Welcome To Sky Valley - Kyuss

This is one of the most wonderful albums I have listened to. Whilst many would rate the album previous to this, “Blues For The Red Sun” as Kyuss’ best, I would still go with this album, possibly because this is where I first heard them.

Rich, low and groovy, the “Kyuss sound” has been described as listening to a rock band playing through the completely the wrong amplifiers. Whilst this would explain the ...
...also leaves out so much. They are a band who have forged as genuinely unique a sound as is popular within the rock genre.

The album’s ten tracks are split into three “acts”. The first encompasses their opening salvo of “Gardenia”, “Asteroid” and the fabulously titled “Supa Scoopa and Mighty Scoop”. “Gardenia” is everything I’ve described above; low, fat, and topped ... more

This is one of the most wonderful albums I have listened to. Whilst many would rate the album previous to this, “Blues For The Red Sun” as Kyuss’ best, I would still go with this album, possibly because this is where I first heard them.

Rich, low and groovy, the “Kyuss sound” has been described as listening to a rock band playing through the completely the wrong amplifiers. Whilst this would explain the treacle-thick guitar sound, and the snaking , prominent bass, it also leaves out so much. They are a band who have forged as genuinely unique a sound as is popular within the rock genre.

The album’s ten tracks are split into three “acts”. The first encompasses their opening salvo of “Gardenia”, “Asteroid” and the fabulously titled “Supa Scoopa and Mighty Scoop”. “Gardenia” is everything I’ve described above; low, fat, and topped off with singer John Garcia’s “wounded coyote” croon. Josh Homme’s impossibly thick guitar locks in with Brant Bjork’s thunderous percussion, whilst Scott Reeder’s bass meanders through the whole thing like a elephant whose lost it’s way, sublime.

Second track, “Asteroid” is an instrumental, which starts with Josh’s guitar playing a simple chord sequence before building to a thunderous seeming climax, stopping, and building the whole thing again. This leads us to “Supa Scoopa and Mighty Scoop”, a fairly straight-ahead rock song in the hands of most bands, but once again, the combination of elements in this band elevate the song to an entirely different level.

The Second Act opens with the raucous, corpulent punk rock of “100 Degrees”. From there, we’re taken to the laid back tones of the appropriately-named “Space Cadet”, a slice of almost-acoustic psychedelia. From there, we go to “Demon Cleaner”. Now this is by far the coolest track on the album (OK, not by far, it beats “Gardenia” by a nose.). Another impossibly–thick guitar line from Josh is the relish over a mammoth bassline, whilst John shows Jim Morrison what a rank amateur he really was all these years. Breathtaking.

The third act serves to wrap this all up, kicking off with “Odyssey”. This is another track that would, in the hands of a different band, been a straight rock song. Kyuss however transform into another down-tuned epic, allowing it to live up to its name. “Conan Troutman” follows, another punk rush, Leading into the slightly less breakneck “N.O”, before finishing up with the 8-minute epic “Whitewater”.

And that’s your lot, well apart from the amusing (in a puerile sense) bonus track, but I’ll leave you to discover that yourself.

As a postscript to this, I feel obliged to tell you that, sadly, Kyuss are no longer with us. They released one more album after this, a couple of split EPs, and then, split. The individual members are still active in bands such as Queens of the Stone Age, Fu Manchu and Unida. If you ever get the opportunity, I heartily recommend picking up this album, rock has rarely sounded this sexy.
 

...less