Cali psychedelic space traders Carlton Melton hereby announce their new long-player, Resemble Ensemble, will arrive on earthly terrain Feb. 17, 2023, in cosmic alliance with Agitated Records. “Prescribed Skies” is both the opener and longest track (immediate points) from the offering, which finds the krautrock-informed, drone-prone instrumentalist trio working as a foursome after welcoming aboard guitarist/producer Anthony Taibi of the likewise undervalued White Manna, and to put it plainly, that’s a match that works. Pushed outside atmospheric confines by Andy Duvall‘s drums, “Prescribed Skies” is nonetheless meditative in a way that feels exploratory while sure of its own heading even if the listener ends up who the hell knows where and, indeed, who the hell knows when, how or why.

But some things you just don’t need to know, or maybe shouldn’t, and the jams throughout Resemble Ensemble are nigh philosophical in their acceptance of their own mystery. “Elsewhere (Need to Be)” defies its titular urgency with drumless guitar explorations and “So the Story Grows” builds atop a central drone with far-back percussion like the ground below, while “High Alert” strips it all down for a keyboard-infused getdown, hard funk and a crafted solo feeling like a snippet of a larger adventure that just so happened to work as an outlier among outliers, while “Route Thirteen,” definitive in place and a terrestrial return, plays off classic rock influences in its ramble, swelling in volume behind its second half burner of a guitar solo before capping with a fittingly organic comedown. A moment in the room with the band, offered with a purity of purpose manifest in its own creation.

What more would you ask? Spoiled, perhaps. There’s razzle and there’s dazzle, but the mood-altering effects of Resemble Ensemble are to chill, so do that as you dig into the substantial leadoff premiering below, a herald of what’s to come that doesn’t necessarily speak for the entirety even if it does in not doing so. Be confused. That’s part of the fun.

Album announcement follows. Go on. Make friends:

Carlton Melton, “Prescribed Skies” track premiere

Carlton Melton, from Northern California, are now a practising fourpiece in the arts of melted-minds psychedelia.

With the added kraut-oomph and sike-flutter of fellow Californian Anthony Taibi (whom you may know as being a member of White Manna, and DDT with Andy), Rich Millman, Andy Duvall, and Clint Golden have now embellished the Carlton Melton sound.

Pushing forward as a fourpiece, the band recorded Resemble Ensemble in July 2021 (just before Andy moved back over East!) at Anthony’s home studio, 3D Light in Freshwater, CA. Anthony did all the recording and mixing. The Melton Magick Karpet settled, and our favourite contemporary sikedelic warlords plugged in, amped up and let it flow…and flow it does. From the krautrock fuelled pszych-raga of Prescribed Skies, to the fluid dronescape of Elsewhere that welcomes you into its arms with a warming tone, almost a missing Spacemen 3 demo at the feast here… So The Story Grows has the drone scraping through a murk of dazzling feedback and pummel, with the fuller sounding Melton giving the genre a proper wobble, hold on to your brains people…

High Alert… whas this? Synth and guitar interplay jambusting, this is the Melton wigging out and almost interweaving 70s high table rock with some odd and downright perverse synthfunkpunk rhythms… get weird… or get wired… or both… easily done here. Closing out the album with Route Thirteen is the road trip home…they’ve been, they’ve massaged and mangled your synapses, plug in the satnav and take the higher-route home…if you get our drift.

Carlton Melton, starting 2023 in a better place than most, soaring high on their synaptic-dazzling magick karpet.

Once again mastered by John McBain (legend).

300 on White Splatter vinyl, called “corneal exposure mix”.
300 on Black vinyl, also available with a nice poster of the front cover.
500 Compact Disc, in sturdy card sleeve.

Single: https://meltoncarlton.bandcamp.com/track/prescribed-skies
Album: https://meltoncarlton.bandcamp.com/album/resemble-ensemble

TRACKLISTING
1. Prescribed Skies
2. Elsewhere (Need To Be)
3. So The Story Grows
4. High Alert
5. Route Thirteen

Carlton Melton is:
Andy Duvall (drums, guitar)
Clint Golden (bass)
Rich Millman (guitar, synths)
Anthony Taibi (guitar)

https://www.facebook.com/Carlton-Melton-band-page-142609689122268/
https://meltoncarlton.bandcamp.com/
http://www.carltonmeltonmusic.com/

https://www.facebook.com/AGITATEDRECORDS/
http://agitatedrecords.com/