Spirit Mother

“Spirit Mother have an honorable mission: to add darkness and soul to a psychedelia that concentrates a little too much on wisps of smoke or cosmic trips. “Trails” reveals a band with a hybrid sound as much inspired by the hypnotic, harsh Americana of rural midwestern ghost towns as by the steamy shoegaze of the early ’90s. On paper, with such a description, one quickly imagines a band at the crossroads between All Them Witches and Lord Buffalo. It’s true that the ever-depressed, ever-shaky fiddle is a strong marker of modern American folk music. The result is dark, haunting psychedelic rock. But that would be to completely overlook Spirit Mother’s British approach to songwriting. Evoking shoegaze, there’s a je ne sais quoi of The Jesus & The Mary Chain both in the vocals and in its sense of melody: simple but catchy, rhythmically varied, making each of the nine songs stand out from the other. With their impressive and original sound palette, these nine “Trails” are not to be found on any known rock map. What is certain is that this album, for its part, takes the road to the summits of 2024. It’s an invitation to break out the whisky and fags, a declaration of love to rock in all its modern, psychedelic glory.” -The Heavy Chronicles