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

Black Space Riders to Hit Studio in July for 2018 Release

Posted in Whathaveyou on May 25th, 2017 by JJ Koczan

On a general level, I’m a sucker for productivity and for thoughtful songwriting, and German outfit Black Space Riders have always offered both. The days since the 2016 release of their most recent EP, Beyond Refugeeum (discussed here), would seem to have been particularly fruitful, as the band reports via the PR wire below that they now have too much material written to fit even on a double album. That seems like it should be plenty, and the six-piece apparently agrees. They’ll hit the studio in July to begin laying down new tracks.

I’m also a proponent of making a strong single LP as opposed to a double LP in almost every situation — the theory being that if you truly love, love, love the songs you’re leaving off your record, the ones you’ve left on must be even better — so I’ll be interested for sure to see what Black Space Riders end up with from these sessions. A 2018 release is being eyed, so we’ve got a while before we find out, but here’s the latest update from the band:

BLACK-SPACE-RIDERS

BLACK SPACE RIDERS Entering the Studio this Summer

German Riffonauts BLACK SPACE RIDERS will enter the studio in mid-July to record new material. The thematic journey and musical cycle that covered the internationally acclaimed last album Refugeeum and the subsequent Beyond Refugeeum EP has been completed.

Singer / guitarist JE comments: “We have written a lot of interesting and new songs, too much material to fit on a classic double album. These are tracks that are flirting with different musical styles; we’re looking outside the box. We will start recording in July and then we’ll see what we’re going to do with this giant pile of music. In the beginning of 2018 there will definitely be a new release from us. Watch out!”

Refugeeum and Beyond Refugeeum are available on CD, vinyl and digital formats. Visit http://www.blackspaceriders.com/shop to place your order.

BLACK SPACE RIDERS are:
JE: Lead Vocals, Guitars, Organ, Beats
SEB: Lead vocals
C.RIP: Drums, Percussion
SLI: Guitars
SAQ: Bass Guitar
HEVO: Additional Bass Guitar

http://www.blackspaceriders.com/shop
https://www.facebook.com/BlackSpaceRiders
https://www.youtube.com/user/blackspaceriders
http://blackspaceriders.bandcamp.com/

Black Space Riders, “Starglue Sniffer” official video

Tags: , ,

Black Space Riders Post “Starglue Sniffer” Video

Posted in Bootleg Theater on April 11th, 2016 by JJ Koczan

black space riders (Photo by Hanno H Endres)

With last year’s Refugeeum (review here), German outfit Black Space Riders made what was easily their most progressive statement to-date. How better to follow-up on such a thing than to present yet another stylistic turn. I’m not sure “Starglue Sniffer” speaks for the whole of the forthcoming Beyond Refugeeum EP — out May 13 via Cargo Records, among others — and in fact I’d be more surprised if it did than it didn’t, since when it comes to encompassing a range of styles, Black Space Riders have grown into an act able to fluidly swap one genre for another in the span of a song.

Perhaps “Starglue Sniffer” is intended to serve as an example of that, though whether or not that was the intent, it does. It finds Black Space Riders, led as ever by guitarist/vocalist/organist/programmer Jochen Engelking, taking a dancier approach to their rhythms. The track is upbeat and should sit well on Beyond Refugeeum next two a couple outside-the-box remixes intended to push the band’s aesthetic breadth even further. They’ve always had something of a keyboard element, some electronics here and there, but with legit beats at its core and its unmitigated catchiness, “Starglue Sniffer” toys with pop ideologies in a way that few bands would dare and even fewer could pull off so well.

Always something intriguing from these guys. Will look forward to digging into the rest of the EP and seeing just where they’re headed as they continue to push “beyond.”

Video features animation by Lenia Friedrich. Enjoy:

Black Space Riders, “Starglue Sniffer” official video

German Riffonauts BLACK SPACE RIDERS have released a video for “Starglue Sniffer,” a song from forthcoming EP Beyond Refugeeum. View it at this location.

Nine months after the release of Refugeeum, the internationally acclaimed fourth album by BLACK SPACE RIDERS, comes a reprise: the Beyond Refugeeum EP! The EP will be released May 13 via BSR/Cargo.

Vocalist/guitarist/keyboardist JE discussed the idea behind the EP: “We had deliberately kept back four songs, all original recordings, from the Refugeeum sessions in order to release them separately from the album because – as the cover artwork already may suggest – the material is different to the songs on Refugeeum. It’s unlike what you might expect from this band. But you can still tell that it comes logically and quite unmistakably from the BLACK SPACE RIDERS. The songs are exalted, sometimes overwrought, vivid, and yet accessible. Much has happened in Europe and in the world since these songs were written at the end of 2014 and recorded in early 2015, but they seem to be even more contemporary and necessary than ever.”

