Labels: Invada Records
Review by: Kunal Nandi
Due to a crippling aversion to playing live, Bristol’s The Heads have remained a cult obscurity for nigh on a decade or so, despite championing by John Peel, Jello Biafra and Frank Kozik among many others. Another reason could be that their brand of stoner rock is especially retro in its production style, sounding like it beamed in straight from 1965 through some clairvoyant vintage tube amplifiers. Yet another reason could be that they’re the sort of band who, instead of faffing about with such boring things as verses and choruses, would just head straight for the psycho prog wigout soloing section and quite happily bash that out for ten minutes.
What really sets them apart is the sheer lunacy in the way they approach things. It’s basically dead simple garage rock, but once they’ve locked down the amazing bass and drum work, the guitarists are pretty much left to their own devices, songs usually collapsing under their own weight of multiple solos and weirdo sci-fi sound effects. The droning, talky vocals and between-song noise skits only help to create even more of a mind-melting trance-like state. Total zonked genius.