What are you Listening to Right Now? Febus XV

This Italian psychedelic doom metal group seems to have languished in "cult status" land, despite friends in higher places like Monster Magnet and Orange Goblin. Mind you, they are a level spacier than even usual for this kind of music, building their compositions up around long stretched-out effects-laden soundscapes that follow "slow burn" tension-and-release structures involving many layers of texture more than any kind of catchy riffing or hooks. Perhaps fans of Ash Ra Tempel, Guru Guru and Hawkwind would take easier to this band than most metalheads do, proceed they can handle all the guitar distortion.

Not only the only of their albums so far to really impress me, but also in my book a better glowing pink sacred cow of indie/postpunk music than Loveless. The use of tribalistic drumming and futuristic keyboards at the same time remind me of Killing Joke, but the aesthetic concept and resulting atmosphere is very different from KJ's brand of post-apocalypticism.

The atmosphere reminds me of the photos I've seen of the seedier neon-lit parts of Tokyo and other Asian metropolises, or at least how they're commonly depicted in the media.