German heavy instrumentalists Schubmodul are set to issue their sophomore LP, Lost in Kelp Forest, on Feb. 23 through Tonzonen Records. As the title alluding to submerged plantlife hints, the album follows a submerged conceptual narrative such that the sun-reflecting lead guitar in “Emerald Maze” around six minutes into the total 9:57 genuinely seems to discover something as it shifts from its exploratory outset into a more linear pattern ahead of a thicker riff’s return. Samples bolster the affair and fill in some of the places vocals might otherwise have gone — according to the PR wire below King Gizzard did that at one point?; fair enough — as across the six-song/42-minute rolling horizon, the three-piece of Christoph Kellner, Fabian Franke and Nils Stecker bring purpose to a weighted and progressive-leaning, clear-headed psychedelia. This could easily have been an LP of jams that afterward the band decided was about the ocean. That’s not what’s happening here.

Schubmodul‘s material is composed and brings a sense of intention even to the nodder chug in “Silent Echoes” that feels like it could be anything. It’s not that you feel like you’re underwater or that, thankfully, the music itself sounds like it, but the power of suggestion, the commonality of the metaphor within the genre, and your own willingness to go should be enough to get you there. The trio open with “Voyage” and offer the first of the six individualized progressions within the songs, each carving out its own space of the entirety both in terms of story — I’m just cut and pasting the credits so I don’t spell anyone’s name wrong: the spoken narrations are France’s Alma Chomel and Shane Wilson in the US — and the alignment around and movement through structured parts. A band with a marker-board in the rehearsal space? They might be. Somebody, somewhere along the line, has arranged the parts of Lost in Kelp Forest, if not as a cinematic experience, then certainly with a mind toward evoking an emotive or associative response in the listener. As the swinging ‘verse’ of the penultimate “Ascension” (visualizer premiering below), with its proggy bass punches and strutting groove emerges from the spaces cast in the largesse of “Silent Echoes” just before, Schubmodul offer dynamic of intention as well as volume, reaching into varying niches of microgenre while thoughtfully distinguishing their songs in conceptual approach and the finer details of their layering.

An example of that lies in the acoustic beginning of “Renegade One,” the five-minute finale of side A. They open into a groove bordering on huge, as one will, and are both methodical in terms of pace and mindful of when the changes should be. A switch to lead guitar here, some flourish on drums to mark the transition. A stop before you jump in again. Complemented by a captured tonality that is sharper at its corners than one might at first expect, Schubmodul can gear a given part or track toward impact or atmosphere seemingly as they choose, and more often than not on Lost in Kelp Forest, they choose both. The record is stronger for it while still remaining cognizant enough of their basic underlying riffage to be likened to later Karma to Burn, though certainly Schubmodul have layered an entire aesthetic atop that most straight-ahead of instrumental structural foundations. “Ascension” ends sharp and gives over to the Wilson voiceover, naming a deep sea wreck of a ship named Renegade One and revealing the mission to harvest kelp forests that, well, don’t let me spoil it. Ambient guitar behind, the heart of the story ends in closer “Revelations” with an urging to “protect our planet and all living things” before its meditative roll takes hold in earnest. And of course they build around the finale as they’ve been building all along to their various purposes either in storytelling or kicking ass more generally.

It’s not quite a blowout, but it’s the end credits as the pace picks up in the second half of “Revelations” and the band push into the last fadeout. I’m not quite ready to call Schubmodul heavy prog, though there’s some distillation of an Elder influence audible in the shimmering of the guitar and some of the sway in their larger grooves. I can’t get away from feeling like someone in the band — be it Stecker, Kellner or Franke — has some noisier background, but across Lost in Kelp Forest, everything the band put into the record is funneled into the central purpose of the narrative and the songs themselves, and the story being told is that much clearer and expressive for that. Giant kelp can grow up to 250 feet tall, two feet per day if it’s the right kind. An underwater forest is an entire ecosystem, with predators and prey, eggs laid behind leaves and fish living off the plants that are their entire world. Humans I think mostly use it as a place to keep discarded plastic wrap.

