Ancient River

Ancient River is a rock trio from Gainesville, Florida. They specialize in psychedelic sounds of the 60s and 70s, garage, grunge, and good old American Rock ‘n’ Roll. The three members, J. Barreto – guitar & vocals, Zach Veltheim – bass, Chad Voight – drums, began recording together in 2005 at Barreto’s home studio. They officially formed the band in 2008 so they could take their act to the stage. Live shows typically consist of very loud rock sounds and a variety of visuals such as smoke machines, oil-projections, photographic slides, and experimental video feedback. Continued work in their home studio resulted in the 2010 release of two CDs, their debut EP entitled Under the Sun and a full-length album called O.D.D.S.. The band has played shows all over Gainesville, at bars, clubs and house parties. Following their appearance Austin Psych Fest 3 they began work on their first professional studio recordings. Summer 2011 saw the release of their second home-recorded album, titled Songs From North America.

It`s not often we`re hit with two quality long players within a music submission, Ancient River kindly added their debut and current release. Whilst both albums are cast with heaps of creative momentum, I`m personally drawn to the fuzzy psych of O.D.D.S.

Shoegaze meets retro audio stimulation, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club dipped in the haze of a mid-Seventies summer. Both releases genuinely excellent in Classic Rock principals and engineering, Ancient River`s neurotic rock will suit steamy basement clubs or huge multi stages – Bring on some investment, bring in some studio time. - mojophenia

It’s always fun to pick up free music, but even better when that free album turns out to be damn good. I picked up Ancient River’s Let It Live from a “FREE CD’S!” bin in a record store tent at the Austin Psych Fest. I’m glad I did. Let It Live is a strong record of neo-psychedelia, shoegaze, Wall of Sound, and flat-out rock.

“What Goes Round,” the album’s opener, is a great amuse bouche of solid rock that prepares you for a great time. “As the World Burns” is, I’m guessing, an amazing live track when you consider how good it is on CD. “Let’s Breed” is either a creepy stalker song or the best song for hardcore sex I’ve heard in a long time.

Want pure psychedelic rock? Don’t worry; “All My Friends” will make you think these Floridians built a recorder that can access tiny wormholes in space and time that reach the Haight-Ashbury intersection circa 1968.

I love bands that sprinkle instrumentals among their tracks with vocals, and Ancient River offer three on this record. “Dear Doctor” is a nice instrumental of trippy guitars, “Hybrid” is fantastic instrumental shoegaze, and “Where Nothing Begins” is rock as hard as marble.

The album’s closer, “Let’s Dream,” is a perfect amalgam of Ancient River’s psych-shoegaze-wall of sound-swamp rock sound. It combines all four like earth, wind, fire, and water to make an alchemical brew that you’d expect to hear while attempting to land your space rover on a black monolith orbiting Io.

Be sure to float down this Ancient River (www.ancientrivermusic.com). You’ll enjoy the trip.



~ Nik Havert - Outlaw Magazine Austin Texas

‘Ancient River’, aptly heralded by mystic drone of a Dj track, singer enigmatically framed by sunlit open door, dark shades and tousled rampant locks redolent of Morrison, eyes black holes, coolly, nonchalantly flows, takes the floor, to drugged up drubbing beat, sleazy drawling growl subsumed in wall of sound distortion, wafted with heady analogue synth breeze. Unrelentingly doom laden, hypnotised sway, laconic lizard lost in dark inner space, hazed, slipping down the snake, psychotic psychedelic, picking up brighter bluesy note, as sun sets in golden glow, sinking into despondent doldrums as dusk dawns. - CAMP & FURNACE, UNITED KINGDOM 29/09/12 REVIEW BY CHUMKI BANERJEE

We're gonna start off with Sweden's perennial ice demons The Knife, whose new album Shaking The Habitual is only a few weeks away. Hotly anticipated, and rightly so, as it's been seven years since their last album proper (they have had opera soundtracks and collaborations in the meantime). This is the video for second single 'A Tooth For An Eye', a song supposedly deconstructing maleness and leaders by offering up a cross-section of guys (all without much finesse, but with passion and verve) dancing to the beat of a young girl's drum/sparkler. It also continues 'Full Of Fire's promise of percussive undercurrents, proving that this album could be just as innovative and challenging as anything they have previously committed to. Very excited about this one. - Sonic Masala | Australian Music Bloggers

