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Five Reviews/One Day Pt. 2: Heavy Water Experiments, Heavy Water Experiments

Wavy gravyWhat the hell these two dudes are doing in Los Angeles is beyond me. Get thee to San Francisco!

Guitarist/bassist/keyboardist/vocalist/songwriter David Melbye, who also happens to have produced Heavy Water Experiments‘ self-titled album (Intrepid Sound Recordings), and El Salvadorian drummer Roberto Salguero have an oft-soothing psychedelia that at least in my mind runs antithetical to the commercial horror parade that is Hollywood. The surprising moodiness of opener “Goldenthroat” and progressive, softly-keyboarded indie of “Mirror the Sky” seem better suited to the Bay Area‘s reputation for supporting and fostering creative free-thinking. Perhaps my vision is skewed because I live on the opposite side of the country, but L.A. has always struck me as being the place Midwestern runaways go to die. And yes, I’ve been there. They have an Amoeba Records; I couldn’t not go.

In any case, Heavy Water Experiments, formerly known as Imogene, offer casual flirtations with distorted stoner-style riffs (“Neverlove”), but never really give themselves over to the fuzz of, say, Fu Manchu, which probably works to their benefit. The sunny aspect of several of these songs — “Anodyne,” the acoustic-led “Oracles,” the lovestruck “Dementia” — wouldn’t work in such a traditionally guitar-centric context, but as it’s presented on Heavy Water Experiments (and kudos to the mixer as well, by default I assume it was Melbye) the band is able to bring in an array of sounds and make it work without being limited by any particular genre confines. They’re psychedelic, but by its very nature, that tag is amorphous.

Melbye‘s subdued vocal approach fits well over the music in a Radiohead kind of way, though more active. One of several clever and self-aware tags the band gives themselves is Radio Queens of the Stone Head, and “Conflagration Song,” featuring the guest vocals of Erinn Williamson, bears that out, particularly leading into the low-end fuzz of “Solitude.” There’s nothing especially retro in their sound, which is refreshing in these days of hyper-stylization, but the calming effect Heavy Water Experiments has on the listener with its soft-water washes is Ladies...overwhelming in a classic rock sense nonetheless. They’ve pulled the ideology into a modern context, in other words.

Songs like “Otherland” — which joins “Clairvoyance” as one of the more “stoner” cuts on the record if only for its simple riff-based construction — are given their proper breathing room, but the reason Heavy Water Experiments works so well is because of the overall flow between the tracks one to the next. As closer “Book Colored Blue” builds to its gong-infused apex, there is an energy released that has been building all along, which not only shows well-planned songwriting on the part of Melbye, but proper, purposeful structuring and sequencing as well. It is very much an album, rather than a collection of 12 individual tracks.

Melbye and Salguero (accompanied in the live incarnation of the band by keyboardist/vocalist Rebecca Black and bassist Rick Staggs) may not hold the geographic locale to which I think they’re best suited, but the careful and intricate arrangements manifest on Heavy Water Experiments signify that little in their band happens by accident. The duo’s knack for pop construction and maintained rock edge balance each other well and make Heavy Water Experiments a unique entity — the rare flower growing in the land of monsters.

Stone horse.

Heavy Water Experiments on MySpace

Intrepid Sound Recordings

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3 Responses to “Five Reviews/One Day Pt. 2: Heavy Water Experiments, Heavy Water Experiments

  1. ooooooooKAY!
    While I completely agree that HWE is an amazing band, one of my current favorites from both their recorded work and some fine shows I take serious exception to your characterization of LA.
    At this time the LA music scene that I’m living and working within is “supporting and fostering creative free-thinking” and is a rapidly expanding plethora of non-competative and artistically inclined artists & bands.
    You might wanna check my postings at
    http://labuzzblog.com/
    as I intend to continue casting as much light on the positive goings on in LA music as I can.
    WES D
    aka Mister Nervous

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