The EP is rounded off with two bonus tracks: “VRTX RMX” (a remix of “Vortex Sun”) is atmospheric electric drone, and “Gravity” is the electro club remix of the band’s 2014 hit “Give Gravitation to the People” that may and certainly will destroy or inspire one or another traditional rocker.

BLACK SPACE RIDERS are:
JE: Lead Vocals, Guitars, Organ, Beats
SEB: Lead vocals
C.RIP: Drums, Percussion
SLI: Guitars
SAQ: Bass Guitar
HEVO: Additional Bass Guitar

Black Space Riders webstore

Black Space Riders on Thee Facebooks

Black Space Riders on Bandcamp

Tags: , , , ,

In the Round: Reviews of Buddha Sentenza, Chrome, Hercyn, The Warlocks and The White Kites

Posted in Reviews on February 4th, 2014 by JJ Koczan

Second week in a row I’m trying this, since the universe didn’t seem to collapse on itself after the first one — unless you count how bad I fucked up lineups; they’re fixed now. Once again we cover some pretty wide ground geographically and stylistically (also alphabetically!), so let’s get to it:

Buddha Sentenza, South Western Lower Valley Rock

Released last year as their debut on World in Sound Records, the 14-track full-length South Western Lower Valley Rock is Buddha Sentenza‘s follow-up to 2009’s exploratory Mode 0909 (review here). The 46-minute outing from the German instrumental fivesome pairs longer pieces like the classic rocking “Arrested Development” (5:04) and prog-jamming “The Monkey Stealing the Peaches” (2:49) off of brief transitional interludes taking their name from letters in the Greek alphabet. I’m not sure what “A-B-G-D-E-Z-I” is meant to indicate — the tracks being “Alpha,” “Beta,” “Gamma” and so on — but they pair remarkably well with the other pieces, and the emergent feel is not unlike that of My Sleeping Karma‘s 2012 outing, Soma, methodologically as well as aesthetically. Perhaps the highlight of South Western Lower Valley Rock is its longest component, “Debris Moon,” which in just under nine minutes weaves nighttime atmospherics and heavy psych ambience into what’s still a subdued track, never quite paying off the tension it creates until the subsequent “Epsilon” shifts into the aforementioned “The Monkey Stealing the Peaches,” giving even more of a clue that Buddha Sentenza are working in a whole-album mindset, rather than thinking of South Western Lower Valley Rock in terms of its individual tracks. The album makes sense on this level, and on CD presents an immersive, linear listening experience that casts a deceptively wide stylistic berth between keyboard-infused krautrock worship, heavy rock and psychedelia, offering fluid motion from in less skilled hands could easily come across as disjointed elements. They make that My Sleeping Karma comparison almost too easy, but the interludes are ultimately essential in creating the flow, as the ease of movement between the desert crunch of “Tzameti,” “Eta” and Eastern-vibing closer “Psychonaut” underscores. Some of Buddha Sentenza‘s best moments are in playing styles off each other.

Buddha Sentenza on Thee Facebooks

World in Sound Records

Chrome, Half Machine from the Sun: The Lost Tracks from ’79-’80

While the liner notes tell of their having been designated “too accessible” at the time, the 18 songs on Chrome‘s Half Machine from the Sun are still plenty weird. As the title indicates, the release is a compilation of yet-unissued cuts from 1979-1980, the era of Half Machine Lip Moves and Red Exposure for Chrome‘s key collaboration between guitarist/vocalist Helios Creed and drummer/vocalist Damon Edge and arguably the point at which that incarnation of the band’s far-out blend of proto-punk, New Wave, psychedelic rock and experimental pop was at its most potent. Sure enough, Half Machine from the Sun crisscrosses genres on an almost per-track basis, be it the weirdo electro stomp of “Looking for Your Door,” the space rock noise wash of “Morrison” or “Sub Machine,” which turns an almost manic drum beat into the foundation of an otherworldly guitar and vocal exploration. They can and will go anywhere, as “Charlie’s Little Problem” and the creeper keyboards of “Ghost” showcase, but if there’s anything tying Half Machine from the Sun (which is out through King of Spades Records following a successful crowdfunding campaign to have it pressed to CD) together, it’s the fact that nothing is tying it together. Tape loops, analog synth, bizarre vocals, structure out the window — and yes, this is still the “accessible” side of Chrome — these songs nonetheless leave any number of memorable impressions, even if that impression winds up in an overarching sense of “God damn this band was weird.” Gloriously so. Chrome, under the direction of Helios Creed, have reportedly been at work on new material, so maybe all the better to give fans advance notice via this collection, which provides 73 minutes of alternate universe brainfodder to sate the curious and the passionate alike. A fan piece, but a welcome one.

