| Outrageous Cherry Supernatural Equinox (Rainbow Quartz) | ||
| I don’t think they
have ever met, but the O.C.’s Matthew Smith and Art from above are kindred
spirits. They both have an appreciation of sweet, mid-‘60s British Pop-Rock
and the deep, extended noise and roll of the end of that decade. This album
finds Smith and Co. nicely recovering from the waywardness of The Book Of
Spectral Projections. Laid out across these thirteen tracks (51 minutes)
is a retelling of the above travelogue. The album starts and stops in the realm of Psych. "Girl You Have Magic Inside" mixes in backward masking and treated guitars to help form its mid-tempo, Soft Boys-like pop tune. While "See You Next Time" is an almost eight minute extension of the same. In-between you get a 2’40" efx powered instrumental "The Orgone Vortex" which features a game of tag between Smith’s and Larry Ray’s guitars. The cleaner, relatively (everything is still dipped in Smith omnipresent echo), Pop-Rock portion includes the harmony vocalized, semi-rocker "A Song for Someone Sometimes;" the truly succulent, instantly memorable "This Evening" with the perfect touch of a tambourine and a bit of handclaps; and the piano led, mid-tempo, ballad "See Through Everything" with Smith’s double-tracked, aspiring vocals carrying it’s haunting melody. Smith and Co. make it seem so damn easy, but you’ll have to search far to find its like today. (10/02) David M. Snyder
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