WL//WH New Music/Premiere: “Vertigo” the debut EP by San Francisco’s REDWOOD LEVIATHAN

WL//WH New Music/Premiere Redwood Leviathan

Well, this record will excite many as will also make some others wonder, but in the end, it will make everybody speculate on the art of experimentation (with a very good reason). ‘Vertigo’ EP is the debut release of Redwood Leviathan from San Francisco with 4 initial samples that show the way to the deepest reflections and in even deeper waters on what we call (kindly) noise-rock. On a grounded yet stellar field with psychedelic colors and grooves so powerful and sophisticated, this band plays like meditating in front of a stack with loudspeakers but no, you won’t hear any endless noise or chaos in the fires until they die.

Redwood Leviathan is a team with former members of pOrch, Lower-Forty Eight, The Mass, Brookhaven, High Powered Leroy, and one current member of The Tunnel (that I adore so much). Michael Jacobs (drummer of The Tunnel) explained to me a few facts about this band and their debut release

These instrumental sounds are the byproduct of the lumbering machine we call Redwood Leviathan. Four songs pulled from a large and loud collection of thoughts and personal accounts of a fractured mind. Songs have been in work through Covid and we plan more frequent new releases later in 2022,

emphasizing their music with

Elements of math rock in terms of odd time signatures but the focus is more on creating a mood. A cauldron of influences. Elements of ambient, jazz, post-rock, psychedelic, and industrial. Some comparisons we’ve heard thus far are; Tortoise, Brise Glace/Jim O’Rourke, Scenic, John Lurie, Scratch Acid, Throbbing Gristle.

I can only add the mental dimension along with that of the early Einstürzende Neubauten and then maybe the puzzle seems more accurate (and more difficult).

The fact is that the experimentation of Redwood Leviathan is not abstract, omnibus, or comprehensive at all. I hear 4 tracks with a beginning, middle, and end, distinct and so free at times when they decide to nail everything on the wall which cannot hold the power and the thrust from their amplifiers (and their minds). ‘Verigo’ (perfect title and sense of their music) is all a supersonic rock record with a lot of heavy treatment and performance by the band defining the limits they set for themselves (that is, not to runaway non-stop) while these unlucky limits will suffer many heavy, psychedelic challenges and hard incidents too. You won’t hear any song that is more than 5 minutes long and you will understand when the album is over that you just came out of a unique sonic and musical adventure that you’ll be telling your friends about.

This first 4-song release is in preorder on Bandcamp as of April 22, Bandcamp release is planned for May 6 BC Friday, and then the full digital distro is slated for May 20. Listen Loud!!!

Keep up with Redwood Leviathan: