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Friday Full-Length: Kungens Män, Fuzz På Svenska

Posted in Bootleg Theater on October 20th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

‘Tesen,’ the 15:35 leadoff track, sets the tone for the proceedings to follow. Every note matters. Even before the sax shows up. Every note has purpose, and while Kungens Män conjure such a sense of mellow-psych drift in that gorgeously echoing initial stretch, there is no mistaking intent. It is not haphazard jamming as a soft synth drone comes to back the guitar, or when after the first six of the total 15 minutes the sax suddenly arrives, and then the drums start a little while later and it turns out you’ve been in a build all along that only grows more lush, jazzy and patient as it plays out toward its deceptively bassy, long-fade finish. The ultra-organic Swedish instrumentalists released Fuzz På Svenska in August 2018 through Adansonia Records, and “Tesen” is one of four songs extending to such aural-temporal reaches; there’s also the title-track (14:18), the penultimate “Tung Dialog” (14:10) and closer “Ljupt Djud” (19:16), with the shorter “Starta Gruff” (6:54), “Centrala Mellanplanet” (7:03) and “Tung Pedagog” (5:12) spread throughout, not so much to offset the longer pieces — if they were, the band might’ve split up the closing duo and had a true back and forth throughout the tracklist — as to provide a complement of more compressed movements. “Starta Gruff,” which immediately follows “Tesen” is a ripper in comparison, with its guitar-vs.-sax-oh-no-wait-they’re-working-together soloing and the persistent snare of Mattias Indy Pettersson, a straightforward beat turned experimental in context.

Whatever role improvisation plays in the work of Kungens Män generally — they released the full-length Kungens Llud & Bild (review here) earlier this year and took part in Worst Bassist RecordsInternational Space Station Vol. 1 four-way split 2LP (review here), and yeah, neither seemed wanting for it — the six-piece of Pettersson on drums, guitarists Hans Hjelm and Mikael Tuominen (also percussion and production/mixing), bassist Magnus Öhrn (who also did the cover art), synthesist Peter Erikson and saxophonist/percussionist Gustav Nygren have always been purposeful in conveying a sense of exploration. Their beginning in 2012 led to a few wildly productive years, putting out minimum-five LP-length outings in 2013 and seven in 2014 before, like a nascent volcano, they cooled off a bit and only did three in 2015. Still, multiple records from them in a year isn’t surprising — it happened in 2017 and 2019 and one wouldn’t mind if it happened again — but Fuzz På Svenska stands out in part because of its title, which translates to ‘fuzz in Swedish.’

That gives some depth to the Endless Boogie-gone-jazz funky smoothness of “Fuzz På Svenska” itself, with its undulations of low end and intertwining currents of sax, hypnotic and begging for comically oversized headphones, like get some duct tape and just attach hi-fi speakers to your head facing inward. Kungens Män excel at this kind of reaches-finding, and their approach is more dynamic and natural in its presentation for the fact that they let the audience in on the process of their getting there, whether it’s “Tesen” gradually coming together, one piece at a time, or “Fuzz På Svenska” easing into the groove it will hold for the duration, through final bouts of low distortion wash, sax, and its last guitar strums before the seemingly aptly-titled centerpiece, “Centrala Mellanplanet” hums out threats of feedback over pastoral guitar lines, drums out for a walk meeting with organ or whatever that is along the way. It too takes its time fading out, and that becomes part of the impression of the album, Kungens Man Fuzz Pa Svenskalike Fuzz På Svenska gives silence its role to play in making Swedish fuzz what it is. And if this is the band’s declaration of what ‘fuzz in Swedish’ means, drawing on the likes of NovemberTräd, Gräs och Stenar, its progressive leanings indeed make it part of a vibe lineage well worthy of the update and interpretation they here give it.

“Tung Pedagog” is barely a sliver at five minutes long — the ‘radio single’ as it were — but its floating-guitar magic trick is reason enough for it to be where it is, if the underlying shuffle wasn’t (it was), and it gives over to “Tung Dialog” as more than an intro but almost like a shove into the final two pieces, which between them are well over half an hour long and especially digitally are a world unto themselves. On the 2LP, the longer and shorter tracks are paired, but where it’s long-short for sides A and B, side C switches to short-long, so that five-minute “Tung Pedagog” gives over to 14-minute “Tung Dialog” with 19-minute “Ljupt Djud” behind it. Like so much of Fuzz På Svenska, this feels like a conscious choice toward listener immersion, and it works. “Tung Dialog” soars in its first-half lead guitar, but evens out in energy as it continues to broaden, the synth cycling through alongside guitar and the flowing, subdued-but-not-inactive rhythm. The last five minutes particularly feel like a drawdown, and that Kungens Män treat the piece with such care and grace is emblematic of their approach to what they do on the whole. They’ve got six players aligned toward a singular idea — you ever try to get six people to agree to anything that wasn’t ice cream? maybe this is their ice cream? — and where so many others would just let “Tung Dialog” fall apart, and even Kungens Män themselves kind of let “Starta Gruff” do the same, the mission there was different and knowing that and being able to change methods is part of what makes them function so effectively as a group.

