Ulaan Markhor is an American psychedelic noise rock band and one of the many projects of the highly prolific Steven R. Smith. Just like his other projects like Ulaan Khol or material he releases under his own name, Ulaan Markhor is all about noisy psychedelia mixed with elements of drone, noise, drone rock and neo-psychedelia. However the material he has released under the Ulaan Markhor banner tends to be more structured and perhaps somewhat more catchy.
''Spiral Horns, Black Onions, Et Al'' starts of with a track titled ''In The Ravine'', and this track is all about rather mellow yet noisy psychedelic rock in a repetitive krautrock structure. The track could also be labeled under the slogan of noisy neo-psych as well. The second track ''The Nocturnal In Daylight'' essentially follows the same path, but in a bit noisier and heavier manner. It packs some fine simple yet catchy drumming and some fine noisy psych repetition, being perhaps the best track on this fine album. The third track ''Black Onion'' tends to be rather mellow until about half way through where some pretty cool noisy psych interrupts the mellow ambience. The fourth track can be summed up about the same way, only that the track offers some higher tempo noisy neo-psych feel in the second part of the track. The next three tracks all offer a mixture of sometimes mellow, sometimes heavier noisy psych, whereas the last two tracks ''Butterfly Tar'' and ''Rolling'' but forth some more distortion laden sounds.
All in all ''Spiral Horns, Black Onions, Et Al'' is the best release of Ulaan Markhor for me and offers some pretty astonishing stuff in parts, while offering solid noisy psych in other parts. Tracks like ''In The Ravine'' and ''The Noctural in Daylight'' are quite brilliant for me and the album is worth listening already solely due to these tracks. Be sure to check it out.
Some related links:
Bandcamp: https://worstward.bandcamp.com/album/spiral-horns-black-onions-et-al
Discogs: https://www.discogs.com/artist/2736227-Ulaan-Markhor
