https://www.high-endrolex.com/18

Omega Sun Post “Early Morning” Video; Spring Shows Announced

Posted in Whathaveyou on March 20th, 2024 by JJ Koczan

With a heavy and desert-hued roll behind the gritty vocals from bassist Igor Kukanja, Slovenian heavy rockers Omega Sun drew a distinct line to Kyussian traditionalism with their Fall 2023 sophomore LP, Roadkill, but the dry-crunch distortion of Aris Demirović‘s guitar that starts the record in “The One” soon unfolds the broader reach of the leads topping the mid-tempo nod of “Survive,” and the grunge-laced melody atop the march of Sebastian Vrbnjak‘s drums for the finale “Doomer” adds complexity of style while staying true to the central, grooving purpose. They grow expansive in the longer form “Black Dust” with room for a highlight solo, and the lumbering “Another You” — if there was another me, for sure he would also be lumbering — which tops nine minutes, and offset those impulses with a rocker like “Early Morning,” which brings us around to the new video streaming below.

“Early Morning” answers the desert shove of “The One” by putting the listener on a mountaintop in the sunshine, and that sense of place resonates through the casual-but-not-lazy swing and the jammy stretch of the bridge before they bring back the hook at the end. The band made a trip to Southern California in 2019 for a fest called Sounds of the Heavy on the heels of their late-2017 debut, Opium for the Masses, and while they were already there sound-wise, clearly that journey left an impression on them that continues to resonate through Roadkill, which the trio have also announced a new round of Spring live shows to support as they unfurl the “Early Morning” video.

The PR wire brought it all for your perusal:

Omega Sun

Slovenian stoner fuzz rockers Omega Sun share a music video for »Early Morning«; upcoming tour dates announced!

Slovenian stoner fuzz rock band Omega Sun has released a music video for the song “Early Morning” which is part of their second album “Roadkill.” The album, released on September 8, 2023, through the Pula-based (Croatia) label No Profit Recordings, received positive reviews both domestically and internationally upon its release.

The second single from the still current album, accompanied by a music video, also announces the first part of the European tour, starting at the end of March 2024.

• Mar 29 NL Amsterdam, Het Groene Veld – Love For Loud Fest
• Mar 30 BE Ichtegem, Club B52
• Apr 5 BE Gent, Trefpunt
• Apr 6 NL Eindhoven, Café The Jack
• Apr 19 SLO Sv Jurij ob Ščavnici, Jurjevo
• Maj 8 SLO Maribor, Dvorana Gustaf (Pekarna)
• Maj 9 CRO Zagreb, Klub Močvara
• Maj 10 Madžarska, Budimpešta, Riff Club
• Maj 11 Slovaška, Bratislava, Koncerty na garážach

The band has previously toured Europe and the USA and more remote corners of the world, such as Malta.

Slovenian heavy fuzz rockers Omega Sun started in 2013 as an instrumental duo and after a few rehearsals morphed into a proper four-piece band with vocals. Since then, Omega Sun has played numerous concerts, sharing the stage with bands like Dopethrone, Unida, Kylesa, Nebula, Stoner Kebab, Yawning Man, Three Eyes Left, etc.

During this time, the band released an instrumental demo in 2013 and soon after, in 2014, their first proper song as a four-piece (with vocals) “Early Morning.”

After some upheaval in 2017, Omega Sun finally managed to record their debut album “Opium For The Masses”; now as a power trio consisting of Igor (vocals, bass), Seba (drums), and Aris (guitar). In 2022, the band completed work on their second full-length album “Roadkill.”

The first single “The One” from the album “Roadkill” was released at the end of June 2023 as a digital single on the band’s own Bandcamp. The second song, “Doomer,” will be released on September 1, and the full album is scheduled for release on September 8. The album will be released in digital format, and pre-orders with discounts for the vinyl version will be available simultaneously, with the vinyl expected to be released in mid-December. The vinyl will be released by No Profit Recordings in 300 copies on standard black 12″ vinyl, with 50 copies featuring exclusive alternative artwork.

Since December 2023, the album has finally been available in all formats (black vinyl, digipak CD, cassette, digital) and also in three different bundles (vinyl + CD, vinyl + cassette, vinyl + CD + cassette)!

