Posted in Questionnaire on September 16th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.
Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.
Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.
The Obelisk Questionnaire: Phiasco
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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?
Well, mainly we are trying to have fun by doing what we love most. Making music is some kind of escape I would say and that’s one big motivation. Starting a band in your teenie years or twenties is one of the best experiences you could probably make on your way to adolescence and running a band in your thierties/fourties means you still are able to conserve this spirit. Our style can be more or less described as fuzz influenced rock music…
Describe your first musical memory.
Our first musical memory as a four-piece is probably the moment we got together in a rehearsal space. It was small sticky but we had the opportunity to get on the roof to get a fresh breeze above the roofs of cologne. Playing some cover versions of “and you will know us by the trail of dead” or “biffy clyro” and starting to evolve an own kind of style. This started in about 2011.
Describe your best musical memory to date.
I also try to answer this from the band-perspective. The genesis of a song in its entirety is huge! As we are writing songs together in the rehearsal room it’s always a special moment when the spirit is on and the creative process flows. Recording your own stuff and listen to it for the first time is always a very special moment too! And of course memories of being on stage together.
When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?
I would say it’s not that far in the past. The 24 of February 2022 when war came back to Europe partly destroyed our believe in a peaceful life together. FCK PTN!
Where do you feel artistic progression leads?
Artistic progression is something that you could feel on your own by becoming a better musician technically but I would say a also huge part of progression is, that when you’re an artist you are part of a big family of artists. There exists a strong scene of musicians in our home town Cologne. To get to know all the other artists around you and being part of a growing family is a great progress.
How do you define success?
Success to us is defined by putting on a great show and move people in a physical or a mental sense. Also it means to transport that energy onto black plastic.
What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?
The growing of Spotify… (just kidding) but of course Spotify is on one hand a popular way to spread your music. On the other hand there are almost no other benefits for small artists like us…
There are way more important things in life, tragic moments in everybody’s personal lives that would break the scope here…
Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.
I really would love to make a split LP one day!
What do you believe is the most essential function of art?
Art is creation. It gives a glance of the creators world an triess to transport it. Art can be a key to open the mind!
Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?
Week two, day one. Day six. However you look at it, it’s 10 more records for the Summer 2022 Quarterly Review, and that’s all it needs to be. I sincerely hope you had a good weekend and you arrive ready to dig into new music, most of which you’ve probably already encountered — because you’re cool like that and I know it — but maybe some you haven’t. In any case, there’s good stuff today and plenty more to come this week, so bloody hell, let’s get to it.
Quarterly Review #51-60:
Celestial Season, Mysterium I
After confirming their return via 2020’s striking The Secret Teachings (review here), Netherlands-based death-doom innovators Celestial Season embark on an ambitious trilogy of full-lengths with Mysterium I, which starts with its longest song (immediate points) in the heavy-hitting single “Black Water Rising,” but is more willing to offer string-laced beauty in darkness in songs like “The Golden Light of Late Day,” which transitions fluidly into “Sundown Transcends Us.” That latter cut, third of seven total on the 40-minute LP, provides some small hint of the band’s more rock-minded days, but the affair is plenty grim on the whole, whatever slightly-more-uptempo riffy nod might’ve slipped through. “This Glorious Summer” hits the brakes for a morose slog, while “Endgame” casts it lot in more aggressive speed at first, dropping to strings for much of its second half before returning to the deathly chug. The pair “All That is Known” and “Mysterium” close in massive and lurching form, and not that there was any doubt about this group 30 years on from the band’s founding, but yeah, they still got it. No worries. The next two parts are reportedly due before the end of next year, and one looks forward to knowing where the rest of the story-in-sound goes from here. If it’s down, they’re already there.
