Posted in Whathaveyou on September 27th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
I have spent a decent portion of this year marveling at the small fortune Melbourne’s Khan would seem to have spent on social media promotion. They haven’t been in my feed every single day, but it’s been regular enough since before they released their Creatures album this past February that I feel way more familiar with the band than I am. Oh, Josh recorded the album? That’s nice.
Much of these months of content-creation has been heralding a European tour to come this Fall. Khan were among the early principals announced for Truckfighters Fuzz Festival #4 back in May, and pretty much since then the tour dates have been coming soon.
I’m not knocking this method of spreading the word about your work, mind you. Money where your mouth is. And it got me to finally listen to the record, which is of course killer enough to make me wish I’d bothered seven months ago. Never too late, though, and if you’re at Desertfest Belgium or wherever, you can succeed where I’ve failed in terms of seeing Khan live, which I now want to do, because I heard the record. Funny how that works.
But it does work. I’m a big believer in PR and all that, but a push like this can do a lot for a band. I can’t imagine I’m the only one who feels like they’ve spent a good amount of time this year keeping up with Khan. Otherwise they probably wouldn’t be touring Europe in the first place.
From socials, of course:
KHAN – EUROPEAN DATES!!
Here it is kids! Behold, the long awaited list of locations, dates and venues!!
We’ve been working really hard for the last 7 months to put this together and are very excited to finally share with you the full list of dates for our second European tour!
We know we’ve already announced the Australian dates and that most of them have already happened, but we wanted to include them because it looks way more impressive on a poster (#129464#)♂️ Plus we still have our final show of the Australian leg with Lucid Planet coming up (#129395#)
Please note, there were definitely other cities/countries that we really tried to book shows in but despite our best efforts approaching multiple promoters and venues, we were unable to get dates that worked with the rest of our tour.
Having said that, we do still have a few gaps in the tour schedule, so if you’re a promoter, venue booker or in a band and want to book us or add us to an existing show on one of our free dates, please send us a DM.
Event Details (will be updated with more event links shortly).
Axl Entertainment & Full Contact Safari Records presents:
Rocky’s Pride and Joy will release their debut album, All the Colours of Darkness, Sept. 29 through Electric Valley Records. And it is miserable. So miserable. 39 miserable, slogging, miserable, miserable minutes. The acoustic song too.
But hey, a miserable acoustic song can still go a long way on a record like All The Colours of Darkness, which finds the relatively-nascent, formed-in-2020 trio of guitarist/vocalist Brenton Wilson, bassist Dominic Ventra and drummer Jessi Tilbrook doubled-down on hard on dark and druggy riffing, most of the eight songs working under a strong influence from Electric Wizard with some of the clarity that earliest Monolord brought to that style of willfully primitive lurch. And whether it’s the nodding lumber of opener “Red Altar,” the similarly-riffed penultimate cut “Your Hell” (premiering below), a somewhat faster charmer like “So Said the Roach” or the large-sounding dog barking at the start of “Crawl,” or the sonic manipulations throughout, be it the grim swirl at the start of “So Said the Roach” or the complementary noise in closer “Pure Evil,” the above-noted misery is never far from the center.
They know of what they speak, and their abiding moroseness becomes the totem through which All The Colours of Darkness unfurls, “Red Altar” riffing one measure on standalone guitar before hitting its mark on the first of the roller grooves. Volume worship, riff worship, filth worship, Sabbath, drugs, satan and squalor — these are the stuff of life in the world of Rocky’s Pride and Joy‘s making. The thick shuffle of “Revenge,” coated in dirty fuzz, sneering in Wilson‘s layered-in-the-chorus vocal, a bit of metal chug in the verse, remains doomed as it offers one of the album’s most vital hooks, rivaled by “Your Hell” to come and directly backed by the harshly acidic — like call poison control if you accidentally ingest any — blowout impact of “So Said the Roach.”
At the same time, “Crawl” dares harmony in its later guitar solo, the wailing “Your Hell” has flashes of Uncle Acid-type garagery, and though it’s basically devil-worshiping bedroom folk, “Lucifer’s Lullaby” is also an unexpected divergence from the by-then established norm of addled tonal dredge, so Rocky’s Pride & Joy aren’t entirely unipolar, but their hearts are clearly in the muck and rot. They have the wretched atmosphere to prove it.
As “Your Hell” and “Pure Evil” pick up from “Lucifer’s Lullaby” for the final salvo, the band seem like they’re digging even further into that part of their approach, reinforcing the message that “Red Altar” began to deliver at least four therapy sessions ago with capstone riffing introduced at 4:38 into the 6:08 by a sample maybe from Detroit Rock City of a woman talking about seeing the devil in the flesh, seeing pure evil, and that’s when they hit it. The underlying message there is that Rocky’s Pride & Joy are conscious in their stylistic choices; they know what they’re doing, and as much as they seem bent to convince their audience that the material has simply bubbled up from some steaming primordial mud, it has in fact been crafted on its own, raw, somehow-punk-in-its-ethic level.
