Quintron is, without a doubt, one of my favorite artists I first listened to this year. Extremely inventive in his music, while his main instrument is the electric organ, he’s also been seen playing his own inventions on stage such as a light-activated drum machine. You can find him on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/user/spellcasterlodge/ where he posts videos of him tinkering with different electronics and musical things these days. The best description I’ve seen for his music is from a comment on an early YouTube video of his, stating simply “Jerry Lee Lewis, on acid”, need I say more?
The first track, “Wonderment”, starts off in a sort of melancholic spacey zone, with the electric organ drifting the listener away in the background, and some sort of synthesizer is at attention in front, and ends up with an an eerie finish that reminds me of early movies about space travel.
“Death In Space (feat. Gary Wrong)” is up now, and it might have electric guitar in it? It’s so outer-space like, it’s really sweet. The drums pick up out of nowhere, and a song starts to break through the cosmic madness – super sick transition. It kind of reminds me of his other work with Weather Warlock (also very worth checking out by the way, if you’re interested in music that is changed in part by weather). The song gets this far-out spacey groove going. It almost reminds me of some of Peter Kember’s (from Spacemen 3) work with Kember’s band Spectrum in a certain way.
Holy smokes, “Carney Starter” is absolutely sweet. Mr. Quintron’s electric organ absolutely blows me away every time he decides to let it loose. If you wanna great starter track into Quintron’s quintessential sound, in my opinion this one would be a great place to start.
“Do the Raid (feat. Miss Pussycat)” finally gets into the vocals. Quintron has an absolutely rock and roll voice, and this song features his wife, Miss Pussycat, who has a voice that blows me away every time I listen to it – so smooth and succinct – breathtaking. Quintron’s music bleeds authenticity, he’s making his music and has an absolute blast doing it. It’s so chaotic, I can barely think of anything to say about it, but everything still comes together so well. Quintron’s music is a breath of fresh air to me – I’ve never listened to anything quite like it.
“Home Invasion” has some chuggy synth that starts out the song that slowly turns into a drone-like alarm, until it fades to Quintron just jamming out to the track, with a simple percussion to it and a bass line that really carry the song super well, almost jazzy in a certain way, while Mr. Q is just doing his thing. Wow, it just bleeds out some super sweet sounding noise until it transitions to the following track, “Mirza’s Marsh”, that almost quacks along in a certain imperial march type of way. It’s befuddling to try to process, so I’m just enjoying it.
“Something Is Wrong With Jim Bob” really demonstrates Quintron’s inventiveness – it sounds like a southern rock slide guitar type song got sent off in a rocket ship to Mars and this is what it sounded like when it landed.
“Steve (feat. Miss Pussycat, Peaches & Vice Cooler)” sounds super rock and roll, but it’s like the genre has almost been reinvented. Quintron has an album from 1998 called These Hands of Mine, and he could easily call each of his albums that same name because he’s got that electric organ wailing like no other, and me currently in a spin listening to the chaotic complexities to it. It subverts all expectations of rock and roll music, but at the same time, that’s the closest genre I can even describe it as. I really can’t say anything except, ‘what the heck is going on, I need to hear more’.
“Fatal Harmonic” really brings that ominous space vibe back to front and center, with a sort of droning cosmic sound to the whole thing. I just spaced out for a minute as it was playing, incredible.
“Death In Space (Reprise)” doesn’t really remind me of anything of the original, at first. The rhythm is almost new-age primal. I have no idea where the song is going next, and it’s exhilarating, because it sounds so awesome. I’ve been so excited to post something about Quintron, and his music has lived up to the hype I’ve been giving it in my own head, and even more. It vaguely reminds me music from the Super Mario Bros. games, somehow. I’m not sure how, but this track is, as well as the entire album thus far, absolutely killer.
“Mirza’s Marsh (Extended)” is on now, and if you visited a spooky swamp in outer space, this is the music that would be playing in the background. We’re back to some sort of swampy imperial march, but it keeps exploring further than that sound and the way it resolves, wow. Quintron is an artist that makes me feel like I’m listening to music for the first time ever, again. I feel like sometimes the song is talking back to me, or even mimicking my reactions when in my head I think ‘wow, that’s neat’.
The album is officially over, as it’s a 34 minutes long endeavor into the unknown that really makes me question any preconceived notions I had about music. I absolutely need to hear more. Though I’ve already listened to a majority of his albums, I’m looking forward to the next one I can write about.
-A