To quote the great American writer Jack Kerouac "The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars."
These words popped into my head after about one minute of hearing the raucous circus of hyper speed gypsy rock pouring through my speakers in the form of “AWAY” the opening tune off of In the Garden of Your Soul, the latest five-song EP from Townsville City, Australia’s The Sexicclesiastes. It’s definitely a fine way to kick off an album from a band that has had in its past formations up to twenty-nine members playing layers of guitar, bass, horns and keyboards but somehow keeping it all together. The second song takes is a bit of a 180 from the crazy song heard previously. Its “Back into the Light” and it has wondrously stone-skipping prog-rock pacing and some pretty amazing musicianship all around. The guitars are eerie as are the swelling roils and peels of organ which echoes hauntingly with the rich backing vocals provided via Leesa Baker and Madonna Davies, as lead singer Goodo Goodson who sounds lovingly like a drunken street preacher. The whole song in and of itself is very spiritual feeling. This feeling and theme of spirituality continues on the bluesy rocker “Rain it Down” which again has that wonderful female vocal assault combined with swells of ‘70s psychedelic organ and guitar. Next we get the Door’s inspired garage rock of “The Ballad of Stan” which is fun and groovy in a way and takes a slight departure from the more fire and brimstone thematic and schematics of the previous offerings. The Sexicclesiastes then close out In the Garden of Your Soul the way any good psych band should with a wayfaring six-plus-minute song that encompasses all the elements of their previous offerings but amped up and toned down at intermittent points as though it were something being cooked on a stove. The song is called “Watermelon” and it’s both as beautiful and terrifying as an acid trip. In my opinion if you’re gonna tout yourself as a crazy rock band of any genre and have a name that calls attention to itself then you had better be ready to back that up with some balls out ruckus of rock and psych-sensibilities. That’s exactly what In the Garden of Your Soul does.
2 Comments
Goodo
8/25/2017 04:18:18 pm
Man! You guys know how to make a drunken street preacher feel special. Thanks for the freaking awesome review!
Reply
Kennax
8/30/2017 03:29:07 pm
Love that haunting guitar, a truly unique sound. My fav "Back Into The Light" never imagined this sound would ever come from under that house🕵
Reply
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
Critique/insightWe are dedicated to informing the public about the different types of independent music that is available for your listening pleasure as well as giving the artist a professional critique from a seasoned music geek. We critique a wide variety of niche genres like experimental, IDM, electronic, ambient, shoegaze and much more.
Are you one of our faithful visitors who enjoys our website? Like us on Facebook
Archives
May 2024
|