Alien Lizard, an experimental rock group out of Gdańsk, Poland, recently unleashed their surreal and otherworldly debut album upon the world.
Pure Kafka is a murky dreamscape rich with swaths of shoegaze-like guitar, ghostly vocals and cold synthesized atmospherics. In some ways, the sound here is reminiscent of the dark ambience of The Future Sound of London mashed into the trippier side of Slowdive.
Nearly the entire record flows at a very chill, spaced-out rhythm, giving the already dreamy music a strong dazed kind of vibe. For instance, during songs like “Parallel Parks” and “Heaven Takes the Moon,” the chilled-out beat and cosmic effects make any listener quickly feel like they are coasting through the stars.
The real highlight of the album is the concluding track, “Goodbye to the Holy Mountain.” The track is like the entire record’s hallucinatory surrealism and eclecticism coming to a head and being distilled into a single track. With the track’s ritualistic tone along with its crashing gongs and chant-like vocals, is undeniably the perfect tribute to Alejandro Jodorowsky’s infamous psychedelic fever dream of an art film, The Holy Mountain (in fact, the lyrics directly quote Jodorowsky himself).
For a deeply cool, mind-expanding listen, go no further than Alien Lizard’s strong debut, Pure Kafka.
-KH
Record Crates United 