Artist	Song
The Black Angels	Telephone
from Phosphene Dream (Deluxe Edition) (2010)
The Black Angels	Phosphene Dream
from Phosphene Dream (Deluxe Edition) (2010)
The Black Angels	Bad Vibrations
from Phosphene Dream (Deluxe Edition) (2010)
The Black Angels	Sunday Afternoon
from Phosphene Dream (Deluxe Edition) (2010)

Comment:

Named with a nod towards the Velvet Underground, but probably closer in spirit to fellow Texans the 13th Floor Elevators — whose psychedelic rock made a lasting impression at the back end of the '60s — the Black Angels have created their own self-dubbed brand of "hypno-drone 'n' roll". While their sources are easily recognised, they've set the whole package alight and hurled it flaming into the 21st Century. So, we get the Doors-style hypnosis and Nixon-era imagery of debut album tracks like "Black Grease" and "The First Vietnamese War", and the roiling-but-hooky menace of "You On the Run" from 2008's follow-up Directions to See a Ghost. And with third album, 2010's excellent and tighter-than-ever Phosphene Dream, the band achieves an impressive synthesis of drone, precision and melody: break on through to the other side with the title track, and shake your bones to the garage-based grooviness of "Telephone". This stuff is dangerous . . . and genuinely thrilling.

Feedback: