Heads - Under the Stress of a Headlong Dive

UNDER THE STRESS OF A HEADLONG DIVE (Virus 365) may be the 5th album by Bristol's HEADS, but for many this North American release may be their first glimpse. The record came out in Europe with slightly different cover art (bright red/orange instead of purple) on Invada Records. After a spate of releases on Man's Ruin (Kozik's label), THE HEADS have negotiated their first release with Alternative Tentacles, home of past jammers like Comets on Fire and Zeni Geva. The UK group circles the wagons of psych bombast with a heavy krautrock-inspired groove, and create an event horizon of infinite heavy. Dave Pehling of the SF Weekly says "a serious contender for most bongtastic album of 2006"

 

Article Published Aug 23, 2006 DavePehling http://www.sfweekly.com/Issues/2006-08-23/music/reviewed3.html Who / What:The HeadsMusic Genre:Rock/Hip HopMusic Label:Alternative Tentacles Despite being one of the more creative bands to emerge from the lemminglike tide of late ’90s stoner-rock acts committed to vinyl by the Man’s Ruin imprint, talented British fuzz merchants the Heads somehow never got the Stateside audience they deserved. Straddling Stooges-inspired fury and droning, Hawkwind-esque deep space exploration, the Heads churn out a psych-punk maelstrom that answers the rhetorical question “What would Sonic Youth sound like if it sported a massive set of hairy balls?” The domestic release of Heads’ latest effort, Under the Stress of a Headlong Dive, reveals just how developed its corrosive Big Muff alchemy has become over the years. Anchored by the monolithic guitar squall of founder Simon Price and fellow six-string terrorist Paul Allen, the Heads bash out careening, catchy heaviness on “Earth/Sun,” the conga-driven “pass, the void” [sic] and “Your Monkey Is My Master,” standing equal to the best of Mudhoney and early Monster Magnet (before Dave Wyndorf stopped doing drugs). Factor in some loopy, mind-warping psychedelic interludes and a couple of thoroughly engaging extended freakouts (the nearly 20-minute epic “Stodgy” and “Creating in the Eternal New Is Always Heavy”) and you have a serious contender for most bongtastic album of 2006.

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