Stone Sole River - Terra Mama

With a name like that, one can easily be forgiven for assuming in the current cultural climate that these are a “stoner” band. I first heard them live supporting Fish last year, and was struck by the exceptional quality of their sound. Everyone knows support bands usually get the raw deal in the sound department, but not these guys.

They sounded superb. But I was there for Fish, so tuned them out in time-honoured fashion and waited for the main attraction. That was the easy part. So why I feel so disappointed by this album I cannot really say – it gives me exactly what I should have been expecting…. Had I not tuned them out so easily.

This album is so laid back it is almost horizontal. I will not name specific tracks because you will simply drift from one to the next in a haze of gentle but persistent riffs, harking back to the 70’s and events like Pink Floyd Live at Pompeii. But it’s not David Gilmour playing, it’s not the 70’s, and although the band’s influences are incredibly important, any band who sounds like a sleepy, watered-down version of those influences is on a hiding to nowhere. Why have this when you can still buy Pink Floyd’s ‘Meddle’?

One thing I will say without a doubt is these guys are exemplary musicians. Michael Parker is the key player on lead vocals, electric and acoustic guitars. Carl Meehan on percussion and Jon Walsh on bass are obviously the backing band in Parker’s pipe dream. And it is a dream, because in the 21^st century Stoners want dirtier, grungier sounds, to go with a dirtier grungier experience, which is why Queens of the Stone Age are a shining example of the genre.

Stone Soul River peddle Stoner sounds of a gentler age, when it really was flowers in our hair in Ichycoo Park. But those days are gone. The innocence has gone. Those who remember are content with their memories, and will not want the rose tinted offerings of those who could only wish to be there.