Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

In honor of the label’s upcoming showcase in Philadelphia (info here) later in September, I’ve decided this month’s audiObelisk transmission should highlight some of the best contributions from Detroit‘s Small Stone Records. The biggest challenge in making this installment wasn’t deciding what to include in terms of bands, but where to stop. It’s about three hours long, and I probably could have gone another easily.

I wanted to include some of Small Stone‘s classic output, from bands like Acid King, The Men of Porn and Five Horse Johnson, and I had to make sure the current and new faces were represented as well: Gozu, Skanska Mord, House of Broken Promises. And just when I thought I was all set to go, I realized I’d forgotten to include Sasquatch. Don’t even ask me how. I was all converted, uploaded, labeled and live, and the next thing I knew I broke out III and ripped the opener, reconverted, re-uploaded, so on and so forth. I don’t know if that’s dedicated or dumb.

Either way, it’s worth being both, given all that Small Stone has done for the genre over the course of the last decade-plus. We start off with some love for Jersey, which the label has always been ready to show. Halfway to Gone, doing “Great American Scumbag.” It’s a song I think sums up a lot of what it means to be into this kind of music in this day and age. As always, I hope you dig it and the rest of the transmission, which is the longest yet at over three hours and featuring 35 bands. This one’s easily my favorite so far.

And if you’re wondering what the image is above, it’s the Detroit airport.

You know the drill: Full tracklist after the jump, stream the file above or download it here. As requested, I included time stamps for when each song starts.

Read more »

New York‘s Tee Pee Records, not to be outdone, has just put out info on three showcases they’re doing in October, one in Brooklyn for CMJ, one in Montreal and one in Los Angeles. Good to keep busy, I guess. Here’s the PR wire info:

Tee Pee Records has announced a trio of label showcases set to take place this Fall. The independent record company will grandstand its diverse family of artists this autumn at special events on both sides of the US and also in Canada.

Pop Montreal 2010 presents the Tee Pee Records Showcase
Saturday, October 2
Katacombes (1635 St-Laurent, Montréal, QC H2X 2S9)

Featuring: Priestess, Naam, Mirror Queen, The Main Street Gospel
Tee Pee Records and CMJ present:
The 2010 Tee Pee Records CMJ Showcase
Friday, October 22
Union Pool (484 Union Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11211)
Featuring: Priestess, Naam, Quest for Fire, Mirror Queen, The Atomic Bitchwax, Hopewell, Weird Owl, The Main Street Gospel

Tee Pee Records proudly presents All Hallows Eve
Thursday, October 28 & Friday, October 29
Spaceland (1717 Silver Lake Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90026)
Featuring:
Night one: Black Cobra, Ancestors, Black Math Horseman, Imaad Wasif
Night two: Big Business, The Fucking Wrath & two more TBA
*Special kick off performance by Jason Simon on October 27 @ Vacation Vinyl

Sure I’m sitting here, chewing Rolaids as I drink my beer after a long day at the office, but hey man, that’s working life. Sure it’s been busy as hell and I’ve struggled even to get a review up every day, and the thought of the semester beginning (which it does tomorrow, Sept. 2) has horrified me to the point of lost sleep all week, but isn’t that what I signed up for?

Apparently yes, it is. I think about where this site was two months ago, or even one month ago, in that pastoral Vermont space that feels a hundred years away now, and take my solace in the fact that hits are up for the first time since May. And Yahoo‘s quoted 17,435 isn’t much more than July’s 17,053, but I’ll happily take it. Thanks for reading and for coming back.

According to the powers that be (i.e. Google) the site had 22,046 page views from all 50 American states and 112 countries abroad on all six inhabitable continents, including places as far away from my little river valley as Pakistan, Laos and Oman. Thank you all for visiting. I hope you liked what you saw.

If this last month brought tumult (and it did), September is going to be even crazier. Here’s a quick rundown:

The Maple Forum: The Kings Destroy record, titled And the Rest Will Surely Perish, goes to press this month. I’ve listened to the finished album and it’s seriously one of the best records I’ve heard all year. I don’t know what else to say about it than that. I can’t wait for you to dig on this band the way I’ve been digging on them.

In the meantime, I have one copy of Roareth‘s Acts I-VI left available for purchase. Anyone interested can hear and pick it up via this link. Ignore that headline though, because there is in fact only one left, and then my supply is gone.

