Posted in audiObelisk on August 30th, 2018 by JJ Koczan
Norwegian five-piece Juicer are set to release their debut long-player, the deceptively-titled Mach IV, on Sept. 21 through All Good Clean Records. Like swagger incarnate, the classic heavy rocking outfit bust out a tight-knit 10-track collection informed by garage rock, early metal and ’70s vibes, peppered with a healthy dose of Scandinavian screw-all, and focusing on the songs, the songs, the songs when it comes to priorities. In intricacies like the piano worked into “Forever is a Long Time” and the twin-guitar leads of the earlier “Saturday Night O.D.,” Juicer present an attention to detail that fleshes out the basic level of craft, but it becomes clear throughout the album’s 38-minute run that it’s in fact that basic craft that’s meant to be the focus.
With Vegar Husby Fiskum‘s vocals front and center on the proto-metallic “Catch 25” and the not-at-all-slacking harmonies in the hook of “The Slacker,” they bask in traditionalist heavy vibes without losing their sound entirely to retroism and their hyper-unpretentious approach speaks to punker roots somewhere in the lineup of Fiskum, guitarists Ole Aleksander Ekker and Fredrik Lian (the latter also vocals), bassist/vocalist Ole Christian Pedersen and drummer Andreas Barlien that keep things exciting without going over-the-top in speed or a hollow-sounding performative nature.
That is, they nail the balance just about all the way around. Mach IV — which would seem to be named to make the casual listener think it’s not at all a debut — has a deceptive amount of class to it, whereby cuts like the opening title-track and the later “Concussion Machine” turn out strutting grooves like Thin Lizzy throwing down with Death Alley and still seem to come out of it with their hands clean. Production is a big part of it in that Juicer manage to hone a sound that’s both natural and still crisp-sounding, as ready for vinyl in its content as its sub-40-minute runtime, and clear-headed in its delivery without being stale.
The solo at the outset of the penultimate “Burrito” and the organ included behind the locked-in groove of “You Scared Me Straight” may be layered in or may be recorded live — the point is the album is naturalist enough that it doesn’t really matter which it is. The results are still the same, and the results are engaging and briskly done in harnessing familiar style elements and recrafting them into something of the band’s own. On that level, as well, Mach IV does little to let its audience know it’s the band’s first LP.
So be it. If you’ve got ears to get down with the cause, Mach IV makes no shortage of arguments in its own favor, and while Juicer at times sound like they might want to be rougher-edged than they are here — one expects when they take a stage, they have a bit more grit to their style — the recording highlights their deftly executed stylistic turns and varied moods while still remaining consistent in tone and overall demeanor. It’s an offering with no shortage of personality, as you can hear in the premiere of “Concussion Machine,” via the player below.
Album info follows from the PR wire. Please enjoy:
Juicer on “Concussion Machine”:
Concussion Machine is a rock and roll epic with a catchy refrain and lots of twin guitars. I guess it follows the same recipe of the remaining tracks with our shameless use of tried and true rock and roll clichés. The lyrics are about knocking the senses of whining and useless people in today’s society, basically we tried to addresses the philosophical questions regarding the everyday life of five ordinary, inconvenient and disillusioned men in their late 20s.
Juicer is a five piece orchestra who plays potent and trashy rock. Their debut album ‘Mach IV’ contains 10 hook based, all killer no filler rock and roll epics. Every single track has been processed through Juicer’s eminent orchestration machinery, complimented with sharp, well formulated lyrics and recorded in an extremely expensive recording studio in down town Trondheim. All this done with a large portion of self-irony and humour that is easy to relate to.
Juicer shows that they’re not afraid to go against the trends and norms of today’s contemporary musical landscapes, making “Mach IV” somewhat of a niche product designed with the lovers of guitar based rock music in mind, by lovers of guitar based rock music.
Tracklist: 1. Mach IV 2. Saturday Night OD 3. Catch 25 4. You Scared me Straight 5. Unconditional Love 6. Forever is a long time 7. Concussion Machine 8. The Slacker 9. Burrito 10. On the move
Juicer is: Vegar Husby Fiskum – Vocals Andreas Barlien – Drums Ole Christian Pedersen – Bass & Vocals Ole Aleksander Ekker – Guitar Fredrik Lian – Guitar & Vocals
A little guest clarinet goes a long way in terms of setting the mood in the new single from Danish psychedelic rockers Red Lama, along with a wash of brooding guitar and a rhythm that seems to bounce and roll at the same time, heavy, melodic fluidity a continuing theme for the seven-piece following their intriguing 2016 debut, Dreams are Free (review here). “Awakening” is the new track, and it’s Bjonko Chalgija guesting on the aforementioned clarinet, and the single is out on Friday and premiering below for your streaming enjoyment.