We're gonna start off with Sweden's perennial ice demons The Knife, whose new album Shaking The Habitual is only a few weeks away. Hotly anticipated, and rightly so, as it's been seven years since their last album proper (they have had opera soundtracks and collaborations in the meantime). This is the video for second single 'A Tooth For An Eye', a song supposedly deconstructing maleness and leaders by offering up a cross-section of guys (all without much finesse, but with passion and verve) dancing to the beat of a young girl's drum/sparkler. It also continues 'Full Of Fire's promise of percussive undercurrents, proving that this album could be just as innovative and challenging as anything they have previously committed to. Very excited about this one. - Sonic Masala | Australian Music Bloggers

A quick succession of releases doesn’t seem to have diluted the Florida based trio`s big bag of quality tunes.`Let It Live` is a Wah-Wah infected Garage-Rock monster, a ten track audio wonder to satisfy any musical preferences – Stoner-Rock meets the heavy clasp of Shoegaze, head spinning one moment, peacefully horizontal in another... - Mojophenia

It's fun to fall in love with an album. It's even more fun to fall in love with an album made right here in Gainesville. And for the last two weeks I haven't been able to get Ancient River's new full length record, “Songs From North America,” out of my car.

While the band's last release “O.D.D.S.” was a sprawling 14 tracks of outtakes and demos that weren't necessarily intended to be packaged together, “Songs From North America” is a trim 10 tracks of beautifully crafted rock 'n' roll. It's a nice departure for Ancient River and one that proves the band has the tools to be as accessible and diverse as possible. They'll be showcasing the new album Wednesday night with a special CD-release show at 7 p.m. at Hear Again Music and Movies, 201 SE First St.

What I originally grew to love about Ancient River was the expansive, psychedelic element to the music that left you wondering whether a song was going to take you from point A to point Z or drop you off in another alphabet somewhere. But now, especially after you hear the opening track “Going Home,” you'll understand that the band's current interest is to give you songs with great hooks, memorable guitar solos and digestible musical movements.

The beauty of “Songs From North America” is in the simplicity of the rhythms, on all three, main instruments (guitar, bass, drums). Songs like “Hindsight” and “Solid Ground” have lazy grooves that transport you to the West Coast in the late '60s, or more specifically Crazy Horse-era Neil Young. It's the first time in Ancient River's career in which a real roots-rock giant trumps the influence of bands like Pink Floyd or Acetone, but I welcome the change. Jaime Barreto is still able to intersperse some lovely, reverb and delay-soaked solos, but the solos aren't intended to blow your ear drums out, they're intended to take you from one passage to another. They're conversations, with multiple guitars talking at the same time, harmonizing and breezing the track along. After all, the album does feel like a travelers guide. Or maybe it's because I've been listening to it in my car for two weeks? Either way, I think these guys are really on to something I hope that our community gets behind this record.

- The Gainesville Sun

Despite being titled Songs From North America – they are from Gainesville after all – the most striking aspect of Ancient River’s best release to date, is its unequivocal Britishness.

Cut from the same, modern-day cloth, as the likes of: Black Mountain and Tame Impala, the Florida trio – like their contemporaries – owe a considerable debt to the decades of British garage and psychedelia; as the Kinks, the Pretty Things and the Small Faces – not to mention the guitar-driven sound of Oasis, Ride and the Verve – can be heard with each melodic and rhythmic surge of vintage nostalgia.

As if to further the links with their cross-Atlantic cousins, Ancient River has the only frontman in Florida, who, over the last ten years, has managed to pull off the quintessential combination of sounding fleetingly lackadaisical, while also managing to convey meaning: something that Jaime Barreto pulls off with incredible ease.

That said: Songs From North America also takes inspiration from bands closer to home; as the dreamy, harmonica-led folk of ‘The Big Sky’, is the sound of Crazy Horse jamming with West Coast natives, while ‘Solid Ground’ evokes memories of smoky, sun-lit bars, in the heart of San Francisco. Mesmerising and irrepressibly cool: Songs From North America is a rare, psych-tinged gem.

- Chybucca Sounds

Despite being titled Songs From North America – they are from Gainesville after all – the most striking aspect of Ancient River’s best release to date, is its unequivocal Britishness.

Cut from the same, modern-day cloth, as the likes of: Black Mountain and Tame Impala, the Florida trio – like their contemporaries – owe a considerable debt to the decades of British garage and psychedelia; as the Kinks, the Pretty Things and the Small Faces – not to mention the guitar-driven sound of Oasis, Ride and the Verve – can be heard with each melodic and rhythmic surge of vintage nostalgia.

