Cave

Psychedelic Rock

Warhammer 48K's Chicago-based side-project Cave debuted with the heavily percussive space-rock of the instrumental EP Hunt Like Devil (Permanent Records, 2008). The ten-minute Hunt Like Devil weds a looped guitar riff inspired by the hard-rock jams of the 1970s, a motorik rhythm a` la Neu and a xylophone melody that could be from a Frank Zappa operetta. The repetition finally yields a ripping space guitar solo. The instrumental EP Jamz (2006) contains the distorted and percussive freak-out of Annihilated Sludge Flow, the shoegazing and ambient meditation of Seans Inner Ear, the trotting guitar workout of 4.24.06, with a sudden acceleration a` la Steppenwolf, and the Brazilian dance novelty Drum Like Devil. Cave's Psychic Psummer (Important, 2009) offered vintage psychedelic rock for the digital age. The instrumentals are still largely based on hypnotic repetition. Gamm is a further improvement over their motorik-like progressions: a euphoric stream of martial beats and thunderous riffs. Requiem For John Sex is another variation on the same trance-inducing technique, for which all instruments provide the propulsive groove, except that the music suddenly picks up speed and volume and takes a detour into acid mayhem. The android jam of Encino Men juxtaposes videogame-like dissonances against a hard-rocking organ a` la Who. On one hand the band is still attracted by noise (as in the frenzied demented bacchanal Made In Malaysia), while on the other hand it shows it is capable ...