The Jonny Halifax Invocation: Acid Blüüs Räägs: Vol. 1

London-based The Jonny Halifax Invocation take meditation and sound to new places on their debut long-player, Acid Blüüs Räägs: Vol. 1, which follows last year’s Heavy Meditations EP.

With the off cuts of blues, honky-tonk, country and Eastern psychedelia, (not to mention the necessary skronk treatment), The Jonny Halifax Invocation take these elements and present them through the humid lens of drone.

Music seemingly made on the sand dunes of the Sahara Desert with the aid of Mexico’s finest herb, Acid Blüüs Räägs: Vol. 1 is the road that leads to the temple for the acid-damaged acolyte to seek refuge. The blues, doomed and cursed with a malignant spirit, and The Jonny Halifax Invocation are only too happy to oblige, stretching the mind to far out places.

Sharp Ascent: In Conversation with Six Organs Of Admittance’s Ben Chasny

With opener, Lake of Fire, and later on Invocation of the Beats, we are met with something akin to a searing, sun-drenched sprawl across the desert. Think Earth’s The Bees Made Honey in the Lion’s Skull with Spaceman 3’s Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs To. A doomed concoction of hinterland psychedelia and bowel-twitching drone that won’t be replicated anytime soon.

Meanwhile on Dead Swamp Transmission, just imagine a post-Hexadic Ben Chasny on psychedelics somewhere in the middle of the desert in search of an oasis. And on Scorched Earth Blüüs, that oasis is found in the way of a ramshackle bar. With the kind of stifling soundscapes that make the walls drip with sweat, if Sunn O))) swerved the robes for cowboy hats then it may just sound something like this.

Loop: Sonancy

It all ends with The Time of The Blues. A mash up of the four preceding tracks that, quite frankly, is a distorted breeze block of sound that ties together Acid Blüüs Räägs: Vol. 1 amid a backdrop of the blazing sun.  

With Acid Blüüs Räägs: Vol. 1, The Jonny Halifax Invocation have made a record that acts as a soul cleansing exercise with drones and cascading sounds that strike in all the right places. With summer just around the corner, this is the gateway to a new kind of deity.

Acid Blüüs Räägs: Vol. 1 is out now via God Unknown Records. Purchase from Bandcamp.