2020 sucks balls. A lethal pandemic, quarantines and the requirements of social distancing literally killing off careers in the music industry, the year has been the worst since the depression. That said, some good has come out of it, namely art works and other creative endeavors folks finally found the time for during the dark days of lock down. This is particularly true of the duo Uncle Woe and their sophomore album Phantomescence. Hailing from the frozen hills of rural Canada, Uncle Woe is Rain Fice (guitar, bass, vocals, keyboards, artwork) and Nicholas Wowk (drums, percussion). Conceived and recorded remotely in Rice & Wowk’s respective home studios throughout the Covid 19 lockdown and into the summer months of 2020, Phantomescence finds the duo refreshed and rejuvenated for their second album in two years. Their debut album Our Unworn Limbs was released in December 2019 and is available on Bandcamp in multiple formats including CD-R and cassette. https://unclewoe.bandcamp.com/album/our-unworn-limbs
From the starting gate the four song 40 minute long Phantomescence album comes out stomping with shades of a darker, heavier Black Sabbath meets a menacing Queens Of The Stone Age. Lead vocalist Rain Fice belts out opening track “Become The Ghost” as if he were on the verge of becoming one himself. The six minute opener rather pleasantly fleshes out with a quiet(er) guitar solo interlude at the four minute mark creating a coherent contrast to the track’s darker base elements.
Guitar and bass trade off one another at the onset of track two, the 13 minute odyssey “On Laden Shores”. The nuanced and dynamic elements of the track alternate between a moody sense of quiet to shit kicking LOUD like Soundgarden on steroids. Things go downtempo from there on in with the hypnotic “Lucid Degrees Of Autoscopic Ruin”, a 6 minute reprieve from the sludge stomp of the previous two tracks.
Fice’s bass work really shines on closing track “A Map Of Dead Stars”, with an intro vaguely reminiscent of Roger Water’s contribution to Pink Floyd’s “Money”. Uncle Woe show off their psychedelic chops throughout the track’s 13 minutes leading to a full on menagerie of pure psych out psycho sludge rock. Ultimately Phantomescence is a worthy addition to the Uncle Woe canon. If only the lyrics were more legible enabling an even closer connection to the material on a whole. All in all a very engaging listen from start to finish, 40 minutes well spent.
7.5/10
2020 Song Of The Day Club
Bi-Weekly Record Review 23/26