New Music: Rosetta West ‘Labyrinth’ Album Review
A shamanistic journey into far-out realms, this is a psychedelic trip powered by growling guitars and roaring riffs. Something akin to The Doors mixed with Brant Bjork, every track packs a piston-powered punch as it rockets in from the desert and straight into your third eye.
This is independent music made for all the right reasons; the production credits list just three people: the musician, the engineer, and a poet. The quality of the sound and attention to detail tickles the ear of even the most fanatic audiophile, and the passion poured into the project oozes through every strummed, resonant chord.
A Sonic Exploration of the Desert
It kicks off with ‘Red Rose Mary Bones,’ which opens with a doomy dirge that sounds like the strings have been loosened to one step before they fall off the fretboard. They vibrate with a bestial intensity, creating a spine-jangling backbone that the rest of the track fills in with fleshy sinew and splayed tendons. On top of that bubbling bass base, the cleaner sound of the lead guitar picks out a skittering skip and stagger that weaves wondrously. It sets up the sound and mood of the album perfectly with the hoot, holler, and howl of the vocals.
‘The Temple’ takes us into the dreamscape vision of the more spiritual side to the sound. Lyrically, it dazzles with a cosmic scope and some particularly potent poetic lines. There is a delicious and delightful depth to the layering of the sound that doesn’t take to the same explosive energy featured on the rest of the album, but instead builds this meditative music that has an authentically shamanistic chant at its core.
Versatility and Genre-Bending
We continue on in this esoteric quest with ‘Deeper Than Magic,’ which leaves the scrub of the American desert to climb sand dunes at midnight in some far-away land. Just three tracks in, and we hear the varied and versatile skill and influences that have inspired the sound. The slide and pick that sits at the center of this track has a crystal-clear quality in its moments of perfect clarity, which then bend, wiggle, and vibrate with a ridiculous resonance when it returns to the shuddering, juddering chords of its verse.
There is a vulnerability to ‘Roman Mountains’ that is ageless and epic. It tells its story with bardic glee and glory. Musically, the central refrain stays a little more subtle and subdued in comparison to the rest of the album, which allows the storytelling that acts as the heartbeat of this piece to thump out thunderously.
The Rock ‘n’ Roll Heart
The guttural growl of the roaring riff of ‘Ginny’s Gone’ hits like a slap to the face. Arguably one of the most classically rock ‘n’ roll moments on the album, the track goes hard and every element is an example of the Rosetta West sound dialed up to 11. The vocals are pushed out with fiendish ferocity, the riffs slap with monumental force, and the percussive elements get the blood pumping.
The salacious and sexy slide that leads into ‘Elmore’s Blues’ introduces the heartbreaking howl and throat burn of this straight-up whiskey-swigging breakup blues classic. It would be impossible not to nod your head and tap your foot along to this tried and tested formula, but it manages to flex and fiddle with the structure enough to make it feel fresh and full.
Final Verdict
The pacing and placement of each track on the album is masterful. Each track leads expertly from the one before and into those that follow; this is album crafting at a level that is woefully lacking in the modern music landscape. Nothing is out of step, and there is no filler. The album is exactly as it should be, and every track is exactly where it should be.
Rosetta West are the kind of band that reward their fans with consistency and a powerful passion for what they do. They have a back catalogue of wonderful work that continues to build on itself, improve, and impress. They capture what is no doubt an electrifying energy from their live show and pour it professionally into their recordings.
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