The instrumental outfit from Wales Sendelica returns with a fabulous collection of seven face melting jams on their brand new offering for RAIG called The Girl From The Future Who Lit Up The Sky With Golden Worlds. For this new disc the two principal members, Pete Bingham (guitars, electronics) and Glenda Pescado (bass) have enlisted two Boston area musicians Geoff Chase (drums) and Ed Guild (electronics) to join them on their lengthy, astral excursions.
Kicking off with a brief snippet of sampled, ethic tinged female vocals "Standing On The Edge" quickly shifts into overdrive as Bingham slashes out a mammoth swath of thick power chords, as bursts of psychedelic sounding electronics swirl around his extended solos. His guitar lets out an extended run of feedback at the tail end of the track before seamlessly segueing directly into the metallic, twelve minute crunch of "Manhole Of The Universe". Bingham tears off solo after solo until the half way point of the song, at which point it settles down into more of a mellower, deeply hypnotic groove, reminiscent of early Pink Floyd. The final minutes of this barnburner find Pete cranking up the volume once again as Pescado and Chase hold down the bombastic bottom end.
Sendelica are a band that isn't afraid to stretch out musically, and more importantly they're willing to take whatever time they need to let their compositions flow and build gradually, and this is a big reason why their music works so well. Sometimes bands that play this particular brand of psych / stoner rock, often lose the plot somewhere along the way and their jam sessions end up sounding like noodling sessions devoid of any kind of direction. The Girl From The Future Who Lit Up The Sky With Golden Worlds (this is quite a mouthful isn't it?) sounds remarkably cohesive, like the purpose of each one of these seven tracks was to make up one, extended multi-faceted composition. It's also a great way to keep you firmly engaged and in one place for the better part of an hour.
The title track is probably the most laid back and atmospheric song on this disc as delicate, distant vocal samples of children playing serve as a backdrop for some dreamy guitar and electronic textures. "Glory Bee" sees them returning to the muscular jams as Bingham pours on the layered, fuzzy distortion. The album concludes with their most ambitious number, "Several Species Of Furry Humans Gathered Together In A Cave Grooving Like Groovy Picts". The title is an obvious play on Pink Floyd's avant-garde composition "Several Species of Furry Animals Gathered Together In A Cave and Grooving With A Pict". This is pretty much where the resemblance ends though, as the PF piece was largely built around a variety of weird, experimental sounds. Sendelica's track is a driving, epic tour de force propelled by a repetitive, murky bass line, layer upon layer of psychedelic guitar fuzz, and some brilliant free jazz sax excursions courtesy of guest musician Lee Relfe.
Sendelica have truly outdone themselves this time around with The Girl From The Future Who Lit Up The Sky With Golden Worlds. I have to say that as good as their last album Spaceman Bubblegum And Other Weird Tales From The Mercury Mind was (that was a four star album in my review) that this album is definitely executed to perfection. The music is absolutely compelling from beginning to end, as they shift gears from heavy all out guitar oriented jams to spacey, introspective, ambient passages, with relative ease. Take an hour for yourself and plug yourself directly into this masterpiece immediately. We're only at the halfway point of the year but Sendelica have definitely delivered a serious top ten contender for this writer's 'best of 2009' list.
Track Listing
1) Standing On The Edge
2) Manhole Of The Universe
3) Hazelnut
4) Dark Disko
5) The Girl From The Future
6) Glory Bee
7) Several Species Of Furry Humans Gathered Together In A Cave Grooving Like Groovy Picts
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