GUM & AMBROSE KENNY-SMITH - ILL TIMES (DELUXE) REVIEW
Written by Beau Croxton
Gum & Ambrose Kenny-Smith by Jamie Terry
Two modern psych rock veterans combine forces to make an extremely potent & soulful sonic stew.
Gum & Ambrose Kenny-Smith mix the best of their known qualities with fresh ingredients to further cement the already great “Ill Times” as modern-psych cult-classic.
Jay Watson (of Australian psych groups Tame Impala & Pond) has built many enjoyable psychedelic solo albums under the “Gum” moniker, but this time he collaborated with fellow Aussie psych rocker Ambrose Kenny-Smith. Ambrose is one of many songwriters in King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard & he also fronts his own bluesy-garage project, The Murlocs.
Gum and Ambrose have a very different set of spices on their own projects, but when they are combined on Ill Times it's quite the psychedelic gumbo. This album pairs electro-soul with 70’s funk, fuzz rock bangers and so much more- on the majority of the runtime you can find the best of both musicians. From Watson, you get vivid electronica, locked-in grooves, varied psych instrumentation and awesome retro production that has worked so well on his early work. With Ambrose’s contribution, you get the wailing harmonica, fuzzy rock, bluesy soul and belted vocals that many have come to know and love from his contributions in King Gizzard & The Murlocs. Ill Times thrives in the many different corners of psych-rock that you may find the discographies of each member of the duo- you get many overlapping shades of The Murlocs, King Gizzard, Gum, Pond, and even some glimpses of early Tame Impala.
With the new arrival of the deluxe edition, Occult Magazine is here with a track by track review.
The album opens remarkably with the electro-cowboy-soul ballad “Dud” which was written by Ambrose and his late father (and Aussie music legend) Broderick Smith. “Dud” was a song that the father and son duo had worked on together and it was completed by Ambrose after Broderick had sadly passed away in 2023. The first half of “Dud” is full of epic & poetic lyrics, while the latter half is a heartfelt tip-of-the-hat tribute from son to father. “Dud” is easily one of Ambrose’s finest tracks in any project to date and it is certainly the number one most meaningful. Jay filters all his synths through tremolo for a quaking resonance and the instrumental bridge is full of beautiful, emotive and melodic bass lines. It’s a very triumphant, emotional and mature sound from Ambrose and a very cinematic open to a fantastic album that leans most heavily into the straight-up-fun department.
The album’s title track “Ill Times” pumps up the fun and the fuzz. Wobbling synths give the opening a bit of a 70’s spy TV show theme-vibe and the keyboard line sounds even more brilliant on the choruses where it is paired with Watson’s kickass fuzz guitar riffs and thunderous Ginger-Baker-esque drum rolls.
“Minor Setback” takes off quickly to let you know it is the dance party smash of the record. Ambrose debuts a very confident Michael Jackson-type flow on a beat that feels like Watson’s own funkier cousin to “The Moment” by Tame Impala. The track is highlighted by brilliant reverse guitar solos and some downright nasty keyboard runs.
The duo’s explosive cover of Curtis Mayfield’s “Fool For You” is a clear album highlight as well, and they bring their own electronic-soul flavor to the track’s bare bones with more wobbling synth bass and shimmering electronics. Ambrose wails his vocals to new heights in the final moments, marking a track that is a shoe-in for his best vocal performance. Watson shreds away to no abandon into a crescendo against Kenny Smith’s vocal belting….just a gloriously loud, bluesy and thunderous cacophony of soul.
“Resilience” is an uptempo yet subtle track, which gives it a “Dark Horse” energy of the bunch. Despite the subtlety, its choruses and infectiousness are on par with most of the best that this record has to offer. Its self motivating Motown-style choruses and sassy post choruses are a true feel-good moment of the record and this tune is a real charmer.
Jay Watson kicks off album highlight “Powertrippn” with some whirring synth sounds that feel like they were summoned from Tame Impala’s “Lonerism” sessions. The track has a fresh direction from the duo and it kicks into some supremely chill vibes that resemble Beck’s “Go it Alone”. The track lyrically shames toxic masculinity and comes to a climax of Kenny-Smith belting among busy synths that zig zag through the left and right channels thanks to some brilliant panning.
