I'd been truly enchanted by the beauty that formed the band's first CD single, “Shimmer”, and news of an album came as something to look forward to hearing with a kind of fuzzy fondness. In no way, was I prepared for the tungsten strength performance and utterly amazing songs and playing that would greet me when the album arrived. It goes like this.........
The first thing you notice when you look at the inside cover is the unusual line-up: Lloyd on vocals, guitar and programming, Kev on guitars and Matt on bass, vocals and percussion – no drummer? It isn't until you look a bit further down to find thanks to a certain Brian Eggo for live drums. So, you continue. First up is “Oppenheimer 1”, a 6 minute instrumental, starting initially with chiming, echoed guitar, deep bass, jangly guitars, stronger bass, textual guitar backdrops and soaring space effects of almost early seventies space-rock proportions. Then the bass moves right up front, the drums lurch into life and the guitar jangle has a spiralling sea of guitar textures added to it, the whole thing now strengthening and beginning to rise. A gently chiming guitar lead weaves a spell on top as the intensity then moves up a notch, the bass is still booming out and the tension rises. Slowly, this sea of sound and melody and depth begins to lift, the guitars intensify as a circular riff now flies around the room and it's all lifting off. Bang!! In comes this dirty surge of loud fuzz guitar that adds even more force to the proceedings as this massive iceberg of electric magic threatens to sink everything in its path. Subsiding to a gently sway of jangly guitar, the track fades – only to erupt into life as the introduction to “Dirty Injection” hammers right at you with solid, strident drumming, massive almost “Song 2”-styled bass and the most awesomely dirty guitar riffs around, as the vocals are multi-tracked or harmonised or both and this mighty stomp of a song burst through, as the juxtaposition reveals vocal harmonies soaring over the nuclear strength backdrop of guitars, bass, drums and fx. This, too, then subsides to lone chiming guitar leads before the sound of the guitar refrain is taken up by a third guitar, the sound builds and the rhythm density re-emerges to take the scything track towards a fiery end.
“Inevitable” roars similarly into life as the previous track with an eruption of dirty fuzz guitars over chiming, jangly guitars as a chugging riff and melodic presence are propelled by the equally solid military lurch of drums and bass. The harmonised vocals are lower in the mix, adding an almost brooding atmosphere to the song, which then explodes back to the mighty riffing and this incredibly dense depth of sound, by now a band trademark. That abates to leave the chiming guitars and chugging rhythms plus the magical vocal harmonies to take control once again. The now awesome 8 minute song then veers between the inferno and the fire to magnificent degree a you are immersed totally into the powerful and wondrous musical world that this band is creating, songwriting and arranging at a great height, with some special, spectacular multi-guitar riffs, rhythms and leads along the way. The nearest comparison I can give you is a fiery cross between Mogwai and the always excellent King Black Acid, a mouth-watering prospect for sure – and this fulfills every part of that prospect on what is a stunning track that's rapidly turning into just part of what's an even more stunning album.
“Standing In Your Sun” continues without catching breath, this time the sound of crisp strummed acoustic guitar and chiming lead guitar providing a beautiful intro as the fuzz guitar fog re-enters and the multi-layered web of sound strides into a song that's pure King Black Acid as the bass undercurrent provides the foundations and you aren't even aware that there's no drums here, so huge sounding and texturally perfect is the track. The song itself is given a wistful, yearning vocal delivery that perfectly fits on top of the slowly raging storm of electro-acoustic energy that's bursting through, yet all infused with melody and clarity on top of the intensity and layers, the whole thing a work of absolute genius, as you're still caught up in a truly mesmerising musical world. Following on from this, is “Shimmer”, the track where my love of this band began, a track that, in the context of this album, now makes even more sense than it did before, sounding altogether stronger, as this swaying rhythmic might acts as the foundations for a huge expanse of dense electric guitars and crisp acoustic guitar, as the vocals just soar and fly towards a circular hook to the song that will remain in your head for hours after you've revelled in its electric mantra-like qualities. “Snake Words” has an intro that gives you a brief moment of calm from the storming density that's preceded it, as quiet guitars lead into melodic mixture of electric and acoustic guitars, as the rhythm section drives it slowly forward and a strong yet harmonious lead vocal lifts the song even higher. As the song climbs, so the rocket fuel of fuzz guitars fires out of the back to awesome degree as this huge web of sound is created under the singing. The intensity drops back a little as the jangly electric and acoustic guitars come into play before the fire returns and the whole thing burns so brightly once more as the song takes to the skies on a massive wave of guitars-fuelled energy and huge textural intensity, moving into a delicate world of silently jangly, chiming guitars before taking off once more with much stronger drum propulsion and bass drive, the sound of the guitars and programming rising to a crescendo that's positively jaw-dropping as the soundpool continues to intensify and yet never once loses sight of its melodic heart, even though you're in the middle of a raging, guitars-fuelled nuclear beast of a finale. Finally, the album ends with six minutes of “Oppenheimer 2”, this time the cyclical chiming guitar lead a central figure in the swirling sea of delicate guitars and lurching rhythms that's going on all around you. It drops down to just guitar chimes and deep bass undertow as you feel the tension build, only for the whole thing to explode in a mushroom cloud of fuzz guitars, fuzz bass, dirty riffs and electrifying masses of guitars, all driven solidly along by even more bass and ever muscular drums, an effect that will leave you breathless in awe of the band, everytime you hear it – never before have you so looked forward to the end instrumental of an album.
In essence, this is one magnificent musical monster of an album within which lurks beauty, strength, rage, harmony, melody, might, magic and adrenaline-rousing playing – absolutely faultless!!