Chrome on Thee Facebooks

Helios Creed on Thee Facebooks

Hercyn, Magda

The self-released debut EP from New Jersey-based progressive black metallers Hercyn, Magda, arrives in a full jewel case — the pressing is limited to 100 copies — wrapped in twine. I guess that’s meant to take the place of shrinkwrap, and in that, it’s certainly a more natural-feeling option. Magda‘s namesake track is a 24-minute blend of Euro-doom melancholy, blackened gurgles, grand riffing and ambient weight from the Jersey City trio of guitarist Michael DiCiania, guitarist/vocalist Ernest Wawiorko and bassist Tony Stanziano. About the only thing holding back the EP’s organic vibe is the fact that the drums are programmed, which gives the complex, ambitious “Magda” a mechanical base for what’s otherwise a relatively human sound; the guitars are buzzsaw sharp, but not necessarily without tonal warmth, and particularly in blastbeaten stretches, one almost wants something less precise to go along with the rawness in those guitars, as well as in the bass and Wawiorko‘s vocals. Nonetheless, as lead and rhythm layers intertwine past “Magda”‘s midpoint, there’s beauty in the dismal and a sense of the potential in Hercyn to fluidly cross genre boundaries even more than they already are. That lead is well plotted and sustained, and tempo and chug vary as the song reaches and moves beyond its apex in the second half, with the band offering a bit of Enslaved and Woods of Ypres influence in the interplay of keys and strings. I don’t know if they’ll try to find an actual drummer — for a first release, Magda hardly seems half-assed in its presentation, so maybe this is it; I hear industrial is on its way back — but Hercyn have started with a work of striking intricacy, and prove wholly comfortable in the longer form. An impressive and hopefully portentous debut.

Hercyn on Thee Facebooks

Hercyn on Bandcamp

The Warlocks, Skull Worship

Acid fuzz like a field you could lay down and lose an afternoon in is the contraband trafficked by L.A. freakouts The Warlocks, whose amorphous sonic ooze is every bit in mirror to their lineup, which has seen no fewer than 20 cats come and go and stick around over the course of the last decade and a half. With guitarist/vocalist/keyboardist/bassist Bobby Hecksher as the core around which the eight tracks of the 40-minute Skull Worship swirl, the oft-shoegazing psychedelia isn’t given to complete chaos, but man, The Warlocks go way, way out and don’t seem overly concerned with how they’re getting back. Joining Hecksher for the adventure are guitarist JC Rees, guitarist Earl V. Miller, bassist Chris DiPino and drummer George Serrano, as well as Tanya Hayden, who stops by to add some cello to “Silver and Plastic,” which sounds like what I always secretly hoped Radiohead would deliver instead of the pretentious mopey schlock they put out until they decided they were too smart for albums or whatever. The Warlocks, who had a couple records out on Tee Pee before jumping to Zap Banana/Cargo Records for Skull Worship, at times call to mind the very, very British moments of Crippled Black Phoenix, but then the psychedelic wash of “Chameleon” or “It’s a Hard Fall” takes hold and the whole vibe is groovier, thicker, more multi-colored molasses, whatever other attitude it might convey. The album hits its stride just when you think it might start to drag, and the closing “Eyes Jam” sounds like its backwards cymbals, feedback and drones could just go on into perpetuity, like if the record never returned and the loop kept repeating. Some heady moments, but should be right on the level for those properly tuned in.

The Warlocks on Thee Facebooks

Zap Banana Records

The White Kites, Missing

Immediately and throughout much of the duration of Polish psychedelic pop rockers The White Kites‘ debut LP, Missing (out on Deep Field Records), the vibe is Beatles. Lots and lots of Beatles, from the Sgt. Pepper-style organ circus swirl of opener “Arrival” on through the McCartney piano bounce of the penultimate “The Missing.” It is a 50-minute album, and much of the lighthearted atmosphere it creates stems from its modern interpretation of the legendary Liverpudlians in their psych era. Hard to rag on a band for digging The Beatles — it’s like yelling at a fish for breathing underwater. And as a seven-piece that includes flute, recorders, keyboards, citole, a variety of percussion, clarinet, ukulele and so on, The White Kites aren’t lacking for sonic diversity — vocalist Sean Palmer has quite a task in tying the album together — but as intricate and progressive as Missing gets, it’s still taking the Lennon/McCartney byway to get there. The corresponding songwriting team for The White Kites seems to be Palmer and bassist/keyboardist Jakub Lenarczyk (presented as Lenarczyk/Palmer), and they’re more than capable in their charge, but hints of early Pink Floyd and King Crimson seem to be waiting to emerge from “Turtle’s Back” and “Beyond the Furthest Star,” like they’re trying to get out and be more prominent in the band’s sound but are overpowered by the traceable poppiness. That doesn’t stop Missing from being enjoyable — unless you’ve never liked The Beatles, maybe — or “Beyond the Furthest Star” from being the highlight, it just means that The White Kites have room to shift the sonic balance should they choose to do so their next time around. Until then, impeccable production and imaginative arrangements throughout give an impression of a band just beginning their discovery.

The White Kites on Thee Facebooks

The White Kits on Bandcamp

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,