Sometimes you actually can tell a lot about a record based on its track listing. Take a look at the titles of the eight songs on Warp Delights -- a mind-bending instrumental album featuring California-based guitarist Billy Tsounis backed by a power trio known as the Amazing Androids.
The album opens with “Cow Lands Plane Eats Pilot,” and it sounds as awkward and compelling as its title. Next comes “Serene,” a pretty piece that could have come straight out of the old-school British prog vaults. That is followed by “Gone Swamp Shopping,” which rolls around in some dirty, metallic (and almost industrial) blues for eight minutes. “Too Nervous to Reincarnate” is a psychedelic celestial jam, and “Last Dance Space Boots” falls somewhere between a ballroom composition and an arena rock guitar solo. “Becoming Butterfly” dips and soars with freeform jazz intentions, and “Messy Nostalgia Machines” closes the album with an epic, fuzzed-out swirl of unrestrained bliss.
All eight tracks strike a brilliant balance between melody and chops, and no single song is representative of Tsounis’s work as an artist, which makes listening to Warp Delights such a … well, a warped delight. The Amazing Androids -- bassist Aris Weathersby, drummer Will Rury and electric cellist Lucas Marquardt -- prove to be worthy supporting musicians, helping Tsounis maintain the album’s otherworldly vibe throughout.
Make the effort to seek this one out.
Track Listing:
1. Cow Lands Plane Eats Pilot
2. Serene
3. Gone Swamp Shopping
4. Too Nervous to Reincarnate
5. Last Dance Space Boots
6. Babalas Lilo
7. Becoming Butterfly
8. Messy Nostalgia Machines
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