Dunlavy
(Copyright © 1999-2024 Piero Scaruffi | Terms of use )

I Ruined America , 6/10
The Spinning Dog , 6/10
Thaumatricon 2 , 6/10
John Merkle is a Miracle , 6/10
The Alison Effect , 6/10
King OF All He Surveys , 6/10
Links:

When the Mike Gunn split, their bassist Scott Grimm started a new band called Dunlavy.

Dunlavy is a power-trio (Grimm on guitar, Elizabeth Swift on bass and Paul Gregory on drums) that has unleashed a virulent brand of instrumental space-rock on I Ruined America (September Gurls, 1995), The Spinning Dog (September Gurls, 1996), Thaumatricon 2 (Fleece, 1998).

While these albums were played by an imaginary trio (Grimm himself on all instruments), the fourth one, John Merkle is a Miracle (Fleece, 1999), is truly a group work. The sound is changing as well, thanks to melodic and romantic touches of acoustic guitar and organ. Luminescent is even a regular song. Featuring five lengthy tracks, the album runs the gamut from the eerie and dilated Light to the space-rock droning of Heavy, from the acoustic Chili Dog to the shoegazing Herkimer.

Dunlavy is actually a duo on The Alison Effect (Camera Obscura, 2001), as Scott Grimm is joined by old buddy John Cramer. The collaboration yields a more professional work, neatly arranged and even sung (not just moaned), from the drunk ballad a` la Holy Modal Rounders Rob Walks In to the epic trip of Better Than Sleep. Dunlavy's new reference point is the 18-minute Woe Be To Croton, in which the Hawkwind fixation turns into a Popol Vuh fascination.

King Of All He Surveys (Fleece, 2001) is, instead, too fragmented. Unstable is sort of psychedelic easy listening, a laid-back shuffle surfed by waves of lysergic organ and fluttering synth lines. Mercury is like a slow-motion version of 13th Floor Elevator, with the distorted vocals, the martial drums and a heavily fuzzed-out guitar, performing Pink Floyd's Let There Be More Light. Very Little is a hard-rocking rave-up that would have been dynamite on Byrds' Fifth Dimension. Scott Dewey is a longer jam that seems to fuse the three previous kinds of psychedelia. The mellow, trancey Everything is a decomposing fairy tale until a stoner riff sends it into a stellar orbit, the panzer guitar riff dueling with an epic synth line. The ethereal whisper of Captain Space recurs three times, ever less earthly, as if to carry the listener out of this planet.
Too bad so many of these pieces are short and incomplete, as if Grimm got bored of playing them.

(Translation by/ Tradotto da xxx)

Se sei interessato a tradurre questo testo, contattami

What is unique about this music database