Band: Electric Sorcery

CD Title: “II”

Band Website: www.myspace.com/electricsorcery   

Label: Independent Release

Release Date: 2009

 

One listen to the second CD release from the band Electric Sorcery and you come away thinking; the legacy of Hawkwind is alive and well in Vermont! These three guys Derek Campbell (vocals, guitar, harmonica), Micah Carbonneau (drums, percussion) and Luke Laplant (keyboards, Electronic Wind Instrument, saxophone), create a swirling, throbbing, pulsating collection of tunes that mix one part progressive rock with two parts of psychedelia to concoct their own brand of music. And what’s more they seem to getting some media attention for all their efforts including a fair bit of radio airplay.

 

For Electric Sorcery’s second official release, we’re looking at 10 tracks, most of which are in the three, four and five minute range with a few longer ones. The music gets off to a walloping start with “Three Eyes” [6:20] all loud and raucous and then suddenly the tune settles into a kind of reggae vibe with rocky accents. Over the course of the song the music goes from driving blues to heavy prog crescendos and back into the reggae groove. It’s crazy man! Track two “Horpus Richter” [5:39] starts on a busy groove with some cool guitar licks over-top of a driving rhythm section. Strange sounds punctuate the proceeding lending a freaky tone to the proceedings. The tune builds in intensity before ending in a grand climax. And so it goes. Each of these compositions builds on a solid foundation, adding musical ingredients like a wild psychedelic cake. There is a definite funky-ness that permeates these tunes; I’m taking about a chucka-chuka guitar sound we heard a lot in the seventies. Here it’s updated to fit into a rockier environment. Some of this sounds like music from a seventies drive-in movie, but in a good way. And then there’s the ever present reggae, Ska and island-beat. Talk about mixing up the genres Electric Sorcery do it in spades.

 

My guess is this is the type of music that will appeal to a wide cross section of music fans. Those who like the space-rock Hawkwind approach to prog, those who like psychedelic tinged rock, lovers of jam-bands or improvised sounding rock will all find much to appreciate here. Electric Sorcery II is a great collection of wacky tunes sure to capture your imagination.