You might recall Red Lama previously unveiled the single “Post Optimism” in similar fashion back in September. Well, both tracks come from their second album, which the band today announces is titled Motions and will be out next month through All Good Clean Records. Whether you heard “Post Optimism” or not — it’s not to late! that link really works! — take it under advisement to check out the new track below and get yourself brought up to speed on where Red Lama are headed coming off the debut. Cover art, info, links and audio all follow.
Like so:
RED LAMA premieres new single and announce second album
On their sophomore album ‘Motions’, RED LAMA, throw an investigative gaze on a reality that consists of more than the eye is immediately capable of seeing. With a point of departure in the youth of psychedelic rock music, the band travels on through more recent decades of art rock and sonic experimentation and hereby expands with a modern expression that leads the band onto new paths. As such, ‘Motions’ appears as a fresh sounding and unique rock album with a narrative succeeding in both embracing and illustrating the eternal creative movements of the world.
The rock seven piece RED LAMA was formed by a group of friends in 2011. By 2015, the band found their last member and completed the present lineup, who in April 2016 released their debut LP ‘Dreams Are Free’. The album showcases a young rock band with a rhythmical focus and control of their expressive palette seeking to develop the organic, analogue and psychedelic rock music. RED LAMA manifests themselves strongly in a live setting and here the band made a strong mark in 2016-17 with their intense and personal live shows in primarily Denmark. Those having witnessed a RED LAMA concert can confirm the power with which the band communicates its material live.
On RED LAMA’s second album ‘Motions’, the band maintains the same atmospheric, warm and rhythmically based soundscape, still strongly rooted in classic rock music, as also heard on the first album. ‘Motions’ is a collection of songs that appears even sharper in regards to songwriting, arrangement and production compared to the debut. From their starting point in the rock n’ roll of the 60’s and 70’s, the band has expanded its expression with references to kraut rock, British trip hop and Talk Talk-ish art rock of the 80’s. A more disciplined as well as grandiose aesthetic reveals itself and contributes in a wondrous manner to those psychological-kaleidoscopic horizons already disclosed by the musical roots of the band and RED LAMA thus utilizes the potential in the sonic mind travels of more recent decades. Hereby, a more modern rock sound appears and one that, while floating through the decades, relates itself to its present time and its own reality – where this reality might origin from and what it might become.
Reality – what it comes from and what it can become – is exactly the main theme on ‘Motions’ as is the idea of movements and the interrelation of all things. We are all a product of the humans and actions that precede us in the same manner that posterity always will be influenced by the motions we initiate and the actions we perform. Hereby, RED LAMA seeks to describe an immersion into reality where it reveals itself through motions as well as distorted states of reality, that displays the mystical and alternate in the world. In this way, the band works with a form of magical realism, where the ones submerging into the world are likely to also experience those facets of transcendence and the mystical that can express itself through motions and ‘glitch’. The album artwork is created by the artist Nikolaj Hollænder and depicts a wave washing up on a tourist beach. What might appear as a skyline of tourist hotels is instead a glitch, a stretched and distorted representation of reality that can challenge normal perceptions.
Thus on ‘Motions’, RED LAMA is skillfully balancing thematics of reality and consciousness and a compelling synthesis of several decades of spiritual rock music, which as a whole conjures a captivating narrative for the body and mind in eternal movement. This narrative will gather its full strength at the band’s forthcoming shows, where waves of action, consciousness and energy will be exchanged – movements which inevitably will reach and shape every present being and the space surrounding them…as everything will do at all times. Our lives and the space in which it unfolds are forever in motion and ever changing and are therefore eternal as such.
Artwork: Nikolaj Hollænder
Release Date: February 23rd Label: All Good Clean Records Format: LP/Digital (album)
Tracklist; Motions:
1. Perfect Strangers 2. Awakening (feat. Bjonko) 3. Post Optimism 4. Have a Great Today 5. Come What May 6. Fular 7. Wave 8. Elements I 9. Elements II
Red Lama: Johannes Linnet: Vocal Oliver Fick: Guitar Jonas Rahbek: Guitar Frederik Randrup: Bass Morten Kaas: Organ Niklas Sjøbeck: Percussion Marius Linnet: Drums
Posted in Whathaveyou on September 5th, 2017 by JJ Koczan
Later this week, Danish heavy psychedelic rockers Red Lama will issue their first new music since their debut album, Dreams are Free (review here), brought their tonal warmth to wider consciousness last year. The new single is to be released via Norwegian imprint All Good Clean Records and it’s called “Post Optimism.” It’s the first audio I’m hearing from Red Lama‘s apparently forthcoming sophomore full-length, which is reportedly due out before the end of the year.
