Terminal Lovers – As Eyes Burn Clean (Public Guilt)
By Jay Snyder
October 7, 2009

It has been an eon since I’ve heard mention of Ohio shuttle crew, Terminal Lovers; a sprawling super project, masterminded by Dave Cintron (guitar/vocals), featuring Chris Smith (Keelhaul, Integrity) on second guitar, Jamie Walters (Midnight, Boulder) on bass, with the dual percussive attack of Brent Gemmill (Lung) and Bob Zeiger (Midnight) rounding things out for this band of astral plane wanderers.

My first and only introduction to the band was the Shifty involved, Drama Pit and Loan some odd years back…probably around 4 or 5 at this point. It was a great album but quite challenging, choosing to explore the farthest reaches of space, pop, 70’s rock and early Ash Ra Tempel or Amon Duul, definitely not an album that stuck immediately. Instead, it got better with each subsequent spin…slowly revealing an altered universe of delightfully trippy mood swings and spacious psychedelic sounds within its diverse palette.

Apparently the band has put out a few scant recordings I’ve missed in the interim, most recently some self-released deals on their own imprint, but a proper full-length follow-up hasn’t become available till now. As Eyes burn Clean is the band's latest and greatest... a masterful piece of work, and much more retro tinged than the last recording I had the pleasure of hearing. At times it sounds like Ash Ra Tempel circa Join Inn or Schwingungen, with a beefier, updated production job, more assorted space sounds in the background and a larger emphasis on hooky grooves.

Opener, “Press the Bank” meanders with a cosmic strangeness that is certainly kindred to the material on Drama Pit and Loan. An extended introduction of hallucinatory noise, ebbing guitar fuzz and distant space-rock sets a very eerie mood indeed, enticing the ears to anticipate what will eventually come next, in addition to making one wonder what direction it will come from… When a distant guitar solo plunges the depths of krautrock greats gone by, only to be followed by a driving beat, killer guitar interplay and LSD enhanced singing…it is clear Terminal Lovers are headed straight back to the roots for this record.

Flowing seamlessly into the scraping chords and the Latin flavored percussion of “Ion Gate”, the unit capitalizes on their ability to grab onto a mood and clench its throat for dear life. The twin guitars nail some unique, King Crimon-esque melody lines, collapsing and falling as necessary, creating some space to unleash a leaden Sabbath boogie bolstered by extremely drugged out vocals. Everything about this behemoth and the atmosphere it creates, struggles between a light and dark realm that simultaneously lifts and deconstructs the listener’s psyche, all in one fell swoop. Delving further into sonic exploration and sheer groove for groove’s sake, the high-octane buzz and boogie of “Shadow Driver” bares a strange resemblance to the first two Captain Beyond LPs (seriously!), as if ran through some cheap transistor full of oddities, effects and warped vocal incantations. There’s a totally classy, vintage vibe on hand, although updated by the modern generation of noise arsonists the world over.

Fans of Titan would probably like this stuff, as it has got very off-kilter hooks, but listen deep and they are in there, tending to jump out on repeat listens whenever you least expect it. “Steve Ashby” is a little mellower and more limber overall, adding some nice tribal percussion (bongos, I think) to the pristine guitar lines and breathy singing. Nary does the volume rise, until the very end, when squalls of guitar scorch, clear the lane for the bluesy licks and roaming psychedelic pilgrimage of “Sacred and the Man”; tied for album highlight with epic closer “Sun, Lit Rings”. This space odyssey is backed by a lush, forward pushing bass groove that sets the foundation for the grinding, 70’s gnash emitted by the guitars. Cintron and Smith put out a helluva a lot of noise all throughout this one, but keep the music anchored with obtuse, time-machine grooves, never losing focus of writing a good song for the sake of heavy handed, fucking around. In fact, this tune has the weird aura of the Butthole Surfers jamming with Amon Duul and Captain Beyond…definitely not your atypical sound at all, but one well worth riding out for the long haul.

Instrumental, “Truth between Errors” is a yin and yang piece that sort of stumbles around aimlessly, it isn’t a bad track but more of a spacer, serving a greater purpose as a segue to the piece de resistance “Sun, Lit Rings”…which caps the album, ending the previous three songs as a themed trilogy. The first half melds all sorts of noise cacophonies with a break of soft guitar strum and smooth as silk, melodic vocals. This one locks you in, letting you know that something monumental is lurking on the horizon. When the clouds part and the starlit guitar lines of the 3:20 mark come starkly into view, it’ll fill your ears and soul with a hope that life isn’t as bad as you think it is. Seriously, it is one of those rock n’ roll moments that I’m damned proud I got a chance to experience, let alone write about and all I can do is my best to wrap a couple of my feeble descriptive attempts around it. It is a moment completely and beautifully rooted in the 70’s psych explosion, but with a saddened yet somehow optimistic feel…that is almost nearly impossible to attach words to. Imagine Hawkwind, crossed with Titan and a whole sack of magic mushrooms filling your belly…and that is the very trip that “Sun, Lit Rings” takes you on! Phenomenal, classy and classic if you ask me, ending this record on an extremely high note, cementing it as a psychedelic album that never loses its track, and one that always has some enlightening moment around the corner.

To be honest, I pulled out Drama Pit and Loan to stand it up against this one, and as good as that record was, it can’t even touch As Eyes burn Clean; which makes me wonder how this shit was developing from point A to point B (guess I’m gonna have to find out!). Whatever the case, and whatever Dave Cintron and his cast of cohorts have been doing, it is a path that they should keep down. As Eyes burn Clean is richly developed, carefully cultivated and majestically blissful. It has an air of immediacy in its delivery, causing one to remember parts of the songs after the very first listen, but there's plenty of depth for further, more rewarding spins down the line. A sign of a truly gripping psych record!

By far, this album is the psychedelic mindfuck of the year from my standpoint, beaconing both as a glorious nod to the old guard and a raised fist to the new breed of noiseants. I’m damn glad this came my way, it brought me back into Terminal Lovers’ wild, weird world once again…and this time I’m going to be extending my stay!



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