Label: Hegoa Records – Heg-003 Format: Vinyl, 12", 33 ⅓ RPM, Mini-Album, Limited Edition, Reissue Country: UK Released: 22 Dec 2021 Genre: Rock, Blues Style: Experimental
Hypnotic Uber lo-fi blues/psych/drone from deep in the Basque Country given a much needed repress on the excellent Hegoa label.
As previously mentioned here, the blues is a complex bag of tropes to rifle through. Drive-time, slow-hand guitar virtuosity is synonymous in my head with mid-life crisis petrol station Toblerone binges and calm-down-dear conservatism. But I don’t begrudge anyone their Charlie Patton reissues or their Muddy Waters LPs. And it is clear that there’s a ley line running from early electric Blues, via 60s dream-weapon minimalism and Velvets chug to scuzzy no-fi 90s noise. If the last two Ignatz records on Ultra Eczema suggest there is a revival of interest in this aesthetic then this reissue on Hegoa is fuel to that fire. It was recorded across the 90s and early 00s in a converted slaughterhouse cum art space in the Basque Country by Rogelio Astigarraga also of psych-rock band Akauzazte. There’s a definite early Siltbreeze feeling (UN’s brilliant Fast Money Blues comes to mind) and a whiff of Twin Infinitives era Royal Trux. The guitar here isn’t a million miles from Dead C levels of free-rock hermeticism. So far so good if you like that sort of thing. But the clincher for me are the other sounds that creep in round the edges: Blunt and supremely sad organ pads and found gospel vocals that are totally transporting..
(Mint / New - with insert + poster)
Tracklist A1 Beltza Den Zorionaren Kolorea 3:24 A2 2331 Jesus 5:04 A3 Kornelius Kapitainak Untxiari Bluesaz Galdetu Zion (03) 1:25 A4 Kornelius Kapitainak Untxiari Bluesaz Galdetu Zion (91) 3:03 B1 Paxiera Mozkorrak 2:06 B2 Apo 2:53 B3 Beltza Dek Zorionaren Kolorea 2 3:20 B4 Hutsuneak (Bukatzeko Era Bat) 1:03