Also, if you couldn’t tell, it’s the first I’m hearing about the release of a second Red Lama LP. No complaints there, though time’s a crunch if they actually want to get it out before the end of 2017. Not to say it can’t or won’t happen, but that’s a quick turnaround for the Copenhagen-based seven-piece, who clearly work exceedingly well together. Can you imagine trying to get seven people to agree on anything, let alone songwriting? I’d feel like every time you managed to get seven people in the same place to rehearse, it would be a significant win.
Speaking of wins, you can check out a stream of “Post Optimism” at the bottom of this post. Art and info follows here, courtesy of All Good Clean Records via the PR wire:
Red Lama announce new single: Post Optimism, out on september 8th.
The seven Danish lamas move towards new horizons and musical expressions with the release of their pulsating single Post Optimism on September 8th.
Since the release of their debut album Dreams Are Free in 2016, Red Lama have been playing a series of shows and festivals, including a midnight concert at Spot Festival that elicited rave reviews. The same vibrant atmosphere conjured at their concerts is channeled through this first single from Red Lama’s upcoming second album. With a powerful rhythm section, sharp guitar riffs and Johannes Linnet’s dream-like vocal, Post Optimism is a great example of Red Lama’s exciting sound.
Red Lama on the single: “Post Optimism is energetic and catchy. We’ve mixed dynamic pumping grooves with sizzling guitars and a more focused vocal. Compared to the numbers on our debut album, this is a shorter and more uplifting song. We’ve been working to condense our usually long numbers into one more concentrated expression”.
Post Optimism is out on September 8th and is the first track to be shared from the upcoming album, set to be released later in the year.
Hear Post Optimism and other new tracks live here:
LIVE: 10th october: Red Lama + Acid Mothers Temple @ Loppen Christiania 11th november : Sorte Firkant Festival @ Koncertkirken
Red Lama: Johannes Linnet: Vocal Oliver Fick: Guitar Jonas Rahbek: Guitar Frederik Randrup: Bass Morten Kaas: Organ Niklas Sjøbeck: Percussion Marius Linnet: Drums
[Click play above to listen to the premiere of ‘Stone’ from Red Mountains’ Slow Wander. Album is out Sept. 1 on All Good Clean Records.]
With their steady rhythmic roll, jam-sounding foundations and tonally warm psychedelic affect, one almost expects the heady sounds of Red Mountains to originate from Munich, rather than the northern climes of Trondheim, Norway — nearly seven hours up from Oslo by rail — but their sound, perhaps informed by the Scandinavian Mountain chain running through their hometown, has its roots in soulful heavy rock just as much as airy drift. To wit, their second album and first for All Good Clean Records is the nine-track Slow Wander, which follows the Nasoni-issued 2015 debut, Down with the Sun (review here), and while one notes aesthetic continuity in the cover art by the esteemed Samantha Muljat — who seems to have done a number of short, digital releases for the band as well — the 47-minute offering takes decided action in moving them stylistically ahead from where they were two years ago.
Recorded outside Trondheim at Sørgården Studios with Spidergawd guitarist/vocalist Per Borten at the production helm, Håvard Soknes on the mix and Magnus Kofoed mastering, Slow Wander is maybe somewhat devious in its title in that even at its most drifting, on a cut like the vast, airy sway of “Oak” or the subsequent 10-minute blues-psych sprawl of “Endless Ocean,” there’s a clear sense of purpose maintained. And that bears fruit elsewhere in the more solidified songwriting process of vocalist/guitarist Magnus Riise, guitarist/vocalist Jostein Wigenstad, bassist Sverre Dalen and drummer Simen Mathiassen, who seem to take cues from UK heavy rockers Stubb in the soulfulness and hooks of the bouncing centerpiece “Stone,” “Cellar Door” and the earlier “Rat King,” which though slower and somewhat darker in its atmosphere contains arguably the catchiest chorus of the bunch.
Where the album ultimately succeeds is in establishing a balance between its two sides — the more rocking impulses and the wider-breadth jamming — and in conveying a direct sense of purpose in doing this. There’s no sense that anything on Slow Wander is happening by accident, whatever the name of the record might otherwise indicate. Rather, if one takes the title as advice from the band instead of a description of their own actions as regards its making, then Red Mountains are perhaps giving their listenership the best way possible to make its collective way through the tracks. From opener “Home” — like the starting point of a board game — onward through “Rat King” and “Oak” and “Endless Ocean,” Slow Wander earns not just a fleeting glance from its audience, but a real savoring experience.
