PONTIAK - Comecrudos

Just a few months ago we'd left the Pontiak with "Living", which, we said at the time, had everything it takes to become their definitive album. Instead, the Carney brothers have reshuffled the deck to deliver a short record (under half an hour), restrained yet surprising when set against their earlier work. The band wrote "Comecrudos" while camped out in the crater of an old volcano along Route 385, on the banks of the Rio Grande, and the album - pressed in just 1000 copies, as was the case with "Sea Voids" - is conceived as the soundtrack to a road trip along the dusty roads that separate Arizona and Texas.

Having set aside distortion pedals and overdrive, Pontiak move away from their past heavy sound, striking up a funeral march heralded by a repetitive trumpet and a long preparatory drone ("Part I"). The folk arpeggio of "Part II", underpinned by a deep bass and a celestial little organ, is followed by a desert ballad ("Part III") that builds slowly over the same martial rhythm thanks to horns and psychedelic guitar textures, forming a link to the stoner-rock the band has amply proven to master in the past.

The album closes with "Part IV", driven along by brushed drums and an organ over whose notes heavily reverbed guitar chords conjure mystical swirls that update the visionary rock of Pink Floyd's "Live At Pompei" .

"Comecrudos" is evocative and pays faithful homage to 70s psychedelia without being overly derivative; it's a shame it's over so quickly.

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18/09/2011