ALBUM REVIEW: Plasmatic Idol – Giöbia
Music is most certainly one of our most expressive outputs of ideas, and where acid rock takes that expression is often into a crazy, unfamiliar world of sounds and spaces. With the mentality of anything is possible and claiming full ownership of their unusual ideas is GIÖBIA, back with latest album Plasmatic Idol. Will they manage to contain their otherworldly sound, or will the unparalleled expanse of the genre run away with them?
Right from the off, Parhelion begins in a lush wave of synthwave, nostalgic beats and cinematic drones, as the choral movements through the music begin to take shape. It’s a big sound that gives itself lots of space to develop, meandering down different avenues and taking mystical turns and trips. Sometimes light and wondrous, it often descends into a more menacing and dark tone, as it tumbles downward into new level after level of psychedelic expression like a audible Alice In Wonderland, we go right down the rabbit hole. The guitar tones are so rich, the organs so surreal and the overall consistency in the rhythm that keeps everything turning makes a pretty quick seven minutes that fly by.
In The Dawnlight has a very different colour pallet to play with, the imagery just as watery and lucid, but the tone is much heavier, not least with the almost inaudible vocals that distort into a mystic echo through the heavy modulation. The guitars croon over a mixture of massive sounding expanses and complete acid rock glory, it’s a blast from start to finish, with tiny, tight ideas trickling in from all aspects of the sound, be it a pleasant drum fill to a decadent riff.
Coming in at just two minutes, Plasmatic Idol is a completely new trip all in its own right, something of an erratic dream state, or trip through a dimensional vortex, that warbles and wobbles, spacey and unfamiliar. While it might feel throw away, take note that this is the title track, and feels less like an interlude because of that significance. This album is built on moments of wonder and strangeness, and this is the pinnacle of that. That seems pretty semantic, but unlike many interludes, this smaller section of work has a charm all in its own right, that many who enjoy this experiment acid rock can find fun and meaning in, and doesn’t lose value for being an odd little instrumental quirk in the midst of much bigger tunes.
Haridwar has a very classically sixties feel, an eastern vibe of sitars and stylistically harmonic scales passing through a western rock sound. The choral vocals have a peaceful echo through them, easy to ponder on, all the while awaiting the organ to beef the sound up, and the echoing guitars to meander off into easy going trails. It’s a very chilled out sound that fits classically into the genre and yet still scratches the itch of any younger fans looking for influence from a time they weren’t there to experience. The pace throughout this eight-minute song doesn’t shift up much, altering slightly into a more urgent movement in its final minute as it pans into a different part of this kaleidoscope album.
Where The Escape takes us is back into a more sinister area once more, much like all that time ago at Parhelion. Be aware, this isn’t a happy, life altering kind of escape, it’s more a heart pounding movement, the urgency to get away from danger, and feels very much like the soundtrack to a Seventies classic cult horror. The air around this track feels heavier, it’s thicker through the mix, distorted like voices through water, with all the odd and unusual whirs and synthesising breathing out over a very consistent beat. If you’re in the midst of a trip or not, this kind of heavy effects of sound can become a little hard to take the weight of, but thankfully those cinematic, wide open spaces open up once again to relieve you from the compressed feelings The Escape can conjure.
Thankfully, in the wake of the oppression of The Escape, we move ahead into Far Behind, a song that takes the most experimental aspects of all the tracks on this record and rolls them into another ambitious piece. The tempo is rarely consistent from one minute to the next, slowing at times to give a feeling of security, then to raise the stakes and pulls you into a chasing momentum that’s just enough to get the heart rate up; Just when you feel things are becoming evil and dark, a wondrous expanse of beautiful sounds wail from guitar and bass, each soothing and relieving, like falling off a cliff into a pool of tranquillity in some far away planet. Plasmatic Idol is an album where you are very much along for the ride, and at no point does it disappoint, constantly evoking a wide array of imagery through its very specific modulation, synthesisers and effects. Far Behind is possibly the climax of the efforts put into making this very authentic album, treading the line between adventurous and fun, and menacing unfamiliarity.
There’s still plenty to enjoy and discover however, as Heart Of Stone bring in hints of violin over a more traditional sixties psychedelia, introducing the strings as a more prominent melodic tool that hold more structure in the song than in previous tracks, where the weight is often spread between the different musical disciplines so vastly it’s hard to distinguish a leading instrument. On Heart Of Stone, when all the elements swell together it becomes a crescendo of melodies and ideas.
You’re not getting out of this record on any light and breezy note, as The Mirror House introduces itself with a sample a classic mystery/ horror film, the crackle of vinyl and the dread of a menacing synth brooding before the call of the vocals. It’s a full-on reverberating, trembling track; the guitars filled with renewed purpose and fuzz, the whistles and whirrs of the synth and the mellow bass, the drums that effortlessly tie together booming calls and whispering symbols. It end with an echo back to title track Plasmatic Idol, and in that the album ends in a feeling of cosmic wonder and utter mystery.
Some bands can really lose themselves to the nostalgia of a sound gone by, but GIÖBIA are without doubt the masters of keeping this genre fresh and interesting to listeners new and old. By this stage in their career, they’ve made acid rock their own, captivating and overwhelming without becoming grotesque and unlistenable. On the contrary, it’s a complete ride to get on board with the dark and unparalleled ideas that combine mystery, curiosity and strange unearthly wonders and capture them in sound. For some, this could be an album to listen to on the day to day, but really, its best appreciated in a full sitting without distraction. Through the compression and expansion of Plasmatic Idol, you’ll go through a journey completely of your own, and if you allow it, might find something in its kaleidoscopic view you’ve not seen before.
Rating: 8/10
Plasmatic Idol is out now Heavy Psych Sounds Records.
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