England’s Lunar Dunes take a refreshingly familiar direction by playing new progressive rock on (what sounds like) vintage gear. From Above opens with a hypnotizing title-track that borrows from Can’s experimental textures and improvisational risk-taking, while infusing the angular grooves of Ozric Tentacles to create their own intelligent psychedelia. The following instrumental “As Below” explores time-signature manipulation and guitar-pitch-shifting over a steady meat-and-potatoes rhythm before “Herzegovina (Interpolating Le Petit Chevalier)” grooves on stuttered rhythms that contrast against the airy undulations of melodic jazz guitar. Making good on its title, “Loophole” lays down a foundation of subtle dance grooves before looping Mellotron woodwind patches, jazzy vibes, and the warm tones of gently crumbling guitar distortion. “My Lagan Love” is the album’s downplayed epic spanning nine-and-a-half minutes of relaxing, multi-textured, ambient soul-searching.
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