backward looking bands. From Witch's Sabbath riffs to Earthless's
Deep Purple/Blue Cheer blues freak outs it is easy to pigeonhole Tee
Pee as merely a purveyor of 70's leaning stoner rock. But Tee Pee
also is home to modern shoegazers Brian Jonestown Massacre and The
Warlocks. Los Angelese's Black Math Horseman
(http://teepeerecords.com/
somewhere between these two worlds while adding another few element
that actually took me by surprise: 80's goth and 90's post rock. It's
a combination that, at first, i wasn't completely sold on but, as with
the songs on Wyllt, my patience was eventually rewarded.
At first listen Wyllt may seem to be playing out in a fairly
traditional loud/quiet way, complete with chiming guitars and lumbering drums, but there are
disparate influences at work that keep you slightly off balance. You
may think you know what's coming next but often you are, at best, only half right. And what is essentially a metal record, complete with medieval imagery and song titles like
"Deerslayer" and "Torment of the Metals", at times unfolds with Slint
or Unwound type guitar play between Ian Berry and Bryan Tulao. Two
angular guitar lines work together almost by working against each
other. There are riffs, mind you, but played with a cool restraint
rather than ferocity. Add to this Sera Timm's vocals, icy and chant-like, always
hovering slightly beneath the plodding rumble. Only on the last, epic
track, "Bird of All Faith and None/Bell From Madrone" does she let forth some blood
curdling screams, making the effect all the more powerful after an
album's worth of constraint. All the while Sasha Popovic's drums rumble and gallop along as graceful as a stampeding herd of drunk elephants.
This all makes for odd, seemingly incompatible, alliances, as if the
band worshiped both at the feet of Sabbath and the Cocteau Twins. Black Math Horseman find a
way to turn it into very heavy and dark stuff. Lyrics decrying that "no one man is god's son" (Bird of All Faiths and None) and "i do not believe modern man is free" (Barren
Cause) add the final layer of gloom. Although not nearly as creepy,
Wyllt reminds me of Sunn0)))'s Dokirke, the album they recorded live at the Bergen
Cathedral in Norway with Attila Csihar of Mayhem providing vocals (operatic and disturbing to say the least). Obviously it is not as inaccessible as Sunn0))) (what is?) but the
feel, from the glacial pace and ringing guitars to the chant like
vocals and medieval imagery, makes Wyllt every bit as dark and
mysterious as Dokirke. Black Math Horseman's debut has the rare
quality of taking what seem like incompatible elements and creating
something very unique and oddly fresh. As is often the case, it just
might take a few listens to fully grasp this.
