Ancestors’ new three-song EP, Invisible White, lives up to its name, a wonderful wash of floating melodies high in Floydian-psych skies. The lush acoustics, multi-part vocal harmonies, elegantly atmospheric piano, foggy synth, and escalating dream-bliss found on the songs “Invisible White,” “Dust,” and “Epilogue” is far more mellow than anything the LA band has done before, but they still stretch it out over nearly 30 minutes of mind-bending time, which when you’re dealing with a band like Ancestors, can feel like a perfectly groovy eternity. My guess is, Invisible White sounds best when you’re laying in a field, tuned out and lost in the long grass. If you happen to be stuck in some concrete jungle, just put on a set of really good headphones and let the music transport you there.
Jeremy Irons & The Ratgang Malibus Bloom
Transubstans Records
It might be a little tough to get by the name, but once you accept the fact that Jeremy Irons & The Ratgang Malibus isn’t the title of a long lost Hardy Boys mystery novel in which sleuthing teenage brothers Frank and Joe Hardy spoil an international spy ring led by an award-winning British actor and his band of no-good, rich, white skaters from the coast, and that they are indeed a loose n’ groovy psych-rock band from Stockholm, Sweden, then things suddenly become mystically boss. Bloom, their second album and first on label Transubstans after self-releasing their 2007 debut Elefanta, is an incredibly soulful jam that focuses the majority of its attention on delivering its hazy, swirling melodies in a clear and present manner instead of burying them behind layers of fuzz and mud like most acid trippers are apt to do; songs like the organ-fried clock-melters “Skin Deep” and “IAOA” are propelled by an earthy, bluesy force, “Tales of the Future” and “Cosmo Tropic” require some serious hip shakes before that third eye of yours will open, and the Zeppelin-esque “Fernando” might one day replace “Stairway to Heaven” as the last song at Swedish proms. But where JI&TRM really excel is, believe it or not, in their ability to channel the amplified love of Jeff Buckley, as “Elefanta,” “Golden Hours,” and the title track each swell with an unnervingly delicate beauty reminiscent of the late musician’s sound, elevating Bloom beyond a trippy rock n’ roll record into something much more magical. Highly recommended.
Birds of Avalon Birds of Avalon
Bladen County Records
New horizons for Raleigh, North Carolina’s Birds of Avalon, who have parted ways with their old label, Volcom, and their old vocalist, Craig Tilley. But the Birds were always a band about the future anyway, so slight changes to their course shouldn’t really alter their ultimate destination, and they don’t, as this latest self-titled release proves (an album they’ve been sitting on for about two years). Combining experimental-era Beatles, 70s prog rock, and current hipster hullabaloo, Birds of Avalon finds the band on a freer, further plane, expressing a shift from the classic rock intensity found on earlier albums like Bazaar Bazaar toward an exotic, analog psych-pop sound full of accessibly translucent melodies, deep and heavy grooves, and fluent nerd-speak. Meaning it’s just weird enough to work, and works wonders where wanderlust and stardust are concerned.
Ancestors
Jeremy Irons & The Ratgang Malibus
Birds of Avalon