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

Posted in Reviews on March 31st, 2009 by JJ Koczan

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.

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