Marching that last riff to a cold finish, the three-piece carve a place for themselves in the drear, and their doom will sit well with misanthropes, cave trolls, increasingly middle-aged blogger types and other suitably disenchanted entities. If any of those might apply to you, and/or if you think you’re at risk of becoming someone capable of looking outside on a sunny day and not thinking about how the world is fast ending in fire, flood, plague and mass extinction, driven faster and faster through greed and capitalist exploitation — because what the fuck else can you really do but try to firebomb your mind with drugs and volume? — All The Colours of Darkness has your back. The sound of today, tomorrow, righteously dead.
“Your Hell” premieres below, followed by some brief word from the band and more background from the PR wire.
Please enjoy:
Rocky’s Pride & Joy, “Your Hell” track premiere
Rocky’s Pride & Joy on “Your Hell”:
“This song offers a warning. ‘Your Hell’ is coming, and its arrival is inevitable.”
Rocky’s Pride & Joy began in a cursed railway cottage in the western suburbs of Adelaide, South Australia in mid 2020. Unexplained appearances of handprints, falling candles, disquieting sounds in the night, and vivid dreams of a tortured previous tenant haunted the residence for 12 months while the band wrote their first collection of songs including “Crawl” and “Time’s Up”. With a friendship formed between vocalist/guitarist Brenton Wilson, drummer Jessi Tilbrook and bassist Dominic Ventra at Jessi’s rock n roll club night, the trio’s unbridled love for doom and fuzz led them to explore their collective vision and bring their first live performance to life at the end of 2020.
Now in 2023, after a slew of live shows, the release of ‘Time’s Up’ and ‘Future Self’ and months of writing and recording, the band have signed their debut album ‘All The Colours Of Darkness’ to International label, Electric Valley Records, set for release in late 2023. Recorded at Adelaide’s Twin Earth Studio, the band have continued their exploration of the dark side of life on this 8 track LP. Occult rituals, parasites, paranormal encounters and cold hard revenge are just a few themes covered on the album. Through nasty fuzz saturated riffs, heavy pounding drums and window rattling bass, Rocky’s Pride & Joy are putting their stamp on doom.
Tracklisting: 1. Red Altar 2. Revenge 3. So Said The Roach 4. Crawl 5. Tunnel Vision 6. Lucifer’s Lullaby 7. Your Hell 8. Pure Evil
Rocky’s Pride & Joy are: Brenton Wilson – vocalist/guitarist Dominic Ventra – bass Jessi Tilbrook – drums
Posted in Whathaveyou on August 4th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Melbourne, Australia-based raw heavy rockers Stepmother will release their first full-length, Planet Brutalicon, through Tee Pee Records on Sept. 29. The label has preorders up and that’s probably fair enough as they also unveil the song “Do You Believe,” the apparent side A closer with its languid hook and disaffected slow-garage tonality. You’ll note the involvement of Graham Clise, whom one might recognize from Witch or Annihilation Time or Lecherous Gaze, and so on, and that the trio also issued their self-titled debut EP last year.
That outing (also streaming below, along with the title-track of the LP) had three songs: “Fade Away,” “Here Comes the End” and “Stalingrad.” All of them feature on the 12-cut long-player, so if you hear “Do You Believe” and decide you want to dig further — and you well might; I certainly did — those are available at least in an earlier form to give some basic idea. Sept. 29 is the release date, as the PR wire confirms:
Australian Power Trio STEPMOTHER to Unleash Debut Album PLANET BRUTALICON on TEE PEE RECORDS
Steam new single ‘Do You Believe’ now! | Prepare for a sonic assault like no other with the release of Planet Brutalicon on 29th September 2023
Spearheaded by legendary underground guitarist Graham Clise (Witch, Annihilation Time, Lecherous Gaze, Rot TV), Tee Pee Records is thrilled to announce the release of Planet Brutalicon, the debut album by Oz–based outliers, Stepmother.
Channelling raw rock ‘n’ roll energy into anthems that resonate with the poor, depraved and miscreant sickos of society, the trio concoct an aural speedball of motor city proto-punk cut with power lines of fedback-fuzz and electric psychedelia.
Influenced by the likes of Blue Cheer, The Pink Fairies, Nervous Eaters, and The Damned, the band weave together a spellbinding tapestry of hardened punk rage and nefarious nihilism, no better exemplified than on their storming debut single, ‘Do you Believe’:
“Just think of it as a fairy-tale hellscape of children being dragged into the woods and eaten alive by goblins and trolls,” explains Clise. “It sounds like a proto-punk fuzzed out crazy horse… don’t forget to check under the bed.”
Recorded at Rat Shack by Robert Muinos (Saskwatch) and mastered by John Davis (The Damned) at Metropolis Mastering, there’s no doubt that Stepmother are set to carve a mark in the annals of rock history with Planet Brutalicon. The question is will you be joining them for the ride?