But our pitiful species’ disregard for the (actual) treasures that surround us nothing new, and if part of Schubmodul‘s intent is to remind of that or at least pull the thought out of the listener’s brain, then they have succeeded in affecting the mood and mindset of their audience — I was thinking about genocide, now I’m thinking about climate crisis; welcome to the 2020s! everyone’s sad and everything is why — and that’s not an accomplishment to discount. Their debut, 2022’s Modul I, functioned similarly in terms of impact and atmosphere, but what’s found in terms of method and purpose throughout Lost in Kelp Forest is a marked forward step that comes with a greater breadth of production to match that of its basic sound. I don’t know that their next effort — the e’er crucial ‘third record’ — will tell the same kind of tale or not, but I would expect the refinement of approach that Schubmodul have undertaken in the last couple years to continue, and that means that’s an album I’ll want to hear.

Please enjoy the visualizer for “Ascension” premiering below, followed by more from the PR wire:

Schubmodul, “Ascension” visualizer premiere

Lost In Kelp Forest is a concept album that doesn’t take place in the vastness of space like its predecessor, but rather in an underwater world. The six mainly instrumental pieces are accompanied by narrator voices, which reveal a coherent fictional story on a dense atmospheric carpet of sound. The voices were professionally recorded by Alma Chomel from France and Shane Wilson from the USA.

As a foundation, the triumvirate, formed by a classic line-up of guitar, bass and drums, thunders a mix of space, stoner and progressive rock onto the stage, which is occasionally supplemented by synthesizers, sound and voice samples. Dreamy, atmospheric passages combined with colossal riffs will often lead to an epic melodic zenith of voluminous, warm sounds, over which gentle to fast guitar solos are released.

The compositions use a large modal palette and versatile harmonies that are intended to continually surprise the listener and at the same time follow a driving, natural and catchy rhythm. Lost In Kelp Forest has a very high level of attention to detail and should remain exciting even after repeated listening.

The band’s inspiration for this album was genre-typical greats like Elder, King Buffalo, more progressive bands like Dream Theater and elements from Hans Zimmer’s film music. The idea using a spoken word on top of the music was inspired by the albums Eyes Like The Sky and Murderer Of The Universe by King Gizzard & Lizard Wizard. Lost In Kelp Forest was recorded in August 2023 in the legendary Tonmeisterei in Oldenburg, Germany. The entire album was recorded in just six long days. The band was housed in the studio for the entire recording process, which created a unique atmosphere. The first tracks (Emerald Maze and Silent Echoes) were written shortly after the release of the first album in spring 2022 and set the basic mood of the album. The remaining pieces were completed by summer 2023.

Tracklist
1. Voyage
2. Emerald Maze
3. Renegade One
4. Silent Echoes
5. Ascension
6. Revelations

Schubmodul are Christoph Kellner, Fabian Franke and Nils Stecker.

Schubmodul on Instagram

Schubmodul on Facebook

Schubmodul on Bandcamp

Schubmodul on Spotify

Tonzonen Records website

Tonzonen Records on Facebook

Tonzonen Records on Bandcamp

German mostly-instrumentalists Schubmodul will release their second record, Lost in Kelp Forest, next month through Tonzonen. As discussed by the PR wire below, the album blends spoken word narrative on a couple tracks with the band’s prior-established sans-vocal ethic. There’s no music yet, but 2022’s Modul I, operated similarly, with opening track “Andromeda” bringing call-radio speech with a steady chug amid Colour Hazey warmth meeting with Elderian melodic shimmer in the later laying of lead guitar. Spoken word over instrumentals is the kind of thing that can very quickly make or break a record, and while I’d prefer to hear the new LP in its entirety before I go anywhere near “make or break” — or at all — it’s not hard to dig where the band are coming from.

Preorders aren’t up yet, but they will be on the 14th, so it’s not such a wait. And the album’s out in like six weeks, so if late Feb. feels far off, welcome to the future.

The PR wire has it like this:

Psychedelic/ Stoner Rockers SCHUBMODUL Announce New Album Lost In Kelp Forest on Tonzonen Records

After the self-released debut album Modul I (2022) album nr. 2 will be released almost exactly after two years on February 23rd, 2024 on Tonzonen Records.

