The hipster canon is masturbatory in the most prepubescent sense of the word. A quick flick of the wrist and it’s all over, until the fidgety-clouded mind leaves its focus and moves on to the latest hype. With a double-click of the mouse, countless web logs or lets just say webs, and numerous vehicles dragging us into a culture of musical disposability, it’s no wonder twee-pop is the hot genera for spring until the sweat of summer begins to trickle and Italo-disco begins to sound much better than it did a month earlier.
In recent years stoner-metal has fell victim to this disparaging course of the trendy anti-canon. Yet, somehow stoner-metal manages to stay a float and move forward. I admit my bias; I am a complete devotee to stoner-rock and all forms of sludgy dark pysch. Regardless, compare the resurrection of disco (a genre everyone hated for nearly thirty years) compared to the multiple resurrections of stoner-rock. From the get-go; Black Sabbath, Pentagram and Blue Cheer; to the next wave of heavy-hearted sloth’s; the Melvins, Kyuss, Sleep and Burning Witch, to the latest crop; Electric Wizard, Harvey Milk, and now Magic Lantern, a renewal keeps the music vibrant and progressive rather than many fashionable genre's that eventually become a flash in the pan.
Magic Lantern for instance (not to be confused with the 60’s British group of the same name), relies on Sabbath riffs and sleepy tempos, but their minimalist drive of swirling milky guitars, beaming space noises and repetitive slushy rhythms illuminates that stoner-metal is not as dormant as its buried bellowing sounds. High Beams, Magic Lantern’s second full-length and heftiest achievement to date makes it clear that these Southern Californians have spent a fare share of time prowling Death Valley, Nevada ghost towns, The Land of Enchantment and anywhere saguaros blossom. The LP’s opener, “Deathshed Hawkmoth” and closer, “Cactus Raga” are bookends squeezing a mammoth library of acid trip desert jams and murky-space drones. Simply put, Magic Lantern is a profuse mushroom cloud spewing lustrous lava from its unknown bowels. And unlike ‘hyped’ bands that may be lucky enough to fit the mold at the exact time that the mold is ready for the frenzied masses, Magic Lantern are too grandiose to fit molds and hopefully they will have the longevity to help shatter the destructive trends of modern consumerism.
Bardos Freedoom
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2 comments:
Kyuss' "One Inch Man" is humming on my player and all I can do is close my eyes and rock... then half way thru the tempo clicks up a notch... ahh. I may throw off my glasses cause the beat must be honored. The final trak, "A Day Early and A Dollar Extra" is so delicate and sludgy... it's Sebadoh under water.
Magic Lantern should be right up my alley.
I think I get what you are saying, but next time consider taking a week or two off from the creative writing class down at the community college. The psycho-babble/beatnik-spew was somewhat overwhelming in this review.
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