Released earlier this year on Night Tripper Records, White Season is the debut from French (since relocated to London) psych rock foursome Soul Manifest. Led by guitarist/vocalist Romain Daut, the band work their way through a smattering of semi-retro influences, and though I wouldn’t be the first to relate their sound to the already-influential Swedes in Graveyard, there’s more happening on White Season than copycatting the moves of others. Soul Manifest – thanks in large part to the organ contributions of Harry Backhouse – carve out an identity that’s at once familiar and still nuanced. The interplay between Daut, drummer Karen Jones and bassist Sammy Deveille, both of whom also share vocal duties, introduces an engaging songwriting process that’s bound to win (or have won, since as I noted, the album’s been out for a while already) Soul Manifest some friends. Classic heavy prog is a decent place from which to start an understanding, but a more modern take à la the new school of European psych (My Sleeping Karma particularly) is woven in as well, so that White Season works as a blend of styles within the genre. There are parts of eight tracks/39 minutes that are more easily read than others, but by and large, the record is accessible, cohesive and diverse without being overly indulgent or showy in terms of performance.

Again, a big part of Soul Manifest’s personality as presented here comes in Backhouse’s organ. From the launch of opener “Dead Man” to the genuine organ solos on “White Season (Part I),” “Devil’s Meeting” and the for-all-intents-and-purposes closer “The Light” – where they’re set against Daut’s guitar for the album’s best duel – it’s Backhouse that separates Soul Manifest most from the horde of retro clone acts. That’s not to say Daut’s guitars or the grooves put to tape by Jones and Deveille don’t have their role to play, just that it’s the keys that wind up the most distinctive element. White Season opens strong with “Dead Man” and “White Season (Part I)” as a duo, but it’s not until later that the full breadth of their personality becomes clear. The acoustic-led “Do We Have the Same View” finds Daut no less confident on vocals for the change in approach on guitar and the lack of platform for the swagger he brings in elsewhere, and the darker beginning of “Devil’s Meeting,” which rounds out side A of the vinyl, adds a surprising turn that brings to mind the likes of Black Widow, Coven or any of the other ritualistic prog acts lurking around the early part of the ‘70s. True to the form of those bands, the actual sound Soul Manifest work with on “Devil’s Meeting” doesn’t conform to what we’d now expect from a track with that name, keeping instead to a bluesy progression that lets Daut’s solo shine around the song’s halfway point, maybe also touching on some of the same country/western feel that Astrosoniq play with from time to time. He and Backhouse trade leads and it works well, showing also that neither is so wrapped in ego as to try and dominate the other.

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