U.S. Christmas – The Valley Path

That U.S. Christmas’ made a sizeable contribution to last year’s tribute to space-rock maestros Hawkwind won’t come as any surprise to anyone familiar with their past output, and it’s a train that leads to this year’s gargantuan The Valley Path just as logically. There’s the same stretching of time through phaser-laden solos and a shared love of bass-heavy landslides of percussion, but despite the cosmic leanings there is an all-too-terrestrial sense of gravity here.

Arguably, it’s all thanks to Nate Hall’s syrupy drawl that they manage to remain on terra firma, a voice that brings their mountainous riffs and flowing keyboards to the fore and restrains the ascension of those star-bound displays of guitar worship. Whilst songs of this length aren’t uncommon in stoner circles, for a piece this extensive to never lose focus or direction along the way is reason enough for listeners to take notice.