US psych-garage band Oh Sees have released their latest LP, Smote Reverser, via Castle Face Records. You can order the new album here and stream it on Apple Music and Spotify.
Smote Reverser – out now
Following last year’s Orc and Memory Of A Cut Off Head, Smote Reverser is the group’s first full-length release of 2018. Notably, the new album will be released under the ‘Oh Sees’ moniker of the band, which has made its way through an array of names over its twenty-one-year history – including Thee/The Oh Sees, The Ohsees, Orange Country Sound and Orinoka Crash Suite. Memory Of A Cut Off Head, their last LP, was released under the name OCS.
In a colourful, regal-flavoured press release on the new album, Oh Sees promise “another frothy LP of head-destroying psych epics to grok and rock out to”, adorned with the “organ and keyboard prowess… of noted key-stabber Tom Dolas”, “the nimble fingered bottom end of Sir Tim Hellman the Brave”, “the shred-heaven fret frying of John Dwyer” and the “harmonic gifts” of “Lady Brigid Dawson”.
Marking a slight change in direction for the San Francisco band, the new LP has a “fresh heavy-prog vibe” with influence from ’70s bands like Yes and Can as well as the jazz stylings of Miles Davis. Driven by “hairpin metal turns” and Dwyer’s “guitar fireworks”, for the group “the most notable thing about Smote Reverser is the artistic restlessness underpinning its flights of fancy”.
See the tracklist below:
01. Sentient Oona
02. Enrique El Cobrador
03. C
04. Overthrown
05. Last Peace
06. Moon Bog
07. Anthemic Aggressor
08. Abysmal Urn
09. Nail House Needle Boys
10. Flies Bump Against The Glass
11. Beat Quest
Smote Reverser has so far lived up to the band’s royal boasts, with the album receiving a warm welcome from fans and critics alike. Prior to its release, the album was teased with the singles ‘Overthrown‘ and ‘C‘.
Perhaps the highlight of the album, ‘C’ is a wonderful exercise in jazz-prog fusion that maintains musical cleverness and sophisication without losing any of the band’s classic dynamic energy. Powered by electric piano, sustained fuzz tones and smooth time changes, Dwyer tells a fantasy tale of ‘burning buildings’ and ‘crawling creatures’ seemingly inspired by Lord Of The Rings.
In support of the record, the band are playing three UK dates later this month and early next month in Margate, Bristol and London. Get tickets here and see the itinerary below:
8/31/2018 – Margate Winter Gardens – Margate
9/2 – O2 Academy Bristol – Bristol
9/3 – O2 Forum Kentish Town – London
