By Jim Rowland
Hermano, fronted by John Garcia of Kyuss, were one of the coolest purveyors of stoner/desert rock in the Noughties. Their debut album, 2002’s ‘Only A Suggestion’, is a bona fide classic of the genre. Now they’re back with new album ‘when the moon was high…’, a mixture of unreleased live recordings, plus the first new studio music from the band since 2007’s final album ‘Into The Exam Room’.
In conjunction with Ripple Music, and having gained the rights to their back catalogue, Hermano are in the midst of a remix/remaster/reissue project of their entire back catalogue – three studio albums and a live album. The first fruits of this project saw the light of day towards the end of last year, with a revamped issue of that mighty debut ‘Only A Suggestion’. It was while sifting through those tapes that some of the material here was unearthed.
In truth, it’s pushing it a bit to describe ‘when the moon was high…’ as an album. With six tracks totalling 28 minutes, a mini-album may be more accurate, and it’s far from all new material. Nevertheless, the music it does contain is classic Hermano.
Lead track ‘Breathe’ is new, and was recorded last year. Harking back to the sound of the band’s early material, it’s a belter containing all the classic Hermano traits, including the distinctive guitar work and swaggering riffs from David Angstrom and Mike Callahan. The more laid back, acoustic and spacey sounds of the album’s second track ‘Never Boulevard’ was originally tracked during an early session in 1998, with the finishing touches applied in the here and now.
Four previously unreleased live tracks make up the rest of the album, with ‘Brother Bjork’, a track from the band’s second album, released here from a performance in 2004, alongside three powerful recordings from the re-formed band’s lauded 2016 Hellfest set, including the unreleased track ‘Love’, and two incendiary renditions of songs from ‘Only A Suggestion’, namely ‘Senor Moreno’s Plan’ and the crushing ‘Manager’s Special’.
‘when the moon was high…’ is a pretty essential release for fans of Hermano’s original output, and would serve as a pretty good introduction to the band for the uninitiated, although I would recommend last year’s ‘Only A Suggestion’ reissue first if you are new to Hermano.
It looks like there’s plenty more to come in the shape of the revamped versions of the other original albums, and on the strength of ‘Breathe’ here, there’s plenty of fire in the Hermano belly should they eventually decide to hit the studio for a full on album of new material.
- ‘when the moon was high…’is out now.
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