Review & Full Album Premiere: Spirit Mother, Trails
Posted in audiObelisk, Reviews on September 12th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Dark desert psych rockers Spirit Mother are playing three shows on the Eastern Seaboard this week, including Desertfest New York, coinciding with the anticipated release tomorrow, Sept. 13, of their second album and first studio outing through Heavy Psych Sounds, Trails. If you recall, the now-mostly-West-Coast-I-think outfit made their debut with 2020’s Cadets (review here) and took part the next year in the ‘Live in the Mojave Desert’ pandemic-era streaming series.
The resultant live album, Live in the Mojave Desert (review here), was issued via Heavy Psych Sounds, and gave the then-Cali-based outfit a showcase next to the likes of Earthless, Nebula and Stöner, as well as Mountain Tamer. Spirit Mother met that moment with a richly textured sound based in scrub-bush sprawl but nascent in the pursuit of ideas beyond the bounds of microgenre. The Eddie Brnabic-produced Trails, as one would have hoped, sees the potential Spirit Mother demonstrated on that evening at Giant Rock beginning to come to fruition in their sound. Across 10 tracks and 38 minutes, the band explore aural nightcraft, setting a creepy atmosphere in the quick intro “Passage” before the title-track takes hold with stark standalone guitar.
It’s not about violence, or at least not specifically — maybe Uncle Acid are a subtle influence, but so far as I can tell nobody’s sexualizing murder — but between the various guitars woven through “Trails” and the subsequent pieces from Armand Lance (electric, acoustic, baritone, bass) and Sean McCormick, the violin and backing vocal contributions of SJ and the fluidity Landon Cisneros brings to the drums holding the arrangements together, the band are able to bring a cinematic atmosphere to songs that are pointedly concise; the longest of the bunch is forebodingly catchy closer “Wolves” at 5:29 and nothing else touches the five-minute mark. Depth and brevity, impact and sprawl.
There are shades of Americana in the warnings being issued amid the sinewy grooves of “Veins” or even the string-anchored drone and crashes of “Tonic,” and volatility to match the attitudinal sneer as Lance‘s vocals don’t shy away from screaming when the song calls for it. If we’re out in the desert, we’re out there alone, at night, huddled in the surprising cold and vastness, waiting to be eaten. There’s some respite to be had as “Below” weaves acoustic guitar strum into the suitably expansive mix and paces itself to highlight flow leading into Trails‘ second half, and “Vessel” has a sense of breakout as it shoves uptempo to its finish, one of the more propulsive stretches on a record that’s plenty brash and accordingly brooding.
But, in part because Spirit Mother never dwell too long in one song or arrangement, Trails puts momentum on its side early and holds it there for the duration. The swing in “Emerald,” or the dug-in cycles of “Vessel,” or even the penultimate “Given,” where the drums sit out and acoustic guitar, ambient drone and atmospheric vocals set up the arrival of “Wolves” with the last and maybe most memorable of Trails‘ hooks, taking the warning of the title-track — “You should’ve stayed/Back where you came/This city is a grave” — to a place of more direct threat with the lines, “You have no idea/Who is wolf and who is deer/All around you.”
If you’ve been following the band’s course across the record in all its dynamic shifts and immersive, consuming arrangements, that’s a hell of a place to end up, but it’s not a record about safety, and at least in terms of style, Spirit Mother aren’t playing it safe either. Cadets had no shortage of mood, but these songs portray a different side of the heavy Americana proffered by the likes of Lord Buffalo or All Them Witches, and they distinguish Spirit Mother as a band more about their own creative impulses than one playing to style. I don’t think it’s a coincidence they called it Trails. As a group, they’re out there too, walking a path into the unknown, and as much as Trails builds up the world in which that path resides, the essence of the thing is the movement through it and the way the band carry the listener from front-to-back.
