Wand â Golem (2015)
Review:
The heavies of glam and garage rock past loom large over Golem, the second full-length from Los Angeles-based psych-rock quartet Wand. Itâs not a nostalgia-driven record, but you can definitely catch a whiff of David Bowie, T. Rex, and eyeliner-era Brian Eno wafting through the bandâs heavy riffs and stoned melodies. However, Wandâs most obvious touchstone is a little more contemporary: Ty Segall. Over the last couple of years, Segall and his close-knit crewâbands like Thee Oh Sees and White Fenceâ have established a headier and heavier take on dinosaur rock by amping up the tempo and coating familiar-sounding riffs in a layer of lo-fi psychedelic grime. From the double-tracked falsetto vocals to the alien guitar tones, their influence is clear and present on Golem. Wand arenât sound-alikes, but they also arenât shy about appropriating moves from the other bands in their scene. And theyâre pretty good at those moves. Evidently there are no hard feelings: Wand has opened for Ty Segall and the bandâs singer/guitarist Cory Hanson has also accompanied Segall comrade Mikal Cronin on the road. Wandâs debut album, Ganglion Reef, was released on Segallâs Drag City imprint, GOD? Itâs a bit like the Beatles releasing Badfinger on Appleâan act that took heavy inspiration from their more well-known mentor/producers, but also delivered independently memorable material on their own in a similar style. There are some notable differences, though. Where their peers might ground stoney riffs in personal and real-life inspired subject matter, Wandâs tunes tend to dwell in the wizard candle-lit realms of the fantastic. Some of Hansonâs lyrics ("The forest is soft and the spiders are dead") sound like they might have first been uttered in the midst of a Dungeons & Dragons campaign. And who knows, maybe they were; the members of Wand have been known to play the game. Fantastic imagery aside, D&D is not a bad platform for understanding Wand. The game makes use of established ground rules, but the tone and setting can be embellished to suit the tastes and interests of the players. Wandâs foundation lies in the old-school prog/psych sourcebook, but the songs often wander away from the script in a way that is refreshing. Glimpses of pop nostalgia are regularly smeared over with anachronistic synthesizer squiggles or blotted out with heavy rock riffs reminiscent of the Melvins. These are the record's best momentsâwhen a Marc Bolan vocal seamlessly blends into the kind of tape-collage weirdness that might have been at home on a Butthole Surfers LP. Still, listening to *Golemâ*which arrives via Los Angeles garage and weirdo-rock standby In the Redâitâs hard to shake the been-there-done-that feeling. Wand excels at delivering heavy and murky sounds, but they're a bit late to a conversation that their peers have already dominated. â by Aaron Leitko at pitchfork
![cover](https://i.ibb.co/rZBDN4p/cover.jpg)
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Track List:
01 - The Unexplored Map
02 - Self Hypnosis in 3 Days
03 - Reaper Invert
04 - Melted Rope
05 - Cave In
06 - Flesh Tour
07 - Floating Head
08 - Planet Golem
09 - The Drift
Media Report:
Genre: garage, psychedelic rock
Country: Los Angeles, California, USA
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits
Compression mode: Lossless
Writing library: libFLAC 1.2.1 (UTC 2007-09-17)
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