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New Album of the Week: Wo Fat – The Black Code

November 13, 2012 by A.S. Van Dorston

With Wo Fat’s magnificent Noche del Chupacabra last year, I predicted the band were poised to make a giant step in breaking through with some kind of crazy new hybrid of stoner swamp voodoo jazz funk. On re-listening to their debut The Gathering Dark (2006), I realized they had already emerged with their signature sound already fully formed, capped off by an inspired, sludgy cover of Miles Davis’ “Runnin’ The Voodoo Down.” They’ve already brought the crazy, and since then they’ve just been making minor adjustments. On Psychedelonaut (2009) they tightened some screws and wrote some of their more memorable tunes. The wheels were loosened up a bit for Noche to allow for some more improvised jams. The Black Code refines that approach, balancing the improvisation with a couple driving riff monsters in “Lost Highway” and “Hurt At Gone.” The remaining three cuts all exceed the ten minute mark and are some of their most entrancing grooves yet. I’ve had the 46 minute album on heavy rotation for over three months and haven’t gotten tired of it because time seems to bend when it’s playing so that it’s over more quickly than I expect.

Wo Fat Skateboard Deck - Yours with a $100 donation to their European tour Kickstarter campaign!

Their fourth album may not be a huge breakthrough, but it’s certainly one of their most accomplished. Chalk it up to their musicianship and telepathic communication from the over half dozen years they’ve spent together. Kent Stump’s fat, distorted guitar sound is more satisfying than ever, and his vocals are under appreciated. He manages to accompany the songs, on this album with a distinctly sci-fi theme, like another instrument rather than an attention-seeking wails. Add an Australian accent and he’d sound to me like the great Ross Knight of Cosmic Psychos with a similar gruff timbre and command of rhythm. Their resulting signature sound, while different from the likes of Colour Haze and Elder, are just as addictive, giving the urge to line the walls with stacks of speakers and bathe in the vibrations. I haven’t  had the pleasure to see this Texas band live yet, but I imagine it would be one of those shows where you can feel all the hairs on your body vibrate, not because it’s painfully loud (though earplugs would be recommended live), but because it hits just the right frequencies. Someday there will be scientific evidence that certain notes and timbres reliably induce a peculiar balance state between bliss and fury, or a general state of earthy, metallic awesomeness. And it will be belatedly revealed that Wo Fat cracked that code a long time ago.

Wo Fat t-shirt and poster for Kickstart contributors onlyKickstarter campaign to fund Wo Fat’s European tour anchored by their prestigious slots at Roadburn (Holland) and Desertfest (London) in April. Nice perks of postcards, album downloads, signed CDs and t-shirts with certain donation amounts.

Wo Fat European Tour Poster & T-Shirt

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