Che – Sounds of Liberation – Review

Che

Sounds of Liberation (Man’s Ruin)
by Brian Varney

I can’t tell ya much about the band because mine’s a promo with no titles or band info, but I know former Kyuss/current Fu Manchu drummer Brant Bjork is singing and playing guitar on here, so you kinda know what you’re in for if you’ve heard his solo album, Jalamanta (also on Man’s Ruin). Or so I thought. His solo album was laid-back, mostly instrumental background music, like the soundtrack to a movie where a guy sits around and gets high all day. Ché, on the other hand, reminds me of Queens of the Stone Age, specifically the part that says, “Hey, we really like Can a lot.” In other words, you get lots of simple, hypnotic grooves repeated over and over while Brant sings/chants over top of ’em. This is not as art-rocky as the Queens (no King Crimson records here, thank you very much), so the overall vibe is much warmer and trippier, which is fine by me. As with the solo album, then, this is nice, friendly ambient/background music, the album to play when you feel like laying in the desert and watching the cacti grow. I guess I didn’t really need those song titles after all…
(610 22nd Street #302 SF, CA 94107)