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Cover Art

The Black Angels ( http://theblackangels.com/ )

Phosphene Dream
Blue Horizon ( )

On Phosphene Dream, The Black Angels take listeners on a tour of ‘60s garage and psyche – but it’s a dark, creepy tour that makes you feel like everyone in that era suffered horrible and claustrophobic bad acid trips.  Oddly, that’s a compliment; The Black Angels take their darker vibes seriously, starting with the title of the lead-in track, “Bad Vibrations.”  A creepy garage/surf guitar line snakes above an undulating keyboard and a vocal that manages to unsettle.  Some complain that the group’s obvious debt to the 13th Floor Elevators (et al) makes them unoriginal, but such a criticism seems besides the point; they’re clearly trying to evoke that sound (and succeeding, with good songwriting to boot) so it’s unfair to complain that they sound like others.  There are plenty of bands paying tribute to the psyche/garage sounds of the ‘60s; at least The Black Angels are doing it with better songs (“Yellow Elevator #2,” “Entrance Song”) and just enough menace to make it interesting.

By James Hayashi-Tennant
Sep 24, 2010

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