Austin, Texas six-piece Neon Lemon tick a lot of psychonaut boxes with this latest mini-album, a lysergic meander through their hot desert state.
Considering each of the six members plays at least two instruments, this is a surprisingly light affair; the bass sways and the guitar licks are textural delights and the slow, steady drums allow everything to slowly unfold. Vocals are dreamy in a Spacemen 3 kind of way; but sort of buried, as if frazzled by the bright lights.
The sluggish garage rock of “No Action Town” swaggers, the strung-out vocals barely attached; but there is amazing subtlety in the playing, making it easy to pick out details and the length means that textures are allowed to appear and decay, leaving Levi Murray‘s bass to do the heavy lifting. On this track and at other points, drummer Cody Read feels like he has been playing for years, energy gradually diminishing as all around him long-haired dancers spiral slowly, oily projections casting dream images across the walls. The tracks are pretty diverse, with sitar adding to the midday drowsiness of “Unaware”. It would be the perfect soundtrack to a trip to an opium den, the diffuse smoke-filled atmosphere inhabited by the strands of guitar as some players unhitch and drift, allowing the listener to be drawn into the unfolding gauze. Although the tracks move slowly, there is real delicacy; they don’t just turn up the volume, but allow space in between the sounds. You certainly get the feeling that at heart they are romantics, but the organ riff on “Woke Up From A Dream” has a sexy kind of strut that puts a different perspective on things just for a while.They bow out with an irresistible bass-led excursion, billowy reverb and harmonica scattered across the rhythm. I really like the line “Blinded by the sweat on my brow”, and the final coda where the line “Take me higher” is eve repeated feels as though they are still searching for something. Towards the end, I thought I detected a sax, but it was too gentle and on looking through the credits noted that Shawn Cawley plays the electric jug. Perhaps it was that, but either way with that little nod to forebears 13th Floor Elevators, Neon Lemon leave us a little richer than when we started.
It is a nice package on 10″ vinyl and well worth investigation.
-Mr Olivetti-
