phoenician flu and acient ocean RESIDUAL ECHOES

i remember a specific evening probably in 2003 (or 2004?), i had just moved to austin and was starting to get into loud rock stuff. i went with my friend Alex and others to the Ritz Upstairs (former famous punk club in the 80's and 90's that in '04 was rarely but occasionally still doing shows, now it is the home of the Alamo Ritz movie theatre) to see a band i knew nothing about called Comets on Fire. they totally blew my mind. so i delved into finding other similar bands. i always remember people telling me about Residual Echoes but i don't think i got around to listening to them until probably 2 or 3 years ago. better late than never....

i will admit that i've really only heard "california," "phoenician flu..." and their s/t debut, but of these "phoenician flu and ancient ocean" is always the one i revisit the most. Residual Echoes has always been a rotating crew of people primarily based around Adam Payne (with occasional help from Comets on Fire's Ethan Miller and SOOA's Ben Chasney and many others) and hail from the Santa Cruz area where so many other great noisy psych bands from the 2000's have been birthed: Six Organs of Admitance, Comets on Fire, Mammatus, etc etc).

released on the amazing label Holy Mountain back in late 2005, "phoenician flu and ancient ocean" sorta gotta panned as half-baked ideas and this from Brandon Stosuy of Pitchfork back in '06:

"...understand dynamics and can appear like brilliant firecrackers in small bursts, but over longer hauls have yet to convince me that they'll ever surpass pastiche"

i understand his point, but i think the looseness and the free-for-all mess of ideas on this record are what make it so great. it feels like one long track that fades in and out at different places with different ideas but maintaining a common feeling. regardless, one think both pitchfork's Stosuy and I can agree on is that some of the riffs on this record are mind-melting. great great stuff.

listen to it here. then when you realize how great it is go buy it on vinyl over at Holy Mountain.