With the toybox psychedelia of Tame Impala hitting the mainstream and all things “out there” becoming the sound of summer 2013, Hidden Masters have landed at just the right time with an album which is absolutely smothered with heavy psyche. It is so psychedelic in fact, that you could be forgiven for thinking you had woken up in the late '60s and the acid had never worn off. Prepare for the trip of your life!
Blasting off with ‘She Broke The Clock Of The Long Now’, sub-Sabbath riffs are interspersed with frenetic piano and melodic vocals. On top of this harmonies swoop and swoon and guitars make thrilling runs. Forget all music that has happened in the last fifty years as you are placed right in the heart of Carnaby Street once again.
‘Into The Night Sky’ is held up by the piano as everything else clatters around it, Almost telekinetic, there is understanding of how this music should work and the trap off falling into too much going on is tempered by the space between. Music should be able to breathe and Hidden Masters know how to do this perfectly.
‘Perfume’ could have come straight off Nuggets with its urgent vocals and swirling Hammond. It's the closest you get to a possible single but you doubt this is even considered. No, Hidden Masters are more interested in that old fashioned statement...the album. Every song is a trip in itself which as a whole satisfying whole show a relentless talent at work.
Nothing sounds quite the same and by the time you get to ‘Like Candy’, which is possibly one of the greatest songs ever written with its insane sing along section followed by the funky work out on organ, you have lost all grip on reality. ‘Last Days of The Sun’ does this too only this time it transports you with its Arabian flavour. If only The Kinks were this good!
There is nothing like Hidden Masters at the moment, the closest comparison in contemporary circles is Howl Griff who take a much more elegiac road. Hidden Masters are the sound of the best acid trip ever and then some. Lysergic and blistering, the sun will never be the same again.
