Album Review: The Band Whose Name Is A Symbol – ‘Masters Of The Mole Hill’

‘Masters of the Mole Hill‘ is the 9th LP by TBWNIAS – The Band Whose Name Is A Symbol, perhaps Cana-duh’s best kept secret.

Last year’s ‘Pathfinder’ opus, introduced to the baying UK pack by Cardinal Fuzz, rightly left the uninitiated salivating for more – ‘Masters of the Mole Hill’ consummates that fevered tryst.

‘Masters of the Mole Hill’ credits, John Westhaver – Drums and Percussion, Dave Reford – Electric Guitar and Effects, Nathaniel Hurlow – Electric Bass, Bill Guerrero – Electric Guitar, Flecton Big Sky – Electric Guitar and Jason Vaughan – Keyboards and Electronics.

‘Underworld Traveller’, shape-shifts into sequential focus, a tinkering, elfin fine tuning within Persephone’s realm, at midway, unleashing a strident purgatorial challenge, transformative mastery ensues, the daemon usurped to beneficent end; ‘Ballslapper’, the title perhaps suggestive of the track’s pervasive, driving, balls out swagger, a dynamically relentless, up tempo, cadenced workout; ‘When Darkness Falls’, intones loping, lugubrious basslines, acquiescing to an impassioned, cacophonous, blazing starburst, a collapsing, absorptive, clawing event horizon; ‘Lady Mary’, casts her voodoo spell, a richly interwoven textural delight, a meandering asymmetrical tableau; ‘You Doo Wrong’, is a homage to CAN‘s 1969 epic, ‘You Doo Right’ – a 20 minute odyssey trimmed from it’s original 6 hour improv, here the 5 minute conception resonates with motorik, krautrock transcendentalism…

‘God II’, takes it’s cue from 70’s Aussie stalwarts, Coloured Balls‘ 1973 ‘G.O.D’ or Guitar Over Dose/Drive, here the 16 minute original smoulders with rejuvenated revere, Lobby Loyde’s enduring idiosyncratic legacy, pulsatingly and lovingly reimagined; ‘Ice Rings Of Saturn’, displays a graceful delicacy, a gently pirouetting annular disc, an evolving lackadaisical orbiting whimsy, an enveloping, multi layered electronic ambience, conveying renewal through a kaleidoscopic festival of light, all willing passengers aboard this regal, solar kosmichological boat…

TBWNIAS have again crafted a mesmeric chef-d’oeuvre, theirs is a relaxed frisson – generated by bandmates clearly comfortable flexing and taxing their collective, unassuming skin, these Odawa traders excel at putting the hex into sextet.

‘Masters of the Mole Hill’ is released on vinyl on the Birdman Sound Records label in Canada and through Cardinal Fuzz in the UK, it comes in a limited edition pressing of 350 copies with screen-printed sleeve and insert.

The record was mastered by Dead Sea Apes drummer Chris Hardman and the album sleeve cover art is by Jeff McLennan.