Self-proclaimed Witch Doom duo Blacklab hail from Osaka and mix up stoner, psyche and Doom with elements of 90’s grunge to tickle eardrums on this, their third full length.
I say tickle, but if truth be told, pummel is the correct verb here. It’s like an aural massage – a deep tissue one at that. The dreamy shoegaze parts caress and pluck at the cochlear, the groovy stoner sections apply some pleasant pressure whilst the downright heavy sludge/doom riffs pound like Rocky on the frozen meat slabs.
I am listening to “In A Bizarre Dream” the bands third full length with a strange sense of wonder and loss. This is brought about by the fact that it has taken me so long to check them out and the fact that I missed their set at Desertfest earlier this year. The fact that I was otherwise engaged at the fest watching a blinder by Slift offers some solace.
Blacklab managed to get the spiky bile and anger of Riot Grrl and pre mainstream Grunge and mix it with fuzzy stoner rock and modern sludge to create a fucking huge ball of sweetened bile.
There is a lot to unpick in the ten tracks on here, Yuko Morino vocalist and guitarist and Chia Shiraishi, all percussion have created a multi-faceted collection that makes my head spin. That is a poncy way of saying this has got some far-out groove and some fucking crushing noise!
The opening two tracks were introduced to the world at Desertfest and you can see why – “Cold Rain” is a dark, chilling fuzzy mammoth of a track, striding out of the darkness with tusks caked in blood. Huge concrete riffs and giant rolling drums carry a banshee roar from Yuko – pure primordial sludge with a lilting psychedelic melodic chorus. “Abyss Woods” swaggers out of the smoke with its hips swaying and flares flapping in the breeze. Pure stoner fuzzy groove baby. Yuko’s vocals are like a mix of Courtney Love in early Hole, Pia Isaaksen from Superlynx and a demon from the 5th level of hell. The discordant guitar solo is so Sub Pop it makes me yearn for the early 90’s (not something I do often).
Dark Clouds feels like an Exploited Song gone doomy – the drum beat is pure 82 punk and gives the track a dirty lo-fi stoner punk whiskey and bongwater feel before Evil is thrust upon us in two parts.
Evil 1 – is big tribal drums and a jaggedly fuzzy riff that drops into a gnarly, nasty, sludgecore beast that could incite any pit to riot whilst Evil 2 is a darkly melodic and sombre doomy ditty. To say it’s a chill out track would be to sell it short but the Japanese vocals are both soporific and unsettling at the same time and fit the eerie ambience brilliantly. Like a blue light at a black mass.
Crows, Sparrows and Cats features a special guest and, to me at first, a surprising one. Laetitia Sadier of 90’s avant popsters Stereolab turns up casting my mind back once again to my early 20’s. It bloody works though, Sadier’s dreamlike voice some shoegaze electronics and big fuzzy riffs and drums meld well together for a kooky good time. Lost which follows has one of those swirling riffs that Cathedral were so good at penning back in the day and this track has a lot of those chaps about it alongside the dust and pop rocks of the desert.
It’s time for a moment or two of zen with the title track. Some bells, shakers and keys atop a swirling riff – time to reflect perhaps during this instrumental interlude.
The psyche/doom is turned up to eleventyseven on Monochrome Rainbow with fractals and cuboids firing off into space alongside Yuko’s swirling vocals before a solid stoner stomp sets in.
So, to the closer – “Collapse”. Like a hornet in a jar this is a non-stop blast of pissed off buzzing energy. Melvins flecks abound throughout it like zits on a teen’s back and like a teen this is angst ridden wall smashing noise rock and it’s fun. Which is just about the best way to describe this album – an album to tear the posters off your wall to whether you are 14 or 49 and then chill in the corner and look at the pretty colours of the wallpaper beneath.
(8/10 Matt Mason)
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