Blasting out of Toulouse, France, is a little psychedelic rock band called Missing Jack & The Kameleons (MJ&TK). They formed in 2016 but recently released their debut album, Human Cycle, on March 17th via Six Tonnes De Chair Records. This one impressed me quite a bit for a band’s debut album.
About Human Cycle
MJ&TK says they’re nourished by the sounds of Sixties and Seventies psych rock just as much as the current psychedelic scene. The group offers “a universe with multiple sounds, mixing the sharp riffs of a muscular garage rock with the flights of a vaporous progressive rock, bathed in reverb, delay, and overdrive.”
Human Cycle is a record that celebrates the cycle of life, a six-act introspection on emancipation, self-discovery, and acceptance of life. Each of the six songs is at least five minutes long and plays out like a wonderland of psychedelic sounds.
It’s Psychedelic Baby Magazine got the chance to interview the band, and I recommend you check that out. This newer act from France brings a garage and punk energy fused with the very best of psychedelia.
The Songs
The album starts with “You Don’t Have to Think,” kicking in with a ferocious, rapid beat and guitar riff. The musicianship is tight, and it reminds me of King Gizzard & the Wizard Lizard at their freaky, frenetic best. The song pushes the tempo into overdrive and may leave you breathless. I also liked the tone and dry delivery of the vocals of lead singer Nicholas Howe and the background vocals from the rest of the band, which was a bit of a throwback.
“Hidden Gems” breaks in next with a surfer psychedelic feel. As the bass line kicked in, I half-expected someone to yell, “Wipeout!”. That’s the beauty of this song – it sounds like a freaked-out, modern version of surf rock on Hyperdrive. The tempo is just as upbeat as the last track, and plenty of guitar pyrotechnics will impress listeners. “Hidden Gems” also brings us peaks and valleys of sound as it breaks up into different slower and faster sections like a great, well-crafted progressive rock song.
“One Drop Later” is the album’s longest song at nine minutes, 24 seconds. The (mostly) instrumental track has beautiful, sweet-sounding guitar playing that I can only describe as cosmic and even better drumming. It’s one of the songs I’m guessing was recorded live because it feels like the band is so gloriously in sync. The sounds are soothing and trance-inducing. The vocals don’t kick in until around the five-minute mark, and it doesn’t mess with the flow of the instrumental beauty one bit.
“Offliners” brings a serious groove, with vibes that harken back to the Sixties bands that MJ&TK are inspired by. The bass line is funky as hell and will have you wanting to dance; the guitar playing is just as great on this track as on the rest of the album. There’s a killer wah-wah solo midway through that reminded me a bit of Hendrix, and then, like most of the songs on the record, it changes gears and breaks into another section. “Offliners” is yet more evidence of the band’s songwriting skills.
“Wegonnadie” feels like Turkish psychedelia, reminding me of a band we covered not too long ago called Altın Gün. The track brings a rainbow of colors, moods, and flavors and hits you like a psychedelic ton of bricks. There are so many different sounds melded together that you get lost in it. The band has dueling guitar players (lead and rhythm), and they play together in perfect harmony to create a beautiful array of sounds.
The album ends with “The Wheel,” concluding the life cycle and, I’m guessing, ending in rebirth or the afterlife. The pace is slower and more melancholy, with touches of blue and gray instead of the bright pinks and reds of earlier songs. The guitar playing and solos have a David Gilmour quality to them in tone and style, and this is also a track where I most noticed the keyboards. Speaking of Gimour, I’d say the entire song feels like a Pink Floyd track.
Final Thoughts
Some bands just have “it” – whatever that thing happens to be. Missing Jack & The Kameleons appear to have that elusive quality, combining excellent musicianship, talent, songwriting, and more to create a brilliant debut album in Human Cycle. If the band created this in its first record, I can only imagine what they’ll come up with next. Human Cycle paints musical pictures as vivid as the master artists from France’s past, like Monet and Cézanne. Some reviewers have noted that the long instrumental sections are too drawn-out at times, but this was a part of the record I enjoyed the most, seeing the band flex its muscles and experiment to the fullest degree.
Yes, we rarely give negative reviews at Third Eye, and we sometimes gush over bands, but that’s mostly because I don’t want to shit on indie artists who put their hearts and souls into the music. We also only typically review what we like, too, so there’s that. But I’m not lying to you that this is a album you’ll want to check out. I couldn’t find it streaming on Spotify, so it’s a Bandcamp purchase you’ll want to make and listen to repeatedly.
Support Missing Jack & The Kameleons by finding them on Bandcamp or Facebook.
Support Six Tonnes De Chair Records by finding them on Bandcamp or social media (Facebook, Instagram).
The Third Eye 
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