19 Jun 2012

Sendelica - The Satori In Elegance Of The Majestic Stonegazer

Reviewed By The Active Listener

This is my first exposure to Welsh space-rockers Sendelica - after seeing that they'd released some material on the exceptional Fruits de Mer label I had to check them out.
This, their latest " The Satori in Elegance of the Majestic Stonegazer"  is available through their own webstore here, and if it's anything to go by I'm going to have to work my way through their back catalogue too.
They're 99% instrumental, which I often find repetitive, but they offer plenty of variety and bring in a number of guests on saxophone, sitar and the likes to keep things fresh too.
Opening track "The Magical Ninin" is a good indicator of what to expect, hypnotic, soaring space-rock with a stoner tinge and heaps of incredible and very heavy psych guitar from Peter Bingham.
They draw inspiration from a number of eras - the keyboard / bass / sax interplay recalls "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" in places, while some of the heavier guitar work reminds me of the more New Wave of British Heavy Metal informed Hawkwind material from the early eighties.
The sprawling four part epic that constitutes the title track displays their diversity best, evoking the work of various seventies German space rockers who appeared on the Brain label at one minute, and English nineties ambient electronica the next.
It's a real grower that keeps drawing me back for more listens and it reveals more and more with each play, and unusually for this type of album it sounds a thousand times better through loud speakers than it does through headphones, and the louder the better.
Check out the video for Satori Part III here:


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