ninehertz

Litania promise something a little different, what they term “Hindustan psych”, a combination of doom and Indian music blended together, a multi-instrumental Italian/Serbian collective who’s self-titled album is out on two respected labels in Heavy Psych Sounds and Subsound.

The first track, Manasi Devi, is as described but more impressive than imagined. After the first few seconds which sound just like Elephant Tree’s first ever song Attack of the Altaica, Litania's obvious individuality rises to take centre stage, the non-standard instrumentation – harmonium here for example – broadening the sound. There are Eastern European folk sounds in amongst the proto-doom to begin, later travelling further east to India aided by sitar.

What quickly becomes clear, and present across the whole album, is that whilst Litania aim for the mystical and exotic through Indian ragas and instrumentational divergence from the norm, is that they retain a doom credibility and heaviness. It is key to why the album has landed with me so well – the description might lead to thoughts of blissed out psych or world music drones, yet they do honour the doom statement wholeheartedly.

It leads to wild moments of the magical and powerful, songs that are potent concoctions. The Indian vocal styles sit comfortably with fuzzy garage guitars or crunching riffs, the wider range of percussive instruments crossing the divide. It creates hypnotic shapes whilst grounding you with its heft. It would be easy to underestimate the scale and impact of both sides of the equation – the fuzz-gritted doom in the deep grooves amongst the more fantastical imagery conjured by the Indian influence laying colourfully to its side. More so, its cohesion is unquestionable.

I had high hopes for a transportational, meditative doom drone Om type experience here, which was completely fulfilled, but what I hadn’t considered was that it would be a fine doom rock album in its own right, combined and twisted together to create a truly mystical and vibrant record.