Molasses - Mourning Haze/Drops of Sunlight (2019)

Born as a commissioned ‘project’ from Roadburn Music festival, Molasses brings back Farida Lemouchi and her old The Devil’s Blood bandmates to craft a very unique body of music that serves as a way to move on from the death of Selim Lemouchi and TDB days. Not being a tribute to TDB, we were quite excited to hear if Molasses would even resemble their older material or just sound completely different, luckily for us there are certain hints of their old style with newer elements thrown into the mix.

This two song single release through Ván Records is all we will get for now, especially the ones that missed out on Roadburn 2019. Opening with the amp fuzziness of “Mourning Haze”, we are quickly transported to the days of Psychedelic Rock and its trippiness. Featuring a very accommodating pace and beautifully adorned with playful guitar leads and groovy synths, this opening track is pure magic and a very powerful way to open this release.

The second and longer piece, “Drops of Sunlight”, is a bit more experimental and introspective. With mysterious percussions and moody tempo changes, this piece feels bit like TDB in their “The Thousandfold Epicentre” days, but with an extra layer of atmospheric elements. Farida’s vocals are as enchanting as always, and perfectly provide that rigid darkness that music like this deserves.

We are quite upset about missing this magical occasion in person at Roadburn 2019, but we are glad that we at least managed to see both The Devil’s Blood and Selim Lemouchi & His Enemies last shows, so maybe that is a sign. There is nothing set in stone as to what will happen with Molasses, but at least we got a small taste of it. With all other members being quite busy with their respective bands, we can only hope for all the stars to align once more and they perform together again. Until then, we have this gem of a release to provide us with a little of their musical magic.

Label: Ván Records

Release:April 12th, 2019

Genre: Psychedelic Rock

Country: Netherlands