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The Obelisk Radio Add of the Week: Doublestone, Wingmakers

My feeble mind can rarely conceive of heavy rock from Copenhagen without getting at least a flash of the 13th Floor Elevators-style chicanery of Baby Woodrose, but newcomer trio Doublestone are on a different trip. Their Levitation Records debut full-length, Wingmakers, follows three EPs and was recorded earlier this year by none other than Mos Generator guitarist/vocalist Tony Reed. While that tells me the 10-track/41-minute collection must have been put to tape in a decent hurry, since presumably Reed was on tour at the time — unless he did it after the shows were over — the album hardly sounds rushed, instead working at a comfortable pace to capitalize on heavy ’70s and heavy ’10s influences alike.

Expectedly, shades of Graveyard show up in the boogie of “In the Forest” or the shuffling and catchy “Fire Down Below,” but Doublestone have a kind of pagan lyrical thematic in that song and others like “Born under a Hollow Moon,” “The Bringer of Light,” “Witch is Burning” and closer “III III III (Götterdämmerung)” that sets them apart, and with Reed at the helm, the production on Wingmakers is warm but hardly retro. Opener “Save Our Souls” sets an immediately modern mood with talk in its first lines of drones and satellites, so however derived the rush might be, there’s some subtle contextualizing at work that finds Doublestone working to develop their own sound within the genre.

“The Endless Line” and the smooth low end of “Born under a Hollow Moon” seem to be begging for swagger from guitarist/vocalist Bo Blond, bassist Kristian Blond and drummer Michael Bruun, but the swinging roots are there and both those tracks and the rest groove well alongside the periodic inclusion of organ, which gives Wingmakers a tie to cult rock as well as to the classic heavy modus they’re in part working from. They have some growing to do, but the album sounds engaging and full, particularly as the title-track and side A closer picks up with tonally rich nod en route to a solo both classy in itself and not backed by needless rhythm tracks, keeping to a robust live feel.

Could it be the birth of cult boogie? Seems unlikely, but I wouldn’t conjecture either way. Most importantly, Doublestone give a solid first long-play showing, and set themselves up as having a deceptively individual take to work from their next time out. It would hardly be fair to ask more of Wingmakers than that, except maybe some explanation of what the title means.

Whatever the answer to that might be, you can hear Doublestone now as part of the streaming The Obelisk Radio playlist, and get a feel for what they’ve got going on with “In the Forest” below. Wingmakers is out Nov. 6 on Levitation Records. Enjoy:

Doublestone, “In the Forest” from Wingmakers (2013)

Doublestone on Thee Facebooks

Doublestone’s website

Levitation Records

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