Somewhere in between Parliament Funkadelic, Eric Burdon and Pond’s “Outside is the Right Side” lies the funky banger that is “Old Transistor Radio.” The track is instantly classic and highly playful with lyrics like “Let's do the locomotion / like a message in a bottle / SOS in the ocean” among perfectly-timed vocoders. At this point in the album, the band has gone hit for hit 7 tracks in a row. The consistency here should be studied. Spoiler alert- it doesn't really stop or deviate much from the smash zone.
Ill Times Deluxe Edition Album Cover. Photo by Jamie Terry. Artwork and design by Rowena Lloyd.
“Emu Rock” repeats a lyric about keeping it simple and not overdoing it - which ironically turns into a distorted explosion of harmonica and fuzzy guitars overdoing it in the best way. While it’s not a big vocal track due to the repeated mantra, it allows Kenny Smith to showcase his chops on blues harp amid a wall of Watson’s fuzzy guitars, which is a very awesome and energetic moment, especially after some slow jams.
“Marionette” would sound right at home on The Murlocs “Bittersweet Demons” ballad-y album, and that is something that makes the track easy to love but also easier to separate from this project. Nonetheless, it’s a lovely vibe and it still shines nicely here on a record with no “Dud(s)”.
“The Gloater” is the initial closer of Ill Times and Watson’s vocals give this slow-burner track some true Gum fashion. While opening track “Dud” feels like watching the sunrise, this closer feels like watching sundown. It takes a minute to really grab you but it has a post-sundown surprise when a nice beat-switch turns the ballad into a blissful dance party with trumpet and joyous harmonies, to draw a fun close to the standard edition of the album.
The deluxe tracks enter with plenty of ruckus when “Snow Angels” triples down on the guitar fuzz that made some real noise in prior tracks “Ill Times” and “Emu Rock”. Kenny-Smith shrieks at the top of his register on what is probably the most proper straight-up-rocker of this whole brilliant batch. It may be the most upbeat and rockin’ version of a song about the fallen soldiers of drug use - it’s a head-banger; you can practically see the Wayne’s World crew rocking out in the car to this track blasting from the tape deck. “Snow Angels” would have been a very significant standout on the standard edition and it’s a total home run for fans of fuzzy and loud psych rock.
“Uncharted Waters” feels fresh and unique to the project. It manages to be both pretty and moody at the same time as keys, tambourines, and acoustics come together to give you a similar vibe to “cruising the coastline in your beautiful sports car, yet consumed by melancholy.” It's certainly a welcome and solid bonus track that expands their palette in a great way.
“Telescope” is chill as a cucumber and slinky as a snake. For the most part, the vocals are truly playful as Ambrose claims “I’m like a jack in a box, a frog in a sock yelling COO-EEES from my mountain top”. It’s pure good, silly and funky fun. “Telescope” sees the duo doubling down on the chill appeal that made “Powertrippin” and “Old Transistor Radio” so enjoyable.
“Broken Hearted Blues” enters like it’s being played through a gameboy with deep buzzing electronic bass and programmed drums. This subtle T. Rex cover finds the duo combining a lot of what makes the record work so well; they stay faithful to the retro and they achieve their own brand of electronic soul with Ambrose’s unique voice and Gum’s tried-and-tested sonic palette.
If you peek under the hood of the Ill Times, this record is quite faithful to the funky, the soulful and the retro; but it’s the modern psychedelic treatment and varied influences that make Ill Times sound so fresh. You hear instrumentation and a production style reminiscent of a peak period of modern-psych that birthed Gum’s “Glamorous Damage”, Pond’s “The Weather”, and Tame Impala’s “Lonerism”; and it is all beautifully intercepted by the intense rock-n-soul of Ambrose Kenny-Smith. It is a great and fresh encapsulation of the 2010’s modern-psych-rock era that begs to be played front-to-back at your beach or pool party.
Gum & Ambrose Kenny-Smith upped the score with the deluxe edition by doubling down on what made Ill Times so great to begin with, making a great album even greater. This record sure has won heavy enthusiasm in hyper specific psych-rock circles that frequent festivals like Desert Daze or Austin Psych fest. There is a rumor that this collaboration project might be a one-off, but surely all the psych-rock kids will be praying there is some “Iller Times” down the road someday.
Occult Highlights: Minor Setback, Dud, Fool For You, Snow Angels, Powertrippn , Old Transistor Radio
(….but like we mentioned- you should blast it front-to-back on the beach boombox)