Yeah, this is one of the best surprises of the year! Britain?s Lanterns, after releasing more than a handfull of cdrs and tapes (which I haven?t heard, apart from last year?s underwhelming ?Lughnasadh? cdr), truly deliver on this behemoth of psychedelic groove and full-blown drone drone-meets-VanHalen-extravaganza. Three tracks are on ?Mad River? but halfway into the first track, the 21-minute ?Gelt, the Mad River?, you already know that this cdr is a winner. The guitar sound is reminding me a bit of Slow Listener, and it is constantly building and building, only to be washed away by a screeching violin. There are drums, too, stubbornly trodding at a slow, monotonous pace but ? like the Big Lebowski?s rug ? somehow keeping it all together. This track is in fact a live recording, which has one truly ache to watch these guys shredding their instruments to bits ? as it inevitably happens towards the end.

Track two serves as a mere interlude before Lanterns strike again and unleash another drone beast that starts very quiet but when it finally hits the 15-minute-mark it has peaked rather violently. There?s a split lp with Gultskra Artikler announced for October, on Other Electricities. After ?Mad River?, that?s a no-brainer. 8/10 -- Jan-Arne Sohns (17 September, 2008)