Doug Tuttle – S/T (Trouble in Mind Records)
http://www.facebook.com/dougtuttledougtuttle
I have been singing the praises of Doug Tuttle‘s former band, MMOSS, for a couple of years now. I’m glad that the first I Iearned of their break-up was when I read the press release announcing his first, self-titled solo effort. I would have been heartbroken to think that I might never hear new music from the most inventive purveyors of psychedelic rock in New England in damn near 40 years.
Tuttle maintains the signature west coast hippie-ness that he was associated with in MMOSS but here he sheds the darker, Jefferson Airplane-ish leanings adding instead hints of sunnier, California psychedelia a la The Byrds.
The record is a master class in the psych-rock traditions of every generation since the sixties. There’s the aforementioned influence of The Byrds all over the record but it’s interspersed with blistering Neil Young-worthy guitar solos (“Turn This Love”), the nineties wackiness of Olivia Tremor Control (“When You Plant Your Love… Is Where It Grows”), and freak-rock excursions that could be outtakes from The Beatles‘ Magical Mystery Tour (“Lasting Away”, “Sewn Day”).
– George Dow
