ALCONAUT: Sand Turns To Tide (STONER): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

Corsican stoner, what's it look like? Well, it gives Alconaut, a trio of lumberjacks raised on (good) American grain. Whether they quote The Sword as well as Fu Manchu or High On Fire shows that they are men of taste. Which we had already guessed when we walked our peepers through the booklet with the nice illustrations that dress up "Sand Turns To Tide", their first record.

Georges Agostini (guitar, vocals and harmonica), Kevin Albertini (bass) and Antoine-Joseph Marini (drums) clearly have rock pegged to their bodies, a rock not only with a big R but especially one that smells under their arms and exhales coyote breath. It's nervous and makes you want to stamp your feet or swallow the miles on board a peaceful and noisy engine.

Gruff and dirty like an old Motörhead, the stoner forged by these three guys from Bastia gallops while stirring his pelvis ('Wizard Of Sound' and its almost thrash bites, 'Space Controller'), adorns himself with psychedelic influences ('Dune Crusher') but above all crushes everything in his path ('Goliath's Son' with its harmonica notes, 'Mudslinger' and its heavy cracks). This does not prevent him from putting his santiags on the Bayou's side ('Old Man') nor from summoning the acoustic ghost of Led Zep for the time of two short instrumental tracks of the most beautiful effect, the prologue 'Cie_750' and 'Escape Velocity'.

Never satisfied minds will no doubt regret George's overly uniform vocals and a somewhat rough sound recording, but apart from the fact that it gives it an authentic and stripped-down character, this roughness roots "Sand Turns To Tide" in the rocky geography that saw its birth.

With this invigorating first draft, Alconaut is a name to follow in the galaxy of stoner and desert rock. He lacks neither personality nor ideas, drunk to the brim with a solar and dusty energy that one can imagine taking its full measure on an overheated stage. - Official website

ALCONAUT

SAND TURNS TO TIDE

AUTOPRODUCTION

STONER