Review: The Band Whose Name Is A Symbol (TBWNIAS) - Cosmic Curios

Some three years ago I took a punt on an album on the Cardinal Fuzz website (not so much a punt really as the Cardinal was most effusive in his praise for said album...always a good sign). That album was 'Pathfinder' by TBWNIAS and the whole contemporary 'psych' landscape changed for me there and then. Taking the motorik rhythms of their krautrock forefathers and mixing brilliantly with passages of pure freakout psych, it took the original essence of psych and brought in gloriously up to date. Needless to say I, and many others, have diligently bought everything they have produced since. All this is but a preamble to say that there us a new album, brought to us by The Weird Beard, following on from their ace vert:x release. 'Cosmic Curios' is a journey back through the TBWNIAS archives (they always have the tape running apparently.....that is gonna be some boxset in the future!) with the tracks dating back to the 2009-2016 period. It's not so much a retrospective as a showcase for these fellas' skill, love and passion for the music that shaped them. The tracks are all improvised 'one offs' that have never seen the light of day previously....no overdubs, no farting around...just straight up fuzzy goodness!

'NST 2009' gets proceedings under way with a blast of punk infused rock'n'roll, full to the brim with attitude, verve and vigour, three minutes of 100mph guitar, pummeling drums and just the right amount of freakiness to keep this firmly on the 'psych' path. It certainly shakes the cobwebs away. 'Eastern Teutonic Curfew' slows things down with a hazy eastern melody skittering over the top of metronomic drums and pulsing bass..taking the bedrock of seventies krautrock and skillfully adding the eastern motif produces something comfortingly familiar and yet enticingly exotic. The presence of Jan Lis and Hesham Attya in this fluxlike collective of musicians is telling, both bringing something of their own musical heritage to the table (Eastern Europe and Kuwait respectively)....their influence is undeniable, but then, this is what the band are so good at...taking influences from people, places and musical sources (they are all inveterate music collectors) and bringing these into their recordings...and this love and respect shines through. 'Sastrugi' (the ridges formed on snow by the wind) opens with a sub-industrial growl before the band set up another kraut groove with roiling guitar and megalithic drums...it is built on repetition and is relentless in its surge forward. The guitar breaks out occasionally into some psychedelic wailing but never alters the rock solid structure....joy! 'Home Invasion (Pontiac Sunfire)' clearly shows the process of the improvisation, from the chatting voices at the beginning to the heavy, glacial build of the track. From a few plucked guitar chords it evolves into a huge kraut/psych workout with every player playing their part...this, people, is how to jam! The album is closed with 'Just Funkin' You Over The Stars' the longest (at over 17 minutes) and the most recent, recorded just last year. It starts slowly and atmospherically..ethereal guitar, echoey drum rolls and cavernous, vaguely disturbing, effects...the music floats around, just above the listener's head, evoking lonesome soundscapes and barren vistas. It takes its time in growing, luxuriating in the space and time afforded by musicians who are in no hurry, but the expansion does come...flourishing into a track embedded deeply into kraut bedrock overlaid with flashes of psychedelic brilliance. It is a supreme example of longform improv jamming...heavenly stuff!

It was initially tempting to frame this review along the 'historical document' lines; an album that 'charts the evolution' of TBWNIAS but in the end I thought better of it...this is an album to be enjoyed for the music, not from some sociological or evolutionary perspective. It is an album in which the listener can revel in the art and musicianship of the band and get lost in the krautrock based jams. It as an album for music lovers by music lovers, all played with heart, soul and respect for the music. It should come as no surprise that it is a fantastic album and one that continues to show the band for the masters they are. It can be pre-ordered from The Weird Beard webstore here with a release date mid November.