clinton would have it, a ‘Hit It and Quit It’ affair.

‘Smoke Drip’ follows in the lysergic wake of their fantastic previous two albums. It is a LP which is released on the Summer Solstice (there is a Winter Solstice follow up, ‘Photos of Photos’ in October). As with 'Photos of Photos', these sessions feature ex-Monster Magnet/Wellwater Conspiracy’s John McBain on guitar/synth/Echoplex. Anybody who has heard John Mc Bain’s ‘Inflight Feature’ will recognise that he is familiar with Carlton Melton’s psychedelic jam territory, itself being something of an overlooked classic.

If anything, Carlton Melton has upped their ante. Although no stranger to side-long tracks, the level of focus (or even out-of-focus) on opener ‘Adrift’ is just plain stunning. Yes, you can hear the bass player orientating himself to start with, or the guitars drift in and out of the melody, but it is exactly this organic approach that makes it so involving. 23 minutes disappears in the blink of an eye as you are dragged into the tow of this twinkly, melodic gem.

The titular ‘Smoke Drip’ is 10 minutes of hazy, bluesy psych that evokes a sandstorm on an alien desert planet. A swirling and swooping mushroom drone that could easily give you desert blindness from the amount of blue sand whipped up.

The last track is a revisit of ‘Against The Wall’ which appeared on their ‘Live At Point Arena’ CD-R and made an (dome mix) appearance on their debut album, Pass It On. ‘Against The Wall’ has a malevolent and oppressive drone that sounds like a squadron of bombers (or giant wasps), intent on flattening cities with its intensity.

If this is any indication of where ‘Photos of Photos’ is heading, then roll on the Winter Solstice.

- See more at: http://beardrock.com/reviews/carlton-melton#sthash.LrRlThXZ.dpuf

Smoke Drip

Website:	Official Site
Label:	Agitated Records
Writer:	Brett Savage

I was taken with Carlton Melton the first time I read about them, especially when I read that they record everything inside of a wooden geodesic dome up in the mountains of northern California. I have a fascination with geodesic domes, see. All their tracks are one take improvisational jams that crystallise the essence of their performance. There is no ‘fix in the mix’ here, it is, as George Clinton would have it, a ‘Hit It and Quit It’ affair.

‘Smoke Drip’ follows in the lysergic wake of their fantastic previous two albums. It is a LP which is released on the Summer Solstice (there is a Winter Solstice follow up, ‘Photos of Photos’ in October). As with 'Photos of Photos', these sessions feature ex-Monster Magnet/Wellwater Conspiracy’s John McBain on guitar/synth/Echoplex. Anybody who has heard John Mc Bain’s ‘Inflight Feature’ will recognise that he is familiar with Carlton Melton’s psychedelic jam territory, itself being something of an overlooked classic.

If anything, Carlton Melton has upped their ante. Although no stranger to side-long tracks, the level of focus (or even out-of-focus) on opener ‘Adrift’ is just plain stunning. Yes, you can hear the bass player orientating himself to start with, or the guitars drift in and out of the melody, but it is exactly this organic approach that makes it so involving. 23 minutes disappears in the blink of an eye as you are dragged into the tow of this twinkly, melodic gem.

The titular ‘Smoke Drip’ is 10 minutes of hazy, bluesy psych that evokes a sandstorm on an alien desert planet. A swirling and swooping mushroom drone that could easily give you desert blindness from the amount of blue sand whipped up.

The last track is a revisit of ‘Against The Wall’ which appeared on their ‘Live At Point Arena’ CD-R and made an (dome mix) appearance on their debut album, Pass It On. ‘Against The Wall’ has a malevolent and oppressive drone that sounds like a squadron of bombers (or giant wasps), intent on flattening cities with its intensity.

If this is any indication of where ‘Photos of Photos’ is heading, then roll on the Winter Solstice.

- See more at: http://beardrock.com/reviews/carlton-melton#sthash.LrRlThXZ.dpuf

Smoke Drip

Website:	Official Site
Label:	Agitated Records
Writer:	Brett Savage

I was taken with Carlton Melton the first time I read about them, especially when I read that they record everything inside of a wooden geodesic dome up in the mountains of northern California. I have a fascination with geodesic domes, see. All their tracks are one take improvisational jams that crystallise the essence of their performance. There is no ‘fix in the mix’ here, it is, as George Clinton would have it, a ‘Hit It and Quit It’ affair.

