Weird Owl

Interstellar Skeletal

Written by: BV on 08/09/2015 18:17:05

Sometimes I feel like the ’psychedelic scene’ is being flooded. It may or may not be the case, but either way there certainly seems to be an abundance of bands out there now who take inspiration from garage, psych pop, kraut rock and the like – an abundance that makes it severely hard to keep up with the sheer number of them, meaning you might miss some good (or even excellent) stuff once in a while. One such band I’ve managed to miss is an outfit known as Weird Owl. Beneath the rather basic name (which is a nice change of scenery altogether) there lies a musical trove of lengthy excursions, kraut-like playfulness and a will to try to do something that hasn’t quite yet been done. On “Interstellar Skeletal”, the album which this review will focus on, the band certainly does manage to create a sound I’d call their own.

Opening with the title track, Weird Owl immediately launch a cascade of echoing guitar-patterns at the listener until the brief track evolves into a soundtrack to utter euphoria. Everything sounds grandiose and although the echoing vocals are nigh indecipherable, it doesn’t really matter. I get the feeling that the vibe is more important than the lyrical content. The same cannot be said about “Silver Ziggurats” as the grandiose soundscapes have been replaced by a confusing groove where the massive amounts of echoes oddly enough hinder the progress of the track. I love echo, more than I probably should, but I still need it to fit the track in some way – which is seemingly not the case here.

“Split From the Sun” sounds strangely ethereal with its droning acoustic guitar line and the minimalistic (yet still echo-drenched) lead guitar. The vocals have, at this point, become clearer and the soundscape as a whole is better off because of it. The dynamics of “Split From the Sun” create a feeling of tranquility, making inner peace seem entirely possible in even the most catastrophe-fueled situations as long as you’ve got this song, a little peace and quiet and a darkened room. – Which, in the end, is all I’d ever really want from a psychedelic release in the first place.

The strange thing about “Interstellar Skeletal” as a whole is that it has some very high peaks, but also some incredibly dull lows. For all the greatness that shines through tracks like “God”, “Split From the Sun” and “Interstellar Skeletal”, there is also always the immediate downer from tracks like “Silver Ziggurats”, “White Werewolf” and “You Are a Spacecraft”. Not that these aren’t good songs, because they are. They’re just not on par with the peaks of the album. As such, “Interstellar Skeletal” comes off as a somewhat unfocused album from a band that has managed to craft a rather unique sound (for better or worse). When all is said and done, I’d say I’m curious about how they’ll progress from here.

6

Download: Interstellar Skeletal, Split From the Sun, God
For the fans of: Pond, Pyramidal, Birdstriking
Listen: Soundcloud.com

Release date 25.05.2015
A Recordings


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