Formed in 1999 by Fu Manchu refugees Eddie Glass and Ruben Romaro, Nebula may have ignited under stoner rock but their amphetamine energy and acidpsych onslaughts plant their early records somewhere between Blue Cheer’s Vincebus Eruptum, Lemmy-era Hawkwind and ’72 Sabbath with granite riffs heaving, drums pounding and vocals squalling in the higher register, bombarded with electronic space flatulence.
These reissues are Nebula’s first four releases, starting with 1999’s Let It Burn EP (7⁄10) extended to album length, with the self-explanatory Sonic Titan and the thunderous Devil’s Liquid balancing the sitar-garnished Raga In The Bloodshot Pyramid.
To The Center (8⁄10), their first full-length studio album (recorded in Seattle for Sub Pop), is Nebula’s most fully realised work, its sonorous cauldron of bollock-blasting mega-riffs and stoner churn peppered with Clearlight’s Hawkwind space-sailing, Fields Of Psilocybin’s acid-rock and MC5 attack on Come Down, the Detroit fixation manifesting in a snarling take on the Stooges’ I Need Somebody.
2002’s Dos EPs (7⁄10) combines two more EPs, including the mind-blowing Sun Creature upping the interstellar overdrive and clearing Nebula’s flight path until they went on extended hiatus 10 years later.
In 2018, appreciate the still active scorch-marks glowing in the dust.
