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┌────────┐
────┤ Info ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
└────────┘
Artist | The Black Angels
Title | Clear Lake Forest
Genre | Psychedelic Rock
Source | Vinyl
Label | Blue Horizon Rip | 09.13.2015
Catalog | BHV-16794-1 Time | 27:16
Bitrate | 239kbps Size | 46.46mb
Freq | 48.0kHz Encoder | Lame 3.98.4
┌────────┐
────┤ Tracks ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
└────────┘
A1. Sunday Evening 03:38
A2. Tired Eyes 03:28
A3. Diamond Eyes 03:49
A4. The Flop 02:59
B1. An Occurrance At 4507 South Third Street 03:18
B2. The Executioner 03:33
B3. Linda's Gone 06:31
┌────────┐
────┤ Notes ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
└────────┘
In Ambrose Bierces 1890 short story An Occurrence at Owl
Creek Bridge, a would-be Civil War saboteur named Peyton
Farquhar is caught and sentenced to hang. During his
execution, his perception of time, memory, and physical
reality begins to warp. He vividly hallucinates, and
ultimately he dies, but not before experiencing one last
bittersweet spasm of happiness and hope. On The Black Angels
latest EP, Clear Lake Forest, theres a song called An
Occurrence at 4507 South Third Streetöùand the resemblance to
the Bierce story canÆt be an accident. It drifts in a kind of
murky, death-steeped dreaminess, and then thereÆs the sick
gallows joke at the heart of the songs chorus: You keep me
hanging on.
The Black Angels fourth and most recent full-length, 2013s
Indigo Meadow, suffered from a lack of that murky, dreamy
atmosphere. It was so hi-fi that it hurt, with no room left
for the listener to meet the material halfwayùwhich is part
of the function and the fascination of psychedelic music.
Psychedelia can be vivid, but it shouldnt be HD, and the
Austin band has corrected that mistake on Clear Lake Forest.
Like Owl Creek Bridge, thereÆs ambiguity and space for
interpretation, both sonically and lyrically. An Occurrence
at 4507 South Third Street jerks and pounds on a sinister
organ riff, churning up the rotted flotsam of the '60s that
Boomers seem happy to forget. Tired Eyes and Sunday Evening
are two of the flat-out catchiest, most dynamic songs the
group has ever recorded, with frontman Alex Maas trippy croon
finding new ways to thread their way through some truly
inspired pastiches of Summer-of-Love jangle and echo.
That inspiration hasnt felt so strong since The Black Angels
2006 debut, Passover. But that was eight years ago, when they
were more locked into a holding pattern of overdriven drones.
Theres far more range here, but Clear Lake Forests influences
tend to feel more like Easter eggs than stepping stones.
Sunday Evening is a blob of psyche-pop bubblegum thats as
sweet as (but also more sour than) the Lemon Pipers; Diamond
Eyes summons Tommy James-level tremolo and reverb, even as it
lets the oscillations fall in and out of synch with the beat
in a bleary smear of rhythmic phasing. As psychedelic
influences go, these are not deep, and so An Occurrence at
4507 South Third Street invokes the smoky menace of
Brecht/Weills Alabama Song through the middleman of The
DoorsÆ cover, which is almost shamefully mimicked.
The mishandling of influences has long been a problem of the
Black Angels, although its also been part of the thrill of
seeing them evolve. At the least, theyve always been open
about paying homage to their heroes, right down to the groups
Velvet Underground-referencing name. But on one of Clear Lake
ForestÆs worst tracks, Lindas Gone, that worship once again
crosses over into near parody; the songs taut, stuttering
lead guitar is a far too on-the-nose reference to VUs Run Run
Run, it manages to sound reverent and cavalier at the same
time, and not in a good way.
The EPs other low point, The Executioner, is a soggy wad of
weak blotter acid that serves only one real purpose: It links
to the lyrics of An Occurrence at 4507 South Third Street,
right down to the line A rope for your sins, reinforcing the
loose concept winding through the record. The Black Angels
deserve credit for attempting what is, in essence, a mini-
concept album rendered in subtle, muted shades. ItÆs a lot to
tackle in seven songs, but theres a depth and richness in
both texture and songwriting that show glimpses of a new
direction, one that might free them from their own drone-rock
noose.
┌────────┐
────┤ Group ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
└────────┘