That’s not to say one should slow down playback or take a break from one track to the next and thereby miss out or undercut the flow between them, which is one of Slow Wander‘s most appealing aspects across what would seem to be its A and B sides, but just that the progression of the album as it unfolds is worth more than a passive listen, and the more one engages with moments like the echoing solo that tops the midsection of “Home” or the languid payoff deep into “Endless Ocean,” or the crunchier riffing on the penultimate “Acid Wedding” — which seems as well to sneak a guest vocal performance from Borten into its second half — the more those moments and the rest of the release repay that effort with satisfying detail of songcraft and execution. No question Red Mountains have an organic basis from which they’re working in that this material is born of jams, but whether it’s the rolling vibe of “Fog” or the nod-ready payoff of “Cellar Door,” there’s been an obvious commitment made and energy dedicated to shaping that basis into coherent, deceptively varied songs.
An argument could be made that in that process, Red Mountains are playing to style. I’m not sure I disagree, given how willful their sense of craft comes across in “Stone,” “Rat King,” “Home,” etc., but when one considers Slow Wander in light of Down with the Sun before it, the trajectory they’re on would seem to be toward a more individualized take on heavy psychedelia. Further, if playing to style is going to result in the chance to bask in the kind of immersion that “Endless Ocean” offers, then go right ahead. There is a grammar of aesthetic for any genre-based output, and Slow Wander demonstrates plainly that Red Mountains have been schooled via their influences in what they’re doing.
But again, the increase in production value between the debut and the follow-up, the precise placement of these songs — turning vinyl convention on its head with the more open material up front and the rockers in back — and even the overarching symmetry of answering the opener “Home” with the closer “Returning,” as though they knew the listener would finish the record and then immediately go back to the start to make their way around the board again, all of this shows a directed consciousness from Riise, Wigenstad, Dalen and Mathiassen. Fortunately for them and for anyone who would take their second long-player on in a more than cursory manner, their chemistry carries through the structures they’ve built, and while it may not be a revolution in style, Slow Wander is a friendly, open-armed welcome to the converted and a forward step that affirms the potential of their debut and would seem to hint toward even broader reaches to come. There is nothing more one could reasonably ask of Slow Wander than to be precisely what it is, and in setting those terms, Red Mountains begin to lay claim to sonic territory of their own.
With two full-lengths under their belt of skin-peeling noise rock, Trondheim, Norway, duo Barren Womb offer an aesthetic shift with their upcoming Record Store Day EP, Crown Control. Set for release April 22 through All Good Clean Records (distribution through Stickman), the five-track trades distorted guitar for banjo and adopts a neofolk and Americana stylization that removes the traces of post-Kvelertak black ‘n’ roll that otherwise make themselves felt in their sound. True, a song like “Devil Run the Game” from their 2015 sophomore long-player, Nique Everything, did much the same, but Crown Control brings this more into focus and is a more brazen move away from weighted sonic impact.
For example, listening to “Freak Flag,” for which Barren Womb have a new video premiering below, my most immediate comparison point for what Timo Silvola and Tony Gonzahl are doing is 16 Horsepower‘s “Straw Foot,” and that doesn’t feel like an accident on the band’s part. To listen to the lyrics of “Freak Flag,” there’s plenty of disaffection on offer, as well as some willfully less-than-charming raunch, but where they end up gets to the underlying message at the heart of the song. After urging an audience toward what they call “the dark side” and “the cool side” in the chorus, they finish with the lines, “…Because the worst is the best in a hive mind/And no one should have nothing to hide.”
What that last couplet lacks in grammar, it makes up in justifying the song’s overarching sense of alienation, and it seems that loud or quiet, Barren Womb bring a purpose to their material that’s about making a statement at least as much about conveying the wretchedness driving them toward that statement in the first place. I haven’t heard the rest of Crown Control, but there’s definitely an element of critique in the “Freak Flag” video as well, which features more hot dog eating than I, even as an American — and all we do is eat hot dogs; well, that and wars of aggression, anyway — have seen in a while, and a bit of NSFW-ness for decent measure.
Just a heads up on that.
Barren Womb‘s Crown Control is out April 22 and can be preordered now from All Good Clean Records. PR wire info follows the clip below.
Please enjoy:
Barren Womb, “Freak Flag” official video (NSFW)
Directed by Hanna Fauske. From the EP “Crown Control” available now on All Good Clean Records.
On April 22nd, Records Store Day, the Trondheim-based power duo Barren Womb will release Crown Control, an EP somewhat out of the ordinary for the duo.