It’s not surprising they reserve a special kind of heavy psychedelic grace for “Ljupt Djud,” but that doesn’t make the execution any less inviting. The closer is essentially one huge linear build, brought to its crescendo at around 10 minutes in, only to maintain that level of swell for most of the remainder of the song — they bring it there and hold it there, in other words. It’s not quite that simple, of course, but once it gets loud, it never recedes all the way again. A proggy start-stop guitar riff becomes part of the cacophony, and that will end up being the final element to go — they end cold after so many fades, because obviously — but as with the rest of Fuzz På Svenska and the best of jam-based psych as a general style, it’s even more about how you got there than where you ended up. If you can dig it, it can dig you too.

As always, I hope you enjoy. Thanks for reading.

So, in about two hours — at 7:30AM — I have an appointment with an orthopedist to look at my knee. You might recall I sprained it two weekends ago at Høstsabbat, or at least I’ve been calling it a sprain. The swelling hasn’t gone down, the pain hasn’t really stopped, I inadvertently straightened it while walking in the lawn the other day waiting for the bus and fell down, brace on, Advil, all that shit. On Wednesday, which was also my birthday and turned out to be an otherwise wonderful day full of family time, some good chats with friends, and alt-flour/sugars cookie pie, I started the day at urgent care where they took an x-ray and made the referral. I assume this appointment will be hoop-jumping in the sense of you go, you wait, you go in, doctor says MRI, then you need to make an appointment for that. I’ll be honest, I’ve been hoping this shit would just heal on its own if I ignore it and move on with my life, but like two weeks later that’s a little bit more difficult to see as a reasonable position, particularly when every step hurts.

The Pecan feels feelings when I’m like, “ow!” and so that’s been a thing to deal with, and The Patient Mrs. is supportive in a handle-your-shit-dumbass kind of way that is actually something I need — see implementation of “ignore it,” above — so yeah, it’s been a week. But really the dominant feature of the last few days in my mind was how much joy I felt on my birthday to be with my family, to have my mother and sister and her husband and their two kids come. The Connecticut contingent (The Patient Mrs.’ family) couldn’t make it down because it was the middle of the week and kind of just a laid back, get-pizza thing, but my kid sat on my lap and helped me blow out the candles and how many more times am I going to have that happen? I still sing to him at bedtime. These are moments that I know are fleeting and I know won’t come again. If I don’t stop and appreciate them now, there’s no fucking point to anything.

My family are largely well. Mom is en route to deaf and needs new knees, but systems-wise and cognitively is a go, and my sister’s family are all wonderful people. Her older son just started high school and reminds me so much of her at that age; sleepy, sarcastic, funny, curses like the proverbial sailor, etc. I am lucky to have these people in my life. Everyone’s basically healthy, alive, here. This is worth appreciating.

And I got to talk this week with Walter from Roadburn and Peder from Lowrider, heard from Slevin, watched more Rammstein videos and Star Trek and got to post All Souls and review UWUW on my birthday, so yeah, it was a pretty good one. The Pecan turns five next Tuesday, and then next Saturday is his party with the bounce house, CT family coming down, all that stuff. Cleaning to do, but it’ll be fun.

Next week around here should be pretty solid, one way or the other. I just confirmed — like right now, midsentence — a full stream for Edena Gardens, the new project with Causa Sui and Papir members, and I’ve got a Ruff Majik video premiere on Thursday. Some other stuff is still pending, but I know I want to review The Otolith, and Brant Bjork, and if I have time, Black Math Horseman, but that’s a maybe.

I’ve also got a Creem column due today, because that’s going to be in print now instead of on the internet, which is fine I guess, and need to get to work on Dozer liner notes for Postwax, so yeah, much to do.

But the knee thing this morning is probably first (after this and my next coffee, anyhow), so we’ll see how that goes.

Thanks for reading and have a great and safe weekend. I know it’s cooler now than at high summer, but still, don’t forget to hydrate. And watch your head out there. And your legs, I guess.

Back Monday. FRM.

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Quarterly Review: Nadja, London Odense Ensemble, Omen Stones, Jalayan, Las Cruces, The Freeks, Duncan Park, MuN, Elliott’s Keep, Cachemira

Posted in Reviews on September 21st, 2022 by JJ Koczan

THE-OBELISK-FALL-2020-QUARTERLY-REVIEW

Day three, passing the quarter mark of the Quarterly Review, halfway through the week. This is usually the point where my brain locks itself into this mode and I find that even in any other posts where I’m doing actual writing I need to think about I default to this kind of trying-to-encapsulate-a-thing-in-not-a-million-words mindset, for better or worse. Usually a bit of both, I guess. Today’s also all over the place, so if you’re feeling brave, today’s the day to really dig in. As always, I hope you enjoy. If not, more coming tomorrow. And the day after. And then again on Monday. And so on.