As if to further the links with their cross-Atlantic cousins, Ancient River has the only frontman in Florida, who, over the last ten years, has managed to pull off the quintessential combination of sounding fleetingly lackadaisical, while also managing to convey meaning: something that Jaime Barreto pulls off with incredible ease.

That said: Songs From North America also takes inspiration from bands closer to home; as the dreamy, harmonica-led folk of ‘The Big Sky’, is the sound of Crazy Horse jamming with West Coast natives, while ‘Solid Ground’ evokes memories of smoky, sun-lit bars, in the heart of San Francisco. Mesmerising and irrepressibly cool: Songs From North America is a rare, psych-tinged gem.

- Chybucca Sounds

It`s not often we`re hit with two quality long players within a music submission, Ancient River kindly added their debut and current release. Whilst both albums are cast with heaps of creative momentum, I`m personally drawn to the fuzzy psych of O.D.D.S.

Shoegaze meets retro audio stimulation, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club dipped in the haze of a mid-Seventies summer. Both releases genuinely excellent in Classic Rock principals and engineering, Ancient River`s neurotic rock will suit steamy basement clubs or huge multi stages – Bring on some investment, bring in some studio time.

- Mojophenia

creedence. crazy horse. the two blacks (flag and sabbath). y’know, shibboleth’s of what the kids used to call grunge or sommit. that muxxing of hard rock and punk rock tropes. thankfully this bugger sounds like it was made by a buncha fellas who play the first tom petty and the heartbreakers record way more than the first soundgarden. it sprawls, shudders and judders like those talbot / molina / poncho jams. shuffles and stumbles along in grand mascissy canyons of echo and fuzz. they’re like a venn diagram intersection of my dad’s and my teenage record collections, all hair and beer and gibsons. they appear wholly unfashionable in a mojo magazine kinda way. no bad things as far as i’m concerned.

- Cows Are Just Food

“Relax and Float Downstream” by Ryan Muldoon

It remains unclear exactly which river sparked the creativity of Florida’s Ancient River (also unclear: what passes for ancient in the land of Epcot Center?). Perhaps it’s metaphorical, perhaps it’s allegorical, perhaps it just doesn’t matter. The fact is that three young men from Florida have taken up the magical tools of their forefathers – guitar, bass and drums – and like so many river-watchers before them, have seen the tools converge into something greater than the sum of its parts.

It may be that this Ancient River carries one of the core messages on the Austin Psych Fest as a whole: that the psychedelic experience (musically speaking, for the moment) is at once incredibly personal and yet, incredible relate-able, incredibly shareable.

Band members J. Barreto (guitar and vocals), Zach Veltheim (bass) and Chad Voight (drums) took part in that sharing in advance of their Austin Psych Fest performance.

Can you tell us a little bit about how Ancient River came together as a band? Does your friendship extend past the history of the band? How have your own relationships about music changed since forming the band?

Zach: We came together through mutual friends. We were friends that started playing together out of our mutual love and respect for music. I think our relationships with music have grown since coming together. I’m constantly inspired and delighted with what happens when we play together.


Are you from Florida originally? My perception of strange/interesting/weird/avant-garde music from Florida pretty much begins with death metal and ends with some booty-bass albums. What am I missing in regard to what’s going on in Florida currently? Gun to your head, who is your favorite Florida band of all time (Ancient River excluded)?

Zach: We all grew up in Florida. It’s a weird melting pot state. From the great Harry Stone soul of Miami or the jazz magnificence of Nat and Cannonball Adderly to the rock greatness of Gram Parsons and Tom Petty, there is much to celebrate. But if I had to pick one, I guess it would be N Sync.

One song I’m particularly fascinated by is the number, “Eye to I.” There’s almost a casualness about the way the song unfolds, beautiful as it is, in almost a “Little Wing”-like fashion. Then comes the chorus (“I just don’t know what you want”) that just explodes on the listener – very catchy and very cool. What can you tell us about this song, and what it means to you? Could it have even been subconsciously influenced by the Bad Brains “I and I Survive” or “I Against I”?

J.: Yeah, Hendrix and Neil Young always come up in our sound. The song basically works well on our EP “Under the Sun”, which has a lot to do with mankind and human nature. The lyrics kind of focus on those themes on a primitive level. Seeing another face to face and all that comes with that kind of experience.

