Posted in Bootleg Theater on February 8th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
This past Friday, classically progressive heavy rockers Mouth released Vortex Redux through This Charming Man Records. And though ‘redux’ in a heavy context has come to be associated with Magnetic Eye Records‘ ongoing album-tribute series, no, this is not Mouth or anyone else covering their own album. Remastered with the included bonus track “Turn the Lie” (video premiering below) and liner notes by yours truly.
The Köln-based trio — now comprised of guitarist/vocalist/keyboardist Christian Koller, drummer/keyboardist Nick Mavridis and bassist Thomas Johnen, who made his first appearance on last year’s Getaway (review here) in the role previously filled by Gerald Kirsch — originally released Vortex (review here) in 2017 through Al!ve/Blunoise Records as an eight-years-later follow-up to their debut, Rhizome, but really, it was the point at which their proggy intent found its fruition. With underlying influence from the heavier end of the style and a modern cast on vintage ideologies, they’ve been able to position themselves in both worlds as a band whose foundation is in prog textures with keys and retro organs and synth and melodies and all that stuff mixed with the occasional let-loose of a thicker shove.
It’s a fine line and Mouth dance all over it, but you’ll pardon me if I leave the analysis there. I’ve both reviewed this album AND I wrote the liner notes below in blue — as opposed to the usual ‘bio I wrote’ tag I apply in situations where editorial and promotional lines are blurred (always uncomfortable; full disclosure, I actually don’t remember if I was compensated or not for the below writing; I’m terrible with money and knowing things generally; see also ‘incompetent’) — that begin with “Welcome…” and end where they end. Seems like plenty, so if you’re still reading at all and haven’t already started the clip, I’ll just say that that whole “prog + fun” equation alluded to above is exactly what comes to life here, and in close-up style.
Plenty more of my blah blah blah follows — I didn’t even know they were using the notes as promo copy until the record was out, but fair enough — and the clip’s three minutes and weird and kind of lo-fi, which somehow makes it more of a good time. But you’re right in the box with them, so I hope you’ve showered recently. Nobody wants to be the one stinking up the practice space.
Please enjoy:
Mouth, “Turn the Lie” video premiere
This is the bonus track of the redux version of MOUTH’s second album VORTEX. Order the new mastered and reworked album here:
Welcome to the definitive Vortex. The LP you’re holding has been on a journey, and no, not just shipping. Mouth’s second after 2009’s Rhizome, Vortex was mostly recorded in 2011 and 2012 over five sessions in a small space where the band rehearsed. Material was pieced together intermittently over a period of 11 months with Chris Koller handling guitar, keys and bass and Nick Mavridis on drums. That’s where it started. Two construction projects: the studio and a recording that would help define the course of the band in classic and melodic progressive rock, happening almost simultaneously in a creative meta-narrative that could easily stand as analog for the depth of pieces like “Into the Light” or the sprawling “Vortex” itself, which opens the record (new and old editions) in an encompassing display of impulse and fluidity
Through experiments in atmosphere like “March of the Cyclopes” and toward the finish of “Epilogue,” Mouth married sounds that in other contexts would come up disparate, like finding a hidden magnetism between two north poles.
Most of the Vortex songs were created on the spot in the studio.There would be no way to know it at the time, but this process would result in a collection of songs with a broad range, within as well as between the component tracks. “Parade” taps Sly Stone on the shoulder and asks if he wants to party (he does), while the penultimate “Soon After…” resonates with its smoky, mellow-jazz vibe. “Vortex” itself happens over six movements and was put together across different sessions, while “Epilogue” happened in a day.
Dissatisfaction with the original mix – and when an album has as much put into its arrangements as Vortex, that balance matters – would lead Mouth to offer Out of the Vortex in 2020 as a collection of alternate versions of pieces like “Mountain” and “Parade,” as well as the unreleased “Ready” and “Homagotago’s Paddle Boat Trip,” the latter an apparent successor to a cut from Floating. But sometimes a thing nestles itself into the back of your head and just won’t leave, and Mouth’s pursuit of a finished Vortex would lead them into the studio again.
Koller handled the remix himself in Oct. 2023, and in addition to helming the new master, krautrock legend Eroc (who drummed in Grobschnitt) brought a gong to mark the beginning of “March of the Cyclopes.” Like a lot of the finer touches on this Vortex, be it a hashed-out stretch in the title-track built on a drum/bass jam or just pulling the vocals and Hammond down a bit in “Epilogue,” the result is a stylistic flourishing that was there all along throughout the journey and now can finally shine as the band intended. – JJ Koczan / Dec. 2023
Pressing Info: 100 copies black (mailorder edition) 400 copies purple transparent wax -> all copies come with a fold out poster
Posted in Whathaveyou on August 29th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Life takes you strange places. I’m reporting live from a bench at what I grew up calling Hershey Park — it’s now known as “Hersheypark,” if current signage is to be believed — in not-much-else-here Hershey, Pennsylvania. My wife and kid are and have been for long enough for me to set up the entire back end of this post, maybe 25 minutes or so, waiting on line for a rollercoaster called The Comet. Park opened at 11 and is slammed.
We’re here, my little family unit, because it’s the end of summer. The Patient Mrs. starts a new semester teaching this week, The Pecan goes to school for full-day kindergarten Sept. 5, so this is pretty much it for summer. Why we’re here instead of something not two and a half hours from where we live is because about 25 minutes from here, at 2PM, we’re meeting with a dog breeder to see about maybe buying a three-month-old puppy. It’s a shichon, small, doesn’t shed much or make a lot of noise. A non-dog, by some standards. Fine. If it doesn’t immediately bite my kid, we’ll probably get it. This has emotional baggage for me — shocking, I know — but it’s time to get this kid a dog, so even if it’s not this one, we’ll keep looking.
What does any of this have to do with Ripplefest Germany 2023 announcing lineups for Cologne — Köln in German — and Berlin?
