Coming to
you from Cardinal Fuzz, one of the finest purveyors of Psych Rock/Psychedelia,
is the fourth studio album from the Californian psychedelic juggernaut White Manna and it’s a hell of a ride. Named after the mischievous nature god from Greek
mythology, Pan finds White Manna peaking, whipped into shape by touring a
ferocious, mind melting, live set, as witnessed at last year’s Liverpool Psych
Fest which left many of the audience with a rewired neural synapse. Pretty
accurately described as a cross between the early Stooges and Lemmy era
Hawkwind, White Manna mix the take no prisoners, balls out, sonic assault of
the former with the acid fried deep space jams of the latter, locking you into
their primordial grooves, ramping up the intensity of distortion and guitar
wig-outs as they explore their own hallucinatory visions.
White Manna
are heavy, very heavy……..after a short burst of squealing feedback, the album
opener ‘Pan’ explodes into life with a fuzzed up, relentless riff straight
outta Ron Ashton’s “Book of Fuzzed Up, Relentless Riffs” (the 1969 first
edition) before hitting the afterburners and rocking it to the moon before
heading out towards the cosmos. This track encapsulates White Manna’s
thing……brutal Detroit proto-punk inspired riffing melded with fuzzed up freak flag waving wildness
from Ladbroke Grove circa 1971……...this is underground Psych Rock at its best
and ‘Dunes I’ is more of the same with ferocious Garage Punk pounding with wave
upon wave of nasty, twisted, amplifier destroying guitar noise. White Manna owe some debt to the sheer sonic force of the
Stooges,MC5 and Blue Cheer for their sound……’Evil’ is total Stooges style heavy
Garage Rock…….it’s nothing startlingly original, but fuck, it’s some of the
most exciting, supercharged Psychedelic Rock ‘n’ Roll about at the moment. There is a change
of tone for the spaced-out
‘Dunes II’, distant vocals emerge from a fuzzy narcotic haze of distortion and
drones that rises and hangs suspended in the smoky air……..space cadet stoner
rock with a nod to the more psychedelic side of classic early 70s Black
Sabbath. The final two tracks on Pan are a couple prime cuts of mind blowing
Space Rock…….the Hawkwind influences/comparisons are all here for everyone to
hear (there is also a cover of ‘Master Of The Universe’ as a bonus track on the
CD release). ‘Beta Travelers’ taps into the psychedelic hard rock sound of the
great Space Ritual era and coming in at just over 11 minutes long, ‘Eshra’ is
an epic Kosmische jam that spirals out to the furthest points of the known
universe before crashing back to Earth. After already recording four astounding
albums, Pan finds White Manna right at the top of their game and you really
need to check this record out.
Available as
a limited edition multi-splatter vinyl LP or on good old black vinyl and also on CD, Pan will be released on the 1st
June but is available to pre-order now from Cardinal Fuzz in the UK/Europe………either
from their online store or Bandcamp page………or
Stateside from Captcha Records.
THEE
PSYCHEDELICATESSEN
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