NEBULA - Bbc/ Peel Sessions

Nebula are a band founded by guitarist Eddie Glass and drummer Ruben Romano (both veterans of Fu Manchu, the legendary Californian stoner outfit still active today), who since 1997 have put out four albums, along with various EPs and assorted scattered releases. An unstoppable rock'n'roll machine devoted to a hammering brand of stoner rock with a markedly psychedelic attitude, fueled by blues-tinged, acid-soaked riffs, Nebula, like every band in this lineage, have always given their best in live performances, where their natural inclination toward “desert” jams can find free, uncontrolled release, often with memorable results. The inevitable outcome of such a tendency could only be a collection of live recordings — in this case cut for the Bbc over a span running from August 2001 to March 2004, with noticeably different lineups. The collection thus also becomes, indirectly, a decent summary of the band's output.

The content of the radio recordings is exactly what one would expect: psychedelia, psychedelia and more psychedelia, wrapped in thick, improvisational layers of flooding, magmatic guitars, within whose folds the thin shadow of a dazed, slurring voice occasionally manages to slip through, always backed by the tellurian rumble of a rhythm section impenetrably committed to attack mode. More than the individual tracks, what matters here is the overall sonic flow and the raving sense of disorientation it's able to convey while listening, and from this point of view success is more than guaranteed (though it's always worth making the small effort to see bands like this live, especially in cramped, sweaty venues, because something, inside your ears and your soul, always “happens”…). As for the rest, the reference points are more or less the usual suspects: Blue Cheer, Black Sabbath, Kyuss, Motorpsycho, at times also the more recent Dead Meadow and Black Mountain, or else Black Keyes, especially in the less sprawling moments.

While we wait for the new album, these sessions stand out as a worthwhile and interesting listen both for die-hard devotees and for less initiated newcomers. In any case, this is a release that's anything but transitory or a mere stopgap.

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14/01/2009