Austin, Texas, heavy Americana psych/post-rockers (vague enough for you?) Lord Buffalo will release their sophomore album, Tohu Wa Bohu, through Blues Funeral Recordings sometime in the early going of 2020. Though the four-piece will likely draw immediate comparisons to Rochester, NY, trio King Buffalo, if only for the similarity of their monikers, the 40-minute eight-tracker shows a diversity of influence from All Them Witches brooding, bluesy moon-howling atmospherics in its early going on “Raziel” or “Halle Berry” to some of Young Hunter‘s sneaky guitar bounce and nuance in the title-track and flourish of piano and strings prefaced in “Dog Head” that finds realization across the final trio of “Kenosis,” the relatively brief “Heart of the Snake” and closer “Llano Estacado No. 2,” executed with a build and airy fluidity of presence that reminds of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds tripping on Wovenhand‘s often-severe point of view.

It is a heft of ambience as much as tone, but there’s no shortage of rhythmic impact as well, as even the lumber of “Dog Head” shows, vocals and violin sweeping up in a melodic wash punctuated by a thick-sounding snare that brings its crescendo down and locks in the more immediate thump-on-a-can of “Tohu Wa Bohu” itself, the title-track manifesting the highway-at-night vibe that the single’s accompanying cover also portrays. Lord Buffalo are no less comfortable in stark reaches than they are in their moments of fuller arrangement, and “Tohu Wa Bohu” transitions from one to the other with a hypnotic flow that would seem to lead off the immersion of side B of the vinyl, which of course only runs deeper as the subsequent tracks play out, culminating in “Llano Estacado No. 2,” with its repetitive string line and post-apex plays toward abrasion on a long fade capping. The standout line of the record and certainly of the song itself belongs to the title-track’s “Come show me how to feel,” which is delivered with due implore, but at no point is Tohu Wa Bohu cloying. Its songs are patient and often beautifully constructed, and whatever elements exist that might invite comparisons to the work of others, they’re used in such a way as to hone a persona belonging to the album itself.

Those who want to take the drive will find “Tohu Wa Bohu” premiering below, followed by comment from Lord Buffalo, as well as Blues Funeral, and the signing and release announcement. It’s a lot to pack into one post, but I have faith you’re up for it.

Please enjoy:

Vocalist/guitarist Daniel Pruitt on “Tohu Wa Bohu”:

As a band, we get booked on all kinds of bills. We’re often the loud band on a quiet bill or the quietest band on a heavy bill, and we can do both. We like a lot of different music, but it’s all pretty dark, and that has been our guiding light.

“Tohu Wa Bohu” is the title-track from our new record, and it’s a good example of what we’re going for, starting tight and sparse and building into something large and wide open. We wanted to try to use the rhythmic elements as the drone. It’s this pulsing, repetitive wave of bass and drums that makes a bed for the guitar and violin and builds into a huge vocal chant.

Jadd Shickler of Blues Funeral Recordings on the signing:

Lord Buffalo is a departure from our more familiar stoner/doom output, but we have broad tastes and know our listeners do, too. We’ve been fans of bands like 16 Horsepower, Son Volt and Godspeed You! Black Emperor for decades, and Lord Buffalo’s atmospheric ghost-town Americana captivates us in much the same way that those bands do. We saw them at the inaugural Monolith on the Mesa festival, where they absolutely decimated on a bill alongside tons of traditionally heavy bands. We’ve got no doubt that they’ll land for fans of bands like Dead Meadow, WovenHand, and Calexico, and can’t wait to release their new record.

Album Release Info:

America’s vast ocean of rolling prairie, brutal in its rhythmic repetition and sameness, can be unsettling to take in. The plains force a communion with the open sky, the endless landscape turning one’s eye inward.

Lord Buffalo’s second LP, Tohu Wa Bohu, is just that: the outward gaze forced inward, where the unknowable lingers on the blurred horizon between land, sky and mind.

In the Torah, “tohu wa bohu” refers to the formless void; the shape of things before the act of creation.

In thinking about writing the album, Lord Buffalo wanted to embrace unformed space and resist the instinct to control the process.

With only some basic arrangements in place, they entered Good Danny’s studio in Lockhart, Texas. As the tape rolled, they aimed to catch moments of new creation, the spirit hovering over the surface of the deep.

The end result is an elusive animal, equally at home under yellow street lights and purple desert skies. Tohu Wa Bohu is a heavy/quiet record that plays across genres, taking cues equally from Morricone and Badalementi as Sabbath and Swans. In sum, its thirty-nine minutes play more as a continuous movement than a collection of songs, a ride through open plains and melancholic midwestern imagery under a storm-threatening sky.

Tohu Wa Bohu will be available worldwide on LP, CD, and digital via Blues Funeral Recordings in early 2020.

Lord Buffalo are:
G.J. Hellman
P.J. Patterson
Yamal Said
D.J. Pruitt

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Tags: Austin, Blues Funeral Recordings, Lord Buffalo, Lord Buffalo Tohu Wa Bohu, Texas, Tohu Wa Bohu

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