Release Date: June 21st 2024. Record Label: Low&Slow.Disk. Formats: Cassette/CD/DD/Vinyl
Mojave Green: Tracklisting
1. YEA 24M (Cosmic Bash) 05:13
2. Yao Tsu (Infinity Landing) 16:24 (/yah-oh tsoo/)
3. Mojave Green 09:54
4. Bowl of Shala 06:05
5. Grandon the Stone Cutter (OG ver.) 07:33
Members
Sven Shah also played guitar, made other funny noises, visual art and additional recordings, conjured riffs, and scribbled words and voiced them.
Chihiro (/chee-hero/) played drums and other percussion, made artwork, and generally called the shots as executive producer.
Yoshihiro (/yo-she-hero/) Yasui (/yah-soo-ee/) played whatever he wanted on bass guitar, and inspired with cause for pause.
Review
Japanese Psych/Desert/Stoner Rockers Blasting Rod return within their new album Mojave Green which is a continuation of their style of Freak-ish extended instrumental jams that builds into a wild and vivid collection of fuzzy Psychedelic sounds. This style of music has become the main focus throughout the bands lengthy career that goes as far back as 2006 and across multiple different releases. Their last couple of albums (2022’s Of Wild Hazel and 2021’s III) have impressed me with the sheer technical ability and original improvisation the band includes within their music.
Blasting Rod can be quite hard to categorize and Mojave Green is no different with wild FUZZ ROCK sounds and Middle Eastern Trippy elements that have quite a TANTRIC effect on the more mellower and droned out aspects of the album. The music is mostly powered by catchy and aggressive Desert Rock/Stoner Rock grooves with the band perhaps adapting to a more cerebral and experimental creative attitude when things become dominated by distorted guitars on certain parts of the album. With catchy aggressive feedback loops that decimate the Psychedelic landscape especially on the epic second track of Yao Tsu (Infinity Landing) which brings a whole different level of weirdness especially when compared to the normal sounding Stoner Rock swagger of the excellent opening track of YEA 24M (Cosmic Bash).
Blasting Rod are quite different to other bands from the Japanese Desert/Stoner Rock scene with their music being more experimental and adventurous especially within the sludgier edges on the heaviest parts of the album. Though, there’s still some classic riffs that follow the Stoner Rock rulebook from time to time before exploring other musical avenues when the Middle Eastern musical fully takes over.
Third track Mojave Green takes a similar lead to the previous track Yao Tsu (Infinity Landing) with vocals appearing whenever they’re needed. The music has a more free-form expression with Blasting Rod adding moments of Noise Rock, Punk Rock and Sludge Rock for another round of surreal heaviness that can be described as EARTHLESS being consumed by an evil spirit for a bleak slice of Desert Rock that has epic moments of SONIC manipulation added for the sheer hell of it all.
The final two tracks Bowl Of Shala and Grandon the Stone Cutter (OG ver.) both offer a more straightforward and less confrontational style of music that sees Blasting Rod still bring a DEVILISH and DISTORTED approach to their music. The sludgy guitars and intense jazzy rhythms are some of my favourite parts of the whole album.
Mojave Green is a STONER ROCK and WEEDIAN album through and through but delivered with it’s own unique style that will take your BODY, MIND and SOUL into the twisted FUZZIER depths of Psychedelic Rock you won’t forget in a long time.
Words by Steve Howe
Thanks to Low&Slow.Disk and Blasting Rod for the promo.
Mojave Green will be available to buy on Cassette/CD/DD/Vinyl from all good stockists on Friday 21st June 2024 via Low&Slow.Disk.
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