This article was first published on Louder Than War on 16 July 2013.
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The Altered Hours recently release single Sweet Jelly Roll on Anton Newcombe’s label, A Records, and their psychedelic drone pop was too good not to share.
The air is heavy with hypnotic psych right now and the latest release from The Altered Hours, Sweet Jelly Roll, is part of that weight.
But this is not so much carefree psych for a sunny summer’s day but something more sinister creeping out of the shadows, albeit allaying any fear with a mightily catchy chorus.
Sweet Jelly Roll is swathed in vocal mist from which the alarming machine gun drum fill sounds and the organ rise and fall emerges.
Those vocals become a chant, soft but insistent, the background drone building all the time.
The band recorded the single in Berlin with Fabian Leseure and is a follow up to their self-released debut album, Downstream.
On the earlier release there is a little more rock to the pysch mix but you can certainly follow the evolution of the drone-loving band. There is an almost PotUSA twang to the spiralling guitar (although the similarity ends there, there is none of the vocal style) that keeps a note of sadness embedded in the expansive sound.
You can get yours hands on Sweet Jelly Roll – download at iTunes or order the vinyl here.
Find Altered Hours on Twitter, Facebook and Bandcamp (where you can stream the Downstream).
All words by Sarah Lay.