‘Smoke Drip’ follows in the lysergic wake of their fantastic previous two albums. It is a LP which is released on the Summer Solstice (there is a Winter Solstice follow up, ‘Photos of Photos’ in October). As with 'Photos of Photos', these sessions feature ex-Monster Magnet/Wellwater Conspiracy’s John McBain on guitar/synth/Echoplex. Anybody who has heard John Mc Bain’s ‘Inflight Feature’ will recognise that he is familiar with Carlton Melton’s psychedelic jam territory, itself being something of an overlooked classic.

If anything, Carlton Melton has upped their ante. Although no stranger to side-long tracks, the level of focus (or even out-of-focus) on opener ‘Adrift’ is just plain stunning. Yes, you can hear the bass player orientating himself to start with, or the guitars drift in and out of the melody, but it is exactly this organic approach that makes it so involving. 23 minutes disappears in the blink of an eye as you are dragged into the tow of this twinkly, melodic gem.

The titular ‘Smoke Drip’ is 10 minutes of hazy, bluesy psych that evokes a sandstorm on an alien desert planet. A swirling and swooping mushroom drone that could easily give you desert blindness from the amount of blue sand whipped up.

The last track is a revisit of ‘Against The Wall’ which appeared on their ‘Live At Point Arena’ CD-R and made an (dome mix) appearance on their debut album, Pass It On. ‘Against The Wall’ has a malevolent and oppressive drone that sounds like a squadron of bombers (or giant wasps), intent on flattening cities with its intensity.

If this is any indication of where ‘Photos of Photos’ is heading, then roll on the Winter Solstice.

- See more at: http://beardrock.com/reviews/carlton-melton#sthash.LrRlThXZ.dpuf

Smoke Drip

Website:	Official Site
Label:	Agitated Records
Writer:	Brett Savage

I was taken with Carlton Melton the first time I read about them, especially when I read that they record everything inside of a wooden geodesic dome up in the mountains of northern California. I have a fascination with geodesic domes, see. All their tracks are one take improvisational jams that crystallise the essence of their performance. There is no ‘fix in the mix’ here, it is, as George Clinton would have it, a ‘Hit It and Quit It’ affair.

‘Smoke Drip’ follows in the lysergic wake of their fantastic previous two albums. It is a LP which is released on the Summer Solstice (there is a Winter Solstice follow up, ‘Photos of Photos’ in October). As with 'Photos of Photos', these sessions feature ex-Monster Magnet/Wellwater Conspiracy’s John McBain on guitar/synth/Echoplex. Anybody who has heard John Mc Bain’s ‘Inflight Feature’ will recognise that he is familiar with Carlton Melton’s psychedelic jam territory, itself being something of an overlooked classic.

If anything, Carlton Melton has upped their ante. Although no stranger to side-long tracks, the level of focus (or even out-of-focus) on opener ‘Adrift’ is just plain stunning. Yes, you can hear the bass player orientating himself to start with, or the guitars drift in and out of the melody, but it is exactly this organic approach that makes it so involving. 23 minutes disappears in the blink of an eye as you are dragged into the tow of this twinkly, melodic gem.

The titular ‘Smoke Drip’ is 10 minutes of hazy, bluesy psych that evokes a sandstorm on an alien desert planet. A swirling and swooping mushroom drone that could easily give you desert blindness from the amount of blue sand whipped up.

The last track is a revisit of ‘Against The Wall’ which appeared on their ‘Live At Point Arena’ CD-R and made an (dome mix) appearance on their debut album, Pass It On. ‘Against The Wall’ has a malevolent and oppressive drone that sounds like a squadron of bombers (or giant wasps), intent on flattening cities with its intensity.

If this is any indication of where ‘Photos of Photos’ is heading, then roll on the Winter Solstice.

- See more at: http://beardrock.com/reviews/carlton-melton#sthash.LrRlThXZ.dpuf