Posted in Whathaveyou on August 7th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
You can hear in the first single from David Eugene Edwards‘ debut studio solo full-length, Hyacinth, where the comparisons to the self-titled debut from Wovenhand (discussed here) and 16 Horsepower‘s Secret South are coming from. “Lionisis” (audio/video streaming below) has a brooding and organic groove not undercut by the various electronic whip cracks and speedy tick-ticks that accompany and mark out the rhythm, and of course it’s Edwards‘ voice and singular delivery tying those two sides together.
I’ll make no predictions about Hyacinth‘s sonic persona, though some clues might be found in the late-2022 live outing, A Riverwood Arts Session (also streaming below), on which the Colorado-based neofolk pioneer digs into songs from across his many-storied discography. Wherever it may go in arrangement or melody, it will mark the beginning of a new trajectory for Edwards, who’s explored various interpretations of aural heaviness in Wovenhand across the last 15 years or so, building on the more folkish beginnings of the band’s earlier work, as well as what Edwards conjured in songwriting and aesthetic with 16 Horsepower.
I’ve got high hopes that I’m actively working to temper. Really, I’d just like a chance to hear it. The PR wire has info, the preorder link, European tour dates, and so on:
David Eugene Edwards announces solo debut, shares video for lead single “Lionisis”
Wovenhand & 16 Horsepower cult icon’s first solo album, produced by Ben Chisholm
David Eugene Edwards announces his first ever solo album under his own name today, sharing the lead single and video from Hyacinth. Watch/share “Lionisis” video (directed by Loic Zimmerman).
David Eugene Edwards has always been larger than life. His atemporal style and powerfully iconoclast presence make him seem a man somehow beyond us.
His music with innovative heavy droning folk band Wovenhand, and before that the haunting revivification of high lonesome sound antique Americana of 16 Horsepower breathed a near apocalyptic sense of urgency and poignance into musical archetypes long abandoned in the latter-20th Century. Anyone who has seen him perform live will attest to his captivating intensity as he sings and coaxes sweeping, dark fury and beauty from his instrument.
Now, on his first-ever solo album under his own name, Edwards delivers a sound uniquely his own, with a vulnerability and introspection unheard from him before. Stripping back the heavy rock of his recent work with Wovenhand, Hyacinth puts the man’s voice, and sparing instrumentation into the main focus. There’s a somber beauty and world-weary tone throughout these songs. The album could been considered a slight return to the more melodic sounds of 16 Horsepower’s Secret South (2000) and the first, self-titled Wovenhand album (2002). But there’s more going on here: a rhythmic, pulsating undercurrent reminiscent of the tape loops and rudimentary rhythms of 80s Industrial post-punk as well as 808 Drill Style beats. The overall effect is often as if we’re hearing the clock ticking away our own mortality.
“Hyacinth was a sort of vision,“ Edwards says. “A dream. I sought out of my old wooden banjo and nylon string guitar a hidden path. Secrets they had kept from me within themselves all these years, and created a new Mythos to myself of philosophical and spiritual ideas or concepts.” From the outset of the pandemic, Edwards spent considerable time in solitary isolation, sick and impacted very hard in every way. Once he’d harnessed the music within, he enlisted multi-instrumentalist and producer Ben Chisholm (The Armed, Chelsea Wolfe, Converge, Genghis Tron) to help him realize the album’s recording and mix.
“Overall, I guess the album is a weaving of narratives ancient and modern, of humankind’s search for understanding of this world we find ourselves in and of each other. In all its simplicity and complexity,” Edwards says. “Hyacinth is a reference to the Greek myth of Apollo. And, the word meaning a precious stone and blue larkspur flower of purple and pall.”
In addition to his work with Wovenhand from 2001 to present, and Sixteen Horsepower between 1992 to 2005, Edwards has collaborated with such artists as Crime & the City Solution, Alexander Hacke (Einstürzende Neubauten), and Carpenter Brut. He has also contributed to the soundtracks of films such as Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus, The Brass Teapot, and Titane.