Quarterly Review #21-30:

Nadja, Labyrinthine

Nadja Labyrinthine

The second full-length of 2022 from the now-Berlin-based experimental two-piece Nadja — as ever, Leah Buckareff and Aidan Baker — is a four-song collaborative work on which each piece features a different vocalist. In guesting roles are Alan Dubin, formerly of Khantate/currently of Gnaw, Esben and the Witch‘s Rachel Davies, Lane Shi Otayonii of Elizabeth Colour Wheel and Full of Hell‘s Dylan Walker. Given these players and their respective pedigrees, it should not be hard to guess that Labyrinthine begins and ends ferocious, but Nadja by no means reserve the harshness of noise solely for the dudely contingent. The 17-minute “Blurred,” with Otayonii crooning overtop, unfurls a consuming wash of noise that, true, eventually fades toward a more definitive droner of a riff, but sure enough returns as a crescendo later on. Dubin is unmistakable on the opening title-track, and while Davies‘ “Rue” runs only 12 minutes and is the most conventionally listenable of the inclusions on the whole, even its ending section is a voluminous blowout of abrasive speaker destruction. Hey, you get what you get. As for Nadja, they should get one of those genius grants I keep hearing so much about.

Nadja website

Nadja on Bandcamp

 

London Odense Ensemble, Jaiyede Sessions Vol. 1

London Odense Ensenble Jaiyede Sessions Volume 1

El Paraiso Records alert! London Odense Ensemble features Jonas Munk (guitar, production), Jakob Skøtt (drums, art) and Martin Rude (sometimes bass) of Danish psych masters Causa Sui — they’re the Odense part — and London-based saxophonist/flutist Tamar Osborn and keyboardist/synthesist Al MacSween, and if they ever do a follow-up to Jaiyede Sessions Vol. 1, humanity will have to mark itself lucky, because the psych-jazz explorations here are something truly special. On side A they present the two-part “Jaiyede Suite” with lush krautrock rising to the level of improv-sounding astro-freakout before the ambient-but-still-active “Sojourner” swells and recedes gracefully, and side B brings the 15-minute “Enter Momentum,” which is as locked in as the title might lead one to believe and then some and twice as free, guitar and sax conversing fluidly throughout the second half, and the concluding “Celestial Navigation,” opening like a sunrise and unfolding with a playful balance of sax and guitar and synth over the drums, the players trusting each other to ultimately hold it all together as of course they do. Not for everybody, but peaceful even in its most active moments, Jaiyede Sessions Vol. 1 is yet another instrumental triumph for the El Paraiso camp. Thankfully, they haven’t gotten bored of them yet.

El Paraiso Records on Facebook

El Paraiso Records store

 

Omen Stones, Omen Stones

Omen Stones Omen Stones

True, most of these songs have been around for a few years. All eight of the tracks on Omen Stones‘ 33-minute self-titled full-length save for “Skin” featured on the band’s 2019 untitled outing (an incomplete version of which was reviewed here in 2018), but they’re freshly recorded, and the message of Omen Stones being intended as a debut album comes through clearly in the production and the presentation of the material generally, and from ragers like “Fertile Blight” and the aforementioned “Skin,” which is particularly High on Fire-esque, to the brash distorted punk (until it isn’t) of “Fresh Hell” and the culminating nod and melody dare of “Black Cloud,” the key is movement. The three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Tommy Hamilton (Druglord), bassist Ed Fierro (Tel) and drummer Erik Larson (Avail, Alabama Thunderpussy, etc. ad infinitum) are somewhere between riff-based rock and metal, but carry more than an edge of sludge-nasty in their tones and Hamilton‘s sometimes sneering vocals such that Omen Stones ends up like the hardest-hitting, stoner-metal-informed grunge record that ever got lost from 1994. Then you get into “Secrete,” and have to throw the word ‘Southern’ into the mix because of that guitar lick, and, well, maybe it’s better to put stylistic designations to the side for the time being. A ripper with pedigree is a ripper nonetheless.

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Jalayan, Floating Islands

Jalayan Floating Islands

Proggy, synth-driven instrumentalist space rock is the core of what Italy’s Jalayan bring forward on the 45-minute Floating Islands, with guitar periodically veering into metallic-style riffing but ultimately pushed down in the mix to let the keyboard work of band founder Alessio Malatesta (who also recorded) breathe as it does. That balance is malleable throughout, as the band shows early between “Tilmun” and “Nemesis,” and if you’re still on board the ship by the time you get to the outer reaches of “Stars Stair” — still side A, mind you — then the second full-length from the Lesmo outfit will continue to offer thrills as “Fire of Lanka” twists and runs ambience and intensity side by side and “Colliding Orbits” dabbles in space-jazz with New Age’d keyboards, answering some of what featured earlier on “Edination.” The penultimate “Narayanastra” has a steadier rock beat behind it and so feels more straightforward, but don’t be fooled, and at just under seven minutes, “Shem Temple” closes the proceedings with a clear underscoring the dug-in prog vibe, similar spacey meeting with keys-as-sitar in the intro as the band finds a middle ground between spirit and space. There are worlds being made here, as Malatesta leads the band through these composed, considered-feeling pieces united by an overarching cosmic impulse.