Podcasting: That the Small Stone podcast was downloaded 57 times in its first two days live I consider a success and thank you for that. I have a theme picked out for October and it’s going to seem completely random when it’s executed, but I’m going to have fun with it and that’s all there is to it.

Facebook: If you have a Facebook page, well, me too. Here’s mine. Hit me up. I’ve gotten some very kind comments on there from people who’ve been reading the site and really, that means more than I can say. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Interviews: Oh, do I still do those? Yes, I do. Yawning Man goes live tomorrow, Friday at the latest, and there’s Man’s Gin and Masters of Reality in the can, plus, I spoke to Bob Pantella of Riotgod/Monster Magnet/The Atomic Bitchwax today, and that ruled, so it’ll be up in the coming weeks as well. Lots of good stuff to come there.

Reviews: Hard to see past my own typing hands as far as this goes, but on the docket are records from Kylesa, Del Rey, Poobah, Dusted Angel, BXI, Hypnos 69, Bibilic Blood, High Watt Electrocutions and more, so stay tuned.

I’m sure there’s more, but that’s all I can think of. If posts are light the next couple days, I apologize. The Aquarian is on early deadline for Labor Day and as I may have mentioned, class starts tomorrow, so please bear with me and understand I’m doing the best I can. The contact form works now. Feel free to get in touch.

Thank you as always, and as we move into the Fall, I’m gladder than ever to call this site my home.

Sincerely,
JJ Koczan
Heaping Potbelly Taskmaster

How do I know Kylesa‘s new album, Spiral Shadow, is bad ass? I’m listening to it right now! Plus, as though to confirm the assessment I just made (and the one I’ll make in longer form when I review the record tomorrow), the band has posted the opener, “Tired Climb” now on something called MySpace. Being “so totally into this Facebook thing,” I don’t know what that is, but there’s a link provided in the PR wire info below that you can click if you’re feeling adventurous.

Kylesa‘s Spiral Shadow is due out Oct. 26, and the band join High on Fire and Torche for a five-week US tour starting Sept. 29. You’ll find the dates after the jump:

Savannah-based Kylesa have unveiled “Tired Climb,” a new track from their forthcoming Season of Mist debut, Spiral Shadow, on the band’s MySpace page.

The band, who recently wrapped up a European tour with Converge, recorded the new album at the Jam Room in Columbia, SC, earlier this summer with band member and renowned producer Phillip Cope (Baroness, Withered) once again at the helm.

Kylesa is currently working on a video for “Tired Climb” and will return to the road on Sept. 11 with a performance at Raleigh‘s Hopscotch Festival before joining High on Fire and Torche for a five-week US trek.

Click “Read More” below for those dates and others.

Read more »

In thinking of what kept me from checking out Nitroseed for so long, the only thing I can come up with is the name, which smacks of nü-metal in a way that undercuts the band’s sound. The album art for their only full-length to date, Molt, doesn’t do much either to dispel the impression, so perhaps without knowing the parties involved or the kind of rock Nitroseed actually get down with (the rockin’ kind), I let superficialities get the best of me. What a jerk.

Nonetheless, I finally picked up Nitroseed‘s Molt, at the recent Earthride show in NYC. The band’s name was one I’d been hearing for years — bassist Rob Hampshire also plays in Earthride and Gary Isom, who drums on Molt, has been with Spirit Caravan, Valkyrie, Pentagram and at least a dozen others over the course of his career — and may or may not have seen them in or around Maryland at some point and just not bought the album, but however it came about that I didn’t own the album, it was a situation easily-enough rectified with $10. Money well spent.

On Molt, Nitroseed offer 10 tracks all within the three-to-four-and-a-half-minute range of straightforward instrumental heavy riff rock, with some highlights to be found in the tone of guitarists Shane Balloun and Tucker Orr, who on “Combined Forces” — appropriately enough — emit a groove worthy of Karma to Burn‘s Americana-gone-distortion and find it backed up by the capable hands of Hampshire and Isom, whose strength as a rhythm section lives up to their collective pedigree. The band self-released Molt in 2006, and if it was going to turn into the shape of Heavy to come, it probably would have by now, but Nitroseed still have plenty to offer instrumental buffs or riff-obsessives, as it’s essentially a showcase for the quality of the performances it contains.

Most of the material on the album could have just as easily had vocals, and apparently Nitroseed agrees, since their newer material reportedly features them. Isom has also since left the band and been replaced by Woolly Mammoth‘s Phil Adler, so when their second album materializes it will most likely find them in different shape than does Molt, if the ensuing four/however-many years wouldn’t have already. Still, as a means for getting introduced to the band, I’m glad to have picked up the record and glad I can finally say my catalog boasts an album with a track called “Gut Butt” on it. That’s got to be worth something.

