It can be frustrating as hell being a Colour Haze fan in North America. They have never toured here, and none of their albums were distributed on this side of the pond. My years of attempting to see them live as been a fruitless series of mishaps. The best setting to see them is Duna Jam, a small invitation-only stoner psych festival held in Sardinia. Back in the 00s I had an invite and was working out the logistics of getting there and arranging for a place to stay, but had to cancel. They played several Roadburn festivals, but were not on the lineup when I finally made it there in 2016. They were actually scheduled to play Psycho Las Vegas that same year, and I bought tickets specifically to see Colour Haze, who canceled at last minute due to visa issues (and I canceled my trip to Psycho, finally going in 2018).
I spent years bugging and begging Stefan Koglek about making their albums available on Bandcamp, overwhelmingly the preferred platform for the worldwide stoner psych community. Lately he’s also released albums with no warning, no fanfare, during the December holiday season, long after everyone has finished their year-end lists (To The Highest Gods We Know, December 15, 2014, and We Are, December 19, 2019). Enter the American label Ripple Music, founded by Todd Severin. Ripple releases good music so consistently, that my $5 a month subscription is a great value. Imagine my surprise when Colour Haze’s last album appeared in my Bandcamp on October 9. The number one American Colour Haze superfan, JJ Koczan, did announce this on his Obelisk site back in May, but I missed it. Ripple will be releasing the entire Colour Haze catalog in reverse chronological order, including vinyl, with new inserts, pictures, art, and liner notes from Koczan. This is great news, and while no release schedule has been announced yet, I’m hoping they’ll keep it at a steady clip with at least one a month, so most of the catalog will be available by end of next year.
Since the album was released after I completed Fester’s Lucky 13, when I take a few weeks break from reviews, I didn’t review it. Since the official physical release date of the album was March of this year, I think it’s appropriate to officially consider We Are a 2020 release, and give it proper due as the band’s best album in years, and one of the best albums of the year. As I originally argued in my 2011 Colour Haze tribute, the band had a remarkable 9 album run where each album was better than the last, reaching their all-time peak with All (2008). After that, there was a long four year stretch between albums, when Stefan was in the process of building a home studio, and scrapped the original recordings for She Said, originally meant for a February 2011 release. Re-recorded and released eighteen months later, the resulting sprawling double album, the second since Los Sounds De Krauts (2003), was certainly no disappointment. It simply wasn’t quite as perfect as All. No longer in search of the perfect tone, Koglek stretched out and experimented and took more risks on To The Highest Gods We Know (2014) and In Her Garden (2017). This understandably resulted in less consistent, but still interesting results, digging into new psych prog territory.
Since She Said, Koglek has included a variety of guest musicians in the studio on keyboards, Mellotron, congas, horns, and even The Modern String Quartet. He really clicked with Jan Faszbender, who contributed hammond, Rhodes and modular synthesizers on the last album, and he’s now an official fourth member. While We Are continues to play with progressive elements, they sound more cohesive than they have since She Said, or perhaps even All. For example, take the use of an operatic chorus. Sure why not! But rather than going overboard, the vocal chorus is embedded discretely for just a minute near the end of “Be With Me.” It’s in service to the song, rather than calling attention to itself.
Since at least the early 00s, Colour Haze has integrated a touch of jazz sensibility, a sense of swing without being overtly jazzbos. They get closer to ever to jazz fusion with the help of Faszbender and Rasthofer’s agile bass playing, such as on the first half of “The Real.” Synthesizers also add color and texture, woven into the fabric of the last section of “Life.” The result is more of an exciting space rockin’ crescendo instead of a synth solo.
“Material Drive” tackles acoustic folk along the lines of Fairport Convention and Richie Havens, and progressive folk of The Strawbs. The album peaks with melodic highlight “I’m With You,” and the flute-augmented instrumental beauty of “Be With Me” (though it does include some wordless vocals near the end). Album closer “Freude III” gets a little funky with the instrumental interplay and groove.
At 45:29, it’s quite a bit shorter than In Her Garden (72:53) and She Said (81:48), holding back on sprawling 10 minute-plus epics for the first time since Tempel (2006). The result is a concise but adventurous, ideal point of entry for new fans, and a fresh approach with an expanded lineup for the lifers.
