Two very local groups feature as opening acts, with inner-west psych troubadours Lyyar and Dead China Doll both proving very congruous and capable supports.
Lyyar’s drummer Luke de Zilva is clearly the driving force of his group, guiding with heavy-handed beats against dirty guitars and bass. This is noisey rock with a major focus on noise and is not for the faint hearted.
Six-piece outfit Dead China Doll are a very well-seasoned group who seem to relish the quickly growing audience as they build to crescendos that are both burning and melting , over spacey, at times almost orchestral arrangements.
Both of these local groups recently featured on WHATISPSYCH. Released in late 2012 by fledgling indie label Octopus Pi, the compilation LP featured 11 hand-picked artists with a focus on Sydney’s burgeoning psychedelic scene.
The now three-piece group from San Francisco, California known as Om take to the stage amidst drones and loops of Sufi singers wailing about the room.
Frontman and bass player Al Cisneros is an imposing hulk of a figure, dwarfing his Rickenbacker and climbing up and down its neck it with a steady rocking motion that is instantly hypnotising. It’s not that his style is at all smooth, but somehow incredibly graceful, soothing and transfixing.
Emil Amos is a seriously talented percussion player, a spectacle to watch. His timing changes are almost arrogantly subtle and precise. To the eye, it’s all flailing arms, splashing cymbals around impossibly tight fills; to the ear there is constancy and transcendence. It really is something that needs to be witnessed.
The partnership of sound between Amos and Cisneros has truly blossomed into something mesmerizing and beautiful. It’s not often a crowd is treated to a looping rhythm so purely locked down, yet improvised and free. They appear as parallels and at the same time appear seamless. It’s a difficult thing to articulate.
Om’s more recent records (God Is Good and 2012’s Advaitic Songs) featured the talents of Robert A.A. Lowe. With a trance-like demeanour and almost precocious talent; Lowe compliments the group in the live setting as ably as he does in the studio, adding depth and dimension via looped vocals, tambura, percussion and guitar.
The man appears to be in a swirling trance-like state, all head-shaking and tambourine-throwing as he releases some heavily treated vocals above the vibrations of the bass.
Om is a group that needs to be heard loud. We’re talking Spinal Tap-esque “volume at 11” loud. For this reason, the set suffered a little at the hands of sound limitation compliance, and fell short of the bone-rattling nausea-inducement that normally accompanies the band’s performances.
The term ‘stoner/doom rock’ is a tag that has followed the group since their inception in 2003. Whether you subscribe to the whole ‘taking drugs to make music to take drugs to’ mantra or not, one thing becomes quickly apparent: the music itself is the drug, the gateway that transports you to the place Om want to take you.
Whilst appearing at first very rich and textured in composition, the subtle circularity and drone of the arrangements bury their way through your ears into your mind. This is a loop-heavy, effect-heavy, group meditation session but with beer being served.
As the house lights are switched on, the audience appears bleary eyed, almost as if emerging from a vacuum. This is a group of people aware of their surroundings, but struggling to grasp that a couple of hours have passed as if lost down the rabbit hole; this is a group of people who have just learned the meaning of Om.
