Kolejny ciekawy wynalazek - znowu z Finlandii - Pharoah Overlord. Założycielem zespołu jest Jussi Lehtisalo wcześniej znany z fińskiej grupy psychodelicznej Circle (kiedyś sam z przekorą nazwał ją "najnudniejszym zespołem rockandrollowym na świecie"). Przedstawiam drugi album, który moim zdaniem jest najciekawszy i najbardziej spójny muzycznie. Nie mam pojęcia czemu tak się dzieje, że zespoły wkracząjace na ciekawe obszary muzycznie nagle zaczynają eksperymentować i pod pretekstem "rozwoju" cofają się wstecz zmierzając w stronę komercji. Proszę posłuchać np. IV albumu Pharoah Overlord - toż to jakiś mierny metalik bez żadnego wyrazu.
The vast, blurry landscape of a trip: when you're flying, details are sometimes hard to make out, other times they're enhanced. Sometimes, letting go is the easiest way to get your grip, and as any traveler will tell you, getting there is almost all of the fun. Get it? Unless you're completely wasted, probably not-- this is the crux of stoner wisdom, wherein often you're the only one who knows that you're right. Maybe that's why music made under these circumstances is usually so out there. It probably made sense at the time for Tim Leary and Manuel Gottsching to make all those strange sounds, but to the indifferent observer they are something else altogether. This isn't to say chemically enhanced music only makes sense to the tuned in and turned on, but I'd argue it's probably much easier to find common ground when you're high.
Enter Finland's Pharaoh Overlord, a project led by guitarist Jussi Lehtisalo of Circle, themselves good for a lengthy excursion or three into outer space. The flavor on their second release is decidedly passive where Circle are prone to brute force. Rather than concoct trance via mere repetition, Pharaoh Overlord realize that the quickest way to a sedated heart is to ease in gradually, massaging all the rough edges away and keeping the traveler effortlessly afloat. Fuck, more herb nonsense-- anyway, you probably get the idea. If not, may I suggest that these guys come off like an intensely comfortable version of Acid Mothers Temple, minus all that guitar squealing nonsense. For the straight-edgers in the audience, just consider it the next best thing to warm milk before bed.
"Komaron Runner" wastes little time establishing the mildly disorientating quease-trance that Pharaoh Overlord specialize in. A gauze of distant, howling breeze covers the minimal guitar-bass-drums vamp like a layer of heavy white smoke. The sound approaches lo-fi even as the layers of soft noise build, giving the tune an ominous, hazy depth. The band play everything pretty slow, and prefer extremely minor variations on the same basic riff played continuously, rather than muck up the mix with extraneous "psychedelic" effects (Cotton Casino, I'm looking in your direction). Likewise, "Dark Temper" wrings plenty of mileage out of its snaky, pseudo-blues thang using little more than that same smoggy veneer and surprisingly subtle guitar figures. The end result is like a younger cousin to Ted Nugent's "Stranglehold" crossed with Funkadelic's "Music for Your Mother", but with no vocals, you're free to follow your own narrative.
Slightly less engaging is "Skyline", if only because it tends to follow the more obvious path to bliss via mind-numbing repetition. There's a good chance you'll have the main riff from this tune permanently ingrained after hearing it a few times-- whether or not that translates to ever wanting to play it again depends on your affinity for pre-school blues riffery (and general level of patience). "August" and "Love Unfiltered" opt for acoustic textures, though not at the expense of the already well-stated preference for sludgy garage rock grooves. The former tune is almost folky, with a dual finger picked guitar attack, good for back porch revelations on a dead-hot summer evening. The latter is more overtly spacey, though in truth, the differences between these two songs (and much of the album) might well come down to how willing you are to be hypnotized: waiting for "something" to happen is probably beside the point.
II won't change the face of rock, or even psyche-rock. There are literally hundreds of albums from the late 60s and early 70s out there that will do a similar trick, though I suppose if you aren't willing to scour eBay like greasy collector scum, Pharaoh Overlord can provide a valuable service at a fraction of the price. Like any decent trip, this music will serve you best when you've cleared your mind, sat back and accepted that you aren't going anywhere beyond the bizarre corridors of your mind. Motherfucker, I just lapsed into that shit again! Anyway...you know what I'm talkin' about, man. — Dominique Leone
Enter Finland's Pharaoh Overlord, a project led by guitarist Jussi Lehtisalo of Circle, themselves good for a lengthy excursion or three into outer space. The flavor on their second release is decidedly passive where Circle are prone to brute force. Rather than concoct trance via mere repetition, Pharaoh Overlord realize that the quickest way to a sedated heart is to ease in gradually, massaging all the rough edges away and keeping the traveler effortlessly afloat. Fuck, more herb nonsense-- anyway, you probably get the idea. If not, may I suggest that these guys come off like an intensely comfortable version of Acid Mothers Temple, minus all that guitar squealing nonsense. For the straight-edgers in the audience, just consider it the next best thing to warm milk before bed.
"Komaron Runner" wastes little time establishing the mildly disorientating quease-trance that Pharaoh Overlord specialize in. A gauze of distant, howling breeze covers the minimal guitar-bass-drums vamp like a layer of heavy white smoke. The sound approaches lo-fi even as the layers of soft noise build, giving the tune an ominous, hazy depth. The band play everything pretty slow, and prefer extremely minor variations on the same basic riff played continuously, rather than muck up the mix with extraneous "psychedelic" effects (Cotton Casino, I'm looking in your direction). Likewise, "Dark Temper" wrings plenty of mileage out of its snaky, pseudo-blues thang using little more than that same smoggy veneer and surprisingly subtle guitar figures. The end result is like a younger cousin to Ted Nugent's "Stranglehold" crossed with Funkadelic's "Music for Your Mother", but with no vocals, you're free to follow your own narrative.
Slightly less engaging is "Skyline", if only because it tends to follow the more obvious path to bliss via mind-numbing repetition. There's a good chance you'll have the main riff from this tune permanently ingrained after hearing it a few times-- whether or not that translates to ever wanting to play it again depends on your affinity for pre-school blues riffery (and general level of patience). "August" and "Love Unfiltered" opt for acoustic textures, though not at the expense of the already well-stated preference for sludgy garage rock grooves. The former tune is almost folky, with a dual finger picked guitar attack, good for back porch revelations on a dead-hot summer evening. The latter is more overtly spacey, though in truth, the differences between these two songs (and much of the album) might well come down to how willing you are to be hypnotized: waiting for "something" to happen is probably beside the point.
II won't change the face of rock, or even psyche-rock. There are literally hundreds of albums from the late 60s and early 70s out there that will do a similar trick, though I suppose if you aren't willing to scour eBay like greasy collector scum, Pharaoh Overlord can provide a valuable service at a fraction of the price. Like any decent trip, this music will serve you best when you've cleared your mind, sat back and accepted that you aren't going anywhere beyond the bizarre corridors of your mind. Motherfucker, I just lapsed into that shit again! Anyway...you know what I'm talkin' about, man. — Dominique Leone
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