Wednesday, July 24, 2013

... DOMADORA "Tibetan Monk" (Album Review)

Formed about two years ago, DOMADORA is a burning Parisian trio into Psychedelic Heavy/Stoner Rock who (self) released "Tibetan Monk" a couple of months back.
This debut album contains 7 songs including two of them who can be considered as intro and outro, considering their relative short length and different structures compared to an overall who's basically very much based on long jams and psyched-out stonerish vibes... 

The introductive "Tibetan Monk" is (at least for the genre) really disconcerting to my ears, like a noisy maelstrom with loud and hammering drums, I feel this is not particularly accurate to introduce the band's sound which - if unbridled and extremely powerful at times -  is pretty different from this too loud piece, eventually this could have worked as an outro... ! this outro here is "Wild Animal Skin", no problem with this (quieter) one but I would have seen it more effective as an intro !!! Oh well, this debatable choices aren't really important after all, the most essential of course is what you get between those both songs during nearly 50 minutes !!! 

DOMADORA is not the kind of band you're used to listen from the generally rigorous french scene, a band with an emphasis on jams and obviously a very LIVE approach, this is already a very distinctive caracter and if it's coupled with tightness and heaviness in fairly above the average measures, you're then right to think that DOMADORA is a wild and vaporous entity that deserves immediate attention.

Mostly instrumental, the power trio could seem à priori more at ease on long jams like "Ziggy Jam" or "Domadora Jam" who favor fuzzy frenzy guitars, extensive soloing and a regular challenging competition between Belwil (guit) and Karim on drums - in high speed tempos (at 6:30 of the latter you wonder if your not in 45 rpm !) who could blow away the most austere nun around (monk/nun, you get it now ? hahaha !), this being subtely counteracted by Gui Omm's  rumbling bass... 
But things are not that obvious in facts and the band shows way more diversity than expected with for example the excellent "Chased and Caught", the only song with vocals who is a little jewel of hazy stoner rock which Brant Bjork would praise for and why not jam on  in the future with the guys in a  parisian small and warm venue ! 

The song following it -"The Oldest Man on the Left"- could be the most representative of the album, blending this psyched-out Stoner with powerful tension and a cascade of driving Heavy Rock guitars; while "Naïroya" is another song with a special mood, almost bluesy and laid back at first, it grows progressively in a more layered than totally improvised-like kind of structures, before ending in a freak-out soloing,  totally twisted but a very consistent song in its routing.

A great feeling of exciting welfare accompanies your listening which reveal true promises for an even more exciting future to come, cause wild also means that this beast of entity will improve and develop with time - to master all aspects of its identity... A few things remind it, the most difficult being to find the exact right balance between jams and structured compositions, but also between Heavy and Stoner Rock (in a Psyche environment that they already master), instrumental and singing songs...Anyway "Tibetan Monk" is a stunning debut , certainly not just an addition of heavy jams like I've read here and there, to miss this one would be a big mistake if you like powerful (instrumental) psychedelic stuff ! 

https://www.facebook.com/DomadoraBand

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