By Deuce

Words, it certainly seems, are overrated. Sure, they can be used as a form of expression. But no means do they have a monopoly on that. Not when you can pick up, say, a bass guitar, an electric guitar, a pair of cue sticks, and have the sort of conversations that people in all day Zoom meetings can never dream of fathoming, much let alone have.

The way the three members of The Wrong Sides, who just so happen to respectively play each of the foregoing instruments, verse with one another—with no vocals, lyrics, or any other kind of wordplay—one is convinced that they’re talking. Out loud, that is. With these instruments at that and, as anyone who listens to “Sour Sea,” “CHASING THƎ WЯONG INSANITY,” and “Elephant Spaceship” can tell you, they’ve got a lot to say.

The question, however, is just what is it they’re yapping about incessantly with their instrumentalism. You won’t get any answers from Israel Romero, the guitarist, Joan Torres, the bassist, or Jose Linares, the drummer. But their conviction is beyond all dispute.

“Spaceship” is certainly a throwback to the best of the psychedelic rock from any era or decade. It comes in moving, as in fast. We’re talking electric guitar notes one after another with such deftness and pace that the effect is like that of playing synths—which is what it sounds like Romero is doing. When the trio pauses to take a breath or, rather, decides to slow down just a notch or two, Torres’ bass shines clearly through with the type of low end that hits hard and home at the same time.

This formula is reprised on “Sour Sea”, which actually predates  “Spaceship” by more than a year. This is a no-holds barred, no quarter number until, perhaps a third of the way through this nearly 6-minute cut, there genuinely is a break in the action, the briefest of respites. When the members enjoin with one another again it’s at a dramatically slower pace, with Linares’ drumming as deliberate, and perhaps as exact, as programmed drums, yet all the more captivating by the fact that they’re real, or were being played live, if not both. Plus, the electric guitar gets extremely chromatic, whirling around like a carousel emitting metallic shades of silver and gloss, deluging listeners with sound.

Such musical feats, of course, are not easily accomplished—or often so.