Lost In Kelp Forest is a concept album that doesn’t take place in the vastness of space like its predecessor, but rather in an underwater world. The six mainly instrumental pieces are accompanied by narrator voices, which reveal a coherent fictional story on a dense atmospheric carpet of sound. The voices were professionally recorded by Alma Chomel from France and Shane Wilson from the USA.

As a foundation, the triumvirate, formed by a classic line-up of guitar, bass and drums, thunders a mix of space, stoner and progressive rock onto the stage, which is occasionally supplemented by synthesizers, sound and voice samples. Dreamy, atmospheric passages combined with colossal riffs will often lead to an epic melodic zenith of voluminous, warm sounds, over which gentle to fast guitar solos are released.

The compositions use a large modal palette and versatile harmonies that are intended to continually surprise the listener and at the same time follow a driving, natural and catchy rhythm. Lost In Kelp Forest has a very high level of attention to detail and should remain exciting even after repeated listening.

The band’s inspiration for this album was genre-typical greats like Elder, King Buffalo, more progressive bands like Dream Theaterand elements from Hans Zimmer’s film music. The idea using a spoken word on top of the music was inspired by the albums Eyes Like The Sky and Murderer Of The Universe by King Gizzard & Lizard Wizard. Lost In Kelp Forest was recorded in August 2023 in the legendary Tonmeisterei in Oldenburg, Germany. The entire album was recorded in just six long days. The band was housed in the studio for the entire recording process, which created a unique atmosphere during the recording process. The first tracks (Emerald Maze and Silent Echoes) were written shortly after the release of the first album in spring 2022 and set the basic mood of the album. The remaining pieces were completed by summer 2023.

Pre-Sale starts on January 14th. Stay tuned.

Tracklist
1. Voyage
2. Emerald Maze
3. Renegade One
4. Silent Echoes
5. Ascension
6. Revelations

https://instagram.com/schubmodul
https://facebook.com/Schubmodul
https://schubmodul.bandcamp.com
https://open.spotify.com/intl-de/artist/1u62KEB6O6vjuxKaNgYHoX?si=WGDmYz8hRO-uYSF5eBvfYw&nd=1&dlsi=f6fcc2854fd64e2b

Schubmodul, Modul I (2022)

I’m drinking coffee out of a different mug today. It may not surprise you to learn that I’m particular about that kind of thing. I have two mugs — one from Baltimore, one from Salem, Mass. — that are the same. They are huge, blue and black, and they curve slightly inward at the top. They can hold half of a 10-cup pot of coffee. I use one of them per day for a pot in the morning.

Not today. The Pecan gifted me a Mr. Spock mug — he’s in his dress uniform, so it’s likely based on the TOS episode ‘Journey to Babel,’ where we meet his parents for the first (our time) time — and it’s smaller and lighter in the hand, will require an extra trip up to the kitchen to finish the pot, but I think she’ll be glad to see me use it, and maybe that’ll help her get a decent start to the day in a bit when she comes downstairs.

Today’s the last day for this week of QR, but we dive back in on Monday and Tuesday to close out. Hope you find something you dig, and if I don’t catch you at the closeout post for the week, have a great weekend.

Quarterly Review #41-50:

Motorpsycho, Yay!