TRACK LISTING: 1. Fade Away 2. Settle Down 3. Scream for Death 4. The Game 5. One Way Out 6. Do You Believe 7. Dead and Gone 8. Here Comes the End 9. Waiting for the Axe 10. Stalingrad 11. Signed DC 12. El Gusano
STEPMOTHER: Graham Clise – Guitar, Vocals Rob Muinos – Bass, Vocals Sam Rains – Drums
Melbourne, Australia’s The World at a Glance will release their third album, The Longest Shadow Can Only Recede, through Crucible on Sept. 1. I’ll confess outright it’s my first exposure to the band, whose style is an engrossing meld of post-hardcore, sludge, art rock and various extreme metals, and that’s before you get into the ambient synth textures, the violin, the multiple guest singers showing up, etc., across the seven included tracks on the circa-40-minute outing. As cuts like “Moth,” “The Longest Shadow Can Only Recede” and “See” demonstrate, the band — listed here as Scott Mclatchie (guitar/vocals/synth/some bass), Claire Westover (vocals, violin, some bass), and Jack Naughton (vocals/drums/percussion/synth/some other bass); and yes, I know that’s three people and there are four pictured above; you use what you’ve got — do not at all shy away from a heavy barrage when it’s called for, and there are moments where they have just as much in common with an act like Darkest Hour as with whatever barky, weighted avant garde comparison you’d like to pull out of your ass while also positioning themselves as kin to the floaty post-rock of Sleepmakeswaves, We Lost the Sea, maybe some Swans if you want to count influences of influences, and so on, flashing instrumental hints of SubRosa-style string-laced crush with Westover‘s violin featuring at the forefront of a mix running deep enough to account for the spaciousness in the final fade of closer “Endlessly.” There is, to put it another way, a lot going on.
Opener “Moth” (video premiering below) helps shape the proceedings with a minute of patient drone at the start met by tense strummed guitar and violin, drums, and clean-sung vocals with backing layers pulling you in. Each changing note of the violin is a sway, each pull of the bow counts, and highlights the other elements at play as a heavier guitar pushes in with plenty of room and the track moves into an outwardly heavier stage, the vocals turning to throaty rasps (it’s not quite a scream, comes from the top of the back of the throat) before Naughton locks into tom runs and the band steers through a quiet break into the blazing, part-black metal finish. This is one song. It’s got more breadth and stylistic reach than the entire careers of many other bands, but seems like business as usual for The World at a Glance, who build the subsequent “Leering Birch” with a similar, subtly linear, onward-to-slaughter trajectory and follow with the full-bore distorted sway of “Circles in Sand,” like if death-doom had been invented by ’90s emo kids, and pulled by a thread of violin into a staticky droning midsection before building into a multi-vocal (clean and harsh) payoff that’s almost folkish until the airy squibble-solo takes charge, and turns back to a kind of pastoralia to finish such that the birdsong ending side A is right at home.
Such a multifaceted take can be a trap for an act who, like The World at a Glance, feel inclined to make their own aural context, but their individualism doesn’t feel like a put-on, and while The Longest Shadow Can Only Recede is a demanding listen, its scope has plenty to bring the audience in. Starting side B, the title-cut is also the centerpiece of the tracklisting, and it is unfurled with patience and grace in its willfully-sad first 90-plus seconds as it unhurries into consuming, lumbering sludge, ending a first movement that gives over to a particularly satisfying post-metallic middle marked by strikes of piano that seem almost beaten down by the intensity of the drums, violin in the background, bringing dimension to the considered cacophony. They break again and finish “The Longest Shadow Can Only Recede” with a pick-up-and-go crescendo that, yes, feels part-born from the nod-inducing school of Neurosis‘ “Stones From the Sky,” but is admirably the band’s own. Guitar starts “See” with some proggier noodling and a comedown feel in its initial stretch, but grows furious and then more furious before its seven minutes are done, still atmospheric like an open-air pummeling or a bonfire shooting sparks at the night sky.
The strings and peaceful guitar of the penultimate instrumental “On Some Distant Shore” — you can call it an interlude, I guess, but it’s far from no-effort filler in its wistful melody — are a well-placed recall to that brief serenity at the end of “Circles in Sand,” minus the actual chirping, before “Endlessly” takes off at a dust-thrash gallop. One might not realize it at first, but the entire five minutes of the song are the ending. It’s more than one part, but the spirit even as they work through the circular pattern of chugs around the three-minute mark, is epilogue, and if that’s the longest shadow itself receding in the aforementioned last fadeout, it is evocatively portrayed. One might say the same of the album as an entirety, which might dizzy at first with its turns from one part to the next in “Leering Birch” or “See,” or even the forward-sweep motion wrought in “Endlessly,” but The World at a Glance are never more out of control than they want to be, and in addition to being distinguished in sound, the presence and depth of mood they bring to The Longest Shadow Can Only Recede manifests as the troubled complexity and anxious twisting that feel both of the moment existentially and are still only a fraction of the band’s total expressive pastiche.
You can see the video for “Moth” below, followed by more details from the PR wire and the all-important preorder link.
Hope you enjoy:
The World at a Glance, “Moth” video premiere
CRUCIBLE is proud to release the new album from The World At A Glance, The Longest Shadow Can Only Recede – a trek through reverie, presented on classic black vinyl as a 12” LP, limited to 200. The Longest Shadow Can Only Recede releases September 1, 2023; 12” black vinyl & merch pre-orders available now via crucibleart.com.
