By: Martyn Coppack
Cathode Ray Eyes | facebook | soundcloud |
Released on June 1, 2015 via Cardinal Fuzz
Having a day job in Cult of Dom Keller, one of the finer new psych bands around, must be a drain on your senses. Making music of a particularly dark variety that brings to mind a more evil version of Violator complete with slabs of guitars guaranteed to shake the walls, there is little lightness involved. For Ryan Delgaudio, guitarist and vocalist, he has found refuge in his own little solo project, Cathode Ray Eyes.
Before you run for the hills thinking “vanity project”, though, you should do well to listen first as what we have here is, although strands are there, a completely different animal to the beast that is CoDK. This is a much more playful affair that is vastly experimental without once losing sight of itself and retaining a peculiarly commercial feel. In short its a bit of a revelation and serves as an interesting sideline to The Second Bardo.
Eyes In The Melancholy Palm may not have any songs as such and each track is a sort of half spun idea of what may have been something greater. Recorded lo-fi, it teases you with its playfulness before moving on to pastures new, never once really settling into a groove. With that in mind, it seems slightly disjointed at first but as the album progresses little parts re-appear, giving a sense of completion.
If anything, this album is a testament to Ryan’s rather excellent ear for a riff and as the rolling, countrified sound moves into a rollicking rock sound, you have to marvel at the simplicity of it all. By building loops and samples over the music Ryan creates a collage which he keeps grounded by his guitar allowing a theme to spread out that sounds like some bastardized version of a Tarantino western.
There’s a strong feel of bands such as Death In Vegas here too which is surprising although there is no hint of a dance-floor stomper. Instead, it is the more esoteric and punkier sound of dance which drifts in and out only to be dragged down to base roots as once again the rolling riff creeps back in.
Cathode Ray Eyes is a perfect rejoinder to Cult of Dom Keller and it only serves to impress how special that latter band are. Hopefully Ryan will find time in the future to produce more music like this, though, as sometimes the dark heart can become a bit heavy. It may seem like a slight diversion but under the surface there is a wild, beating heart at work.