Long-running and prolific Norwegian prog rockers Motorpsycho have proven time and again their stylistic malleability across their north-of-100-strong catalog of releases, and comprised of 10 tracks running 42 minutes of acoustic-led-but-still-lushly-arranged, melodic and sometimes folkish craft. If you ever needed an argument that Motorpsycho could have been writing simplified, ultra-accessible, soundtrack-to-your-summer fare — and I’m not sure you have — Yay! provides that, with a classic feel in the harmonies of “Sentinels” and “Dank State,” though the lyrics in that last cut and in pieces like the leadoff “Cold & Bored,” the later isolated strummer “Real Again (Norway Shrugs and Stays at Home)” and in the lost-love-themed “Loch Meaninglessness and the Mull of Dull” have a cynical current to their framing contrasts that the outwardly pretty face lent to it by the Paul Simon-style lead vocals from Bent Sæther (also guitar, mandolin, omnichord here and more elsewhere). If the record is a gimme for an audience looking for a more earthbound Motorpsycho, then the arrival of the 7:46 “Hotel Daedalus” is where they give a nod to the heavier heads in their fanbase, with one of several guest spots from Reine Fiske (Dungen, Träden, etc.) and a shift in the balance between electric and acoustic guitar and synth at the foreground. Standout as that is, it’s also consistent with the spirit of Yay! more generally, which is built to be more complex in emotion than it presents on its face, and the work of masters, whether they’re writing longform prog epics or sweet closer “The Rapture,” which paints the change of seasons through an image of unmelted leftover snow “sulking in the shade.” One should expect no less than that kind of reach and attention to expression, and one should never engage Motorpsycho with expectations beyond that.

Motorpsycho on Facebook

Stickman Records store

Det Nordenfjeldske Grammofonselskab site

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Severed Satellites, Aphelion

“Apollo,” which was the first single released by Severed Satellites, opens the Baltimore instrumentalists’ first EP, Aphelion, as well, its uptempo blues-informed groove an enticing beginning before “Lost Transmissions” digs further into riffer nod. With five tracks running 27 minutes, Severed Satellites — guitarist Matt Naas, keyboardist Dave Drell, bassist Adam Heinzmann and drummer Chuck Dukehart, the latter two both of heavy rockers Foghound, among others — offer material that’s built out of jamming but that is not itself the jam. Songs, in other words. Recorded by Noel Mueller at Tiny Castle Studio, the EP proves solid through “Lost Transmissions” and the bassier “Hurtling Toward Oblivion” with its ending comedown leading into the coursing keyboard waveform at the start of “Breaking Free From Orbit,” which is the longest inclusion at 7:21 and uses most of that extra time in the intro, building afterward toward a ’70s strutting apex that puts energy ahead of largesse before the keys lead the way out in the two-minute outro “Reaching Aphelion.” Through the variety in the material, Severed Satellites showcase a persona that knows what it’s about and presents that fluidly to the listener with a minimum of indulgence. A rousing start.

Severed Satellites on Facebook

Severed Satellites on Bandcamp

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Edena Gardens, Live Momentum

The collaboration between baritone/bass guitarist Martin Rude, drummer Jakob Skøtt, both also of Danish psych-jazz and psych-as-jazz explorers Causa Sui, and guitarist Nicklas Sørensen of molten-but-mellow jammers Papir, Edena Gardens issue their first and perhaps not last live album in Live Momentum, a three-song set taped at Jaiyede Jazz Festival — their first onstage appearance — in 2022 and pressed concurrent to the second Edena Gardens studio full-length, Agar (review here) while still not so far removed from their 2022 self-titled debut (review here). “Veil” from the sophomore LP opens, with a thicker guitar sound and more active delivery from the stage, a heavier presence in the guitar early on, hinting at Link Wray and sounding clear enough that the applause at the end is a surprise. Taken from the self-titled, “Now Here Nowhere” is more soothing and post-rocking in its languidity — also shorter at seven minutes — an active but not overbearing jazz fusion, while side B’s 17-minute “Live Momentum” would seem to be the occasion for the release. Exploratory at the start, it settles into a groove that’s outright bombastic in comparison to the other two tracks, brings down the jam and pushes it out, growing in volume again late for a slow, howling finish. What should be a no-brainer to those who’ve heard the band, Live Momentum portrays a side of Edena Gardens that their ‘proper’ albums — which is also where new listeners should begin — hasn’t yet shown, which is no doubt why it was issued to start with. Only fortunate.

Edena Gardens on Facebook

El Paraiso Records store

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Delco Detention, Come and Get It!

