Ancestors
Neptune With Fire

Browsing the web, you can find dozens of pages dedicated to "Neptune With Fire" ('08), the debut of this quintet from Los Angeles.
If you have the patience to read some comments, you'll find those who appreciate its retro style, those who praise the perfect blend of early stoner and '60s psychedelia, and those who point out the references to certain vintage prog...
Many have even listed it among the best releases of 2008. Almost everyone agrees that it's an excellent album.

Beyond any evaluation, I believe that "Neptune With Fire" is above all an ambitious album, right from its structure: only two tracks, divided internally into what could be described as "movements" (never have quotes been more necessary), for almost 40 minutes of duration.

The starting point is, as mentioned, a stoner-doom that is both familiar and effective, built on simple riffs, but rough and dusty enough to inspire violent and blissful air guitar, with guitar slung low and a very mean face.
A few minutes are enough, however, for the guitar immanence to be abandoned in favor of much more expanded and intangible soundscapes, where the typically stoner cadences and Justin Maranga's hoarse voice give way to sparse handfuls of notes with an almost (very almost) "post" flavor, space effects, reverbs, delay tricks, female choral voices, and epic instrumental crescendos that—with a bit of imagination—can even remind one of certain orchestral passages from the very first King Crimson.

In short, an album that, at least on paper, aims high, but which upon closer listening, seemed to me lacking in substance, often verbose, and especially hampered by the limited technical resources available to the group.
The solo in "Orcus Avarice", in particular, is perhaps among the worst I've ever heard, so flat and poorly played is it. The rhythm section, then, seems to constantly settle for the easiest and most predictable solution. In general, the whole album turns out to be built on a very limited number of ideas that are simply expanded, diluted, and repeated to exhaustion.

Perhaps the comparison isn't entirely appropriate, yet while listening to this album my mind wandered several times to the Mammatus. The group from Corralitos, from their debut, has shown the ability to mold ever-changing musical forms, imposing and majestic, truly capable of captivating the listener, paying homage to weighty mentors, and creating a sound, however derivative, that is extremely fascinating. The Ancestors, on the other hand, seem to start from the idea that to play "psychedelic" means endlessly spinning the same 7-8 bass notes, gradually increasing the volume, garnishing it all with a big potpourri of guitar effects, and stretching it out as much as possible.

Let's be clear: "Neptune With Fire" is an album certainly not devoid of charm and it cannot be denied that some passages are truly suggestive, but what's missing is above all unpredictability and—if it's not asking too much—a stroke of genius, that "quid pluris" that won't make you want to file it away among yet another heavy psych delivery of the Californian scene.

A piece of advice: don't trust this review.
Get "Neptune With Fire" and prepare to listen to that great album everyone talks about with anticipation.
Then, please, come back here and let me know if I need to find a good andrologist.