Cathode Ray Eyes – Eyes In The Melancholy Palm
Love is in the air with Ireland’s recent “Yes” vote and accordingly the Captcha / Cardinal Fuzz bromance is now really starting to bear fruit. Their new White Manna platter is ripe to blow some new mindholes and so too their debut LP by The Cult Of Dom Keller guitarist/vocalist Ryan Delgaudio. While White Manna are heading down a fuzzy event-horizon of biker-gang proto-punk on Pan, Delgaudio hasn’t yet nailed down his solo sound and Eyes In The Melancholy Palm is a heady amalgamation of varied psychedelic influences and styles as a result.
Yup, it’s record-collection rock and Delgaudio’s is a sweet stash you’d love to leaf through. He saves you the effort with Eyes In The Melancholy Palm, however, presenting its highlights over thirteen tracks. His chilly compositions are often lent a cinematic fee thanks to carefully picked acoustic lines and the opener even has an ominous post-rock swell courtesy of soundtrack strings, sci-fi drones and an undulating lilt – an idea the gently pulsing “Will You Catch Me When I Fall From On High” takes to a natural conclusion via heavily tremeloed sitar.
The Eyes In The Melancholy Palm suite is punctuated by dreamy instrumentals, kaleidoscopic twinkle and soft drones, some of which coalesce into dream-rockers like “Goodbye To Wonder” and some of which, simply, don’t. The album’s standout moments come though when it’s at its loudest and weirdest. The slow mosey of “Death Song No. 1” occupies a space between gloomy rockabilly and distorted desert-psyche. The heavy-lidded “Grim Reaper On My Back” is an irresistible Doors/Velvets-style dirge that shuffles along like a product of the Crystal Stilts garage.
Lo-fi noise-rocker “I Woke Up This Morning And The World Was On Fire” on the other hand crunches its guitars in a vaguely post-punk manner while eerie sci-fi chirrup traces the mix’s peaking melodies. Finally, coruscating album closer “When There Is No Beginning, Middle Or End” resolutely brings the curtain down with a speaker-blown blast of APTBS-worshipping pedal abuse. Eyes In The Melancholy Palm may at times be guitar-karaoke but it’s still quite a party.
Best tracks: “I Woke Up This Morning And The World Was On Fire”, “Grim Reaper On My Back”
~Eyes In The Melody Palm is released June 1st 2015 via the collaborative efforts of Cardinal Fuzz and Captcha.~