Ten East - The Robot's Guide To Freedom (Album)
To be honest, I had never heard of Ten East, but when I found out it was a stoner-punk supergroup I was quiet interested and excited to hear the groups second release The Robot’s Guide to Freedom. Ten East are made up of Gary Arce (Yawning Man), Mario Lalli (Fatso Jetson), Bryan Giles (Last of the Juanitas), Bill Stinson (Hor & Chuck Dukoski Sextex), Greg Ginn (Black Flag, Gone) and joining the group on bass duties is Scott Reeder (Kyuss, Obsessed).
The album is just over 50 minutes of 60/70’s sounding psych jamming. At first listen, I couldn’t really find much I liked. But after a few more listens I started to realise how interesting some of their work really is. It nice to hear a structured feel in the often unidirectional and wandering that many of the tracks have.
The opening track Nocturnal Migration is a cinematic 7-minute piece that builds a truck load of energy as it progresses. The second last track, Where the Haunted Hide has a great main riff that is addictive to say the least. Hexxon would be the stand out track for me, with its solid, almost Kyuss sounding riff.
Out of these ten tracks recorded at Ginn’s infamous SST studio late 2007, about half are really enjoyable. This album is lyrical and takes you through a journey, without lyrics at all. Fans of psych jams, prog of the early 70’s and stoner-punk will enjoy this album.
