Masters Of Reality – ‘Pine/Cross Dover’ (Brownhouse)
CD Reviews
Written by Johnny H
Wednesday, 23 September 2009 17:18
Stoner/Desert/Acid Rock label it whatever you will, Chris Goss is back and he’s reinventing the wheel of rock all over again with his latest opus ‘Pine/Cross Dover’.
Having spent huge chunks of his musical career since the epoch making self titled Masters of Reality album flitting between producer and musician its with a very welcome to the latter this time around, and boy is this one hell of a musical journey of discovery.
Split into two segments ‘Pine’ and ‘Cross Dover’, this album is the sound of a creative genius doing what he loves and does best, and leaving his contemporaries scratching their collective goatee beards wondering just how they can follow this.
‘Pine’ gets things underway with some of the best songs Queens of The Stone Age never wrote in the shape of ‘King Richard TLH’ and ‘Always’, whilst stretching your imagination through tracks like ‘Johnny’s Dream’ and ‘Worm in Silk’ which take you the listener outside of your usual comfort zones into the multicoloured musical tapestries that Mr Goss likes to paint.
‘Cross Dover’ is more of the same mix of down right stomping rock music and musical conundrums that you have to mentally unwind, ‘VP In It’ and ‘Dreamtime Stomp’ getting things off to a cracking start, the latter sounding like the twisted soundtrack of Ian Hunter fucking Kings of Leon whilst dreaming of Syd Barrett era Pink Floyd, and somehow managing to sound all the more original for it. ‘Rosie’s Presence’ is T Rex if he had been born in Texas, whilst ‘Testify to Love’ tips its hat to the omnipresence of Jim Morrison and the Summer of Love with a chorus that echoes in your brain long after you’ve put this album down.
Album closer ‘Alfalfa’ is really of another planet, and I’m not even going to try and describe this twelve minute plus exploration of time and space, lets just say that overall a challenging or more self rewarding album you’ll not find this year.
Will everyone like it? Nah, this isn’t music for everyone, it’s for people like you and me.
Catch Masters of Reality when they play a series of rare live European shows this October, and tell Chris Goss ‘Uber Rock sent you’.