I was recently offered the chance to review the exciting debut album “Telescopic” of Irish band This Other Kingdom, and I have to say I have really enjoyed listening to it and dipping my toe into the water of new sounds. I was surprised at this because usually, a lot of psychedelic music isn’t my thing. There is something about this album I cannot quite put my finger on though, a strange, special kind of groove.
It’s weird.
I found myself first sort of turning my nose up at them but that was only the beginning then I began to fall deep under their hypnotic musical spell, bopping my head subconsciously, hopelessly lost in their irresistible rhythm and charm.
This Other Kingdom is a Dublin 4-piece band made up of Del Kerton, Declan Dunne, Fran Mulholland and Chris Sweeney and between them make interesting layers of psychedelic sounds with sonic pedaled guitar, strong commanding bass lines and powerful vocals.
In the album, “Telescopic”, the music definitely fits perfectly under the neo-psychedelic category, it fits perfectly while at the same time, their sound is quite unique, I cannot put my finger on why though.
“Telescopic” creates a beautiful bold sound built up of immense vocals and smooth and groovy riffs. As I said earlier, psychedelic music isn’t my thing but honestly, after listening to this album and material I went through as research, I am quite prepared to jump aboard the trippy bandwagon at this point.
Having said all this, “Telescopic” is by no means perfect. I don’t feel “Telescopic” is the type of album I personally could listen to from start to finish. I think that more diversity in the tracks would have been appreciated, the tracks didn’t feel like the same song on repeat, far from it, but in some cases they didn’t really feel all too different and I think more experimentation with sounds and styles would have helped the album greatly. With respect this is only their first album and I hope and feel this is something they can iron out as they grow as a band. As I said, not all the tracks on this album fall under that issue and the album caters to some absolutely outstanding pieces, hidden gems that stand out magnificently from the rest.
My favorite song on the album is “Vacate the Horror”. It has strong and powerful lyrics, dark interesting riffs and alluring mysterious vocals. I honestly believe it is the highlight of the album and shows how much potential this band has. It is well written, well preformed and dipped in reverb. It creates a strange, dangerous feeling of controlled chaos and uncertainty, like the walls are about to cave in. Other outstanding songs from this album include the super catchy “Plasticine Dreams”, the upbeat and somewhat jolly “He Controls The Sea”, and the deep and slightly heavier “Red Balloon”. A delightful balance, these are the type of songs this album certainly needed more of.
Although I enjoyed the album as a whole, it never really felt like a journey until the last song,“Rewind//Refind”. This song created a weirdly nostalgic tone to me but it had balls, it was strong and it felt like the end of a chapter for the band and the sheer splendor of the track made me feel like the climax was still to come and it was a very impressive close to the album. I would really love to see these guys play live. This sound in a live environment would be absolutely amazing.
As I said above, the album is not one I could listen to start to finish. This does not stop me enjoy the absolutely kick ass songs on this album that really show off what this band is made of. This Other Kingdom make music that is by no means for everyone, but for fans of the neo-psychedelic genre or people just exploring it, this album, for the most part, is a treat.
I feel with more time to fine tune and develop their own unique signature style and sound song by song this band may just have the potential to find massive success and this album is a fantastic leap in that direction.
Follow This Other Kingdom on Facebook, BandCamp and Twitter. “Telescopic” is set for digital release 11th April.