Following up 2022’s What Lies Beneath (review here) and the intervening covers collection, Cover Ups, and the Crack the Lock EP, prolific Pennsylvania heavy rock outfit Delco Detention, led by the son/father duo of Tyler and Adam Pomerantz return with their Come and Get It! is suitably exclamatory fashion. The nine-track collection is headlined by a guest guitar spot from Earthless‘ Isaiah Mitchell on “Earthless Delco” near the album’s middle, but stop-bys from familiar parties like Kevin McNamara and Mike DiDonato of The Age of Truth and Jared Collins of Mississippi Bones, among others, assure diversity in the material around the foundation of groovy heavy rock. Clutch remain a strong influence — and the record finishes with a take on “I Have the Body of John Wilkes Booth” — but the fuzzy four minutes of the penultimate “Rock and Roll God” and the swing in opener “Domagoj Simek Told Me Quitters Never Smoke” continue to show the band’s growth in refining their songwriting process and aligning the right performers with the right songs, which they do.

Delco Detention on Facebook

Delco Detention on Bandcamp

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The Gray Goo, Circus Nightmare

The second full-length from Montana heavy-funk shenanigans purveyors The Gray Goo, Circus Nightmare, sounds like there’s a story to go along with every song, whether it’s the tale of “Nightstocker” no doubt based on a 24-hour grocery store, or the smoke-weed-now anthem “Pipe Hitter” that so purposefully and blatantly takes on Sleep‘s “Dragonaut,” or even the interlude “Cerulean” with its backward wisps of guitar leading into the dreamy-Ween-esque, Beatles-reference-dropping “Cosmic Sea,” or the Primus-informed absurdity of “Alligator Bundee,” which leads off, and the garage punk that caps in “Out of Sight (Out of Mind).” Equal parts brilliant and dopey, “BEP” is a brief delve into surf-toned weirdness while “Wizards of the Mountain” pays off the basement doom of “Pipe Hitter” just before with its raw-captured slowdown, organ included in its post-midpoint creep and “Cumbia de Montana” is perhaps more dub than South American-style mountain jamming — though there’s a flute — but if you want to draw a line and tell me where one ends and another starts, I won’t argue. Bottom line is that after an encouraging start in last year’s 1943 (review here), The Gray Goo are more sure of themselves and more sure of the planet’s ridiculousness. May they long remain so certain and productive. Heavy rock needs more oddballs.

The Gray Goo on Facebook

The Gray Goo on Bandcamp

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Shit Hexis, Shit Hexis

It’s like they packed it with extra nasty. The seven-song/27-minute Shit Hexis is the debut offering from Saarbrücken, Germany’s Shit Hexis, and it stabs, it scathes, it skin-peels and not in the refreshing way. Flaying extreme sludge riffs presented with the cavernous echo and murky purposes of black metal, it is a filthy sound but not completely un-cosmic as “Latrine Odins” feedsback and lumbers through its 92 seconds, or “Erde” drone-plods at terrifying proportion. On paper, Shit Hexis share a mindset with the likes of Come to Grief or even earlier Yatra in bringing together tonal weight with aesthetics born out of the more extreme ends of heavy metal, but their sharp angles, harsh tones and the echoing rasp of “Le Mort Saisit le Vif” are their own. Not that fucking matters, because when you’re this disaffected you probably don’t give a shit about originality either. But as their first release of any kind, even less than a half-hour of exposure seems likely to cause a reaction, and if you’re ever somewhere that you need people not to be, the misanthropic, loathing-born gurgling of “Mkwekm” should do the trick in clearing a room. This, of course, is as the duo of guitarist/vocalist Mo and drummer Pat designed it to be, and so, wretched as it is, their self-titled can only be called a success. But what a vision thereof.

