Prior to releasing their third album, The Harvest (review here), in the early hours of 2015, Ukrainian trio Stoned Jesus offered a collection of jams and song skeletons called The Seeds Vol. I in 2013 to help finance the recording, pressing, etc. When Stoned Jesus jam, they jam, so like the prior release, Seven Thunders Roar (review here), it was well received. Today, it’s my pleasure to host a premiere of the seven-and-a-half-minute exploration “Starshine Harvest” as an announcement that The Seeds Vol. II is on its way as a precursor to a proper fourth full-length.

The running theme of seeds and harvests provides immediate intrigue — the cuts on The Seeds Vol. I didn’t have titles, just numbers — so right away “Starshine Harvest” is something of a departure, but its fuzzadelic vibe should feel right at home for anyone who either heard the first The Seeds or who can get on board with a psych jam generally. Recorded live before Stoned Jesus made their debut with 2010’s First Communion, it features guitarist/vocalist Igor Sidorenko, as well as bassist Nick Kobold and drummer Alex EphirZ, since replaced by Sergey “Sid” Slusar and Viktor Vitamin, respectively. Being upwards of six years old, obviously it’s not necessarily a glimpse at where Stoned Jesus are headed on the follow-up to The Harvest, but it makes a fitting look back at where they come from all the same and digs into low-end groove and spacious guitar that I’m not likely to complain about either way.

More on The Seeds Vol. II when I hear it. Until then, you can check out “Starshine Harvest” on the YouTube player below, followed by some background courtesy of the band:

Stoned Jesus, “Starshine Harvest”

“Starshine Harvest” is an old idea we were having fun with back in 2010. While it had never been properly recorded by Stoned Jesus MKI, it was regularly featured on our setlists, partially or as a full jam thing. This particular version is taken from our pre-“First Communion” Kharkiv concert, and by uploading it we want to say “The Seeds, vol.II” are coming!

Since the very first rehearsals Viktor, the new drummer, always kept his portable recorder turned on, and soon we got literally gigabytes of jams and improvisations, mostly played between actual songs just to keep us sharp. Some of them were rather cool and even if we wouldn’t use them as the future songs’ basis, we’d love to share them with you all. We decided to upload some cuts for you on BandCamp.

Again, this is NOT the actual studio album, just a download-only collection serving as a fundraising weapon for our new full-length. We’re not much into the “just donate”-campaigns, ‘coz we understand people always need to get something for their bucks, so here’s the deal – for $5 only you’re getting the whole thing. And attention to those who donate $40 and more, get ready to find your names inside the future album’s booklet in the THANK YOU section!

Stoned Jesus on Thee Facebooks

Stoned Jesus on Bandcamp

Stoned Jesus on YouTube

Tags: Kiev, Stoned Jesus, Stoned Jesus The Seeds Vol. II, The Seeds Vol. II, Ukraine, Unsigned bands

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 1st, 2016 at 6:53 am and is filed under audiObelisk, Whathaveyou. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.