ninehertz

Neither morbid nor miserable, this new release from Goldfish Kaseem is somewhat of a change from the Morbid & Miserable label we’ve come to love so much. What is consistent however is how they have (alongside Saturn Eye Records) unearthed for us all an excellent record we’re grateful to them for bringing to our attention.

Rising out of the Portuguese psych scene, Goldfish Kaseem make an immediate impression, with the fourteen minutes of the mightily titled The Master Built Walls, We Brought Them Down. It has a long and ultra-chilled lead in of twinkling guitar tinkering and cosmic noises, where vocals only arrive after five minutes into a gorgeous psychedelic atmosphere. The pace is tempered to extract a fully tripped out state, achieving that mission with ease and plenty of time to spare. It picks up pace a few minutes later, into a 70s bluesy psych which is equally good and becomes a little ragged towards its end in another cool shift of Detroit style garage rock.

There’s so much contained within that one track it is unclear where the album will go from there on out. What transpires is an album of much shorter songs that venture between the different styles first presented. Whether it’s the anthemic punk of the appropriately monikered Rock and Roll, the garage fuzz a la The Heads of Kathmandu or the fast-paced stoner rock with firework sparking psychedelic noises of Sucks to Be You, there’s a lot to take in.

That gigantic opener looms large in retrospect and is admittedly the standout moment, but there are plenty of moments of joy at every turn. There’s also the fine Situation which brings another change, into proto-doom worlds with a touch of Magnus Pelander styled vocals to add to that mood, further highlighting how this an album of fun, variety and many a thrill.