Shit Hexis on Facebook

Bleeding Heart Nihilist Productions website

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Oromet, Oromet

That Sacramento, California, two-piece Oromet — guitarist/vocalist/layout specialist Dan Aguilar and drummer/bassist/synthesist/backing vocalist/engineer Patrick Hills — have a pedigree between them that shares time in Occlith accounts for some of the unity of intent on the grandly-unfolding death-doom outfit’s self-titled three-song Transylvanian Recordings debut full-length. Side A is dedicated solely to the opener/longest track (immediate points) “Familiar Spirits” (22:00), which quiets down near the finish to end in a contemplative/reflective drone, and earlier positions Oromet among the likes of Dream Undending or Bell Witch in an increasingly prevalent, yet-untagged mournful subset of death-doom. “Diluvium” (11:31) and “Alpenglow” (10:07) follow suit, the former basking in the beauty in its own darkness and sounding duly astounded as it pounds its way toward a sudden stop to let the residual frequencies swell before carrying into the latter, which is gloriously tortured for its first six minutes and comes apart slowly thereafter, having found a place to dwell in the melodic aftermath. Crushing spiritually even as it reaffirms the validity of that pain, it is an affecting listening experience that can be overwhelming at points, but its extremity never feels superfluous or disconnected from the sorrowful emotionality of the songs themselves.

Oromet on Instagram

Transylvanian Recordings on Bandcamp

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Le Mur, Keep Your Fear Away From Me

Each of the four tracks of Le Mur‘s fourth record, Keep Your Fear Away From Me, corresponds to a place in time and point of view. That is, we start in the past with 15-minute leadoff “…The Past Will Be Perfect…” — and please note that the band’s name is also stylized all-caps where album and song titles are all-lowercase — moving through “Today is the Day/The Beauty of Now” (9:27) in the present and “Another Life/Burning the Tree/I See You” (11:19) confirming the subjectivity of one’s experience of self and the world, and closer “…For the Puzzles of the Future.” (12:12) finishing the train of thought by looking at the present from a time to come. Samples peppered throughout add to the otherwise mostly instrumental proceedings, focused on flow and at least semi-improvised, and horns on the opener/longest cut (immediate points) sets a jazzy mindset that holds even as “Another Life/Burning the Tree/I See You” forays through its three-stage journey, starting with a shimmy before growing ever-so-slightly funky in the middle and finishing acoustic, while the (electric) guitar on “…For the Puzzles of the Future.” seems to have saved its letting loose for the final jam, emerging out of the keyboardy intro and sample to top a raucous, fun finish.

Le Mur on Facebook

Aumega Project website

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10-20 Project, Snakes Go Dark to Soak in the Sun

Pushing through sax-laced, dug-in space jamming, Tunisia’s 10-20 Project reportedly recorded Snakes Go Dark to Soak in the Sun during the pandemic lockdown, perhaps in a bid just to do anything during July 2020. Removed from that circumstance, the work of the core duo of guitarist Marwen Lazaar and bassist Dhia Eddine Mejrissi as well as a few friends — drummer Manef Zoghlemi, saxophonist Ghassen Abdelghani and Mohammed Barsaoui on didgeridoo — present a three-track suite that oozes between liquid and vaporous states of matter across “Chutney I” (25:06), “Chutney II” (14:32) and “Chutney III” (13:00), which may or may not have actually been carved out of the same extended jam. From the interweaving of the sax alongside the guitar in the mix of the opener through the hand-drumming in the middle cut and “Chutney III” picking up with an active rhythm after the two pieces prior took their time in building quietly, plus some odd vocalizations included for good measure, the 52-minute outing gets its character from the exploratory meld in their arrangements and the loose nature with which they seem to approach composition generally. It is not a challenge to be entranced by Snakes Go Dark to Soak in the Sun, as even 10-20 Project seem to have been during its making.

10-20 Project on Facebook

Echodelick Records store

Worst Bassist Records store

We Here & Now Recordings store

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Landing, Motionless I-VI

If one assumes that “Side A” (19:58) and “Side B” (20:01) of Landing‘s are the edited-down versions of what appeared as part of the Connecticut ambient psych troupe’s Bandcamp ‘Subscriber Series Collection 02’ as “Motionless I-III” (29:56) and “Motionless IV-VI” (27:18), then perhaps yes, the Sulatron Records-issued Motionless I-VI has been markedly altered to accommodate the LP format. The (relatively) concise presentation, however, does little to undercut either the floating cosmic acoustics and drones about halfway through the first side or the pastoral flight taken in “Side B” before the last drone seems to devour the concept with especially cinematic drama. Whereas when there are drums in “Side A” the mood is more krautrock or traditional space rock, the second stretch of Motionless I-VI is more radical in its changes while still being gentle in its corner turning from one to the next, as heard with the arrival of the electric guitar that fades in at around six and a half minutes and merrily chugs through the brightly-lit serenity of what might’ve at some point been “Motionless V” and here is soon engulfed in a gradual fade that brings forward the already-mentioned drone. There’s more going on under the surface than at it — and that dimension of mix is crucial to Landing‘s methodology — but Motionless I-VI urges the listener to appreciate each element in its place, and is best heard doing that.

