Our debut album, NEPTUNE WITH FIRE, is out now in the US, UK & Australia.
PRESS
OF SOUND MIND press...
"On their second LP, this analogue-loving Los Angeles quintet pour classic hard rock, stone and progressive signifiers...into down-tempo suites that demand to be heard across four sides of vinyl. Tonally rich and played with real grace, it builds to a satisfyingly windswept climax on 13-minute head-nodder The Ambrose Law." - Manish Agarwal (3 out of 5)
"Just over a year since their debut, Neptune With Fire, Ancestors have crafted a sequel of quite majestic proportions..." - Olly Thomas (3 out of 5)
"[W]hen Ancestors filter the mournful prog harmonies of yesteryear through the titanium heavy of the now, they alchemize something pretty special... Recording four 13-plus minute songs connected by short bits of synth or piano improv involves a healthy sense of entitlement... Ancestors earn their pretension. It’s good pretension, the kind that keeps the repetitive jams taut and dynamic, directed towards both navel and sky. On Of Sound Mind, Ancestors don’t just assume that we want our minds blown. They actually blow ’em." - Etan Rosenbloom (8 out of 10)
"This is psych rock at the edge of the world. Where the two lengthy tracks of last year's debut, Neptune With Fire, sounded as though they were undergoing a baptism, dipping into lustrous guitar licks and returning more energised on the the other side, Of Sound Mind is a far more solemn yet scintillatingly far-flung affair. Mother Animal starts off in Electric Wizard territory before sailing off into glacial, heavy-hearted jams, while even the fired up doom of closer The Ambrose Law ends on a funereal note, as all band's sophistication disperses slowly into an afterglow of haunting, heart-stopping majesty." - Jonathan Selzer (8 out of 10)
"On the eight track Of Sound Mind, the band expands their scope and continues their doom-laden trip down nostalgia lane, with plenty of prog rock inspirations... ncestors keeps the proceedings musically interesting, and manage to maintain a cohesive theme throughout, relying on the quintet’s musical chops and tight-but-flowing melodies that somehow tie all the tracks together into one sound song." - Bob Cock (4 out of 5)
"As mesmerising as Ancestors' debut Neptune With Fire, undoubtedly was, it's clear that its follow-up, Of Sound Mind, is a vision of much greater scope... Ancestors' combination of smoldering psychedelic doom and pastoral prog places leagues of clear water between themselves and the burgeoning morass of psych/post-doom/neo-prog milieu. Their fluent synthesis of styles marks them out as more than merely some prog revival act." - Greg Moffitt (8 out of 10)
"As a complete, episodic work, Of Sound Mind shows its creators to be the embodiment of the record's title. At no point does the scale of it hamper the enjoyment of its slab-like delivery, and the group's knowledge of their craft is exceptional." - Daniel Ross (3 out of 5)
"Only two albums in, it’s difficult to declare this as Ancestors’ magnum opus, but as far as mountaintop experiences go, this is close to summiting Everest." - Jay Hill (4 out of 5)
"...[E]ven better is when they really focus on the singing, with results that are often elegant. The layered vocals on "Mother Animal," in particular, remind us that there's more to progressive rock than never-ending solos." - Brent Burton (3 1/2 out of 5)
"[W]ith the eight song Of Sound Mind (of which four stretch past the ten minute mark), Ancestors continues to defy any attempt at pigeonholing. They effortlessly move from one genre to the next with such grace that it's a seamless transition." - John Pegoraro
NEPTUNE WITH FIRE press...
"First there's the straightforward thickness of Kyuss disciples Corrosion of Conformity. The resin-sopped riffs of Pepper Keenan's oft-overlooked stoner rock troupe seem to offer the blueprint for much of the opening track on Ancestors' Neptune With Fire. Second, there's the suffocatingly slow inertia of Sleep. The doom progeny's stillness informs the rest of this L.A. five-piece's debut, and Arik Roper, the psych-artist who designed Sleep's Dopesmoker's album art, designed the visuals for Neptune. And then, when you get away from the backbone, there's Pink Floyd and maybe even Hawkwind here as well. But it's those two immediately perceptible reference points that make for an interesting 1990s-informed take on 70s hard psyche, early doom, and art rock...makes it easy to come to Neptune With Fire for the mammoth riffs, but stay for the stretches when Ancestors take 'far out' even further." - Robbie Mackey (7.7 out of 10)
"LA Quintet Ancestors are suitably lysergic, their debut consisting of two conceptual, organ-striated heavy rock odysseys" (3 out of 5)
"...a surprisingly compact freakout that rumbles and spirals its way through a colorful kaleidoscope of textures before building itself back up to a Pink Floyd-inspired denouement of considerable beauty." - Greg Moffitt (8 out of 10)
"Ancestors' Neptune With Fire should satiate both the traditional stoner-metal fan and those seeking a more expansive approach to this often self-limiting subgenre." - Mark Miller (3 1/2 out of 4 weed leaves)
"Neptune With Fire defies analysis by simply being everything one could possibly demand from a paean to the riff, the reefer and the misty-eyed squint into the cosmos... a lengthy, celebratory trip" - Dom Lawson (8 out of 10)
"Ancestors take the listener on a trip to a place where space is heavy and sound is all that matters." - Walter Roadburn
Fourth Album "Atlas" Preorder Running Now! Arms and Sleepers Split EP Out December 15th, 2009 American Dollar MP3 Discography Special, Only $20 For All Four Albums! Go To: theamericandollar.bigcartel.com Thanks For Listening!
To download a free PDF copy from Rapidshare either follow this link or click on the image below . . .
This is quite a large file (the PDF is print quality, so if you wanted to print out a copy rather than stare at a computer screen you can. The 'zine will print at 300dpi and pages are sized at A5) so it may take a few minutes to download.
We are already working on the next issue (due out in January) and are always looking for contributors. If you would like to contribute to TBB or think that there is something we should know about please get in touch with us either here or, better still, visit our forum, sign up and get involved there. TBB is not just about music, we want to hear about anything underground, alternative or left of center.
Thanks for being my friend! Hope you like the tunes =) Please send me a message and let me know what you think! If you get a chance, please check out my band, Lights On Fire (www.myspace.com/lightsonfireband)! We'd love to know what you think! Lots of love, Joyce
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Online Now!
