Golden Void - Golden Void

Golden Void are from the San Francisco Bay Area that launched back in 2010 by Earthless guitarist/vocalist Isaiah Mitchell. Alongside Isaiah, the band considers Camilla Saufley-Mitchell on Keyboards and Vocals, Aaron Morgan on Bass, and Justin Pinerton on Drums. The band carry the psychedelic, spacey, and doom approach with a hypnotic bliss that will send take you into different areas that will make the eyebrows go up. So be prepare to experience a sonic adventure that will make you engage a jump to sub-light speed.

I first became aware of Golden Void’s music when Sid Smith, mastermind and expert of King Crimson who does the blogsite, Postcards from the Yellow Room and Podcasts from the Yellow Room did a review on them (their second album, Berkana) for the Going Weird website last year. And I’ve heard some samples of the band’s music, and I was very impressed of what I was hearing. It was like this a combination between of the band doing a score for the Ren & Stimpy short, Space Madness and something straight out of the mind of comic book artist, Jean-Giraud Moebius.

Their sole self-titled debut album released in 2012 on the Thrill Jockey Records label, is a mastermind journey into the infinite. The ascending Shady Grove sees Golden Void delving into the mind of Hawkwind’s Hall of the Mountain Grill-era meets Ash Ra Tempel meets Black Sabbath’s Sabbath Bloody Sabbath-era while the blaring shuffle road adventure gives it a sensational punch and delving into a bluesy workout by Isaiah himself in the style of early Floyd for The Curve.

He channels the styles of Manuel Gottsching, David Gilmour, and Tony Iommi. He is nailing those twist and turns to give it that heavier approach and he nails it each time he goes through the rhythm and lead improvisations on his guitar and knowing there is no stop sign. The 3/4 time signature psychedelic waltz for the Art of Invading, shows the Jazz and roaring Organ punches that Camilla does followed by Justin’s jazz-like drumming to really head into see and where Isaiah goes and follows in those areas.

Jetsun Dolma has an eerie yet dreamy and mysterious tones between Isaiah’s wah-wah voyages followed by Camilla created the spooky atmosphere on her keyboards. Morgan and Pinkerton create the styles between early Pink Floyd from the More and A Saucerful of Secrets-era that shine through the Post-Barrett period that channels their underrated period from 1968 to 1971 before hitting the big time with Dark Side of the Moon.

The galloping rhythm comes at you with a brutal kicking energetic level for Badlands. Justin nails those drum chains like a Rabbit hopping at 600 miles per hour from here to the stars. I can hear the touches of The Man with No Name trilogy as if Golden Void had done a score for one of Sergio Leone’s spaghetti western films, but with a killer soundtrack.

Overall, this is an amazing debut from the band they launched back four years ago. And it is quite astounding on where the band take their journey into the worlds on where they go to. This is the band that are following the Psychedelic, Prog, and Doom torch and making sure it doesn’t burn out and I hope to hear more of them for years and years to come.