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Friday Full-Length: Harsh Toke, Light up and Live

Posted in Bootleg Theater on October 6th, 2017 by JJ Koczan

Harsh Toke, Light up and Live (2013)

Two vinyl sides. 38 minutes. That’s it. Then you’re done. It seems so simple, and yet, in that time, San Diego’s Harsh Toke stand tall in representing damn near every appeal of the Californian heavy boom that’s taken place over the course of the last eight or nine years, particularly the last half-decade, which has seen San Diego and San Francisco emerge as major epicenters of psychedelic and heavy rock. Separate and distinct in sound and ethic from the Pacific Northwest’s party spirit, no doubt Cali likes to get down as it always has, but as Harsh Toke demonstrate on their ultra-fluid 2013 debut, Light up and Live, it’s as much about how far out you can go as it is what kind of mushrooms you find sprouting up from the ground when you get there. Comprised of guitarist Justin “Figgy” Figueroa, keyboardist/vocalist Gabe Messer, drummer Austin Ayub and bassist Richie Belton, Harsh Toke released Light up and Live via Tee Pee Records, and with its four songs yo-dude-check-out-this-vibe vibe, seemed to signal that a new breed and a new generation was on the rise. Like several of their West Coast peers including Earthless, from whom they take a marked influence on the extended cuts “Weight of the Sun” (14:30) and “Plug into the Moon” (10:09), they have connections to the world of professional skateboarding, but their lysergic wash is unmistakable once conjured and though they seem to purposefully lose themselves in what one might be tempted to put in all-caps as ‘THE JAM,’ their flights from solid ground are never more indulgent than they are invigorating.

Markedly cosmic at the outset, Light up and Live starts out with the deceptively straightforward four-minute thrust-boogie of “Rest in Prince.” Of course, its organ-fueled groove was put to tape three years before the artist himself actually passed away, but what’s most interesting about the track is its verse/chorus structure. There’s still some feeling of the unhinged as it moves into okay-now-it’s-time-to-shred after about the first minute, but with the immediacy of Messer‘s early verses, the song nonetheless works to set up expectations on the part of the listener that Harsh Toke brazenly throw out the window of their shuttle en route out of the atmosphere. “Rest in Prince,” which might be the highlight performance from Ayub as regards the shuffle in the snare, effectively leads the audience into the band’s heavy psych tumult, but it does so while making Light up and Live more accessible than it might otherwise be if it simply started out with the rain sticks, percussion and rising theremin siren and flutes at the launch of “Weight of the Sun.” By the time Harsh Toke really decide to get weird — and once they go, man are they gone — they’ve already welcomed the listener into this molten universe of jamming. Vocals are left behind in favor of effects wash, and the engines kick in after the three-minute mark to launch “Weight of the Sun” toward its reaches, which the band will continue to explore through ebbs and flows for the hypnotic duration, drawing back late as the piece seems to disintegrate around its fade, leaving just the organ line to hold sway for its final minute around some rumbling noise.

Thus side A is capped, and with the 9:47 title-track led off by a flowing bassline, the reimmersion happens quickly on the second half of the record. Languid groove sets the tone early, with more rain stick to fill out the arrangement, but it’s that low end that most holds sway even as the guitar, drums and keys join back in, and that becomes the foundation of “Light up and Live”‘s central riff. Figueroa takes a massive, liquefied solo in the midsection, layers weaving in and out of each other in drawn out Iommic and/or Mitchellian modus with the firm rhythmic backing, and Harsh Toke surprise by bringing vocals back in deep-mixed echoing fashion somewhere after five minutes in. It’s a fast, there-and-gone moment, and not exactly an attempt to reorient the listener so much as another element brought in to add to the atmosphere, but it happens. It’s not an illusion. Still, once more the band execute a full sweep of brainstem-clearing hypnotantrics, slowing toward the end where they might otherwise just keep going but seeming to get out of their own way to allow the push of “Plug into the Moon” to take hold as grand finale. The swirl is immediate and given added Hawkwinded mentality via saxophone and a decided alignment toward interstellar reaches, and though a bit of the boogie spirit of “Rest in Prince” is revived, the closer is obviously working on a different wavelength entirely, driving toward its shred-topped ending that seems so right in nodding quickly at King Crimson‘s “21st Century Schizoid Man” in its last measures before suddenly cutting to a driftless silence, the effect of which after the trance-inducing churn of “Plug into the Moon” is jarring, like the four-piece did a countdown, snapped their fingers and said, “awake.”