Jalayan on Facebook

Sound Effect Records store

Adansonia Records store

 

Las Cruces, Cosmic Tears

las cruces cosmic tears

Following 12 years on the heels and hells of 2010’s Dusk (review here), San Antonio, Texas, doomers Las Cruces return with the classic-style doom metal of Cosmic Tears, and if you think a hour-long album is unmanageable in the day and age of 35-minute-range vinyl attention spans, you’re right, but that’s not the vibe Las Cruces are playing to, and it’s been over a decade, so calm down. Founding guitarist George Trevino marks the final recorded performance of drummer Paul DeLeon, who passed away last year, and welcomes vocalist Jason Kane to the fold with a showcase worthy of comparison to Tony Martin on songs like “Stay” and the lumbering “Holy Hell,” with Mando Tovar‘s guitar and Jimmy Bell‘s bass resulting in riffs that much thicker. Peer to acts like Penance and others working in the post-Hellhound Records sphere, Las Cruces are more grounded than Candlemass but reach similar heights on “Relentless” and “Egyptian Winter,” with classic metal as the thread that runs throughout the whole offering. A welcome return.

Las Cruces on Facebook

Ripple Music store

 

The Freeks, Miles of Blues

The Freeks Miles of Blues

Kind of a sneaky album. Like, shh, don’t tell anybody. As I understand it, the bulk of The Freeks‘ nine-tracker Miles of Blues is collected odds and ends — the first four songs reportedly going to be used for a split at some point — and the two-minute riff-and-synth funk-jam “Maybe It’s Time” bears that out in feeling somewhat like half a song, but with the barroom-brawler-gone-to-space “Jaqueline,” the willfully kosmiche “Wag the Fuzz,” which does what “Maybe It’s Time” does, but feels more complete in it, and the 11-minute interstellar grandiosity of “Star Stream,” the 41-minute release sure sounds like a full-length to me. Ruben Romano (formerly Nebula and Fu Manchu) and Ed Mundell (ex-Monster Magnet) are headlining names, but at this point The Freeks have established a particular brand of bluesy desert psych weirdness, and that’s all over “Real Gone” — which, yes, goes — and the rougher garage push of “Played for Keeps,” which should offer thrills to anyone who got down with Josiah‘s latest. Self-released, pressed to CD, probably not a ton made, Miles of Blues is there waiting for you now so that you don’t regret missing it later. So don’t miss it, whether it’s an album or not.

The Freeks on Facebook

The Freeks website

 

Duncan Park, In the Floodplain of Dreams

Duncan Park In the Floodplain of Dreams

South Africa-based self-recording folk guitarist Duncan Park answers his earlier-2022 release, Invoking the Flood (review here), with the four pieces of In the Floodplain of Dreams, bringing together textures of experimentalist guitar with a foundation of hillside acoustic on opener and longest track (immediate points) “In the Mountains of Sour Grass,” calling to mind some of Six Organs of Admittance‘s exploratory layering, while “Howling at the Moon” boasts more discernable vocals (thankfully not howls) and “Ballad for the Soft Green Moss” highlights the self-awareness of the evocations throughout — it is green, organic, understated, flowing — and the closing title-track reminisces about that time Alice in Chains put out “Don’t Follow” and runs a current of drone behind its central guitar figure to effectively flesh out the this-world-as-otherworld vibe, devolving into (first) shred and (then) noise as the titular dream seems to give way to a harsher reality. So be it. Honestly, if Park wants to go ahead and put out a collection like this every six months or so into perpetuity, that’d be just fine. The vocals here are a natural development from the prior release, and an element that one hopes continue to manifest on the next one.

Duncan Park on Facebook

Ramble Records store

 

MuN, Presomnia

MuN Presomnia

Crushing and atmospheric in kind, Poland’s MuN released Presomnia through Piranha Music in 2020 as their third full-length. I’m not entirely sure why it’s here, but it’s in my notes and the album’s heavy like Eastern European sadness, so screw it. Comprised of seven songs running 43 minutes, it centers around that place between waking and sleep, where all the fun lucid dreaming happens and you can fly and screw and do whatever else you want in your own brain, all expressed through post-metallic lumber and volume trades, shifting and building in tension as it goes, vocals trading between cleaner sung stretches and gut-punch growls. The layered guitar solo on “Arthur” sounds straight out of the Tool playbook, but near everything else around is otherwise directed and decidedly more pummeling. At least when it wants to be. Not a complaint, either way. The heft of chug in “Deceit” is of a rare caliber, and the culmination in the 13-minute “Decree” seems to use every bit of space the record has made prior in order to flesh out its melancholic, contemplative course. Much to their credit, after destroying in the midsection of that extended piece, MuN make you think they’re bringing it back around again at the end, and then don’t. Because up yours for expecting things. Still the “Stones From the Sky” riff as they come out of that midsection, though. Guess you could do that two years ago.