Just about nothing, actually, but it’s why I’m distracted from giving you the usual spiel: “here’s a cool fest I’ll never get to see but maybe you will and we can both daydream so here you go,” so at least that’s a connection. And please don’t take my inability to focus as somehow detracting from the work Max Röbel has done in assembling lineups both representative and forward thinking from Ripple and -adjacent acts. If you need more proof of his noble mission to shake heavy rock genre norms, go check out the new Plainride. Also, good for Crystal Spiders doing a bit of travel.
These reportedly are not the only acts that will be announced for these events, but it’s a start. Here’s what the PR wire has to say about it:
RIPPLEFEST GERMANY announces first names for 2023 edition in Berlin and Cologne this fall; tickets on sale now!
The international RIPPLEFEST festival series, organized by renowned California independent label Ripple Music, returns to Germany this fall with two unmissable events! Ripplefest Berlin and Ripplefest Cologne promise a musical experience of the highest caliber for fans of Stoner, Doom, and Heavy Psychedelic Rock.
Ripple Music, a label known for its specialization in heavy rock sounds, aims to promote emerging talents from the international heavy rock underground and bring together fans and bands from all over the globe. Dubbing their own festival series “Ripplefest”, the record label has been organizing showcase events for years, in cities such as Austin, San Francisco, London, Nantes, Stockholm, Cologne and Berlin.
The organizer of both Ripplefests is Max Röbel, frontman of Cologne’s heavy rock band Plainride and Head of A&R Europe for Ripple Music. About curating the festival, he says: “Creating a platform for music beyond the mainstream and being able to showcase it with such international lineups is a matter dear to my heart. These festivals are meant to be both a meeting place and a stepping stone for our acts, which is why I am particularly excited that with Kabbalah, Crystal Spiders, and Daevar, we once more have three bands with exceptionally strong frontwomen, on this year’s lineup.”
❱ MOTHER’S CAKE (DE) Stoner rock ❱ KABBALAH (SP) Occult rock ❱ FIRE DOWN BELOW (BE) Stoner rock ❱ CRYSTAL SPIDERS (USA) Doom rock ❱ APPALOOZA (FR) Heavy tribal rock ❱ CANNABINEROS (DE) Stoner rock ❱ DAEVAR (DE) Stoner doom
Welcome to day two of the Summer 2023 Quarterly Review. Yesterday was a genuine hoot — I didn’t realize I had packed it so full of bands’ debut albums, and not repeating myself in noting that in the reviews was a challenge — but blah blah words words later we’re back at it today for round two of seven total.
As I write this, my house is newly emerged from an early morning tornado warning and sundry severe weather alerts, flooding, wind, etc., with that. In my weather head-canon, tornados don’t happen here — because they never used to — but one hit like two towns over a week or so ago, so I guess anything’s possible. My greater concern would be flooding or downed trees or branches damaging the house. I laughed with The Patient Mrs. that of course a tornado would come right after we did the kitchen floor and put the sink back.
We got The Pecan up to experience and be normalized into this brave new world of climate horror. We didn’t go to the basement, but it probably won’t be the last time we talk about whether or not we need to do so. Yes, planet Earth will take care of itself. It will do this by removing the problematic infection over a sustained period of time. Only trouble is humans are the infection.
So anyway, happy Tuesday. Let’s talk about some records.
Quarterly Review #11-20:
Bell Witch, Future’s Shadow Part 1: The Clandestine Gate
Cumbersome in its title and duly stately as it unfurls 83 minutes of Billy Anderson-recorded slow-motion death-doom soul destroy/rebuild, Future’s Shadow Part 1: The Clandestine Gate is not the first longform single-song work from Seattle’s Bell Witch, but the core duo of drummer/vocalist Jesse Shreibman and bassist/vocalist Dylan Desmond found their path on 2017’s landmark Mirror Reaper (review here) and have set themselves to the work of expanding on that already encompassing scope. Moving from its organ intro through willfully lurching, chant-topped initial verses, the piece breaks circa 24 minutes to minimalist near-silence, building itself back up until it seems to blossom fully at around 45 minutes in, but it breaks to organ, rises again, and ultimately seems to not so much to collapse as to be let go into its last eight minutes of melancholy standalone bass. Knowing this is only the first part of a trilogy makes Future’s Shadow Part 1: The Clandestine Gate feel even huger and more opaque, but while its unrelenting atmospheric bleakness will be listenable for a small percentage of the general populace, there’s no question Bell Witch are continuing to push the limits of what they do. Loud or quiet, they are consuming. One should expect no less in the next installment.
Some records are self-titled because the band can’t think of a name. Plainride‘s Plainride is more declarative. Self-released ahead of a Ripple Music issue to accord with timing as the German trio did a Spring support stint with Corrosion of Conformity, the 10-song outing engages with funk, blues rock, metal, prog and on and on and on, and feels specifically geared toward waking up any and all who hear it. The horns blasting in “Fire in the Sky” are a clear signal of that, though one should also allow for the mellowing of “Wanderer,” the interlude “You Wanna…” the acoustic noodler “Siebengebirge,” or the ballady closer “The Lilies” as a corresponding display of dynamic. But the energy is there in “Hello, Operator,” “Ritual” — which reminds of Gozu in its soulful vocals — and through the longer “Shepherd” and the subsequent regrounding in the penultimate “Hour of the Mûmakil,” and it is that kick-in-the-pants sensibility that most defines Plainride as a realization on the part of the band. They sound driven, hungry, expansive and professional, and they greet their audience with a full-on “welcome to the show” mindset, then proceed to try to shake loose the rules of genre from within. Not a minor ambition, but Plainride succeed in letting craft lead the charge in their battle against mediocrity. They don’t universally hit their marks — not that rock and roll ever did or necessarily should — but they take actual chances here and are all the more invigorating for that.
