Dommengang
Love Jail

LA RECENSIONE

Straight from fucking Los Angeles in fucking California, the most powerful rock trio of the moment returns: Dommengang, consisting of Brian Markhan, Adam Bulgasem, and Sig Wilson. After already making your hair shake with "Everybody's Boogie" (2015), here they are with a new album entitled "Love Jail," released this past January 26th on that fantastic label, bless its soul, known as Thrill Jockey Records. Born from the meeting of Captain Dan "Sig" Wilson, a guitarist who trained in the heavy-psych school of the North Pacific coast of the American continent and previously collaborated with the likes of Ray Raposa's Castanets and Scout Niblett, and drummer Adam Bulgasem and bassist Brian Markham from Oregon and Alaska respectively—but until recently based in Brooklyn, practically on the other side of the USA—after touring as the opening band for Holy Sons aka Emil Amos following their first album, the trio has finally settled in Los Angeles, and the proximity has only benefited the quality of their compositions and the group's harmony.

Produced by Tim Green of the Fucking Champs (already a producer for Joanna Newsom, Howlin' Rain, Sleepy Sun, Fresh and Onlys...), the new album perhaps sounds less raw compared to their debut, but at the same time, it’s evident that the band has grown in terms of awareness of their capabilities and now navigates with sight on those tempestuous waves of acid rock sound typical of the seventies, infused with blues demons. It takes just a few seconds of the first track, "Pastel City," to mess up your hair, make your head move up and down, and imagine yourself driving a damn convertible along the US Route 101. Acid riffs loaded with distortion follow one another like gusts of wind hitting you track after track: "Going Down Fast," the rock and roll blues of "Color Out of Space" and "Stealing Miles," the motorik juggernaut of "Lone Pine" and "Dave's Boogie," the ghost of Jim Morrison blessing you before being swept away by the electric explosions of "I'm Out Mine" and the earth literally trembling under your feet as California breaks away from the rest of the United States under the mighty and powerful blows like the steps of a giant, as vigorous as the sound of "Lovely Place." Add a couple of tracks like the Ry Cooder-like glimpse of "Love Jail" and the rock and roll anthem of "Stay Together," and you've got it.

Amid the psychedelic acidity of Dead Meadow's brand and typical seventies rock blues bravado, Rory Gallagher-style guitaring, ZZ Top influences, and a vigorous rhythm section like that of the Pontiak brothers, someone might rightly say Wilson and his two companions haven't invented anything new. However, if your life is crap, you're in a fucking job, your girlfriend left you for your best friend, you're depressed, having panic attacks, hyper-stressed from work, and when you open the fridge there's nothing to eat and not even one last God to believe in, this album here reminds you that there's always rock and roll that can save your life. And if anyone right now thinks I’m being somehow rhetorical, they can go fuck themselves and go home to comb their dolls.