Part of the growing and fertile Polish stoner rock scene, Satellite Beaver make no bones about their love for all that’s heavy on their most recent self-released demo Trip Outside Your Mind. The band formed in 2008 and are definitely still figuring out their sound, but like a lot of the nascent acts in and around Warsaw rock city, the four-piece display a genuine affection for the lineage of stoner and other riffy-type rock, and that goes a long way toward establishing their charm on the three-song release.

The title Trip Outside Your Mind might lead you to believe we’re going to be dealing with far-out space reverb psychedelia, 13-minute expansive songs that delve into Hawkwindian self-indulgence, but Satellite Beaver are more earthbound than that, rocking like Earthride or a half-speed High on Fire, the vocals of guitarist Simon the Beaver leading the arguments in favor of the comparison. On opener “Fat Man in Wellingtons,” he and his fellow Beavers (each member takes “The Beaver” as their last name) begin with about 45 seconds of noise before actually starting the song – a bold move on a release that’s only 15 and a half minutes total – but once they get going, the groove is palpable, the tones are thick and the vibe is stoned. Fellow guitarist/backing vocalist Tom the Beaver contributes to the heft of “Fat Man in Wellingtons” and the quicker “OD&D” with bassist Marian the Beaver and drummer Mad the Beaver proving more than capable of following the guitars wherever they may take the songs along whatever path they choose to get where they’re going.

Read more »

Say what you want about A Storm of Light making their name because Josh Graham handles visuals for Neurosis (the band’s first gigs were opening for them at Brooklyn Masonic Temple), countering all those arguments is a whopping list of tour dates in both the US and Europe that shows them working their collective ass off to support their second album, Forgive us Our Trespasses. And furthermore, that album kicked ass, so quit being grumpy that their friends are cooler than your friends and get with the program.

So there.

Here is the aforementioned plethora of dates, complete with comment from Graham on the work ahead, all courtesy of the PR wire:

Brooklyn kings of atmospheric doom, A Storm of Light, are gearing up for a short stint of US tour dates next week that include performances with experimental metal/noise exhibitionists Today is the Day and reunited stoner metallers Sleep before heading to Europe for a month’s worth of shows in October.

Said guitarist/vocalist John Graham of the upcoming shows: “The next couple of months are going to be a lot of fun for us. We’re lucky enough to share the stage with the legendary Sleep, brutalists Today is the Day, and then embark on our fourth European tour. Awesome!”

A Storm of Light US/Europe tour dates 2010:
08/31 31st St Pub – Pittsburgh, PA w/ Today is the Day
09/01 Ottobar – Baltimore, MD w/ Today is the Day
09/03 Santos Party House – New York, NY w/ Today is the Day
09/04 AS220 – Providence, RI w/ Today is the Day
09/07 Starlight Ballroom – Philadelphia, PA w/ Sleep
09/08 Brooklyn Masonic Temple – Brooklyn, NY w/ Sleep, Lichens
10/01 Brudenell Social Club – Leeds, UK
10/02 Whelans – Dublin, Ireland w/ Stand up Guy
10/03 The Spring and Airbrake – Belfast, Ireland w/ Stand up Guy
10/04 Captain’s Rest – Glasgow, Scotland
10/05 The Croft – Bristol, UK
10/06 The Underworld – London, UK w/ Sedula, Sons of Alpha Centauri
10/07 Nouveau Casino – Paris, France
10/08 Simplon – Groningen, Netherlands
10/09 013 – Tilburg, Netherlands
10/10 Juha West Matinee Show – Stuttgart, Germany
10/12 Rhiz – Vienna, Austria
10/13 Kset – Zagreb, Croatia
10/14 Randall – Bratislava, Slovakia
10/16 Firlej – Wroclaw, Poland
10/17 Powiekszenie – Warsaw, Poland
10/20 Nabaklab – Riga, Latvia
10/21 Nosturi – Helsinki, Finland
10/23 Garage – Oslo, Norway
10/24 Debaser – Stockholm, Sweden
10/25 Loppen – Copenhagen, Denmark
10/26 Hafenklang – Hamburg, Germany
10/27 Feierwerk – Munich, Germany
10/28 Spazio – Turin, Italy
10/29 Urban – Perugia, Italy
10/30 Init Club – Rome, Italy

I’m talking about unchecked aggression, dude. That’s what Midlands trio Volume Death Riot have to say about it. Theirs is a therapeutic, noisy kind of riff metal, like AmRep gone mo-dern; a little mellower than Unsane at their angriest, but aren’t we all? You might hear some Houdini, but you might not. One’s as likely as the other.