CRU006 // The World At A Glance – The Longest Shadow Can Only Recede A 1. Moth [07:30] 2. Leering Birch [05:56] 3. Circles In Sand [05:36] B 4. The Longest Shadow Can Only Recede [06:21] 5. See [07:12] 6. On Some Distant Shore [02:48] 7. Endlessly [05:37]
Recorded, Mixed and Mastered by Liam Kriz at his studio on Yugambeh land in so-called Queensland from the 10th – 18th of May, 2022, Additional Recording also by Claire Westover
Lyrics written by Scott Mclatchie and Liam Phillips Music written by Jack Naughton, Claire Westover, Scott Mclatchie and Liam Phillips Album cover and back cover photo by Ben Westover Graphic Design and arrangement by Claire Westover Cover Model is Jemimah Laine Robe/Clothing Designed and manufactured/created by Jemimah Laine
Indigenous sovereignty was never ceded. This record was created on stolen land.
The World At A Glance – The Longest Shadow Can Only Recede releases via CRUCIBLE, Friday September 1.
Guest Vocals by: Sharni Brouwer on tracks 1 and 4 Adam McArthur on track 2 Mark Grant on track 5 Liam Phillips on track 5
The World At A Glance on this recording is: Scott Mclatchie – Vocals, Guitar, Synth, Piano, Bass on tracks 2, 5 and 7 Claire Westover – Vocals, Violin, Bass on track 6 Jack Naughton – Vocals, Drums, Synth, Percussion, Bass on tracks 1, 3 and 4
Posted in Whathaveyou on June 27th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
So much the better if it gives the album another look. Melbourne’s Treebeard issued their debut full-length, Nostalgia (review here), during the covid-lockdown days of 2021, and having now signed to Bird’s Robe Records, will offer it again with the label’s backing. The record was comprised of tracks re-recorded and in part rearranged from their first two EPs, so as that makes some of its material upwards of half a decade old, it’s not a surprise to hear them discussing moving forward with new material as well. They call it “very much on the way,” but leave further specifics to guesses at this point.
Fair enough. They list some of the artists who release/have released through Bird’s Robe — We Lost the Sea, Sleepmakeswaves, etc. — and being in a heavy post-rock vein, they’re a solid fit among on a roster that’s obviously curated with care and a precise idea of what it’s looking for. If you didn’t catch Nostalgia, it’s of course streaming below. If you did catch it, well, maybe catch it again, I don’t know. Or maybe just drop the band a comment and say congrats. They seem pretty stoked on it, and reasonably so.
Their announcement follows:
Treebeard joins Bird’s Robe
We are thrilled to announce that Treebeard is now joining Sydney-based record label and promoter Bird’s Robe!
We are so excited and humbled to be on a roster featuring many of Australia’s finest post / prog artists, including many of our peers as well as some of our biggest influences such as We Lost The Sea, Sleepmakeswaves, Solkyri, Mushroom Giant and many more!
We have always considered Bird’s Robe and Mike Solo to be at the forefront of our scene and are so thankful for his endorsement of our band. We appreciate his support of our music both old and new which, yes, is very much on the way.
With our debut album ‘Nostalgia’ having come out during lockdown, it was always felt that its potential was never fully realised post release. Mike after hearing the album agreed, and therefore we are also happy to announce we are rereleasing ‘Nostalgia’, with more details to come soon.
Many thanks to Bird’s Robe for welcoming us, and to all our supporters for getting us to this point!
We’re only just getting started…
Treebeard is: Guitar & Vocals – Patrick Cooke Bass – Rhys Brennan Drums – Beau Heffernan Guitar & Vocals – Josh Bills
[Click play above to stream the premiere of Lamassu’s Made of Dust in its entirety. Album is out Wednesday, June 21, and can be preordered through Bandcamp here.]
It’s true though, about the dust. You, me, the planets, the moons, the stars, the sun, almost all astronomical phenomena that’s not dark matter or dark energy — and for all we know, them too — either is now dust, or at one point was dust drawn together by gravity, or is a remnant from that process of galaxy and star formation, as Melbourne’s Lamassu asserts with their gatefold 2LP second long-player Made of Dust. It’s pretty dramatic to think ‘we are star stuff’ in your best Neil DeGrasse-Tyson voice, quite something else to think of it in the context of how we end up at the end of our particular ride through existence. Less than the blink of a cosmic eyelid we are, then, again, dust.
Themes of dirt and being buried in it. Contemplations of death and rebirth. Water. Seeking. Exploitation of the earth and people on it. A troubled planet and time. Amid the breadth of echo in the vocals and plus-sized, crunch-toned and declarative riffing, and the post-Jerry Cantrell vocal style of guitarist Chris Fisher, Lamassu unfold an unmanageable 11 songs and 68 minutes of heavy soul-searching, accompanied by complex structures and pieces like “Washed Away” with its standout hook and the later nine-minute centerpiece “Sorrow of the Children,” which is slow and patient like doom and still has some classic metal ballad resonance in its midsection as Fisher‘s vocals prove up to the task of carrying the song melodically.
