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It
makes total sense for a Syd Barret tribute to be
constituted by bands that represent la crème de la crème
of the extreme experimental underground. You’d have to
be dumb and blind not to notice that psychedelic music
has as of the last handful of years played a large role
in reenergizing the stoner and doom sub genres. While
only a few years ago many were content by simply
delivering heaviness these days adding that touch of
fuckery not only as a diversion from their run of the
mill moods, but also as a way to add variation and
colorize their once limited potential seems the rule and
this tribute is a perfect example of several forward
thinking and independent minded musicians. The line up
included here is to die for, but is it any good?
Like Black
Holes in the Sky comes off to an assuring start with Away’s (Voivod)
Kosmos covering “Vegetable Man”, appropriately, is spacey
average hard rock peppered with space debris. Competent is more
like it. The ever awesome Kylesa raise the bar a little higher
with the instrumental “Interstellar Overdrive”; here is a band
that’s made the song their own, by keeping their massive
heaviness Kylesa has totally updated the tune. This could very
well be one penned by them. When the song crumbles midway
through you realize it could have fit in either of their last
two releases. Intronaut is by far one of the few prog minded
bands with actual invention in their cells and their cover of
“Arnold Layne” shows their dynamics, a nice balance between
heaviness and total quirk. More difficult by nature are Philly’s
Stinking Lizaveta and their choice of “Matilda Mother” with its
stuck pace provides guitarist Yanni Papadopoulos with plenty of
room to exert his doom jazz aspirations.
Metalheads
love weirdness. Some also love originality. Those in love with
both, really dig Jarboe whose choice of “ Late Night” is spooky
to say the least. It may be blasphemy to say something negative
about Pentagram but their cover of “Flaming” has Bobby Liebling
delivering a pretty horrible performance. He sounds like
someone’s grandma. I’ve been waiting for the new Giant Squid
offering for quite a while, until then their cover of “Octopus”
will do no good. There is something to be said about
spontaneity, but here Giant Squid sound unrehearsed and rather
annoying. Chicago’s Yakuza is a band of extremes, and their
cover of “Lucifer Sam” is extreme and clean and because of that
original. At this point Jesu could take a dump in your house and
you would still kiss his ass, his cover of “Chapter 24” shows
why he deserves such royal treatment.
NY’s
Unearthly Trance take on “Long Gone” sounds like a clustefuck of
something, I am just not sure what and Dredg keep “Astronomy
Domine” close to Pink Floyd’s spirit. Circle go to the space
farm’s petting zoo with the banjo-heavy “Rats” and closing the
album is Zodiak, a project that even without covering Pink Floyd
lets their influence be felt and that, curiously, during “See
Emily Play” sound more distant from Barret’s work than ever. So
Like Black Holes in the Sky is not without its misses. It’s
about a dead even of faulty versions and respectful deserved
covers by artists paying recognition to a real original.
BUY FROM AMAZON
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