“I have somewhere to go now / Where it is I don’t know”, croons Gun Overbye and it is this lyric that seems to sum up the overall ideology of Lola Colt as a group. A band that are there to direct adventure with no real destination in sight. They stipulate the peak of the sunset setting on the Nevada Desert, the burning ember of the cigarette and the diesel that fuels the tank for the journey. The smoky vocals, the lunging guitar and the playful organ have a coolness to them reminiscent of The Jefferson Airplane, The Doors and The Cramps. Twist Through The Fire picks up perfectly from where their debut Away From The Water left us – suggesting that they still have the same penchant for minerals and movements.

Lola Colt pose more as a dark cultish group than an actual band with the six of them that make up the outfit. They put forward intimidatingly noir sounds and with their gothic aesthetic they would generally be quickly sidelined by many critics lamenting them for being the next act who fall within the miserable grave of female-fronted goth rock. Lola Colt manage to dodge this silver bullet through utilising a sound and dynamic that puts substance head and shoulders above style.

Away From The Water was good, however tracks such as ‘Twist Through The Fire’ on their sophomore effort prove that as a band their actual musicianship has developed ten-fold. They can transfer the rock genre into a soluble material as the music is unapologetically fluid in its movement. At nine and a half minutes long you are generally terrified as a listener that it will become a song that is narcissistic, self-indulgent tosh. You would be surprised though. Unafraid to manipulate dynamic and tempo, the volcanic riffs recoil to leave EDM-styled synthesised keys and tempos that drop and quicken in a completely nonchalant fashion. The term ‘rollercoaster’ is a terrible banality but it is hard to describe this track as anything other than that.

‘Moksha Medicine’ poses a cruise through Eastern influences with its snake charmer guitar lines – ironically this is a song with no vocals but the one that would suit the black-lipped serpentine voice of Overbye more than any other. Evocative imagery is a key bullet within the chamber of Lola Colt’s gun. ‘Eagle’ stands as a ritualistic sermon, it busies itself as something that could soundtrack Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing. It’s a peyote trip in itself as the guitar moves the motor of the song and the funfair organ dances mockingly along in the background as if it were the visuals of a hallucination.

All this is not to say that Lola Colt do not have blatant points of reference. The most prominent of which screams out within ‘Moonlight Mixing’ – a song that falls at the feet of The Kills with its stuttered guitar and the yelling leather whip of Overybye’s voice. Elsewhere songs point towards the likes of The Black Angels and Moon Duo with a hypnotic rhythm and clanging organ. It is how Lola Colt take these influences and shine them through their own refraction. With a six strong line-up they have a lot of tools at their disposal and they are relentless how they go about manipulating sounds. Carving new ideas into the genre-specific sound of ‘Moonlight Mixing’ – what begins as a quasi-tribute to Mosshart and Hince then begins to evolve, building a new platform upon torpid drums and sliding guitar.

The sonic space that swells on the likes of ‘Bones’ allows for sopping wet reverb to spring the sound of the band off into another galaxy altogether. Overybye’s voice refuses to ponder with her new found vocal energy on Twist Through The Fire. Whereas previously it may have taken a backseat somewhat, the relentless force that each line is delivered allows for an elevation in the music itself.

As the album reaches its climax, standing at just nine tracks, it is only short but for the purpose it proves, it is long enough. Any longer and it may have grown tired but as The Jesus and Mary Chain-esque wall of noise erupts throughout ‘At War’, it appears that Twist Through The Fire is committed in its intent to invest Lola Colt with more direction than ever before. ‘Kilimanjaro’ is a lengthy ending to the album but the way it develops and reveals itself as a song suggests that Lola Colt are never to do anything that follows a basic structure. The dismantling of the archetypal verse-chorus structuring is something that the group mess with and the purpose in which they do this, leads for it to be anything but a half-arsed affair. Unfortunately what this means is that for as much as Lola Colt are highly innovative as a group, they have snubbed the writing of singles. ‘Gold’ opens the album and standing as the pre-released single, it does not really offer much in comparison to the following eight tracks. The chorus misfires with any sort of hook despite the best efforts of the group and the rumbling bass through the verse fails to capture much imagination. Nevertheless, does a single matter in this instance?

Lola Colt have proven themselves as a band that can develop. The songwriting on this album far supersedes anything that has surfaced previously and the conviction in which they deliver their statement forces you to put belief into it. Its cinematic Western feel with film-noir undertones gives a new soundscape to their music. It remains in the darkness but boasts a boisterous arrogance supported with swamps of substance. This could well be the making of the group.
Tom Churchill

Website: lolacolt.com
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