On their two previous outings, Los Angeles-based power trio Dommengang traced the lines of '70s blues rock and psychedelic sludge. Fine as they were, both long-players (though somewhat different from one another) reflected the group's influences rather than their musical identity. 2015's Everybody's Boogie was wrapped in the roadhouse biker strut of Canned Heat, early ZZ Top, and the free-form spiraling psych of Hawkwind. 2018's Love Jail was somewhat tighter structurally, drenched in the acid blues grooves explored by Earthless, Endless Boogie, and Samsara Blues Experiment. By contrast, No Keys ups the ante. While Dommengang still draw abundantly from the deep well of hard rock and psych, their move to Los Angeles from Brooklyn facilitated real growth in the songwriting and in developing a dynamic, trippy sound of their own.
Recorded live in studio with longtime engineer-guitarist Tim Green (Joanna Newsom, Howlin' Rain, Golden Void), No Keys is an album of sonic and textural contrasts that collides with, as well as complements, an expansive compositional acumen. Opener "Sunny Day Flooding" charges out of the gate with careening guitar and boatloads of reverb from Dan "Sig" Wilson, as the rhythm section of bassist Brian Markham and drummer Adam Bulgasem goad him into uptempo stop-and-start changes, cascading riffs, and screaming lead fills adorned by wailing vocals and a tight, catchy chorus and bridge. It's followed by "Earth Blues." Framed by breezy West Coast vocal harmonies, the mix squalls with guitar feedback, thrumming tom-toms, and a hypnotic, leaden bassline. "Wild Wash" is back to screaming, fast, post-psych riddled with distorted bass and blues vamps, wah-wah, and a drumkit playing a nightmarish groove to accent trancey vocals. "Stir the Sea" borrows its minimal bassline from Ted Nugent's "Stranglehold" as it careens into inner space with droning vocals, rolling drums, and loud, dirge-like six-strings playing bluesy dual leads. While "Blues Rot" is just a sludgy, psychotic interlude at less than two minutes, it opens the door to the choogling "Kudzu," which forces its way in with a vocal hook and sweet harmonies, even as it wrangles free and channels the red freakout zone instrumentally. The set’s longest tune is the beautifully constructed "Arcularius/Burke." It floats into existence as bass and guitar play twin lines hinting at blues, even as snare and cymbals shuffle. Before long, they all evolve toward psych blues and travel the improvisational spaceways. "Jerusalem Cricket" features Golden Void's Camilla Saufly-Mitchell on harmony vocals. The tune's structure walks a tightrope between heavy, sprawling, sunshine psychedelia and hooky West Coast country rock. Closer "Happy Death" is subtitled "Her Blues II" after the original on Everybody's Boogie. It's an elegy, a paean to loss, as the presence of ghosts usher in feelings of unresolved grief, with guest Adam Parks' wafting organ underscoring the silvery, nocturnal blues rock at its core. As promising as Dommengang's first two albums were, No Keys, with its dark, swirling emotions, layered sound, and canny songwriting, stands head and shoulders above them in both imagination and execution.