Cassette Review: Dire Wolves Absolutely Perfect Brothers Band "The Bernal Codex" (Pome Pome Tones)

[$6 // Edition of 50 // https://jeffreyalexander.bandcamp.com/album/floating-lights]

The cassette itself on this releases only ever refers to this artist as Dire Wolves and so I shall stick with that shortened name in my review as well because DWAPBB is quite a lot to type and a mouthful to say.    This should come as no surprise when compared with the music though because the sounds of Dire Wolves are just as complex and cannot really be tied back to any sort of singular influence so as to make them the opposite of one-dimensional.

At their core, the songs on "The Bernal Codex" are classic rock fused with psychedelics.   Primarily instrumental, there are instances where it appears as if a ghost might be haunting us (Especially early on) or perhaps a wolf is howling if you want to go that way because of the name, but then otherwise there is some spoken word at the end but no singing really inside these songs other than by the guitar itself.   There is a blistering funk about it before it quiets down on Side A and becomes glass tones with haunting whirrs.   Birds begin to chirp and the drumming becomes the focus before it picks back up into surf guitar riffs and for some reason makes me think of The Mars Volta.

Side B has drum rolls, as the drumming continues to take the lead- though the guitar had it from the start- and there is just a great drive to these songs.   It quiets down into a whirr and it is on the verge of sonar.   Heavy static comes through and that pedal used for effects might be called "big muff" but I might be mistaken.   It's still psychedelic though as it takes me through thoughts of both Jimi Hendrix and then wavy points bring up ideas of The Who.     Space whirr lasers also manage to find their way out ever so quietly.

If you told me that this was an instrumental cassette with elements of psychedelic classic rock, my mind would instantly go to Santana and any other number of sources under that flag where I could even think of it as being one of a thousand different bands only without the vocals.    In reality, this has certain aspects of an artist that you might have seen perform at Woodstock but it has its own take on it as well.    There is a lot to be said for artists who have their own voice and can create their own sounds but even without that voice, Dire Wolves has managed to craft a sound all their own and it is amazing.