If Tomorrow I Were Leaving for Lhasa, I Wouldn't Stay a Minute More...

The second and final Red Temple Spirits album found the band at once exploring its sound further and giving a couple of smart nods to their inspirations in the past, creating as sharp a goth/postpunk fusion with psychedelic spacerock out there on either side of the Cure or their more direct contemporaries and fellow LA musicians Jane’s Addiction. With “City of Millions” feeling like a salute to its surroundings as well as a portrait of a state of mind to kick things off, William Faircloth’s slightly wracked and frail but never unclear vocals ride the sweeping flow of the music, Dallas Taylor’s guitar strong without being overpowering. Indeed if anything the rhythm section of Dino Paredes and Thomas Pierik always has the forefront, a moody churning stomp and rumble. While calling a song “Soft Machine” is a clear nod, there’s no direct connection as such to that band; instead, the quartet executes two inspired covers, of Pink Floyd’s “Set The Controls To the Heart of the Sun” and the 13th Floor Elevators’ “Rollercoaster,” putting their own particular stamp on them and sitting well with originals like “In The Wild Hills.”