On their second album,
Strength of Spring
,
Grave Flowers Bongo Band
dive headfirst into heavy psychedelia with pedals blazing. Their initial recordings delved into the acoustic aspects of psych, but here
Gabe Flores
cranks his guitar up to ten and goes off in search of the perfect riff. He soars over the rambling rhythm tracks gracefully, sometimes floating like he's weightless, sometimes stinging like an angry hornet, while always providing much Manna for guitar freaks. The songs are also plenty melodic, even when they head out into the wild blue. There's a sturdy bit of
Marc Bolan
-esque songcraft underpinning most of the album with songs that have a swaggering groove ("Smile"), elfin charm ("Down Man"), sunny melodies ("Tomorrow"), and wall-shaking riffs ("Animal Lord"). The latter give a pretty good approximation of what
Black Sabbath
might have sounded like with
Bolan
as a frontman. A few of the other tracks answer the question of what would have happened if
T. Rex
went fully funk-prog ("Outer Bongolia") or delved into some cosmic space blues ("Sleepy Eyes"). This may sound kind of similar to other acts working a similar seam of neo-psych gold, but a couple things set
Grave Flowers
apart from the pack. One is the acoustic guitar that forms the jangling foundation of most of the songs and gives a light and breezy feel to them even when the amps are clipping. The other success factor is the skill with which
Flores
dishes out the riffs and solos. His tone is monstrous and he never strays into indulgence. Every note and noise refers back to the song and the band presents a fully rounded package of freaked-out sounds and sticky psych pop. The neo-psych class of 2021 is full to bursting, but thanks to
are seated right up near the front. ~ Tim Sendra