Verma

I remember Verma from some of their earlier gigs with my friends Killer Moon. I recall specific performances in Hideout and Whistler around two years ago. I never forgot that I liked what I heard from them. This time its a Free Monday at Empty Bottle. The songs are long but intense and their enthusiasm infectious. I mean, I was into it, and eventually bought the vinyl single of Ragnaraak. I don't recall which specific songs I heard. I just barely retain memory of the experience. I go back and listen to them on bandcamp.
  . Salted Earth runs fast if long, and your attention is always engaged. Gradually you are seeing the function of each individual instrument to the whole, and then Whitney's voice kicks in late into it. You wander further. There are those pockets where you can ponder the sonic structure as they play on like a fevered and improvised Miranda Sex Garden jam session.Thats the element that stretches the tracks but also gives them a depth. These spaces give you that extra time to think. It peaks in several separate moments. At three minutes your glad to have three more. When you hear it live, they sound electric. This is well more than head bobbing psyche. Some of it swivels the hips. A lesser mind might think its just filler. ....alright impatient mind....not lesser...just impatient. Better? I guess I can admit this is not an easy sell. You have to be predisposed as I am.  Their live shows make a fan out of you, and your in a zone for 9 minutes and you didn't even feel 6. Some of these moments that I'm going on about I heard live many times. This is indeed something I could have written about way before, but I had no tangible vessel to hold the memory.  Now I've downloaded and binged on like three different releases. I can go on about Saqqara, Drift. Right now, I suspect I would say roughly the same thing about each. Some moments feel more lucid and structured than others. With psyche bands you just have to expect the most scenic route from a to b. In doing so the audience can wander off but Verma retains captured attention, and they certainly take you places in these long foggy journeys.  Unending Night is one of the shorter pieces and so the dramatic stair climb is concentrated, Whitney's haunting vocals kick in sooner, and still distant and other-worldly. There is clear space between instruments. As you for the moment focus on the bass and see its function to the rest kicks in the lead guitar in just the right moment. It does not compete but answer a call, complete a structure, continue a story, and that's before Whitney even sings. Its not a wall of fuzz. White Heat has a cool breeze fly past your hair with the lead guitar. They have more shows to come and now I will document as many as I can.