By Jonny Bakes
It’s no secret that I’m partial to a little bit of the old delicious booze. Hell, like most people, it’s probably one of the few things that keeps life exciting at the moment! So when I came across a band whose name is simply Boozewa, it immediately caught my attention. With a promise of two of my favourite things – bottom shelf scotch and top shelf riffs – it made sense that I should let myself get abducted away for my ‘First Contact’.
Boozewa consists of members of Pennsylvania’s Backwoods Payback, and the monstrous noise they generate is consistent with the BWPB brand for sure. ‘First Contact’ is a demo that is born out of not being able to do a whole lot else at the moment! Capitalising on a burst of creativity in spring 2020, the band used the equipment at hand to take a seriously homebrew approach to recording. The resulting demo was recorded entirely on a ‘90s four-track tape machine which adds some fuzzy edges to the music that fits perfectly with the rest of the sound.
What is that sound, you ask? Combine some catchy distorted riffs, gut-punching fuzzy basslines and clattering drum rhythms in a cocktail shaker with some ice, shake it up and pour it over some shouty vocals. Chase it with a 12 pack of beer and you’re pretty much set with the Boozewa experience. It lies on the knife-edge between doom and stoner which is a great happy medium to end up on.
My favourite track has to be the foreboding instrumental track ‘Those Who Deny the Existence of Robots, May…’. The dominating factor in this track has to be the repeating bassline and drum rhythm which is disgustingly heavy in all the right ways. This is interspersed with some decent catchy guitar melodies too to add just a touch of lightness to this relatively short instrumental clocking in at less than three minutes.
Coming into this as a Backwoods Payback virgin, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but a brief flick through their catalogue after listening to ‘First Contact’ definitely shows some strong similarities, so if you like Boozewa and can’t wait for more, then BWPB should be your next stop! This is perfect Desertfest or HRH DvS material I would say, so if either of these are festivals that you’re sorely missing at the moment, apply a bit of ointment in the form of Boozewa to ease the pain somewhat!
- ‘First Contact’ is released tomorrow (Friday 5 February). You can get your copy HERE.
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