Post. Metal. Also post-metal. The third full-length from Koln-based instrumental four-piece Noorvik, Hamartia, glides smoothly between atmosphere and aggression, the band’s purposes revealed as much in their quiet moments as in those where the guitar comes forward and present a more furious face. In the subdued reaches of “Ambrosia” (10:00) or even opener “Tantalos” (6:55), the feeling is still tense, to where over the course of the record’s 68 minutes, you’re almost waiting for the kick to come, which it reliably does, but the form that takes varies in subtle ways and the bleeding of songs into each other like “Omonoia” into “Ambrosia” — which crushes by the time it’s done — the delving into proggy astro-jazz on “Aeon” and the reaching heights of “Atreides” (which TV tells me is a Dune reference) assure that there’s more than one path that gets Noorvik to where they’re going. At 15:42, “The Feast” is arguably the most bombastic and the most ambient both, but if that’s top and bottom, the spaces in between are no less coursing, and in their willingness to be metal while also being post-metal, Noorvik bring excitement to a style that’s made a trope of its hyper-cerebral nature. This has that and might also wreck your house, and if you don’t think that’s a big difference, ask your house.
Wait. What? You mean to tell me that right now there are some people in the world who aren’t about to dig on 78 minutes’ worth of improvised psychedelic synth and guitar drones? Like, real people? In the world? What kind of terrible planet is this? Obviously, for Doctors of Space — Scott “Dr. Space” Heller (Øresund Space Collective) on synth, Martin Weaver (Wicked Lady) on guitar — this planet is nowhere near cool enough, and while it’s fortunate for the cosmos at large that once shared, these sounds have launched into the broader reaches of the solar system where they’ll travel as waves to be interpreted by some future civilization perhaps millions of years from now that evolved on a big silly rock a long, long way from here and those people will finally be the audience Doctors of Space richly deserve. But on Earth? Beyond a few loyal weirdos, I don’t know. And no, Doctors of Space aren’t shooting for mass appeal so much as interstellar manifestation through sound, but they do break out the drum machine on 23-minute closer “Titular Parody” to add a sense of ground amid all that antigravity float. Nonetheless, Mind Surgery is far out even for far out. If you think you’re up to it, get your head in the right mode first, because they might just open that thing up by the time they’re done.
Pull Astral Pigs‘ second album, Our Golden Twilight, out of the context of the band’s penchant for vintage exploitation horror and porn and the record’s actually pretty cool. The title-track and slower-rolling “Brass Skies/Funeral March” top seven minutes in succession following instrumental opener “Irina Karlstein,” and spend that time in nod-inducement that goes from catchy-and-kinda-slow to definitely-slow-and-catchy before the long stretch of organ starts the at least semi-acoustic “The Sigil” and “Dragonflies” renews the density of lumbering fuzz, the English-language lyrics from the Argentina-based four-piece giving a duly ceremonious feel to the doomly drama unfolding, but long song or shorter, their vibe is right on and well in league with DHU Records‘ ongoing fascination with aural cultistry. The Hammond provided by bassist/producer Fabricio Pieroni isn’t to be ignored for what it brings to the songs, but even just on the strength of their guitar and bass tones and the mood they conjure throughout, Our Golden Twilight, though just 25 minutes long, unquestionably flows like a full-length record.
No question, Carson have learned their lessons well, and I’ll admit, it’s been a while since a basically straightforward, desert-derived heavy rock record hit me with such an impression of songwriting as does their second full-length, The Wilful Pursuit of Ignorance. Issued through Sixteentimes Music, the eight-track/36-minute outing from the Lucerne-via-New-Zealand-based unit plays off influences like Kyuss, Helmet (looking at you, title-track), Dozer, Unida, and so on, and honest to goodness, it’s refreshing to hear a band so ready and willing to just kick ass musically. Not saying that an album with a title like this doesn’t have anything deeper to say, just that Carson make their offering without even a smidgeon of pretense about where they’re coming from, and from opener “Dirty Dream Maker” onward, their melody, their groove, their transitions and sharper turns are right on. It’s classic heavy rock, done impeccably well, made modern. A work of genre that argues in favor of itself and the style as a whole. If you were introducing someone to riff-based heavy, Carson would do the trick just fine.
