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Allah-Las are an American rock band out of Los Angeles, a few of them having met behind the counter at Amoeba Records before they started making sun-bleached, vintage West Coast music rooted in 1960s garage, surf and psychedelia. Over the years they grew more textured, pulling Paisley Underground, krautrock and neo-psych into the haze. Zuma 85 is their fifth, a deliberate new era leaning into art-rock, recorded at Stinson Beach and released through their own Calico Discos imprint with late-era Lou Reed, John Cale and early Eno in its DNA.
These guys are family. They played our very first years, Austin Psych Fest 2012 and 2013, then came back for Levitation 2019 and Levitation 2023, so pressing this record as a Levitation Edition feels like closing a loop we have been circling for a decade.
What lands for us on Zuma 85 is how far the band lets itself drift. The trademark reverb is still there, but it is doing different work now, framing a record that wants to be a mood piece more than a beach jam. Right On Time shows it cleanly: the groove stays patient, the guitars stay warm and fuzzy, and the whole thing breathes like a band that finally stopped chasing its old sound and started building a new room to sit in.
We are not alone in hearing it. Clash gave it an 8 out of 10 and called it a warm sanctuary, while mxdwn read the experiment as a fresh, successful evolution. Both nods feel fair to us, even if the looser, more searching back half asks for a little more patience than the early singles do.
That patience is exactly why it earns wax. This is a headphones-and-needle record, an orange grapefruit swirl LP capped at 400, and a fitting way to mark how far this band has traveled with us. If you want more in this vein, pull up Tijuana Panthers, The Black Angels and Night Beats.
Recommended if you like: Tijuana Panthers, The Black Angels, Night Beats.