Fisher, guitarist/backing vocalist Matt Dawkins — also the Mellotron on “Something Else,” Rhodes, etc. — bassist Al Cooke and drummer Nick Rad remind a bit in that middle cut of Apostle of Solitude, but the fervency of chug in the title-track and the grand places explored in the slow-motion angularity of “The Fog” are individualized factors, and even at their most doomed, Lamassu skirt the lines both of traditionalism and of metal without committing outright to the genre rigidity of either. They are stronger for that.
Begun in 2021, Made of Dust is at least two years in the making in following Lamassu‘s 2019 debut, Into the Empty, recorded and mixed by Mike Deslandes, Dawkins helming additional recording in Fall 2022, with Paul Fox at Indie Masters mastering. As the tracks vary in runtime and somewhat in mood, they are drawn together by a general largesse conveyed in a sense of space, be it echo on the vocals or reverb on the guitar — the recording sounds at least as vast the the guitars, bass and drums sound ‘big’ — with two interludes breaking up the procession across each intended LP, and diversity in tempo and mood more than actual arrangement. But the material doesn’t sound staid, however dug in it gets.
Third track “Shit Town, Misery” answers back to “Washed Away” near the beginning of the record; a relatively quicker pace distinguishing both songs from the stately lumber of opener “Battle Cry” or the 10-minute finale “Tin Man,” which meets the demand of its closing position in reach as well as runtime, offering summary of Made of Dust‘s scope and putting emphasis on what has most worked for it in terms of the performances captured, whether that’s the tension in the emotive rolling verse early or the furious drumming — somehow subtle beneath the soaring vocals of the moment — near the sudden-stop crescendo.
Like “Battle Cry” (7:56), “The Fog” (8:18), and “Sorrow of the Children” (9:29) — the contingent of longer material, though the line isn’t so clear with the title-track at 7:07 or both “Washed Away” and the Pallbearer-esque riffing of the penultimate “White Pills” at 6:30; it’s not such a strict divide between short-songs/long-songs in terms of craft and modus — “Tin Man” uses the space created in the mix to meditate on mortality lyrically in the chorus, “Clock struck, time is running/Clock struck, time’s no friend/Clock struck, time is running/Clock struck, time’s no friend of mine,” the title seeming to question what’s important in life even as the actual song reminds of its fleeting nature, time as a linear, one-way experience. If time is running, inherently then, time is running out. “In our final days, our final hours, we live.” It is the fact that they’ve built such vivid worlds across Made of Dust that allows Lamassu to unmake one so effectively at the end.
In terms of melody and presence, much of the album rests on Fisher‘s vocal delivery, and he answers the call in lyrics and arrangements that feel no less marked in their intent than the riffs and nod surrounding. He is not just following his own guitar, as the verses of “Battle Cry” and “Washed Away” demonstrate early on, and whether it’s the Dawkins-penned lyrics to “Something Else” — hearing it, you can almost tell the difference in Fisher‘s patterning of “I, I sense there’s something else to this, something else to this” — or the calling out from beneath the more intense bursts of “Shit Town, Misery,” or the open reaches in the quiet but spacious intro to “The Fog,” the vocals are a unifying factor in the material, part of the atmosphere even as they are distinct from it, and essential to the proceedings front to back. Answering the doom of “White Pills,” “Sorrow for the Children” is dynamic in its execution, swelling at the outset to a mournful roll, spreading wide in the middle and turning back to the heft in resolute, solo-topped fashion before residual amp noise fades to close. Fisher‘s voice is a vital component of that charge, and malleable to where the song — any of them, really — is going in a given part.
At nearly 70 minutes, Made of Dust is no minor undertaking, and when one factors in that its exploration is internal as well as external — that is, it’s not only seeking the next version of the band’s approach instrumentally, it’s also thoughtful in its lyrical journey — the substance on offer would seem to meet the high standard it’s holding for itself. Doing so assures that Lamassu make an impression of their own, whatever elements might be familiar throughout, and gives them ground on which to build their next work, which is exactly what they most sound like they want to do: move forward.
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 30th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Tracked by Dave Catching in the Cali desert, the new single from mostly-Australia’s Full Tone Generator, titled “Juan Carlos,” is the first audio to come from the formerly-Brant Bjork-inclusive trio’s next album, Refuge for Sinners, which is set to release later this year. Heads up, in other words. And actually, since the song isn’t out yet — June 9, which feels like forever at this point but all that ‘pre-save’ stuff is available now if you’re on Spotify, Apple Music, whathaveyou — this is a heads up of the heads up. Track is full-desert in tone, shades of classic ’90s style, like Kyuss riffs meeting with modern nod, and catchy to boot.
Full Tone Generator‘s debut LP, Valley of the Universe (review here), arrived in 2018 through Hurricane Music. “Juan Carlos” and Refuge for Sinners are set to issue through Iron Head Records (see also: Motherslug, Beastwood, Mezzoa, Stone Deaf, Near Dusk, and so on) under the umbrella of Golden Robot Records. Info came down the PR wire:
FULL TONE GENERATOR ANNOUNCE NEW SINGLE “JUAN CARLOS” – AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER/ADD/SAVE NOW!
