Portuguese rock outfit The Black Wizards share ‘Beat’, the final preview of forthcoming album Force Majeure & The Acts of God, due for release on September 4 via Hassle Records. Uniquely, the track is the only song on the record to have been constructed around its drum beat – a particularly fitting approach for a song simply titled ‘Beat’ – before gradually expanding into something altogether heavier and more psychedelic.
Unsurprisingly, that rhythm immediately stands out. Far removed from a conventional straight-ahead rock beat, it gives the opening an unusual, creeping quality before psychedelic guitars begin snaking their way into the mix, adding an increasingly shadowy and unsettling edge. ‘Beat’ gradually gains weight until thick, bluesy stoner-rock guitars take centre stage, transforming its initial unease into something much more muscular. Through it all, Joana Brito’s effortlessly cool vocal glides above the instrumentation, providing a laid-back counterpoint to the heaviness beneath. Close your eyes and it’s easy to picture endless dusty desert roads disappearing into the distance, with something ever so slightly sinister lurking beyond the horizon.
Lyrically, however, ‘Beat’ comes from a much more vulnerable place. “It’s a song on fragility, a song about standing in the corner, feeling alone, with nowhere to go,” explains Joana, before rejecting the pressure to conform: “There’s beauty in diversity, there’s love in equality and that’s all that matters.” It’s a powerful sentiment wrapped inside an impressively weighty slice of psychedelic stoner rock – and further proof that sometimes starting with the beat can take a song somewhere unexpected.
