INDIE ALBUM OF THE WEEK
Pepa Knight, old mate from up the Central Coast somewhere, has just managed to win the Byron Bay small business music store market with his debut album,Hypnotized Vol. 1. I never wondered what incense sounded like, but now I think I know. How enlightening.
Knight, co-convenor of Jinja Safari and known as Cameron Knight by his mum, has crafted an onrushing road train of chillbanging Ayurvedic ambience. Not only does Knight manage to charge all your stresses away, he also threads paralysingly powerful indie-pop melodies between his ringing sitar and the thumping dhol and tabla.
The most accessible of Knight’s hippie-pop is ‘Rahh!’, which quite apart from its aggressive title, employs a masterful and overwhelming hook entirely consisting of uplifting “aahs”. On the other hand, ‘Coyote Choir’, while not immediately engaging, slowly comes across as a fitting track for a mandrill to coronate a lion to.
I tend to dislike psychedelia, what with it being a wank and all, but Pepa Knight has produced a focused and coherent record with Hypnotized Vol. 1. You can comfortably slot it next to Slipknot’s Vol. 3: The Subliminal Verses in your Volume collection.
4/5.
Hypnotized Vol. 1is out now through Independent.
