REVIEW

Black Angels bring on modern psychedelia

AP review by James H. Collins

[April 02, 2013]  NEW YORK (AP) -- The Black Angels, "Indigo Meadow" (Blue Horizon Ventures)

Imagine tossing bands from the pantheon of American psychedelia like The Electric Prunes, Count Five, 13th Floor Elevators and The Seeds into your blender, adding a splash of Sabbath and a dollop of early Soundgarden or Mudhoney, and you've got Austin's The Black Angels.

On "Indigo Meadow," these Texans keep this elixir swirling. Their fourth album is modern psychedelia, true to the earlier form, with all the weird, hypnotic, fuzzy guitar sounds and dirgelike keyboards, only really well produced.

Their lyrics are a little darker than the romanticism associated with the '60s psychedelic bands. The flavors borrowed from "Paranoia"-era Sabbath, or pre-grunge Seattle, give the band a hard edge.

Listen to "I Hear Colors (Chromaesthesia)" or "Twisted Light" and you may wonder, is the year 1966 or 2013? Or maybe more to the point: Is someone still manufacturing psychedelic drugs in the heart of Texas?

[Associated Press; By JAMES H. COLLINS]

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