Originally released on a limited lathe cut LP by Japanese label Onkonomiyaki, Kingdom of Heaven is a rare snapshot of the duo at a creative peak, brought back to light by the Disciples crew. Consisting of Pale Saints’ member Ian Masters and His Name Is Alive mastermind Warren Defever, ESP Summer is a unique meeting of minds: a hugely synchronous collaboration that produced just a few stellar releases before vanishing completely into the ether.
Masters and Defever use the 13th Floor Elevators’ garage classic ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ as a launching pad for these psychedelic meditations. The atmosphere of the title track is soaked in reverb, giving off a faint aroma of mournful ritual with its sombre hook and deep, pounding percussion. The crisp dried version ‘Kingdom of Taishyogoto’ flips the coin, stripping away the FX adornments to reveal Masters’ vocal. ‘Tardigrades’ capitalises on the duo’s shared spatial awareness, an odyssey beginning at guitar and synth-driven lift off and ending up somewhere among the stars. At the disc’s end, ‘Space’ pulls together ideas from across the release and ascends even higher with beautiful, elegiac drones across its 15-minute duration.
An intoxicating release of masterful song-writing and production, Disciples give us another chance to slip inside ESP Summer's Kingdom of Heaven.
