Day of Phoenix – Wide Open N-Way

Despite calling a heavy host of West Coast Cali-psych their pocket of influence, the Danes behind Day of Phoenix manage to adapt the sound to a less sunny climate with a good dose of melancholy. The band admittedly emulates Clear Light, Love and The Doors, so there’s certainly a focus on the darker side of that sound to begin with, but they manage to focus in on the starkest ends of the “Summer of Love” to create their own sighed signature. There’s an excellently subdued quality to the record, full of great riffs, but fuller still of a dark, clouded atmosphere that’s putting out a closed off and sullen vibe – an antidote to all the peace and love coming out of their American counterparts.

Day of Phoenix wound up opening for Colosseum when they were playing Denmark and impressed the band’s bassist Tony Reeves, who wound up producing this as well as a follow-up album. That seemed to cap productivity for the band though, save for a preceding single of covers with a different lineup. This album alone marks them as one of the strongest of their particular time and place, though. The band’s original member Cy Nicklin would leave before this album and transition to the more well known Culpeper’s Orchard, though the rest of the band seemed to dissipate after the slow reaction to their sophomore LP. Vinilisssimo does the original pressing good, reproducing the album’s harem shot that’s bringing to mind some Town and Country vibes.




Support the artist. Buy it HERE.