Release Date: August 25th 2023. Record Label: Riot Season Records. Formats: DD/Vinyl
MARS: Tracklisting
1.Voiceless Cry 15:02
2.Transcendentem
3.Metagalactic
4.Universum 07:30
5.Aether
Members
Tomoyuki Aoki
Mike Vest
Dave Sneddon
Review:
Mars is the debut album from TOMOYUKI TRIO who are an Psych/Noise/Space Rock band featuring Tomoyuki Aoki, Mike Vest and Dave Sneddon. Tomoyuki Aoki is the founding member and lead guitarist of visionary Japanese Psych Rockers UP-TIGHT and sees him joined along this crazy distorted voyage with the UK’s very own warped Psych musicians of Mike Vest and Dave Sneddon.
Mars is quite a freaky and aggressive album to listen to with the band's use of different sounding areas of Psych Rock. TOMOYUKI TRIO play high levels of Distorted grooves that’s played mostly through Guitar Reverb and seedy Psychedelic jams. The vocals from Tomoyuki have a drone-ish quality to them which you can hear within the epic opening track Voiceless Cry.
Voiceless Cry is played at a subtle slow pace with TOMOYUKI TRIO powering through a ton of guitar feedback to deliver their heavy and unsettling tone. The song is quite progressive when the deafening levels of Amplifier DIstortion is played against the long droned out sounds of Aoki’s intense guitar playing. The sound of the album is quite surreal even with it’s bleak psychedelic grooves that make you feel you’re strapped to a rocket launching into space. It can be quite deafening in places but still wholly addictive in its own right.
Second song Transcendentem is a more straightforward track when compared to the original. This track has traces of a Jazz based attitude within the guitars. The song does take time to fully get going and to find its own voice. However, the instrumental work is sublime with some richly observed fuzzy guitars and wicked drumming moving into a more experimental style of Psyched Out Space Rock. TOMOYUKI TRIO adds parts of guitar reverb on multiple levels of distorted feedback for a song that ultimately ends up becoming one of the album's standout tracks.
Third song Metagalactic is where a more Doom/Stoner based sound suddenly appears and the song sees TOMOYUKI TRIO play a more expansive style of Psychedelic Rock. There’s also a more aggressive approach to the album with the music becoming slightly faster. The different levels of guitar reverb and feedback is consistently heavy and features multiple levels of heaviness for the band to play against. The mood can be uneven and slightly chaotic but that’s one of the main highlights for this album.
The final two songs of Universum and Aether continue with the Psychedelic Rock trajectory with a more outlandish attitude from the entire band. The music is expertly played and delivered by everyone involved as TOMOYUKI TRIO aim BIG with MARS and they ultimately deliver a thrilling Psychedelic Space Rock spectacle where I’m hoping this creative journey continues with more spellbinding albums such as this.
Words by Steve Howe
Thanks to Mike Vest and Riot Season Records for the promo.
MARS will be available to buy on DD/Vinyl via Riot Season Records from August 25th 2023.
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