Omega Sun consists of:
Igor Kukanja – Vocals and Bass
Aris Demirović – Guitars
Sebastian Vrbnjak – Drums

https://www.facebook.com/omegasvn
https://www.instagram.com/omega_sun/
https://omegasun.bandcamp.com

https://www.facebook.com/NoProfitRecordings
https://www.instagram.com/no.profit.recordings/
https://noprofitrecordings.bandcamp.com

Omega Sun, “Early Morning” official video

Omega Sun, Roadkill (2023)

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Hippie Death Cult Announce West Coast Touring

Posted in Whathaveyou on March 19th, 2024 by JJ Koczan

hippie death cult

Surprised that Hippie Death Cult are rolling out this Spring for West Coast dates supporting their 2023 album, Helichrysum (review here), or that they’re heading off anyone who’d do the social media thing where people complain tours aren’t coming to their houses like Amazon deliveries by saying there’s more to come in North America and Europe? Yeah, I’m not really either. Touring is a big part of what they do and remained such as they restructured their lineup around the three-piece of bassist/vocalist Laura Phillips, guitarist Eddie Brnabic and drummer Harry Silvers, and that includes fostering a rawer, more-live-feeling sound on last year’s aforementioned LP.

The news is no less welcome for being not-unexpected, however, as Hippie Death Cult set themselves to hitting stops up and down the Pacific Coastline, dipping inland for Las Vegas, Reno, etc. Having already pulled off the sonic pivot of Helichrysum decisively and with rare freshness of perspective for something that’s not actually a debut, maybe this can be something of a victory lap for that. Or, you know, if not, maybe the next tour, because history paints them as honest when they say there’s more to follow.

In the meantime, this took me a couple days to post because I suck at this whole thing, but here’s what they had to say about it, fancy fonts and all:

hippie death cult west coast 2024

Pacific West Coast !! Get ready⚡️We are kicking off our 2024 tour season with a special run up and down the coast this May & June !! Like always, each n’ every show is a 𝐠𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐝 h͎i͎g͎h͎ ͎v͎i͎b͎r͎a͎t͎i͎o͎n͎a͎l͎ ͎m͎o͎j͎o͎ ͎s͎h͎i͎f͎t͎e͎r🫨 See y’all SOON!

Tickets on sale today at 10am PST!! Don’t miss out !!

Get your tix, tag your friends, See y’all soon !!

𝐩คc𝕚𝐟Į𝓬 𝕠Ⓓy𝕤S𝐞𝓎 ŦᗝỮя ➁ʘ2➃
5.16 SAN FRANCISCO, CA – @sfeagle
5.17 COSTA MESA, CA – @wayfarercm
5.18 OCEANSIDE, CA – @pourhouseoceanside
5.19 LOS ANGELES, CA – @permanentrecordsla
5.20 LAS VEGAS , NV – @the_dive_lv
5.21 RENO, NV – @lobarsocial
5.22 BRENTWOOD, CA – @thebrentwoodemporium
5.23 REDDING, CA, – @thedipredding
5.24 CRESENT CITY, CA – Enoteca
5.25 PORTLAND, OR – @coffinclubpdx
6.14 EUGENE, OR – @johnhenryseugene
6.15 SEATTLE, WA – @clockoutlounge

Ticket Links:
https://www.bandsintown.com/a/12709196-hippie-death-cult

More North American, UK & European dates TBA …

HIPPIE DEATH CULT is:
Laura Phillips – Bass/Vocals
Eddie Brnabic – Guitar
Harry Silvers – Drums

https://hippiedeathcult.bandcamp.com/
https://instagram.com/hippiedeathcultband/
https://www.facebook.com/hippiedeathcultband/
https://soundcloud.com/hippie-death-cult
https://www.hippiedeathcultband.com/

heavypsychsoundsrecords.bandcamp.com
www.heavypsychsounds.com
https://www.facebook.com/HEAVYPSYCHSOUNDS/
https://www.instagram.com/heavypsychsounds_records/

Hippie Death Cult, Helichrysum (2023)

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Album Review: Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol, Big Dumb Riffs

Posted in Reviews on March 19th, 2024 by JJ Koczan

rickshaw billie's burger patrol big dumb riffs 2

It’s hard to argue with a song called ‘1800EATSHIT.’ Even harder when it’s so damn catchy. Yeah, it’s a little counterintuitive to think of a record called Big Dumb Riffs as refined, but with their third LP, Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol are so clear in their intention and they deliver on it thoroughly enough to make it undeniable. Issued through their own Permanent Teeth Records, the album strips down the Austin, Texas, three-piece’s approach, honing in on tonal character, structure, attitude and, as “1-800-EAT-SHIT” assures, a solid amount of fuckery. Yes, they already their own beer.

The record takes place across 11 songs that span just 23 minutes, and could just as easily position itself as an exploration of the intersectionality between the masculine and the dumbassed writ through lunkheaded hardcore chug, nü-metallic palm-mute dissonance and the Primusian bounce that inspired it — looking at “Papa Pop It” for the latter and “Brat” for the former — stoner riff idolatry and hooks strong enough to hold them up despite the weight of tone emanating from Leo Lydon‘s eight-string guitar and Aaron Metzdorf‘s bass. Both of these dwell in a monolithic low-end space, but with such short songs and make-it-a-party tempos made all the more propulsive through Sean St. Germain‘s drumming, the momentum that opener “Clowntown” sets forth in its initial cycles of tense, head-down chug and subsequent sprint-out is unrelenting through the duration despite slamming into a wall of Even Heavier® brand mega-chug in the metalcore-style breakdown of “Peanut Butter Snack Sticks” on side A.