Massachusetts doomers Benthic Realm offer their awaited first full-length with Vessel, and the hour-long 2LP is broad and crushing enough to justify the wait. It’s been five years since 2018’s We Will Not Bow (review here), and the three-piece of bassist Maureen Murphy (ex-Second Grave, ex-Curse the Son, etc.), guitarist/vocalist Krista Van Guilder (ex-Second Grave, ex-Warhorse) and drummer Dan Blomquist (also Conclave) conjure worthy expanse with a metallic foundation, Van Guilder likewise effective in a deathly scream and melodic delivery as “Traitors Among Us” quickly affirms, and the band shifting smoothly between the lurch of “Summon the Tide” and speedier processions like “Course Correct,” the title-track or the penultimate “What Lies Beneath,” the album ultimately more defined by mood and the epic nature of Benthic Realm‘s craft than a showcase of tempo on either side. That is, regardless of pace, they deliver with force throughout the album, and while it might be a couple years delayed, it stands readily among the best debuts of 2023.
Cervus follow 2022’s impressive single “Cycles” (posted here) with the three-song EP Shifting Sands, and the Amsterdam heavy psych unit use the occasion to continue to build a range around their mellow-grooving foundation. Beginning quiet and languid and exploratory on “Nirvana Dunes,” which bursts to voluminous life after its midpoint but retains its fluidity, the five-piece of guitarists Jan Woudenberg and Dennis de Bruin, bassist Tom Mourik, keyboardist/guitarist Ton van Rijswijk and drummer Rogier Henkelman saving extra push for middle cut “Tempest,” reminding some of how The Machine are able to turn from heavy jams to more structured riffy shove. That track, shorter at 3:43, is a delightful bit of raucousness that answers the more straightforward fare on 2021’s Ignis EP while setting up a direct transition into “Eternal Shadow,” which builds walls of organ-laced fuzz roll that go out and don’t come back, ending the 16-minute outing in such a way as to make it feel more like a mini-album. They touch no ground here that feels uncertain for them, but that’s only a positive sign as they perhaps work toward making their debut LP. Whether that’s coming or not, Shifting Sands is no less engaging a mini-trip for its brevity.
On their third album, Where’s the Ground?, Portuguese experimentalists Unsafe Space Garden tackle heavy existentialist questions as only those truly willing to embrace the absurd could hope to do. From the almost-Jackson 5 casual saunter of “Grown-Ups!” — and by the way, all titles are punctuated and stylized all-caps — to the willfully overwhelming prog-metal play of “Pum Pum Pum Pum Ta Ta” later on, Unsafe Space Garden find and frame emotional and psychological breakthroughs through the ridiculous misery of human existence while also managing to remind of what a band can truly accomplish when they’re willing to throw genre expectations out the window. With shades throughout of punk, prog, indie, sludge, pop new and old, post-rock, jazz, and on and on, they are admirably individual, and unwilling to be anything other than who they are stylistically at the risk of derailing their own work, which — again, admirably — they don’t. Switching between English and Portuguese lyrics, they challenge the audience to approach with an open mind and sympathy for one another since once we were all just kids picking our noses on the same ground. Where’s the ground now? I’m not 100 percent, but I think it might be everywhere if we’re ready to see it, to be on it. Supreme weirdo manifestation; a little manic in vibe, but not without hope.
Guitarist/vocalist Henning Schmerer reportedly self-recorded and mixed and played all instruments himself for Neon Burton‘s third full-length, Take a Ride. The band was a trio circa 2021’s Mighty Mondeo, and might still be one, but with programmed drums behind him, Schmerer digs in alone across these space-themed six songs/46 minutes. The material keeps the central duality of Neon Burton‘s work to-date in pairing airy heavy psychedelia with bouts of denser riffing, rougher-edged verses and choruses offsetting the entrancing jams, resulting in a sound that draws a line between the two but is able to move between them freely. “Mother Ship” starts the record quiet but grows across its seven minutes to Truckfighters-esque fuzzy swing, and “I Run,” which follows, unveils the harder-landing aspect of the band’s character. The transitions are unforced and feel like a natural dynamic in the material, but even the jammiest parts would have to be thought out beforehand to be recorded with just one person, so perhaps Take a Ride‘s most standout achievement — see also: tone, melody, groove — is in overcoming the solo nature of its making to sound as much like a full band as it does in the 10-minute “Orbit” or the crescendo of “Disconnect” that rumbles into the sample-topped ambient-plus-funky meander at the start of instrumental closer “Wormhole,” which dares a bit of proggier-leaning chug on the way to its thickened, nodding culmination.
Though pedigreed in a Maryland doom scene that deeply prides itself on traditionalism, Laurel, MD, trio Thousand Vision Mist mark out a progressive path forward with their second full-length, Depths of Oblivion, the eight songs/35 minutes of which seem to owe as much to avant metal as to doom and/or heavy rock. Opener “Sands of Time” imagines what might’ve been if Virus had been raised in the Chesapeake Watershed, while “Citadel of Green” relishes its organically ’70s-style groove with an intricacy of interpretation so as to let Thousand Vision Mist come across as respectful of the past but not hindered by it creatively. Comprised of guitarist/vocalist Danny Kenyon (ex-Life Beyond, Indestroy, etc.), bassist/backing vocalist Tony Comulada (War Injun, Outside Truth, etc.) and drummer Chris Sebastian (ex-Retribution), the band delves into the pastoral on “Love, the Destroyer” and the sunshine-till-the-fuzz-hits-then-still-awesome “Thunderbird Blue,” while “Battle for Yesterday” filters grunge nostalgia through their own complexity and capper “Reversal of Misfortune” moves from its initial riffiness — perhaps in conversation with “We Flew Too High” at the start of what would be side B — into sharper shred with an unshakable rhythmic foundation beneath. I didn’t know what to expect so long after 2018’s Journey to Ascension and the Loss of Tomorrow (review here), which was impressive, but there’s no level on which Thousand Vision Mist haven’t outdone themselves with Depths of Oblivion.
