Black Mountain
Druganaut

THE REVIEW

After last year's splendid debut album - a great compendium of all-around psychedelic rock - the Canadians Black Mountain return with this brief but intense 4-track record. Modern prophets of a music and an imagery that heavily draws from the rock tradition of the '60s and '70s, Black Mountain continue their musical journey made of rarefied landscapes shaken by thunderous guitar outbursts, without caring for current trends, perpetually lost within their "inner space" and absolutely happy to be so.

"Druganaut" continues the discourse interrupted in the previous work, offering an even more spatial and expansive sound, tending towards unfettered improvisation, thanks to the massive presence of Moog and various keyboards. The track that gives the record its name transforms the short version contained in the previous work into an interstellar journey of Hawkwind origin, maintaining the rhythmic structure of Can and reiterating it to infinity, so much so that it evokes a general sense of numbness upon listening. The Moog interventions are grand, helping to dilate and mesmerize the atmospheres. Even more dilated (if possible) is the following "Buffalo Swan", a song that literally oozes LSD, a long 9-minute trip wherein a minimal guitar riff appears and disappears amidst clouds of keyboards, often intent on demolishing the boundaries of song form, until the liberating and evocative final explosion. Almost superfluous are the last two tracks, an acoustic version of the velvetian "No Satisfaction" from the first album, and "Bicycle Man", a tribute/plagiarism of the Stooges' "No Fun", enhanced by the sax of Japanese Masa Anzai.

Paraphrasing an old adage: "Turn on, tune in, drop out!"