Yeah, I know I kind of have a thing for the Oceania stoner/doom scene (Pod People, Arc of Ascent, etc.) but you take one listen to the killer riffage coming out of Canberra trio Looking Glass and see if you’re not right there with me. They’ve got two EPs out, aptly titled Looking Glass (2006) and 2 (2007), and there are four songs up for listening on their MySpace. One comes from 2, the other three from Looking Glass.

I heard “Freya” first, which is the track from 2. There’s a ton of space in the guitars of Marcus de Pasquale (who also handles vocals), but even has he launches into a massive solo that engulfs about half the seven-minute song, I’m even more mesmerized by the grooves of the rhythm section. Bassist Lachlan Paine and drummer Clinton Paine, relation assumed, seem to be holding the song down for de Pasquale, as if to say, “We got this, you go ahead and mess around for a while” in classic ’70s jam fashion. Lachlan‘s bass tone features on “Freya,” but also on “Psychonaut” from Looking Glass, which by and large is more straightforward with rougher production. The same could be said for the shorter “Procession” and “Acid Tongue,” the latter of which is easily the fastest of the four, but all of which sport some serious grooves.

The playing of de Pasquale is going to be a highlight for riff junkies, and as Looking Glass prepare their next release for this coming Fall, I wouldn’t be surprise to see them head in an even more psychedelic direction, though I certainly hope de Pasquale keeps some of the meat in his riffs as he shows in the classically metallic “Procession.” Wherever they go from here, Looking Glass‘ two EPs are definitely worth a look on MySpace, and the Aussie trio are yet another killer act from Down Under on the radar.

Tags: Australia, Canberra, Looking Glass, Unsigned bands

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010 at 2:48 pm and is filed under On the Radar. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.