I'm stoked that you're diggin' so many of then lately. I've got more Spaceking releases to explore today, as well. I've been exploring the stoner and psych rock genres quite a bite lately and they're one of the bands that pretty much immediately caught my attention. For some reason the bands I in these and related genres seem to be either really good or legitimately terrible with very few in between.
Topical Shampoo (I went to type 'Shenaningans' and somehow got autocorrected to 'Shampoo', but it made me chuckle so it stays)
This morning, I've got the DCA Stealths doing their thing running off my modded Schiit Lyr (w/ Siemens Gold Pin ECC88s) and a Modi Multibit 2 fed by a Wiim Mini. I meant to swap out the tubes for the Amperex-Tektronix Red Labels that I favor with the Stealths, but I got distracted and forgot. I'm kinda glad I did because this combo is actually sounding quite nice this morning.
Up first in my queue this morning are Black Ladder with their 2018 effort, An Ambitious Few. Black Ladder are an Austin-based prog band who've got a real eclectic mix of influences in their work. Just on this album, you'll hear elements symphonic prog, funk, jazz, psych rock, and more work their way into the music. The band's use of non-traditional instruments like flute, yak horn, kazoo, etc is smartly done and nicely integrated into the music rather than sounding thrown in as you sometimes hear with bands reaching for an artsier/proggier sound. The keys/piano/organ are a centerpiece of the band's songwriting and sound and I really enjoy how they're used to drive, and even define, the direction a given track will be taking. Add to that a drummer and bassist who are comfortable stepping out of the pocket to push the envelope and you end up with some really well-exeuted tracks that can be hard to label with a single genre, but sound fresh and totally unforced. These guys can count me as a big fan and I can't recommend thehr music highly enough.
Note: They have a more recent album released last year which is quite good, but I favor this one and I think it's a better representation of the band's range. If you've never heard Black Ladder before, this is the LP to start with, IMO.
I've added it to my play later section - for some weird reason, Qobuz has all three of their albums but each one is under a separate band name, all of which are Black Ladder - easy to sort in ROON with a little merging though.