Melbourne stoner/desert rockers Full Tone Generator have announced their latest single “Juan Carlos”, which is dropping on June 9 via Iron Head Records. It’s the lead single of their upcoming album ‘Refuge for Sinners’, which is expected later this year.
Recorded at the renowned Rancho de la Luna, in Joshua Tree, California by Dave Catching (Earthlings?, Queens of the Stone Age, Eagles of Death Metal) – “Juan Carlos” is a groovy desert rock banger that delves into sacrifice, heartbreak, and resilience set upon the backdrop of Anaheim, California.
Full Tone Generator are an Australian-Californian stoner rock band, emerged from an idea conceived by Andy Fernando on the beaches of Australia and brought to life in the Californian Desert with the help of Brant Bjork and Brad Young.
After connecting with Brant Bjork, Full Tone Generator embarked on recording their new songs in the desert, with Brant playing drums and co-producing alongside Bubba Dupree. The debut album, “Valley Of The Universe” garnered global acclaim upon its release in late 2018, prompting the band to expand by adding Ben Hall and Mat Evans for live performances.
‘Juan Carlos’ is hitting the digital airwaves on the June 9th via Iron Head Records.
Hey there and welcome back to the Spring 2023 Quarterly Review. Today I’ve got another 10-record batch for your perusal, and if you’ve never been to this particular party before, it’s part of an ongoing series this site does every couple months (you might say quarterly), and this week picks up from yesterday as well as a couple weeks ago, when another 70 records of various types were covered. If there’s a lesson to be learned from all of it, it’s that we live in a golden age of heavy music, be it metal, rock, doom, sludge, psych, prog, noise or whathaveyou. Especially for whathaveyou.
So here we are, you and I, exploring the explorations in these many works and across a range of styles. As always, I hope you find something that feels like it’s speaking directly to you. For what it’s worth, I didn’t even make it through the first 10 of the 50 releases to be covered this week yesterday without ordering a CD from Bandcamp, so I’m here in a spirit of learning too. We’ll go together and dive back in.
Quarterly Review #11-20:
Smokey Mirror, Smokey Mirror
Those in the know will tell you that the vintage-sound thing is over, everybody’s a goth now, blah blah heavygaze. That sounds just fine with Dallas, Texas, boogie rockers Smokey Mirror, who on their self-titled Rise Above Records first LP make their shuffle a party in “Invisible Hand” and the class-conscious “Pathless Forest” even before they dig into the broader jam of the eight-minute “Magick Circle,” panning the solos in call and response, drum solo, softshoe groove, full on whatnot. Meanwhile, “Alpha-State Dissociative Trance” would be glitch if it had a keyboard on it, a kind of math rock from 1972, and its sub-three-minute stretch is followed by the acoustic guitar/harmonica folk blues of “Fried Vanilla Super Trapeze” and the heavy fuzz resurgence of “Sacrificial Altar,” which is long like “Magick Circle” but with more jazz in its winding jam and more of a departure into it (four minutes into the total 7:30 if you’re wondering), while the Radio Moscow-style smooth bop and rip of “A Thousand Days in the Desert” and shred-your-politics of “Who’s to Say” act as touch-ground preface for the acoustic noodle and final hard strums of “Recurring Nightmare,” as side B ends in mirror to side A. An absolute scorcher of a debut and all the more admirable for wearing its politics on its sleeve where much heavy rock hides safe behind its “I’m not political” whiteness, Smokey Mirror‘s Smokey Mirror reminds that, every now and again, those in the know don’t know shit. Barnburner heavy rock and roll forever.
Jack Harlon & The Dead Crows, Hail to the Underground
The moral of the story is that the members of Melbourne’s Jack Harlon and the Dead Crows — may they someday be famous enough that I won’t feel compelled to point out that none of them is Jack; the lineup is comprised of vocalist/guitarist Tim Coutts-Smith, guitarist Jordan Richardson, bassist Liam Barry and drummer Josh McCombe — came up in the ’90s, or at least in the shadow thereof. Hail to the Underground collects eight covers in 35 minutes and is the Aussie rockers’ first outing for Blues Funeral, following two successful albums in 2018’s Hymns and 2021’s The Magnetic Ridge (review here), and while on paper it seems like maybe it’s the result of just-signed-gotta-get-something-out motivation, the takes on tunes by Aussie rockers God, the Melvins, Butthole Surfers, My Bloody Valentine and Joy Division (their “Day of Lords” is a nodding highlight) rest organically alongside the boogie blues of “Roll & Tumble” (originally by Hambone Willie Newbern), the electrified surge of Bauhaus‘ “Dark Entries” and the manic peaks of “Eye Shaking King” by Amon Düül II. It’s not the triumphant, moment-of-arrival third full-length one awaits — and it would be soon for it to be, but it’s how the timing worked with the signing — but Hail to the Underground adds complexity to the narrative of the band’s sound in communing with Texan acid noise, country blues from 1929 to emo and goth rock icons in a long-player’s span, and it’ll certainly keep the fire burning until the next record gets here.