Founded and fronted by vocalist George Chamberlin (Ritual Earth), the named-for-a-Joy–Division-tune New Dawn Fades make their initial public offering with the three-songer Forever, which at 15 minutes long doesn’t come close to the title but makes its point well before it’s through all the same. In “True Till Death,” they update a vibe somewhere between C.O.C.‘s Blind and a less-Southern version of Nola-era Down, while “This Night Has Closed My Eyes” adds some Kyuss flair in Chamberlin‘s vocal and the concluding “New Moon” reinforces the argument with a four-minute parade of swing and chug, Sabbath-bred if not Sabbath-worshiping. If the band — whose lineup seems to have changed since this was recorded at least in the drums — are going to take on a full-length next, they’ll want to shake things up, maybe an interlude, etc., but as a short outing and even more as their first, they don’t necessarily need to shock with off-the-wall style. Instead, Forever portrays New Dawn Fades as having a clear grasp on what they want to do and the songwriting command to make it happen. Wherever they go from here, it’ll be worth keeping eyes and ears open.
According to the band, Aton Five‘s mostly-instrumental self-titled sophomore full-length was recorded between 2019 and 2022, and that three-year span would seem to have allowed for the Moscow-based four-piece to deep-dive into the five pieces that comprise it, so that the guitar and organ answering each other on “Danse Macabre” and the mathy angularity that underscores much of the second half of “Naked Void” exist as fully envisioned versions of themselves, even before you get to the 22-minute “Lethe,” which closes. With the soothing “Clepsydra” in its middle as the only track under eight minutes long, Aton Five have plenty of time to develop and build outward from the headspinning proffered by “Alienation” at the album’s start and in the bassy jabs and departure into and through clearheaded drift-metal (didn’t know it existed, but there it is), the work they’ve put into the material is obvious and no less multifaceted than are the songs, “Alienation” resolving in a combination of sweeps and sprints, each of which resonates with purpose. That one might say the same of each of the three parts that make up “Lethe” should signal the depth of consideration in the entirety of the release. I know there was a plague on, but maybe Aton Five benefitted as well from having the time to focus as they so plainly did. Whether you try to keep up with the turns or sit back and let the band go where they will, Aton Five, the album, feels like the kind of record that might’ve ended up somewhere other than where the band first thought it would, but is stronger for having made the journey to the finished product.
Giants Dwarfs and Black Holes, In a Sandbox Full of Suns
Their second LP behind 2020’s Everwill, the five-song In a Sandbox Full of Suns finds German four-piece Giants Dwarfs and Black Holes fully switched on in heavy jam fashion, cuts like “Love Story” and “In a Sandbox Full of Suns” — both of which top 11 minutes — fleshed out with improv-sounding guitar and vocals over ultra-fluid rhythms, blending classic heavy blues rock and prog with hints and only hints of vintage-ism and letting the variety in their approach show itself in the four-minute centerpiece “Dead Urban Desert” and the suitably cosmic atmosphere to which they depart in closer “Time and Space.” Leadoff “Coffee Style” is rife with attitude, but wahs itself into an Eastern-inflected lead progression after the midpoint and before turning back to the verse, holding its relaxed but not lazy feel all the while. It is a natural brand of psychedelia that results throughout — an enticing sound between sounds; the proverbial ‘not-lost wandering’ in musical form — as Giants Dwarfs and Black Holes don’t try to hypnotize with effects or synth, etc., but prove willing to take a walk into the unknown when the mood hits. It doesn’t always, but they make the most of their opportunities regardless, and if “Dead Urban Desert” is the exception, its placement as the centerpiece tells you it’s not there by accident.
A bit of drift to start and soon enough, “Getaway” is gone. The organ is the tell. Movement, in movements. Soon, German trio Mouth are fully immersed in the classic prog boogie of the title-track to their fourth full-length. Getaway is comprised of six tracks and totals 44 minutes, 22 of which are dedicated to “Getaway” — all of side A — which serves as opener and longest cut (immediate points) as well as the beginning of the narrative that plays out across the total span. To put it to scale, the next longest piece on side B is “Asylum/Sea” at 5:59, so it’s a significant jump in methodology from one half of the record to the other, but the Cologne-based Mouth have been at this a while now, and though bassist Thomas Johnen (also some guitar) makes his first studio-LP appearance here alongside guitarist/vocalist/keyboardist Christian Koller and drummer/keyboardist Nick Mavridis, he’s actually been in the band since 2019, taking the place of Gerald Kirsch, who remains credited with at least some of the low end on the album.
Either way, Mouth know what they’re doing. Self-produced by the band and mixed by Mavridis and Johnen (Eroc at Mastering Ranch mastered), Getaway follows five years after Mouth‘s last full-length, 2018’s Floating (review here), although they did release the Past Present Future (review here) compilation in 2019 and reissue their 2009 debut, Rhizome, in 2020. Still, as Floating arrived just a year after 2017’s Vortex (review here), the five-year stretch between LPs is notable, but readily explained between the lineup change and global catastrophe.
One might also wonder over just how long a period Getaway was recorded and, particularly in the case of its title-track — an obvious focal point since it takes up half the record and shares its name — how it was built up to flow as smoothly as it does, working through classic prog boogie into psych rock and coming out clean on the other side with a smoothly punctuated verse 16 minutes in, organ and acoustic and electric guitar all intertwining behind storytelling that, whether it’s ’70s or ’90s-inspired is anyone’s guess, but that feels natural when the solo starts and wouldn’t have been out of place 10 years ago on Elektrohasch; yes, I’m thinking of Hypnos 69.
The hidden message of “Getaway” — which blows itself out vocally on the repeated line “We dance in the underground” (please note: we do not all dance) before gradually hypnotizing around various melodies, some Mellotron floating in, light vocals, and so on, in its last three minutes — is one of plot. That solo (it begins at 17:37) is only a few measures long before the distorted vocals take over, but it underscores the point that even so far into such a willfully expansive piece they’d still hold firm to their intention. Part of the ending feels improvised, from about 19:15 through 20:15, but the keyboard and quiet vocals, organ, et al, that pick up from there to finish are both a welcome build and a mapped-out course. Mouth are not lacking structure really in any of Getaway, and even in letting go, the title-track stands as a clear demonstration of what they can do within the given sprawl of their sound.
