Warsaw Stoner-Doom Trio TAXI CAVEMAN Climb The ‘Galactic Slope’

Encino Man aside, I really have wondered (in my higher moments) what ancient proto-humans would think if they were to find themselves suddenly in this strange world full of bright, moving lights and noise – oh the noise! The constant clattering of trucks, trains, and planes. Generation-after-generation building up and tearing down, until the earth is plated over with concrete, plastic, glass, and steel. The radical removal of the human being from nature. It would be a frightening experience, I’m sure (look at how unnerved we are). The best way to see everything in this strange sprawling Babylon? Become a cab driver. Better yet, now’s your chance to escape planet earth altogether and plot a course for the stars.

‘Galactic Slope’ (2022) is the latest from the Poland-based, doom-touched stoner rock trio TAXI CAVEMAN. Nauman (bass, vox), Rutkoś (guitar), Vincent Grabb (drums, vox) arrived on the scene in 2021 with an engaging self-titled debut. Most of the songs on that record were under five minutes, save for the 12 ½ minute capstone. It was but a foretaste of the immersive experience that greets us today: two hefty tracks, fifteen minutes a hit.

“…And the druids turn to sand” begins like a slow sunrise, with hypnotic overlapping riffing, a sobering bassline, and gentle percussion. At two-minutes, a chill desert rock pace moves us across the arid sweep while we contemplate the fate of those astrologers of old, cloaked in robes of enigma. By now the guitar is starting to really sizzle with an acid-soaked improvisation that gets psychedelic and jazzy.

At 6:30 we transition into a second theme that carries an aura of well-being and halcyon wonder. Just a minute later, the guitar becomes searingly bluesy and develops in dramatic fashion, summoning a mysterious dark canopy to overtake the landscape by the ten-minute mark. It’s quite an evocative tone poem.

“Death Cards” is next, and menacing as hell with those damning Sabbathian chords and Iommian trills. Vocals remind me of early Salem’s Pot, drugged and jaded, but they soon morph into primal roars releasing beastly frustrations. Somewhere between there and the end of this quarter-hour juggernaut, we drift off (almost imperceptibly) into a wordless dirge. In this trancelike state, I’m not even sure what rock we’re on anymore. Deliberate drum beats, ghostly feedback, and spacey strumming usher us through the final span, with cymbals taking to fade – closing the album an ominously uncertain note.

Reached for comment, the band offered some insight into this sprawling diad:

The second album is a kind of bridge between our spontaneous debut and our music, which was already recorded but waiting to be released. The two half-improvised compositions on it are our take on longer, slightly more psychedelic doom forms.

“And the druids turn to sun” is a lazy journey through the desert that slowly transforms into the journey of a space caravan. “Death Cards,” on the other hand, is an old track recorded under a different name, yet stoner doom in filthy, fuzz-shrieked form.

Taxi Caveman’s Galactic Slope released just this week on Interstellar Smoke Records, who are issuing it on compact disc, cassette tape, and vinyl (get it here). Stick this on a playlist with Sleep, Sunnata, Jointhugger, and 10,000 Years.

Give ear…