(2017) Curanderos - Curanderos

Review: 
This EP documents a Record Store Day collaboration between the Philly drone godfathers (and godmothers) of Bardo Pond and likeminded DC/Philly space rockers of Kohoutek, stretching slow moving buzz and hum and clatter over roughly 20-minute intervals. Both cuts are named after a hallucinogenic used in Native American spirituality (“Mescalito Part One” and “Mescalito Part Two”) and the band’s name itself comes from a form of Native American shamanism that employs herbs, poultices, chants and prayers to heal ailments of the mind and body. That plus the two bands involved should give you a hint what to expect, a slow opening portal into alternate realities executed with rock instruments, deep listening and, possibly, a few mind-altering substances. 
“Mescalito Part One” feels like an acclimation chamber, where whatever expectations you have of psychedelic rock are gradually de-accelerated, taken apart, turned inside out and reconfigured. The sounds are all recognizable parts of drone rock — long, lingering guitar slashes, wavery blots of electric keyboard, pinging, whistling electronic sounds and rapturous, rupturing volleys of percussion. Yet the piece moves so glacially, so entirely without signposts or segments, that at first it’s hard to process. You follow guitar lines that move ponderously from note to note, one step up, one step down, but the spaces between are so elongated that it’s hard to keep developments in your head as a series. Your pulse slows as you start to sync with this new kind of time, the kind of time that boulders mark, perhaps, or that paces tectonic plate movement. 

Tracklist: 
1.01. Mescalito Pt.1.flac 
1.02. Mescalito Pt.2.flac 

Summary: 
Country: USA 
Genre: post-rock, psychedelic rock