VITSKÄR SÜDEN
DAVE LING
Vitskär Süden
SELF-RELEASED
LA desert rockers draw power from the chillout zone
Purveyors of “desert-spacestoner-psych rock with a taste for weird literature/ cosmic horror”, this four-piece from LA play by nobody’s rules but their own. Their debut album is so laidback, it could almost be deemed horizontal. Opener War Machine Crimson juxtaposes macho lyrics (‘I am a heavyweight fighter/ I’m the Hadron Collider’) with epic soundscapes as soothing as a blood-red Californian sunset. The delights that follow rarely shift out of first gear, although the simmering sense of understatement underscores not only its beauty but an entire raison d’être as an undercurrent of foreboding power rumbles throughout.The engaging lyrics, and bassist Martin Garner’s delivery, retain the attention until its chilling werewolf-howl sign-off.