Album Review: Doug Tuttle by Doug Tuttle

I’m starting to suspect that the rise in particularly powerful strains of modern psychedelic rock can be traced to a couple of cultural developments. Previously hard-to-find recordings by the forerunners of the musical movement are now easier than ever to obtain in digital form. As well, underground chemists are making dynamic strides in the creation of some delightfully neurotransmitter-tweaking LSD.

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There's a long and noble tradition of musicians who've been prompted to create great work through heartbreak (would Roy Orbison have even had a career without getting so bummed out about women?), and lo-fi guitar hero Doug Tuttle has joined the roster with his self-titled solo debut. Tuttle and Rachel Neveu were the founders of the New England indie psych band Mmoss, and they were also a couple; after a pair of fine albums, both the band and their relationship broke up, and as Tuttle struggled emotionally with his newly single status, he began writing and recording a batch of new material that became the album Doug Tuttle. Tuttle doesn't spend all his time drowning in his own tears on this album, but every song touches on the pains of a love gone sour in some small way, and his sorrow is communicated as much by the music as the lyrics (besides, the vocals are often left murky in the album's mix).

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Hazy psychedelia is the catchphrase for former MMOSS frontman Doug Tuttle's self-titled solo debut. Written at the tail end of MMOSS' disbandment as well as the dissolving of Tuttle's personal relationship, this highly personal work is representative of the atmospheric leanings of the former and the separation of the latter. A six-string guitar master, Tuttle coaxes that instrument into a pliable, tangible mass that the listener can mentally pull and poke while listening to these wandering, introspective, hallucinogenic jams—case in point, the epic "Turn This Love.

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Doug Tuttle’s first solo record came after the end of his psych band MMOSS and his romantic relationship. Both splits sent him from New Hampshire to Boston where he wrote this record. There is, fittingly, a sense of loss and a new sense of urgency in these spacey pop tunes. Tuttle’s voice is often hushed and echoing, surrounded on all sides by guitars, sometimes jangling and rippled, sometimes smudged and impressionistic.

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The first solo album from Doug Tuttle, formerly guitarist in New Hampshire outfit MMOSS, takes his former band’s psych-rock sound and runs with it. So, your opinion on Tuttle will rather depend on whether things like mellotrons, flutes and backwards effects give you the shivers or turn your stomach. Or on your taste for endless, endless guitar solos.

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