The Assemble Head In Sunburst Sound
Ekranoplan

Little Comets On Fire are growing.

It's established that psychedelia spreads in a viral manner, it's curious to note how it's a global pandemic, or rather ancestral, intensified from the '60s up to today. In certain areas - one at random (but not really), California - attempts to eradicate it are impossible, as it's deeply rooted in the local culture (and therefore music). It's somewhat like a vine that is both international and indigenous, which well expresses the musical-auditory typicities of each specific terroir of belonging.

Apart from the medical-vine-musical ramblings, AHISS (forgive the abbreviation, but it's not my fault if these good hippies chose such an absurd name) are the new and interesting offspring of the Californian psychedelic womb. But given the cover, I challenge anyone to mistake them for house DJs or a hardcore punk band.

The press release recommends them to fans of Amon Duul II, Pink Floyd, Pretty Things, Comets On Fire, Mudhoney, and even Neil Young's "Harvest". "Troppa grazia Sant'Antonio!", my late and secular grandmother would have said. To be fair, glimpses of such influences are quite evident. But it's with their countrymen Comets On Fire the strongest resemblance, thanks to their wild attitude, although less r'n'r, in the uptempo tracks, and the effect-laden voice of the singer Charlie Saufley (especially in the title track). They revel gleefully in the vivid musical pool spanning between '67 and '72, with a marked preference for the annus mirabilis 1969, a creative cusp marking the transition of psychedelia blending into what would become hard rock. "Mosquito Lantern" is the perfect fusion of hard garage and space organ, pure '69 through and through. Sometimes they verge almost stoner ("Message By Mistral And Thunderclap" and the wah-wah and organ orgy of "D. Brown"), at times they're out-of-tune folk minstrels under the desert sun ("The Chocolate Maiden's Misty Summer Morning" and "Rudy In The Corner") but always with their gaze fixed on the starry sky ("Gemini 9").

Definitely recommended for fans of the genre, not for those sporting bangs and low-rise tube pants.