From where does the name of the band originate? If you haven’t done so already, may I suggest you guys try to play a show with the band Ancient Sky? Seriously – I think the two bands would complement each other very well.

J: We wanted something all-encompassing and dreamy. “Ancient River” came out of a line on Neil Young’s song “Thrasher”. Don’t know too much about current bands, there are so many, but we would be happy to play with anyone.

What music have you been listening to lately? Can you think of any band or album that you didn’t really appreciate, perhaps, five years ago, but now really love?

Chad: Right now I am listening to Frank Zappa with double drummers Terry Bozzio and Chad Wackerman. Five years ago, not really.

Ram Dass said this: “It is important to expect nothing, to take every experience, including the negative ones, as merely steps on the path, and to proceed.” Agree or disagree?

All: Agree.

How, if at all, does the quote above relate to the path of Ancient River as a band? What setbacks have you faced thus far? What encourages you to continue creating music?

Chad: I think we have had some expectations as a band. When a band works hard to practice a live set and write songs there is a level of positive response that is hoped for and its always good to hear positive feedback. We’re encouraged everyday by the spirit of music that lives in each of us.

How did you originally become aware of the Austin Psych Fest? How did it happen that you are making to trip from Florida for the show? Are there any bands in particular that you are looking forward to seeing?

Chad: We first heard about Psych Fest about a year ago and thought it was a great thing going on. We dig Austin and its contribution to music. We want to be one among a group of bands at a festival that share a similar musical vision. We are looking forward to seeing all the bands at Psych Fest.

Will you cover “River Deep, Mountain High” and if so, will you indeed be high?

Zach: I would probably choose a different Spector-Barry-Greenwic - Revolt of the Apes

“Relax and Float Downstream” by Ryan Muldoon

It remains unclear exactly which river sparked the creativity of Florida’s Ancient River (also unclear: what passes for ancient in the land of Epcot Center?). Perhaps it’s metaphorical, perhaps it’s allegorical, perhaps it just doesn’t matter. The fact is that three young men from Florida have taken up the magical tools of their forefathers – guitar, bass and drums – and like so many river-watchers before them, have seen the tools converge into something greater than the sum of its parts.

It may be that this Ancient River carries one of the core messages on the Austin Psych Fest as a whole: that the psychedelic experience (musically speaking, for the moment) is at once incredibly personal and yet, incredible relate-able, incredibly shareable.

Band members J. Barreto (guitar and vocals), Zach Veltheim (bass) and Chad Voight (drums) took part in that sharing in advance of their Austin Psych Fest performance.

Can you tell us a little bit about how Ancient River came together as a band? Does your friendship extend past the history of the band? How have your own relationships about music changed since forming the band?

Zach: We came together through mutual friends. We were friends that started playing together out of our mutual love and respect for music. I think our relationships with music have grown since coming together. I’m constantly inspired and delighted with what happens when we play together.


Are you from Florida originally? My perception of strange/interesting/weird/avant-garde music from Florida pretty much begins with death metal and ends with some booty-bass albums. What am I missing in regard to what’s going on in Florida currently? Gun to your head, who is your favorite Florida band of all time (Ancient River excluded)?

Zach: We all grew up in Florida. It’s a weird melting pot state. From the great Harry Stone soul of Miami or the jazz magnificence of Nat and Cannonball Adderly to the rock greatness of Gram Parsons and Tom Petty, there is much to celebrate. But if I had to pick one, I guess it would be N Sync.

One song I’m particularly fascinated by is the number, “Eye to I.” There’s almost a casualness about the way the song unfolds, beautiful as it is, in almost a “Little Wing”-like fashion. Then comes the chorus (“I just don’t know what you want”) that just explodes on the listener – very catchy and very cool. What can you tell us about this song, and what it means to you? Could it have even been subconsciously influenced by the Bad Brains “I and I Survive” or “I Against I”?

J.: Yeah, Hendrix and Neil Young always come up in our sound. The song basically works well on our EP “Under the Sun”, which has a lot to do with mankind and human nature. The lyrics kind of focus on those themes on a primitive level. Seeing another face to face and all that comes with that kind of experience.

From where does the name of the band originate? If you haven’t done so already, may I suggest you guys try to play a show with the band Ancient Sky? Seriously – I think the two bands would complement each other very well.

J: We wanted something all-encompassing and dreamy. “Ancient River” came out of a line on Neil Young’s song “Thrasher”. Don’t know too much about current bands, there are so many, but we would be happy to play with anyone.

