"Genesis" is the sophomore album by the mystic desert rock XIXA. Formed in the heart of the deep American Southwest, XIXA are a guitar-slinging six-piece, uniquely attuned to the desert and their Latin roots. Combining gritty guitars, the bumping grind of chicha, and desert blues into a mesmerizing stew. They're also a band whose time had come to define what they call "The New Southwest"-intense, sun-bleached music shot through with an inky gothic horror that scans like the long-lost soundtrack to a cult, macabre B-movie Western.
Their debut record, 2016 "Bloodline," saw them inject heavy fuzz guitars and Latin pulses into sandy rock and roll, a potent mix that took them all over the world for two whole years. For 2019s EP "The Code" they blended psych-rock, cumbia, goth rock, cowboy folk and windswept desert blues into a dark, simmering occult.
On "Genesis" we finds that XIXA delving deeper into their admiration for Peruvian chicha, extracting and refining their core, and giving voice to their most primal instincts. Informed by the bands rich history as songwriters and storytellers, they've carved a wider space for their psychedelic rock to swell, a place where scoundrels and coyotes roam free, and magic runs deep in the earth. It is the ultimate desert trip.
"Genesis" contains ten magical tunes with a play time of fourtytwo minutes. It's a wonderfully sprawling story, Morricone feeling that lies over the album like a piece of silk, from the opening tune "Thine Is The Kingdom" that serving an atmospheric and epic landscape, soaring and summoning vocals. Throughout the album the band has a great balance in the musical roots of the modern americana and the latin rythms where they serve us a "smörgårdsbord" of liveliness, dance-friendly rhythms, with a very great creativity that gives an wide and innovative result. "Land Where We Lie" that gives us some singing by the Uummannaq Children’s Choir, the summer latino inspired "Eclipse", the psychedelic rocker "Soma", the high tempo world music piece "Eve Of Agnes" feautring Imarhan (Algerian Tuareg desert rock quintet), that spieces of the tune with some Saharan desert vibes. "Velveteen" is a far out psych beauty that followes up by the latino galopping "May They Call Us Home", a spaghetti Westerns with Morricone floating in the space. The half paced Tom Waits sounding piece "Nights Plutonian Shore" is a real beauty of blackened post-apocalyptic world and the vocals from Gabriel Sullivan is so deep and powerful and with Sergio Mendoza on piano. The album closes up with the country slow-burner "Feast Of Ascension" in the best possible way. The album is a thrilling ride for those rockers and popers with open minds. I really dig this and I have always been weak for bands that dare to take the turns a bit. So I do recomend this!
Sum: This is the long-lost soundtrack to a cult, macabre B-movie Western.
Today's tune "May They Call Us Home", taken from "Genesis". Written and Directed by Charlie Stout - http://www.charliestout.comFeaturing Howe Gelb as The Enlightened OneMystic Bolo-Ties by Heliotrope - http://www.heliotropemetal.com, Enjoy!
More info @
Official Xixa Web
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