Review - Telstar Sound Drone - Magical Solutions To Everyday Struggles

Bad Afro are another one of those record labels that have never released a duff record and will forever be a favourite of this blog, if for no other reason that they have released The Janitors and Baby Woodrose. Baby Woodrose also have connections to this very fine release from Telstar Sound Drone; Hans Beck (drums) and Mads Saaby (guitar) have also seen active service in BW. With the edition of Sean Jardenbæk on vocals, and the input of friends (Hobbitten from Spids Nøgenhat and On Trial plays guitar on six out of nine songs, Christian Norup from Bite The Bullet plays bass on five songs and Kåre Joensen, another Baby Woodrose member, plays bass and synth on two songs) TSD have produced an album that artfully mixes psych with shoegaze and plenty of drone. 'Magical Solutions To Everyday Struggles' is full of fuzzy soundscapes, atmospheric textures and some face-melting, lysergic psychedelia......another reason to love Bad Afro!

Lead single 'Drugs Help' starts the album as it means to go on..with some ear-ringing drones before launching into a hazy psych number that is redolent of The Black Angels and yet has a charm and an energy of its own. The fuzz veritably crackles and provides a muscular backdrop for some moody vocals, all accompanied by drums that provide a solid framework on which the band hang this trippy slice of psych. 'Something I Can't Place' takes the template from the first track but adds some flourishes of exotic melodies and eastern tinged drones to the lysergically charged guitar and hypnotic groove. 'Dark Kashmir' is a lesson in shimmering drone (produced apparently by the recording of rotating hard disks recorded by electro-magnetic pick-ups).The drone is deep and the narcotic-laced vocals give it a real druggy vibe; you can't help but drift away into your own personal nirvana. The track picks up towards the end, but the hazy atmosphere remains, the drums just give the trip a harder edge.....a truly majestic track. 'Your Fingers Stir The Liquid Moon' is a more minimal excursion into the psychedelic hinterland, the programmed drumbeat sounding a bit like 'Dance Away' by Roxy Music (but please don't hold that against the band!). It floats in the ether, the drones and synths taking the listener to places they didn't even know existed. 'Closer Again' is a short, experimental number, full of clangs and whirrs over some delicate guitar and hushed vocals. 'Strange Apples' is a more 'rock' based track with pounding drums and wailing guitars, but still full of the band's trademark drones that lift this track way above the everyday. 'Mad Seeds' has a sixties garage punk vibe with a psychy shoegaze tilt and shimmers and glows with a mescaline haze and leads nicely into 'Dead Spaces'. This is a more abstract track with some kosmische synths and a darker edge. The guitar rings bright over the moody pacing and sombre atmosphere. 'Lean Down On White' closes the album and releases some of the claustrophobic pressure. The lightness in both sound and touch imbue the track with a diaphanous beauty that is hard to deny...a tranquil and alluring manner in which to end an album.

'Magical Solutions To Everyday Struggles' is a classy album, oozing with lush drones and fuzzy, trippy guitar. The atmosphere it creates and the textures it weaves results in a deep, heady voyage that is ultimately very satisfying and hugely enjoyable. It is released on March 18th on Bad Afro and the vinyl comes with a free CD of the entire album....bargain!