Platter flip and “On the Boat” (premiering above) leads off side B and rocks harder around a comparatively straightforward central groove and hook, the vocals picking up with the farther-back-and-distorted; think “Cat’s foot, iron claw/Neurosurgeon screams for more” à la King Crimson, but with a heavy push from the drums and an insistent progression of organ, guitar and bass to coincide, twisting into the falsetto chorus, looping back through toward a solo and final chorus to end, transitioning smoothly to the instrumental “Asylum/Sea.”
So, quickly momentum takes a different form on side B, and there’s a narrative to Getaway that’s apparent just from the names of the songs — “Getaway” on side A, while side B is “On the Boat,” “Asylum/Sea,” “Purge and Hunt,” “Once” and “Drowning” — and if Mouth are writing about Europe’s ongoing refugee crisis, fair enough for their not forcing a happy ending where one doesn’t always go. “Asylum/Sea” finds its melodic stretchout in the Mellotron, and Mavridis‘ snare is tight and cuts through, but not so much as to disturb the quiet of the waves that surround it, where “Purge and Hunt” is more urgent in its organ-rock shove and more purposefully brash in its crashes and lead twists of guitar initially.
A break after about 2:40 into the total 5:41 marks the launch point for an exploratory part that’s mellower and seems to have some Rhodes or other kind of vintage-sounding keys worked in around sustained guitar drone and jazzy drums, but it’s the organ line that holds past the finish and that lets the funky “Once” pick up from there with its short but atmospheric bounce. It might be garage rock but for all the keyboards, but you’d never know it with the finer detailing that surrounds, and that keeps it consistent with the material prior, be it “Purge and Hunt” or “Getaway” itself.
The layers of keys, gentle melodicism and drumless rhythm of “Drowning” lend it something of an epilogue feel, but if that’s how the story ends — i.e. with the depicted refugees drowning — then it is an essential facet of the story itself. There are no lyrics, so they leave it at least somewhat open to interpretation, but as with “Asylum/Sea” finding a calm moment between the excitement of “On the Boat” and “Purge and Hunt,” Mouth imbue “Drowning” with a sense of melancholy for its sub-three-minutes that rises from silence, establishes its layers of organ/synth, holds its dirge, and drops to silence as if to leave you asking what happens next.
Ideally we all give money to Greenpeace and like-minded organizations, but either way, that the story being depicted throughout aligns naturally with what the instruments and lyrics are doing is another level of showcase through which Getaway feels so well considered. It is not overwrought or too thought out, not flat or lacking passion, but there’s a thread woven through the songs that brings them together, an energy in the listening, that makes the entire procession feel carefully sculpted, even in its off-the-cuff moments. This may be business as usual for Mouth on paper, but in hearing the album, their sense of guiding the audience through the songs — instrumentally and in terms of the narrative — is palpable, and whether they’re psyched-out, dug-in or just plain ol’ heavy rocking, they remain sure in what they want to do. The results are all the more satisfying for that.
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 29th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Based on a whole lot of supposition and the little bit of timeline details available, I’m going to piece together a narrative scenario around the release of Plainride‘s self-titled third album, and you tell me if it’s plausible or not. Cool? Here we go.
So, Cologne-based heavy rockers Plainride recorded their third long-player — a pivotal moment for any act — early in 2022 with guitarist/some-bassist Bob Vogston at the helm. Not much going on at the time in terms of touring, plus the pressing delays that were prevalent throughout 2021-2022 meant that their label, Ripple Music was probably backed up in terms of schedule as well even beyond the six months that the process of making, pressing and advance-promoting an album can take when operations are what passes for generally efficient.
In the meantime, Plainride end up booked for a Spring run through Europe as support for Corrosion of Conformity. Legends. Legitimately the biggest thing that’s ever happened to Plainride and a tour that, if they’re ever going to tour, is the tour they want to do. Of course they do it. It wrapped up like a week or two ago. Everybody looked thrilled in the end-of-tour photo, if tired.
But before they went, Plainride offered up Plainride, the new album, on their own, releasing it at the end of April through Bandcamp and offering it on CD at the merch table on the tour so that, you know, they’d have something to sell to the new friends they were winning on stage. Sometimes a band in this situation might do a surprise EP or even a single, but I guess if you’ve got the full-length in the can and the occasion is right as this tour clearly was, you go all-in and let the rest shake out later.
The upcoming summer release for Plainride‘s Plainride, then, is that shaking out. Pressing delays are (largely, by my understanding) over, but getting the album out through Ripple now gives broader distribution and an LP-format release to the 10-song collection, and still let the band have a new record to tour on. A little odd as regards timing — to wit, I was waiting for a press release announcement of the album after it was out — but in the long run, it won’t matter in the slightest and everybody comes out a winner.
Make sense? That’s my read on it, anyhow. If I’m wrong, it certainly wouldn’t be the first time.
To the PR wire:
German heavy rock revelation PLAINRIDE to release new album “Plainride” this summer on Ripple Music; preorder available now!
Cologne’s fast-rising heavy blues rock’n’rollers PLAINRIDE are set to issue their third studio album “Plainride” worldwide this summer via Ripple Music. The album is available now through all major streaming platforms.
Hot on the heels of their extensive European and UK tour with Corrosion Of Conformity, Cologne’s own heavy blues revelers Plainride team up with Ripple Music for the official vinyl and CD release of their freshly issued third album “Plainride” this summer!
One thing is for certain: what the Cologne trio has concocted here is the exact opposite of background music: “Plainride” challenges its listeners to grapple with its complexity and demands their undivided attention. Those who pick up the gauntlet will be rewarded. With an eclectic hell ride, a “Strange Brew” full of twists and turns, danceable hooks and shoutable choruses, peppered in equal parts with fury, humor, and intellect.
