FAR OUT

2014 was a very productive year for the Portuguese Psychedelic Rock band Black Bombaim, since they release two really great albums: Far Out and a Krautrock flavoured collaboration with La La La Ressonance.

Far Out contains two side-long intrumental jams, just like they have been doing before. These are called "Africa II" and "Arabia" so it's easy to imagine the landscapes the band is trying to convey.

"Africa II" immediately starts with Senra's vibrant drum beat along with Tojo's great bass line and Ricardo's lazy fuzz guitar riffs. The image of an African savanna in a hot afternoon comes to mind. The intensity of the trip is gradually growing and there are some boiling guitar solos. There's a sense of danger like being chased by a cheetah! At the 5 minute mark we get to a safe place: the bass gets even cooler and a clean electric guitar joins the fuzzy one. After a couple of minutes, Rodrigo Amado on saxophone appears and the mood becomes festive, the cover of Herbie Hancock's Sextant comes to mind. The tension slowly increases again just like before, until all hell breaks loose. The saxophone is uncontrolable and the guitars soon follow it, like a group of angry elephants stomping everything in their path.

"Arabia" starts with an infectious bass lick (it sometimes gets stuck in my head for hours) and some basic wah-wah guitar which evolves into a fantastic solo. The playground is set for Senra who seems to conduct the song, constantly changing intensity and patterns. On this one, I imagine a plane flying low over the desert on a hot sunny day. At around 6 minutes there's another guest, Luís Fernandes (The Astroboy, also on this site) on modular synth to add some needed spaciness for a while. The song becomes much slower and heavier a few minutes later, the plane landed somewhere to replenish. The powerful bass announces the departure, under stormy weather this time, as the synths suggest. The guitar sounds nervous and then relieved when the synth stops, the pilot survived the storm.

Summing up, Far Out is truly addictive and powerful enough to set the thermometer to scorching temperatures!

5 stars