Review: Acid Mess ‘Sangre De Otros Mundos’
Are you ready for a Spanish psych rock party? Make no mistake, this is your invitation. Things may start peacefully enough, but if you’re along for the ride Acid Mess are about to facilitate a good time! Not a new band, but new to me, Acid Mess’s new album Sangre De Otros Mundos was out a bit earlier this month on Spinda Records (who also put out the excellent self-titled debut by Moura, check it out!).
Spinda Records are new to me too, but seem to be busy releasing a solid selection of Spanish heavy and psych. And in keeping with other releases they’ve made this record into a beautiful artefact, if you’re into the whole physical copy thing.
Over the course of the record’s seven songs (no twenty-minute epics) we get a surprisingly heterodox approach to psych. At its core a lot of this record is brash garage-y rock with a snotty punk attitude, but that could well pass a listener by at first. There are loads of ‘extras’ – handclaps, bongos, twinkling bells, guest female vocals, synth/organ – beyond the standard trio.
Sometimes you just want a record to be fun, and this is one of the best fun records I’ve heard in a long time…
Vocals are doubled, or tripled, and they make liberal use of vocal melodies that follow the guitars in unison. Over-reliance on that simplicity might make Acid Mess seem clumsy, but the deft segues into jazzy open sections show their skill. There’s also something resolutely Spanish about their sound, in the flamenco claps, percussion patterns and modes. I’m curious as to how this sounds in Spain, as from a grey November in the UK, Sangre De Otros Mundos comes across to me as alternately classy and delightfully cheeky.
Acid Mess pull it off with a charm and flair, quieten the snarky part of my mind which grumbles about kitsch tropicalism, and the drive of their straighter rock (see Futuro Sin Color – at least before it wanders off into a jazz bassline) returns often enough to keep the party moving.
Sometimes you just want a record to be fun, and this is one of the best fun records I’ve heard in a long time. And if this is where the party is at, I think it’s somewhere I could happily spend a while laughing and dancing and rocking out.
Label: Spinda Records
Band Links: Facebook | Bandcamp | Twitter | Instagram
Scribed by: Harry Holmes