An almost anarchic album by rock standards that cares as little about convention as it does about authority. Singer Max Rebel has little to do with authority either, and his lyrics, at times cryptically, at times by means of the sledgehammer, deal with structural power relations, mythological ruler figures, and neoliberal hustle culture. If you listen closely, you will discover a rich fund of allusions, quotations, and references in the ten songs, from Allen Ginsberg to Adorno and Marx, to the Bible, the Phoenician Pantheon, and the Chicago Riots of 1968 after the assassination of Martin Luther King.
“Plainride” was recorded, mixed and mastered by guitarist and producer Bob Vogston at Lipaka Studios in January 2022. It features a wide range of guest musicians across its 10 tracks with instrumentation including brass, organ, theremin, harmonica, piano, and percussion.
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 20th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Heretofore undervalued classic progressive rockers Mouth would seem to be at the starting point of the promotional cycle for their next album. Their fourth studio LP overall, it’s titled Getaway, which bodes well for anyone perhaps seeking escapist pastoralia, and will see release this summer as their first collaboration with the of-venerable-taste This Charming Man Records. I know precious little about the record to be issued beyond the title, but the Köln-based trio have been dutifully posting social media updates on its status, and it looks like the show they played on Feb. 11 doubled maybe as a celebration of having finished the mastering. If that’s not true, then at least they’re close to it. “Finishing touches,” and all that.
The otherwise latest release from Mouth — also stylized all-lowercase: mouth — is 2020’s Out of the Vortex, which featured alternate versions and off-LP tracks from the sessions for their direction-defining 2017 sophomore full-length, Vortex (review here), which set them on a path of warm and spacious prog, linked in aesthetic to the early ’70s and readily acknowledging that as a key influence. The band’s roots go back to the turn of the century, which was celebrated on 2019’s compilation, Past Present Future (review here), and one looks forward to hearing four years after that how the ‘future’ portion might manifest on Getaway. May we all have a lounger reserved for us on Prog Island.
The band posted the following announcement on the aforementioned socials, keeping it quick and to the point. Hopefully I’ll have more to come on the album before summer gets here.
Dig:
We are proud to announce we are now part of the THIS CHARMING MAN familiy. We signed the contract for our 6th release (4th longplayer studio album) GETAWAY said to be released on vinyl on this magnificent record label this summer!
MOUTH: Christian Koller: vocals, guitars & keyboards Thomas Johnen: bass Nick Mavridis: drums, keyboards
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 3rd, 2023 by JJ Koczan
German heavy rockers Plainride are set to support C.O.C. on the North Carolinian outfit’s upcoming run through UK and Europe. Situated around a stop at Desertfest London 2023, word of the tour comes about a month after Plainride issued their latest single, the particularly bluesy Clutch-style groover “Hello, Operator,” with Bob Vogston pulling double-duty as producer after joining the band as guitarist in 2019, following the release of what’s still Plainride‘s latest LP, 2018’s Life on Ares (review here), which came out on Ripple. “Hello, Operator” follows two other singles released over the course of 2021, and introduces bassist Dario Schattel to the fold alongside Vogston, guitarist/vocalist Max Rebel and drummer Florian Schlenker.
Whether the band will tour as a trio or four-piece, I don’t know, but you can hear in “Hello, Operator” that they’ve got the sound down pat and are good to go. They’ve had a hand in organizing Ripplefest Cologne over the last however long, and while I see another date in the band’s hometown listed so that probably won’t happen, there’s a gap of four days between the Vienna and Brussels dates near the end of the run, so it wouldn’t be a surprise if either more shows got added or there’s some other trick up the tour’s sleeve.
In any case, the bottom line here is good for Plainride. They announced the tour thusly on social media:
The cat’s out the bag: We will be supporting none other than US Heavy Rock titans Corrosion Of Conformity on their upcoming European tour this May!
As longtime fans of classic COC bangers like Wiseblood and Deliverance (throwback to Max cranking his Boss Metal Zone up to eleven, trying to learn the iconic riff to Señor Limpio when he first picked up his dad’s old tele at the tender age of 17), we are more than honored to be riding alongside these legends for a solid 20 days of Rock ‘n’ Roll madness all over the continent (#129304#) A heartfelt thank you to Brenna from CRYSTAL SPIDERS and Mike Dean of COC for this mindblowing opportunity.
Tickets go live on Feb 1. See y’all on the road!
01.05.23 · IE · Dublin · Academy 02.05.23 · UK · Glasgow · Garage 03.05.23 · UK · Wolverhampton · KKs Steel Mill 04.05.23 · UK · Cardiff · The Globe 05.05.23 · UK · Manchester · Bread Shed 06.05.23 · UK · London · Desertfest 08.05.23 · DK · Copenhagen · Pumphuset 10.05.23 · FR · Paris · Petit Bain 11.05.23 · DE · Cologne · Luxor 12.05.23 · NL · Eindhoven · Dynamo 13.05.23 · DE · Aschaffenburg · ColosSaal 15.05.23 · CH · Zurich · Dynamo 16.05.23 · DE · Munich · Backstage 17.05.23 · AT · Vienna · Szene 21.05.23 · BE · Brussels · Botanique
Plainride: Max Rebel – Vocals, Guitar Dario Schattel – Bass Florian Schlenker – Drums, Percussion Bob Vogston – Guitar
Posted in Reviews on January 6th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
There was some pretty good stuff this week, I gotta say. Feels self-congratulatory to be like, ‘hey good job slating reviews, me!’ but there it is. I don’t regret hearing anything I have thus far into the Winter 2023 Quarterly Review, and sometimes that’s not the case by the time we get to Friday.
Of course, there’s another week to go here as well. We’ll pick it back up on Monday with another 10 records and proceed from there. If you’ve been following along, I hope you’ve found something you dig as well.