One thing to understand: Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol know what they’re doing here, and they’re doing it consciously. The short runtime, which is less than many EPs in a heavy underground that often prides itself on longform construction, becomes an advantage. On Big Dumb Riffs, the longest inclusion is closer “In a Jar” at 3:39 and seven of the 11 songs are under two minutes long. They get in, hit hard, make their point, get out. They are not lazy, as the sneering ’90s-style circle-mosher “Whip it Around” clearly demonstrates across its devastatingly efficient 55 seconds, leant a sense of freedom by dropping the pretense of being about anything other than the physicality being conveyed, which is all the more effective since it’s about headbanging, itself a physical act.

Light on flourish by nature and aesthetic choice, they offer a sneering, sometimes-aggressive stance through Lydon‘s vocals and lyrics like, “Stop being a bitch, like your mother,” in “Papa Pop It” or just the screamier backing lines shouting the title later in the penultimate “Blue Collar Man,” which answers both the meaner-sounding distortion of “Peanut Butter Snack Sticks” and the Claypoolish underpinnings noted above following the gets-up-and-runs “Bastard Initiated,” where they foster a similar clenched-teeth tension to that of “Clowntown,” working quickly in a no-bullshit-and-playing-at-being-all-bullshit manner that those who picked up what Rob Crow put down with Goblin Cock should find refreshing. Three dudes in the band means a total of six middle fingers. They all seem to be up here, however busy their hands might otherwise be at any given moment.

As much as Big Dumb Riffs is what it tells you it’s about — i.e., riffs, big, dumb — and as much as Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol have put into making it a fun listen, which is absolutely is, there are also some fairly dark themes. I haven’t actually seen a lyric sheet, so pardon if the quotes aren’t exact (I’m happy to correct whatever needs it), but “Body Bag” is the rolling centerpiece that kicks in after “Whip it Around,” and it and “Papa Pop It” both seem to be about suicide on some level. The verse in “Body Bag” tells the story of a protagonist who takes their own life after “Trying to be mama’s little twinkle in her eye,” and, “His father didn’t want him in the first place but he came in first place,” opening to its catharsis in the stuttered, “Ma-ma-ma-ma-mama, I’m about to have a heart attack” and concluding with, “I loved you but you didn’t say it back,” as the backing vocals join in for “You’d better put him in a body bag,” and they ride the chug through a last chorus around that line for another minute or so.

Outwardly poppier (go figure) and likewise grim in substance, “Papa Pop It” is framed as an imperative: “Papa pop it/Papa pull it/Do it,” and what’s happening there is someone telling, almost daring, their father to kill himself. Between these, the ultra-catchy fuck-you of “1-800-Eat-Shit” — which will no doubt be a sing-along on however many tours the band does for the record — as well as the pointedly-mom-voiced “You love it!” that oozes mockery next to a line about nostalgia being a sack of shit, the taunt in the repeated “Whatchu gonna do about that?”s of “Brat,” and the fact that “In a Jar” despite its turn toward patience and more peaceful, semi-doomgaze-comedown feel, is about murder, the vocals delivering the lines “Keep my hands…/Wrapped around your throat,” like wistful post-punk before rolling into the chorus that makes it plain with, “I’m gonna fucking kill you,” without departing the subdued-in-context last-minute drawl. “Blue Collar Man” encapsulates working class disillusion in the single lyric, “But it wasn’t the plan for the blue collar man” — daring to have a point and make it — and both “Clowntown” and “Bastard Initiated” execute their willful arrogance with a decidedly negative bent.

And I’m not sure who or what “El Sapo” (“the toad”) is about, but its 49 seconds of mute-chug and concluding gang shout come across like homage after the fact. What one might take from all of this is that while Big Dumb Riffs directs itself toward truth in advertising, there’s complexity in how it goes about that, and while its songs are short, they want nothing for persona or narrative. That St. GermainMetzdorf and Lydon accomplish this side-by-side with their stated goal of simplifying their sound even from where they were on 2022’s Doom Wop (review here) isn’t to be understated — it makes that act of breaking a thing down to its most essential parts a creative progression — and whether you take it on with that in mind or you put it on just to blow your speakers and pummel your brain with its chunky-style depth of frequency, fair enough. It feels like Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol have arrived at the point they’ve been working toward for the last seven years, harnessing primal rhythm and uniting around a single sonic purpose with a deceptively multifaceted confrontationalism. Fuck around and find… yourself?

Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol, Big Dumb Riffs (2024)

Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol on Facebook

Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol on Instagram

Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol on Bandcamp

Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol website

Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol links

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Up in Smoke 2024 Adds Monster Magnet, Daevar, Valley of the Sun, Samavayo & More

Posted in Whathaveyou on March 19th, 2024 by JJ Koczan

The 2024 Up in Smoke Festival came out swinging big in its first announcement last month, with names like Greenleaf, Monolord, Lowrider, Truckfighters, Messa and Gnome among others, and the second announcement below makes a fitting follow-up with the promise of a doesn’t-happen-all-the-time-see-them-when-you-can stopover from Monster Magnet, as well as up and coming atmospheric doomers Daevar, the e’er-a-riot Valley of the Sun, the reunited Scorpion Child and veteran heavy rockers Samavayo set to play. It’s the 10th anniversary for the Swiss festival held each Fall in Pratteln as part of what’s become an international family of festivals backed or semi-backed by Sound of Liberation — see also Keep it Low, Desertfest Belgium, etc. — and they’re only right to do it up accordingly.

From Pentagram to Slomosa, the span of generations and sounds here is broader than the monikers alone can convey, but the celebratory feel of how the lineup is taking shape remains strong. There’s a lot to like about it, in other words, and while I’ve never been lucky enough to attend, I do know enough to know that running a successful fest for a decade — never mind surviving the odd bit of pandemic interruption of same — is no minor feat. Congratulations to Up in Smoke on the anniversary, and I look forward to when the rest of the bill is announced, say, mid-April?

From the PR wire:

up in smoke 2024 second poster square

UP IN SMOKE FESTIVAL confirms MONSTER MAGNET & many more new band names for its 2024 edition!

UP IN SMOKE FESTIVAL has announced new names for their upcoming, 10th anniversary edition, and confirms spacelords MONSTER MAGNET, high-voltage desert rockers VALLEY OF THE SUN, Berlin’s finest SAMAVAYO, stoner doomsters DAEVAR, US rock act SCORPION CHILD & many more!

They will join the already eclectic line-up featuring mighty PENTAGRAM, who will play their last Swiss show ever(!), TRUCKFIGHTERS, MONOLORD, GREENLEAF, LOWRIDER, SLOMOSA and more high class live acts. Further band names will be revealed soon.

UP IN SMOKE FESTIVAL will take place between October 4 – 6, 2024 at Konzertfabrik Z7 in Pratteln, Switzerland, Hard tickets are available via https://sol-records.com/products/up-in-smoke-2024-festival-hardticket, to grab your online ticket, visit: https://www.sol-tickets.com/produkte

https://www.facebook.com/upinsmokefestivalswitzerland
https://www.instagram.com/up_in_smoke_festival

https://www.facebook.com/Soundofliberation/
https://www.instagram.com/soundofliberation/
https://www.soundofliberation.com/

Daevar, “Amber Eyes” official video

Valley of the Sun, The Chariot (2022)

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Carpet Premiere New Album Collision in Full; Out Friday

Posted in audiObelisk, Reviews on March 19th, 2024 by JJ Koczan

Carpet Collison

[Click play above to stream Carpet’s Collision in its entirety. It’s out this Friday, March 22. At 21:30 CET today, which is 4:30PM Eastern and 1:30PM Pacific, the band will host a listening party on Bandcamp. The invite is here.]

While celebrating the 15th anniversary of their debut album, 2009’s The Eye is the Heart Mirror, Bavarian heavy progressive rockers Carpet move inexorably forward with their fifth long-player, Collision. Releasing through the duly eclectic Kapitän Platte, the seven-song/47-minute offering builds on the songwriting accomplishments of 2018’s About Rooms and Elephants (review here), harnessing an expansive but generous and welcoming sound that is thoughtful in its whole-record flow while showcasing a varied, mature character. They’re veterans of Elektrohasch Schallplatten, having released 2018’s About Rooms and Elephants (review here), 2017’s Secret Box (review here) and 2013’s Elysian Pleasures (review here) via Stefan Koglek of Colour Haze‘s now-dormant label, and heavy psychedelia is an aspect of what they do, but as the eight-minute “The Moonlight Rush” unfolds its immediately-multifaceted take, shifting from a riff-led verse through an atmospheric midsection that’s certainly not any less jazzy for the sway of Martin Lehmann‘s trumpet, into its louder payoff and through to a slowdown finish, Carpet are clear-eyed and purposeful in guiding the listener across what might otherwise be a tumultuous course. Here, one might think of it as an energetic stroll.

