Yes, screaming guitars wail in and out over the space left for long, wig out episodes in night on each and every track. It’s joyously all over the place, prompting images of men with inflated stomachs and wiry beards drinking beer out of tin cans over a fire. Recorded in a converted chicken barn in West Wales, on first listen it sounds very much like an album of the past, unashamed of its penchant for 70’s rock riffs, 60’s psychedelic melodies and dreamy lyrics drenched in historic tales.Ĭase in point - opener ‘Silbury Sands’ recalls elements of Simon & Garfunkel, with a section dedicating to rocking out with woozy guitars reminiscent of Deep Purple and Wolf People’s own label mates Black Mountain. Steeple is the debut album from Wolf People, a blues/folk/rock/andawholelotelse band from London.
Detours boogie bag full#
Ditch the interludes and you have yourself a hot, swampy EP full of terrific little boogie-minded gems. But the full-band cuts don't need a push. If these experiments weren't so dull and scatterbrained, they'd at least serve as a sort of counterweight to the rockers, making the good stuff really pop. Most of the proper tunes succeed because they roll along so eagerly, so it's hard to imagine why Wolf People would sap the album of all its momentum with these little speed bumps. While the patchwork construction does unintentionally remind you of a live set (one that's obviously just lousy with tech problems), skipping through the dodgy one-offs and tepid noise detours will leave you with only a handful of tracks worth holding on to. Though occasionally a particularly strange piece of noise or a tasty riff will manage to prick up your ears during these sections, they seriously hamper the movement of the record.
So in a sense Tidings serves as more of an odds-and-ends collection than an album proper. Frontman Jack Sharp made these recordings between 20 in Bedford, England, before the current iteration of Wolf People.
Almost half of the songs are tagged as interludes, most of which are field recordings or outtakes of aimless strumming, strange whirrings, and drunken ramblings. Thing is, Tidings isn't the tight rock record it appears to be. And there's plenty of brawniness to go around, too, like the single "October Fires", which is a wild, noodly groover, detailing some sort of sacrifice ritual over a sweaty honky-tonk rhythm, harmonica, and punchy guitar details. "Untitled" acts like the perfect introduction to both Nuggets and LSD, and late album cut "Empty Heart" boasts a strut that has T. "Cotton Strands" is a Love-styled bloomer bursting with sitars and flutes, yet it still manages to retain the feeling of a creepy backwoods séance. "Black Water", a crunchy slab of drug-rock steeped in mystic imagery (it sounds only a little bit like a Spinal Tap song), works more like a Renaissance Faire theme than a muscular blues number. All of which work together to produce a number of catchy stompers on the band's first full length, Tidings.īut as much as Tidings rides high on it's own brand of sweaty juke-joint appeal, its finest moments are a grab bag of genre detours.
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For each woolly bit of boogie, there's a supporting cast of trippy flute accents, backwards guitars, and ramshackle nods to mod rock and paisley-patterned freakouts. Though certainly drawing from the roots music of the Southern U.S., they are equally entrenched in mead-soaked English folk, classic rock, and psychedelia. London's Wolf People come from a long line of British blues-rock.
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