Comprised of vocalist Hoanna Aragão, guitarist/vocalist Jorge Rabelo (also keys, co-production, etc.), guitarist Guilerme Tanner, bassist Renata Marim and drummer Roberto Tavares, Brazil’s Isaurian adapt post-rock patience and atmospheric guitar methods to a melody-fueled heavy purpose. Production value is an asset working in their favor on their second full-length, Deep Sleep Metaphysics, and seems to be a consistent factor throughout their work since Matt Bayles and Rhys Fulber produced their first two EPs in 2017. Here it’s Muriel Curi (Labirinto) and Chris Common (Pelican, many others), who bring a decided sense of space that’s measurable from the locale difference in Aragão‘s and Rabelo‘s vocal levels from opener “Árida” onward. Their intensions vary throughout — “For Hypnos” has “everybody smokes pot”-esque gang chants near its finish, “The Dream to End All Dreams” is a piano-inclusive guitar-flourish instrumental, “Autumn Eyes” is duly mellow and brooding, “Hearts and Roads” delivers culmination in a brighter melodic wash ahead of a bonus Curi remix of the opener — but it’s the melodic nuance and the clarity of sound that pull the songs together and distinguish the band. They’ve been tagged as “heavygaze” and various other ‘-gaze’ whathaveyou, and they borrow from that, but their drive toward fidelity of sound makes them something else entirely. They should tour Europe asap.
Hints of Kadavermarch‘s metallic origins — members having served in Helhorse, Illdisposed, as well as the Danish hip-hop group Tudsegammelt, and others — sneak into their songs both in the more upfront manner of harsher backing vocals on “The Eschaton” and the subsequent “Abyss,” and in some of the double-guitar work throughout, though their first album, Into Oblivion, sets their loyalties firmly in heavy rock. Uncle Acid may be an influence in terms of vocal melody, but the riffs throughout cuts like “Satanic” and “Reefer Madness” and the galloping “Flowering Death” are bigger and feel drawn in part from acts like The Sword and Baroness, delivered with a sharp edge. It’s a fascinating blend, and the recording on Into Oblivion lets it shine with a palpable band-in-the-room sensibility and stage-style energy, while still allowing enough breadth for a build like that in the finale “Beyond the End” to pay off the record as a whole. Capable craft, a sound on its way to being their own, a turquoise vinyl pressing, and a pedigree to boot — there’s nothing more I would ask of Into Oblivion. It feels like an opening salvo for a longer-term progression and I hope it is precisely that.
The violence implied in the title “Regurgitated Ambition Consuming Itself” takes the form of a harsh wall of noise drone that, once it starts, continues to unfurl for the just-under-eight-minute duration of the first of two pieces on Büzêm‘s more simply named Here EP. The Portland, Maine, solo art project of bassist/anythingelse-ist Finn has issued a range of exploratory outings, mostly EPs and experiments put to tape, and that modus very much suits the avant vibe throughout Here, which is markedly less caustic in the more rumbling “In an Attempt to Become the Creator” — presumably about Jackson Roykirk — the 10 minutes of which are more clearly the work of a standalone bass guitar, but play out with a sense of the human presence behind, as perhaps was the intention. Here‘s stated purpose is meditative if disaffected, Finn turning mindfulness into an already-in-progress armageddon display, and fair enough, but the found recording at the end, or captured footsteps, whatever it is, relate intentions beyond the use of a single instrument. Not ever going to be universally accessible, nonetheless pushing the kind of boundaries of what’s-a-song that need to be pushed.
Can’t mess with this kind of heavy rock and roll. The fuzz runs thick, the groove is loose (not sloppy), and the action is go from start to finish. Electric Mountain‘s second LP, Valley Giant digs on classic desert-style heavy vibes, with “Vulgar Planet” riffing on Kyuss and Fu Manchu only after “Desert Ride” has dug headfirst into Nebula via Black Rainbows and cuts like “Outlanders” and the hell-yes-wah-bass of big-nodder “Morning Grace” have set the stage for stoner and rock, by, for and about being what it is. Picking highlights, it might be “A Fistful of Grass” for the angular twists of fuzz in the chorus, but “Vulgar Planet” and the penultimate acoustic cut “At Last Everything” both make a solid case ahead of the eight-plus-minute instrumental closing jam “A Thousand Miles High.” The band’s 2017 self-titled debut (also on Electric Valley Records) was a gem as well, and if they can get some forward momentum going on their side after Valley Giant, playing shows, etc., they’d be well placed at the head of the increasingly crowded Mexico City underground.
