JOHN DENVER AIRPORT CONSPIRACY – Something Gotta Give! (2022, LP Cardinal Fuzz/Little Cloud Records/ Fuzzed Up & Astromoon Records)

RELEASE INFO:

Label: Cardinal Fuzz/Little Cloud Records/Fuzzed Up & Astromoon Records

Format: LP, Album, Limited Edition, Heavy Black Vinyl (comes in 350gsm Outer Sleeve), 300 copies

Release Date: 13 May 2022 

The John Denver Airport Conspiracy is a new band hailing from Toronto, Ontario (Canada), and “Something’s Gotta Give!” is their debut album, 3 labels collaborated for this release (!!!), Cardinal Fuzz, Little Cloud Records, and Fuzzed Up & Astromoon Records… The labels’ press release reads:

“Cardinal Fuzz and Feeding Tube Records are pleased to announce ‘DATALAND’, a collaboration between Dead Sea Apes, Black Tempest, and Adam Stone achieved mainly through economic systems, we may indeed have become unwitting prisoners within, what Toronto-based psychedelic-band The John Denver Airport Conspiracy are set to release their debut album ‘Something’s Gotta Give’ on the 13th May. An LSD-infused jangle of melody and 12 string that melds Love, The Byrds, The Velvet Underground, Pretty Things, Television Personalities, BJM, Stereolab into one glorious orgy of sound.

From the thudding jangle of album opener ‘The Big Classic’ to the closing Velvet chug and strum of ‘The Lab’ The John Denver Airport Conspiracy will take you by the hand and lead into a psychedelic dreamworld of electric sugarcube flashbacks,

Dig In”…

So, let’s see what we have here… At least, someone by just watching the collaged colorful front and the black & white back cover can sense a very strong 60s aesthetic… What about the music?

“Something’s Gotta Give!” consists of 14 tracks and it kicks off with “The Big Classic”, a jangly sound (as the press release “promised”) with a late 60s psychedelic mood. I do not know if the band intended to do so, but the whole production is a bit “buried” and kind of “lo-fi”, this is quite obvious on the 2^nd track “Jeff Bezos Actually Works For Me”, though this “production” does not prevent the final result to be nothing else but a Groovy Garaze-y Psychic stomper… The short “But We’re Not Expecting It To” is entirely built on the cool melody of “Jumping Jack Flash”, with lots of “ouh ouh”, a modernized Flower-Power tune, that’s what it is! “Green Chair” blends 80s Neo-Psychedelia with 60s Garage while on, “Ritchie Says” the decibels are lowered, a balladesque kind of melancholic tune. “2000 November” is a neo-garage-psych-o-active song that flirts with mid-60s British Rn’B… “Ya, I Wonder” can be described as a garage-y dance-a-delic song while “The Big Greaser” is a poppy garage jangly track. “Coming Through!” is a slower number, something like a ballad while “JDAC” comes to full antithesis with the previous one as it shows a much more garage-punk attitude. “And The Question Is?” is a super cool “distorted” Psych-a-something track with an intense “White Light/White Heat” atmos and pinches of Inspiral Carpets and Stereolab… This one and the next are my personal highlights of the album… The next one called “Eternity”, is a very different track, a psychedelic effort deeply influenced by the late 60s Laurer Canyon company emerging with an electrified folkie feel… “Because You’re Told To” moves to the same “territory” as the previous song but now the vocals are even more “buried”… Eventually, the album comes to an end with the most punky tune in here, it’s called “The Lab”, a late 70s punky approach to the late 60s Velvet Underground sound… So, I believe that my first “rendezvous” with these Canadian Psych dudes went pretty OK, I “left the building” quite satisfied… and I’m anxiously waiting for my appointment with their next step… release… TimeLord Michalis 

Tracklist

Listen/Buy via JOHN DENVER AIRPORT CONSPIRACY Bandcamp

Listen/Buy through CARDINAL FUZZ Bandcamp