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Colour Haze -Periscope
Artist : Colour Haze
Album : Periscope
Label : Elektrohasch Schallplatten
Year : 2005
Genre : Psychedelic Rock Source : CDDA
Encoder : FLAC 1.2.1 Bitrate : 824kbps
Playtime : 53:52 Size : 314.73 MB
Tracks:
01 Always Me 05:58
02 Antenna 09:21
03 Pulse 05:08
04 Sun 08:44
05 Periscope 06:16
06 Periscope (Breit Return) 06:21
07 Transmitter 12:04
Notes:
This is the album where Colour Haze became the band
they are today. Their previous Kyuss-worship was of a
high quality, but probably wouldn't have carried them
much further than it did.
Periscope has a few halfway-superficial advantages over
its predecessor, Seven, the most immediately obvious
being the number of tracks. Having six tracks (seven if
you include the bonus track "Transmitter", which you
should) rather than the dozen on Seven, even if the
shortest of them is over six minutes, feels a lot more
manageable and easier to listen to in one go.
The big advantage, though, is that here Colour Haze
sound like Colour Haze. While they still belong to an
obvious stoner/psychedelic rock lineage, they stand out
by, simply, having the best sound. This is meant very
specifically - while you can (and I would, happily)
praise their riffs, or their basslines, or Stefan's
low-key, unintrusive vocals, or their dedication to
writing actual songs instead of letting their albums
turn into extended, interminable jam sessions, the
thing that gives them an edge is the sound they
cultivate. I doubt many bands spend as much time
refining and obsessing over the actual sounds their
instruments make as these guys do - certainly no others
I've heard within the same genres (where quality of
sound is arguably as important as it is in any area of
music) do so as successfully, at least - but the
results are there to see. The guitar tone is fuzzy and
liquid, supported by a deep but never overpowering bass
and a clear drum sound, etc. All balanced together the
outcome is, well, perfect. It's instantly recognisable
without being quirky or self-conscious. They are a band
who barely even need to be playing notes to sound
fantastic.
Anyway, as an album Periscope is excellent. The opening
"Always Me" pretty much demonstrates everything I
failed to explain very well in the previous paragraph
in its first 40-odd seconds, while "Sun" is probably
the highlight and maybe the best song they had released
til this point. The Hendrix nod in "Periscope (Breit
Return)" is a nice touch, too. It didn't stay their
best record for very long, but that's nothing to be
ashamed of - they have an annoying and consistent habit
of getting better with age - and although I imagine
most people won't be too thrilled to check out
something described with 'it's their fourth best
album!' or something similar, I will still recommend it
cheerfully.