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CARLTON MELTON

Psychedelic/Space Rock • United States


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Carlton Melton picture
Carlton Melton biography
Founded in Mendocino, USA in 2008

The formation of CARLTON MELTON was, in a sense occasional and in another inevitable.

July 17th, 2008 was the special day for them - Andy Duvall (guitar and drums), Brian McDougall (drums), Rich Millman (guitar, synthesizers), and John Steuernagel (bass) have drawn up a plan to play live, loud, improvised, experimental, instrumental, psychedelic music in the Geodesic Dome off the Mendocino County coastline in Northern California, where one of the members resides and lots of friends have gigged and recorded all kind of music for a long time - this project came true on the day and eventually CARLTON MELTON could give the first shout as a permanent band.

CARLTON MELTON create an original music style with much influenced by lots of music and artists, especially by the sounds constructed inside the Dome and the beautiful, coastal setting in Mendocino County. A few weeks later, the July 17th show was arranged and mixed into a CD-R, that could be self-released with the title 'Live In Point Arena'.

Spring of 2009 brought another session to CARLTON MELTON, triggered by some sessions such as The HEADS' or 'Jams From The Heart' of Eddie Hazel in Funkadelic. They shot a brilliant 12-inch vinyl 'Pass It On' at November 7th 2009.

(many thanks Rich for your precious information)

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CARLTON MELTON discography


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CARLTON MELTON top albums (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)

3.96 | 7 ratings
Pass It On
2010
2.83 | 6 ratings
Country Ways
2011
3.57 | 7 ratings
Photos Of Photos
2012
3.50 | 6 ratings
Always Even
2013
4.25 | 4 ratings
Out To Sea
2015
3.00 | 2 ratings
Mind Minerals
2018
3.00 | 1 ratings
Where This Leads
2020
0.00 | 0 ratings
Resemble Ensemble
2023
0.00 | 0 ratings
Turn to Earth
2023

CARLTON MELTON Live Albums (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)

5.00 | 1 ratings
Live Europe '12
2013

CARLTON MELTON Videos (DVD, Blu-ray, VHS etc)

CARLTON MELTON Boxset & Compilations (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)

CARLTON MELTON Official Singles, EPs, Fan Club & Promo (CD, EP/LP, MC, Digital Media Download)

4.00 | 1 ratings
Live In Point Arena
2008
4.00 | 1 ratings
Smoke Drip
2012
4.00 | 1 ratings
Four Eyes
2013

CARLTON MELTON Reviews


Showing last 10 reviews only
 Mind Minerals by CARLTON MELTON album cover Studio Album, 2018
3.00 | 2 ratings

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Mind Minerals
Carlton Melton Psychedelic/Space Rock

Review by BrufordFreak
Collaborator Honorary Collaborator

3 stars This music begs the question, "What if Jimi Hendrix went ambient and/or jam band?"

1. "Untimely" (1:37) like entering a car wash--waves of heavily treated guitar sounds washing over the listener, getting him/her ready--initiating him or her for that which follows. (3/5)

2. "Electrified Sky" (8:30) with a steady, simple rock rhythm section, this one feels like a Ted Nugent song. As the pattern continues, is prolonged, it begins to feel drone-like, mesmerizing, like a sleepy Indian's pow-wow beat. Second guitar and synths join in but the rhythm track is nearly driving me out of my mind. ("Six more minutes of this crap!" my mind is screaming.) The entry of slide guitars diverts and distracts for a while until that, too, becomes boring. Not a song professional musicians should be proud of--certainly not proud enough to include on an album for public consumption! Truly disappointing. (6/10)

3. "The Lighthouse" (3:56) ambient psychedelic electric guitar(s). Nice. No wonder the Bandcamp sampler has the listener go straight to this song (while skipping the first two turds). Very pleasant, peaceful, even melodic. (8.75/10)

4. "Eternal Returns" (7:01) nice power jam displaying creative guitar play over the steady skills of the rhythm section (bass & drums). Nice groove. Nice guitar play. (9/10)

5. "Snow Moon" (10:17) somewhat ambient track based upon one ten-minute sustained synth chord over which bass drum, bass synth, multiple synth notes and washes, and bass guitar add their oft-panning, slowly evolving sound inputs. It is, in fact, the bass guitar that offers the most interesting contributions throughout as the player offers staccato horn-like riffs from the instrument's upper registers. (8.75/10)

6. "A Basketful Of Trumpets" (7:41) steady drum and bass pattern over which guitar offers a muted, sedated melody similar to that of Jimi Hendrix's "Hey Joe." Eventually, the song gels into a form that sounds like a revised, instrumental, WEST INDIAN GIRL version of PORCUPINE TREE's "Dark Matter." (9/10)

7. "Sea Legs" (8:34) drone like in its foundation, a bit Zeuhlish, but, ultimately, pure psychedelic stoner rock. My favorite part is at 4:40 when the second guitar enters and begins to make it's fiendishly malevolent presence known. Very cool! (9/10)

