Posts Tagged ‘ Phosphene Dream ’

[photo courtesy of Ben at I Have 19 Voices]

The Black Angels take their psychedelia very seriously. As the hosts of Austin Psych Fest and one time backing band for Psych legend Roky Erickson (13th Floor Elevators), the band certainly has the pedigree. But as we saw on Friday night at Bowery Ballroom, Black Angels also have the songs, the stage show, and the sound. From the opening intro music of “Good Vibrations” that warped into a reverbed and looped mutation of the song before the band dropped right into their own “Bad Vibrations” opener, it was quite clear that this would be more than just a “trippy” adventure, but a true journey through an authentic ninety-minute psychedelic musical show. The band has the obvious 60’s influences, including Roky and also some of the California sound, but also draws heavily from the eighties revivalists like The Cramps and The Gun Club. Each song provided a sonic burst of reverb and effects accompanied by a mesmerizing light show. The setlist included a nice selection from the band’s three full length albums, including seven songs from 2010’s Phosphene Dream (although oddly not the title track), and five songs from the debut album (stream “Black Grease” below). The persistent hum of the drone machine melded each song into the next before the close of the main set. The band was called back for three encores and closed with a feedback drenched “You in Color”.

I recorded this set with the four microphone rig from the standard balcony rail location, and this recording is an authentic capture of the sound in the venue that evening. Enjoy!

Stream “Black Grease”:
[audio:http://www.nyctaper.com/B0904BlackAngels2101/12.%20Black%20Grease.mp3]

This Recording is now available for Download in FLAC and MP3 at Archive.org [HERE].

Black Angels
2011-04-08
Bowery Ballroom
New York, NY USA

Four-Track Digital Master Recording
Recorded Balcony Railing

Neumann KM-150s + DPA 4021’s > Edirol R-44 (Oade Concert Mod) > 2x 24bit 48kHz wav files > Soundforge (level adjustments, mixdown, set fades) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > Flac Frontend level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded and Produced by nyctaper
2011-04-11

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:26:54]
01 [introduction]
02 Bad Vibrations
03 Entrance Song
04 The Prodigal Sun
05 Sniper At The Gates Of Heaven
06 The Sniper
07 [banter]
08 Haunting at 1300 McKinley
09 Surf City Revisited
10 Science Killer
11 Yellow Elevator #2
12 Black Grease
13 [banter2]
14 You on the Run
15 Telephone
16 True Believers
17 [banter3]
18 Young Men Dead
19 [encore break]
20 My Boat Is Sinking
21 [banter4]
22 Bloodhounds On My Trail
23 You in Color

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT The Black Angels, visit their website, purchase Phosphene Dream directly from the band at the front page of their website [HERE].