I’ve been grooving on the two tracks on Volume Death Riot‘s MySpace page for the last week or so, and the energy they emit is every bit as frantic and unchained as the paragraph above. Everything about them is choppy except the songwriting. “Buer,” at a surprisingly quick seven minutes, is riffy without being cliche, and the kind of song you’d expect to be instrumental, but for the vocals. “Hell to Pay” is shorter, crunchier and more aggressive vocally, but still basically in the noise-rock mold. Of the two I’ll take the latter, as far as personal preference goes, and though I don’t know what the three-piece’s plans are as far as more recording, I’d sure like to see them play a gig with On the Radar veterans Dopefight.

Noise is about as unpretentious a sound as you can get, and Volume Death Riot definitely make good use of that workingman feel in their two present tracks. Hopefully they’ll be able to keep that kind of atmosphere going forward, as both “Hell to Pay” and “Buer” have a sincerity to their anger that’s not easily faked. They’re not changing the world, but they’ve got a cool sound, decent production, and potential. It’s worth keeping an eye on the MySpace to see where they go from here.

If the quizzical title Phantom Hell and Soar Angelic presents a twist for your brain (do they mean “phantom” as a verb, like you could turn Hell into a ghost of some kind?), then that’s just the beginning of the puzzles Italian trio Void Generator have to offer on their third release. Following a 2004 self-titled EP and 2006’s We Have Found the Space, Phantom Hell and Soar Angelic (Phonosphero Records) is four tracks and well over an hour of anti-gravitational psychedelic rock, the finest attribute of which might be its timing. The Roman four-piece (five if you count Bob the Rich on “accumulation,” which I think means “recording”) have an impeccable sense of when to rock and when to space out.

To wit, the memorable Phantom Hell and Soar Angelic opener, “Message from the Galactic Federation,” which manages to work both a catchy chorus and hyper-extended airy parts into its 15:14 length. My first time through, I waited the full three-plus minutes (not an unreasonable amount of time given the scale of the song) for the vocals to come on and ruin it, but guitarist Gianmarco Iantaffi didn’t disappoint, his delivery maintaining a balance between rough rock and melodic crooning that’s got just enough effects behind it to cut through the guitars, synth, bass and drums. Vocals aside, what sets Void Generator apart from the space rock hordes seems to be their willingness to rein in their jams, to bring them back to the songs, and where many bands seem to plow through their verses and choruses like they’re punching a clock waiting to get to the 10-minute go-nowhere jam – not always a bad thing, mind you – Void Generator remember they’re writing songs here, not just showing off or screwing around. “Message from the Galactic Federation” repeats parts at just the right times, and manages to remain what political pundits call “on point” for its duration. No small achievement.

If the opener sets the bar high, though, the rest of Phantom Hell and Soar Angelic delivers on its promise. The shortest track on the album, a mere 13:04, is “The Morning.” It’s more open-ended feeling than was the opener, but it’s also a show-off point for the rhythm section. Bassist Sonia Caporossi and drummer Marco Cenci (who plays on the latter tracks, while Marco Ricci played on the first) carry most the song, leaving Iantaffi and synth-specialist Cristiano Lodi to add flourishes and contribute to the gradual build, which they do in subtle, confident fashion. Toward the song’s end, Lodi’s work becomes especially apparent, and adds a soft melody to the driving rock behind it in the mix. As a setup for the ostensibly “final” cut, the wonderfully-named 18:12 overture, “The Eternaut,” it works immaculately and with considerable flow.

Read more »

If you want to get in touch, use the Contact link in the sidebar. Or, if you’re Facebook-inclined, there’s always that. Also, the comments have apparently been broken the last few days. They’re fixed now too. Wonderful thing, this internet. If you want to get in touch to tell me to review your band, please do so.

Much as I love the city of Philadelphia — and I do; it’s the Wesley Snipes to NYC‘s Stephen Dorff — it’s a long way away. Nonetheless, for a lineup like Las Cruces and Iron Man, the trip is well worth it. And hey, I didn’t drive as far as Las Cruces, who are from San Antonio, and thus know what salsa should taste like. So it could be worse.

