Love Letter To A Record: Atlas Franklin Alexander On Kyuss’s ‘Blues For The Red Sun’

Many of us can link a certain album to pivotal moments in our lives. Whether it’s the first record you bought with your own money, the chord you first learnt to play on guitar, the song that soundtracked your first kiss, the album that got you those awkward and painful pubescent years or the one that set off light bulbs in your brain and inspired you to take a big leap of faith into the unknown – music is often the catalyst for change in our lives and can even help shape who we become.

In this Love Letter To A Record series, Music Feeds asks artists to reflect on their relationship with music and share with us stories about the effect music has had on their lives.

Atlas Franklin Alexander – Kyuss, Blues For The Red Sun, (1992)

I remember the very first time hearing Kyuss in my mate’s garage in Merewether, Newcastle. I was greening out, on the verge of vomiting not really knowing where I was or what was happening – oh, to be a teenager again. It had been a rough week of drinking etc.

Anyways, here’s me, melting into a dirty, semi-wet, grease-stained couch. Totally past the point of getting it together, when my pal throws on Kyuss record ‘Blues for The Red Sun’. My brain exploded, it set me off into another dimension. John Garcia’s voice, Brant Bjork on drums, Josh Homme’s riffs, Nick Oliveri on bass – what was happening to my tiny brain!?!?

I immediately fell in love with Kyuss! I floated off that stained couch for the entire record, drinking it down like Jesus had just penetrated me with his sacred seed deep inside. I literally could not believe what I was hearing!

When I first heard ‘Green Machine’ I could not wipe the smile off my face. I’ve spent countless nights listening to Kyuss with my buddies in all kinds of mind-altering states; air drumming & air guitaring to ‘Stoner Desert’. It’s safe to say that Kyuss became the soundtrack to many years of our lives.

Apparently, Josh Homme played his guitar through a bass head and bass amp to get that muddy tone. I reckon Kyuss are pretty much the Godfathers of ‘Stoner Desert’. All the bands & projects that have stemmed from Kyuss, to name a few – Mondo Generator, Queens Of The Stone Age, Eagles of Death Metal, Unida, Hermano, Vista Chino, Brant Bjork’s solo stuff, Slo Burn, Fu Manchu, The Desert Sessions, Them Crooked Vultures. Like seriously! WTF!

Kyuss, thank you, I love you x

Atlas Franklin Alexander is a Newcastle-based electronic artist who has just revealed his debut EP ‘Enter Echo’ – produced by the artist himself, with various songs mixed by Thomas Rawle (Papa vs Pretty).

“The entire EP was recorded in many different locations,” the artist explains. “In the back of my car, on park benches, libraries, hotel rooms, ashrams, garages, friends lounge rooms, bus stops, monasteries, on trains and on planes. Anywhere and everywhere you can put a laptop down basically.”

Take it for a spin below!

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