Also stylized all-caps with punctuation — perhaps a voice commanding: HUSH. — Hudson, New York, five-piece Hush conjure seven songs and 56 minutes of alternately sprawling and oppressive atmospheric sludge on their third full-length, The Pornography of Ruin, and if you take that to mean the quiet parts are spaced and the heavy parts are crushing, well, that’s true too, but not exclusively the case. Amid lyrical poetry, melodic ranging, slamming rhythms — “There Can Be No Forgiveness Without the Shedding of Blood” walks by and waves, its hand bloody — and harsh shouts and screams, Hush shove, pull, bite and chew the consciousness of their listener, with the 12-minute “By This You Are Truly Known” pulling centerpiece duty with mostly whispers and ambience in a spread-out midsection, bookended by more slow-churning pummel. Followed by the shorter “And the Love of Possession is a Disease with Them,” the keyboard-as-strings “The Sound of Kindness in the Voice” and the likewise raging-till-it-isn’t-then-when-it-is-again closer “At Night We Dreamed of Those We Were Stolen From,” the consumption is complete, and The Pornography of Ruin challenges its audience with the weight of its implications and tones alike. And for whatever it’s worth, I saw these guys in Brooklyn a few years back and they fucking destroyed. They’ve expanded the sound a bit since then, but this record is a solid reminder of that force.
This Friday, Cologne, Germany, three-piece Purple Dawn release their second album, Peace & Doom Session Vol. II, through Electric Valley Records. There is no substitute for efficiency, and the trio of bassist/vocalist Patrick Rose, guitarist Timo Fritz (who also produced/mixed) and drummer Florian Geiling make their point quickly as the intro “Bonganchamun” establishes the method of tone and rhythm that the rest of the 40-minute/seven-track offering will follow, serving as the answer back to late-2020’s Peace & Doom Session Vol. I (review here) while maintaining that LP’s abiding ethic of pretense-free riffage, doomed burl and groove so deep you gotta say it three times: groove, groove, groove.
It is an old and correct adage that Heavy-with-a-capital-‘h’ comes from the rhythm section, and listening to Rose‘s bass rumbling and Geiling‘s drums pushing forward in “100 Years in a Day” and adding swing to the Sabbathian stomp of “Old Fashioned Black Madness” only reproves it, but neither Fritz‘s riffs in the lead role nor the gruff — yes, I did almost type “frugg” there and somehow that feels right too — vocals that meet their patterning is to be denied. True to the Session in Peace & Doom Session, the sound is more raw than elaborate in terms of production and the overarching feel is live across side A, with its shorter, punchier pieces like “100 Years in a Day” or “Power to the People,” or side B, which starts off with the “Forever My Queen”-style riffing of the nine-minute “The Moon Song” and broadens the atmospheric scope.
And I won’t take away from the sonic expansion of those later cuts — “The Moon Song” giving way to the classic metal shove of “Death to a Dying World” before the closing “Bonganchamun Part II” builds on the mostly instrumental opener — but perhaps the message here is that Purple Dawn‘s intention is to give their listeners a sampling of the various facets of their persona as a group. The first Peace & Doom Session worked similarly, with five livestream tracks up front and an accompanying three studio ones in the back, so it shouldn’t necessarily be a surprise, even if it might seem odd outside of the band’s own context. Somehow I doubt they mind doing something different from the crowd.
That said, whether it’s “Death to a Dying World” or “Power to the People” earlier — the latter a heavy-hippie-perspective centerpiece that speaks readily to the band’s ideology corresponding to the LP’s title; the two songs might be ‘doom’ and ‘peace,’ in other words — what unites the material is the heft that comes in accordance with the atmosphere unfolding later. As they did last time out, Purple Dawn maintain a sense of weight even in their most floating sections of the two longer inclusions — that’s “The Moon Song” and “Death to a Dying World” here — and that makes Peace & Doom Session Vol. II flow all the more like, well, an album. Again, this can only be intentional, especially the second time around.
And listening to the longer tracks, I’d take a non-session record from Purple Dawn, even if it’s recorded live like this. Maybe they’ve found their thing and this is how they’ll work going forward — if it’s fun, more power to them — and it’s much to their credit that neither Peace & Doom Session Vol. II nor its predecessor feels uneven for being tracked live with varying intentions. Bottom line is they’re playing to style(s), but clearly coming from a place of love for things heavy and riffed. Nothing here hurts and even in the turn to longer tracks, it should be easy to follow for experienced heads. And did I mention groove? Three times? Good, because groove, groove, groove.