Lyrically it’s still rooted in their usual bleak universe, but the distorted guitars and drums have mostly been replaced by banjo and acoustic guitars. Crown Control comprises 5 winding, misanthropic tracks in the Dark Americana-/Folk-tradition, and will be released by All Good Clean Records.
The first hundred copies will be released as a special handnumbered edition including a signed insert and lyrics sheet.
Posted in Reviews on December 27th, 2016 by JJ Koczan
Feeling good going into day two of the Quarterly Review. The good news about how heavy music has become such a vast universe is that there’s always plenty to cover without having to really dig into stuff I don’t find interesting. Of course, the other side of that is feeling constantly behind the curve and overwhelmed by it all, but let’s not talk about that for the moment. Point is that as we make our way through this week and into the next — because, remember, it’s six days this time, not five — a big part of me still feels like I’m just scratching the surface of everything that’s out there. It still seems just to be a fraction of the whole story being told around the world in the riffiest of languages. We all do what we can, I guess. Let’s get started.
Quarterly Review #11-20:
Red Fang, Only Ghosts
Four albums into one of the decade’s most successful and influential heavy rock careers, doesn’t it seem like Portland, Oregon’s Red Fang are due for a truly great record? Their 2013 outing, Whales and Leeches (discussed here), was rushed by the band’s own admission – their focus, as ever, on touring – and Only Ghosts (on Relapse) unites them with producer Ross Robinson and mixer Joe Barresi, two considerable names to bring heft and presence to the 10-track/42-minute outing. And I’ve no doubt that “Shadows” and the bigger-grooving “The Smell of the Sound” and opener “Flies” kick ass when delivered from the stage, and it’s true they sound more considered with the ambience of “Flames” positioned early, but Only Ghosts still comes across like a collection of songs united mostly by the timeframe in which they were written. Doesn’t mean they don’t build on Whales and Leeches, but now five years on from 2011’s Murder the Mountains (review here), and with their dynamic, charged and momentum-driven sound firmly established, Red Fang still seem to be at the threshold of some crucial forward step rather than stomping all over it as one might hope.
After releasing a self-titled debut (review here) and the follow-up Andromeda (review here) in 2014, 2016’s Sea of Clouds (on Crispin Glover/Stickman) is the third proper studio full-length from Norway’s Black Moon Circle – though at that point, define “proper.” In 2015, the trio/four-piece – Trondheim-based guitarist Vemund Engan, bassist Øyvin Engan and drummer Per Andreas Gulbrandsen, plus Scott “Dr. Space” Heller of Øresund Space Collective on synth – also released The Studio Jams Vol. I (discussed here) and in addition to the four tracks of Sea of Clouds, they’ve also had a Vol. II (review here) out this year. The definitions become fluid, is what I’m saying, and that couldn’t be more appropriate for the sound of “Lunar Rocket,” the outward-gazing space rock of “The Magnificent Dude,” “Moondog” and “Warp Speed,” which indeed offer enough kosmiche expanse to make one wonder where the song ends and the jam begins. Or, you know, reality. One has to wonder if Black Moon Circle might bridge the gap at some point between studio improv and more plotted songwriting, but as it stands, neither side of their dual personality fails to engage with its flow and drift.
A one-sided 12” EP issued by STB Records in late 2015 as the follow-up to Richmond dirge-fuzzer trio Druglord’s debut album, Enter Venus (review here), the three-track Deepest Regrets represents the band’s final studio material with bassist Greta Brinkman (ex-L7) in the lineup, who’s since been replaced by Julian Cook. That distinction matters in no small part because so much of Druglord’s purposes on Deepest Regrets’ three component songs – “Regret to Dismember,” “Speedballs to Hell” and “Heaven Tonight” – is about reveling in low end. Rawer than was the album preceding, they find guitarist/vocalist/organist Tommy Hamilton, Brinkman and drummer Bobby Hufnell emitting an oozing lurch, blasting out thickened motor-riffing, and fortifying a darkly psychedelic drear – in that order. True to EP form, each song gives a sampling of some of what Druglord has to offer coming off the album, and with a recording job by Garrett Morris, who also helmed the LP, it remains a fair look at where they might head next, despite the shift in lineup.
Melbourne’s Holy Serpent return with Temples (on RidingEasy), their second full-length after 2015’s self-titled debut (review here), and continue to offer an engaging blend of well-blazed psychedelia and heavier-rolling groove. Especially considering they’ve still only been a band for two years, the four-piece of guitarists Nick Donoughue and Scott Penberthy (the latter also vocals), bassist Dave Barlett and Lance Leembrugen remain striking in their cohesion of purpose, and Temples opener “Purification by Fire” and ensuing cuts like the fuzz-wall centerpiece “Toward the Sands” and echo-laden “The Black Stone” only continue to stretch their intentions toward ever more acid-ic flow. They called it “shroom doom” last time out, and seem to have moved away from that self-branding, but however one wants to label Temples, its five tracks/43 minutes push ahead from where Holy Serpent were just a year ago and, rounding out with the slower churn of “Sativan Harvest,” still reminds that mind expansion and deeply weighted tonecraft are by no means mutually exclusive.
