Death Valley Girls
Pablo de Pastors
★★★★
Islands In The Sky
SUICIDE SQUEEZE. CD/DL/LP
Bonnie Bloomgarden’s LA psych voyagers venture further.
A love letter to “future incarnations” of the self, Islands In The Sky fires on purring or Clint Boon-like organs, garagey guitars; occasionally a kind of spooky Motown girl-group aesthetic. Bloomgarden’s inspiration was her new, self-healing oriented mindset having recovered from a mysterious, debilitating illness, and she brings formidable, shamanic energy to California Mountain Shake, Magic Powers and Sunday, her untamed vocals on the latter conjuring a young Maria McKee. With Larry Schemel, brother of Hole drummer Patty Schemel, proving an excellent guitar foil – witness his ritualistic-sounding arpeggios on tribal trip Journey To Dog Star – much of IITS sounds as though it was spelled-out on a ouija board rather than merely recorded. The forces moving the glass also seem to understand ear-worms, as evidenced by When I’m Free, a baggy, almost Madchesteresque anthem. James McNair