Purple Dawn presents their second record, Peace & Doom Session Vol. II, comes 11 March 2022 digitally and on multiple variations of vinyl via Electric Valley Records.
Cologne-based Purple Dawn has always been the balance between things: hard riffing energy and heart-hitting melody, good and bad, high and low, future and past, and sometimes far and beyond. And that’s why the three-piece calls their music “Peace & Doom.” Heavily rooted in the psychedelic hard rock saturated doom metal, Purple Dawn offers an enthralling blend of both classic and modern sounding bands. While their devotion towards Sabbath, Pentagram, and Zeppelin is conspicuous, their love for bands like Mastodon, Rezn, Windhand, or Orange Goblin should not be overlooked. In contrast to the majority of bands in the genre, Purple Dawn is not shy away from having a variety of styles in their songs: it’s like putting on a Led Zeppelin record where no track sounds like the other.
The power trio emerged in early-2020, and a few months after their formation, they offered the Peace & Doom Session Vol. I. The A-Side of the album contains the complete Peace & Doom Session, recorded live in the band’s rehearsal room in Cologne, whereas the B-Side comprises three studio tracks.
The first Peace & Doom Session was well received by the community, and Purple Dawn kept the torch lit and continued writing songs, even though there was no chance for a live show due to the lockdown. “..So as we couldn’t get our music out to the people and public stages, there really was no other way than playing a gig to the cameras again. So we did…” The doom-power-trio hit a great studio in Oberhausen and recorded the second chapter of their live sessions: Peace & Doom Session Vol. II. Every song aims for a non-identical direction, but all have some elements in common: massive riffs, powerful vocals, and a very own atmosphere. PDS Vol. II starts and ends with an instrumental (almost) piece called “Bonganchamun.” The five songs in between are tales from nomad rituals in the desert to the oppressiveness of the depths of the sea — revolution, misguided minds, and the intrinsic evil of human beings. The record captures an unfaltering high-energy set of Purple Dawn’s doom rock and brings upon PEACE & DOOM.
Track Listing: 1. Bonganchamun 2. 100 Years a Day 3. Old Fashioned Black Madness 4. Power to the People 5. The Moon Song 6. Death to a Dying World 7. Bonganchamun Part II
Credits: Timo Fritz: Guitars Patrick Rose: Bass & Vocals Florian Geiling: Drums
Posted in Whathaveyou on October 19th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
Just now, putting this post together, I read that Stonebirds are back in the studio working on their next album for a presumed 2022 release through Ripple Music. That they’ll be at the upcoming Ripplefest Cologne 2021 alongside Plainride — who as I recall have a hand in organizing the festival — Savanah, Fire Down Below, (that) Vug (under the rug), Aptera and Astral Kompakt is all the more appropriate, then, as they’ll have new material to showcase. Somehow I doubt they’ll be the only ones. As the pandemic-era dust begins to settle across the European touring circuit, governments ease lockdowns with a seemingly permanent “for now” attitude, it’s worth emphasizing how special something like this really is for the bands playing it and the people fortunate enough to be there.
That is, there’s a part of me for which an event like this — little more than a poster and a list of cool bands as far as I’m concerned; it’s not how I’m spending my Thanksgiving weekend — feels mundane. Then there’s the part of me that’s lived through the last 20 months or however long kicking myself in the brain with the reminder that, no, this is something to be treasured.
So take a breath, I guess is where I’m at. If it doesn’t hurt to do so, be glad.
From the PR wire:
German stoner and doom festival RIPPLEFEST COLOGNE reveals final names for 2021 edition, to take place on November 27th at Club Volta!
Ripple Music announce the final batch of names for the 2021 edition of RippleFest Cologne, taking place at Club Volta on November 27th. Tickets are on sale now!
RIPPLEFEST returns! After almost two years of pandemic break and three postponements, the Ripple Music-curated event finally returns to the city of Cologne. On November 27th, Club Volta will get suddenly filled with the finest retro rock, heavy rock, psych metal, and doom riffage, provided live by European up-and-coming acts Savanah, Aptera, Fire Down Below, Astral Kompakt, Stonebirds, and Vug.
