Carlton Melton, one of the West Coast’s premier psych rock explorers, have been at it now for going on two decades. Andy Duvall(drums and guitar), Clint Golden(bass), Rich Millman(guitar/synth), and Anthony Taibi(synth/guitar) have created their own world of psychedelic swirls, monolithic drones, scuzzy blues, and widescreen jams with a view out of the dusty windshield of a ’69 Malibu. The open road both their portal into the cosmos and a landing strip to destinations along the way.
The band’s discography is prolific. Albums like Country Ways, Always Even, Out To Sea, and Resemble Ensemble to name a few paint a very loud picture. A picture of a band as influenced by the Jimi Hendrix Experience and Spacemen 3 as they are by John Carpenter synth scores and Hawkwind. They combine it all into a boiling musical gumbo that is equal parts savory, sweet, and laced with just the right touch of LSD. Their music will appeal equally to the burnouts, the punks, the acid heads, and the D&D crowds. Much like Ferris Bueller, Carlton Melton are righteous dudes.
On the band’s newest release titled Live Hebden Bridge & Enschede 2023, Carlton Melton highlight some of their wildest psych drifts from their 2023 European tour. Working with Arizona’s Was Ist Das? label, Melton deliver us four heaping slabs of psych and drone goodness over two album sides. This is the good stuff. This is what Carlton Melton are best at, which is plugging in and taking a crowd along on a psychedelic drift into the far reaches of the mind. Loud and brash and free-flowing, this is primo Carlton Melton.
What you get here is Carlton Melton laying down some slow drones, fuzzy rock jams, boulder heavy Krautrock, and more. “Smoke Drip”(from 2012s Photos of Photos) is all hazy goodness, as if we enter at the point where the high kicks in and the hazy goodness takes us free-floating into the cosmos. This is the magic of Carlton Melton, taking a live audience on a psychedelic cruise with them. The band is locked in from the first note to the last. And with the addition of Anthony Taibi back in 2023 on guitar and synth the sound becomes richer and denser. “March of the Cicadas”(from 2011s Country Ways) comes out of the speakers in a flurry dirty slide guitar and crushing drums. Wonky synths give it all a kind of cosmic doom feel.
Side two opens with “Vanquished”(from 2023s Turn To Earth), a driving Krautrock banger with Middle Eastern touches and some scorching guitar that melts into a wall of auditory annihilation. Things end on the rocking goodness of “Prescribed Skies”(from 2023s Resemble Ensemble). A song that hits fourth gear and never relents till it ends in droning distortion and feedback.
Live Hebden Bridge & Enschede 2023 shows Carlton Melton in fine form. Allowing the stage to be a portal to new, sonic dimensions. Each record that Carlton Melton has released in nearly 20 years is an extension of the live experience. And this band live? Nothing short of mind-blowing.
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