Can California claim to still have a proprietary hold on psych? If the Wild Wild Wets are any indication there’s still something about this part of the country that fosters heavy echoes of free love and mind-altering sounds (and substances?) that are still echoing to this day. The Wets are wallowing in their dense sound on these three tracks working through a hazy psych and drone pop sound that is synonymous with summer and what must be a perpetual season on the west coast.
A-Side’s "Criminal Blue" must have the speed listed on this center label wrong, it can’t possibly want to move this fast. The song is already flying into a Jesus and Mary Chain, Cramps garage psych formation. The guitar hits on a meaty groove and locks right into that lower end see-saw, the drums have a nice amount of echo to blast away off in endless space and the vocals from Michael Turi has lots of leather jacket attitude that Priscilla Castro balances with a sweetness in the chorus. This steadfast rock beat takes a drastic turn midway through with even heavier delay in a grindy, rough sludge, laying it low for the two vocals to chant and howl back and forth at each other drowning themselves in the steady steamroller swirl. Looping in on themselves it runs right back into that stomp beat with shades of The Ketamines or N.E.C. a contemporary garage psych huge sound and with six members, they can't help but pile in the layers.
B-Side’s "Realized Into Redwood" has a heavy beat again with a low end gurgling organ is picking up the bass line. This is poppier sounding until the guitars sweep in and carpet bomb it back into their mushroom cloud sound. Michael is sounding like Matt from The Soft Pack here, in his Californian nonchalance, there's nothing that could really bug this guy, and maybe that’s where this landscape has something to do with psych?
The stutter strum of jangle chords against the booming kick and snare against his laid back vocal is all they need in these early verses. Priscilla joins him in the chorus taking the layers of jangle and distortions to scratchy heights.
"Totem" works with a more garage sounding drum track from Marco Piro who was part of the rhythm section for Jeans Wilder. He nails down primitive stomping beats with a horizon expanding sonic texture from another planet. Michael sings in a lower range baritone against the swaying jangle, going to a tough bubblegum punk slow dance with Love and Rockets or The Church.
Pick this up from Grizzly Records on criminally clear blue vinyl.
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