Though they’ve been a persistent fixture on Melbourne’s psychedelic scene for a good number of years, Buried Feather have flown more or less under the radar.
Too sludgy for Brian Jonestown Massacre imitators, too mellow for Nuggets revivalists, theirs is a psychedelia which weighs far more heavily on groove and tone.
This self-titled debut follows a short-lived EP and 7” inch single, meaning Buried Feather have made the most of a limited output. Despite their penchant for lengthy, hypnotic jams, their debut album clocks in at just over 37 minutes, with closer attention payed to atmosphere and terseness rather than the fuzz-soaked guitar squalls which have seen them draw close comparisons to Dead Meadow and Wooden Shjips.
With its motoric drum and bass, album opener ‘Plates’ could very well have been dialled up to ten from the get go. Instead the song hypnotically shuffles forward, adorning itself with familiar psychedelic tropes; moog gurgles, slap-back delay vocals and meandering fuzz breaks, until guitarist/vocalist Steve McLennan ponders “maybe we’ll fall into the sea”, dragging the entire song underwater with him.
On both ‘Sink to the Bottom’ and ‘Magnetized’ Buried Feather shy away from using their riffs as sledgehammers, and the songs are all the better for it, with Jim Grimwade’s meandering bass throughout ‘Magnetized’ become the centrepiece.
On ‘Weekends’ they’re happier to turn their fuzz into a wall of sound, and it almost renders the song overblown if they didn’t temper it with some obtuse synth refrains. ‘In The Sun’ is the album’s energetic core, with McLennan lifting his voice out of a whisper for the first time. The vocal melody of ‘Drowning Man’ recalls Paul Kelly’s ‘Dumb Things’, of all things, while album closer ‘Maybe’ is so pleasant it comes off almost as a lullaby.
In their quest for a singular mood, Buried Feather have succeeded in creating a concise debut album. Filled with a myriad of synth textures, skittering beats, fuzz-licked lead breaks and McLennan’s enticing whisper; though some riffs will have you slightly more entranced than others, the album flows along as a single trip, and it’s one you’ll be happy to go on.
