New : Torche - 'Harmonicraft'

Summer always needs a good guitar record to get it kickstarted and I think we may have the ideal candidate right here. I don't know much about Torche apart from that their name means 'wipe' in French (hur hur) and they play groovy amped-up psychedelic rock which makes me want to turn my stereo up very loud indeed. This sort of stuff would have been tagged 'stoner rock' back in the late 90s amidst all the Fu Manchu, Nebula and Monster Magnet filling the pages of Kerrang back then, but that kinda does it an injustice - whereas the aforementioned based their sound and imagery around 70s style cars & bongs scuzz rock, Torche have a cheeky psychedelic edge to their sound and a dose of sugar to balance out lurch and bounce of their bottom end. I can imagine them playing 90% of this record with Cheshire cat grins on their faces, it's the sort of happy & heavy stuff that dudes knock out in their garages without worrying if it'll sell - on that note, it also reminds me of the tunes Dave Grohl lays down when he's not writing chart pop with the Foo Fighters to finance another private jet purchase. There's a tight, elastic bounce to their sound but the vocals lift things out of the greasy car mechanic workshop into higher realms of cartoon trippyness - just check out the fucking cover for the starters! That shit looks like something Terry Pratchett would have written about whilst dropping acid in his garden shed in the early 70s as part of an eight-novel saga on the intergalactic turtle wars of the layered multiverse. Torche aren't going pop or anything but there's enough sunshine here to keep this accessible to fans who need hooks to hold on to and these guys balance their elements nicely to sound like a decent heavy band sweetening things up a little rather than some pop punk nerks trying to sound heavy. They can also bust out 90-second stockcar charges like 'Kiss me dudely' and 'Walk it off' when they feel like it, mixing things up so that the tracklisting never sags and their oddball humour remains an ever present fixture to keep it fresh and upbeat. These guys are tight as fuck, clearly love what they do and know when to stop before it gets boring so they're well on their way to becoming 2012's dude rock sensation, destined to soundtrack a zillion metalhead BBQs and stoner road trips whilst remaining frustratingly low on festival bills beneath troups of neck-tattooed deathcore dweebs and another Journey reunion tour. Never mind eh? Get this, fill the fridge with beer and play it LOUD.

Check out : 'Snakes are Charmed', the sound of surfing on a wave of celestial turtle barf.