The Brian Jonestown Massacre

Revelation (A Records)
16/20

The Brian Jonestown Massacre formed in San Francisco in 1988, but it was long before anyone gave a shit about them. It was their excellent trio of 1996 albums – Take it From The Man, Thank God For Mental Illness and Their Satanic Majesties’ Second Request – that propelled them to reverence.

Sure, Anton Newcombe’s famously explosive personality and the band’s often chaotic live sets have proved enough to gain them a reputation that, unfortunately, eclipses their actual talent. But BJM remain a serious fucking prospect, and Revelation is proof.

Opener Vad Hände Med Dem is a startling reintroduction: casually melancholic, gleaming garage repetition with anthemic horns that drive the churning fuzz to a moody conclusion. Even Memorymix, an acid-house tangent, is touched by Newcombe’s brilliance. So often, these forays into alien genres can sound contrived and stale. Maybe it’s the frontman’s Berlin residency that’s earned him a first hand understanding of electronic music, but somehow Memorymix actually doesn’t stink, well not totally anyway.

Overall though it’s the gleeful, lazy Sunday afternoon slump of tracks like Days, Weeks and Moths and not the psychedelic flute-based meanderings on tracks like Second Sighting that sustain Newcombe’s status as a genial songwriter. Although Revelation is slighted by a few genre bending misnomers, it could just be the wake up call the world needs to separate the spectacle from the truth: BJM are a fucking great band.

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Words: Billy Black