Sula Bassana – Live at Roadburn 2014

Sulatron

A wonderful new release from Sulatron Records has arrived on my home world, so here I go with trying to interpret the incoming data…

Sula Bassana‘s Live at Roadburn 2014 starts with the synthesizer cosmic wind of “Rainstorm” that works up into a thudding big riff as bass and drums roll around under some expressive guitar playing. This is pure freak-out music, the kind that Sula’s band Electric Moon do so well (Komet Lulu plays bass on this recording too, folks). This is heavy psych with a big lysergic hit of -edelic at the end of it. The track makes colour traces in the air as it begins to hit momentum and soaks up plenty of number 25 within its grooves.

“D-Light” starts with fluttering synth goodness and a marvellous sitar-style drone hum away under tribal drum patterns in an evocative, heady brew of a smoke-filled haze that is blurred by the smell of Nag Champa while the crystalline guitar works against its weedian caravan of delights. Eighteen minutes of “Dark Days” follows with a massive fuzzed wah-wah guitar entrance. Its pounding beat shuffles in and starts building Hildebrandt Brothers Ushurak-style monoliths under its massive Mellotron melody. The track hits a steady pace that could almost be the soundtrack to visuals of exploding planets. The ‘tron adds a touch of “Watcher of the Skies” to proceedings as alien spaceship wreckage falls through the atmosphere. The sound of the track seems huge, like it’s battling against the sound system as it grows and grows, and eventually crashes to its end and leaves you breathless in its majestic final moments.

“Alienfuzz” starts quieter, with infinitely-echoed guitar picking and some warm synth before the freak-out takes off and we are on a jet-proportioned trip to the stars. It’s a great way to end an album (and the gig) with this short burst of psychedelic madness.

-Gary Parsons-