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Piranha Music on Bandcamp

 

Elliott’s Keep, Vulnerant Omnes

Elliott's Keep Vulnurent Omnes

I’ve never had the fortune of seeing long-running Dallas trio Elliott’s Keep live, but if ever I did and if at least one of the members of the band — bassist/vocalist Kenneth Greene, guitarist Jonathan Bates, drummer Joel Bates — wasn’t wearing a studded armband, I think I might be a little disappointed. They know their metal and they play their metal, exclusively. Comprised of seven songs, Vulnerant Omnes is purposefully dark, able to shift smoothly between doom and straight-up classic heavy metal, and continuing a number of ongoing themes for the band: it’s produced by J.T. Longoria, titled in Latin (true now of all five of their LPs), and made in homage to Glenn Riley Elliott, who passed away in 2004 but features here on the closer “White Wolf,” a cover of the members’ former outfit, Marauder, that thrashes righteously before dooming out as though they knew someday they’d need it to tie together an entire album for a future band. Elsewhere, “Laughter of the Gods” and the Candlemassian “Every Hour” bleed their doom like they’ve cut their hand to swear an oath of fealty, and the pre-closer two-parter “Omnis Pretium (Fortress I)” and “Et Sanguinum (Fortress II)” speaks to an age when heavy metal was for fantasy-obsessed miscreants and perceived devil worshipers. May we all live long enough to see that particular sun rise again. Until then, an eternal “fucking a” to Elliott’s Keep.

Elliott’s Keep on Facebook

NoSlip Records store

 

Cachemira, Ambos Mundos

Cachemira Ambos Mundos

Sometime between their 2017 debut, Jungla (review here), and the all-fire-even-the-slow-parts boogie and comprises the eight-song/35-minute follow-up Ambos Mundos, Barcelona trio Cachemira parted ways with bassist Pol Ventura and brought in Claudia González Díaz of The Mothercrow to handle low end and lead vocals alongside guitarist/now-backing vocalist Gaston Lainé (Brain Pyramid) and drummer Alejandro Carmona Blanco (Prisma Circus), reaffirming the band’s status as a legit powerhouse while also being something of a reinvention. Joined by guest organist Camille Goellaen on a bunch of the songs and others on guitar, Spanish guitar and congas, Ambos Mundos scorches softshoe and ’70s vibes with a modern confidence and thickness of tone that put to use amid the melodies of “Dirty Roads” are sweeping and pulse-raising all at once. The name of the record translates to ‘both worlds,’ and the closing title-track indeed brings together heavy fuzz shuffle and handclap-laced Spanish folk (and guitar) that is like pulling back the curtain on what’s been making you dance this whole time. It soars and spins heads until everybody falls down dizzy. If they were faking, it’d fall flat. It doesn’t. At all. More please.

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The Obelisk Questionnaire: Rui Inácio of The Crazy Left Experience

Posted in Questionnaire on February 8th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

Rui Inacio from The Crazy Left Experience

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: Rui Inácio of The Crazy Left Experience

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

Being part of TCLE is having freedom to explore all the music textures, from poetry to painting from playing to dreaming.

Describe your first musical memory.

Listening to Bruce Springsteen in my godfather’s room when I was 3, and the drum solo part was so thundering and so powerful that it made me exhilarate.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

First Pearl Jam concert I attended in 1998 in Lisbon one of the best days of my life.

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

Music wise when I saw that I was alone listening to ABBA.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

To freedom and to juggle with multiple knowledge in different arts form.

How do you define success?

It’s a personal voyage, for me having TCLE reaching its full potential and to have some people around the world recognizing it is enough.

What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?

Violence.

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

An album and book that describes both process and creation within TCLE.

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

To spread Love.

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

To see my two children to grow into beautiful human beings.

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The Crazy Left Experience, Death, Destruction and Magic (2018)

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Oulu Space Jam Collective Releasing Harvest Sage 2LP on Aug. 10

Posted in Whathaveyou on July 20th, 2020 by JJ Koczan

Last heard from, Oulu Space Jam Collective — not to be confused with Øresund Space Collective, who as it happens are also plenty jammy — released the triple-vinyl Drug Rings of Saturn in December through Adansonia Records. That significant offering is still available from the label, and the Finland-based collective are following it up with a live 2LP called Harvest Sage that was recorded at an outdoor show in 2017. Going by the description below, it seems to have been like an art fair, or a kind of town festival, and given what I know of this group — never seen them live, but it’s not hard to imagine how their style might translate, being jams and all — a park as part of a spirited creative group endeavor seems like it would be precisely their element. Sounds like it would’ve been a cool show, in other words. I know I’m desperate at this point — is Finland doing gigs yet? — but it seems as though this might’ve been a special night for them. All the more worth documenting after the fact.

