Band : THTX
Album Title : The Flickering Sky
Label : Sulatron
Distributor : Clearspot
Release Date : October 2009
Review : CD

If you wonder what a fusion of garage, space, kraut and jazzy rock CANsound like, don’t hesitate to check this out.
“The flickering sky” starts the proceedings with massive guitar riffage honking, leading into a steady groove before again exploding. Steady interplay between eastern sounding guitar and synths advances the piece along.. “Mu-tron”, “Collective mind anarchy” and “Once before in the future”  are yet another buildup-in-intensity type of tracks, with a much fiercer intensity yet.. The drummer and percussionist Kenny Gluckman is apparently always in a trance, as multi instrumentalist Matthew Smith lays down his layers of guitar, synth and trumpet solos. “Osidias” is another particularly successful one and that is very representative of THTX’ signature; the intense, and I MEAN intense interplay between an aerial, nervous, even manic, trumpet, and heavy duty, fuzzy-as-hell, pounding guitar. This music isn’t concerned with looking for the perfect pitch and melody. The overall sound here is fairly reminiscent of the intense moments of Hawkwind, Gong, Guru Guru, Live Evil-era Miles Davis or The Vocokesh, taking the best of the fiery instrumental passages.  Maybe the best track is their cover of Peter Hammil’s  (VDGG) “Darkness” with spacey, eerie vocal effects that create again a very dramatic buildup. Unfortunately, at times they veer off in free rock form territory with an overkill of noisy effects.
Overall, a quite original and creative album.

90/100

Cosmicmasseur.