Wail - Wail Review ⚡️ - More Fuzz Stoner Rock Blog

Quick Access

Review / Favorite Track / For Fans Of / Atmosphere Levels / Links (Music & Social)

This Jazzy Prog Funk fusion will shake your booty and fuck your brain!

I’m keeping on my funky fuzz spiral of the last few weeks with Wail, a Quartet of Philadelphia who released their selftitled debut album last week on Translation Loss Records.

Wail is a new band created by the two brothers Papadopoulos (on guitar and bass) from the Doom Jazz power trio Stinking Lizaveta. They are backed in this endeavor by the two prog/jazz veterans, Pete Wilder on guitars and Calvin Weston behind the kit. These four seasoned musicians joined forces with a mission, be the funk band at our stoner fests! And man, they deliver such an awesome mix of prog, jazz, and funk, killing it with every second. They clearly can also try to book some spots to be the stoner band at the jazz fests 😉

How’s The Sound?

An avalanche of groove flowing over you like a gentle breeze. The Philly-based Quartet sounds super funky at all times, in various ways, and with several layers of influences resulting in a brilliant and complex blend. Still, they manage to make it sound very natural. Each track has its own appealing simplicity and yet will always pique the interest of your brain at some point. The prog approach of the songwriting is quite obvious all over and works so well with the funk vibe that we tend to forget about it, losing ourselves in the groove.

The progression of the songs seems firmly rooted in jazz jams too, developing a core, and then letting each of the musicians a time to shine, always coming back to the core and making it evolve throughout. Most of the time a guitar and the bass make sure to keep the funk barebone, backed super jazzy drumming, letting the other guitar give different textures and colors to the song. The focus shifts from one to the other, progressively building up some tension, as the band as a whole follows each thrust to keep it harmonized. They talk to each other and complement each other, telling a story to the listener without any vocals.

Their alchemy is amazing, each of them bringing the best out of the others. Be it in the chill build-up moments or in the more frenetic ones, there are always some goodies coming from each of the four members, making the whole sound full of finesse and letting it shine in its intricated beauty. That’s another reason why I fell in love with this album, they make the best of every moment, and I appreciate each side of their sound equally. There are lots of super chill and smooth aerial moments, full of space and subtleties. Their unstoppable funky grooves will make you dance without even noticing it. And those crazy blazing explosions of thunder remind me of Acid Mother’s Temple insane spirals. Still, they are all equal and make me have a blast of the same intensity, each in their own different way, but each as gloriously as the other. It’s even more satisfying to have all these shades of top-notch musicianship in a single record, even in a single song sometimes. There are different intensities in the energy, and different moods, that are gonna take us through lots of different emotions over the hour of this album, but each moment expresses virtuosity in an undeniable manner.

All in all, this is a very harmonious album full of contrasts, in the way it stays chill while being quite energetic at the same time, in the construction of the songs, between the different influences melted in the process, or in that enticing complexity. All those dualities make it quite puzzling at first, but it is also its strength, making the end result an enjoyable time, no matter your state of mind.

There is something for everyone in there, and for every time.

Why is this album worth listening to?

It is both chill and energetic, somehow at the same time, and can fit any mood.
These four super talented musicians have such a brilliant and naturally groovy alchemy, right from their debut album.
Wail is funky and groovy, with a jazz/prog approach, the result is talking to both our heart and our brain.