As
Abraxas, Danny Lee Blackwell of
Night Beats and former
Los Bitchos guitarist Carolina Faruolo pool their skills on a selection of songs that bridge the gap between gritty garage rock and swirling psychedelia underpinned by thrumming Latin rhythms and enough bottomless reverb to make
Lee Perry blush. The duo traveled the world with stops in the Middle East and Turkey in search of the prefect riff, and
Monte Carlo is the near-brilliant result of their efforts. The pair use every trick they've picked up along the way, borrow from every style they've ever loved, and whip their influences into something that sounds like a bunch of styles all at once, but mostly like
Abraxas in the end. Case in point: the loping title track. It melds a poky cowboy beat and wild west guitars with hypnotic synth loops, tosses mystical chants and tribal drums against Blackwell's sneering vocals and Faroulo's dramatic wail, then adds some vintage organ for seasoning. Good luck figuring out what genre it falls under other than really good, super psychedelic music that scrambles the senses while delivering a jolt of vibrating sunshine to the cortex. Song after song pulls off this neat trick, sometimes with a heavier guitar attack as on "La Estampida," where it sounds like there are about ten different people fighting for center stage or with a poppier bent as on "Hourglass," a sneaky song that sounds like a mashup between the
13th Floor Elevators and
the Shangri-Las nobody knew they needed until now. Throw in a pulsing, hot-blooded desert disco track ("Fuji") that is sure to beat the midnight chill, a rambling psycho-Latin groove that could stretch to twice as long and never wear out its welcome ("Mañana") and plenty of strutting guitar flash, and
Monte Carlo ends up being a surprise treat. File alongside
Altin Gun or
King Gizzard on the kitchen sink psych shelf, pull it out the next time a room full of music snobs needs baffling, or hit play and then repeat on a long car trip with the windows cranked down -- the team of Blackwell and Faroulo has what it takes to cover these situations. ~ Tim Sendra