As the opener, “The Moonlight Rush” presents a crucial summary of some of the places Collision will go. Is it about impact, in raw sonic terms? Not as much as texture, so if one imagines the title referring to running ideas into each other and taking what works from that in terms of the material itself, that seems like a fair interpretation if not necessarily what the band meant in the choice (and it may or may not be, I don’t know). Founding guitarist/vocalist Maximilian Stephan — who released that first 2009 Carpet album as mostly a solo endeavor with some drums by Jakob Mader, who’s been on board since — is distinguished and suited to the instrumental flow in his melodic vocal approach, and while each song has its own intent as well as its own place in the entirety of the release, Stephan‘s vocals and the backing contributions of recording and mixing engineer Maximilian Wörle (presumably) in the chorus harmonies of “The Moonlight Rush,” the repeated line, “Can I just put my foot down,” in “Dead Fingers,” amid the rush of “Passage” later, and so on, are thoughtful in their arrangements and effects treatments, giving a unifying presence and drawing the material together without actually doing the same thing all the time.

Heads more attuned to the realms of desert and heavy rock will hear some Josh Homme in the sinewy semi-falsetto of “Ghosts” and centerpiece “P is for Parrot,” but it’s similarity not impersonation, and considering that the context surrounding in the latter cut is a start-stop crunch take on the angularity of King Crimson until it weaves through pastoral psych highlighting the keys from Sigmund Perner (he’s credited with Fender Rhodes and Roland Juno; I’m pretty sure I’m talking about the Juno in “P is for Parrot”) before bassist Hubert Steiner and Mader bring the group back to its initial shove, more urgently for the payoff finish, well, Carpet end up sounding more like Carpet than whatever other name one might drop. This individuality is something that’s manifest gradually over the course of the band’s time, and as much as one would call them ambitious in terms of growth — that is, actively pursuing a vision of their sound — if they’re chasing anybody, it’s themselves. The linear, almost narrative manner in which Collision unfurls highlights a dynamic that has become essential to who they are.

carpet

With malleable balance in Wörle‘s mix and breadth in Dimi Conidas‘ master, Carpet gracefully follow the plan that “The Moonlight Rush” sets out. By the time they get to nine-and-a-half-minute bookending closer “Cosmic Shape Shifter,” with its riffier, nodding resolution arriving with a swing and strut that even Uncle Acid fans should be able to appreciate, their path has veered into and through the more straight-ahead structures of “Dead Fingers,” its tolling bell in the intro serving as a memento mori complementary to the lyrics and a chorus that’s likewise catchy and sad and an emergent push in the bass as the trumpet sounds and the bell returns and the almost drawling lyrical repetitions noted above, and “Ghosts,” which in the early going of its 5:41 reimagines the beginning of Black Sabbath‘s “Children of the Grave” as shimmering bright and holds that energy for the sweep of its hook offset by a more subdued verse, en route to “P is for Parrot,” which feels like as far as they’ll go into their interpretation of ’70s groove until the boogie-in-earnest of “Passage” kicks in as the apex in that regard. The pivot from airy wash and strum at the end of “Passage” into the tropical jazzscape of the penultimate “Lost at Sea” isn’t to be discounted, and neither is the lush melodic prog that accompanies that rhythmic motion, but again, Carpet own the procession and it’s barely a hiccup one to the next in the mind of the listener despite the amount of ground actually covered.

This is the result of Carpet having already cast such a reach across the span of Collision, and “Cosmic Shape Shifter” answers with a victory lap of affirmation for what the album has presented leading to it, while underscoring the band’s overarching intent in how it digs into both its atmospheric stretch — there’s the Rhodes — and the subsequent, very much held-in-reserve groove that caps. This duality is essential to understanding who Carpet are as a band and the work their material does, but it’s no less crucial to point out that it’s only in that ending where they really seem to pair the opposite ends of that scope together — and it still works, encapsulating the poise with which “Ghosts” and “P is for Parrot” and “Passage” move into “Lost at Sea,” or how “The Moonlight Rush” and “Dead Fingers” act as complements at the outset within its own movements. Mature and considered as it feels, Collision still has outreach in its energy, and its execution leaves a warm, safe space for the listener to inhabit as the choruses ingrain themselves in the memory before departing on dreamy flights. And if you’ve ever believed progressive rock to be staid or emotionally void, Carpet provide ready counterpoint.

Carpet, “Ghosts” official video

Carpet on Facebook

Carpet on Instagram

Carpet on Twitter

Carpet on Bandcamp

Carpet website

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Ufomammut Announce Hidden LP Out May 17; “Leeched” Video Posted

Posted in Whathaveyou on March 18th, 2024 by JJ Koczan

ufomammut

Italian cosmic doom progenitors Ufomammut have always believed presentation matters and they’ve got the closely-associated Malleus visual arts studio to prove it, but I can’t remember them ever quite going so deep into that notion as to manifest an album’s concept in the actual piece of plastic to which it’s pressed. Yeah, they’ve done special editions and on-theme colors, but Hidden takes that another step as you can read in the just-got-here PR wire info below. See also the sense of crushing weight and consuming atmosphere that’s defined most of their output over the course of the last two-and-a-half-plus decades. That seems to be well intact too, as demonstrated in their new animated video for “Leeched,” the first single from what will be their 10th full-length, out May 17 through Neurot Recordings and their own Supernatural Cat imprint.