Minimalist in social media presence (though on YouTube and Bandcamp, streaming services, etc.), Sardinian one-man outfit Noorag — also stylized all-lowercase: noorag — operates at the behest of multi-instrumentalist/producer Federico “WalkingFred” Paretta, and with drums by Daneiele Marcia, the project’s debut EP, Fossils, collects seven short pieces across 15 minutes that’s punk in urgency, sans-vocal in the execution, sludged in tone, metallic in production, and adventurous in some of its time changes. Pieces like the ambient opener “Hhon” and “Amanita Shot,” which follows headed on the quick into the suitably stomping “Brachiopod” move easily between each other since the songs themselves are tied together through their instrumental approach and relatively straightforward arrangements. “Cochlea Stone” is a centerpiece under two minutes long with emphasis rightfully on the bass, while “Ritual Electric” teases the stonershuggah nuance in the groove of “Acid Apricot”‘s second half, and the added “Digital Cave” roughs up the recording while maybe or maybe not actually being the demo it claims to be. Are those drums programmed? We may never know, but at a quarter of an hour long, it’s not like Noorag are about to overstay their welcome. Fitting for the EP format as a way to highlight its admirable intricacy, Fossils feels almost ironically fresh and sounds like the beginning point of a broader progression. Here’s hoping.
With the notable exceptions of six-minute opener “Era” and the 8:36 “Uhtceare” with the gradual build to its explosion into the “Stones From the Sky” moment that’s a requisite for seemingly all post-metal acts to utilize at least once (they turn it into a lead later, which is satisfying), Sweden’s KOLLAPS\E — oh your pesky backslash — pair their ambient stretches with stately, shout-topped declarations of riff that sound like early Isis with the clarity of production and intent of later Isis, which is a bigger difference than it reads. The layers of guttural vocals at the forefront of “Anaemia” add an edge of extremity offset by the post-rock float of the guitar, and “Bränt Barn Skyr Elden” (‘burnt child dreads the fire,’ presumably a Swedish aphorism) answers by building tension subtly in its first two minutes before going full-barrage atmosludge for the next as it, “Anaemia,” and the closing pair of “Radiant Static” and “Murrain” harness short-song momentum on either side of four minutes long — something the earlier “Beautiful Desolate” hinted at between “Era” and “Uhtceare” — to capture a distinct flow for side B and giving the ending of “Murrain” its due as a culmination for the entire release. Crushing or spacious or both when it wants to be, Phantom Centre is a strong, pandemic-born debut that looks forward while showing both that it’s schooled in its own genre and has begun to decide which rules it wants to break.
Healthyliving, Songs of Abundance, Psalms of Grief
A multinational conglomerate that would seem to be at least partially assembled in Edinburg, Scotland, Healthyliving — also all-lowercase: healthyliving — offer folkish melodicism atop heavy atmospheric rock for a kind of more-present-than-‘gaze-implies feel that is equal parts meditative, expansive and emotive on their debut full-length, Songs of Abundance, Psalms of Grief. With the vocals of Amaya López-Carromero (aka Maud the Moth) given a showcase they more than earn via performance, multi-instrumentalist Scott McLean (guitar, bass, synth) and drummer Stefan Pötzsch are able to conjure the scene-setting heft of “Until,” tap into grunge strum with a gentle feel on “Bloom” or meander into outright crush with ambient patience on “Galleries” (a highlight) or move through the intensity of “To the Gallows,” the unexpected surge in the bridge of “Back to Back” or the similarly structured but distinguished through the vocal layering and melancholic spirit of the penultimate “Ghost Limbs” with a long quiet stretch before closer “Obey” wraps like it’s raking leaves in rhythm early and soars on a strident groove that caps with impact and sprawl. They are not the only band operating in this sphere of folk-informed heavy post-rock by any means, but as their debut, this nine-song collection pays off the promise of their 2021 two-songer Until/Below (review here) and heralds things to come both beautiful and sad.
Even before Vermont freak-psych two-piece MV & EE — Matt Valentine and Erika Elder, both credited with a whole bunch of stuff including, respectively, ‘the real deal’ and ‘was’ — are nestled into the organic techno jam of 19-minute album opener “Free Range,” their Green Ark full-length has offered lush lysergic hypnosis via an extended introductory drone. Far more records claim to go anywhere than actually do, but the funky piano of “No Money” and percussion and wah dream-disco of “Dancin’,” with an extra-fun keyboard line late, set up the 20-minute “Livin’ it Up,” in a way that feels like surefooted experimentalism; Elder and Valentine exploring these aural spaces with the confidence of those who’ve been out wandering across more than two decades’ worth of prior occasions. That is to say, “Livin’ it Up” is comfortable as it engages with its own unknown self, built up around a bass line and noodly solo over a drum machine with hand percussion accompanying, willfully repetitive like the opener in a way that seems to dig in and then dig in again. The 10-minute “Love From Outer Space” and nine-minute mellow-psych-but-for-the-keyboard-beat-hitting-you-in-the-face-and-maybe-a-bit-of-play-around-that-near-the-end “Rebirth” underscore the message that the ‘out there’ is the starting point rather than the destination for MV & EE, but that those brave enough to go will be gladly taken along.
