donderdag 26 juni 2025

Lorquin’s Admiral – Lorquin’s Admiral

 

 

Lorquin’s Admiral – Lorquin’s Admiral
Argonauta Records – 2025
Rock, Desert, Stoner, Grunge
Rated: ****

There’s a certain familiar aspect to the songs. It speaks to your stoner rock muscle memory as much as it flexes it to makes new connections. Connecting the dots between an extended family of musicians, Lorquin’s Admiral self-titled debut album shoots out the gates with an in medias res rocker called My Blue Wife. That desert, stoner, grunge hued guitar tone immediately setting the scene and vocalist Dandy Brown’s sweet voice surfing across the hills and valleys of the melody… Dandy Brown! As some of you might know, Stoner HiVe is of course a highly personal account of our love for heavy music. There is no such thing as objective journalism and it’s even completely impossible when it comes to music. And I guess we have professed our love for Mr. Brown and his highly varied and great number of projects many times before. Seeing Orquesta Del Desierto live back in 2004 remains one of my most cherished memories. And if you would have told me back then I would be talking to Mr. Brown on multiple occasions, I probably would have swooned. If his Blue Wife swooned when she heard this opening song can be read in the interview soon to be published. For yes, a long form interview with Dawn and Dandy Brown is about to go live on Stoner HiVe. But before we publish that long screed, a few more words about the Lorquin’s Admiral album… 

For even though there’s a definite Dandy Brown signature across the tracks it is not his new band. But that it still feels like it, is mostly thanks to the instigators for catering to and writing with Dawn and Dandy’s voices in mind. The project started with Marlon King and Nick Hannon of Sons of Alpha Centauri , who of course already collaborated on the Yawning Sons album Sky Island, sending out tracks to Dandy and it then slowly involved into the family affair it has become. Cause lifelong accomplice Country Mark Engel  from Orquesta del Desierto, Dock Ellis, Deus Vult is there for extra guitar duties and longtime collaborator drummer Steve Earle from the Afghan Whigs joins in. Rounded out with guest appearances by another permanent fixture Dave Angstrom (Hermano, Luna Sol, Asylum On The Hill, Supafuzz). And we can safely state this is an all-star formation of friends that have one common denominator, the man that loves to bring everyone together, get the energy up and jam till that lightning is captured and firmly secured in a bottle once again… 

And even though we get all the familiar faces in one sitting, it’s still a different animal than The Fizz Fuzz or Orquesta Del Desierto or Hermano or any of those other bands and projects the boys have been a part of. This one flutters with ease and glows with soulful warmth. There’s desert, there’s stoner and there’s grunge, but delivered with so much sensibility, that you can’t just simply put on one track and listen distractedly. No, this is immersive from an entirely different angle and paints its very own landscape. Whether it is the more stoner shoving Inexplicable Things, rough and rowdy, taken higher by the guitar lead and Dawn’s varied vocals. The beautiful guitar work in Could Have Been Better, which also returns throughout Black Water or the love shown by Dawn and Dandy for one another through the album but especially on the two sided coin of opener Dandy’s My Blue Wife and Dawn’s My Blue Husband. The latter also sporting a few instance of robotic riffage that might pop QOTSA into your head. Which is another grandiose thing about the album, the interplay between the vocals throughout the album add that extra touch, the slightly sultry singing of Dawn, which she switches with more nasal touched power and the honey-d voice of Dandy that always has this hazy and airy element to it. In all there are nine tracks of flow and groove and it will install a powerful lust in you to keep listening and to constantly fly along with. For it’s absolutely beautifully crafted and will make your heart take flight, just like it does on those rare instances when you see a Lorquin’s Admiral flutter through the desert sky… 


(Written by JK)




Argonauta Records

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