Chewbacca’s have released two great Astro-Man styled records back in 2002, resurfaced with a great split LP with Espectroplasma in 2012, and that’s it until now with this full LP on Sharawaji Records.
The Astro-influence remains strong with this group, adopting very similar guitar tones throughout and of course sprinkled with all sorts of sci-fi sound clips. The production is a little more cushy than their previous releases, with more bass and guitar not quite as in-your-face, and that does take the edge off a bit from some of the faster songs. However, some of the nicer songs are the ones that hold back on tempo a bit, like the goovin’ “This Island is Still Radioactive”.
My favorite is “Log Jam” which lets the opening chords spread out into space, setting a mood before twistin’ it up into a bit of a dance number.
“9 Tomorrows” is probably my favorite loud one, with plenty of crushing energy, and getting weird with some electrical beep-boop nonsense towards the end.
There are two short tracks on here mostly sound-collage palate cleansers, but I really like them and wish that those were worked into the songs themselves a bit more! Particularly “Das Experiment VI” which merges satellite beeps with nuclear warnings and a jungle beat. It’s only 30 seconds but I like it.
The flowchart is simple. Do you like Man or Astro-Man? If yes, give it a try, if no probably not for you. If yes though, give the vinyl a shot. The great album art looks even better with multiple layers of screen print really showing through, plus there’s the lil Japanese styled "obi strip".
