Spirit Mother
Trails
Heavy Psych Sounds Records
Through the past, darkly and heavily, goes the spectral Spirit Mother, chasing mysterious transmissions from Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath, and Hawkwind into the deepest recesses of whirling, grungy space-rock. Its doomy mission continues in the fuzzy, riff-mongering present with the otherworldly and utterly enthralling Trails, the punishing, atmospheric follow-up to 2020’s impressive debut, Cadets. Broader in scope, Trails displays more brute force, a deeper saturation of inky, starry resonance and an even lovelier mysticism that borders on the maniacal.
While their celestial travels only seem visible via NASA’s Hubble Telescope, Spirit Mother has undoubtedly examined closely the Middle Eastern ruins of “Kashmir” to build a shrine to the surging Led Zeppelin epic in “Tonic,” as supernatural violin trills and sweeps give way to a slow-moving, lurching beast. When they shift into interstellar overdrive, though, hang on for dear life, as the breathtaking dynamics and pace of Trails vary — “Vessel” and “Voyeur” churning with unrelenting, cloudy propulsion and “Below” steadily ascending Yob’s craggy, lunar mountains.
Spells of ethereal folk and classical gases are cast throughout, with the wintry and ghostly “Given” a captivating, alluring presence and the driving, melodic “Wolves” on the prowl, opening into a swerving, hoary vastness that’s simply awe-inspiring. Spirit Mother is calling, its providence divine and all-encompassing, pouring out of hallucinatory, haunting lyrics carried away by eerie vocals and unearthly strings, stomping through the crystalline “Veins,” and bounding across “Emerald.” These Trails aren’t on any map.
