A Parisian bass/drum duo making their debut on the French label Improvising Beings, Ehécatl recorded their self-titled full-length in Los Angeles and hone in on a sound almost purely in homage thematically to the Aztec god the band (and album) is named after. The record is six atmospheric songs ranging from three to just under eight minutes – the intro aside – and begets an almost immediate sonic comparison to Om. Vocalist/bassist Thomas Bellier and drummer Timothée Gacon are both members of the Scott Reeder-produced outfit Blaak Heat Shujaa, and while there are some points of commonality between the two bands, Ehécatl is expressing a different idea almost entirely than was the other act, despite a shared semi-jam feel and apparent penchant for black and white artwork. Bellier, who plays guitar in Blaak Heat Shujaa, moves to bass for Ehécatl, and his vocal delivery comes right from the Al Cisneros canon. The main distinguishing factor of Ehécatl, then, is the Aztec theme, which works well within the sound. Most songs are titled in Spanish (lyrics in English), and while one could probably ramble on at length about the certain degree of cultural imperialism at work in any such release as this, it doesn’t strike me as being an especially productive method for explaining Ehécatl’s ethic, which is to meld Bellier’s obvious desert fetish with a cultural schematic not as often explored in psychedelia as, say, the vague interpretations of Hinduism one might run across on any number of releases.

The two players make for a crisp rhythm section, and it’s clear that Bellier and Gacon’s time touring with Yawning Man in Blaak Heat Shujaa was not without some measure of conveyed influence. There’s no guitar to ring into infinity à la Gary Arce, but on the three longer pieces that make up the bulk of Ehécatl – “La Canción del Dios Ehécatl,” “The Wrath of Tepeyollotl” and “Tenan” all top seven minutes – there’s a spacious vibe that can’t be ignored, and that works invariably to the album’s favor. Complex rhythms on “La Canción del Dios Ehécatl,” on which Bellier also adds Aztec flute, give an immediate Latin American feel, and it should be telling that the first lines of the song and album are, “Feathered and sacred.” Right away, the thematic construct is laid bare, and with the “El Entierro de Los Nahuas” intro preceding, shamanistic chants set the tone for the spiritual exploration to come. The sound with just the two players is no emptier than it should be for its lack of guitar, and Gacon proves a remarkably creative percussionist, on both his kit and the added drum sounds he soon brings to “The Wrath of Tepeyollotl,” which works well set directly against “La Canción del Dios Ehécatl.” One expects the second track to get heavy, to “kick in” at some point, but though some of their rhythms have a kind of immediacy to them, Ehécatl is more patient sound-wise than to just open up into a heavy part. Nonetheless, “La Canción del Dios Ehécatl” does have its payoff, but there’s no grand tonal change from Bellier and it winds up being Gacon’s cymbal crashes that provide the necessary rush to convey the overall direction of the song. Likewise, he underscores the tension in Bellier’s vocals and bass line in “The Wrath of Tepeyollotl” with starts and stops that add fluidity where otherwise the track might sound awkward.

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Youngin’ Parisian rockers Blaak Heat Shujaa, whose Scott Reeder-produced self-titled long player has been a fixture in and around my CD player for a while now, are hitting the road for a few days at the start of next month.

If you’re lucky enough to live or be in Paris come April, you can also catch Blaak Heat Shujaa supporting Acid King, who might be second only to Eyehategod in the running for the “desperately needs to put out a new album” award. PR wire details follow:

We are proud to announce Blaak Heat Shujaa’s Spring ‘11 tour. They will be supporting their globally acclaimed debut and spreading their trademark sound of what has been dubbed “stoner spaghedelia.”

03.01 Le Dock, Grenoble, France
03.02 United Club, Torino, Italy
03.03 Le Citron, Lyon, France
03.04 Le T-Bone, Oyonnax, France (TBC)
03.05 Jimmy’s Pub, Strasbourg, France

The band is currently discussing the details of a summer ’11 EU tour with two major bookers of the stoner/psych field. Here are their other scheduled appearances:

02.13 Glad Stone Fest @ Le Klub, Paris, France
04.03 Théâtre de Ménilmontant, Paris, France (supporting Acid King)

“Six Dumb Questions” is a new feature I’ve started to help further introduce new bands who’ve either been reviewed, On the Radar-ed, etc., who I think deserve more coverage. One such act is the Parisian trio Blaak Heat Shujaa, whose self-titled album was reviewed last week. I asked guitarist Thomas Bellier if he’d be interested in partaking of the six dumb questions I had about his band, and he was more than accommodating, as you’ll see.

Blaak Heat Shujaa is Bellier alongside bassist/vocalist Antoine Morel-Vulliez and drummer Timothée Gacon. Their album Blaak Heat Shujaa was recorded in Banning, CA, with the venerable Scott Reeder. Below, Bellier discusses this experience, the origin of his band’s name and more in the span of just six dumb questions.