During the day, festival-goers will be able to enjoy the fine delicacies of the Ripplefest food truck, some great art with local and international poster artists showcases, and the expertise of Diana Matthess and her Guitar Tech Truck — a special workshop offering guitar setups and repairs to musicians. Tickets are on sale now, so don’t wait any longer to treat yourselves to this one-off rock event in the beautiful city of Cologne!
RIPPLEFEST COLOGNE 2021 November 27th, 2021 at Club Volta (Cologne, Germany) Info & Tickets (14,90€/19,90€) atripplefest.de
❱ PLAINRIDE Beer-fueled heavy rock (Germany – Ripple Music) ❱ ASTRAL KOMPAKT Light-bending instrumental doom (Germany) ❱ FIRE DOWN BELOW Interstellar psych metal (Belgium – Ripple Music) ❱ STONEBIRDS Soul-crushing existential doom (France – Ripple Music) ❱ APTERA Titan-slaying doom metal (Germany) ❱ VUG Time-traveling 70’s hard rock (Germany) ❱ SAVANAH Planet-devouring Psychedelic Stoner Doom (Austria)
Posted in Whathaveyou on October 12th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
I’ll readily admit that it was the charm of the cover art for Neon Burton‘s Mighty Mondeo that got me on board, but the Cologne, Germany, three-piece’s flowing heavy psychedelia and fuzz provided ready backup for that initial impulse. Their second full-length behind 2018’s Neontology, the album came out yesterday through their Bandcamp. I’ve no word on intentions toward a physical pressing, but at six songs and 42 minutes, it’s certainly viable for any format on which they might want to place it, and the depth of tone in “Sundazed” and the psych-funky title-track argue well enough for full LP-style indulging, needle on platter and all that. “Neon Sleep” has shades of Sungrazer and My Sleeping Karma if you need further convincing.
Incidentally, Ford has said it’s discontinuing the Mondeo — the car for which the album is named; it’s the Contour in North America — next year, so hopefully that vehicle the band refers to as their “guardian angel in aquamarine” continues to last them well. In any case, they give it suitable homage here.
Info and album stream follow:
Neon Burton – Mighty Mondeo (2021)
On their second album, NEON BURTON explore the edges of nature in the Mighty Mondeo, their guardian angel in aquamarine. Through the untouched tundra they pass the eternal night with howling wolves in Siberia and let the mountains and seas show them how to be. Furthermore, they dive down deep into the unknown in a bathysphere and shape the sound of a hostile nature at the edge of drowning. After a journey through human consciousness where one tastes the moon, swims through the northern lights and is pulled down by zero gravity, they make it back to the cliffs of Greece and finally lay back in the sun, just counting clouds.
The story goes that Cologne-based heavy rockers Phiasco blew their whole pressing budget for their next record, Kessel, on the video premiering below for “Lucky Loop.” Whether that’s true or a goof, I of course have no idea, but it’s a good story to tell either way. The German four-piece were last heard from with 2016’s Vieh (review here), which was their debut, and so they’re nothing if not due. “Lucky Loop” finds their fuzz tones and straight-up vibe in check, and the clip is legitimately entertaining, involving time travel, homebrewing/bootlegging, missing a gig they would’ve played to two fans, and so on. I didn’t even know beer-concentrate was a thing. Also, I think the narrative might end with them getting into a car wreck with less bearded versions of themselves, so yeah. It goes like that.
I won’t encourage drinking and driving. I will encourage watching Phiasco pretend to do so. And road-sodas for passengers are of course all good.
Video is directed by Felix Rudolph and it comes as Phiasco are a scant $500 away from topping their crowdfunding goal for a vinyl run of Kessel (pun totally intended). There’s nothing to make me think they won’t get there anyway, but if you dig into the charm-laden “Lucky Loop” and don’t come out the other end thinking it’s a cause worth supporting, that’s on you, morally speaking. For me, infectious riffs, lighthearted storytelling, making silly faces at the camera — this is the stuff of a life well lived.
Enjoy:
Phiasco, “Lucky Loop” official video
Musicvideo for “Lucky Loop” of the upcoming album “Kessel”
There are two kinds of fuel in the world of bands on the road. Gasoline and beer. One for the machine, one for the mind. Follow along as the band struggles to maintain a good stock of both of them, while trying to find their way to a venue that is due to be shaken by the band’s fuzzy and powerful sound.