Self-releasing Croatian instrumental trio Drone Hunter devise vigilantly straightforward riffing on their second album, Welcome to the Hole, finding room for some charm in titles like “Wine Dick,” “Crazy Ants with Shotguns” and the closing “A Burning Sensation,” the latter of which seems to draw particularly from the playbook of Karma to Burn. That comparison is almost inevitable for any riff-led/sans-vocal three-piece working in this form, but the crunch in “Fog Horn” and “Waltz of the Iron Countess” isn’t without its own personality either, and as with a host of acts from the Croatian underground, they seem to have a current of metal to their approach that, in the case of Welcome to the Hole, only makes the entire affair seem tighter and more precise while maintaining tonal presence. Fitz (guitar), Klen (bass) and Rus (drums) might not be much for words or last names, but their sophomore full-length comprises solid riffs and grooves and doesn’t seem to ask anything more than a nod from its audience. A price easily paid.
Lugweight is comprised solely of Brooklyn-via-Richmond-Virginia transplant Eric Benson, and the project makes its full-length debut with the evocatively-titled drone wash of Yesterday following one EP and preceding another. Fair to call it an experimental release, since that’s kind of the nature of the aesthetic, but Benson demonstrates a pretty clear notion of the sort of noise he’s interested in making, and there’s plenty of it on Yesterday in “Sleeping on Cocaine,” on which one can hear the undulating wavelengths emanating from speaker cones, or the penultimate “Love Song for the Insane,” which features chanting vocals in echoes cutting through a tonal morass but still somehow obscure. A 33-minute five-tracker, Yesterday doesn’t overstay its welcome, but alternates between sonic horrors and warmer immersion in the shorter centerpiece “Bleed My Sorrow” and closer “Show Me Where the Shovel Is,” coming dangerously close in the latter to doom riffing that one might almost dare to put drums to. Solo drone guitar, even when this thick, is never for everyone, but one doubts Benson was shooting for accessibility anyhow.
To hear Australia’s Megaritual tell it, the 25-minute single-song Eclipse EP was recorded on Mt. Jerusalem in New South Wales this past summer, the one-man outfit of vocalist/guitarist/sitarist/drummer Dale Paul Walker working with bassist/Monotronist Govinda Das to follow-up his prior two Mantra Music EPs, recently compiled onto an LP (review here) by White Dwarf Records. Whether or not that’s the case, “Eclipse” itself is suitably mountainous, building along a linear course from sea level to a grand peak with droning patience and gradual volume swells, lush and immersive psychedelia in slow-motion trails, a sparse verse, percussion, sitar, guitar, bass, and so on coming to a glorious vista around the 17:30 mark only to recede again circa six minutes later in a more precipitous dropoff. The digital edition (and that’s the only edition thus far) comes with a cover of Pink Floyd’s “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun,” which makes good company for the hypnotic titular exploration and the quick progression it represents after the other two short releases.
Heavy psychedelic pastoralists Red Lama enter the conversation of 2016’s best debut albums with Dreams are Free, initially released on All Good Clean Records and subsequently picked up by Stickman. Leaning more toward the liquid end of psych-blues, the Danish seven-piece immediately transcend with opener “Inca” (video here) and quickly showcase a subtlety for build that only gets more potent as they move through “Sonic Revolution” and “The World is Yours,” unfolding due heft in the latter without losing the laid back sensibility that the vocals bring sweetly, melodically, to the material. The later “Mekong River” seems almost like it’s going to shoegaze itself into post-rock oblivion, but Red Lama hold their sound together even into the 10-minute closer “Dalai Delay” – aptly-titled twice over – and deliver with striking patience a languid flow with hints of underlying prog experimentation. How that will come to fruition will have to remain to be seen/heard, but Dreams are Free also dips into funkier groove on “Dar Enteha,” so while they probably could be if they were feeling lazy, Red Lama don’t at all seem to be finished growing. All the better.
