Philiac – Oil Wars

Philiac – Oil Wars

Can Abyss Records – 2019

Rock, Prog, Psych, Stoner

Rated: ****

Remember that weird band we mentioned back in 2015? Well, that might be a bit too generic to state here, since the HiVe mentions a lot of weird, crazy, insane and off-kilter bands. We’re talking about Philiac, that collection of artists from an island in the Mediterranean that went of an recorded their first release This Appalling Ocean in the fabled Rancho De La Luna. Well, they went back and re-imagined that release into a new piece of art called Oil Wars. Released through Can Abyss Records on cassette it is meant as a one way, almost forty minute long trip, with no returning point and no point of reference. This is immersive. ‘A headphone ride into a dream’ the accompanying letter stated. Which is very true, a dream, a reverie, hallucinations and sometimes a nightmare. For it isn’t all light and air here, there is darkness. Sticky oily darkness lurking and it definitely turns the ocean into a muddy pool of something twisted here and there. But there is also always that green light that does shine and gives us a bit of hope. Can we state that Oil Wars is a better version of what we know Philiac is about? I am not sure. I think it’s just different. A different trip and a different experience… And just before finishing this piece about Oil Wars the band’s representative sent another email stating: ‘Philiac made a name for the sub-genre: ‘peyote rock’. I can definitely live with that!

(Written by JK)

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