23 November 2020

KIMONO DRAG QUEENS – Songs Of Worship (2020, LP Copper Feast Records)

RELEASE INFO:

Label: Copper Feast Records

Format: LP, Album, Limited Edition, ‘Hunter’s Bloodlust’ 12″ Vinyl (red with blue/white splatter butterfly effect), 100 copies

Format: LP, Album, Limited Edition, ‘Subtle Chaos’ 12″ Vinyl (red, blue and yellow squad effect vinyl), 100 copies

Format: LP, Album, Limited Edition, ‘Evil Desire’ 12″ Vinyl (transparent blue/red cornetto vinyl with solid yellow splatter), 125 copies

Format: LP, Album, Limited Edition, ‘Blue Worship’ 12″ Vinyl (transparent blue vinyl), 125 copies

Format: LP, Album, Limited Edition, ‘Eye of the Beast’ 12″ Vinyl (red/yellow/green merge vinyl with blue splatter)

Release Date: 6 Nov 2020

Another remarkable and super astonishing album by the land of plenty, Australia! Newcomers on the Neo-Psych scene, Kimono Drag Queens, release their debut album in late 2020, being a septet since 2016! Taken from their Bandcamp page: “Taking influence from heavy psych/world music peers such as Goat, Here Lies Man and Kikagaku Moyo, Sydney 7-piece Kimono Drag Queens are coming in hot with their much-anticipated debut album Songs of Worship, after a steady stream of stellar singles over the past half-decade. ‘Songs of Worship’ is due for release digitally on the 6th of November 2020 and will have a vinyl release to accompany it, with presales live on Friday, September 11th, 2020. The record twists and turns through a broad array of psych wizardry, touching on many cornerstones of the genre, with single ‘Wild Animals’ evoking memories of Goat’s breakout single ‘Run To Your Mama’. ‘Hunters’ displays a memorizing percussion performance driving the record as it pulls you deeper under its spell before you have time to brace yourself, after which the album crescendos through the euphoric ‘Willy’s World’ to its climax, leaving you gasping for breath”…

“Songs Of Worship” consists of just 6 songs and maybe this is the only ‘negative’ that I can find in this release, I wanted more… The album opens with the self-titled “Song Of Worship”, under a transcended Eastern-like floating guitar melody with sweet and warm switching double male/female vocals, the tune develops a mesmerizing Psychedelic atmosphere with an almost acoustic soundscape, spreading euphoric Psych vibes all over. Though after the 3^rd minute there’s an unexpected ‘outburst’ that literally ‘launches’ the track, emerging a World-Psych feel that makes you shiver and covers your entire Body and Soul… Superb start for a debut album! “Hunters” with its wah-wah funkadelic & groovy start and that fantastic tribal African-like percussion, is wonderfully unwrapping colorful Psychedelic West Coast ‘layers’, at times a brilliant shimmering Psych guitar sound is ‘breaking’ the smooth and mellow soundscape, and this is exactly what makes the whole song act like a neo-modern Psych Groover! On the other hand, “Delilah” with the various soft/sharp Psych fluctuations, is a fine example of the perfect musicianship among the 7 members of the band! There’s a cool (as fuck!) fantastic Psych floating musical background on “Wild Animals” in which the band preserves its unique kind of transcendental Psych-a-like music, but again in the last 2 minutes, a magical Psychedelic colorful motive covers everything with some of the grooviest fuzz you’ve heard for a long time! “Evil Desire” starts… and I’m trying to think about that characteristic ‘trademark’ sound that the band built, within just 5 songs! Catchy well-executed riffs and ‘things’, groovy tones, adventurous drum beats and so many “timeless” influences in here… How lovely… The album closes with “Willy’s World”, a neo modern PSYCH tune capable enough to ‘transport’ the listener to some other – parallel or not – universe, emitting some Great Psychness! Woah! What an album! For sure in my list with the TOP of this ‘strange’ pandemic 2020! “Songs Of Worship” is Addictive, Seductive and extremely Psycho-Active! Get on… and Spread the news… Kimono Drag Queens are in the building… TimeLord Michalis