Review: Bandcamp / Soundcloud / Submissions Round-Up pt 15

Just realised I haven't done a round-up this year and there's loads of good stuff out there...so here goes:



Guns Of The Seneca are a band from Louisana, US and describe themselves as "experimental, multi-genre trio" and, when listening to their album 'Citizens of the Universe', you can certainly pick out similarities with other avant prog bands like The Mars Volta etc. This is by no means a bad thing - they take a basic post-rock structure and fill it out with some blistering guitar work and shifting tempos and moods to create an album that is technically spot-on. There are flashes of sixties psychedelia (the vocal harmonies of 'Largo Parenchyma' & 'Magnum Morte'), some full-on post-rock ('Heterochromatic') and even some surf prog ('Sensory Distortions'). The whole album is a damn good listen. There are bands around who describe themselves as 'experimental' but have nary an idea between them, while bands like Guns Of The Seneca have ideas in bucketfuls...very well worth a listen. Oh, and in case you are wondering, the band name comes from ""Guns of the Seneca" refers to mistpouffers -- mysterious booming noises heard over Lake Seneca, NY that are thought to be the guns and cannons of the lost soldiers of the Battle of Seneca Town during the Revolutionary War.". 'Citizens of the Universe' is available as a download or limited edition CD from the band's Bandcamp page here.





Druidian Pink are another band from Louisiana who have just released their debut EP 'Pink Aliens' and very good it is too. The EP runs the gamut from edgy, psychy garage punk ('Cult Of The Pink Aliens') through punk based prog ('Black Magic') to heavier based psych/punk ('The Hex'). You may have noticed I've used the word punk a few times and there is no denying the whole EP has a definite punk feel about it but not your straight up (or even edge) punk but the more left field material. I'm guessing Thee Oh Sees were a big influence on these guys, and why not, some of the tracks have a touch of the Dwyer about them...which is obviously a very good thing. I gotta say, I really enjoyed this EP, all six of the tracks are winners and all have a cheeky irreverence about them which only adds to the charm...all in all well worth the $5 download price. Get t from their Bandcamp page here.





More Experience are not from Louisiana, they are from Poland and play a more traditional variety of psychedelia. The most recent LP, 'Follow Me', is full of great psychedelic gems, chock to the brim with all that anyone would want from a psych album: sitar, vintage organ, wah-wah and loads of fuzz. It is an album I've been sitting on for a while, for shame, but it is an album that richly deserves some exposure. Over the course of its seven tracks 'Follow Me' plots a meandering course through the late sixties and early seventies, proudly wearing its hippie label on its sleeve. From 'Saucerful..' era Floyd through tracks with an exotic eastern motif to the more jazzy side of psych, More Experience offer a genuine psychedelic experience. They may not be breaking down any barriers or ploughing any new furrows, but what they do, they do very well indeed. This is exactly the type of band one would expect to hear on Fruits de Mer or Mega Dodo - they've certainly got the quality. The only link I could find to actually purchase it is an eBay one - here - if there is another, let me know.





Strange Broue are a psychedelic stoner/doom band from Quebec who have just released a rather excellent EP named 'Seance - The Satanic Sounds of Strange Broue'. The whole doom/horror thing is a well worn theme but Strange Broue have managed the impossible and have injected fresh blood into it. The doom is heavy as fuck, straying into funereal claustrophobia at times and the riffs shake the very foundations, but the EP really gets interesting when it strays into horror soundtrack mode....snippets of spoken word and eerie organ background music add not only more to the atmosphere of dread of the EP but also that spark of creative freethinking that raises this above the normal doom/horror fare. What you are left with is what you would get if Electric Wizard dropped the whole drugs/murder angle and concentrated on creating records that drip with atmosphere and sound genuinely disturbing at times. This is what doom should sound like. 'Seance' comes in many formats (download, Cassette, CD, a limited Die Hard CD and also VHS) all available from the Bandcamp page here





While we are in the doom arena, a quick word about Beerwolf, a band out of Tampa, Florida who play a great line in stoner/psyche that takes some of the heavy psych of the seventies, washes it in gallons of fuzz and we are left with some rip-roaring stoner rock with a definite psychedelic edge and more than a touch of Sabbath tinged doom. Their most recent album 'Oracle's Prophecy' is 6 tracks of heavy, fuzzy goodness guaranteed to blow the cobwebs away. You lucky buggers in the US can see the guys on their current tour before they return to the studio to record a new album.