As the cover art attests, there is more happening dimensionally in the material that comprises Trails than it might first appear, and to be sure, it’s a record that reveals more of its methods and ideologies on repeat listens, but without exception, even in “Given” where the balance is most tipped toward impressionism over impact, the song is paramount. That’s evident from the way “Passage” leaves off and “Trails” picks up from the silence — not what one would expect in terms of transition, but it works — through the nonetheless hypnotic push of “Wolves,” and even more than the heft or severity of a given moment, it’s how it all feeds into the overarching reach of Trails as a whole where Spirit Mother seem to find themselves.
And by that I don’t just mean where they end up, but where they discover who they are as a band. I won’t hazard to predict how their development will play out from here — a third full-length always tells you a lot about who a band are, and Spirit Mother will get there — but if there’s a plot, it’s only made thicker by the progression evident in their approach to this point and the individualism stemming from it. Approach it with an open mind and it’s a record that might just speak to you in unanticipated ways.
Trails streams in its entirety below, followed by the preorder links and Spirit Mother‘s upcoming tour dates, the bulk of which are supporting the freak-legendary Acid Mothers Temple.
Please enjoy:
Spirit Mother, Trails album premiere
GRAB YOUR COPY:
https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/shop.htm#HPS313
USA SHOP:
https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/shop-usa.htm
The undeniable next chapter in the band’s creative process, “Trails” brings the energy of the US foursome’s visceral, all-in live performances while expanding on the sensibilities of their debut album “Cadets”. The darker tonality, heavier, fuzz-fueled riffs, and relentless rhythm section accompany prolific structures and arrangement. The violin summons a brooding, atmospheric pedestal for the remaining power trio to wield with fervor. Lance’s haunting vocals and stark lyricism intersperse the instrumentals with a melody as dynamic as it is accessible.
Spirit Mother with Acid Mothers Temple (except *):
9/12 @bugjar Rochester NY*
9/13 @desertfest_nyc *
9/14 @33golden New London CT*
9/27 @casbahsandiego San Diego CA
9/28 @lodgeroom LA CA
9/29 @moesalley Santa Cruz CA
9/30 @theestorkcluboakland Oakland CA
10/1 @harlowsnightclub Sacramento CA
10/2 @johnhenryseugene Eugene OR
10/3 @tractortavern Seattle WA
10/4 @aladdintheater Portland OR
10/5 @silvermoonbrewing Bend OR
10/6 @realms.7 Boise ID
10/7 @urbanloungeslc Salt Lake City UT
10/8 @bluebirdtheater Denver CO
10/9 @recordbar Kansas City MO
10/10 @turfclubmn St. Paul MN
10/11 @cactusclubmke Milwaukee WI
10/12 @sl33pingvillag3 Chicago IL
10/13 @highnoonmadison Madison WI
10/14 @portal_louisville Louisville KY
10/15 @sghrevival Newport KY
10/16 @thegrogshop Cleveland Heights OH
10/17 @buffaloironworks Buffalo NY
10/18 @alchemy_providence Providence RI
10/19 @tveyenyc Queens NY
10/20 @milkboyphilly Philadelphia PA
10/21 @metro_baltimore Baltimore MD
10/22 @thepourhouse Raleigh NC
10/23 @masquerade_atl Atlanta GA
10/25 @the_merrywidow Mobile AL
10/26 @siberianeworleans New Orleans LA
10/27 @freetown_boomboomroom Lafayette LA
10/29 @thehitonecafe Memphis TN
10/30 @mercuryloungetulsa Tulsa OK
10/31 @levitation Austin TX
11/1 @resonant_head Oklahoma City OK
11/2 @sisterbar Albuquerque NM
11/3 @therebelphx Phoenix AZ
11/4 @wayfarercm Costa Mesa CA
Spirit Mother are:
Armand Lance: Vocals, Bass, Baritone, Acoustic & Electric Guitars
SJ: Violin & Vocals
Sean McCormick: Electric Guitar
Landon Cisneros: Drums & Percussion
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