It's a somewhat easy way to start a review to describe Luder as a psychedelic or stoner rock band but it also fits. I don't know about the band but I somewhat object to the label even though I'm the one using it. Because, to some people, a psychedelic band is band that you can perhaps only listen to if you're high on goofballs or have accidentally fallen into a giant bong. Which isn't fair really. But it is fair to say that music like this is enough in itself to sufficiently stimulate the senses to elicit such an altered state without resorting to dissolving powders of questionable origins directly onto the surface of one's eyeballs.

Luder are such a potent chemical made up of many elements most of which can be found in the half-light of pop, alternative, trip-hop and of course - the reason why we're all gathered here today - metal.

With its already off-kilter 5/4 time signature album starter 'Sing To Me' adds an extra layer of the unexpected with a vocal part not usually heard outside of a Wendy and Lisa album. It's a good start.

'S-Words' has a great hypnotic wraparound bass riff accompanied by a light trip-hop drumbeat and equally trippy vocals that wouldn't be out of place on a Martina Topley-Bird album. The track soon ODs with chest arresting guitar riffage over slow sizzling drums before falling back into the trippiness soon after.

'Selfish And Dumb' is a quite funky yet still trippy track, which somehow brings to mind The Stone Roses no doubt due to Sue Lott's lowly echoed vocals. 'Cold Hands, Warm Pants' employs another seriously groovy...well...groove. The guitar and drums dictate the tempo while the bass locomotes freely about like a sidewinder before the whole lot turns into a Sabbath-inspired black mass.

'The Pox' features the strangest of time signature that twists and turns, resists and defies any attempt to quantify or understand it. There are some great Zeppelin-isms in this track from the huge bass drum to the chordal work and eastern riffing. The song also features the liveliest chorus so far and has something of a Perry Farrell ring to it.

'Sewn Together' is another hugely addictive riff that you could listen to all day without ever missing the vocals. Album closer 'Soledad Y Onaismo' is Spanish by name and Spanish by nature. The acoustic guitars come out and the wooden drumsticks are temporarily put aside for the first half of the song. The relentless riffing is still present though transferring through each stage of guitar from acoustic to clean electric and finally cranked up to 10.

Luder have certainly got grooves aplenty and manage to successfully connect the more alternative end of the Indie scale with guitar-heavy metal. So with such great riffs and grooves surely the deciding factor will be whether you like this particular dreamy vocal style. And for that I hand Luder over to you.

http://luderband.com/

http://www.myspace.com/luderband

http://www.smallstone.com/