Review: "Down Below World" by REPTIEL
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San Francisco’s REPTIEL use a mind-melting blend of styles, textures, and timbres in their otherworldly “Down Below World” album. Sunburnt psychedelic rock with a neat twist of progressive rock dilates time, slowing it down and speeding it up at a moment’s notice. By keeping things so strange, they keep the listener guessing, refusing to clarify anything. This mysterious tenor defines the entire journey through the album. There’s a gleefulness they take in being so willfully obscure.
Acid alliteration is akin to that of Van Dyke Parks' levels of abstraction and poetic, given the sheer opaque number of references. The broken nursery rhyme cadence draws from early Pink Floyd, specifically Syd Barrett's era “Piper at the Gates of Dawn.”
Utterly disregarding the usual, REPTIEL morph their tones into something akin to Faust’s early 70s relentless experimentation. For all these touchstones, there’s a strong sense of community that helps to give the “Down Below World” album a well-deserved mysticism, as if things are just continuously residing on the edge of perception. Messing with listener expectations feels refreshing, as they refuse to play it safe.
Vocals bloom on the tone-setting “A Really Deep Groove (Aleph to Bet).” The sprawling “It’s an Alternate World” explores a whole universe, which feels like a series of suites connected through the narrative. “Deep(er) Below” has warped wonder from the strength of the guitar riffs to the celebratory keyboards that adorn the experience.
Wordless is the interlude of “Searching for Thos” and “Ja’roque” completely baffles with retro synthesizers and a chorus borrowed from the criminally underrated Cromagnon, whose general vibe continues with the following “Ja’vere’s Theme.” Glam rock with a sci-fi aesthetic runs through the swagger of “Obsidian City.” “Preserved in Amber” feels like a long-lost classic transmitted from another universe. A pure drone on “Turbulent Blobs” makes it one of the more straightforward pieces of the album.
Keyboards intersect on the slow-moving gait of “Introit”, while twisting and turning “Thos Unearthed” has a grandeur. Patterns intersect, giving “Post-synergistic, Atmospheric Explosion” a celebratory sensation that underpins the message. Like a hazy late-summer afternoon is the dazed “Chamber of Reflections.” A more minimal “VITRIOL” ends the album on an eerie note.
Done with a sense of whimsy and charm, REPTIEL delivers something genuinely divine in “Down Below World”.