It seems we are something of a golden age for the kind of psych / space / desert rock that White Manna do. There are some mighty fine proponents around; White Hills, Pontiak, Wooden Shijps to name but a few of the more high profile bands. However, very few do it quite so well as White Manna do on this self-titled debut.
Let’s make one thing clear from the get go, there is nothing original about this kind of music. Frankly people have been making this desert baked sludgy rock ever since Steppenwolf blew on to the world stage in the early 60s, but that doesn’t matter, originality is not the purpose of this music. Its purpose, often hand in hand with certain naturally occurring herbs, is to take you to another place, to alter your head state and to open your inner eye (I may be getting carried away here, sorry) and this record does that in spades.
The opener ‘Acid Head’ (subtle!) is a louche, tripped out blissfully fuzzy groove that very much sets the tone for what is to come. While nothing here is what you’d call up tempo ‘Keep Your Lantern Burning’ clips along at a fair old rate building steadily over the course of the two thirds before suddenly hitting the afterburners and heading for the stars; magnificent.
The remaining three tracks, yes only five songs but nothing here clocks in at much less than six minutes so plenty of value for money, follow a similar theme, although the closing few minutes of the last track ‘Sweet Jesus’ deserve special mention; proper mindblowing stuff.
As I said before, there’s nothing here that hasn’t been done before, but I can also say as something of a connoisseur of this genre that it has rarely been done this well or with so much élan. They lay down hypnotic templates of bass heavy fuzz and then wig out over the top, with verve and style.
Essentially, White Manna have created the perfect soundtrack to that peyote fuelled, quest of self-discovery in the desert that you’ve always been promising yourself. No excuses now.
Out now on Holy Mountain.
Posted by Dan.