1. How did Blaak Heat Shujaa get together?

We started the band in 2008. We were all going to the same school back then, and one day during some BS class on EU policy, Antoine noticed a Fender sticker on my notebook. So we sat next to each other and realized we had similar musical tastes. Antoine hooked us up with our drummer Tim and a few weeks later we were in the studio practicing. Antoine had brought over another guitar player and a keyboard player, but it was clear that the magic was only happening between Tim, Antoine and I! We met again a few days later without telling those two other guys and started writing songs. At first we were really influenced by neo-psychedelia (bands like Dead Meadow and Black Angels) but quickly we started incorporating desert rock influences into our material. We played our first two shows (which were “epic,” but in a bad way…) at our school and then Antoine moved to Uganda and I moved to L.A., so nothing happened for a while, and then we moved back to Paris in 2009 and started writing the songs that are on the album. In the meantime we had really gotten into stoner rock so we started incorporating heaviness into our songs, while at the same time preserving the trippy, psychedelic element.

2. Where did you come up with the name and what does it mean?

We started off performing as Black Light Black Heat, as the Velvet Underground was an influence for us (and also for the bands we liked) back then, but quickly we started moving away from that. Also we thought it was funny since about 50 percent of the bands we were listening to had “black” in their names. We kept the name for a while, but about two months before going to Scott’s, after a few chicken taquitos and many margaritas and IPAs (West Coast IPAs are way stronger than the stuff you guys have on the East Coast), my girlfriend and I were like “BLBH needs a better name!” We were thinking that since we had completely dropped the Velvet Underground influence, keeping that name didn’t make sense anymore. Plus Antoine had told me in the past that he was open to changing the name. And really, we realized that the Velvet Underground represented everything we’re against: hip New Yorkers, Andy Warhol, Nico… hell, how did we even pick that name in the first place? So we thought “Black Heat” sounded good, but since we can’t afford a good lawyer we tought we’d spell it “Blaak Heat” (you guys have heard of the eponymous 1970s funk band, right?), kind of like with a Dutch spelling. Quickly we were told this wasn’t enought to avoid getting sued, so we looked into adding another word. Antoine came up with “Shujaa,” which in Swahili means warrior, some kind of hero with magical powers. Antoine is fluent in Swahili and has spent a lot of time in Africa, so to us it made sense to honor that influence through our band name, since it does affect our music. But dude, people keep getting the name wrong. I’ve seen it spelled “Black Heat Sujja.”

3. What was it like recording with Scott Reeder? Rumor has it he’s the nicest guy in the universe – care to comment?

To us it was a defining experience, as musicians but also as human beings. The vibe was perfect. Scott is an all around cool dude, with zero hangups. I’m sure you’re thinking “Well, that’s how everybody is in stoner/desert rock.” That’s not true. There are a lot of drama queens and wannabe rock stars in that field of music, people just hide it well. Plus Scott is a smart guy, so it’s very easy to establish a sane relationship with him. We hit it off pretty fast, and in no time we were messing around the studio and drinking all together. The great thing was that Scott had a lot of respect for our music. It made us feel very comfortable, and instead of being scared of trying new things in front of such a legend of desert rock, we were encouraged to innovate and mess around with our parts. For instance, when we were done tracking a part, we’d go into weird/stupid jams, and we knew Scott was still tracking. Turns out we used a lot of stuff from those jams on the final mixes! The crazy thing is that Scott understands our sound better than we do. For example, we didn’t really know what effects to put on the vocals (we used to play live with a lot of reverb on the vocals), and he came up with some crazy delays and flangers that matched the spirit of the songs perfectly. Now, we use that same combination of effects for live shows, and it sounds so freaking good.

Recording at Scott’s studio was such a trip. The setting is unique. It’s in Banning, CA, more or less where the desert starts, about 25 minutes west of Palm Springs. The nature is beautiful there (Yucca trees, yellow hills…) and you can only see one neighbor from the studio. There’s even a mystical dimension, as the Morongo Indian reservation is just up the hill from the studio. We were working late hours and it was plain fantastic to walk out of the studio while buzzed and look at the stars… Actually, I think I spent more time watching my step (it was rattlesnake season) than checking out the stars… Did I tell you that we used a rattlesnake’s rattle for percussion on a track? Scott and his wife Renee have a lot of animals on their ranch — dogs, horses, miniature horses, peacocks, moufflons… some cows were mowing the lawn when we were there, too. It was all in good fun until the bull started charging our drummer Tim. From where we were we couldn’t really see what was happening and heard weird animal moans. All I know is that after that Tim couldn’t sit on his drum stool anymore.

