{"id":2077,"date":"2015-06-05T18:59:47","date_gmt":"2015-06-05T17:59:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eyeplug.net\/magazine\/?p=2077"},"modified":"2011-05-30T13:12:38","modified_gmt":"2011-05-30T13:12:38","slug":"thee-oh-sees-%e2%80%93-castlemania","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/thee-oh-sees-%e2%80%93-castlemania\/","title":{"rendered":"Thee Oh Sees \u2013 Castlemania"},"content":{"rendered":"

(album, In The Red)<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is head food for hungry heads. Whereas the Californian combos last outing, Warm Slime <\/em>saw them surpassing escape velocity and firing volleys of blazing garage-shaped nuggets across the firmament, Castlemania <\/em>resumes in the realms of Barrett-esque whimsy and blue cheer psychosis where Warm Slime<\/em>\u2019s closing track \u2018MT Work\u2019 left us writhing in ecstasy.<\/p>\n

Taking the fifteen tracks collectively, Castlemania <\/em>is a remarkable album that manages to pretty much explore the entire spectrum of coloured sound while being simultaneously restrained and uninhibited. While there\u2019s no thirteen-minute long doors-of-perception shattering freakouts on offer this time around, the disc is very much a trip<\/em>.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s some kind of TARDIS style funny business going on here \u2013 it felt as if I was exploring the labyrinths of Castlemania <\/em>for days, and yet the small LCD readout on my player tells me that it was less than 50 minutes. Although the tracks collected here hang together perfectly as a body of work, the amount of variety that Thee Oh Sees pack onto a sliver of plastic and metal perhaps explains my disorientation.<\/p>\n

Separating the album into two halves, divided by the brief outtasite interlude of \u2018Spider Cider,\u2019 the first section features six songs that exist within singular generic pockets and yet still provide a rewarding sequential experience. It runs like this \u2013 opener \u2018I Need Seed\u2019 pitches us down amid waves of holy modal folkery, before the syncopated freakbeat of \u2018Corprophaigist (A Bath Perhaps)\u2019 takes over. \u2018Stnking Cloud\u2019 floats in on zephyrs of synth-infused Barrettisms, born aloft by exultations to \u2018take your time and defrost your mind\u2019, before the diaphanous threads of the track are obliterated as the nasty, jackhammer garage of \u2018Corrupted Coffin\u2019 tumbles through floors of discordant squall and crunchy fuzz. \u2018Pleasure Blimps\u2019 brings respite, as shards of typically English psychedelic whimsy are superheated and projected along the pitted walls of the mind\u2019s own Haight-Ashbury, then \u2018A Wall, A Century 2\u2019 brings heavier elements to the kaleidoscope of sound, exploding any hope for equilibrium as chemical elves chirrup in the undergrowth.<\/p>\n

And the seventh brings return.<\/p>\n

As we are propelled around to the dark side of the disc, \u2018The Whipping Continues\u2019 reveals lysergic sound prisms that flicker with light that you can hear, before the crystalline simplicity of \u2018Blood On The Deck\u2019 provides a ergonomic mix of rolling rhythms, endlessly arcing solos and insistent harmonies. The album\u2019s title track is suitably exalted; ethereal and stratospheric, it feeds head and heart by tapping into the music of the spheres.<\/p>\n

Things become louder now \u2013 \u2018AA Warm Breeze\u2019 is a twisted bloom. A hybrid of kazoo kraziness, harp hysteria and malefic vocals, it convincingly references the Mothers of Inventions\u2019 summer of love\/hate rootsisms. In the same realm, \u2018Idea For Rubber Dog\u2019 evokes Beefheart, with its unhinged lo-fi effervescent elephantisms that give way to the pastoral psych synth overture of \u2018The Horse Was Lost\u2019. \u2018I Won\u2019t Hurt You\u2019 takes Castlemania <\/em>on to the home straight, the number is a crepuscular freak-a-billy siren song that sounds as if it were recorded while Suicide squatted in the corner of a crypt. \u2018If I Stay Too Long\u2019 restores sanity, albeit via a laconic tripped-out love call that ushers in the mournful, valedictory, \u2018What Are We Craving?\u2019<\/p>\n

Castlemania <\/em>sees Thee Oh Sees exploring the simultaneous dimensions of inner and outer space, and doing it with a range and dexterity that few bands can match. Check it out.<\/p>\n

Thee Oh Sees: <\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0www.theeohsees.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Order Castlemania <\/em>direct: <\/strong>www.intheredrecords.com\/pages\/order-intl.html<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(album, In The Red) This is head food for hungry heads. Whereas the Californian combos last outing, Warm Slime saw them surpassing escape velocity and firing volleys of blazing garage-shaped nuggets across the firmament, Castlemania resumes in the realms of Barrett-esque whimsy and blue cheer psychosis where Warm Slime\u2019s closing track \u2018MT Work\u2019 left us …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5360,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[93,71],"tags":[284,151,121,283],"series":[],"class_list":["post-2077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-garage","category-music","tag-castlemania","tag-dick-porter","tag-eyeplug","tag-thee-oh-sees"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2077"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=2077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}