https://www.high-endrolex.com/18

On the Radar: Urania

Posted in On the Radar on January 12th, 2011 by JJ Koczan

Lurking deep within the awfulness that is the new MySpace layout (which I’m convinced they’ve introduced only so they can revert to the original and call it “MySpace Classic”), there’s an instrumental Hungarian rock unit called Urania riffing out odes to deserts so far away they might as well be on the other side of the planet — because they are — and running a gamut of stonerisms from the expansive psychedelia of “Space Coffee” to the nod-worthy low end/reverb interplay of “Bar in Desert.”

I’m always a fan of stoner rock from unexpected places, whether it’s the burgeoning Australian doom movement of bands like Adrift for Days and The House of Capricorn or the Polish rock boom as heard in Elvis Deluxe and Fifty Foot Woman, so to hear Urania come out of Budapest with the quality fuzz of “Stonerose” is a thrill. Their hearts and distortion pedals are in the right place, as you can hear, and with guitarist Aiwass leading the charge on most of the material, a down-to-earth track like “Corrosia” gets no less largess than does the massively-riffed “Carpathian Woodoo.”

Urania, who take their name from the Greek muse of astronomy, aren’t really doing anything that hasn’t been done before, but this is how a scene begins. There were a couple parts on the 10 MySpace tracks that I thought could have used vocals, and the bongos that pop up later into “Carpathian Woodoo” were mixed too high, but it’s not at all realistic to expect perfection from Urania when they’re just getting started. Instead, I’d advise you put on the warm fuzz of the drum-machined “Desert Melancholy” (conveniently located in the clip below) and enjoy.

Tags: , , ,