Austin, Texas-based downbeat / dub duo Canartic (aka Jon Coats and Randall Peterson) first emerged back in 2005 with their post-rock informed debut album Headphone Test, and two years later, this follow-up Bouncing Radar Beams Off The Moon conceptually centres around them “taking a look at modern America through the arc of psychedelic culture.” While the duo’s accompanying bio points towards their homebase of Austin being a critical point of influence for the developing psychedelic movement, track titles such as “London 67′ and “Syd’s Psychedelic Adventure’ hint that the sort of acid-addled sixties UK scene populated by the likes of Gilmour and Barrett may in fact be their real source of inspiration. In many senses coming on like a hybrid of post-rock and downbeat dub, the eight instrumental tracks collected here show Canartic conjuring deep delay-strewn atmosphere scattered with the sorts of trippy spoken samples and psychedelic effects The Orb built their reputation on circa 1992’s Adventures In The Ultraworld.
While it’s certainly a suitably immersive fusion that’s best experienced through headphones to catch the full level of detail, it’s the often obtrusive and overdone guitar performances from Peterson that prove to be the biggest stumbling block here. Opener “Send’ aptly illustrates this, the reversed guitar fretwork dominating the comparatively subtle beats and synths and dragging things perilously towards Dire Straits-esque blues territory, an phenomenon that unfortunately recurs frequently throughout the tracklisting. It’s a shame, because moments such as the moody dub-blues soundclash title track, its crashing live drums adding a level of visceral energy missing from the comparatively thin-sounding programmed beats that dominate much of the rest of this collection, offer indication that Canartic are capable of much more. While Bouncing… certainly offers more than a few interesting dubbed-out headphone trips along the way, overall, a sense frequently creeps in of bombast being substituted instead of direction as Peterson winds up into yet another stream of Knopfler-meets-David Gilmour blues-rock guitar bends.
Chris Downton
