Review Summary: If this is what a space trip on a paper plane sounds like, sign me up.
I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered this gem of an album a couple of years back. Outside of the fact that this band is from Austria and are fronted by a female, there isn't much information available on this band, which I found rather surprising considering how tight and unique they sound. I didn't initially look them up, so I was surprised to learn that it was indeed a woman that was responsible for the vocals. Needless to say, being a fan of Coheed and Circa Survive has made me somewhat accustomed to that whiny male vocal sound. Not to say that the vocals found within this album are whiny, they are not; The vocals just have a unique pitch to them that does not exactly conjure up an image of well hung cojones. However, now that I think of it, based on my first impression alone, I would never assume the vocals belonged to a female. All of this bodes well for the unique sound that the Sahara Surfers have managed to capture in the entirety of this album and within their sound in general.
The band's myspace page, one of the only sources of info on this band, describes them as "progressive/stoner/psychadelic" and I would have to say that that is an accurate description of what they put out. This band has managed to blend all of the best aspects of each style and made it their own. Upon first listen I could tell that this album was special, but it wasn't until I got to "Age" that I knew I had found something really great. The vocalist, Julia Überbacher, really shines on this song as her ability to tap into the pulse of the jam at any given moment really draws the listner in. In any given song the song could be at a slow tempo or a faster tempo and it doesn't matter, Überbacher never loses confidence in her ability to show you what the song is meaning to convey.
I'm always impressed by bands that compliment their tight instrumentals with what seems like the perfect vocalist. Within Sahara Surfers there is no shortage of interesting instrumentation to keep the listener engaged. They seemingly go from crunchy stoner riffs to the more moody down tempo stuff without missing a beat. It's not often that a band gets me interested in what the lyrics to a song are actually saying. It's just too bad that this band is not big enough where a simple "googling" might bring up their lyrics. I would definitely recommend this band and album to anyone who enjoys stoner and/or progressive rock.
