Nick Mitchell Maiato - Náquera Nick Mitchell Maiato

Coming in hazy and heady, an end-of-summer cosmic jammer from Nick Mitchell Maiato, full of big choruses, blazing guitars, country honk and deep grooves—replete with a funky horn section.

It’s been four years since Poolside, the last release by One Eleven Heavy (Mitchell Maiato’s sometimes-band with James “Wooden Wand” Toth), and that time has clearly been used for some serious woodshedding on the auteur’s part.

On Náquera, named after the Spanish pueblo in which he resides, Mitchell Maiato’s songwriting, vocals and guitar playing all come into sharp focus as he mans the wheel on an ocean drive of interwoven electric guitar duelling, funky multi-movement jams, bittersweet odes to uncomplicatedness and rolling rockers.

Featuring an effortlessly graceful preface by Macon, GA piano prodigy Gavin Rushing, “Riki Rachtman” is a cosmic Americana ballad examining the state of heavy metal in contemporary pop culture from the perspective of a disgruntled first-person narrator.

“Critical Mass” is a soaring, two-chord ode to dropping out, with an opening organ salvo by Bob Bralove, a monster, key-changing guitar duel at its core, and a fat, snaking bass groove by Otto Wilberg (Mitchell Maiato’s former colleague in Desmadrados Soldados De Ventura).

“Flamebait” is one of the record’s big surprises, with its almost Lennon-esque rock-and-soul slab of technocracy bashing, its woozy three-part horn section and its improvised, sun-scorched guitar solo slap-dab in the middle.

And on “The Angle”, we get an homage to rock-and-roll pool hustler narratives framed within an expansive country-funk jam that nods to Mitchell Maiato’s love of Parliament and Grateful Dead in equal measure.