I knew nothing about this band until I stumbled upon them doing a midnight-down-the-rabbit-hole search through YouTube. What a surprise! They are a fantastic young band. They have that retro early seventies power trio vibe down to a T. They were formed back in 2011, but it wasn’t until 2014 that this gem of a debut album was released.
Opening track, High Class Woman, is a wonderful throwback to the early seventies groove rock vibe, and in Elin Larsson they have unearthed an amazing vocal talent. Ain’t No Change is a fantastic groovey guitar fest and is a monster of a tune. Jupiter has a very heavy Hendrix vibe, again with a killer groove and some great playing, and with the ghost of Janice being channeled through Elin’s killer vocals. It slows the vibe right down and has a very trippy feeling to the tune. It’s a bit of a showcase for Larsson’s vocals until the big stoner riff kicks in. Black Smoke reminds me of a Tom Waits drinking song with some nice slide playing. River is all about the vocal and starts with a jazz vibe mixed in with all that retro goodness – Dusty Springfield popped into my head while listening. No Hope Left For Me follows and we are back to the heavy stoner groove with lots of wailing guitar and vocal. Devil Man has an early Fleetwood Mac feel – especially musically, but the vocal is incredible, and with a sleazy blues swagger, this is my favourite so far. Astralplane is a psyched out bluesy trip fest and is very late sixties in feel – complete with spacey guitar. Gypsy is a cover of the Chubby Checker song and grooves along nicely – it’s way better than the original. Little Sun closes out the album and weirdly reminds me of Lynyrd Skynyrd.
Unfortunately due to line up changes, the albums after this have suffered somewhat, but that does not take away from what a great record this is.
9/10 from The Grooveman.
