Review: Da Captain Trips - Adventures In The Upside Down

Da Captain Trips are a jam band plying their trade out of Italy. They formed "as a joke in 2009 by three overweight beardy friends" - their words not mine! They are a band who can seem strangely overlooked by the psych community - the two albums that I possess - the split with Sendelica (2015's “Psychedelic Battles Vol.1” - Vincebus Eruptum Recordings) and the 'In The Beginning' LP (also Vincebus Eruptum Recordings) are great, trippy slabs o' wax. Named after the population leveling virus in Stephen King's 'The Stand', Da Captain Trips have always been a band not constrained by one single approach to music making, they incorporate many different styles, genres etc in their output making them always interesting and always worth checking out. 'Adventures In The Upside Down' (released once again by Vincebus Eruptum Recordings and also Phonosphera Records) is no different - taking in psychedelia, Space Rock, Prog, krautrock and even surf and, all in all, a damn fine listen!

'The Calm And The Storm' opens the album with a long, drawn out drone and some electronic effects before a lonesome guitar is heard over the drone - it's all very melancholic and sounding distinctly nautical, with a 'twanging' downbeat surfy vibe. The track opens up to become a motoring psych/space rock number with flashes of kosmische electronica under the guitar. 'Manta' has an intro that reminded me of the 'Knightrider' theme - random I know!. However, it immediately transforms into another chuggin' track with more than a hint of krautrock about it...so far, so great. 'Revelation' is something different altogether....the twang heard in the first track returns with vengeance...a trippy, surf vibe is built, like Jan and Dean on acid, broken only by passages of more cosmic electronica and jazzy psych with saxophone courtesy of Lee Relfe from Sendelica. It's a great track that leaves the listener wondering where things are going next. 'Dear Zahdia' has a very retro feel about it, the vibe is very seventies with flashes of prog, mainly due to the organ sounding synth work. As the track travels it's course things become heavier and far more psych. 'Trespasses Bay - Peaceful Place' is the longest and most complex of the tracks. It has again that wonderful twang guitar giving it a surf feel and, like the previous track, it does have a proggy feel at times but in the main it is a slowburning, psychedelic meander, chocked full of atmosphere and plenty of reverb. The last section ( the 'Peaceful Place' bit I assume) has some great electronica that once again takes us back to the seventies.The album is brought to a close by 'Mother Earth'...starting with some bucolic guitar that is bordering on folk, it is an initially pastoral track that shows another side to the band - a side that is not afraid to eschew their psychedelic musings for something more introspective and contemplative... for a while at least..it blossoms into a superlative jam as it nears the end of it's ten minute length.

'Adventures In The Upside Down' is a great album, full of invention and wonder - taking different aspects of the 'psych' world and mixing them to form an album that is actually remarkably restful and evocative. It is still as trippy as hell in places but, maybe more than their other recordings, more reliant on technique and craft rather than all out jamfests. It is, in short, a 'grown up' album and I really rather enjoyed it! It will be available in vinyl form (from Vincebus Eruptum here) and CD (from Phonosphera here) from 30th April.