It took me a couple plays to even understand if this was a “band” in the usual sense. Because this thing doesn’t behave like a record put together in a jam space and tracked over a weekend. It’s not locked in like that. It moves more like a memory. Or like it was uncovered, not written.
I found Al-Mahruqa way after it came out. 2019, apparently, but you don’t really pin a year on this kind of album. It sounds like it could’ve been recorded in ’73, or tomorrow in some empty warehouse. It doesn’t age. Because it doesn’t really live on a timeline.
PELEGRIN’s music is heavy psych rock soaked in stoner and prog influences, with deep Middle Eastern melodic textures and sprawling, hypnotic song structures.
What hits first is the atmosphere. Guitar hangs a note too long. Drums slide in, like they’re not in a rush to prove anything.
The band takes their time. They’re not building toward a chorus or some riff you’re supposed to latch onto. They’re building a space. And if you’re not listening, it’ll just pass you by. But if you are – it pulls you in and keeps you there. Not aggressively. Just enough to hold you.
There’s a Middle Eastern feel in a lot of the guitar work, but not in a way that feels “applied”. It’s not decorative. It’s part of how the songs are built. It gives the whole record this wandering, half-lost tone. Like you’re following someone who knows where they’re going but doesn’t bother explaining it.
I’ve seen people throw around names like Elder or OM, which maybe gets you in the neighborhood, but not really. PELEGRIN’s more patient than either. There’s no urgency in this record, no need to keep your attention. It’s going somewhere. You can come or not.
Vocals come in low, kind of tucked under everything else. They’re not the focus, which is good. The voice fits the music but doesn’t try to carry it. There’s no frontman energy here. It’s more like the songs are telling themselves and the vocals show up when needed.
What I really like is how unpolished it all is. You can tell they didn’t overwork the mix. It breathes. Things feel like they were played live and then left alone. No compression suffocation. No shiny EQ polish. It sounds like it sounded. That’s rare.
They self-released it originally. Now Ripple’s reissuing it, which makes sense. It belongs on a label like that – one that’s not trying to make a product out of a band. Just getting good records into more ears.
Al-Mahruqa isn’t heavy in the usual sense. It doesn’t crush. It lingers. It sticks. It leaves a sound behind in your head after the record’s over. And honestly, that’s harder to do than dropping a big riff.
If you want a record you can just drop into and stay there, this one does it. No skippers, no singles, no highlight moments. It’s a whole thing or nothing.
And yeah, it’s stayed with me. Still does.
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Re-released by Ripple Music on May 23, 2025
