CMU Approved

Approved: The Brian Jonestown Massacre – Revelation

By | Published on Wednesday 2 July 2014

The Brian Jonestown Massacre

Fourteen LPs in, and following all the now-immortalised bar brawls, botched shows and, most importantly, the near-ceaseless chain of releases, arrives The Brian Jonestown Massacre’s apt-titled newest baby ‘Revelation’, a record that transcends time and zeitgeist as well as anything the band have ever made.

With tracks like choppy intro ‘Vad Hände Med Dem?’, its stomping brass follow-on ‘What You Isn’t’, and the 100% organic ‘Food For Clouds’, ‘Revelation’ finds the band totally in-stride and working, writing, thinking and (a la their recent live appearances) even playing as one, finally safe and happy taking their respective places at the table.

And whilst the new record definitely finds the band trying new things, the body of its ideas aren’t exactly radical, with many tracks still leaning into the BJTM’s tried-and-tested cyclic psych repetitions, like the waspish drone whirlpools of ‘Fist Full Of Bees’, or the climbing chords of last-but-one song ‘Xibalba’.

But, that’s okay. ‘Revelation’ is what it is; the realisation of the band’s many strange years in business, showing off all the spoils of frontman Anton Newcombe’s contrary prolificacy, which at last looks to have found solid ground.

This is a link to hear the LP on Spotify and this is the triumphal ‘What You Isn’t’:



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