It’s been three years under way (and another seven months before hitting this corner of the www), the debut album by Norwegian psych-rock outfit Izakaya Heartbeat. I first came across them – initially a solo project by singer, guitarist and songwriter Christian Larsen which slowly turned into an six headed monster – a year ago, when they twisted my mind with their dark, guitar driven psychedelic rock, and I’ve been looking forward to hear ‘Ancient Asobi / In Arcadia’ ever since. Thankfully it doesn’t disappoint.

If memory serves me right, the three songs on MySpace back then were the sublime album opening troika ‘Narcoleptic Highway’ (balls out rock), ‘Skull And Bones’ (in the player) and ‘Jor-El’ (in the same noisy vein as the first), which is followed by an equally grand trio in the subtly dizzying ‘Edo’, near-pop moment ‘Glass And Flowers’, and roaring ‘Escapism’ which offers just that in all its hypnotic repetition. The next three songs, ‘Evolution Act’, ‘Les Sapins’ and ‘Nian’, don’t really do much for me, but the Norwegian gang leave me on a high note with the aggressive guitar attack ‘Into The Sun’.

As you probably have gathered by now, there’s quite a bit of guitar on ‘Ancient Asobi / In Arcadia’ (four of them to be exact), and herein lies a general highlight of the album. Apart from the impressive and intricate variation, they’re always perfectly matched and balanced whether they’re clean, fuzzed or distorted. Or everything at the same time. Which is often the case in the Izakaya Heartbeat universe. Truly an awesome debut…

Genre: Rock/Psychedelic
Who: Izakaya Heartbeat
Album: Ancient Asobi / In Arcadia
Label: Y.E.S.Rec/Handmade Records
Year: 2010
Country: Norway
Language: English
DOWNLOAD VIA

Recommended tracks:
Narcoleptic Highway – Skull And Bones – Jor-El – Edo – Glass And Flowers – Escapism – Into The Sun