Germany's Colour Haze might well be one of the better heavy psych bands ever. As if the previous six albums weren't enough for Stefan and Co to stake this claim, this new one, aptly titled All puts them further ahead of the rest of the pack.

While the last two albums s/t and Tempel saw them settle down and jam, this new one sees them do a few other things. Album opener Silent is quite familiar and classic Colour Haze. Starting with all the calm and going all Kyuss-like fuzzy heavy towards the end while the three musicians intricately jam with each other and Stefan's high pitched falsetto vocals. The drummer Manfred isn't going to give you a straight rock beat and the bassist Philipp is going to drive things around here. The chemistry these guys have is already evident. With the next track Moon, the band begin to march into new territory. While the riff itself is extraordinary with its Hendrixian funky/fuzzy groove and a cheerful chorus, it's when they get heavy the band becomes extremely special.

The band chills out with a more traditional sing-along tune in Turns. Again Hendrixian 'lead rhythm' guitars with some intelligently done reverse guitars and acoustic strumming. Stunner of a song and it's always going to be a crowd pleaser. They should do one of these on every album. The next song Lights is a stunning eight-minute-something jam with Stefan pulling off clean pentatonic licks a la John McLaughlin. By the fourth minute, there's a hammond that joins in to make things even more brilliant.

Next up, If is a straight forward fuzz rocker with a beat as straight as it can get as far as this band goes. By the time the band stops at two and a half minutes and return with all its heaviness and a quirky addition of a piano line and end the song, it's also established that the band can write a to-the-point song as good as anyone else in the scene. There's yet another change in pace with the next song Stars. With acoustic guitars and a sitar accompanying Stefan's vocals, this brings their Indian influences more to the front than anything else so far. Listen carefully, there's a lot of intricacy at play here. It's all about taking it easy and chilling out and these guys can put it across amazingly well.

All, the title song is an epic motherfucker. Begins with a lengthy major-scaled-yet-moody free flowing guitar line to set it up,  the band then go from soft and slow to the trio's full capacity heavy psych over its course of almost fifteen minutes. The choruses are great, improvisations chaotic, and very late-60s. Again, these guys know when exactly to get heavy and it's those moments that make this song really special.

Fall sees them go more to the dark side. The bass groove and the drummer again bringing in non-standard patterns, leads eventually to a tight jazzy section and ending with some beautiful sounds of the mellotron. Next song One centres around a very Hendrix influenced riff and some great snare work and a very George Harrison-gone-fuzz-rock chorus. The album closes with Remains, a classy and uplifting solo acoustic guitar piece with a bass note droning beneath throughout.

Always captivating and varied, this is a gorgeous piece of heavy psych from Colour Haze. A must-have for fans of the genre and a perfect place to try out for the rest.




Label: Elektrohasch Schallplatten
Year of Release: 2008