I was in no hurry to get to the Millcreek Tavern, since it was just the two bands on the bill and I knew the show would be running late. Las Cruces went on first, playing tracks off of their latest, Dusk, as well as older material and a new song called “Egypt” that I shouted from the crowd was a keeper. And it was. There wasn’t much of an audience — apparently some fest was happening down the street — but the loyal few enjoyed what the four-piece had to offer, myself included, and when they played “Wizard” and “Cocaine Wizard Woman” back-to-back, I felt like life was doing me a personal favor. Two songs with “wizard” in the title — in a row! Doesn’t get more doomed than that, folks.

In general I consider myself a fan of a singing drummer, and Paul DeLeon of Las Cruces didn’t disappoint. While guitarists George Trevino and Mando Tovar (Pillcrusher) poured out killer riffs and solos and bassist Jimmy Bell windmilled a breeze enough to feel it from in front of the stage, DeLeon held down the rhythm and the melody of material both old and new. Dusk is the band’s first full-length in 12 years, but the band and the songs sounded fresh and they put on a righteous show despite the fact that there weren’t too many people in the crowd to see it.

A chicken cheese steak was enjoyed in between sets — no onions — and I had plenty of time to eat, as Iron Man took their time getting going. Vocalist Joe Donnelly must have been running late, or else waiting outside to make his grand entrance, since he came in just before the set started. Bassist Louis Strachan and new drummer Mike Rix (who has about four more toms in his rack-mounted kit than he needs for doom) make for a killer rhythm section, and Donnelly‘s Ozzy-style antics are well documented and always good for a laugh, but the essential component in Iron Man is Al Morris III, whose sheer presence while he plays guitar makes the whole set. I managed to get video of the opener, “I Have Returned,” which you can see below. Watch his solo and you’ll see what I’m talking about. Amazing.

Iron Man played a new song as well. I didn’t catch the name of it, but it’s good to know they’re working on material for a follow-up to I Have Returned. They were selling the recent Shadow Kingdom reissues of Generation Void, Black Night and The Passage as well, though I don’t know how many people were there who didn’t already have them. They played an 11-song set, which seemed like a bit much, but although it’s three days later and my sleep pattern is still thrown off, I’m not going to say it wasn’t worth the time or effort to get to the show. It was all the more special because of the sparse attendance, and with Las Cruces having come so far, and Iron Man having made the trip from Maryland, it seemed the least I could do to show up. I guarantee whatever else was going on in town that night wasn’t as doomed out as this show was.

Adding to the argument in favor of attendance was not knowing when Las Cruces would be back this way. Iron Man is killer, don’t get me wrong, but I’ve already seen them this year and worse comes to worst, Maryland is only three hours away. San Antonio is a little farther out from Jersey, and since I enjoyed Dusk so much (even the tracks not about wizards of any shape or form), I wanted to be there to support the band. I don’t know if it did them any good in terms of getting gas money to get to the next show, but there you go. Should have been a couple local acts on the bill to round it out and fill up the place, should have been more people there, but it was a killer gig and easily justified the ride down. No complaints out of me.

Fuckin’ “L.A. Connection.” This song rules, man. This was one of three videos Blabbermouth posted that were put up by former Rainbow/Ozzy bassist Bob Daisley, and damned if I could find anything better to close out the week. It doesn’t get much better than ’70s Ritchie Blackmore and Ronnie James Dio kicking out a ridiculous hard rock song that has nothing to do with anything.

There’s a new podcast coming this weekend. Do you know what the theme will be? I do. I guess you’ll just have to stay on this page and click “Refresh” until it’s actually posted so you can find out.

Next week we wrap up August, and I promise I’ll finally have that Yawning Man feature up. I’m also slated to do two more interviews, and I’ve got conversations with Man’s Gin and Masters of Reality already in the can, so we should be well stocked. Next week also starts the semester, which is terrifying but a reality I was going to have to face sooner or later. Can I work, go to school and manage the most kickass stoner blog in the known multiverse? Probably not, but it’ll be fun anyway.

In the spirit of the release, I’m going to try to keep this short:

Torche songs are so easy to get excited about, because they’re actually exciting. They’re upbeat, energetic, accessible, friendly-sounding even at their heaviest. I just popped their new offering, Songs for Singles in my player for the first time, and already, I want to hang out with it. I want to sit with it and have a beer and watch the bug zapper. Eight songs in under 22 minutes isn’t the kind of numbers I usually get down with, but man, Torche kick ass with twice the efficiency of most bands.

