“Woah!” may be the best and most common response to Directions to See A Ghost. Right from the trippy two-toned cover to the opening hazy guitars of You On The Run, this is a sprawling, ‘60s-echoing, paranormal slab of sound. There’s a dense mist of noise enveloping the whole album, constructed from layers of distorted guitars and drone and accompanied by spidery basslines and the spiritual strains of sitar.
Alex Maas and Christian Bland’s vocals are anything but; possessing commanding wails that cut a swathe through the cloud of sound. The drumming – provided by Stephanie Bailey – has an almost subliminal, rhythmic effect, causing an involuntary, all-encompassing physical response to the music. One could only imagine the enhanced experience that would come with witnessing the band live, apparently a spectacle replete with out-there projections and hypnotic lighting.
The Black Angels are utterly convinced of, and sincere in, their belief of the other-worldly themes of the album. The band members currently live in a haunted mansion and have backgrounds combining a tentative mixture of the Church (the God worshipping one, not the former cracking-mullet, Steve Kilbey fronted one), religious cults and funeral homes. Although one wonders if the highly paranoia-inducing dissection of the ghostly themes may be a bit much for The Black Angels’ most likely target market of, cough, stoners.
The lyrics are to be read and absorbed, not just listened to, and thus are printed boldly in the weighty 16-page lyric booklet. The band urges people to “study the booklet…in hopes that they will be able to relate each song to something in their life”. In fact, their postscript, to the lyrics, to the 16-minute cascading closing track intones, “We encourage you to rethink your preconceived notions, question authority, and create other methods for survival.’ Indeed, within the album they touch on love, life, drink and dreams, God and science and even Vikings.
The bands motto is “Turn on, Tune in, Drone out” and it is something that you can’t help avoid doing with DTSAG. There is no point putting this on as background music and trying to do anything else, as the album just draws you in with its transfixing tracks.
The Black Angels have toured widely with the likes of The Warlocks and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (which may be pertinent reference points to their sound) in the intervening years since their 2006 debut. The benefit of them becoming a road-honed live band before hitting the studio is evident in the compelling cohesion and the seamless, magnetic grooves the band effortlessly lock into on this album.
The eleven songs – even the snappiest of which still ticks in at four-and-a-half minutes – transport you back to a smoky student share-house. It takes hold of your mind, leaving you with a vocabulary of “wha?” and “‘huh?” for the duration, till you are suddenly snapped out of it with a sudden urge for Chicken Twisties.
Directions To See A Ghost is out now on Light In The Attic, through Inertia.
