Iota

Tales (Small Stone)
By Craig Regala

Quality power trio heavy-rock/space-rock interface for those raised upon Monster Magnet and the mung those drugged peddle hopper stompers dosed on. Ergo, you get the early ’70s acid rock thud-fucker thing thankfully big booted into latter Black Flag/Gone and the effect that sorta action had downwind for a couple years (grunge, we hardly knew ye). More importantly, you’ll sup upon the whole goddamn ethic of stonerism as free-your-amp-and-your-mind-will-follow logic, all bandied about in the exact way you want.

Herein, plenty of everything is harnessed to song form from hard rockist blorts “We Are the Yithians” to the Lemme-era Hawkwindian wind-up of “Dimensional Orbiter” which’ll chew up 20 minutes of your day like Voivod’s “Jack Luminous” did in its way fifteen years prior. This is the right way to go about things: Strong concept + free ranging execution = quality. The tune talent helps, too.

The tone, recording, and overall vibe (man), have a perfect jammed-together rocked-up hippie/greaser groove and a recorded nude in the “zone” feel which bodes well for the live experience. Have they taken a Big F song, say, “Why,” or Flipper’s “Life” for a ride? If they haven’t, they could, and we’d all be better for it. Strap’m on for the ride with Litmus, My Sleeping Karma, Earthless, Paul Chain, Los Natas, Strange, and Solarized, for a proper cycling experience.
(www.smallstone.com)