What I like most immediately about Songs for Singles is that the first six tracks comprise half the listening time, and the last two make up the final 10-plus minutes. You’re through “U.F.O.” before you know it, and “Lay Low” is only 51 seconds long, so that’s barely started before it’s done, but “Shine on My Old Ways” seems to change the pace, and by the time “Face the Wall” comes on, you feel like you just hit it. The wall, that is.

If you dug the dreamy pop aspects of Meanderthal, you’re probably also going to drool over Songs for Singles, as even on the slower “Face the Wall” and six-minute capper “Out Again,” that element of their sound is a constant. There aren’t any über-heavy guitar bombs, and as “Out Again” stretches the instrumental section that gradually fades to close the record, it’s apparent that what Torche like playing with in their sound is the sometimes massive, sometimes sweet contrast. Right now, they’re doing it better than anyone else.

Right from the opening track, “Flustrated,” it’s clear Dali’s Llama are having fun with their latest offering, Howl Do You Do? (released through their own Dali’s Llama Records). Maybe after eight records of straight up desert rock, the Zach Huskey-led Palm Springs, California, outfit decided it was time to try something else – and who could blame them for that? They’ve been kicking out fuzzy jams with such regularity that the routine was bound to wear them down, so a turn to garage rock and horror punk is probably just what the band needed to shake things up. A lot of their bluesy core is still in tact, but if all you know of Dali’s Llama is what they’ve done the last several years – records like Sweet Sludge, Full on Dunes and Raw is Real – Howl Do You Do? is bound to be something of a surprise.

The organ features heavily on songs like “She’s My Halloween” and “Flash Flood, Flash Flood,” played by Mikael Jacobson, who joins Zach, bassist Erica Huskey, guitarist Joe Dillon and drummer Craig Brown (all of whom also contribute backing vocals), but I tend to return more to the piano-laced sounds of the title track, which has a more blues-driven feel to it than the camp spookiness of the horror punk material. Just a personal preference. Huskey’s songwriting, probably the central driving force within Dali’s Llama, is strong as ever, though it should be noted the structures of the songs haven’t really changed so much from the band’s last couple full-lengths, just the genre play. It’s like Dali’s Llama have put on a costume – a Halloween costume, appropriately enough. Underneath, they’re still who they are, but they’re playing the part of a garage horror punk band for an album. Howl Do You Do? was probably a lot of fun to make.

Read more »

I think when the smoke clears over the next decade or so, we’re going to see a lot of bands come down the line who cite Colour Haze as an influence. The German heavy psych trio have left an indelible mark on underground rock over the course of their 15-plus years together, and though they’ve all but disavowed their earliest works — albums like 1995′s Chopping Machine, 1998′s Seven and the 2000′s CO2 are all out of print and quite rare (though 1999′s Periscope was reissued on guitarist/vocalist Stefan Koglek‘s Elektrohasch Schallplatten imprint in 2003) — their latter-day material has made for incredible depth of listening and the strength of their playing continues to reach new heights.

So where to start? First, let it be said that the entire available discography is exceptional. 2008′s All was my favorite album of that year, and 2003′s Los Sounds de Krauts is nothing short of miraculous. You might think it strange then that I’m going with 2006′s Tempel as my pick for newcomers.

It’s a question of exclusion. On 2001′s Ewige Blumekraft, Koglek, bassist Philip Rasthofer and drummer Manfred Merwald were still getting a feel for their sound. Los Sounds de Krauts, as I’ve said, is great, but it’s a double-CD, and might be too much to handle in terms of giving new listeners a full appreciation of what the band can do. Tempel‘s predecessor, the 2004 self-titled, is close, but the tracks aren’t as memorable.

And as for All, the only reason I didn’t pick that is because the album is better experienced if you’re already familiar with what the band has done before. It might be the best Colour Haze record to date (and I do include last year’s Burg Herzberg Live release in that), but you won’t know that unless you hear the others first — and especially hearing Tempel first, then going to All, I think that’s the best way to grasp how special Colour Haze really is. You get to hear the chemistry between Rasthofer, Merwald and Koglek and come to understand it’s really not all about the riffs, but about each instrument and how they play off each other. Perhaps even more important then where you get started is that you get started. Here’s Tempel opener “Aquamaria” to speed your way. Enjoy.