What music have you been listening to lately? Can you think of any band or album that you didn’t really appreciate, perhaps, five years ago, but now really love?

Chad: Right now I am listening to Frank Zappa with double drummers Terry Bozzio and Chad Wackerman. Five years ago, not really.

Ram Dass said this: “It is important to expect nothing, to take every experience, including the negative ones, as merely steps on the path, and to proceed.” Agree or disagree?

All: Agree.

How, if at all, does the quote above relate to the path of Ancient River as a band? What setbacks have you faced thus far? What encourages you to continue creating music?

Chad: I think we have had some expectations as a band. When a band works hard to practice a live set and write songs there is a level of positive response that is hoped for and its always good to hear positive feedback. We’re encouraged everyday by the spirit of music that lives in each of us.

How did you originally become aware of the Austin Psych Fest? How did it happen that you are making to trip from Florida for the show? Are there any bands in particular that you are looking forward to seeing?

Chad: We first heard about Psych Fest about a year ago and thought it was a great thing going on. We dig Austin and its contribution to music. We want to be one among a group of bands at a festival that share a similar musical vision. We are looking forward to seeing all the bands at Psych Fest.

Will you cover “River Deep, Mountain High” and if so, will you indeed be high?

Zach: I would probably choose a different Spector-Barry-Greenwic - Revolt of the Apes

It is precisely in the sixth minute of the eight-minute psychedelic dronef*ck “Electric Jesus” that I reconsider marijuana smoking as recreational pastime. This song is long. This song is very long. This song is the kind of long over which empires rise and fall, garage bands form and disperse.

But I am still listening. And Ancient River is still groping for transcendence, which means we are both doing what we were put on this Earth to do: rock ‘n roll.

Ancient River plays loud, spacey, occasionally melodic guitar music equal parts self-loathing and reverberating wah. It is a continuous blast of distortion, heavy like a burning desert sun, and when channeled through the expeditious Gibson of J. Barreto – which is virtually always – an anachronistic head-trip into the sonic ether.

The trio’s new album is entitled (somewhat preposterously) O.D.D.S. – short for outtakes, demos, demons and singles – and it is misleading in two regards. First, it sounds like a compilation album only in the sense that all long-playing rock debuts are compilations – aggregations of prime material from a band’s first nascent throes. And second, it sounds nothing at all like the batch of home recordings it alleges to be. I can’t speak to demons, but outtakes and demos these are not.

Leadoff track “4 Letter Word” in fact screams single – or “howls” single, or “caterwauls” single, or whatever it is that best describes the noise Baretto’s banshee guitar makes in these rapturous three minutes. The song chugs forward with a druggy propulsion suited best for Madchester’s stoned heyday and oddly reminiscent of the only EMF cut you or I or anyone else can name.

It is a thing of visceral gravity, but no more or less so than “Air Conditioned Gypsy” or “Once A Tabbey,” the former a neo-psychedelic kiss-off crammed with chorus, the latter an explicit homage to Dinosaur Jr. right down to the adlibbed freakouts and Barreto’s laconic drawl. For all the acid-hippie affectation, Ancient River at its flannel core exists an unabashed child of the Nineties, or certainly its grunge precursors. Somewhere in revelation, this band discovered You’re Living All Over Me and – to answer a question the music can answer for itself – yes, it’s all the better for it.

Anchored in drummer Chad Voight’s austere thump and Zach Velthelm’s appropriately brawny low-end, Ancient River never strays too far from those grungian touchstones and as a result manage to avoid most of the indulgent trappings of its oft-formless genre. With a few exceptions (“While You Were Gone”, “Changing Skies”), most of these songs are actual songs, employing ambience and wankery primarily as vehicles for catharsis. “No Apology”, for instance, careens into tranquilizing nothingness right up until, invariably, Barreto pulls the ripcord with a shard-laced solo.

So, yes, in moments as these – the blistering final heave of stoner dirge “Places No One Knows,” the sixth minute of “Electric Jesus” – I very much wish I’d said yes in the high school parking lot. I wish I had longer hair. I wish I drove a Plymouth Superbird. I wish I could rock ‘n roll like Ancient River.

By Robbie Hilson - Ana(b)log

Ancient River happens to be one of my favorite new bands and certainly one of the best Gainesville bands. They have abandoned the concept of hip to make the dying art form we call "rock n' roll music". The compulsory band comparisons lead me to Brian Jonestown Massacre, Dead Meadow, and Neil Young.

