Originally released on CD by Cardinal Fuzz (SOLD OUT)
One of the exalted is London’s Sunlight Service Group. Bowling… is an interstellar concoction fueled by an early Floyd-ish pyre, fiery garage looseness and pure psych conflagration. Some spot-on flute is the icing on the sun. Not to draw too loose, or tight if you like, of a comparison, that flute’s proggy and warped folky call does for SSG what Turner’s blowing did for forefathers Hawkwind. A touch of their own inspired lunacy that highlights what else is chugging under the hood (more than you might think) and puts the added spin on the wheel that sends it into orbit, with a deliciously off-center axis. Opener Folk Choke might be one of the most appropriately titled cuts this year. Chants and claps conjure up the wobbling pagan swagger while harmonica and that flute dance around the fire. They add just enough grounding to remind you that to get up, and out, you got to launch from somewhere, some patch of Earth. The Screaming Tower That Wouldn’t Crash has a languid tempo that works in tandem with the wafting glide that SSG pull off in various forms through their run. A slow build up anchored by bubbling bass sends the smoke rings around the sun, turning their ‘hideous sun demon’ into the solar bastard child of Saturn. Sea of Bees makes no attempt to hide where it’s coming from, rewriting and flexing a new Lucifer Sam-muscle for the here and now. To call it derivative is a disservice; part rewrite, total homage and a full on constant trip for over 10 minutes, SSG push it out into their own mid-section freak-out that propels it right through the end, and out the other side, and through the rest of the platter. Digging up bones of the past doesn’t mean squat unless you plunder the best and lay down with them. Even less if you don’t hang some new meat on them. And SSG do, and do it with the requisite, and required, amount of love, respect, reanimation and re-imagining. Bowling… is a fantastic outing that’s a holy relic and a fractured epiphany in the new church. Knocking down every pin with Bab’s head, there’s not a weak cut here.
(Sunrise Ocean Bender)
credits
released August 9, 2012
Willy Robinson - vocals, guitar, harmonica
King John Patterson - guitar, vocals
Rebecca Jade - flute, vocals
Pete Jordan - bass, vocals
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