Miles beneath the surface of the ocean lie
crushing depths of blackness that would pulverize the human body instantly,
just how far down it goes remains a scientific mystery. In a fluid 360 degree environment that has
never been blessed by the warmth or light of the life-giving sun the way of
things is always eat or be eaten. It’s a
cold, harsh existence, one that is as completely alien to man as anything he
may one day find beyond this sphere. There’s
a metaphor in there somewhere, a metaphor for human consciousness and
creativity.
Deep is one of the most original sounding and
imaginative bands I’ve heard in a long while.
They take the basic elements of stoner and doom music and, in a 360
degree fluid environment, carry those elements to strange places, making
unexpected blind leaps within the gloom.
Such creativity is the very stuff of life itself. If the world ran on logic alone there would
be very little to do but be trampled upon and die. Well there’s no trampling where this band is
coming from. It is believed that 80
percent of all organic life on earth lives within the deep. It is within this teeming spirit that Deep’s
8 song album finds its home.
Plunge into the paper thin production and
razor sharp fuzz of opening track “Sun” and right away the band name begins to
take shape and make sense. One thing
that can’t be passed without further mention is the fuzz tone which sounds at
times like the band is running a fuzzbox through a Tesla coil rather than a
guitar and amp. “Sun” bobs atop the
surface with the brightest sound on the record and it is after this point that
we dive down into ever-darkening layers where internal thought is the only
companion.
That sun-starved darkness of the ocean is
felt on many tracks, creating the kind of despairing desolation not often heard
in a truly musical setting outside of the records of Ice Dragon and their
associated acts. The D.I.Y. ethic runs
strong in this one and the lo-fi nature of the recording always remains
pre-eminent in the band’s sound, creating much of the tesla coil zapping and
darkened atmospheres on the album. It’s
such a delicate balance or dare I say, a happy accident, when the recording and
tone of a record harmonizes so beautifully, but this is exactly the kind of
band that I wouldn’t want to see enter a professional recording studio and
“clean up” their sound because as it is right now, it is perfect.
However, as the record plays on it begins
to sound like two bands with two different visions are clashing head to head
and struggling for dominance. One is a
slightly early 80s dark rock sound while the other is a fairly wild take on
more traditional stoner rock such as Kyuss, and sometimes, those clashing
elements even find a battlefield within individual songs (see “The Wizard and
the Mountain” and its follow-up “Hyperventilation Realization”). Still, it’s a unique band with a singular
vision that manages to find a home for didgeridoo within the ocean bed of its
murky and lysergic rock sound. That
lysergic murk comes bubbling up to the surface on album closer “Sonic Mantra”
which is loaded with southwestern moods and desert feelings, creating a
spaghetti western musical in the theater of the mind’s eye.
I hesitate to say that Deep’s ‘Vol. 1’ is a
promising record by an up-and-coming band because this is the sound of the band
in its purest incarnation. There’s an
‘outsider music’ quality that provides this album with much of its appeal. From stoner to doom to psychedelic raga rock
the pure creativity of the band slides by kaleidoscopically. That’s something that I wouldn’t want the
band to ever change, only to continue to explore, to navigate and to plum their
own internal depths. There’s no telling
how far this band can go inside itself to re-surface with trunkfulls of
treasure.
words by Lucas Klaukien
