This is quite another trip into the unknown for Michael J. York, Kavus Torabi, and Steve “Interesting” Davis to return to the fold once again by taking listeners into the void and see what’s on the other side when it comes to The Utopia Strong. Taking massive amounts of electronic powder-kegs and hypnotic voyages that is waiting for the listener to turn off their minds and flow downstream is their third studio album, Doperider.
When you think of a title like Doperider, you think it’s a hallucinogenic joyride. Well, it’s not. The inspiration came from Paul Kirchner’s comic strip “Dope Rider” which featured a skeleton on a motorbike, who first appeared in the psychedelic counter-culture magazine High Times. Yes, you heard right, High Times magazine. A magazine which tackled cannabis culture since 1974. Do not ask, I just write this down.
Listening to Doperider, you feel as if you’re inside this surreal western, revealing the past and the present unfolding in front of your very eyes with electronic and ambient arrangements the trio have brought to the table and proving themselves that they can’t take the mid-to-late ’60s approach of a spaghetti western by making it more trippy and more powerful and giving The Wild Bunch, a big run of its money during the new Hollywood-era in that time frame.
‘Spell of Seven’ has some dripping and bending effects, combining the forces of the second side of David Bowie’s Low album, mixed in with the electronic textures of Silver Apples and Delia Derbyshire that would make you feel right at home to watch the nurses and doctors do a test on this alien who came from a different world and be a part of the human race, which would be its downfall.
Do I hear Mellotrons on Doperider? Yes, I do! The ‘Moths of the British Isles’ which sounds like a short straight out of the Heavy Metal magazines during its heyday in a parallel universe written by Alejandro Jordowosky and illustrated by Moebius, you can tell the trio wanted to vision in what the story endures thanks to the illustration that is given to them, and creating this ambient-like landscape and vision in which they created in front of our very eyes.
When I think of ‘The Atavist’ I think of the fast-paced train with these chipmunk-like voices, squealing in the background trying to reach towards the end of the line as massive clocks tick like crazy before revealing the dystopian nightmare that’s unfolding with its neo-punk attitude and cyber-futuristic view of the 23rd century on the opening track ‘Prophecy’.
There’s something middle-eastern behind the piece as Kavus reveals the world beat punch which he paid homage to Peter Gabriel’s score to Martin Scorsese’s 1989 controversial classic, The Last Temptation of Christ. It’s almost a testament for Torabi to reveal the hardship his family went through to move from Tehran to the UK. Almost autobiographical at times, but chilling to the bone.
The ’Unity of Light’ bears witness to the post-apocalyptic landscape in which The Utopia Strong has visioned in this monumental wasteland. You can imagine them in a room, putting on Klaus Schulze’s Irrlicht and get the idea of how he used an orchestra on his first album to create that droning scenario and put it into the world that once was, is now a war zone, and the chaos that’s occurred.
We then go into this post-punk, post-rock vibration in which the ‘Harpies’ have come landing on earth, revealing this peaceful turned nightmarish trip-hop groove that’ll make your skin crawl. Repeatable listens, you probably need a few more to delve into more universes that sounds like in what the future is waiting for us.