Newfomammut is always good news as far as I’m concerned. Last Fall, they offered a sneak peak at Hidden‘s direction in the Crookhead EP (review here), the title-track from which features as the new record’s opener. “Leeched” finds the three-piece digging into the heart of their approach with clarity and efficiency across its five minutes, but if the other nine Ufomammut albums — the last of which was Fenice (review here), released just in 2022 — have taught us anything, it’s that you never know all the places the band will explore until you’re actually in the whole record itself. Even then sometimes you might lose track of where you’re at. Don’t worry, that’s part of the thing too.

Something to look forward to:

ufomammut hidden

UFOMAMMUT: Italian Psychedelic Doom Trio To Release Tenth Album, Hidden, On Neurot Recordings/Supernatural Cat Records On May 17th; Animated Video For “Leeched” + Album Details And Preorders Posted

Italian psychedelic doom metal trio UFOMAMMUT celebrates their 25th Anniversary in 2024 including the release of their massive tenth studio full-length, Hidden. Today, the band confirms the album for May release on Neurot Recordings/Supernatural Cat Records, unveiling the cover art, track listing, preorders, and an animated video for the song “Leeched.”

Rising from the ashes of their prior band Judy Corda, UFOMAMMUT formed in the late 1990s by Poia (guitars, effects) and Urlo (bass, vocals, effects, synths), together with Vita (drums). With Levre taking over on drums in 2021, the band has undergone a rebirth, culminating in the release of the 2022-released Fenice LP, and on Halloween 2023, the Crookhead EP.

Over the course of two-and-a-half decades, UFOMAMMUT has developed a unique sound that combines heavy, dynamic riff worship with a deep understanding of psychedelic tradition in music, which has resulted in a cosmic, futuristic, and technicolor sound that fully immerses listeners. They’ve produced a wide spectrum of albums, EPs, live albums, a box set, compilation tracks, and covers – including a track on the Superunknown Redux Soundgarden tribute album.

Now, in 2024, as they celebrate their quarter-century milestone, UFOMAMMUT is set to release their tenth LP, Hidden. This album marks a shift in the band’s musical composition, aiming for a more intense and heavy sound, as they have displayed over the prior two releases. The title, Hidden, reflects the concept of the presence of everything in our existence and the ability to bring to light what lies within us. With Hidden, the band delves into a sonic journey that traverses vast expanses of space and time. From the crushing heaviness to the hauntingly melodies, from the textured compositions to the otherworldly atmospheres, Hidden testifies to the never-ending evolution of UFOMAMMUT and their mastery of creating immersive sonic experiences: a fitting celebration of their 25 years of sonic exploration and experimentation.

Like any good psychedelic trip, the music of UFOMAMMUT has always been inextricably intertwined with visual art. Poia describes longer compositions, “like a painting,” as if to reinforce the relevance and importance of visual art in their music. And as always, the artwork, videos, and all visuals/graphics for Hidden were created by Malleus Rock Art Lab, the rock/music graphic design collective of which Poia and Urlo are part of with Lu.

Hidden was recorded at Flat Scenario Studio in Piemonte, Italy, with Lorenzo Stecconi handling the mixing and mastering, and Luca Grossi overseeing vocal tracking.

With the lead single, Poia writes, “‘Leeched,’ the first song from the new full-length album Hidden, perfectly represents the new direction of UFOMAMMUT, which began with the album Fenice and continued with the EP Crookhead and reiterates once again that there are no failures or hesitations in our sonic research.

The fusion between heaviness and psychedelia, an obsession of the band since the beginning, takes on a new, changing form in ‘Leeched.’”

Hidden will be released on CD, LP, and digital on May 17th, in North America through Neurosis’ Neurot Recordings, the vinyl pressed on a Silver Nugget variant in a gatefold jacket. In Europe, the band’s Supernatural Cat Records will release it, a standard version on 180-gram Marbled Purple And Black variant, and a limited version of 500 copies on 180-gram Crystal Clear variant crafted by hand using photosensitive colors that are activated by sunlight, bringing the concept of the album to life, with multiple bundles and options.

