Phil Dirt - Reverb Central - PO Box 1609, Felton, CA 95018-1609 USA Last Wave - Down At The Arthouse



 | Another grand live improve adventure from a most interesting band. Last Wave merges surf guitar with eerie forbidden soundscapes and djapana dreaming. Amazing and rich in ideas. |
Picks: Adrift and Bleeding, Byron Bay Taxi Ride, Water Prayer, Breaking Darkness Heart, Grouper, Sari Somehow, Arisan Maru, Shred
Track by Track Review
Aboriginal Future Past Dreamtime (Instrumental)
Improvisation on exotic percussion leads to long floating key notes and digiridu squawks. The track creates a moody environ, a distant canyon of ancestors and lost back pages, all viewed through forlorned glasses.
Aboriginal Surf (Instrumental)
"Byron Bay Taxi Ride" reminds me a little of the Gondwanaland sound, with surf guitar and writhing rhythmic percussion. Gloomy, atmospheric, yet somehow promising better days ahead. A very nice track.
Progressive Surf (Instrumental)
Looking for water in all the wrong places, the desert seems in focus as the wanderers grow ever dryer. Seemingly hopeless, with surfish guitar and tones of nightmare gloom.
Oasis Dreamtime (Instrumental)
Very cool percussion and throbbing bass lines support a dark wash of ominous exotica. There's a blend of late night in the Casbah with a remote viewing sense of another place and time. Haunting and uneasy.
Dreamtime Surf (Instrumental)
Eerie surf guitar drifts on a gentle sea like slowly paddling out on a longboard through shallow green where shadows of groupers loom below. Moody and ethereal, like a Mermen space epic. Very cool track.
Unresolved Future Surf (Instrumental)
Dramatic in a somethings-not-right-here way, with an impending resolution that eventually comes. The droning surf guitar writhes, the percussion becomes tribal and infectious, and the relentless bass lines keep the song on a steady and dangerous course. The middle east, the outback, the great Southwest... all pass before your ears through the gauze of time.
Sunset Dreaming Surf (Instrumental)
Big reverb and digiridu drones over thundering rumbling ooze an other worldly scene, liquid and haunting, like a surfer's dream. Very spatial, and it seems to connect to your soul.
Aboriginal Future Past Dreamtime (Instrumental)
Employing percussion like a time transfused Dick Hyman, with howls and cries through the digiridu, and long tortured guitar, "Shred" tells of a negative color ride where the waves go in and reflect back out, allowing an endless and leisurely ride on a big stick. Effortless, like a top down Sunday cruise on an abandoned highway with the coast on your left. The howling feedback gives it a spirit world feel. very interesting.