Brant Bjork - Mankind Woman (2018)

One of desert rock’s principal architects, Brant Bjork will release his new album, Mankind Woman, on Sept. 14 through Heavy Psych Sounds and I couldn’t possibly be more thrilled to host the premiere of the first audio from the record. Preorders go up in about two hours’ time through the labels website. “Chocolatize” is the opening track of the 11-song outing, which could easily be considered the beginning of a new era for Bjork, who’s spent the last five-plus years signed to Napalm Records, resulting in two studio LPs in 2014’s Black Power Flower (review here) and 2016’s Tao of the Devil (review here) as well as the 2017 live outing Europe ’16 (review here). In addition to the forthcoming Mankind Woman, his new label home has hopped on board for reissues of his entire catalog from his 1999 solo debut Jalamanta (discussed here; also here) to 2010’s Gods and Goddesses (review here), bringing new artwork and new vinyl to albums that have long gone underrated as Bjork has, along with his Low Desert Punk Band, jammed his way into hearts and minds throughout the US, Europe and elsewhere, earning consideration as one of the Californian desert’s chief practitioners of groove. I’ve called him the Godfather of Desert Rock more times than I can count, but I’ve yet to come up with anything more fitting for the position he holds in the genre.

Because it’s not just about riffs with Brant Bjork, and I think you can hear this in “Chocolatize.” Since the days of Jalamanta — now nearly 20 years ago; wow — he’s been more about the vibe. He’s got elements of punk and psychedelia and classic heavy rock, to be sure, but all of this is in conversation with influences from funk and soul, drawing from an entirely different kind of heavy ’70s. He’s toyed with this side of his sound to varying degrees throughout his career, but even his most subdued outings — 2007’s mostly acoustic Tres Dias, for example, which will begin Heavy Psych Sounds‘ reissue series — carried that foundation in soul. His signature riffing style, his smooth vocals, the sleek and swinging rhythms he brought to drumming in Kyuss and Fu Manchu: all of it comes together to create something that is Brant Bjork‘s own and largely inimitable, however broad his influence may have an in fact has become over the last two decades. One looks forward all the more to Mankind Woman with “Chocolatize” as a quick preview of what might be in store in terms of a natural production and a more intimate mood than some of what the last couple records have had on offer.

I won’t delay further, except to say that I’m looking forward to putting up a full review of the album closer to the release in September. Brant Bjork has European tour dates scheduled to begin in November that include a stop at the Heavy Psych Sounds Fest, which is being held this year in Austria. You can find all of those below, as well as some more particulars about Mankind Woman, which, again, is due Sept. 14.