Allah-Las :: Sirenas
Cover Art: Dominic Santos
Photo: Alexandra Cabral
You can actually feel the melodic mist and blissful breeze touching your face, as it causes your eyes to water and your lips to quiver from its salty seduction, while the whispery waves of the Pacific Ocean simultaneously crash against the rippling rocks that rest at your pruned feet. There’s something about seeing the ancient atmosphere surrounding the water, and the shine of the sun casting its rays across the salty surface just before fading into the distance like some harmonious hallucination. Like an abandoned ship perfectly parked on some deserted island off the coast of “who the hell cares”, a soaked soundtrack can be heard from the crispy edges of the blistering beaches that orbit the vessel’s vintage site. LA-based garage rock and surf saints Allah-Las have been carefully curating their blistering brand of aquatic atmosphere and sun-dried songs for nearly two decades. While balancing the signature sounds of the West Coast without indulging too much in total worship of the past, the group lays out its feverish findings across a communal table made of some mysterious material to collage together their cosmic communication and lysergic language for an album that challenges their previous works and sonically stabilizes the soundscapes ahead. Returning to that familiar feeling and the sonic sights of Southern California where the sunrise meets the sunset in psychedelic perfection, the quintet follows up their 2023 classic “Zuma 85” with their latest effort “Sirenas”, and have no interest in looking back into the past’s merciless mysteries and already charted territories.
Photo: Alexandra Cabral
We had the chance to speak to Miles Michaud a few weeks ago on The Self Portrait Gospel Podcast about the album and the group’s unique process and approach to not only producing the record entirely by themselves for the first time, but capturing the cosmic content at the “Pumphouse” in Topanga Canyon live and unapologetically universal as well. A legendary recording studio operated by longtime collaborator and creative colleague of the band’s, Kyle Mullarky, the group, and its members Matthew Correia, Spencer Dunham, Miles Michaud, and Pedrum Siadatian (Paint) set out on an epic expedition to a particular place that even they have no clue what to expect once they arrive. “Sirenas” is a splendid collection of songs that come right out of the pages of 1970s National Geographic, and into the ears and eyes of listeners who have been with the band since their 2012 self-titled, and beyond. While the polar ice caps melt and wildfires engulf the planet in various locations, the Allah-Las gather their rare rituals, metaphysical material, and tonal toys to summon a sensational sound destined to soften the reality that we’re all facing during these troubling times. While quickly dispersing through a psychedelic portal painted in paisley and lush lightning, the songs within the feverish fibers of “Sirenas” form an esoteric effect on the artistic anatomy before collapsing into itself like some dying star a million light years away. Or out in the middle bumfuck nowhere near the Coleen River. Set for release on Mexican Summer and Calico Discos, the album features tracks like “Abre Caminos”, “Thrill of the Bill”, “Pasiphaé”, and one of the first singles, “Pt. Conception”, the Allah-Las have entered a new creative chapter in their succulent story of sound design, and “Sirenas” is a brilliant place to dwell if only for the length of its running time.
