Mondo Drag are a new band – or should I say "bunch of hippies"? – from Iowa making their debut on record with their first album New Rituals. One look at the artwork will not deceive you – this music is firmly rooted in the "summer of love" groove of the late sixties and includes influences from the early seventies. The band themselves claim to have also been influenced by some more recent bands, but they must be those whose own links to this early rock era is so strong as to make no difference to the sound - New Rituals is very "retro". It's a "classic" sound of course, and the band do it justice – it's a good album.
The band comprises Johnnie Cluney (drums, vocals), John Gamino (keyboards, saxophone), Nolan Girard (rhythm guitar, vocals), Dennis Hockaday (bass), Jake Sheley (lead guitar), with support from Bambi Suits on vocals and Skye Merhle-Carrasco on violin.
The music is a dense wall of a conglomeration of psychedelic and space rock. At its most effective, with the Hammond blazing away, it sounds like a cross between Deep Purple, Hawkwind and Spirit - thinking of these bands' late sixties/early seventies periods of course.
It's well played and sung, without there being any individual performance that really stands out, grabbing you by the throat. As such, this album will remain one only for keen fans of this particular period's music. Incidentally, the album is available in a red vinyl version, for those of you keen on that sort of nostalgia.
Track Listing:-
1) New Rituals
2) Light as a Feather
3) Love Me (Like a Stranger)
4) Come Through
5) Fade Out
6) Serpent Shake
7) The Visions
8) Apple
9) Black River
10) My, Oh My
11) Tallest Tales
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