Friday 27 February 2015

Black Pussy - Magic Mustache (Album Review)


Album Type: Full Length
Date Released: 17/2/2015
Label: Made in China Records

‘Magic Mustache’ CD//DD//LP track listing:

01. Let's Start a War (3:20)
02. Into Your Cosmic (4:25)
03. Protopipe (6:00)
04. For the Sake of Argument (5:24)
05. On Top of the World (3:50)
06. Happy (3:19)
07. Farrah Fawcett (2:48)
08. Butterfly (4:35)
09. Lion's Breath (4:07)
10. Magic Mustache (7:02)

Review:

God damn, Black Pussy has got it all - from swirling fuzzy guitars. to jams that flow effortlessly between freak-outs and catchy choruses. Their tones hang thick like the smoke in an Amsterdam coffee shop and their vibes are comfortable like a nest made of embroidered throw pillows. Black Pussy a stoner rock band, no bones about it. So if that’s what the doctor ordered, give their new slab of wax, “Magic Mustache,” a spin and get ready to go for a ride.

The band likes to sell themselves as stoner-pop and admittedly, this is pretty spot on. Black Pussy focuses on honing lingering hooks and catchy rhythms in the pursuit, it seems, of the tightest groove. The album’s lead off single, “For the Sake of the Argument” is a prime example of this. The verses are extraordinarily long but with the drummer punching out a rhythm that mirrors some chick in hot pants busting some serious moves with her hula hoop, it feels very chorus worthy. Then when the chorus does finally hit, the song soars to dizzying heights. Tracks like “Lion’s Breath” and “On Top of the World” use a similar plan of attack and it works just so damn well.

These catchy licks don’t sound over-thought or rehearsed, either. In fact, they sound natural and almost accidental. Black Pussy comes across as a band that is here first and foremost for the jam; that moment when the rhythm is in the pocket and the guitars complement each other rather than fight for attention, when musicians get locked in and taken away. That the band happens to land on a catchy lick in the meantime is just gravy. So when a short ditty like “Farrah Fawcett” flows into “Butterfly,” it’s hard to tell where the one ends and the other begins. Sometimes this gets encapsulated within one song, like “Protopipe,” where the band shifts freely from a structured song to a swim in the Milky Way, enhancing the listening experience. Attributes such as these make “Magic Mustache” a journey in the truest sense of the word.

On “Magic Mustache” there is no broadening of the genre or anything like that, just 45 minutes of solid stoner rock that gets stratospheric when the time is right. The biggest draw to “Magic Mustache” is how the band has executed their craft. They didn’t set out to reinvent the wheel, all they waned to do was refurbish a classic car and have done so beautifully. The combination of heavy grooves, spacey jams, catchy choruses, and coming across as though its second nature make this album so remarkable.  

Words by: Victor Van Ommen

You can pick up a copy here

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