Ash My Love – Honeymoon Blues LP (Noise Appeal Records)

More Noise Appeal Records goodies arrived at our headquarters, and this record was the first one that caught my attention. I’ve been familiar with Ash My Love, but I never listened to them before, so now’s more than a good chance. Ash My Love is an Austrian duo that combines a couple of complementary music genres. Perhaps blues comes to mind first, but they’re doing it with so much finesse that their sound avoids a categorization into that particular genre only. Like their version of blues sound isn’t interesting enough, they also introduce a noisy side of rock ‘n’ roll sound, mixed up with many art rock, slacker rock, and post-rock aesthetics. Still, the presence of blues and rock ‘n’ roll is mostly presented throughout their debut full-length, while these additional elements serve as more than necessary enhancements, accentuations, decorations, and other details that uplift this material on an entirely new level.

Honeymoon Blues is their debut material carrying eight excellent compositions. Some readers might notice this is the 2014 record, but the thing with blues and rock ‘n’ roll is that these genres always resonate with a timeless quality. Time doesn’t mean a thing here because their music levitates between the fifties, sixties, seventies, eighties, and contemporary sound. Perhaps the fifties and sixties eras shine the most in the mix, but you’ll undoubtedly notice how those art rock, slacker rock, garage rock, noise rock, and post-rock elements breathe fresh air into each composition. The noisy part of their song makes Honeymoon Blues even more listenable. Ash My Love incorporate the generous servings of noise that decorates and elevates their tracks and makes them stand out from the songs delivered by other artists on the modern blues or rock ‘n’ roll scene.

Songs like “Lonesome Me,” “Mr. Elisabeth,” “Screaming Blues, “Early The Morning,” “Fire,” and “Heart In Hand” are the perfect examples of their experimentation with noise, subtle aggression on one side, and melody and harmony on the other. The volumed-up highs, presence, gain, and distortion in both vocals and guitars play significant role in shaping that raw, abrasive, fuzzy ambiance. The cleverly assembled chord progressions serve as a perfect backdrop for flawlessly performed female and male vocal harmonies, while the warm-sounding basslines provide more heaviness, depth, and clarity. It’s also good to mention that excellent drumming offers more than necessary grove and pace through moderate, well-accentuated beats, breaks, and fills. Ash My Love thought about everything while assembling these tracks, and the entire album sounds incredible from the begining to the end.

This vinyl edition wouldn’t be complete without magnificent visual appearance, so Ash My Love and Noise Appeal thought about it as well. You’ll notice eye-peeling illustrations on both vinyl jacket and sleeve, entirely illustrated in classic bluesy/rock ‘n’ roll style but with a slight horror twist. The gold vinyl flawlessly matches the red and beige design of the record jacket, so you’ll get a perfect audio/visual treat with Honeymoon Blues. This record is still available at Noise Appeal Records as a part of Ash My Love double record bundle, so head to their web store and treat yourself with this some marvelous music.