88 Mile Trip
Through the Thickest Haze

Maybe not the longest trip one can undertake, but this Canadian band does it and does it through the thickest haze. That sounds all good and exciting. 88 Mile Trip is a Canadian quintet that was formed in 2013 and as far as I can tell from the press information this is their debut album. The press info speaks of fists in the air, headbaning and a band inspired by stoner rock and doom from the past 40 years – that is certainly a wide ranging spectrum and doesn’t really say much. Thing is that press releases are often just that, dull and says nothing but bands they are either inspired by, the members have been in, or they have toured with, or bands they have appeared in the same festival as, this release contains many names and very little of significance. But it is not that part I shall review but it makes it more difficult to write anything about a band as it really says nothing about the band to know that they performed on the same festival as some other more famous band. So, what about the album then?

Stoner rock that was mentioned in the press release is a good way to describe this, the very famous band Monster Magnet is probably a source of inspiration, as is probably the countrymen of Gypsy Chief Goliath as 88 Mile Trip can be described as something of a combination between these two bands. Not very unique in style with their grrovy heavy stoner riffs and powerful vocals, they build on traditional verses and choruses and have you heard before mentioned similar bands I am sure you will recognise where many of this band’s riffs and melodies comes from. The album also has a fairly typical production for the genre and when listening I think it can be interpreted as though the band are still looking for their own voice, they are not past emulating what is fairly typical of the genre and their inspirations. I don’t say that there is anything wrong in copying or borrowing stuff from what inspires you but it is a poor recipe if you want to be really noticed today as only the exceptional stand out and the line of what is exceptional is moved forward all the time. This is not exceptional and can be best described as a fairly ordinary stoner rock album.

You cannot really say that it starts inspiring with some guy yelling about a 1000 lifetimes; all I want to do is shut it off there and then. But as the patient reviewer I am I go through the entire album hoping for something to outweigh that, something that makes it worth enduring the pointless intro – it never comes. They have a long way to go to be relevant, maybe 88 miles or maybe even more than that as they seem to just follow the path through the haze, meaning that they will remain hidden in the haze. I think that they do have many things going for them, the singer is good and they do sound about right, what is needed are some good songs and a little bit of soul. What they lack is more in the creative perspective than anything else; their songs are okay seen in comparison with other similar bands I have heard.

As I stated before; the opening is dreadful, the rest of the album is somewhere around the average of the genre as is the production. So with an opening that makes you want to turn it off and lack of distinct hit songs I cannot do anything but rate them on the lower side of our scale, their music is okay but nothing that really stand out. But know that if you like the genre you might see it somewhat differently and I can see how someone can enjoy this album, especially one that likes listening to the genre. I think that with some more personal touches and more of their own soul in the songs, this band can grow into a very exciting band – unfortunately there debut has very little of that, it is neither bad, nor good – an average album plain and simple.

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