SOMALI YACHT CLUB - THE SPACE
Terrific album from Ukrainian Stoner/Psych rockers.
Somali Yacht Club are a Ukrainian band and Space is their third full-length release. The imaginative name comes from pirates who terrorise the Somali coast. Their music is an entertaining and curious mix of stoner and psychedelic rock, with some post-rock elements chucked in for good measure.
As my comments on the Ukraine page of the website make clear, I support without question the brave struggles of the Ukrainian people against the fascist invasion by Putin, and the fact that the country’s artists are still putting out contributions to music and other culture is a vital part of that struggle and must be welcomed by all reasonable people. Whether said art and album is any good is, of course, an entirely separate question and this review seeks to address that.
I would firstly make a note of the incredible cover created by Dasha Pliska. It is stunning, and you can view more of his work on his Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pliskadasha/
The album is 45 minutes long and gives us six pieces of music. Opener Silver starts off promisingly with a trancey riff underpinning the dreamy vocals of Ihor Pryshliak. He sings, plays the guitars (and the guitar on this track is particularly evocative) and keyboards. The outfit is completed by Artur Savluk on bass and Lesyk Mahula on drums and all three come together to expand this track some 3:20 minutes in. It is not an explosion, but it is a freeing of the space to allow an effective musical performance room to breathe. I think that as with the best of musicians, these three have basically started off jamming and seeing precisely where the journey takes them.
Pulsar has a nice rhythm loop underpinning a reverb riff before it moves outwards a minute in. Lyrically, the song speaks to me of a friendship or romance (perhaps lost) as opposed to the strange astronomical phenomena of the track title and there is a pleasing crunch to the riffs and tempo changes which keep the listener interested. Four and a half minutes in, there is a fine virtuoso guitar solo over the thumping rhythm line, and it develops into a more introspective piece. Really quite interesting, and very good, reminiscent in its way of Meddle-era Floyd. When Ihor’s voice returns singing of going round, round, round, round, and round, it is a prelude to the stormier passage which heralds the final minute and a half. This is an extremely strong piece of music.
Obscurum (dark, or darkness) is a song title which does not exactly prepare one for a sunny Jon Anderson type dissertation on the joys of eternal sunlight, but the opening is, in fact, very light as compared to the closing passage of the previous track with a light riff over a nice rhythm piece. When the vocals are introduced over this, we have a very psychedelic piece of music. The riffs as they develop do tend to outmuscle the voice which seems to get a bit muffled in the mix and I struggle to get a sense of the song meaning, although this does not detract overly from the fact that musically I find this fresh, with the last-minute expanding into a glorious racket led by the guitar.
Echo of Direction is just short of ten minutes long, is the second longest track on the album, and starts off with a nice guitar riff over a lighter rhythm. This soon segues into a far heavier passage with some crunching riffs. This slows down just over two minutes in and you are once again impressed with the mood change. What follows is almost religious in its intensity with a choral voice flying above the core music. In between these passages, there are some distinctly quirky notes which defy categorisation, really. As the song moves into its second half, we move into some heavy repetitive riffs before an all stop leads us to an ethereal passage which is rather beautiful and haunting, especially when the voice enters above the ghostly guitar, with the final minute and a half extremely heavy with massive riffs crowding out of the speaker. The lyrics speak of us losing our way, and that is about as accurate a summation of the present situation you can get, I suppose. This track is a mighty fine mix of moods and a highlight of the music I have listened to in 2022.
Gold is a much shorter affair and as close to commercial rock that the album gets. It has a light disposition to it and is simply very enjoyable to nod along to, with the closing passage quite anthemic with more clever use of voice above the guitar.
The final track is the epic Momentum, which clocks in at twelve and a half minutes. It opens with more of those crunching riffs interspersed with more restrained passages. I have to say, though, that the blues infused guitar just over two and a half minutes in is a wonderful counterpoint to the riffs and this is a hallmark of the track, with the band once again bringing us some methodical tempo changes in order to ensure that you never lose interest. At once heavy, next tranced, and then in a blues saloon, you certainly get an eclectic mix and as the notes fade you deeply appreciate what you have heard.
The band are proud Ukrainians. It is so important that we keep up with, and understand, the importance of positive, especially positive cultural, voices coming out of the country. However, it is also important to state that this is a positive review not merely because of the band’s origin and that situation, but as much for the fact that this is a damned good album which will certainly appeal to those with a healthy wide-ranging taste in music; you know, those who are as happy to spin a Nirvana album in the morning, followed by Queens of the Stone Age in the afternoon, and, to close, a Floyd album in the evening.
You can listen to the album on Bandcamp at https://somaliyachtclub.bandcamp.com/album/the-space and it is strongly recommended that you do so.