Customer Reviews

Directions To See A Ghost

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

'18 Years' might be the best song they've ever written, for one thing. But that aside, this album is an absolute, unadulterated masterpiece. I loved 'Passover'. This blows it out of the water. Deep chugging blues washed in some of the most profoundly cosmic feedback I have ever heard. I could sit here and go on and on and on... but just buy the album. Exalting, thrilling, and incredibly sexy...

RIYL: Dead Meadow, Black Mountain, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Spacemen 3, The Warlocks (with whom I get to see them in a week!!!), Blood on the Wall (as in Mary Susan), The Verve

I really liked The Black Angels first album Passover. This album is even better. It is much more far out then their fist album and the sound quality is great. The last song on the album is over 16 minutes long which is pretty cool and their use of feedback in You In Color works nicely. As I write this its at number 16 in the psychedelic category of music here on Amazon putting it above several classics (even if it is just for a few days its still a bragging right isnt it?). Its a classic of my generation and I hope they will continue what they are doing.

The Black Angels' debut "Passover" was an exciting surge back to 60s psychedelia, full of mind-bending drones, trippy guitars and a truly inspired vocalist in Alex Maas. "Direction To See A Ghost" continues things in the same vein. Granted there isn't much new to TBA's sound, but this doesn't bother me. They have such a distinguished sound already that varying it too much after just two releases was never necessary.

As with the debut, the songs tend to flow and groove endlessly. The `drone machine' saturates everything, the drums are powerful and locked, the guitar tone is perfectly fuzzy and Maas' piercing, nasally delivery is wonderfully fitting. Some songs have the tendency to drift on, but there are some real gems here. The one-two punch of "You On The Run" and "Doves" is a grand opening, with the former setting up a brooding, melancholy Velvet Underground atmosphere, only for the latter to cut through with some feel-good, sunshine pop psychedelia. Other highlights include the sombre "18 Years" and the sitar-laden "Deer-Ree-Shee". Generally, there isn't a bad song to be found here. "Directions" is another great album from The Black Angels that firmly cements them at the forefront of modern psychedelic rock.

Any CD that credits not only "rogue sitar" but "drone machine" better deliver fresh assaults, not rehashed revamps from the first peyote era. This betters, as I'd predicted (see my review of "Passover") their début. It stretches out with ominous beats into austere horizons on the 8-minute "Never/Ever" up to the 16-minute closing track, "Snake in the Grass." These bookend a well-arranged second half (more than that in the elapsed time) of the tracks here.

The first half of the album follows more its predecessor, not blazing a new trail yet. It's solid, but not until "Deer-Ree-Shee" with its sitars did I begin to turn up the volume and want to listen harder. From this point on, the intensity builds. The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (BRMC--back when they tried to sound more acid-drenched and less faux-bluesy), 13th Floor Elevators (also from Austin) all come to mind, along with an inevitable nod to The Doors, Mo Tucker of the Velvet Underground, and to me Ian McCulloch's vocal delivery from Echo & the Bunnymen. My son heard early on what it takes track 7 "Never/Ever" to fully prove, an appropriate use of the band Clinic's "Visitations"-era processed spooky, echo-laden, dubbish croon. Like Clinic, The Black Angels build their own pinnacle atop a venerable edifice of neo-psychedelia that improves upon the foundation. As with Black Mountain near them on the shelves, they study the past to enrich their future as musicians able to incorporate the best from forty years ago.

But, as on the first CD, where the Black Angels (like Darker My Love may be doing in a poppier vein) begin to break free of their competitors is in their density of sonic production. I've heard The Warlocks (as in their latest "Freaky Deaky Skull Lover") enter a similar maturity, hammering down a thicker, insistent, and forbidding aura that somehow propels itself rather than miring itself in homage to sludgier pioneers of doom. What helps this for the Angels is the sonic space opened, and an additional member to the band. More guitar allows more diversity.

The vocals do get used more as texture than dominance. Fine in the studio, but I suspect a live concert would embellish these tunes even more. On record, they tend towards a broader spectrum than "Passover," and the self-consciously psychedelic filagree ornaments the songs nicely. As before, it's hard to carry off this music without sounding fey or derivative, but they've done it, improving the promise of album number one. A final thanks for the album design and layout-- this shows a smart group eager to "emboss" upon the same old template their own distinctively complex mark.

