Red Spektor head to the Heart Of The Renewed Sun on their new album. A trip that involves an overload of fizzing heavy blues rock.

Release date: 2nd October 2020

Label: Kozmik Artifactz

Format: DL / CD

Whoa, for a brief moment I thought I’d done the digital equivalent of dropping the needle on Hendrix’s Crosstown Traffic as the opening few seconds of the riff to Warflower kicks in. Not a bad start at all. If that’s not a compliment….

The psychedelic stoners from Stoke (which could pass as the opening line of an amusing limerick – which begs the question whatever happened to limericks?) deliver the no-frills goods on a hard and heavy trip. Yes, their template is the bluesier side of Sabbath and Purple with a little Jimi mixed in and dragged through a dense swamp to net a coating of sludge. However, who could possibly find fault with such a brew?

The holy triumvirate of guitar, bass and drums shake a few trees yet we’re never too far from applying the brakes and evolving into a spacey instrumental diversion. Case in point, Revol kicks off with a (for them) slow jazzy swing. In the hands of Iron Maiden it would be followed by a dash, nay, a gallop, to the finish. With Red Spektor, we get a low rumble to accompany the vocal. Brings to mind the story of the tortoise and the hare. Slow but steady wins the race.

A whole heap of churning grooves are accompanied by dense bluesy interludes (“masqueraaaaayyyyyddde…..”). The absence of finesse and musical proficiency isn’t a criticism but what some people would call a positive plus. It’s about creating a mood and a feel. Getting lost in the music.

Guided Tears barely leaves the starting blocks. The blues licks hover before an intense vocal lifts the mood, pondering “why are we really here?” Indeed. And then Violet Sun gives another hint of what Hendrix might have sounded like in 2020 if he’d relocated to Staggordshire and existed on a diet of oatcakes. Brilliant stuff (the song, not the oatcakes…).

And there’s the rub. Like the theory of Sabbath inventing heavy metal in the industrial Midlands, Red Spektor and Heart Of The Renewed Sun is a statement of their place in the universe.

Listen to Long Way Down here:

Red Spektor online: Website / Facebook / Twitter / Bandcamp

You can follow At The Barrier on Twitter here, and like us on Facebook here. We really appreciate your support.