Splits are strange things. Carrying two songs by two different artists, you never know if what you’ll encounter on the flipside will be a nice surprise or an absolute disappointment. Hell, many times you don’t even know if things will be at least similar.
By the way, full disclosure: It took me a few days to realize that, put together, both songs (Karma to Burn’s “Six” and Sons of Alpha Centauri’s “66”) form “666”. I blame my phone separating the tracks by artist and not by album.
As a stoner/desert rock band, Karma to Burn’s collaboration for this split is the kind of tune that is made to just let your mind wander. As it is tradition for them, the song is instrumental, and so we are given the responsibility to fill in the blanks. It’s not an exciting song, but it delivers the kind of punch that you expect from desert rock. It has a highway soundtrack vibe to it that really works well.
Sadly, the same cannot be said about “66”, which sounds like the kind of royalty free backing track you can find on Youtube for your podcast. Although it has some space-y moments, courtesy of some synths used sparsely, for the most part it’s just repetitive and boring. Not only that, it doesn’t seem to have been made to be an instrumental song and, unlike “Six”, it seems to be constantly waiting for a singer to start yelling.
As far as splits go, the only reason why you might wanna get your hands on this one is the novelty factor. While Karma to Burn’s contribution is decent, it is really weighed down by the unimaginative track provided by Sons of Alpha Centauri.