A late discovery here, as this has been out since November last year, but I figure I may not be the only one who's out of the loop and that these guys are deserving of every bit of publicity they can get.
The second album by this Detroit outfit, Spectra Spirit is a moody dark psych opus with excellent use of drones, buzzing, multilayered, textural guitars, creepy sounding organs and in Sean Morrow, a confident vocalist who is a prime distillation of Jim Morrison and Ian Astbury, without the melodrama of the former or the grandiose nature of the latter.
They've got a much better appreciation of light and shade than the majority of their peers too - witness "Did You Hear The Lion Roar, Mr Wig" with it's easy transition from grim psych chant to a much lighter and quite unexpected piece of twelve string jangle.
"Green Eyes and Dream" takes a proto stoner rock riff and subverts it with heavily reverbed guitars and fairground organs.
"Center of a Velvet Room" is the most anthemic track here with it's hypnotic vocal mantra while "Black Mind" boasts a truly evil sounding organ riff which for some reason makes me want to look over my shoulder to see what's lurking behind me....
Fans of the Black Angels and the Doors will certainly find something to like here.
The band offer this and their debut album as a free download on their website here. If you visit the store there you can also buy this as a stunning colored vinyl LP - highly recommended!
"Black Mind" sounds like Bauhaus on acid.
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