by JOHNSON CUMMINS

The Suoni Per il Popolo festival at Casa and Sala continues until June 25, and so far, I’ve made it down for the heavy psych night on June 4. The bill featured the two monsters on the stellar Holy Mountain label, Mammatus and Residual Echoes, with Chicago’s Plastic Crimewave Sound. Unfortunately, the show happened the same night as King Khan & the Shrines, which easily eclipsed the Suoni show as far as attendance goes.

Despite the thin turn-out, Mammatus hit the stage, set their controls for the heart of the sun, and literally tore my face off. This four-piece from Corralitos, California were oblivious to the lack of people and freaked—way the fuck out! The Sabbath beatdown was peppered with the obligatory Hawkwind oscillations, but before any easy comparisons to tired stoner rock could be made, they took turns into the doomy drones of Sunn O))) and Sleep, Acid Mothers Temple’s sense of abandon, Melvins-level pummelling (this drummer could easily give Dale Crover a run for his money), Can’s hypnotic grooves and King Crimson-coloured proggy sections.

The act was largely instrumental, though occasional delayed vocals did show up every now and again, enhancing the trip, but it was definitely all about the riffs. Just fucking amazing—in fact, the best show I have seen this year, bar none. If you are into heavy psych, redeem yourself now and go to www.mammatus.org, or better yet, run out and get their debut out now on Holy Mountain. The good dudes at Mandatory Moustache have promised they will have the band back soon, so keep an eye here.

Next up were Mammatus label-mates Residual Echoes with a decidedly more rock ’n’ roll sound. They managed to hit some highlights, but frankly, the pulverizing power of Mammatus just couldn’t be followed. The vocals were pretty weak, but they did manage to make up for it with psychedelic freak-out jams that had more to do with Thurston and Lee than Captain Trips. At their best they managed to sound like a poor man’s Comets on Fire. What can I say, I was still reeling from Mammatus. At one point, the singer asked the small crowd if they wanted to hear a short boring song or a long boring song—’nuff said. Note to the band: buy some tuners!

Plastic Crimewave Sound finished off the night, and were somewhat interesting as they had a cool, minimalist drum set up, forcing the drummer to play like Maureen Tucker—which suited their two-note freak-outs just fine. Kind of like a crossing of the Velvets with Can, served up with a heaping helping of Big Black sonic assault. Not bad, but again, nothing to write home about. The highlight of their show was the lead guitarist wrestling with his tuning throughout the set.

At the end, when the rest of the band put down their instruments and left the stage, signifying that the fat lady had indeed sung, he finally gets perfectly in tune, looks across at the vacant stage and then puts his perfectly tuned guitar down against an amp. It was like Spinal Tap’s Derek Smalls finally getting out of the pod.

MAMMATUS! jonathan.cummins@gmail.com

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