Any given live show by this three-piece will be highlighted by:

gut-busting drums,

classic reverb vox,

intimate bass,

and wah-wah laden guitar solos.

In fact, at my first live AR show, I was asked by a stranger if "everything [was] alright" because I was so catatonically swept away by the GIANT sound. The AR guys did a fantastic job translating all that is sacred about the live show on to their latest record Under the Sun. In a meer seven songs, AR takes you on a journey through the nether regions of their sonic landscape. At moments you find yourself buried in a wall of sound and other moments you are basking in open space. The highlight of the album is most definitely "Eye to I". If the radio was worth a damn these days, this song would be on it. It is soulful, catchy, and classic. - Jungle Rot Music Blog

Ancient River happens to be one of my favorite new bands and certainly one of the best Gainesville bands. They have abandoned the concept of hip to make the dying art form we call "rock n' roll music". The compulsory band comparisons lead me to Brian Jonestown Massacre, Dead Meadow, and Neil Young.

Any given live show by this three-piece will be highlighted by:

gut-busting drums,

classic reverb vox,

intimate bass,

and wah-wah laden guitar solos.

In fact, at my first live AR show, I was asked by a stranger if "everything [was] alright" because I was so catatonically swept away by the GIANT sound. The AR guys did a fantastic job translating all that is sacred about the live show on to their latest record Under the Sun. In a meer seven songs, AR takes you on a journey through the nether regions of their sonic landscape. At moments you find yourself buried in a wall of sound and other moments you are basking in open space. The highlight of the album is most definitely "Eye to I". If the radio was worth a damn these days, this song would be on it. It is soulful, catchy, and classic. - Jungle Rot Music Blog

"Alternately spacey and corrosive, the three-piece seems at one with Bay Area revivalists the Brian Jonestown Massacre, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, and to an even greater extent, anti-flower children Assemble Head In Sunburst Sound.

They play songs awash in reverb and shards of Gibson-induced feedback, which isn’t to say “formless noise jams.” Quite the opposite. Ancient River crafts driving, occasionally bluesy guitar rock from a bygone era – which, depending on the song, could mean ’80s garage (“Once A Tabby” is Dinosaur Jr.) or bastardized Summer of Love. “Four Letter Word” particularly impressed, locking into a tight, repetitive groove that still managed breathing room for J. Barreto’s fuzzed-out soloing.

The rhythm section of Zachary Veltheim (bass) and Chad Voight (drums) anchored the operation, laying a trancing foundation above which Barreto’s druggy vox and equally fried guitar work floated. Some tracks teetered on Hendrixian freakout, but others like “Insides Out” hit the pysch-rock formula on the head, pairing diffuse, gloriously wah-ed guitar lines with a stuttering verse and singable chorus. All the while, Barreto’s on his knees wailing away under a mop of sweaty locks as some kind of amoeba-looking petri dish projects weirdness circa San Francisco, ’67."
- Ana(b)log: Gainesville's Online Music Review

The Gainesville band Ancient River is one of those groups that’s cloaked in mystery. Despite the band being active for more than two years now, I still run into people who haven’t heard or seen Ancient River, but still seem to know that the group is made up of quiet people, homebodies who don’t really get out and interact with the music community. Well, it’s high time for Ancient River’s coming out party.

Friday night at Common Grounds, Ancient River will release its new album “O.D.D.S.,” a collection of songs written and recorded in the same house where the guys eat, sleep, practice and jam. It’s time for people to know what Ancient River has to offer Gainesville music, and this album proves it.

“O.D.D.S.” has moments of pure bliss, especially on the back half of the album. The songs drift at a leisurely pace, like drops of wax dripping from a candle, which gives guitarist/vocalist Jaime Barreto, drummer Chad Voight and bassist Zach Veltheim room to create booming landscapes, braided, delayed guitar melodies and lots and lots of noise. The psychedelic elements of the album are not overshadowed by its roots in the blues. Nearly every song has a riff that makes you bite your lip and groove, especially the Jimi Hendrix-inspired “Actions Speak Louder.”

Barreto’s lyrics and vocal delivery are distant, giving the album an air of nonchalance. Perhaps that is the sort of vibe that has kept people away from Ancient River? I’m not really sure. But “O.D.D.S.” proves that Ancient River deserves to be in the conversation about Gainesville’s most thought-provoking artists.

-Dante Lima, Columnist. February 3, 2011 - The Gainesville Sun