Review Summary: A solid and honest album from a band that has gone widely unnoticed
Plain and simple, Peaches’ first and only album is a brave and remarkable attempt of a band striving to find its personality between 70s’ influences, infused with an extra dose of Britain’s greatest dinginess. It is surely unfair for the band to be remembered as “that one which Tool picked their bassist from”, and that is because Peach have multiple virtues, that could even lead them to a creation of a quite strange sub-genre with elements of doom to pure psychedelic music, all cleverly incorporated in their work.
The album’s biggest advantage is its amazing consistency, melted with genius and simple riffing alongside with the quite ethereal vocals, bringing Anathema to mind. The Sabbathian riffs are always present, bass-heavy and catchy, delivering raw power that easily bulks out the songs, which are based on simple but effective structures. Justin’s presence is seen in the brilliant use of the bass lines that usually seem to lead the songs, stealing the fame from the guitarist, which follows vividly. Such an example is the almost famous, Tool-covered “You Lied”: It opens with a gloomy bass line, accompanied by sweet guitar licks and leads. Then a huge riff is brought, and the music goes quiet again for some beautiful clean vocals to pave the way for another guitar lead, making this piece a perfect example of the band’s intentions to show some of their skills. The similar music amalgam is seen in other songs, like the opener “Spasm”, or in “Don’t make me your god”. Noteworthy is also Simon Oakes’ appearance in vocals, which work perfectly with the moody guitar parts in songs like “Dougal” or in the closer “Peach”, letting the psychedelic feeling wide open, together with chaotic sounds and effects which give the band their hazy identity. As highlight also stands the mood-changing “Velvet”, and the cosmic “Signpost in the Sea”, both armed with great riffing and clever guitar phrases . All those disparate elements are usually combined ideally, to bring the band’s unique sound. The King crimson cover (Cat food) is also good enough, in order not to ruin the song’s sarcastic feeling.
Searching for flaws in this, I found myself wondering. The album flows perfectly, and there is not a single sign of pretentiousness in the music, as some Tool haters will shout. Maybe the songwriting isn’t anything genius at all, and the production has its certain reverb-soaked approach, but Peach managed to create a quite amazing album without summoning any Fibonacci -sequenced patterns or cryptic lyrics. They made a heartfelt and honest record, which had already sowed some seeds at that time, sadly, not for them to reap, as Justin Chancellor continued his musical journey with Tool, and the band eventually broke up, only to be reborn -after the success of the album’s reissue-under the name ‘Suns of the Tundra”.