It’s a story of unparalleled heroism, sacrifice, potent beer concentrate, great quantities of hair and long roads, that will defy the laws of time and space itself!
Posted in Bootleg Theater on January 22nd, 2021 by JJ Koczan
The deep-state rumor mill has it that German heavy rockers Plainride are getting ready to release a third long-player at some point this year. March? April? May? June? The Cologne-based outfit — currently without a bassist — issued their second album, Life on Ares (review here), as their debut through Ripple Music, following on from 2015’s Return of the Jackalope (review here), with a more complex feel and richer songcraft. If “Shepherd” is a sign of things to come from their on-time-for-every-three-years-pace full-length, then their growth would seem to have continued unabated despite having to cancel plans in 2020 that included their first stops in North America for Maryland Doom Fest and Ripplefest in San Francisco.
Digging into “Shepherd” — something only made easier thanks to the cinematic feel accomplished by the video despite its apparently DIY/renegade making — one finds Plainride to be not at all rushed, but not lacking energy or purpose either. The lyrics and video both reference a relevant social-commentary stance, and that Plainride would attempt such a thing after their more straight-ahead beginnings — let alone that they’d make the song their first single — should tell you something about how they’re feeling going into album number three. Bolder. More confident. More themselves.
And well they should be. Life on Ares was an important step in Plainride‘s process of defining their course, and “Shepherd” heralds the next stage of that definition. The question, obviously, is how they build a record around it and where their dynamic has taken them in the last three years. Again, it’s just a rumor, but we may yet find out the answer to that sometime in the coming months.
While we’re envisioning an optimistic future, Plainride also have a few live dates booked for later this year. Wouldn’t that be nice? In a hopeful spirit, I’ve included them under the band quote that follows the video. Fingers crossed, y’all.
Enjoy:
Plainride, “Shepherd” official video premiere
Plainride on “Shepherd”:
“When we set out to shoot the video, we knew it was going to be a DIY endeavor. 2020 hasn’t been an easy year, so we were operating on an even tighter budget than usual. But seeing as we had already managed to produce the song independently, we were confident we’d be able to do the same for the music video – even though none of us had produced an actual music video before. We knew we had to shoot the entire video in one day, seeing as we had a rental camera, and we knew we needed a location where nobody would bother us and ask for a permit.
“Luckily, our rehearsal space, as many are in Germany, is located in an industrial area, so we had that going for us. We drew up a storyboard, trying to pick up on some of the themes of the song, like the encounter with the beggar and the idea of the capitalist being consumed by the fires he himself had set before. Especially the image of the beggarman’s can being lit on fire stuck with us, which is why we settled on it as the artwork for the song. Shooting the video itself was a ton of fun although we just about froze our asses off (it must’ve been around 6 degrees Celsius). It was so cold, the camera’s batteries kept giving out, so we had to constantly keep them warm using what little body heat we had. Judging by what we ended up with though, I’d definitely say it was worth it.”
PLAINRIDE ON TOUR 10/04/2021 – Ripplefest Cologne 07/08/2021 – Black Sunset Festival 19/08/2021 – Reload Festival 08/10/2021 – Fuzz Jam Festival 09/10/2021 – Setalight Festival 15/12/2021 – Hannover, Bei Chez Heinz 16/12/2021 – Göttingen, Dots / Vinylreservat 17/12/2021 – Hamburg, Drafthouse 18/12/2021 – Bochum, Trompete
Line-up: Max Rebel (Vocals, Guitar) Florian Schlenker (Drums) Bob Vogston (Guitar)
Posted in audiObelisk on December 10th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
Cologne, Germany, trio Purple Dawn will release their debut full-length, Peace & Doom Session Vol. 1, on Dec. 18 through Ogorekords. The album pushes the limits of manageability at 58 minutes, but its time is put to varied use, with the record essentially breaking into two sections between its first five tracks and the final three. These are listed as A/B sides in the tracklisting, but I’m not sure how you might fit the 34-minute stretch between “Intro/Goatthrower I” and “Goatthrower II” onto a single 12″ side, but it’s a tape, so there’s no science-magic involved — oh, they’ve shunted the excess time through the tertiary plasma conduits and fed the bleed out through reversed-flow bussard collectors, ejecting it harmlessly into space! — unless you count the whole tiny-magnetic-strip-that-reproduces-sounds thing. Which I kind of do.
