Kill West - Smoke Beach (2015) review

Kill West - Smoke Beach (Echo Drug Recordings, 2015)

Thickly layered and nearly edgeless, the music of Kill West doesn’t so much emerge from your speakers, it’s more like the band creates a sonic black hole that draws you in, spiraling you down and never letting go. Deeply laced with reverb drenched sustained grooves, Kill West steps into an new realm of very darkly fuzzed out psychedelic meanderings of droning bluesy guitar washes that seem designed to hold you in place with a physical presence.

Even for psychedelic music, these folks remain outside of the fringe, creating a sort of charred atmosphere of thickly hazed blue smoke that leaves little room to breathe ... like heading down the rabbit hole and tossing away the bottle, with no hope of ever returning to the surface.

By no means am I saying this album is not worth your while, what I am saying is that before you hit the play button, be sure you’re with the right company, have ingested the proper substances, and have allotted the necessary time. Or from long ago, I could simply put it this way:

Bell Flight 14 you now can land

See you on Aldebaran

Safe on the green desert sand

It’s so very lonely

You’re 2000 light years from home

It’s so very lonely

You’re 2000 light years from home …

*** Limited Edition of 200 on smokey black clear vinyl.

Review made by Jenell Kesler/2016