© 2025 Boise State Public Radio
NPR in Idaho
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Valley of Weights, 'I Was a Wartime Draughtsman'

Valley of Weights is an impressive polyglot – featuring members of Sky Furrows, Burnt Hills, the Winterpills and Vatican Commandos – whose self-titled debut is a frills-free double LP that throws a haymaker into the contemporary psych scene. It also feels unburdened by some of that scene's conventions; the de rigeur lo-fi production, stoned noodling posturing as improvisation, a sometimes parochial reverence for obscure records, etc.

The single "I Was a Wartime Draughtsman" is a savvy psych-punk merger that splits the difference between the guitar attacks of 1968-era electric Jorma Kaukonen and circa 1978 Robert Quine at his most furious. Spitting anti-war vocals and a relentless group performance, with the group shifting back and from serpentine-instrumental interplay to nihilistic wallop, "I Was a Wartime Draughtsman"is trippy, darkly gleeful and right on point.

Copyright 2022 WJCT News 89.9

Daniel Brown

You make stories like this possible.

The biggest portion of Boise State Public Radio's funding comes from readers like you who value fact-based journalism and trustworthy information.

Your donation today helps make our local reporting free for our entire community.