711 Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - BRMC (2001)

 711 Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - BRMC (2001)

Studio Album- Psychedelic Rock



About the Act:

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club are an Indie Rock band from San Francisco. There is not much about them on Wikipedia, so I can't tell you much about them. This I know: They were formed in 1998, they have had 8 studio albums, and a mostly stable line-up.

About the Album:

This was their first album and was well-received, but again there is very little about it on Wikipedia, one of the scantiest entries for an album in this list.

My History with this Album:

I have heard the album as a whole about once before, and the song "Spread Your Love" several times. When it came out, I and my then flatmate were quite into watching alternative MTV and Spread Your Love got into rotation. I really liked it and so sought out the other tracks on the album and had a listen. They were quite different to Spread Your Love and I lost interest and got distracted by other things.

Review:

This album feels like what Psychedelic music would have sounded like in the late 60s if they had had modern studio technology. I know that around this time there was a bit of a resurgence in psychedelic rock, mostly because quite a few of those albums seem to be featured on this list. There are actually quite a variety of sounds, but they all seem to hark back to that era. There's the hit, Spread Your Love, which sounds like Spirit in the Sky updated and rocky. There are quite a few that have big spacey sounds that run on, with drone elements and changing elements. There is use of tingy things that sound like finger cymbals. There is use of Eastern-inspired harmonic structures and scales. I don't think I heard any sitars, but it would not have surprised me.

Take all those elements and kind of big them up, make the guitar fuzzier, the bass thicker or crunchier, basically improve the production and the sonic range and mix in more of a rock sensibility at times, and you basically have... this. That could be a disaster but it is not. Musically I liked it a lot, actually more than I did when I last heard it 20 years ago. There is a strength and quality to it, while retaining that sense of mystic wonder that Psychedelic music is good at.

I'm not really sure what to say about the words - there is some religious content which I think from the little I could make out (it's another album where the vocals are low in the mix, like most "alternative rock") is somewhat sceptical about Christianity. Mostly I think they are typical snatches of phrases and ideas that build to a whole rather than a coherent narrative. Both approaches are valid, of course, but you pick up less in a couple of listens this way.

Also, the added thing is some more unusual passages of sounds, or sound effects, or repetitive drone-like singing in one case. These again entwine with the general psychedelic ambience and act like finding a sultana in your muesli - a little treat.

So, all in all, interesting, and effective, and I would say one of the best revivals of psychedelic musical ideas I have come across.

7.5/10 


Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/5abOBUmWegGxl1YUi28ovw

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B.R.M.C._(album)



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