Ecstatic Vision’s 2017’s Raw Rock Fury is a double-headed beast. On one hand it includes a couple of the most devastating blasts of sonic power to come down the pike since the Stooges’ Fun House. On the other, it contains some of the best Krautrock autobahn boogie this side of Hawkwind and Neu!.
Those are some bold claims, I know. But them’s what my ears tell me, and my ears haven’t lied since they proclaimed Black Oak Arkansas the next Beatles (and they weren’t really lying, cuz they shoulda been!). But they’re right on this one; on Raw Rock Fury–which more than lives up to its title–Ecstatic Vision prove they’re the City of Brotherly Love’s best exploding act since Phil “Chicken Man” Testa.
My pal and world-renowned musical expert Bill Barnett recently saw Ecstatic Vision play live, and he reported their set included covers of both “TV Eye” and Hawkwind’s “Master of the Universe,” so the band is hardly attempting to deny its influences. But they’re anything but a tribute act.
Both “You Got It or You Don’t” and “Keep It Loose” take the anarchic energy of 1970’s Fun House to whole new levels. Which is something the Stooges themselves couldn’t do; in comparison 1971’s Raw Power–and it would be wrong to place all of the blame on producer David Bowie–sounds positively emaciated. And they infuse their takes on Krautrock/psych-rock with some good old Stooges punch.
I like the Stooges throwbacks the most. On “You Got It or You Don’t” Kevin Nickles’ saxophone and John Sabolik’s vocals rise (if just barely in the latter case) out of the cosmik ooze, which is given shape by Sabolik’s titanic guitar riff and the rhythm sections unrelenting pounding. Talk about your defiant boasts–these guys have it and they know it. And one can only wonder whether the 5-minute maelstrom that is “Keep It Loose” is a tip of the hat to the Stooges’ “Loose.”
The album’s remaining two songs fall somewhere on the space rock continuum. The two-part “The Electric Step” opens with some muzak from Jupiter before diving straight into Neu! territory; you get that good old-fashioned Teutonic motorik beat, overlaid by some fetching space noise. That’s Pt. 1. On Pt. 2, Sabolik comes in sounding like he’s singing into a megaphone from another astral plane, before things go a bit… berserk. Like I said before, Ecstatic Vision can’t help but get some Stooges into their Kraut rock, and vice versa.
“Twinkling Eye” is tripartite in nature, and like “The Electric Step” the parts mesh seamlessly into one another to wonderful effect. Pt. 1.’s pretty spacey and highlights some psychedelic keyboard work and Connor’s throbbing bass. Pt. 2 kicks things into hyperdrive. As for Pt. 3, it’s a total sonic blowout–not as free form as Fun House closer “L.A. Blues” by any means, but a bravura way to go out for sure.
Ecstatic Vision–who are now a trio–have an album (For the Masses) coming out any day now on Italian label Heavy Psych Sounds. I can hardly wait. Call their music what you will–troglodyte rock, cosmonaut metal, psychedelic space noise–but be sure to check them out. When they say raw rock fury they mean just that.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
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