8. "Way Back When" (5:07) sounds like two--or three--guitars just sittin' by the fire jamming--sometimes in synch, sometimes drifting each off into their own worlds. Okay, nothing new, important or exciting here--until the cut out. (7/10)

9. "Climbing The Ladder" (4:16) pulsing two note bass and muffled bass tom carry forward the pacing of this song as heavily echoed guitar plays its own melodic pattern. Bass is actually the most prominent instrument throughout this one. Again, experimental but nothing too new, important, or exciting. Even the melodies are lacking any hooks. (7.5/10)

10. "Atmospheric River" (13:08) opens like a Harold Budd-Robin Guthrie "Moon & the Melodies" collaboration, very ambient and yet shoegaze, electric. The use of static sound as a rhythmic "click track" gets a little annoying and the guitar work could have gotten a little more dynamic and exciting, but overall it's an enjoyable listening experience. (8.75/10)

11. "Psychoticedelicosis" (6:26) bursts forth as if faded into the middle of a much longer jam, painfully slow drums and pulsing two-note bass provide the foundation for this two guitar jam--two heavily distorted, sky-scratching ("Purple Haze") guitars. At 2:20 a third guitar (and then fourth) are added alternating leads of squealing wah- shredding. The four guitars in the forefront are pretty cool but the rhythm pattern feels too stilted, too confining, and too insipid. (8/10)

3.5 stars; a nice contribution to prog world, especially to the stoner rock/psychedelia subgenres.

 Pass It On by CARLTON MELTON album cover Studio Album, 2010
3.96 | 7 ratings

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Pass It On
Carlton Melton Psychedelic/Space Rock

Review by DamoXt7942
Forum & Site Admin Group Avant/Cross/Neo/Post Teams

4 stars Their progression during less one year is terrific.

Hmm, how can I say about my first impression of the first track When You're In? As if I was struck with the grandeur such as Nazca Lines. Well you know, they could get bigger-hearted, more relaxed, and more flexible 'for uniting themselves with the Geodesic Dome, their studio, stage, and simultaneously residence'. Here is such an atmosphere like my impression all around the album Pass It On... For example, Digging In (F. F. Shite) is a song renewed F**king Funky S**t in the previous CD-R album but it can let me realize the depth and thickness around the sounds - oh, they can be digging in their sound and style more and more in this work in my humble opinion.

At any rate, they can be greater on this session. In a short but grand supply Off The Grid they can hit it off very well together...in spite of the difficulty to form this stuff completely, I feel. That is, not only all members but the Dome itself can walk on the same way - toward constructing the complete 'dome-y (not doomy?)' psychedelia.

Bravo!

 Live In Point Arena by CARLTON MELTON album cover Singles/EPs/Fan Club/Promo, 2008
4.00 | 1 ratings

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Live In Point Arena
Carlton Melton Psychedelic/Space Rock

Review by DamoXt7942
Forum & Site Admin Group Avant/Cross/Neo/Post Teams

— First review of this album —
4 stars Exactly 'July 17th, 2008' was the special day for them.

Rich Millman emphasized me about the beauty of the Mendocino County coastline in Northern California. Yes, their beautiful psychedelia with relaxed plays should be the most influenced by this atmosphere around them. So, honest to say, I can imagine their sounds visualized should look like quiet ripples under the setting sun - they can play not only drone but noble surrealistic music, BRAVO!

By the way, suggest that CARLTON MELTON themselves should be the happiest of all around this live album - in the Geodesic Dome they could get full support by the audience mates, the recording staffs, and the air and echoic effect of the Dome. And of course, most of all, their skills of playing and psychedelic essence, and their pleasure!

From the beginning they can show obviously their powerful personality and pleasure to play. The first track Happy Song should be just as the title says. Absolutely they are absorbed in the happy world...with playing as they wanna do, especially relaxed but steady drumming. All players and audience and us - the listeners of this album - are in the same realm existed as a Dome I always feel. On the contrary, the next Against The Wall is a danger...as if I could be made to face the earthquake melting down our 'earth' by rumbling noises and sounds. But I wonder, why I be satisfied and amazed with such a low-pitched shout of all instruments. F**king Funky S**T, despite of the title, is a comfort. Also here 'graceful' drum sounds can lead me to psychedelically comfortable underground. Inter Mission and Root Ball are completely improvised guitar heroes - as if they make something impressing from the utter vacancy. Full Moon Ridge is an union of their psychedelic elements - that is, I wanna say, their masterpiece. They say they are influenced by various elderly musicians and pioneers, and in this song I can feel an old flavour I have experienced long time before...right? In the last, suitable for the last of this album, Legion Of Dome, CARLTON MELTON and the audience and us could be united with the Dome they played in to form an exact psychedelia...by the heavy and dark soundscape.

Please be intoxicated with CARLTON MELTON - a gift from a beautiful coastline.

Thanks to dAmOxT7942 for the artist addition. and to Quinino for the last updates

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