Find US preorders/presaves at Neurot Recordings HERE: https://music.neurotrecordings.com/hidden.OPR

EU preorders at Supernatural Cat HERE: https://www.supernaturalcat.com/home/hiddenpreorder/

Hidden Track Listing:
1. Crookhead
2. Kismet
3. Spidher
4. Mausoleum
5. Leeched
6. Soulost

UFOMAMMUT will be touring regularly in support of Hidden, with a long list of tour dates already announced across Europe and the UK through all of May and into June, with much more being plotted. See the current 25 Years Anniversary Tour listings at the band’s website HERE: https://www.ufomammut.com/site/

UFOMAMMUT:
Poia – guitars
Urlo – bass, vocals, effects, synths
Levre – drums
Ciccio – soundlord

https://www.instagram.com/ufomammut
https://www.facebook.com/ufomammutband
https://ufomammut.bandcamp.com
https://www.ufomammut.com

https://www.instagram.com/SupernaturalCat_recs
https://www.facebook.com/Supernaturalcat666
https://www.supernaturalcat.com

https://www.instagram.com/neurotrecordings
https://www.facebook.com/neurotrecordings
https://neurotrecordings.bandcamp.com
https://www.neurotrecordings.com

Ufomammut, “Leeched” official video

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The Obelisk Questionnaire: Eduardo Camini of Locomotiva Elétrica

Posted in Questionnaire on March 18th, 2024 by JJ Koczan

Locomotiva Elétrica

The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.

Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.

Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.

The Obelisk Questionnaire: Eduardo Camini of Locomotiva Elétrica

How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?

I define Music as an Art that makes me leave everyday reality and explore “mental spaces” that I can only access through it. The same music that brings me relief and makes my mind calmer to move forward.

Describe your first musical memory.

Music came into my life in the late 80s, through Rock bands that I started to enjoy because of my older sister. Playing the guitar came next, and the rest is history…

Describe your best musical memory to date.

The best musical memory is not just one, but every time I can go on stage and play, in addition to the shows I was able to see artists I like.

When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?

I believe it was in 2009 at the first Ozzy Osbourne concert I saw. The expectation was for a bad show due to Ozzy’s age but I went to see “the guy” who invented Heavy Metal. But the show was awesome and really changed my perception about career time/expectations.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

I believe it leads to exploring chords, textures and sound experiences that at a given moment we didn’t imagine existed or that we believed wouldn’t fit into a certain song. Furthermore, I think there is a change in conception about a musical career.

How do you define success?

I think that success is something that is in everyone’s head, very particular. My success can be something everyday for someone else and vice versa, so I can only talk about my success. For me, it’s being in cool places, doing what I like with people who make me feel comfortable.

What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn´t?

Musically speaking, I’ve seen many fantastic bands ending up in limbo or artists leaving this life. This hurts because so much good music has been lost.

Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.

I have two musical dreams: having a studio and recording a vinyl.

What do you believe is the most essential function of art?

Make people feel good about themselves.

Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?

Right now I long for an end to the clashes between different countries that I have seen on the news. This is all very wrong.

https://www.instagram.com/locomotivaeletrica/
https://locomotivaeletrica.bandcamp.com/

Locomotiva Elétrica, Os Animais Que Nos Habitam (2024)

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Orquesta del Desierto to Release Remixed/Remastered LPs in June

Posted in Whathaveyou on March 18th, 2024 by JJ Koczan

There’s a lot of information here, but if you’re not already familiar with Orquesta del Desierto‘s two albums, 2002’s self-titled and 2003’s Dos, the relatively short-lived project with the duo of Dandy Brown (also Hermano, The Fizz Fuzz, solo work) and Pete Stahl (Goatsnake, earthlings?, Wool, Scream) at its core might indeed require a bit of context. Intentionally fluid in their lineup with a stylistic openness that speaks to the heart of desert-weird like Master of Reality at their most oddball or the earliest pair of Man’s Ruin-issued Desert Sessions LPs, Orquesta del Desierto pushed further into quirk and became very much the manifestation of their own niche, while incorporating personalities like Mario Lalli (Fatso Jetson, Yawning Man, etc.) and Alfredo Hernandez (Kyuss, Ché, Avon, etc.) and growing willfully more open in songwriting between the first and second albums.

Adventurous as they were, both Orquesta del Desierto and Dos were rife with genre transgressions, and perhaps that’s part of what’s kept them as something of a secret for the last 20-plus years, but what ‘heavy’ and what ‘desert’ mean and include has ballooned in that same span of time, so I’ll be curious to see how both LPs are received when Heavy Psych Sounds issues newly-remixed/remastered versions in June. So far as I know they’ve both been out of print for some time — though I did find a 2023 digipak edition of Dos on the Alone Records Bandcamp page, so not by any means completely lost to the ether — and like a lot of what’s being revisited from the turn-of-the-century heavy rock movement, they’re well worth exploring again for heads old and new to their work.

The more open your mind can be in the approach, the better off you’ll be. From the PR wire:

orquesta del desierto

Cult desert rock project ORQUESTA DEL DESIERTO (w/ members of QOTSA, Kyuss, Hermano) to reissue full discography on Heavy Psych Sounds; preorders available!

European label Heavy Psych Sounds Records welcomes legendary desert rock collective Orquesta del Desierto — the Palm Desert project founded by Dandy Brown and featuring former members of Kyuss, Yawning Man, Queens of the Stone Age, Goatsnake and more — for the reissue of their “Orquesta del Desierto” and “Dos” albums in a brand new remixed/remastered version this June.

