Review & Full Album Stream: El Supremo, Acid Universe
[Click play above to stream El Supremo’s Acid Universe in full. Album is out this Friday, Feb. 24, through Argonauta Records.]
About four years ago, Fargo, North Dakota’s El Supremo made their full-length debut with 2019’s independently-released Clarity Through Distortion (review here), which saw Chad Heille — first multi-instrumentalist and only member, later drummer — build a complete lineup to work in the vein of a demo he’d put together under the moniker in 2008. The years between had found Heille in the drummer position for sludge rockers Egypt, and when that band ended their run after their last album in 2017, he and guitarist Neal Stein (who has also played in any number of more extreme outfits) took refuge in the revived El Supremo, making that record on which Heille also played bass and eventually joining together with bassist Cameron Dewald and, crucially, organist/keyboardist Chris Gould as a full, stage-ready instrumental four-piece. Clarity Through Distortion was more than a second demo, more substantial both in terms of the amount of material and the presence of an actual band, but felt like the initial offering it was, as the band seemed to feel their way through a sound informed by classic heavy, weighted groove and a bit of psychedelic flourish.
Acid Universe is El Supremo‘s second long-player, first to be issued on Argonauta Records, and sharpens their take to light a way forward and see them become all the more of cognizant of who they are and what they want to do as a group. At five tracks and 40 minutes recorded, mixed and mastered by Stein, it strips about 15 minutes of runtime off the debut and feels more specifically geared toward vinyl, and its sound is marked by a distinguished but casual saunter, grooves that swing not wildly, but with an accessible, easily engaged presence — by the end of the record, you might call it ‘friendly’ for the tonal warmth and the manner in which it brings the listener along its course — that is as much bolder in its progressive aspects on centerpiece “261 to Lisbon” as it is unbridled in its funk-out on the subsequent “White Hot Fever Dream.”
I do not know the circumstances in which the writing happened — there were a wacky few years in the time since the first album; anything’s possible — but from the more horror-themed organ work on the sample-topped leadoff intro “Crowley Magick” through the graceful hypnotic twists, mellow and heavy and far from aggressive, of its 11:30 closing title-track, Acid Universe takes the explorations of Clarity Through Distortion and perhaps some of the meditative implications of the debut’s title, and solidifies an approach while remaining wholly, delightfully unpretentious.
Where one might expect from instrumental heavy rock fare that, as often happens, it’s lead guitar stepping into the forward role that vocals might otherwise occupy, on Acid Universe, it’s Stein and Gould sharing that spotlight in a dynamic that, following the swelling, receding, and swelling again of “Crowley Magick” and the almost circus-like mood that sets, the 10-minute “The Ghost Of…” establishes smoothly. Atop a steady, rolling rhythm, layers of lead guitar and keys work in unison or break off, each going their own way only to unite again later on.
This weaving pattern becomes essential to the listening experience of El Supremo‘s sophomore LP, and with Gould‘s keys able to flesh out melody even as Stein‘s guitar shifts into later chug on that post-intro leadoff — which seems to find another layer of low-end heft as it moves toward its fade — the interplay of the two instruments is a defining element. They proceed to toy with it, as one would hope, as feedback and organ drift tops the steady drums and holding-it-together bassline on “261 to Lisbon,” which is the psychedelic epicenter of the offering but still terrestrial in its vibe, less meandering than it at first might seem, with a foundation in jamming that’s been broadened and plotted into this final form. Effects-laced guitar and organ trade channels in a call and response in the second half, and the jazzy fluidity resolves — as hoped — in a more densely distorted finish.
The break to silence gives “White Hot Fever Dream” a clean start, and the swaggering funk that emerges feels likewise jam-born but developed into a cohesive song. Gould turns in a highlight performance, bouncing around with the punchy bass while the guitar pulls lead lines out of the air over the upbeat drumming. Classic formula, classic execution. A more prominent guitar solo arrives at about three and a half minutes into the total 7:35, and the keys get accordingly sweatpants funk — as opposed to hotpants funk, which I think requires horns; not advisable in context — with thick tones and groove that still carries a sense of the Woo as it unfolds.
El Supremo build momentum as they twist through a tempo kick, coming to a head and letting the organ have final say, which by then it has well earned. Comparatively mellow at its outset, “Acid Universe” is more directly heavy psych at first, but there’s plenty of room for it to grow as expansive as it does, becoming not so much a summary of everything before it, but more of a standout piece on its own, a circular organ line following behind the sweetly fuzzed guitar for the initial couple minutes before volume turns up and they set into the back and forth that defines the first half of the track while the second, jammier but still fluid from one part to the next, reinforces the conversation happening between guitar and keys that’s been happening all along, turning it into a fitting payoff for the build of “Acid Universe” itself as well as the landing point for Acid Universe, the album, as a whole.
While perhaps not as drenched in the lysergic as its title implies, Acid Universe still has an open mindset in terms of the band following where the songs lead them. One can sit and have agency debates about creative works (of all stripes) forever — and hey, it might be fun — but what comes through in El Supremo‘s material in terms of vibe is that the pieces making up the album became what they are organically. They do not sound forced, or rushed, or shoehorned into being something other than they wanted to be. As an entirety, the record is smooth, cushy in its tones and breadth, without being in any way overbearing or asking more of the listener than they deliver back in terms of quality of craft and performance. There is something almost unassuming about it. A quiet confidence oozing through loud amplifiers. And for the places it goes and the routes it uses to get there, it accomplishes what the band set out to do, by this or any other universe’s standards.
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Tags: Acid Universe, Argonauta Records, El Supremo, El Supremo Acid Universe, Fargo, North Dakota