Winter 2023 Quarterly Review #41-50:
Astrosaur, Portals
This is what happens when you have virtuoso players writing songs rather than paeans to their own virtuosity. Led by founding guitarist Eirik Kråkenes, with drummer Jonathan Eikum (also Taiga Woods) and bassist Steinar Glas (also Einar Stray Orchestra), Astrosaur are blindingly progressive on their third full-length, Portals (on Pelagic), operating with post-metallic atmospheres as a backdrop for stunning instrumental turns, builds and crashes, willful repetition and the defiant denial of same. There’s more scope in the intro “Opening” than on some entire albums, and what “Black Hole Earth” begins from there is a dizzying array of sometimes cosmic sometimes earthborn riffing, twisting bass and mindfully restless drums. “The Deluge” hitting into that chase after four minutes in, that seemingly chaotic swirling noise suddenly stopping “Reptile Empire” and the false start to the 23-minute epic “Eternal Return” — these details and many besides give the overarching weight of Portals at its heaviest a corresponding depth, and when coupled with the guitar’s ability to coast overhead, they are genuinely three-dimension in their sound. You’d be right to want to hear Portals for “Eternal Return” alone, but there’s so much more to it than that.
Kvasir‘s Sagittarius A* Star is named for the black hole at the center of the galaxy, and the 21-minute single-song EP is the follow-up to their 2021 debut album, 4 (review here), a dug-in proto-metallic exploration composed in movements that flow together as a whole organic work. The Portland-based four-piece of guitarists Christopher Lee (also vocals) and Gabriel Langston, bassist Greg Traw and Jay Erbe work on either side between traditional metal and heavy rock riffing, inhabiting both here as “Sagittarius A* Star” launches into its initial verses over the first four minutes, a solo emerging after 5:30 to set the pattern that will hold for the remaining three-fourths of the song. A slowdown takes hold about a minute later and grooves until at about nine minutes in when the bass comes forward and things get funkier. The vocals return at about 11:30 to complement a galloping riff that’s fleshed out until just after the 14-minute mark, when a jazzier instrumental movement begins and the band makes it known they’re going out and not coming back, the swaying finish with more insistent guitar, first interjecting then satisfyingly joining that sway, capping with a (still plotted) jammier feel. If that’s the Milky Way succumbing to ultragravity and being torn apart molecule by molecule en route to physics-defying oblivion, then fair enough. Worse ways to go, certainly.
Though the leadoff Sins of the Father gets reminds of circa-’90s noise metal like Nailbomb, Marylander four-piece Bloodshot lean more into a hardcore-informed take on heavy rock with their aggressively-purposed debut album. Comprised of vocalist Jared Winegardner, guitarist Tom Stacey, bassist Joe Ruthvin (ex-Earthride) and drummer JB Matson (ex-War Injun, organizer of Maryland Doom Fest, etc.), the band push to one side or the other throughout, as on the more rocking “Zero Humility” and the subsequent metallic barker “Uncivil War,” the mid-period Megadeth-style riffer “Beaten Into Rebellion,” the brooding-into-chugging closing title-track and “Fyre,” which I’m pretty sure just wants to kick my ass. The 10-track entirety of the album, in fact, seems to hold to that same mentality, and there’s a sense of trying to recapture something that’s been lost that feels inherently conservative in its theme — “Faded Natives,” “Visions of Yesterday,” the speedier “Worn and Torn,” and so on — but gruff though it is, Sins of the Father offers a pissed-off-for-reasons take on heavy that’s likewise intense and methodical. That is to say, they know what they’re doing as they punch you in the throat.
A second release through Heavy Psych Sounds and Tons‘ third full-length overall, Hashension wears its love of all things cannabian on its crusty stoner sludge sleeve throughout its six-track/39-minute run, begun with the riffnotic “Dope Dealer Scum” before “A Hash Day’s Night” introduces the throatripper vocals and backing growls and a more heads-down, speedier tempo that hits into a mosh of a slowdown. “Slowly We Pot” — a play on Obituary‘s Slowly We Rot — to go along with the Beatles, Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd (and Gummo) titular references — follows in a spirit as angry as one imagines Bongzilla might be if someone un-freed their weed. Yes, “Hempathy for the Devil” and “Ummagummo” precede the sample-topped slamming march of “Hashended,” and lo, the well-baked extreme sludge they’ve wrought rumbles and thuds its way out, not so much gnashing in the way of “A Hash Day’s Night” or the roll after the midpoint in “Ummagummo” — though the lyrics there seem to be pure weed-worship — but lumbering in such a way as to ensure the point gets across anyhow. I’m not going to tell you you should be stoned listening to it, because I don’t know, maybe you’re driving or something, but I doubt Tons would argue if you brought some edibles to the gig. Enough to share, perhaps.
Mothman & the Thunderbirds vs. World Eaters, Split
In the battle of Philly solo-project Mothman and the Thunderbirds vs. Ontario-based duo World Eaters, the numbers may be on the side of the latter, but each act offers something of its own on their shared 18-minute EP. Presenting two tracks from each band, the outing puts Mothman and the Thunderbirds‘ “Rusty Shackleton” and “Nephilim” up front, the latter particularly reinforcing the Devin Townsend influence on the part of multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Alex Parkinson, while “Flash of Green” and “The Siege” from World Eaters — drummer Winter Stomp and guitarist/bassist/vocalist/synthesist David Gupta — present an atmospheric death metal, more than raw bludgeoning, but definitely that as well. As a sampler platter for both bands, there’s more time to get to know World Eaters since their songs are markedly longer, but the contrast from one to the other and the progression into the mire of “The Siege” gives the split an overlaid personality, almost a narrative, and the melodies in Parkinson‘s two cuts have a lingering presence over the masterful decay that follows in World Eater‘s material. One way or the other, these are both relatively upstart projects and their will toward progression is clear, as pummeling as its form may be. Right on.