Because it’s still a relatively recent release — and because Harsh Toke have yet to deliver a proper full-length follow-up — it’s hard to gauge what the longer-term impact of Light up and Live has been and can be, but no question its release marked a turning point in West Coast heavy psych, heralding the arrival of what has become arguably the most vibrant underground in the US. In terms of what they’ve done since, Harsh Toke have represented San Diego well. In my mind, I’ll forever associate them with the simply amazing set they played in collaboration with psych legend Lenny Kaye in the Netherlands at Roadburn 2014 (review here), and they returned to Europe in the next year to tour with French labelmates Sunder, playing Desertfest Belgium and more besides. 2016 found them releasing a the Acid Crusher / Mount Swan split with Earthless (review here), which they followed with a return to Roadburn earlier this year (review here) for two sets, one of which was comprised entirely of Roky Erickson covers. Upon returning to the States, in June they released an elaborately arranged split with compatriots Joy and Sacri Monti titled Burnout (review here), on which they once more took on Erickson material. Plenty busy, but no second long-player just yet. One holds out hope for 2018, though there’s yet to be any solid word of anything in the works that I’ve seen and members of Harsh Toke reportedly feature in the new group Age, so the future remains uncertain.

Whatever next year and beyond might hold, Light up and Live seems poised to stand the test of time by enacting an acidic spirit outside of it. As always, I hope you enjoy and thank you for reading.

No doubt I had West Coast stuff on my mind after reviewing the new Radio Moscow record earlier today, but whatever gets Harsh Toke posted is cool by me. Coming off the Quarterly Review last week which continued on Monday, you might note this week featured nothing but records that I thought were hyperbole-level awesome. To wit:

Young Hunter, Dayhiker (review here)
Enslaved, E (review here)
Black Mare, Death Magick Mother (review here)
Radio Moscow, New Beginnings (review here)

This is not at all coincidence, and don’t be surprised when all four of those releases feature on my year-end list in December. This week and next I’m trying to get stuff done ahead of the baby’s Oct. 15 due date, which, hey, we might completely blow a few days past or he might decide to come early — and either way is totally cool by me; whatever you wanna do, Pecan — but as I may be occupied for a while mentally in the immediate once he’s born, it made sense to me to get this stuff in ahead of time. Call it the manifestation of my nesting instinct.

I still have some stuff coming together, but next week is likewise slammed. Subject to change as always, but here’s how it looks:

Mon.: Full stream/review of the new Turn Me on Dead Man; might be another track premiere as well.
Tue.: Twingiant track premiere; Review of the new Øresund Space Collective.
Wed.: The Flying Eyes review; possible other track premiere.
Thu.: Nick Oliveri review/full album stream; The Road Miles video premiere.
Fri.: Long-overdue Egypt review, Opium Warlords track premiere.

Busy, busy. Scheduling-wise, I’m behind where I should be in sorting everything out, but I’ll get there over the next couple days and we’ll see what comes together. It’s kind of a crazy time on this end, as I’m sure you can imagine, while The Patient Mrs. and I wait for the arrival of The Pecan. Between doctor/midwife appointments and sundry other preparatory this-and-thats, there’s just a lot going on. Overwhelmed? Not nearly as much as I’m going to be, I expect. Still, I take my quiet moments where and when I can, and I’ve had some time each day to do a bit of reading, and that’s been helpful in sorting out my brain. Words, man. I frickin’ love words.

Speaking of, I have more to write, so I’m gong to leave this one here and just wish you a great and safe weekend. Please make sure to check out the forum and radio stream.

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