4. You did a show while you were in the desert recording as well. How did that go? And how was it sharing the stage with Yawning Man in Paris?

That show was fun. Alfredo [Hernandez] set it up for us (he was playing with his jam project, Brothers of the Kemosabe, with Sean from Waxy on bass), and we played a small venue in downtown Palm Springs (the touristy neighborhood). Dali’s Llama played that night too. It was on a weekday, so not a lot of people came out… I think there were about nine people in front of the stage when BHS played. But who cares when two of those nine people are Kyuss members (Alfredo and Scott), right? We got drunk on Bud Light and played our loudest set ever.

Sharing the bill with Yawning Man was great too. I’m good friends with Alfredo and Gary, and it’s always plenty of fun to hang out with them. They had a day off in France during their tour so I offered to set up a gig in Paris. We played a small venue that had a 90db limitation. Can you imagine the sound guy’s face when he saw Alfredo’s 28’ bass drum? Before the show we asked for two bags of ice and a bucket in order to make sangria for the bands… The bartender was like, “Well, I can give you a cup of ice if you want!” And then she told Gary beer was six Euros… He and Alfredo were like, “What is wrong with this town?” Welcome to our world, amigos.

5. Is there much of a stoner rock scene in Paris? Who are some bands you’ve played with people should know about?

There’s no such thing in Paris. However, there are a few stoner bands in France. The thing is that most of them really lack originality. Like one of my good friends was recently observing, in France we have a French Karma to Burn, a French QOTSA… I mean, they sound good, but in the end they’re just trying to recreate another band’s sound. Nobody’s being creative. Wanna hear a hilarious anecdote? A band whose name I won’t mention covered “Twenty” when they opened for Karma to Burn. How fucking ridiculous is that? There’s a stoner/psych band from Lille that we’re good friends with, Glowsun. You should check them out, they just got picked up by the best booking agency out here in the EU, Sound of Liberation. You’re asking about a stoner scene, but let me tell you it’s about the same thing for psychedelic music out here. It’s very, very frustrating. I mean, Paris is a terrible city. People are all about the fancy stores, the VIP clubs, and high fashion. Dude, I’ve reached the point where I feel lucky when I find a bar that serves beer for under 5 Euros (that’s about 6 bucks). Also, people look at you weird on the metro if you’re not wearing a polo shirt and expensive shoes. Long hair is even worse…

6. How much is Blaak Heat Shujaa going to play out? Will you tour Europe?

We’re currently looking for a booker. We’re hoping that with all the great reviews the album is getting it’ll happen soon. We are so ready to hit the road, and we’ve already got new material to perform live. People who like our music should spread the word!

We have budding plans to tour Europe with a band you’re probably familiar with, since they’re from Brooklyn, La Otracina. In the meantime, we’re throwing a release party in Paris on Oct. 5, and then on Oct. 18, we’ll be opening for one of my favorite bands, Farflung.

Further proof of the international appeal of desert rock arrives in the form of the self-titled debut by young Parisian trio Blaak Heat Shujaa, who — perhaps on a quest for some kind of tonal authenticité — flew all the way to Banning, California, to record with the legendary Scott Reeder (The Obsessed, Kyuss, etc.) at his Sanctuary Studio. Seems a long way for a couple of kids from France to go for desert cred, but I’ll be damned if it didn’t work out in their favor. Blaak Heat Shujaa (released by Improvising Beings) is as much a work of the environment in which it was produced as has been any of the albums by bands who actually come from there. Doubtless that’s thanks in no small part to Reeder. His ability to bring out the best and sweetest in Antoine Morel-Vulliez’s bass tone is enough to justify the flight in itself.

Over the course of his studio work, Reeder has definitely developed a specific style of production for this kind of music, and you can hear some similarities in Thomas Bellier’s guitar to acts like Dali’s Llama, who’ve worked with Reeder in the past. One thing he seems to take extra care with on Blaak Heat Shujaa is finding the right balance of separation in the instruments, which has been an issue before. On later cut “Moon,” you get the feeling that it’s still a work in progress as far as meshing the individual elements into one complete product, but there’s no doubt he’s come a long way and Blaak Heat Shujaa benefit greatly from his involvement. Their desert rock is more akin to Yawning Man than Kyuss — the distinction being mostly in a penchant for more laid back atmospheres and a willingness to ride parts out, rather than speed impatiently from one to the next — and though they’re definitely within the established confines of the genre, their reinforcement of the core elements thereof (the fuzz, the jams, the open spaces, the purples and blues and red night skies) is well-met and ably executed. I wonder if they wouldn’t be rougher, more brash and youthful, live, but they do what they do well on this disc, and as far as this review goes, that’s what matters.

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