Download:http://www.megaupload.com/?d=ARI145J7(Review taken from
Valis)
If the Doors & Kennelmus had a baby, the Strangers Family Band is their love child!
At seven tracks this EP never wears out welcome, nor-just like a good Stranger, overstays. From the mood-setting/changing opener "Enochian", (well, it would be an opener wouldn't it?), we know we're entering another world. Sound creating a travel ticket. Perfectly segueing into "Girl I've Been Taken," from all sides of the spectrum-in my Sennheisers, this reminds me substantially of those 70s desert-dwelling, peyote-munching psychsters Kennelmus. That's a compliment where I come from.Stylistically, this track also seems to lean more on the early 70s period of psychedelic music.
Track 3, "Wooden Hands", further bids you to come into their funhouse mirror world o' weird. A Music Hall romp with horn-backed chorus.
Track 4, "No One Sees Her", maintains the vibe of the prior tack, set up nicely by a small-stringed instrument-ukelele? Mandolin? and shuffles along right past the tilt-o-whirl, a la The Seeds "Nobody Spoil My Fun."
"Strange Transmission" should be familiar to regular readers of this blog for its inclusion on this year's Summer Solstice, Volume II compilation. Opening with SITAR (!), this is pure Doorsian wobble, a long-lost companion and heir to "The End." At seven minutes it's also in the right proportion, too.
"Tangerine", to these ears wouldn't sound outta' place-at all, on the Brian Jonestown Massacre's albums, say circa Methodrone. Complete with Anton-like affected Engle-accented vocals.
The EP ends with "Beware The Autumn People", a trip into an alterniverse where the only song anyone's ever heard is "Soul Kitchen"! Yet these guys manage to somehow break the stranglehold. A slow-burning center to propel it and a swagger which demands attention from your third eye.
I'll stand by my assertion, made earlier, these guys are a product of a Doors-Kennelmus tryst, made one night out near the old prison town of Yuma, a bag of peyote being passed around, and after enough digestion the guitars and percussion come out as a crescent moon slowly rises overhead...those sounds? They entered the Noosphere and were caught in transmission many moons later by a group of guys trying. Trying. As long as they're doing so I'll keep buying the string of tickets from the barker...
Myspace:
http://www.myspace.com/strangersfamilybandEnjoy!
Greetings
Amadeus :)
