Child
Blueside
Kozmik Artifactz
Release Date: December 2nd 2016
Review by: Callum Doig
If any person of the Woodstockian era were to experience time-travelling into the current timeline, Melbournian trio Child would be the only band they’d need to bring back to take part in one of the most historical musical festivals of all time. Having their debut self-titled spread their name across the globe, Child have taken it up a notch with their second, and probably best effort to date under the name Blueside.
Even though their Self-Titled did bring quite a large dosage of heavily distorted tones, Mathias Northway and co. managed to keep the fuzzy blues sound going with an extra stimulating drive to the effects to their audible fingerprint. The entirety of this forty minute long, five track record is nothing short of a regal and hypnotic journey that not even hallucinogens could interpret.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOh7iKKwSuI]
Nailed to the Ceiling opens up with mysterious scratches that come from the guitar, before diving into the main features that Child provide. From there, tracks such as It’s Cruel to be Kind and Blue Side of the Collar execute a series of chill, but also mildly sludgy and heavily nostalgic moments that go way back to the roots of the blues. B-Siders Dirty Woman and The Man, both being the longest tracks of Blueside, take more seductive approaches. Northway’s smooth, gospel-like voice resurrects the spirit Robert Johnson throughout the process of The Man, carrying some incredible blues licks on the strings at the same time.
Overall, with what Child deliver in their second LP, it’s clear that they’ve given the most promising result of psychedelic acid blues music. The wisdom in their tunes feels nothing more than a prodigious product that makes them stand out from every other ensemble in this worldwide field of audio.
This is what the true revival of blues and stoner music really sounds like, and plenty of Aussie bands of any genre may wanna watch out for what Child are able to conjure up in the studio. They just may surpass more than just a handful of them. With this record reaching out before the end of the year, it’s safe to say we have another contender that deserves to be in the top ten lists for 2016. I’ll tell you what though, the band have definitely earned themselves a place in my top five with this one!
Pre-Order the album here: https://childtheband.bandcamp.com/