P.S. I wish the bonus tracks were available that were only sold at concerts or for pre-order: some of us fans only found out about this too late!

This second lp by the Black Angels has not left my rotation since the day it came out in 2008. What this album has done to me over the last two years, seeping into every last crevice of my brain and seting it aflame with creeping psychedlia, impending doom, and walls of white noise like rain. This was serious....
"You on the Run" is the perfect album opener; like a monochromatic drill through yr brain, it drones into your skull rocking it from the inside out. Then u get to "Science Killer", a brooding number that slinks along in dark, unmistakably sexy way that is uniquely entrancing. "Mission District" is a call to a selfish lover with crackling guitar and waves of white noise that recall Spacemen 3. "18 Years" is a drugged out horror scene hypnotic in both tempo and groove .
"Snake in the grass", which opens the second vinyl disc, is the albums "sister ray"; murky, droning and extremely hypnotic, at around 17 minutes this feedback soaked opus just about rewrote the modern psychedelic handbook. Few albums have really gripped my subconscious the way this LP has and if you love rock and roll you really cant miss this album. thank u Black Angels for showing us that a band actually can still rock this hard.

Being a big fan of the first album, Passover, I was really excited about hearing this one. While I though it was an enjoyable listen I couldn't tell if it was a 3 or 4 star album. Some of the other reviews have even given this baby a 5 star rating but I thought it was too repetitive at times to come close to a 5. If you are a die-hard fan of the Black Angels I would agree this is a 5 star album. Otherwise the formula gets old in some of the songs. Basically almost every song is some mix of droning, reverb, simple guitar lick, lead singer plus the drum and bass for the beat. There are some overdubs that get in to more complicated licks but not many. It starts to sound very similar because most of it isn't dynamic enough. The main static element is the lead singer's voice. He has a very distinctive sound that works amazingly with some songs. The problem is that the vocals sound extremely similar on most of the songs which started to wear thin with me a bit. If you can't get enough of this guy's voice this will not be a problem, otherwise you may be skipping some tracks.

I decided to use the average of my track ratings to determine whether I thought this was a 3 or 4 star album and the average came out to be 3.45. I had to give it a 3 but that is really too low for an album that has several great songs on it. If you really like TBA this one is a must-buy and I would also recommend it to casual fans on a listen-before-you-buy basis.

This album is amazing. It's the perfect dark, dirty, druggy, gritty, droney, trippy late after hours middle of the night soundtrack to a damaged or blown mind. This Texas band specializes in basement production and burnt-out eyes scorched desert landscape atmosphere(s). It's basically a white heat melding of 13th Floor Elevators, Velvet Underground, Spacemen 3 and contemporary garage psychedelia with vocals that sound like the guy from Clinic and yet it sounds better than these bands mentioned because it fuses all of this together in a warped and sweaty summertime noisefest punctuated by cryptic lyrics referencing the underbelly of American history, such as Wounded Knee, and even some crazy sitar.

reminds me of the first two Black Rebel Motorcycle Club releases... awesome music... just what I was looking for!

I discovered The Black Angels from the Harley Davidson Iron 883 commerical. I can tell you along with the video....the song totally made me feel free and myself. The same was with this album. When listening to it you feel like you are within yourself watching everything happen. It's great for the adventurous music lover. A++++ to The Black Angels!!

The Black Angels did an excellent job on this album. Much more "psychedelic" than their first one, Passover, but still pretty dark and droney. Sound quality has improved as well. Great to listen to through some quality headphones. Slightly less evil and definitely less Vietnam/War themed than Passover, but at LEAST as good- probably better. Dig the trippy artwork. I bought the digital album through the band's label's website, and I can't wait for the physical album to be released.

UPDATE: I like this album so much I also bought it on vinyl. 3 LP's! Includes a nice big poster. Directions To See A Ghost is a more solid/complete album than Passover. Don't get me wrong, they're both great albums, but DTSAG is bigger/better/more-focused. They're in LA recording their 3rd album now, can't wait for that!