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saturna – some delicious enemy

keen diggers around this corner will know that i have a certain love for fuzzed up dirty spaced out rock-n-roll excess.
if the guitars drone and hardly move on from their single chord progressions then my love flows even more. so, say hello to the latest name on the block for fans of : the dandy warhols, brmc, the warlocks etc etc.
hailing from portland it’s saturna.
the album that the band have self released is a cracker of the usual elements, drawn out guitar lines, layers of guitars and lazy sunshine kissed melodies with hints of darkness hidden away in the corners. despite the lack of record label budget, superb opener roll down even manages to revive those backward underwater guitars that kevin shields took years to create for the my bloody valentine masterpiece, loveless, which legend has it, bankrupted creation records in the process, so someone has been studying the art to an excellent degree.
thankfully, the album is not a one trick pony and the use of machine created noises in the blissed out chaos of fall which descends into a full on old school acid rave beast with synths clashing for your attention. brilliant and very refreshing from all the usual black leather dourness that goes alongside such a band.
pop rocks really hits the pleasure spot with an obvious love for snarled lip arrogance of early days brmc, but with an interesting use of layered vocals and beach boys styled breakdown in the middle before the guitars are let loose again. the tempo is then given a break, as the mood quietens off for the drawn out psychedlic meanderings of  blanket of stars, and much more making the album lull a little it must be said, however, as these extended workouts are followed by the more concise pop melodies of  springboard with a definite lighter feel (piano !) the mood lifts just in time for the white knuckle ride that is just for thrills, a song that almost makes you want to flip the bird to your boss, walk out of your humdrum job (or is that just me?) and buy a big muthafuggin’ motorbike to rip along a highway to. in other words, yes it’s more of those jesus and marychain melodies and fuzzed to the max guitars.
the closing few tracks of the album take the foot off the trottle, slightly, bringing things to a warm and lovely close.
ok, i’ll admit that the results across the 43 minutes of this debut, aren’t exactly original, but then, so what ?
this is a fine buzzy guitar album to just mellow out to.
more detail : here