Goro – Emperor Prophet
Most of the bands that try to do too much end up doing much at all. The idea of crafting songs that go from one musical style to another sounds appealing. But in reality, other than The Beatles and Ween, it’s not something that too many musical artists have been able to do convincingly. Most of the time, doing this just hides the fact that the group hasn’t been able to settle on a direction.
Fans, generally, have the same opinion. Most of them would be happy to take the parts that they think are best about a song and have them repeated or have them used as the bedrock for a band’s whole work. In other words, if you really like loud guitar riffs, you may just want to hear those without wasting time on piano intros or string interludes. And if you find a band that can do that well, you’d rather hope that they might specialise in this.
Ecuadorian band Goro has mastered the technique of gigantic, slightly dissonant riffs and distorted vocals that suggest to the imagination natural disasters or colossal battles. Goro does one thing exceptionally well. This is not a band that sounds combative. No, these South Americans seem to create a soundtrack for terrible things that are beyond the control or understanding of humans. And they do all of that with the power of stoner rock riffs. If you can do something well, lean into it.
INTERCONTINEN7AL – Lighthouses
It’s not easy being spooky. Hollywood production companies know this. Each year, there are more spooky, horror-themed movies made than nearly any other genre. These are cheap to make, they have a built-in audience, and streaming services love to snap them up as quickly as they can. The economics make sense, yet most of these movies are blasted by viewers and cursed with terrible reviews.
The requirements are the same for making spooky, mysterious-sounding music. Before you reach the shocking conclusion, you need to take the audience through scenes in which they’ll be required to hold their breath. You’ll need to create an ambience and build suspense. The masters know how to take their time and draw an audience in.
INTERCONTINEN7AL’s “Lighthouses” moves at a chilling pace. Its biggest selling point is the slow, soulful singing that is so good and digs so deeply that it appears as part love song and part horror movie intro. The singing, in fact, reminds this reviewer of the equally darkly romantic duets between Mark Lanegan and Isobel Campbell. With its mix of rock and trip-hop, “Lighthouses” is marvellously seductive.
