Jerry Quijano
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- Articles Posted: 16
Release Date: November 13, 2015
As “Born to Get to You,” the creepy final song off the newest Mystic Braves album, approaches its zenith of chaos, two resounding bass hits ring out like foreboding gunshots.
“Days of Yesteryear” is the third, and most recent album, from the Los Angeles-based psychedelic group. The album highlights the agony of a spurned lover, echoing themes of loneliness and depression following a break-up.
Mystic Braves, a rising quintet led by frontman and guitarist Julian Ducatenzeiler, continues to impress amid a sudden resurgence of psych-tinged, lo-fidelity music.
“Days of Yesteryear” stays true to the psychedelic feel of their catalog with their smooth guitar work and droning synthesizers. Trumpets, flutes, 12-string guitars, a tanpura (a traditional instrument played in Indian music that sustains melodies for complementing instruments) and many more unique sounds electrify the album.
The record, listened with eyes closed, would lead you to believe you are cruising through sunny 1960’s southern California with the top down.
Yesteryear also speaks to the sound evoked by Mystic Braves. This album could find itself in rotation with albums from The Beatles’ late era to Pink Floyd’s “The Dark Side of the Moon.”
The penultimate track on the album, “Great Company,” incorporates the tanpura (which you may initially recognize as a sitar, as I did) and is reminiscent of “Within You Without You” from ‘The Beatles’ masterpiece album “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.”
The smooth melodies and rhythms that drive the early part of the album contrast the feelings of anger and self-pity found in the lyrics of songs like “No Trash” and “To Myself.”
On “As You Wonder (Why)”, the emotional flow of the music encompasses the ups and downs that lost love brings, while the lyrics cry for a simple reason as to why she left.
“Don’t forget the soul is under your control,” Ducatenzeiler reminds us on the album’s best track ‘Corazon,’ “Remember you cannot control anyone’s but your own.”
Necessary Tracks: “Corazon”, “Great Company”, “Spanish Rain”