Israeli trio The Great Machine — brothers Aviran Haviv (bass/vocals) and Omer Haviv (guitar/vocals) as well as drummer/vocalist Michael Izaky — find a home on Noisolution for their fifth full-length in nine years, Funrider, trading vocal duties back and forth atop songs that pare down some of the jammier ideology of 2019’s less-than-ideally-titled Greatestits, still getting spacious in side-A ender “Pocketknife” and the penultimate “Some Things Are Bound to Fail,” which is also the longest inclusion at 6:05. But the core of Funrider is in the quirk and impact of rapid-fire cuts like “Zarathustra” and “Hell & Back” at the outset, the Havivs seeming to trade vocal duties throughout to add to the variety as the rumble before the garage-rock payoff of “Day of the Living Dead” gives over to the title-track or that fuzzier take moves into “Pocketknife.” Acoustic guitar starts “Fornication Under the Consent of the King” but it becomes sprinter Europunk bombast before its two minutes are done, and with the rolling “Notorious” and grungeminded “Mountain She” ripping behind, the most unifying factor throughout Funrider is its lack of predictability. That’s no minor achievement for a band on their fifth record making a shift in their approach after a decade together, but the desert rocking “The Die” that closes with a rager snuck in amid the chug is a fitting summary of the trio’s impressive creative reach.
Following-up their 2017 debut, Stoner Circus, Austrian trio Swanmay offer seven songs and 35 minutes of new material with the self-issued Frantic Feel, finding their foundation in the bass work of Chris Kaderle and Niklas Lueger‘s drumming such that Patrick Àlvaro‘s ultra-fuzzed guitar has as strong a platform to dance all over as possible. Vocals in “The Art of Death” are suitably drunk-sounding (which doesn’t actually hurt it), but “Mashara” and “Cats and Snails” make a rousing opening salvo of marked tonal depth and keep-it-casual stoner saunter, soon also to be highlighted in centerpiece “Blooze.” On side B, “Stone Cold” feels decidedly more like it has its life together, and “Old Trails” tightens the reins from there in terms of structure, but while closer “Dead End” stays fuzzy and driving like the two songs before, the noise quotient is upped significantly by the time it’s done, and that brings back some of the looser swing of “Mashara” or “The Art of Death.” But when Swanmay want to be — and that’s not all the time, to their credit — they are massively heavy, and they put that to raucous use with a production that is accordingly loud and vibrant. Seems simple reading a paragraph, maybe, but the balance they strike in these songs is a difficult one, and even if it’s just for the guitar and bass tones, Frantic Feel demands an audience.
“Death will come swiftly to those who are weak,” goes the crooning verse lyric from Garden of Ash‘s “Death Valley” at the outset of the young Edmonton, Alberta, trio’s self-titled, self-released debut full-length. Bassist Kristina Hunszinger delivers the line with due severity, but the Witch Mountain-esque slow nod and everybody-dies lyrics of “A Cautionary Tale” show more of the tongue-in-cheek point of view of the lyrics. The plot thickens — or at very least hits harder — when the self-recorded outing’s metallic production style is considered. In the drums of Levon Vokins — who also provides backing vocals as heard on “Roses” and elsewhere — the (re-amped) guitar of Zach Houle and even in the mostly-sans-effects presentation of Hunszinger‘s vocals as well as their placement at the forefront of the mix, it’s heavy metal more than heavy rock, but as Vokins takes lead vocals in “World on Fire” with Hunszinger joining for the chorus, the riff is pure boogie and the earlier “Amnesia” fosters doomly swing, so what may in the longer term be a question of perspective is yet unanswered in terms of are they making the sounds they want to and pushing into trad metal genre tenets, or is it just a matter of getting their feet under them as a new band? I don’t know, but songs and performance are both there, so this first full-length does its job in giving Garden of Ash something from which to move forward while serving notice to those with ears to hear them. Either way, the bonus track “Into the Void” is especially notable for not being a Black Sabbath cover, and by the time they get there, that’s not at all the first surprise to be had.
Checking in at one second less and 15 minutes flat, “The Bends” is the first release from Milwaukee-based three-piece Tidal, and it’s almost immediately expansive. With shades of El Paraiso-style jazz psych, manipulated samples and hypnotic drone at its outset, the first two minutes build into a wash with mellow keys/guitar effects (whatever, it sounds more like sax and they’re all credited with ‘noise,’ so I’m doing my best here) and it’s not until Sam Wallman‘s guitar steps forward out of the ambience surrounding at nearly four minutes deep that Alvin Vega‘s drums make their presence known. Completed by Max Muenchow‘s bass, which righteously holds the core while Wallman airs out, the roll is languid and more patient than one would expect for a first-release jam, but there’s a pickup and Tidal do get raucous as “The Bends” moves into its midsection, scorching for a bit until they quiet down again, only to reemerge at 11:10 from the ether of their own making with a clearheaded procession to carry them through the crescendo and to the letting-go-now drift of echo that caps. I hear tell they’ve got like an hour and a half of this stuff recorded and they’re going to release them one by one. They picked an intriguing one to start with as the layers of drone and noise help fill out the otherwise empty space in the instrumental jam without being overwrought or sacrificing the spontaneous nature of the track. Encouraging start. Will be ready when the next jam hits.
