ninehertz

Mirages is out on Echodelick Records, so (a) I was always going to listen to it despite not knowing the band and (b) it was likely to be excellent. The rules hold true still. Tijuana Taxi – from Toronto, not Mexico (that’s a hefty cab fare) – are the latest band that I’m grateful to the label for bringing to my attention.

It begins with Wander/Mirages and the most laid-back of psych, a shimmering haze of low-lying guitars that shuffles through your consciousness. This is shattered and you are awoken by a fuzz laden burst, a gorgeous stoner sound. Although the pace and intent provides a contrast from the beginning, the desert fried overarching atmosphere is consistent and warming.

It flitters and flies through these two states across the album, a hazy journey across desert and the cosmos, depending on how you perceive it. Occasional beats reach out through its cloud; dreamy vocals add to the mood. The smoky atmosphere sometimes becomes denser, the light refracted and playing tricks through its vapours.

Some tracks simply meld into others, pass you by, but not as a negative – more that it melts into one. There are some passages which vary and point your concentration – where it heads more to indie post-rock, the odd clattering noisy interlude, even rarer nudges into grunge. It helps in keeping you involved in what is a relatively long album with its eleven songs.

The final track, Erasure (January) is its longest and takes us out on a high; melodic, melancholic, gentle beauty in its shoegaze opening, it gets louder halfway for a rousing ending. It deservedly ends this album of dream psych and stoner with you in good spirits.