In an industry ravaged by excessive snares and commercial soulless pop, it is satisfying to hear the occasional sound of actual people playing actual instruments. Over the past year I’ve discovered many newly formed bands, but none really struck me like Evolfo. Evolfo, who calls themselves a “garage soul band,” released their debut album this past year.

Last of The Acid Cowboys truly is outstanding for a first record. Both the album’s production and material is top notch and evokes a sense of restored nostalgia in the listener. You can hear tons of 60’s garage rock influence, but there is also an underlying sense of complexity; the psychedelic instrumentals on tracks like “Moon Eclipsed the Sun” reveal influence from not only the funky R&B music of the 70’s but from more obscure sources like hard bop jazz as well.

What really is impressive about Evolfo is their apparent “jack of all trades” style of music. While they mainly play soul-rock, bits of genre-merging can be heard in most of their songs. “Peaches” is an ode to Indie; The guitar on “Science” can be described as surf-western; “Vision of Sin” is a smashing punk song, and doors-flavored organ can be heard on nearly the whole album. While these may seem like a difficult bunch of sounds to fit onto one record, every song flows perfectly and the instruments are all coherently well-placed in the mix. Not to mention they have some groovy psychedelic cover art as well. All in all,
Evolfo Is definitely one of the most promising new bands and their music is extremely original despite its roots in good ol’ rock and roll.