Lacy is an experimental solo-project from former Lord guitarist Stephen Sullivan, based in Fredericksburg, Virginia, and part of a deep sludge underground that goes back well over a decade. Andromeda is his third album with the outfit and the second to be released in 2016, though unlike the preceding Volume 2. Blue, its 12 tracks were recorded in a matter of months, not years. All instruments, arrangements, vocals and the raw recording were handled by Sullivan himself (he also took the photo on the cover) but cuts like “Gyre Hell” and the acoustic “Push Me Away” veer around self-indulgence or hyper-navelgazing – I’d call “Offal and the Goat Brains” experimental, but not narcissistic – and he seems more interested in writing songs than making a show of being outside this or that imaginary box. Still, Andromeda offers diversity of instrumentation and arrangement, unplugging once more for “Healer” before closer “Always” finishes the album as a rumbling and grunge-laden love song.
After catching on late to German metallers Valborg’s 2015 fifth album, Romantik, I told myself I wasn’t going to miss whatever they did next. The single Werwolf (on Temple of Torturous and Zeitgeister) might be a quick check-in of just two songs – “Ich Bin Total” and “Werwolf” itself – but the classic European-style death-doom chug of the latter and the vicious crash of the former I still consider a reward for keeping an eye out. “Ich Bin Total” is less than three and a half minutes long, and “Werwolf” just over five, but both feature choice chug riffing, darkened atmospherics and art-metal growls that only add to the clenched-teeth intensity of the instruments surrounding. They spare neither impact nor ambience nor lives as Werwolf plays out, the title cut riding its massive progression forward to a sensory-overload of nod before finally offering some release to the tension in a second-half guitar lead, only to revive the brutality once more, repetitions of “werwolf” chanted in growls over it. Awesome.
Posted in Whathaveyou on March 9th, 2016 by JJ Koczan
Danish heavy psych seven-piece (yup, seven of ’em) Red Lama said hello last fall with a video for their track “The World is Yours” (posted here), heralding the arrival of their debut album, Dreams are Free. The physical incarnation of record is available now to preorder through a crowdfunding campaign, while the digital version is due out April 15, and as a precursor to that, they’ve unveiled the opening track “Inca” as a digital single and video, which you can see below.
“Inca” is no less molten than was “The World is Yours,” the band specializing in immersive, fluid, percussive psychedelia. Among other elements at play, “Inca” tosses out the title line of the album and features a driving, almost space rock-style push, but never loses sight of the atmospheric impression it’s trying to make. It’s chill even when it’s heavy, in other words. You can hear it for yourself.
To the PR wire:
Red Lama post new single and reveal details of their forthcoming debut album “Dreams Are Free”
With the release of their second single Inca, Red Lama offers another glimpse into what can be expected from their forthcoming debut album Dreams are Free. Once again the dutch artist Iris Deppe has produced to video which expresses the same peculiar collage style that was seen on the band’s first video for the single The World is Yours. Until now, Red Lama is best known from live appearances in venues in Copenhagen, Danish festivals, including a couple of appearances at Copenhagen Psych Fest. Indeed, the foundation for Dreams Are Free is the vivid sensation of being a band that plays together and make music together. The album is made collectively through numerous jams in the band’s rehearsal room, and during summer trips to more scenic parts of Denmark.
“To release a record with seven songs , that we are proud of, is surely a milestone for each one of us. We are very honored to finally have all things in place and cant wait to show the finished work. The process has been fantastic and for us the end of a long and beautiful chapter in the Red Lama life. We love making music , so the album has only created even more appetite for new unexplored dream worlds . ” Says Johannes Linnet leadsinger of Red Lama.
Dreams are Free will be released digitally April 15 through the Danish/Norwegian record label, All Good Clean Records. The vinyl release follows a couple of weeks later and can be pre-ordered here:https://www.booomerang.dk/projects/red-lama-dreams-are-free-lp/
Track listing: 1. Inca 2. Sonic Revolution 3. The World is Yours 4. Mont Ventoux 5. Dar Enteha 6. Mekong River 7. Dalai Delay
Johannes Havemann Kissov Linnet: Vocal Morten Kaas: Organ, harmonica and other effects Marius Havemann Kissov Linnet: Drums Frederik Randrup Hansen: Bass Jonas Harboesgård Rahbek: Guitar Oliver Asbjørn Fick: Guitar Niklas Sjøbeck Jørgensen: Percussion
Posted in Bootleg Theater on November 18th, 2015 by JJ Koczan
My understanding is that Red Lama‘s debut full-length is in the mixing stages now and, when it’s done, it’ll be out early in 2016 on All Good Clean Records. The Copenhagen-based outfit are bordering on psych-orchestra status with a full seven-piece lineup — I’ll just assume somebody couldn’t make it the day they took the picture above — and while it’s a miracle they can get that many people to be on the same page regarding anything, let alone actually function together as a heavy band, they’ve managed to put together an initial single in the form of “The World is Yours,” for which they also have a video newly unveiled.
