Review: This Other Kingdom - Rêveur

I think this is a first for the blog - I don't think an Irish band has featured as yet so now would seem as good a time as any to remedy that with this, the latest offering from Dublin's This Other Kingdom. The Emerald Isle is blessed with many things - Guinness, beautiful scenery, Guinness, warm & welcoming people (seriously, you haven't lived until you've been to an Irish wedding), Guinness and a pretty decent football team...but music? The mind instantly goes to, and recoils from, the likes of U2, The Cranberries and The Corrs (sorry, I know I am being unnecessarily flippant - there has been loads of great music from Ireland) but fuzzy psychedelia is not something that immediately springs to mind. However, This Other kingdom are no wet-behind-the-ears newcomers...their last album , 2015' 'Telescopic' went Top 10 in Ireland...and if you want some psych credentials, well, just have a look at some of the acts they have shared stages with - Holy Wave, Cult Of Dom Keller, Dead Rabbits, Tau & Radar Men From The Moon - pretty impressive by anyone's standard. So what does 'Rêveur' offer? The answer is a great deal..some artfully crafted neo-psych and some rock solid playing that puts it fairly and squarely in the 'Damned Fine' category. It is being released by Wrong Way Records, a new independent record label specialising in Psychedelia, Shoegaze, Spacerock, Leftfield and Krautrock.

'Common Colours//Common Sounds' launches us straight into neo-psych territory with warm, fuzzy guitars, thudding drums and a touch of the gothic...a more than hopeful manner in which to begin an album. 'Eye Do Eye' is definitely the poppier end of the psych spectrum with its vocal harmonies but that is no bad thing...it has flashes of the West Coast (US that is) amongst the driving guitars and percussion...it is head and shoulders above any 'indie' or 'alternative' stuff that the likes of Xfm etc are playing these days. 'Telescopic State Of Mind' leads nicely on from 'Eye...', picking up on the same structure etc but sounding even more like an eighties psych revival track from the 'Sons Of Nuggets' boxset. 'Comatosed' is a great track..an artful mix of indie sensibilities, some sixties organ and some post-punk/goth vocals...it may not be what everybody would class as 'psych' but it certainly hits a few of the right buttons. 'Chemikle' is ace! From its opening, with the chiming guitars and tribal drumming, it carries a portentous heaviness that gives it a real presence. Musically it has neo-psych writ large, and it's good neo-psych at that...the sort that Fuzz Club have made a stock in trade. 'Rats For Days (When The Sun Did Shine)' has a slower Happy Monday's shuffle to it..it has a bit of groove mixed in with the dark psych. At this stage in the album it struck me that it is the vocals that give this album a lot of its identity - Declan's deep tones imbue proceedings with a level of gravitas that is missing from a lot of recordings these days. 'Hellion' is a stormer of a track with some pretty authentic sounding late sixties guitar and vocal harmonies to match..it has flourishes of Jefferson Airplane, The Monkees and The Byrds...great stuff indeed. 'Morning Skies' opens with some sitar-sounding guitar to give that real psychedelic experience and blossoms into a moody, more melancholic offering. 'नई दिल्ली सात' is a beautiful tract of music - rich in eastern melodies and motifs and truly hypnotic. The primitive drums give it some backbone over which a lush drone and more sitar sounds weave a mesmerising aural tapestry that leads nicely into 'Valley Of Nowhere' and more richly dark neo-psych. It is atmospheric and brooding and builds into a climax worthy of Jim Morrison in his pomp. 'This Is War' closes the album and is probably my favourite...If I may flog the Doors reference some more...it sounds like Jim Morrison fronting The Myrrors with the distinctly western sounding reverbed guitars and tribal drums. It has real atmosphere and a brooding magnificence that rounds off the album very nicely.

'Rêveur' came as a surprise if I'm entirely honest...I listened to it initially expecting something that wouldn't tickle my pickle but on further delving I found an album that is actually very, very good. Bedded deep in neo-psych but with enough twists and turns and surprises to hold the listener enrapt. Musically, you can tell this is a group who are tight and with some hard won experience under their belts and, let's face it, you don't get to support the likes of CODK or RMFTM without knowing yer onions. In all, a damned fine listen that I thoroughly enjoyed and it is a very good reason to forgive Ireland for Mrs Brown's Boys! It is available from the Wrong Way Records Bandcamp page here and is available as a d/l, CD or a groovy Orange/Purple splatter vinyl (a very good colour combo!).