Orquesta del Desierto stands alone among the many unique bands to come out of the Mojave Desert over the last thirty years. While the desert is often associated with purveyors of down-tuned, maximum decibel rock, shortly after the new millennium began a fresh sound associated with the southern California desert was ushered in.

For fans of the band, the story of how Orquesta del Desierto came into existence has circulated through desert rock circles for decades. It is a story that actually began thousands of miles away from southern California and has its roots in a recording session that took place in the America’s Midwest. Shortly after completing the recording of Hermano’s Only a Suggestion, producer Dandy Brown accepted the invitation of legendary singer John Garcia to leave the bitter winters of northern Kentucky and to continue their collaborations in the warmer climate of the Coachella Valley.

Dandy Brown recently turned the collections over to renowned engineers Harper Hug (John Garcia, Vista Chino, Brant Bjork) and Jason Groves (Supafuzz, Asylum on the Hill, Floraburn) for complete remixes and remasters of the Orquesta del Desierto catalog for a spring reissue on HPS Records. After an extensive search to find the best home for the albums, Orquesta del Desierto is proud to have Heavy Psych Sounds Records reissue both remixed and remastered “Orquesta del Desierto” and “Dos” collections available on vinyl this June, with preorders available now at www.heavypsychsounds.com.

orquesta del desierto orquesta del desierto

“Orquesta del Desierto” reissue (remixed & remastered)
Available June 7th on Heavy Psych Sounds – PREORDER: https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/shop.htm#HPS308

About the album

Recorded at the Green Room Studio in Palm Springs in 2001 and released on the seminal desert rock label Meteorcity Records in 2002, the band’s debut album immediately gathered critical acclaim for its ability to forge a new dynamic in a genre that was rapidly filling with groups cloning the heavier sounds of Kyuss.

Produced by Dandy Brown. Recorded at the Green Room, Palm Springs, California. Engineered by Mike Riley. Remix and Remaster by Jason Groves at Sneak Attack Studios, Lexington, Kentucky. Design and Photography by Dawn Brown.

orquesta del desierto dos

“Dos” album reissue (remixed & remastered)
Available June 14th on Heavy Psych Sounds – PREORDER: https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/shop.htm#HPS309

About the album

Unable to tour as a group due to commitments to other projects but fueled by the success of the debut release, Brown immediately turned to booking another recording session for the band. Hoping to further expand the group’s dynamic sound, Brown and Stahl solicited song contributions from Mike Riley and Country Mark Engel for the second album. While the core of Brown, Stahl, Riley, Engel and Lalli remained intact for the second session, the group’s diverse approach benefitted from the addition of drummer Adam Maples (earthlings?) and percussionist/drummer Pete Davidson. Additionally, the group was joined at famed Joshua Tree studio Rancho de la Luna by pianist Tim Jones and Bill Barrett on trumpet.

Released in 2003, Dos was immediately embraced as a “… compelling fusion of Latin stylings and psychedelic-tinged blues that is a real alternative these days” (cosmiclava.com). Bolstered by similar acknowledgements and reviews of their second album, Orquesta del Desierto committed to a series of performances throughout southern California and a European tour in 2004. Joined by drummer Bryan Brown, these shows have become legendary among the fans who were able to attend the band’s only active period of live performances.

Produced by Dandy Brown. Recorded at Rancho de la Luna, Joshua Tree, California. Additional Recording at the Green Room, Palm Springs, California. Engineered by Mike Riley. Remix and Remaster by Harper Hug at Thunder Underground, Palm Springs, California. Design and Photography by Dawn Brown.

By the end of 2004, with their two releases achieving overwhelming critical success but realizing that the members of the group were spread too thin with obligations to other projects, Brown decided to disband Orquesta del Desierto. Returning to their catalog years later, though, and considering the limitations of the technology used to capture the band’s two albums, Brown turned the collections over to renowned engineers Harper Hug (John Garcia/Vista Chino/ Brant Bjork) and Jason Groves (Supafuzz/Asylum on the Hill/Floraburn) for complete remixes and remasters of the Orquesta del Desierto catalog.

Orquesta del Desierto is
Pete Stahl
Dandy Brown
Mario Lalli
Country Mark Engel
Mike Riley
Pete Davidson
Adam Maples
Alfredo Hernandez
Sean Landetta Carrillo
Bryan Brown
Tim Jones
Bill Barrett
Jackie Watson
Emiliano Hernandez

heavypsychsoundsrecords.bandcamp.com
www.heavypsychsounds.com
https://www.facebook.com/HEAVYPSYCHSOUNDS/
https://www.instagram.com/heavypsychsounds_records/

Orquesta del Desierto, Orquesta del Desierto (2002/2024)

Orquesta del Desierto, Dos (2003/2024)

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