The People’s Temple

More pretty good-to-excellent garage rock from Hozac, this time in the psychedelic, 13th Floor Elevators’ vein…Here’s my review at Dusted.

The People’s Temple
Sons of Stone
Hozac

“The People’s Temple, out of Michigan, use a lot of reverb to make their psych-droning, proto-punkish garage rock, giving nods along the way to 1960s pioneers like Love and 13th Floor Elevators. Yet the good thing, at least on most of these 14 tracks, is that they use it (and other effects) to enhance songs rather than to cover up weaknesses. There are some sketchy efforts early on, where zoom and drone attempt to obscure a thin-ness of melodic imagination (“Visions of the Sun” and “Led As One” ). “StarScreamer,” later on, is a stronger song that nearly succumbs to effects. It sounds like a plausible riff-rocker that’s been trapped in a bug zapper, buzzing and butting against the noise barrier until it finally shorts out. Still, a really superb run of songs in the second half — everything from “Axe-Man” to “Miles Away” — illustrate how the People’s Temple’s wrong-end-of-a-telescope, garage-psych sonics can work. Here, the echo, buzz and hum makes strong material sound even better.”

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“Sons of Stone”