Sunburned Hand Of The Man – ‘Headless’ (2020)
The suntanned band with the sunburned hands returns with another frolicking set of mind-melting synapse fryers, sure to please their legion of psychonauts.
Across their too-numerous-to-count releases (numbers range in the 30s) and a revolving door membership that tops 50, the SHOT Man have evolved into an amorphous, organic vibefest of oozing gurgles, mellow yellow meanderings, occasional reggae grooves, and festival-styled improvisational jamming that beckons in the direction of like-minded astral navigators like Ozric Tentacles, Magic Mushroom Band, Astralasia, et. al, with a Jackie-O Motherfucker and Acid Mothers Temple nod dropping in for an occasional puff or three.
Songs aren’t so much “composed” as “happen”, with a chord or note here and there tripping into an extended detour into…well, wherever the groove takes them…and their audience. Opening saunter ‘Prism Mirror Lens’ morphs into the bubble-icious gurgle of ‘Experements’ before things settle down into the extended string bender, ‘Born Clever.’ ‘The Great Hope’ wakes up the neighbours with some brain-steaming riffage, as does the synth-inflected Sabbathian sludge of ‘Coffee and Cheese’.
‘Unsustainable’ certainly doesn’t refer to the listener’s buzz, as this Eastern-tinged dreamscape is perfectly suited for inner exploration and navel-gazing until…your brain is set for the heart-thumping ‘Agitation Cycle’ to scramble up the grey matter a bit! A little banjo picking jousts with a fuzzy slide to determine who is ‘The Most Relevant’ and ‘Framework’ leaves us in a herky-jerky haze of nitrous oxide, closing another essential release to add to the other hundred!
Sunburned Hand Of The Man – Headless (Cardinal Fuzz and Manhand) (Release Date 28th Feb 2020)