The album doesn’t have a name yet — can you imagine getting seven people to agree on an album title? — but “The World is Yours” effectively demonstrates Red Lama‘s psychedelic side. As to how it might or might not speak for the whole record, I don’t know, but presumably they didn’t make it the first single because it just happened to be the first song finished. Or if it was, then that wasn’t a coincidence either. If it’s indicative of what they’re doing overall, then it finds them setting a deep mix to work in and then filling that space with an array of effected guitar, warm low end, spacey vocals and fluid groove. Some of it feels like post-Colour Haze heavy psych, but the band are right when they namecheck the Danish neo-krautrock stylizations of Papir as well, as there’s a definite progressive undercurrent to “The World is Yours” to coincide with its catchy chorus and dreamy central guitar line.
I’m not sure whether songs like “J.W. Burning” or “Twisted Smile” from the band’s self-titled 2012 EP will make the cut on the new record, but the septet’s Soundcloud page gives a chance to dig into these and other tracks like “Drowning Sun,” which coincides time-wise with “The World is Yours” and so likely came from the same sessions. It has a correspondingly open feel, laid back and jammy and post-rocking at times, but with a definite, grounding presence in standalone vocalist Johannes Havemann Kissov Linnet. In any case, if you’re looking to dig in, “The World is Yours” encourages further investigation, and the impressionism of the video enhances the otherworldliness of the sound.
Video follows, with background on the band and the clip after. Enjoy:
Red Lama, “The World is Yours” official video
Video directed by Iris Deppe Footage shot by Sarina Bosio
Music composed by Red Lama Recorded live at TAPF studio Produced and mixed by Peter Sloth (TAPF Studio) Mastered by Rune Rask (Tabu Studio)
Copenhagen’s musical underground continues to shoot new rock bands up through the asphalt. Now the next longhaired seed, in form of the seven-piece band Red Lama, is sprouting and is on its way to break through. The band is ready with a music video for their track The World is Yours. The track is at the same time the first single of the upcoming record by Red Lama, which is to be released primo 2016.
Red Lama settles in the slipstream of other current Danish bands with a taste for psychedelic expression and sound, such as De Underjordiske, Spids Nøgenhat, Papir and Fribytterdrømme. Red Lama find themselves between different parts of the rock genre with inspiration drawn from musical traditions from Iran and Mali.
The debut album, which is still untitled, is a bold move, where all the tracks are recorded as live sessions in TAPF studio in order to maintain an authentic and vivid sound. At the same time it makes apparent that Red Lama is a band that plays together, has experience and does not compromise the team effort that a seven-piece band requires live.
“We try to challenge the composition without making it too abstract and emphasize that we do not relate to a specific kind of genre of rock music. The intention is to create a powerful expression. We call it Moodrock where the rationale is that dreams are free, “says the lead singer Johannes Havemann Kissov Linnet.
The video for the first single, The World is Yours is directed by the Dutch artist Iris Deppe that previously has made music videos for the musical relatives in Fribytterdrømme.
“When making a music video I try not to focus too much on the lyrics and more on the atmosphere of the song. In this case the song The World is Yours by Red Lama has a very apocalyptic feel to it, whilst being mysterious at the same time. In a way it feels like a love song written for the earth that ends violently. Because there’s so much happening in the song I decided to go for a moving collage style where different kinds of filmed fragments are being shown, kind of like pattern puzzles, leaving it up to the viewer to piece everything together. Towards the end of the video everything starts to fall apart, melting into multi-coloured shapes. I got that idea while strolling around the Nørrebro lakes one evening and watching the reflections of all the lights casting long, melting shapes into the water., “says Iris Deppe.
Red Lama’s debut album is released on the brand new record label All Good Clean Records, and is just now entering the mixing phase.
Johannes Havemann Kissov Linnet: Vocal Morten Kaas: Organ, harmonica and other effects Marius Havemann Kissov Linnet: Drums Frederik Randrup Hansen: Bass Jonas Harboesgård Rahbek: Guitar Oliver Asbjørn Fick: Guitar Niklas Sjøbeck Jørgensen: Percussion
That is, they nail the balance just about all the way around. Mach IV — which would seem to be named to make the casual listener think it’s not at all a debut — has a deceptive amount of class to it, whereby cuts like the opening title-track and the later “Concussion Machine” turn out strutting grooves like Thin Lizzy throwing down with Death Alley and still seem to come out of it with their hands clean. Production is a big part of it in that Juicer manage to hone a sound that’s both natural and still crisp-sounding, as ready for vinyl in its content as its sub-40-minute runtime, and clear-headed in its delivery without being stale.
