16/08/2015
..and another great review from Crucial Blast, This time for Owl Glitters:
" At first glance, this album from Owl Glitters didn't look like something I'd be interested in; the combination of that goofy band name, the garish mandalas that make up the album art and the presence of songs with titles like "Dervishes" and "By The Candle Light Our Eyes Welcome Glimmers Of Eternity" sort of suggested something along the lines of hippy-dippy neo-psychedelia, which I've been less and less interested in lately. But an endorsement from the fine Israeli label Heart & Crossbone is always enough to get me to check something out, usually indicative of heavier, more f**ked-up tuneage. And that's what you get from Tones, the debut album from this Georgia-based band, who definitely cruise through some higher elevations with their stoned-out conglom of chanting voices, mesmeric hand drum rhythms, searing psych-fuzz guitar and circular bass lines. But that druggy, bleary psychedelia gets hammered by some bursts of serious heaviness, giving this a more sinister vibe than expected.
There's a definite resemblance to hypno-rockers Om. Opener "Dervishes" kicks things off with that distinctly Om-esque feel, lumbering across the beginning with it's bass-heavy elliptic groove, but as the band starts to pile on more and more electric guitar into the mix, the music begins to evolve into something a little frayed and edgy, streams of distorted noodling and Morricone-esque atmosphere wafting over that narcotized tribal thump. That tribal percussive feel is present through much of this, with similarly hypnotic psych jams like "Journey Of The Godheads" and "Hakim Sanai" further fusing a hazy, bleary black-forest drum circle vibe with moody melodies and more of those bouts of screaming guitar shred. There's also some weirdly galloping freak-folk on "Mindfull Of Gems" that sort of feels like an old-school doom metal riff being played over that pounding drum circle, and elsewhere, you'll get some proggy, borderline metallic guitar parts mingling with more of that ecstatic percussive din. That rolling, layered drumming becomes the pulsating heart of Owl Glitter's darkened psychedelia, rattling tambourine and polyrhythmic beats leading their twisted forest rituals further down a knotty tunnel into deeper and more delirious realms of doom-drenched chant and soundtracky shadowscapes, joined by glorious vocal harmonies and raga-laced drones, all seared by waves of shimmering nightside guitar. By the end of this disc, I was totally hooked on the band's music, which at times resembles a more shredtastic, doom-laden Master Musicians Of Bu***ke, at others a more folk-fueled Om, but with their own oddly epic vibe feel. If you dug that Queen Elephantine stuff that also came out on Heart & Crossbone, this is definitely on a similar druggy, ritualistic wavelength."