The vinyl info follows, courtesy of Adansonia:

oulu space jam collective harvest sage

Oulu Space Jam Collective – Harvest Sage – DLP 2020 – AR 037

In 2017, the Finnish Oulu Space Jam collective took part in the annual Oulu Art Nights and presented a two-hour outdoor concert at the Lyötynpuisto park in Oulu. At this event, musicians, actors, dancers, writers and artists take over public spaces and parks and offer unique experiences for everyone. The double album “Harvest Sage” was created on the basis of these recordings.

It contains four long improvised space jams, each spanning a full side length and takes in space rock, krautrock, oriental and snippets of spoken word which all come together to make something special – Oriental Oulu Kraut. Another high quality space rock jewel – mastered by Eroc at his ranch.

Details:
– 222 x classic edition, black vinyl, 180g, inlay, hand-numbered – 29€
– 111 x exclusive label edition, transparent blue – splatter green, orange vinyl, inlay, hand-numbered – 32€

https://www.facebook.com/Ouluspacejamcollective
https://ouluspacejamcollective.bandcamp.com/
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https://www.adansoniarecords.de/

Oulu Space Jam Collective, Drug Rings of Saturn (2019)

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Review & Full Album Premiere: Kungens Män, Trappmusik

Posted in audiObelisk, Reviews on February 10th, 2020 by JJ Koczan

Kungens Män trappmusik

[Click play above to hear the premiere of Kungens Män’s Trappmusik, out today on Adansonia Records.]

Ye weary souls in search of psychedelic serenity, look no further than the Trappmusik, the latest in a line of offerings from Swedish explorers Kungens Män. Issued through Adansonia, the seven-song/78-minute affair is a mostly-mellow blissout, well beyond the point commonly reserved for consideration as “manageable,” but who cares when the waters they wade in — or scuttle, since these kingsmen seem to have a thing for shellfish, and, one assumes, puns — are so warm? Take the 15 minutes of utter joy in “Vibbdirektivet,” a directive of vibe that’s not only easy to follow, but an utter joy in the doing, with unashamed guitar shimmer and a subtle rhythmic luster to match.

Its subdued take is enough to make even the snare and fuzz meandering of 10-minute opener “Fånge i Universum” seem active by comparison, topped with cosmic echoes of psaxophone (that’s a psychedelic sax for those who can dig it) as it is, and one supposes that cut is more active in its way, but in terms of general scale, it’s still much more about setting an atmosphere of patient, graceful flow than shoving its way into the vacuum of space. Dug in and jazzy in its spirit, Trappmusik is affecting in the manner in which it unfolds across its span, from that leadoff to the trip-hop-via-krautrock-and-more-sax progginess of the subsequent “Senvägen,” which leans harder on the bassline for more of a nighttime richness but still finds its way into the trance of the 2LP overall.

The album is a kind of semi-departure for Kungens Män, who were last heard from only months ago on Dec. 2019’s Hårt Som Ben (discussed here) — which itself followed Feb. 2019’s Chef (review here), which followed Aug. 2018’s Fuzz på Svenska, which followed July 2017’s Dag & Natt (review here), which followed 2016’s Stockholm Maraton, 2015’s Förnekaren (review here), and so on through a slew of live and studio offerings dating back to their start in 2012 — in that it tips the balance in their sound in this mellower direction, but it doesn’t seem like that should be read necessarily as a statement on the band’s part of some future direction.

Rather, Trappmusik appears to have been recorded during the same session in May 2019 as Hårt Som Ben, at Silence Studio in Värmland, Sweden. The band — a listed lineup of drummer/percussionist Mattias Indy Pettersson, synthesist/programmer Peter Erikson, guitarists Hans Hjelm, Mikael Tuominen and Gustav Nygren, with contributions as well from others — reportedly recorded 13 hours of improvised music over the course of three days with engineer Isak Sjöholm, so indeed Trappmusik as the second may not be the last LP to come from that session, but is less perhaps an indication of intent going forward in terms of the band’s growth than it is a question of how this particular release was whittled down from those expansive recordings.

Its purpose is contained, in other words, and thus the editing of the material becomes an instrument unto itself. The framing. The process of selecting and choosing to highlight moments like the shift from airy guitar adventuring into percussive chill in “Tricksen för Transen” and the folkish keyboard of “Främmande i Tillvaron” — the latter entirely appropriate in its position as the centerpiece; its sunbaked golden hue not only rests smoothly alongside “Vibbdirektivet,” which follows, but gives Trappmusik a manifestation perhaps even more fitting than its own 17:50 title-track, which closes in much jazzier and more generally uptempo fashion — plucking these pieces out from the hours of what was tracked speaks to a sense of meaning behind the sheer construction of Trappmusik itself.

Kungens Män

Inherently it is a record that seeks to tell a story or portray an idea, and that is not only rooted in the traditions of Swedish folk and progressive and psychedelic rock, but in the fleeting ambience of these moments as they’re captured — there and gone, sunlight or moonlight, in the flight of escapist fantasy from the rigors and anxieties of the day-to-day. They call it their “chill out album,” and fair enough, but that doesn’t necessarily encompass the entirety of the mission, and it’s also not as if Trappmusik is only doing one thing for all of its rather considerable span either.

