Review: The Switching Yard - Yet Again

Well, this year just keeps giving and giving. The stream of brilliant albums doesn't appear to letting up anytime soon and we can add this rather special album from The Switching Yard to the '2018, what a fucking year' list. The band hail from Saskatoon (where else?) and is comprised of Brennan Barclay, Steve Novakowski, Peter Henderson, Christopher Laramee and Jay Loos (the eagle-eyed among you may recognise those last two names from fellow Saskatoon riff-mongers Shooting Guns.) 'Yet Again' is the band's debut and what a way to introduce yourselves.....the press release makes reference to The Stooges, The Heads, Sabbath, Hawkwind and even Spacemen 3, a pretty heady mix! Cardinal Fuzz will be bringing us this beaut in Europe and Pre-Rock Records are doing the biz in N.America and needless to say it is gonna be a pretty essential album.

After the 10 sec false start of 'Space Fuckin' 'Champagne Action' really gets the album underway and straight away you are thrown into an abyss of hi-octane, scuzzy guitar and suddenly all those press release comparisons make perfect sense...especially The Heads...the same balls to the wall ferocity and space-infused dirty riffs as those Bristolian ne'er do wells. 'Hard Luck' is a tad more melodic but still no escaping the sheer visceral power that these guys generate. 'Behind The Gates' opens in a rather sedate manner.....strumming guitar and just a faint hum of electricity but things build gradually, the drums are introduced and it all becomes very Spacemen 3 (which, as you all know, is no bad thing indeed)..the power is replaced by the hazy atmosphere of a weed filled afternoon..it seems a million miles away from the furore of 'Champagne..' and yet connected by a musical umbilical cord. 'Space Fuckin II' is slighty longer than the first ...but only just...cavernous drums and disembodied vocals leading nowhere in particular but heralding the monster that is 'Hank, It's Midnight'. This is a leviathan of a track...not in length but in sheer, primal power...the guitars make The Stooges sound like the Cocteau Twins such is their fury and middle finger raised, spittle-flecked attitude; if this does not raise your blood pressure and heart rate then I'm guessing you are technically dead. 'Class Act' is a nine minute opus which pretty much ticks every box, skilfully taking those same haze filled atmospheres but with enough fuzz to keep any head happy for a lifetime. It is music that has you nodding, eyes closed and nowt wrong with the world at all...brilliant stuff! 'Burnt Wick' is yet another brilliant exercise in intense, mega-riff filled psych, complete with vocals that sound a bit Perry Farrell.....if Jane's Addiction played gargantuan, slightly doom flecked music then it would sound like this i.e. a bit bloody good. 'Fine Dining (Green Sound)' brings the album to a close in fine style - over the hubbub of a eating establishment is played some fine psychedelia - glorious guitar ringing clear over some groovy rhythms and it is happy to float along like this for 10 minutes and then it morphs into another fuzzy monster. The sound of diners disappears and the guitar changes from from one of swirling psych into one that is denser than a black hole but all over the same funky rhythm...sheer bliss. For those that get in quick enough, the album comes with a 7" (see vid below) 'Get A Head' - a visceral blast of Stooges like guitar that takes no prisoners. Indeed, if one needed a 'snapshot' of what the band were about then this would fit the bill - scuzzy guitars heard through a haze, muted vocals and crashing percussion. Congratulations, I think you have found your next favourite band.

Any release from Cardinal Fuzz is a thing to be celebrated but this....this is something special. The way it melds the stoned bliss of Spacemen 3 with some truly dirty riffage is a thing to behold and made even better by the fact that every track is different - every track has its own personality and gives something individual to the listener. On every level this is a superlative album...power, vibes, art and sheer, lowdown scuzziness. As mentioned this will be available on Cardinal Fuzz in Europe (pre-orders will be up tomorrow here) and via Pre-Rock Records (here) in North America.....and remember, get in quick to secure one of the gnarly 7".

Get A Head from The Switching Yard on Vimeo.