Belgian artist WILL Z. is a composer and musician that appeared just shy of a decade ago as a member of psychedelic rock band Cosmic Trip Machine. In the last few years he have focused more on solo albums than band releases as such, with a handful or so released the last few years. “New Start” dates back to 2015, and was released through UK label Mega Dodo Records.
As one might imagine with an artist that started out exploring psychedelic rock, Will Z. as a solo artist continues making excursions into landscapes of a more trip-oriented nature. The canvas he explore is a fairly broad one at that too, but where the common denominator is a focus on sounds and atmospheres of the vintage variety. “New Start” is a production that may as well have been recorded in the 1970’s on just about all levels. Up to and including the mix and production that appears just as retro-oriented as the music.
The first half of this album is the one that struck me the most. Jain Devotion I-III explores a striking pastoral variety of psychedelic and cosmic landscapes, with occasional keyboard arrangements that reminded me ever so slightly of German band Eloy somewhere around their “Ocean”-era. Second track Namo features a bass-line and some vocal arrangements that also have tendencies in the same direction, as well as a certain mood and atmosphere that emphasized that thought, but explored in more of a psychedelic manner. The concluding cut on side A, Evil Namo, is a much more chaotic affair, mostly void of common harmonies, and is perhaps best described as a menacing freakout pulled from someone’s nightmare.
The B-side of this album comes across as a slightly different beast altogether. The three cuts here are all more repetitive throughout, with sharper edges and more dramatic details, a stronger focus on dominant vintage psychedelic instrument details, and by and large strikes me as material that isn’t light years away from the classic German krautrock bands of the 1970’s. The concluding epic Jain Devotion IV-V does open in more of a pastoral manner admittedly, but does develop towards a more stark expression along the way.
Vintage era psychedelic rock is the calling card for this album as a whole. It does feature pastoral and folk music elements as well as arrangements that occasionally does include symphonic-oriented ones, but cosmic vibes and early 70’s psychedelic rock and krautrock are the defining traits of this production as I experience it. An album that merits a check by those who love and treasure vintage era psychedelic rock.
My rating: 70/100