Either way, the first words one hears on the release, indeed, are the shouted “Goat-thrower!,” which may or may not be a play on Conan‘s “Bolt Thrower.” While we’re making assumptions, let’s figure that no goats were actually harmed during the writing or recording process of Peace & Doom Session — throwing goats would hardly be peaceful — and that instead the band are just having fun with dopey stoner tropes. More importantly, the three-piece of bassist/vocalist Patrick Rose, guitarist Timo Fritz and drummer Florian Geiling over prime, hard-hitting doom rock on the subsequent “Utopia/Dystopia,” the extra-raw vibe of a rehearsal recording sounding like it’d have fit perfectly in Maryland circa ’96 with backing from Hellhound Records. “Utopia/Dystopia” breaks into a spoken introduction saying hello to the world and thanks for watching what must’ve been the live stream from their rehearsal room from which these tracks are culled, and following another verse, an extended solo leads the way past the 10-minute track’s halfway mark, slowing down as presumably u- turns to dys- as regards -topias, but picking up speed once again near the finish to bring it all together.
It’s a lot to dig through, but beneath the rudimentary feel is solid songwriting and performance, and that continues throughout “The Greed” and the nine-plus-minute “Atlantis,” which is the only cut to appear on both ‘sides’ of the outing. That gives an even better comparison point for how Purple Dawn come across in a raw vs. sharper studio context, as the last three tracks — “Into the Shadowland,” “Verwunschen” and “Atlantis” — are more proper, traditional album-style recordings. One could make the argument that the band might’ve been better served by swapping the A/B of Peace & Doom Session and leading off with what here follows the rehearsal-room gig, but the way “Goatthrower II” and “Atlantis” and “Utopia/Dystopia” hit is hard and engaging on its own bootleg-ish level. And backed up by the cleaner-sounding material, the early going brings to mind what it might be like to see the band live; something both encouraging in the actual listening experience and poignant in concept. Plus, consider “demo tape.” There you go.
They are, on both sides, an engaging newcomer group obviously looking to show listeners what they’re all about. As you stream “Into the Shadowland” below ahead of the arrival of Peace & Doom Session Vol. 1, the vocals come through pretty prominently through my speakers, but that’s less the case on the studio version of “Atlantis,” so it might just be me. The band also offer more breadth in the instrumental “Verwunschen” between the two more straightforward cuts, so there’s very clearly even more to the story than this substantial initial offering is letting on.
All the same, enjoy the track. More background follows:
Purple Dawn is a three-piece heavy rock/doom band from Cologne/Germany. The band was formed in 2019 by Timo Fritz (guitar), Patrick Rose (bass & vocals) and Florian Geiling (Drums).
The Peace & Doom Session is their first physical release and is split in two parts. The A-Side contains the complete Peace & Doom Session that was recorded live in the band’s rehearsal room in Cologne. These five tracks show a band that seems to play together for years already, delivering a fine modern blend of everything we love about heavy rock music. Their songs are mostly around the 6 minute mark (some shorter, some longer) and even though it’s all about the riff in this kind of music they don’t feel long at all due to their approach to keep things interesting with interludes and little lead-licks.
Patrick’s rough, yet melodic vocals fit in perfectly. The music itself gets enough room to unfold in every song creating the mood for the vocals when they come in. The B-Side contains three studio tracks and opens up with ‘Into the Shadowland’. After a slow and crushing start the song gets a bit faster with great melodic vocals and some really well-played guitar solos before it falls back into slower speed and the guitar-work leads us deep into the shadowlands. ‘Verwunschen’ is the only instrumental track on this release and also the only track without distorted guitars. The absence of vocals and (most of the time) drums is filled by psychedelic guitar layers. A surprisingly calm yet very well-fitting song between all the heaviness.
The closing track ‘Atlantis’ is also featured on the A-Side as a live track, the studio-version is just slightly longer and of course a little less rough.
Tracklist A-Side: 01. Intro / GOATTHROWER 02. Utopia / Dystopia 03. The Greed 04. Atlantis 05. GOATTHROWER Pt. II
Tracklist B-Side: 01. Into the Shadowland 02. Verwunschen 03. Atlantis
The tape will be released on December 18th via Ogorekords.