Landing on Facebook

Sulatron Records store

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Tomorrow night, July 27, German singer-songer-rocker Marius Tilly takes the stage at Zirkonium in Dortmund for an acoustic set. Taken in context with the work the three-piece of Tilly, bassist Benjamin Oppermann and drummer Max Wastl do on last year’s Nebula Rising album (released through MIG Music), that’s a pretty significant showcase of range, but that would seem to be a running theme in Tilly‘s work. Starting out more in a blues songwriter context, the Bochum native seems to have grown into more of a classically rock sphere, and throughout Nebula Rising, he and his rhythm section deliver varied and crisp material underscored by a tightness of craft and directional clarity. In other words, they know what they want to do and they do it.

No minor feat, even three records in. “Revel Outer Space,” for which you can see the video premiering below, is one of the harder rocking cuts on Nebula Rising, and where songs like “Animal Serenade” and “Colder Below” dig into even poppier alt-rocking terrain and “Danger” and “Solar Woman” emphasize upbeat, danceable vibes, “Revel Outer Space” finds something of a middle ground between those sides, with a latter-day Queens of the Stone Age unabashed play for catchiness and a hook that hits that mark nicely. Tilly, Oppermann and Wastl captured the bulk of the footage while on tour last year, though an early 2015 trip to Memphis, Tennessee — which seems appropriate enough environs for what they’re doing stylistically — features as well.

If you’re so inclined, the entirety of Nebula Rising is streaming on Tilly‘s Bandcamp page (linked below), as well as 2015’s preceding LP, Come Together, which was issued under the moniker of the Marius Tilly Band. In addition to the unplugged show tomorrow, Marius Tilly — presumably the full band, though Wastl seems to be out of the lineup and I’m not sure who, if anyone, has replaced him — will also appear next month at Moosenmättle Open Air in Wolfach and Snakepit Festival in Detmold, both in Germany.

Enjoy:

Marius Tilly, “Revel Outer Space” official video

Marius Tilly reinvented himself with his new album: ”Nebula Rising“ (M.i.G. Music/Indigo) presents the German singer and guitarist, who has been at home in the postmodern blues rock genre before, as a mature songwriter and performer in the area of conflict of alternative and rock. “I didn’t want the songs to be a base for staging me as a instrumentalist,“ explains the man from the Ruhr area, ”Instead the focus is on the songwriting.” his artistic reorientation ended with the consequence of deleting the annex ”Band“ out of the groups‘ name and releasing the “with a rhythm duo for 90 per cent live recorded” album under “Marius Tilly.”

His third CD since 2009 has been produced by the sound engineer Helge Preuß in the Horus-Sound- Studio in Hannover. The studio belonged to Frank Bornemann for a long time. The founder of the art rock band ELOY and discoverer and part-time producer of the cross over quartet GUANO APES (Hit: ”Lords Of he Boards“) not only is the publisher, but also Tilly’s mentor. His makeover appears in the form of twelve songs, which are mastered by Brian Lucey (the Arctic Monkeys, Ray LaMontague).

“This time the framing concept is the universe,” notes Tilly. the fan of Douglas Adams’ science fiction satire classic ”the Hitchhiker’s Guide through the Galaxy“ concretizes: ”the lyrics are a glance on our world from the outer space.” As to read in the eight-page booklet of the digipak.

Marius Tilly on Thee Facebooks

Marius Tilly on Instagram

Marius Tilly on Bandcamp

Marius Tilly website

MIG Music on Thee Facebooks

MIG Music on Instagram

MIG Music website