“Senvägen” and “Främmande i Tillvaron” could be different bands for the sonic disparity between them, and though the five-minute bass, guitar, drum mood-setting of the penultimate “Lastkajen” is hardly more than an interlude sandwiched between “Vibbdirektivet” and the expansive “Trappmusik” itself, its purpose in setting up that turn is further evidence of a master hand at work in terms of setting the overarching, grander progression of the album in motion even if the closer is inevitably going to consume an LP side on its own. That would be, presumably, side D, and with a more active bassline, far back toms and a returning saxophone in a suitable bookend to “Fånge i Universum,” the album finishes on maybe its most movement-based note.

The bass and drums bounce, and the guitar and brass seem to engage in a conversation based on mutual far-out-ranging. They go and go and go. It’s still trance-inducing to a degree, but one gets shades more of krautrock than the spaced procession of the opener, and it’s a palpable shift between the two. There’s still some tricky echoes working on the saxophone as it dissipates just before the seven-minute mark and lets the bass take the foreground — it gradually winds its way back and out again en route to the last slow-to-a-stop — but the general impression is more earthbound and less given to float than Kungens Män earlier on.

One wonders if perhaps that’s an indication the next offering will be their jazz record? If so, they’d hardly be the first to realize the connections between improvised psych and jazz, but as they have in the past, they make those connections their own as they round off Trappmusik with that gentle letting go, emblematic as it is of the soul and intention behind the collection as a whole and the underlying consciousness at work in making it. A gorgeous celebration waiting to be celebrated.

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Kungens Män Releasing Trappmusik 2LP Feb. 10; Preorder Available

Posted in Whathaveyou on January 7th, 2020 by JJ Koczan

Kungens Män

Sincere and heartfelt congratulations to you if you can keep up with Swedish improv specialists Kungens Män. I seem to be at this point unable. The psychedelic collective offered up Hårt som ben in late 2019 as the follow-up to earlier-in-the-year’s Chef (review here), and before I even got to review that, here’s the announcement that preorders are open for their next outing — a 2LP due out Feb. 10 through Adansonia Records called Trappmusik that, at least from the description as I haven’t actually heard it, sounds right up my alley. Kungens Män will be at Roadburn in the Netherlands, and so will I, so maybe I can hit them up at their merch table or something and ask them to give a dude a break with all the quality off-the-cuff psych they’re putting out, but somehow that seems like shooting myself in the ass. Maybe I’ll just buy all the records instead. Yeah. That’s always the right impulse to follow.

Album info follows, courtesy of the label:

Kungens Män trappmusik

Kungens Män – Trappmusik – DLP 2020 – Adansonia Records

Playing improvised music is a gift. It’s alchemy, chemistry, interlocking heartbeats and sometimes a struggle. A lot of it is about ambience. The legendary Silence studio in the deep woods of Värmland is a perfect example of how much setting actually effects the music made.

Kungens Män usually record at home, in busy Stockholm, coming directly from the Underground, rolling escalators, the everyday stress latent in the back of the mind. We rumble for about two-three hours, mirroring frustration and built up energy from the work week we just left behind.

This session was different. Silence is a place for contemplation. It was the end of May, the sun was shining, the grass was green and we took walks to the lake in between takes. We recorded 13 hours of music at a quite slow pace over the course of three days. Every moment of the record isn’t perfect, even sloppy sometimes, but we’re not in a competition.

”Trappmusik” is the Kungens Män chill out album. It has its peaks, but the overall vibe is calm, introspective and vibing off the fantastic recording room that has hosted so many giants. ”Främmande i tillvaron” is a nod and celebration of one of the masters of Swedish music, Bo Hansson, who was the spark that made Silence happen in the seventies together with Anders Lind who actually rigged the equipment for our session. What’s also interesting from a historical point of view is that the recording engineer we brought with us, our friend Isak Sjöholm, is the son of Jakob Sjöholm from Träd, Gräs och Stenar, who were also really important for the community around Silence.

Use this music however you want. Play it loud or put it on as background music. Lie down on the floor or dance to it. The woods are singing.

Details:
– 350 x yellow (side A/B), orange (side C/D) vinyl, 180g, hand-numbered, inlay, 30€
– 150 x orange/yellow split vinyl, hand-numbered, hand-printed inlay, 39€*
*Adansonia mailorder edition

Mastering by DJM.
LP’s are coming in fully-laminated thick matte sleeves and black padded inner sleeves.
Any vinyl purchase includes a high-quality download.

