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Album Review

DOOM GONG – ‘DOOM GONG’ [Album Review]

On one level akin to hip, ‘60s lounge music, DOOM GONG’s self-titled album is lusciously imaginative and sumptuously, delicately erogenous.

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DOOM GONG ‘DOOM GONG’ album artwork
DOOM GONG ‘DOOM GONG’ album artwork

DOOM GONG, the Denim Psych outfit formed in 2022 by a bunch of music school nerds, has just released the vinyl edition of their self-titled debut album via Romanus Records.

Since dropping their debut LP in 2023, DOOM GONG has released two more albums: 2023’s DREAM BEHEMOTH and this year’s Live at The Whirling Tiger. They have also performed at music festivals like Big Stomp, Back Alley Ballyhoo, Expansion Psychedelic Festival, Moonshiners Ball, Crave Festival, and Moonshadow Music Festival.

Their sound – Denim Psych – is a mixture of psychedelic rock, jazz fusion, bedroom pop, lo-fi, and contemporary classical music.

DOOM GONG begins with “DOOM,” a lo-fi, swirling, lysergic-flavoured tune that conjures up savours of dreamy, ambient music. A personal favourite because of its bubbly-lite, gliding surfaces, “Still Hoverin’” floats on gossamer filaments of sound as soft, sighing vocals imbue the lyrics with misty timbres, gentle and wafting.

“No air resistance pushing me once I’ve drifted for a while / Up here I see the earth spinning around me like a turnstile, turnstile / Plenty of room to stretch my legs when there’s nothing up this high.”

DOOM GONG, photo by Jo Morecraft

DOOM GONG, photo by Jo Morecraft

GONG” opens on a potpourri of gongs and cymbals, followed by rolling into psychedelic, merry-go-round harmonics that are simultaneously proximate and remote. The heavy, prog-rock dynamics of “Bridge of Doom” form a retro-laced combination of hard rock, dream-pop, and shoegaze into a thick, fantastical dreamscape.

Shangri-La Samba” purrs and hums on low-slung, luminous textures that shimmer and waver as breathy vocals enfold the lyrics in velvety tones. While the sensuous, Latin-jazz-flavoured “Intermission” ties the album off with voluptuous elegance.

On one level akin to hip, ’60s lounge music, on another level, DOOM GONG is lusciously imaginative and sumptuously, delicately erogenous.

DOOM GONG Track Listing:

1. DOOM
2. Still Hoverin’
3. The Gong Rings On
4. GONG
5. Bridge of Doom
6. Shangri-La Samba
7. DOOM GONG
8. Intermission

Run Time: 41:17
Release Date: March 24, 2023, October 19, 2024 (vinyl)
Record Label: Romanus Records (vinyl)

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