Wednesday 30 November 2016

Tumbleweed Dealer - TDIII - Tokes, Hatred & Caffeine (Album Review)


Release date: November 21st 2016. Label: Self Released. Format: DD

TDIII - Tokes, Hatred & Caffeine – Tracklisting

1.The Carnage Cosmic 01:33
2.Blue Crystalline Method (Minus Line O.D.) 02:16
3.Days Gone High 03:39
4.Widow's Weeds (From Spring To Mid-Autumn) 03:54
5.A Slowly Moving Cloud Of Vaporized Flesh 02:25
6.Bongwater Creek 03:45
7.Redneck Car Chase 03:29
8.Saloon Fight 04:08
9.Stung Into A Blissful Coma By A Swarm Of Heroin Filled Bees 03:32
10.Never Sober Again 02:58
11.First A Staredown, Then A Shootout 04:07
12.Voodoo Haze 03:36

Band Members:

Seb Painchaud - Guitars, Bass
Jean-Francois Richard - Drums
Jean-Baptiste Joubaud - Recording, Mix
Tom Waltz - Mastering
Alexandre Goulet - Visual Director

Review:

Tumbleweed Dealer’s third album – TDIII - Tokes, Hatred & Caffeine, sees the band opt for a more progressive and jazz rock feel compared to their previous albums. The band still exposes you to their familiar style of Doom/Psych/Stoner riffs with a Western soundtrack sensibility. It’s not their most assessable record but it can be classed as their most creative.

Opening track – The Cosmic Carnage – opens with a jazzy space rock interlude with some intelligent instrumental work leading the way. It only lasts ninety seconds or so but the band make clever use of that time with different layers of prog stoner based noise. It’s not as heavy as I would have liked but it’s a very compelling piece of instrumental rock.

Second track – Blue Crystalline Method (Minus Line O.D.) – is a heavier affair and one that long-time fans will enjoy the most. As Tumbleweed Dealer weave an intriguing concept with the proggish rhythms taking a backseat to the heavier spaced out sounds. The album starts offering brief glimpses into the bands earlier doomier sound.

Third track – Days Gone High – has a more direct approach with the riffs being played at a subtle pace. The instrumental work is once again restrained with brief moments of heavy psych rock bursting to become part of the action. There is a beautifully played acoustic guitar solo that sees the album starting to add a more western feel to the album.

Fourth track – Widow’s Weeds (From Spring To Mid-Autumn) carries on the western sounding vibes for one of the albums finest tracks. Tumbleweed Dealer plays a few different styles of music on this album. The album won’t appeal to everyone as Tumbleweed Dealer experiment with their sound throughout the album. It’s a very different album to their other albums and it’s not quite as heavy that you would expect. Though the more I listen to this album, the more I begin to fully understand and appreciate it that little bit more.

Songs such as Redneck Car Chase, Saloon Fight and Voodoo Haze do show the band’s sense of humour with the song titles. TDIII - Tokes, Hatred & Caffeine is a genuinely exciting album that proves why Tumbleweed Dealer are perhaps the one of the more creative Instrumental Stoner Rock bands currently out there today. It may not offer the same thrills and heavier riffs to their previous albums but this is still a great album to fully experience.

Words by Steve Howe

Links:

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