Review: Lee Van Cleef - Holy Smoke

Lee Van Cleef, according to the press release from label White Dwarf, came together "as a joke at the end of 2015". It is a project born from jam sessions between Marco Adamo, guitarist (La polvere di Bodélé), Guido Minervini, drums (Efesto, Lamarck) and Pietro La Tegola, bass (Whiskeycold Winter). Coming together with a love for bands such as Earthless, Black Bombain and Harsh Toke, the sessions have resulted in an album of top class acid jamming and anyone with a love for the aforementioned bands will dig this. White Dwarf have had the good sense to pick this up and put it out....hardly surprising for a label that brought us the mighty Holy Mount album last year (read my review of that monster here).

'Holy Smoke' is spread over 5 tracks, the first of which is 'Heckle Yuppies'. Opening with some doom-like riffs, slow, hard and heavy, it grows into a fine acid jam. The influences shine through clearly...this is the work of a band who know and understand the difference between true jamming and just knocking out some tunes. 'Banshee' is the longest track on the album at a shade over thirteen minutes. Again it starts slow but the guitar rings true from the get go....as per the band's influences there is more than a touch of Isaiah Mitchell's fluid style about Adamo's playing and the bass / drum rhythm section is absolutely rock solid, providing a framework on which the guitar can hang. 'Banshee' is a superb track....truly superlative jamming! Next track, 'Hell Malo' is the shortest at five minutes and opens with some simple, but heavy, guitar chords and opens up into a more uptempo track that sounds more stoner than psych until the guitar really gets going....laden with wah-wah and reverb it soars high into the cosmos, backed again by some solid playing from Minervini and La Tegola....this psych jamming at its best. 'Mahāna' is another that starts slow n' heavy like a doom number. The slower tempo and some just perceptible vocals give the track a different feel from the previous ones....it has a more introverted heavy psych vibe about it but there is still scope for some more ace guitarwork from Adamo. As the track progresses the tempo gets faster and faster and the last couple of minutes positively fly by in a whirl of wah-wah and reverb...excellent stuff indeed. The album is brought to a close with 'Towelie',a track that neatly encapsulates what has gone on before...a megolithic rhythm section and more superlative, echoey guitar that could provide the very definition of acid jam.

White Dwarf don't release a great deal of records compared to some labels, but as 'Holy Smoke' proves, when they do, it's a scorcher. When I read the press release with its mention of Earthless, Black Bombain etc I'll admit to bit a bit skeptical - those are big names to throw around. However, on listening it soon became evident that these guys know how to rock! The musicianship is superb and the sound they create is huge. They have taken the general structure of heavy psych and jammed around the theme to create a monster of a record. I think that Lee Van Cleef can be added to the roster of the best acid bands around. 'Holy Smoke' is available now as a download from the White Dwarf Bandcamp page here, the vinyl is due in November and pre-orders will be up v soon, so bookmark the page. The vinyl will come in limited editions of 150 copies on red and 350 copies on black 180 gram vinyl with an inside-Out-Cover and a download card.