One person projects are de rigeur these days. No time for band members when you got the vision and skills. Instrumental? Of course – don’t need no shouty egotists to take me where I want to go. But …. a one man 60’s surf guitar 70’s fuzzed out psyche stoner doom project from the Indonesian island of Java that exists on massages, naps, tobacco and coffee? Well that is a whole new thing.
Enter Mud Spencer and Fuzz Soup – and I do not think there is a more aptly titled album. This broth has elements of Tom Waits “Swordfishtrombones,” Kyuss, the Del-Tones , Them, 13th Floor Elevators, Monster Magnet , Mudhoney, the Sonics and much, much more.
At various points over the 11 tracks I am sonic tripping balls in a tie dyed fractal saturated hyperspace , the next I have my thumbs thrust into my jeans pockets for a heads down boogie whilst I “Ride the Mammoth” or foot on an imaginary monitor in some Aberdeen Washington dive bar as I wig out for some baying plaid shirt kids that exist only in my middle-aged mind. Wait is that a didgeridoo in there?
The riffs are huge – “Argapura” drops like Weedeater’s caffeine wired cousin and the rhythms are infectious – you know that footage of “heads” losing it at Woodstock in the middle of the day? I reckon Mud Spencer would drop nicely into their playlist.
With a name like Mud Spencer you would expect a lil Blues and gosh darn if “The Shelter” does not start with some stark, lo-fi distorted classic delta sounding blues before spiralling into psychedelic stoner straight from the planet Mezcal! Who can resist “Surfing the Dune” – Leave Satriani with the little green folks and I’ll get sand in my nethers with Mud Spencer.
“The Cheating Mole” that follows is a funky hammond heavy that brings to mind Yello and 70’s cop dramas whilst still making me want to dance whilst “Tumulus” begins in American backwoods, all slide guitar and lazy moonshine plucking before going full Sabbath, like Satan just appeared out of the mountain still. This is no facsimile of the Brummie greats though. Unlike a lot of stoner/Doom also rans Mud Spencer leave plenty of big psychedelic sonics and filthy country elements in this track to avoid mere Iommi worship.
Eventually even the tastiest soup has to run dry. The final spoonful here is “Narcolepsy” and is a massive slab of Electric Wizard style distortion with keys that manage to sound like bagpipes? The riff is gargantuan and means that this dish has an aftertaste that lingers way past the run time.
Mud Spencer use a whole lot of tasty ingredients to create a delicious meal for the ears. Forget the diet and slop this into your brains!
(8.5/10 Matt Mason)
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