+ + + Release date: 10 Feb. 2020 + + +

You can place your order at: https://www.adansoniarecords.de/shop/

kungensman.bandcamp.com
facebook.com/bandetkungensman
instagram.com/kungensmanband
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https://www.facebook.com/adansoniarecords/
https://www.adansoniarecords.de/

Kungens Män, Hårt som ben (2019)

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Oulu Space Jam Collective to Release 3LP on Adansonia Records

Posted in Whathaveyou on October 24th, 2019 by JJ Koczan

I’m not sure what exactly is going to be on the triple-vinyl that Adansonia Records will release from Finnish cosmic-improv unit Oulu Space Jam Collective, but apparently there will be plenty of it. I mean, it’ll be jams one way or the other, since that’s what the band — such as they are — does, but they do it pretty often, so maybe it’s the full-length they put out in September, Drug Rings of Saturn, or maybe it’s a collection of other material or some other past release or maybe it’s something new. A group like this, you never really know. Could be a 3LP pumped out every time they get together. When your ethic is “plug in and go,” adding a step to hit record along the way isn’t such a huge ask.

It’s definitely cool for the band though, whatever might ultimately manifest, so right on. Details are apparently forthcoming, but good news is good news, so here’s good news:

oulu space jam collective

Oulu Space Jam Collective – New release on Adansonia Records

It’s been quiet here for a while and now it’s high time for a new fantastic release.

In the meantime a new band has joined the roster of Adansonia Records. Please welcome Oulu Space Jam Collective from Finland.

Oulu Space Jam Collective channels cosmic streams of the universe through a great variety of instruments, which they choose for their jam sessions. It’s their intention to celebrate extended Space Rock Jams with jazzy grooves and Krautrock experiments. Sounds like they are in good company at Adansonia.

We have managed to prepare one of their numerous recordings for release on vinyl. It is the first official physical release of Oulu Space Jam Collective! The package of test pressings arrived yesterday and is just waiting to be checked. We expect to be able to deliver an incredibly spacey 3LP box in early December. Very soon detailed info…

Check them out!!!

Oulu Space Jam Collective in photo above:
Petri Loukusa
Antti Yrjö Olavi Ylijääskö
Olli Niemitalo
Kalle Veikko
Markus Pitkänen
Joonatan Aaltonen
Jani Pitkänen

https://www.facebook.com/Ouluspacejamcollective
https://ouluspacejamcollective.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/adansoniarecords/
https://www.adansoniarecords.de/

Oulu Space Jam Collective, Drug Rings of Saturn (2019)

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Sista Maj to Release Localized Pockets of Negative Entropy on Adansonia Records

Posted in Whathaveyou on November 22nd, 2018 by JJ Koczan

sista maj

Adansonia Records has put out word that it will issue the new album from Swedish progressive instrumentalists Sista Maj, dubbed Localized Pockets of Negative Entropy — it’s bodies, us, humans, in case you were wondering — on LP next month. Space Rock Productions also released a CD of the band’s last album, the late-2016 double-disc Series of Nested Universes, and they may have a CD version of Localized Pockets of Negative Entropy as well, or there might not be one at all, but Adansonia‘s vinyl has the added appeal of two bonus tracks exclusive to it that aren’t available digitally.

Speaking of digitally, Sista Maj put the album out on their own last month via Bandcamp and you can stream it in its entirety — bonus tracks aside, of course — on the player below.

Dig:

sista maj Localized Pockets of Negative Entropy

We have new partners from Sweden’s capital + + + Sista Maj + + +

Their current album “Localized Pockets of Negative Entropy” will be out soon on Adansonia Records.

Sista Maj started as a trio: Andreas Axelsson on drums, Mikael Tuominen on bass and other stuff, Jonathan Segel on guitar, violin and some other musical stuff. Instrumental hypnotic intense psychedelic space rock in the great Northern European tradition, which ranges from Krautrock to the Swedish progg. The band usually came together to improvise, and sometimes they take those improvisations and re-work them. In 2017 Per Wiberg joined the band with his keyboards. Their latest release, “Localized Pockets of Negative Entropy” includes all four of them and a bit of Mattias Olsson (Änglagård, Pineforest Crunch, Necromonkey, etc.) as well.

Sista Maj – from left to right:
Jonathan Segel moved from the US to Sweden in 2012, he lives in Stockholm and has hooked up with several musicians there, including this grouping. He records and performs music under his own name, and continues to play and record with Camper Van Beethoven (mostly in the US) and the Øresund Space Collective (mostly in the EU). Andreas Axelsson is in several bands (Eye Make the Horizon, Lisa Ullén, AAM, etc.). Mikael Tuominen is as well (Kungens Män, Automatism, Fanatism, Eye Make the Horizon) and they’re all amazing. Per Wiberg joined us in 2017 to play keyboards, opening up their sound to new territories, another veteran of many bands including Opeth, Spiritual Beggars and Kamchatka.

The album will be released in mid-December as a DLP and includes two bonus tracks which will be only available on vinyl. Detailed infos coming soon.

Sista Maj is:
Andreas Axelsson: drums
Jonathan Segel: guitar, violin
Mikael Tuominen: bass
Per Wiberg: keyboards

https://sistamaj.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/adansoniarecords/
https://www.adansoniarecords.de/

Sista Maj, Localized Pockets of Negative Entropy (2018)

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