Review: Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound - Ekranoplan

Label: Tee Pee Records

Released: March 20, 2007

I don’t take drugs and because of that, I believe I am much more discerning about my psychedelic music. It isn’t an accompaniment to my trip, it is my trip. From the space rock explosion that opens Ekranoplan, across its mind-altering landscapes and through its soul-inflected finale, this is a tour de force of trippiness. Assemble Head is heavy when they need to be, yet delicate at all the right moments, choreographing 38 minutes of another world altogether.

They jump right into the trip with the overdriven power chords and echoey vocals. Cooking it up with spacey organ and electronics, it puts the mind in the perfect state, teetering between totally mellow and completely freaked out. Over the course of the trip, heavy space rock is mixed with surf, blues, soul, jazz and classical. The result is an album that alternates between blunt heaviness and delicate touches. Sometimes it pushes, sometimes it carries, but constantly it moves. Driven by the psychedlic power of guitar and organ, baked vocals and a rhythm section that controls the ride, Ekranoplan is more of an experience than simply an album. With this one, there's no need for any drugs but the music. If you need anything else, you’re not listening. It takes us down the mind-bending road from which the greatness of Dark Side of the Moon detoured us, but that still begs to be traveled.

Rating: 8/10