Rancho Relaxo

Until about two weeks ago I had never heard of Rancho Relaxo and the first thing that I thought when I saw the name was that's a bit of a shit name, apparently it is a health spa outside of Springfield that Homer once visited. What made me take a closer look was the album cover, the above picture of Edie Sedgwick at a time when I was immersing myself in the Velvet Underground once again it piqued my interest. I then read the description:

"from heavy psych-rock adreenalin kicks (Dead Space") and hot 'n' dirty grooving energy pills ("If You Want To") to mid-tempo jewels with a melancholically sparkling, romantic twist ("Strange Vibrations", "Stars") to noise-pop tinted ballads with bittersweet acoustic fragrance ("Taken") and psychedelic-driven, extraterrestrial-atmospheric soundtrack trips ("White Light")

which put me off a bit to tell you the truth, too many hyphenated words but then I listened to a couple of tracks and was totally sold. There are bits of Spiritualized in there, other tracks that sound like the Mary Chain at their most melodic and mellow, more reverb and echo than you could shake a stick at and of course the drone. What's not to like. I duly purchased the vinyl and immediately listened to the download. If you like what you hear below, you can do the same.here.

The band are apparently from Norway and not outside Springfield sadly and have been making noise since 2003 and have a further 5 cds to check out,

Rancho Relaxo - Clean Eyes