Herbcraft - Wot Oz

Matt Lajoie’s fourth album once again finds him trading psychedelic head-shots with a new line-up: Aaron Neveu on drums and bassist/organist Joe Lindsey, who arrived to rehearse some tunes and ended up recording an album. Matt’s funny that way.

In fact, opener ‘We’re Gonna Make It’ sounds like we pick up the action mid-jam, with mysterious sonic meltdowns and hailing frequencies from some distant galaxy on the other side of the universe. Like starlight beaming from some lost dark star, Lajoie trips the light fantastic with wobbly guitar lines that evaporate into thin air.

‘Fit Ur-Head’ is one of several titular puns Lajoie cooks up while expanding our headbands, kosmische-style, with vocals phoned in from the carpark next door. No matter what he’s on about, just kick back and ride the train of thought across some bleeding, monster fuzz solos serpentining around a solid rhythmic head pounding from Neveu and Lindsey. It’s all so, like, tre Cope-ascetic, man. This is one gadda-da-vida I’d like to visit. The short head cleaner ‘Au’s Nation’ sounds like library music he copped off the telly in the studio – smooth, languid, warped and hallucinatory as fuck.

           Flip this sucker over and there are two lengthy brain farts, beginning with the opium-hazed den of iniquity ‘No More Doors’ that’s as claustrophobic as its title suggests. Imagine yourself locked in a padded cell with hazy purple clouds of smoke piped in through the vents and wafts of threatening organs billowing about icy shards of maniacal effects, clanging bells, hellbound trains, and heavy-breathing goblins…and you without a spoon!

           Closer ‘Bread Don’t Rise’ also seems to be launched musicus interruptus in the midst of some gnarly surf licks riding some behemoth waves of razor-sharp, brain-frying ram jams along the lines of Nick (Bevis Frond) Saloman tripping across the universal amphitheatres of deep space on his own sidelong explorations. Too bad the tape ran out, or they might’ve continued for another 15 minutes.

           Overall, a formidable addition to an already impressive collection of releases designed to rearrange your synapses and allow you to explore your own inner demons and ecstasies.