Spanish heavy psych rockers Arenna will release their second album, Given to Emptiness, on May 7. It’s been four years since the five-piece made their debut on Nasoni Records with the full-length Beats of Olarizu (review here) and today I have the privilege of unveiling track three from Given to Emptiness, “Drums for Sitting Bull.” Duly percussive, but no less centered around its heavy groove and warm, fuzzed-out tones, the song finds the melody front and center in contemplative style somewhat similar to the debut, but understandably developed in the four-year interim between releases.

Immediately laid back and catchy, a tell early on is the vocals following the lead guitar. That will come up again later in the song, before a late break cuts short to resume the roll of the central riff, added to by Mellotron (provided by Poti, who presumably is the same Poti from Atavismo, formerly of Viaje a 800), ending out the instrumental push with a quiet sort of apex. For Arenna — guitarists R. Ruiz de Portal and Kike (which I’m not even comfortable typing, but is apparently how he wants to be known), bassist Javi, vocalist Txus Dr. Sax and drummer Guille — it’s a steady flow that reinforces something the first album did well but also shows them trying new things with their sound. Hopefully that’s indicative of what the rest of Given to Emptiness has to offer.

Recording info for Arenna‘s Given to Emptiness and the lyrics in Spanish and English follow “Drums for Sitting Bull,” which you can find on the player below. Please enjoy:

ARENNA – GIVEN TO EMPTINESS

Format: CD / LP / Digital download
Genre: Rock / Psychedelic / Stoner
Label: Nasoni Records
Release date: May 2015

Tracklist:
1 Butes (10:20)
2 Visions Of Rex (6:29)
3 Drums For Sitting Bull (6:17)
4 Chroma (9:00)
5 Move Through Figurehead Lights (7:02)
6 The Pursuer (6:15)
7 Low Tide (1:40)
total (47:04)

Recorded by Javier Ortiz at Estudio Brazil (Nov. 1-7, 2014)
Mixed by José López Gil at Sound Experience Studio & Estudios K.
Mastered by JJ. Golden
Produced by José López Gil and Arenna
Music by Arenna
Artwork by Khoa Le
Designed by Artidoto

Music by Arenna
Javi: bass
Guille: drums & percusions
Txus Dr. Sax: vocals & chorus
R. Ruiz del Portal: guitars; mellotron (on track 2)
Kike: guitars; acoustic guitars & Tibetan bowls (on track 7)

All lyrics by Cameron Webster, Estíbaliz Urretxu, Javier Arbulu & Txus Dr.Sax with special collaboration of P. Quignard (Butes) & F. Kafka (Drums for Sitting Bull)

Additional musicians: Poti: mellotron (on all tracks), theremin (on track 5) and chorus (on tracks 3, 5 & 6), Jony Moreno: chorus (on tracks 3 & 5), and Manix S. acoustic guitar (on track 5).

3. Drums for Sitting Bull
If one were only an indian,
Alert, on a racing horse,
Leaning against the wind,
Until one shed one’s spurs,
& threw away the reins.
Hardly saw land before one,
When horse’s neck & head
Would be already gone.

3. Tambores para Toro Sentado
Si uno pudiera ser un Piel Roja,
alerta, cabalgando sobre un caballo veloz,
apoyado contra el viento,
hasta arrojar las espuelas,
hasta arrojar las riendas.
Apenas viera ante sí el campo,
ya habrían desaparecido
las crines & la cabeza del caballo.

Arenna on Thee Facebooks

Given to Emptiness preorders

Nasoni Records

Whereas much of the movement in the last several years of heavy psychedelic rock has been toward the more freeform, jamming style of bands like Earthless and Naam, the Vitoria–Gasteiz collective The Soulbreaker Company from the north of Spain present an incredibly tight-wound vision of what space-leaning psych can be on their second Alone Records full-length, Itaca. The six-piece (plus guests) band run through a wide array of sonic motifs, from the jazzy synth-prog of opener “It’s Dirt,” to the Doors-y feel of the ending movement of “Sandstorm,” always maintaining control, always sounding full. Never a hair out of place, so to speak. It’s an accomplishment mostly in the complexity of the song arrangements – I know of plenty two-piece bands who can’t get to the point of togetherness The Soulbreaker Company have with up to eight or nine people on a single track.

Part of that credit has to go to Chris Fielding, who produced Itaca at Foel Studios in Wales (Obiat, Conan, Porcupine Tree) along with the band. The sounds here are crisp but not unnatural, and there’s a remarkable balance between the separation in the instruments and their meshing. The already-noted opener earns kudos not only for its creative breadth, but for being the longest cut on Itaca at 9:38 (I’m almost always a sucker for a band who opens with their longest song instead of tacking it at the end), and cuts like “Oh! Warsaw,” the catchy “Sow the Roses” and the later, piano- and horn-driven “Take a Seat on the Moon” only reinforce the album’s primary statement, that The Soulbreaker Company are a band for whom the limits are few and far between. They have the will (and the personnel) to take listeners on a genuine journey, and the more of Itaca I dig into, the farther-ranging I’m finding it to be. While the classic rock approach of vocalist/guitarist Jony Moreno (backed occasionally by Layla Seville and/or Joanne Deacon) does a lot of the tying together of the different-sounding tracks, there’s also a tonal consistency to the material on Itaca that serves to heighten the drama of the songs while it helps the flow one to the next. Fans of Hypnos 69 will swoon over the guitar work of Daniel Triñanes and Asier Fernandez on “Colours of the Fire” and the sax-playing of Kike Guzman (who might want to think about adopting a nom de guerre) on “It’s Dirt” and “No Way Back Home,” on which the Hammond of Oscar Gil also provides an album highlight.

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