Preceded by the two-song single Witches Brew/Psychedelic Roadkill, the six-song/24-minute Dark Matter Pt. 1 is short but feels nonetheless like a debut album from Sonoma County, California (try the cabernet), three-piece Deer Lord, who present adventures like getting stoned with witches on a mountaintop, riding free with an out-on-bail “Hippie Girl” in the backseat of presumably some kind of roadster, going down the proverbial highway and, at last, welcoming you to “Planet Earth” after calling out and casting off any and all “Ego” along the way. It is a modern take on stonerized heavy, starting off with “Witches Brew” as the opener/longest track (immediate points) with a languid flow and psychedelic underpinnings that flesh out even amid the apex soloing of “Planet Earth” or the fervent push of the earlier “Ride Away,” that tempo hitting a wall with the intro of “Ego” (don’t worry, it takes off) so as to support the argument in favor of Dark Matter Pt. 1 as an admittedly brief full-length, the component tracks working off each other to enhance the entirety. The elements beneath are familiar enough, but Deer Lord put an encouraging spin of their own on it, and especially as their debut, it’s hard to imagine some label or other won’t get on board, if not for pressing this, then maybe Pt. 2 to come. Perhaps both?
IO Audio Recordings, Awaiting the Elliptical Drift & VVK
Compiling two 2022 EPs into a single LP and releasing through a microcosm of underground imprints in various terrestrial locales, IO Audio Recordings‘ Awaiting the Elliptical Drift & VVK is my first exposure to the Orange, CA, out-there-in-space unit, and from the blower kosmiche rocking “Awaiting the Elliptical Drift” to the sitar meditation “Luminous Suspension,” and the hazy wash of “Sunrise and Overdrive” (that’s side A) to the experimentalist consumption of “VVK” and “Gramanita” rounding out with its heartbeat rhythm giving over to a hardly-flatlined drone after shuffling cool and bassy and fuzzy with jangly jam strum overtop, I tell you in all sincerity it won’t be my last. There’s a broad cross-section stylistically, which suits a compilation mindset, but I get the feeling that if you called it an album instead, the situation would be much the same thanks to an underlying conceptualism and the adventuring purpose beneath the open-structured fluidity. That’s just fine, as IO Audio Recordings‘ sundry transformations only enhance the anything-that-works-goes and shelf-your-expectations listening experience. Not that there’s no tension in their groovy approach, but the abiding sensibility advises an open mind and maybe a couple deep breaths in and out before you take it on. But then definitely take it on. If you need me, I’ll be spending money I don’t have on Bandcamp.
While “bong” in a band name usually connotes dense sludge in my head, Oslo four-piece Bong Voyage defy that stereotype with their Dec. 2022-released second single, “Feverlung” — the first single was October’s “Buzzed Aldrin” — and no, the song isn’t about the pandemic, it’s about getting high. The six-minute rocker hoists jammy flourish mostly in its second half, in a break that, in turn, shifts into uptempo semi-space rock post-Slift pulsations atop a progression that, while I’ll readily admit it sounds little like the song on the whole still puts me in mind of Kyuss‘ “Odyssey” in its vocal patterning and melody. That ending is a step outward from the solidified early verses, which are more straight ahead heavy rock in the vein of Freedom Hawk or a less-directly-Ozzy take on Sheavy, and while one listening for them to bring it back around to the initial riff will find that they don’t, the band’s time isn’t necessarily misspent in terms of serving the song by letting it push beyond exospheric traps. They won’t catch me by surprise next time aesthetically, and it wouldn’t be a shock to find Bong Voyage in among the subset of up and coming heavy rockers that’s put Norway on the underground radar so much these last couple years. Either way, I’ll look forward to more here.
In its early going, Sun Years‘ “Codex” stagger-sludges like Eyehategod with guitarist Dalton Huskin‘s shouty echoing vocals on top, but as it moves into its second half, there’s a pickup in tempo and a bit of swirling lead guitar emerges in the 4:37 song’s closing stretch as Asechiah Bogdan (ex-Windhand, ex-Alabama Thunderpussy) makes his presence felt. Alongside bassist Buddy Bryant and drummer Erik Larson (once-and-again guitarist for Alabama Thunderpussy, drummer of Avail, Omen Stones, ex-Backwoods Payback, the list goes on), Bogdan and Huskin explore mellower and more melodic reaches the subsequent “Teeth Like Stars,” still holding some of their demo’s lead track’s urgency as a weighted riff takes hold in trade with the relatively subdued verse. That’s a back and forth they’ll do again, moving the second time from the more weighted progression into a solo and build into a return of the harsher vocals, some double-kick drumming and a last shove that lasts until everything drops out except one guitar and that riffs for a few seconds before being cut off mid-measure. Well, that’s a band with more dynamic in their first two tracks than some have in their entire careers, so I guess it’s safe to say it’ll be worth following the Richmond, Virginia, foursome to see where they end up next time out.
Recorded by Jan Oberg (Grin, Slowshine, EarthShip) at Hidden Planet Studio in Berlin, Daevar‘s five-track/32-minute 2023 debut album, Delirious Rites, arrives likewise through Oberg‘s imprint The Lasting Dose Records and finds the man himself sitting in for guest vocals on the 10-minute “Leviathan” alongside the band’s own bassist/vocalist Pardis Latif, who leads the band from the depths of the rhythm section’s lurch on the gradually unfolding Windhand-vibing leadoff “Slowshine,” the particularly Monolordian “Bloody Fingers” with Caspar Orfgen‘s guitar howling over a marching riff, and “Leila” where Moritz Ermen Bausch‘s drums offer a welcoming grounding to Electric Wizardly nod and swirl. Thus, by the time his spot in the aforementioned “Leviathan” rolls (and I do mean rolls) around, just ahead of closer “Yellow Queen,” the layers of growling and screaming he adds to the procession are a standout shift well placed to play off the atmosphere established by the previous tracks. Shortest at 5:10, “Yellow Queen” lumbers through more ethereal doom and hints at a psychedelic current that might continue to develop in a midsection drifting break that builds back into the catchy plod from whence it came. Not necessarily innovative at this point — they’re a new band — but they seem to know what they want in terms of sound and style, and that only ever bodes well.
