Everyone knows someone who’s travelled through Asia and discovered Eastern religion. Sometimes – usually, it must be said – it’s a good thing, and the person in question has embraced a sense of emotional tranquillity that allows them to absorb the periodic bouts of mania and idiocy that permeate ordinary western existence. And then there’s the person who takes it too far – changes their name, erects a shrine of a deity in their bedroom and spouts rambling pop-philosophical rhetoric in annoyingly measured tones that, sadly, only induces annoyance in conversational partners.
To such people, I say – just get into some droning psychedelia: it’s better for the soul, and eschews the pretension that some other cause might otherwise attract. And why not start with Grand Rapids, and their debut album Great Shakes? Start with the opening track, Drone Machine, with its rumbling backbeat and barbed wire Brian Jonestown Massacre guitar lick, lie back and think of Echo and the Bunnymen constructing a world beyond the anti-social political rhetoric of Margaret Thatcher’s Britain. Move on to Headless Riders, and its marriage of post-punk feedback and lumbering beats – just close your eyes, and immerse yourself in the mesmerising simplicity of the moment. Blow Up will open your mind to a Mandelbrot Set of sonic colours and shapes, and shards of dark Californian pop sensibility.
Brian’s Got a Rubber Soul is more than a subtle musical pun: it’s an existential lament for solitude in a world plagued with narcissism and obsession. The title tracs hangs there for a moment, waiting, like Allen Ginsburg tantalising a crowd of acid-freak Hells Angels; and when it breaks, the psychedelic tide brings with it a musico-meteorological change that takes you to a warm and comforting place. On one level, Fake Blood is just a wash of noise; on a deeper level, it’s the sound of the thousands of inane activities which we must juggle in order to get through a day. Julia is a beautiful pop song that deserves its own hour-long dedicated examination; Read On takes your hand and leads you through the darkness and into the light of hope and enlightenment. Finally, you’ve got the Velvet Underground-meets-Warlocks drone of Sailor from the Sky: if you can open your mind, you’ll be in a better place. Grand Rapids are on another plain, and it’s good for your soul.
BY PATRICK EMERY
Best Track: Julia.
If You Like These, You’ll Like This: BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE, BLACK ANGELS, WARLOCKS.
In A Word: Drone.