Hyacinth will be available worldwide on LP, CD and download via Sargent House on September 29th, 2023. Pre-orders / pre-saves are available HERE: https://found.ee/DEE-Hyacinth
Album: Hyacinth Label: Sargent House Release Date: September 29th, 2023
Tracklisting: 01. Seraph 02. Howling Flower 03. Celeste 04. Through The Lattice 05. Apparition 06. Bright Boy 07. Hyacinth 08. Lionisis 09. Weavers Beam 10. Hall of Mirrors 11. The Cuckoo
DAVID EUGENE EDWARDS EUROPEAN TOUR 2023 Sept 24 Amplifest – Porto PT Sept 28 Le 106 Club – Rouen FR Sept 29 Auditorium du Conservatoire de Lille – Lille FR Sept 30 De Roma – Antwerp BE Oct 01 Place La Laiterie – Strasbourg FR Oct 02 L’Usine – Geneva CH Oct 04 BIKO – Milano IT Oct 05 Casa del Popolo Il Progresso – Florence IT Oct 06 Locomotiv – Bologna IT Oct 09 De Spot – Middelburg NL Oct 10 Tolhuistuin – Amsterdam NL Oct 12 Train – Århus DK Oct 13 Amager Bio – Copenhagen DK Oct 14 Mejeriet – Lund SE Oct 15 Nefertiti – Gothenburg SE Oct 17 Kulturkirken Jakob – Oslo NO Oct 18 Kulturhuset – Bergen NO Oct 19 Folken – Stavanger NO Oct 20 Kick Scene – Kristiansand NO Oct 23 OSLO – London UK
Posted in Whathaveyou on June 13th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Colorado progressive black metal/doom/whatever outfit Dreadnought followed the 2022 release of their latest album, The Endless (review here), with coast-to-coast US tour, and in addition to celebrating that record — indeed a worthy cause — the band will mark their 10th anniversary with this jaunt along the West Coast and the Midwest, what one might think of as the Rocky Mountain circuit instead of the Appalachian circuit. In any case, I’ll happily tell you from experience that if they’re in a place where you either are or are going to be, that’s a gig worth attending. Not only are they stylistically unto themselves at this point, but they destroy live and a catalog-spanning set sounds like even more of a good time.
If you heard The Endless and you’re down with Dreadnought‘s particular take, then you’ve probably got all the info you need to move onto the list of dates, so I won’t keep you. If you didn’t hear the record though, I’ll remind you as a friend that you have nothing to lose by checking it out on the player at the bottom of this post. Worst that happens is it’s not your thing and you go listen to something else. Best that happens, I guess, is you end up going to a show. It’s pretty rad when that happens.
From the PR wire:
DREADNOUGHT ANNOUNCE NORTH AMERICAN TOUR DATES WITH IZTHMI AND IMMORTAL BIRD
Denver, progressive metal outfit DREADNOUGHT are set to co-headline their TEN YEAR ANNIVERSARY TOUR with crust, black-sludge band Immortal Bird hailing from Chicago IL, with support from Seattle-based atmospheric black metal 5 piece Izthmi. Although this is DREADNOUGHT’S first tour since their August, 2022 full length release of critically acclaimed album “The Endless”, (Profound Lore) expect to hear songs from their full catalog.
About the tour, DREADNOUGHT vocalist and multi-instrumentalist, Kelly Schilling shares:
“This year marks the decade anniversary of our first album release! To celebrate, we will be performing material that spans our entire discography, from ‘Lifewoven’ through ‘The Endless’.”
Full list of tour dates can be found below.
TOUR DATES 7/20 Denver, CO @ Hi Dive * 7/21 Salt Lake City, UT @ Aces High Saloon * 7/22 Las Vegas, NV @ Dive Bar * 7/24 Long Beach, CA @ Supply & Demand * 7/25 Albany, CA @ Ivy Room * 7/26 Crescent City, CA @ Enoteca * 7/27 Portland, OR @ High Water Mark * 7/28 Vancouver, B.C. @ Wise Hall 7/29 Seattle, WA @ Belltown Yacht Club * 7/31 Bozeman, MT @ Labor Temple 8/2 Des Moines, IA @ Lefty’s 8/3 Minneapolis, MN @ Mortimer’s + 8/4 Milwaukee, WI @ Cactus Club + 8/5 St Louis, MO @ Red Flag + 8/6 Indianapolis, IN @ Black Circle (matinee) + 8/7 Lexington, KY @ Green Lantern + 8/8 Asheville, NC @ Fleetwood’s + 8/9 Atlanta, GA @ Bogg’s Social + 8/11 Houston, TX @ Black Magic Social Club
* with Izthmi as support + with Immortal Bird co-headline
Posted in audiObelisk on June 6th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Denver’s Burning Sister are releasing their new single “When Tomorrow Hits” this Friday, June 9. Technically, it’s a Mudhoney cover, but the Colorado trio who released their debut album, Mile High Downer Rock (review here), in 2022, are more loyal to the Spacemen 3 version taken from 1991’s Recurring, slowing down and fleshing out with echo and shoegazing atmospherics the rawer take of the original original from Mudhoney‘s 1989 self-titled. To say both versions inform Burning Sister‘s take is redundant — it’s the same frickin’ song, that’s what a cover is — but the breadth that “When Tomorrow Hits” fosters is a preface to the band’s upcoming EP, Get Your Head Right, which will be out later this year, and in that it is a herald of expansive vibe to come.
They didn’t write it, so I wouldn’t expect “When Tomorrow Hits” to necessarily define the other tracks on Get Your Head Right, but they build it up from silence to full-volume with patience and mellow-at-first groove, part addled shoegaze à la Dead Meadow, especially once the vocals start, but still held to the structure beneath in its linear movement to the payoff that starts right around 3:10. With the languid flow intact, Burning Sister roll into that volume swell of up and down undulations and give “When Tomorrow Hits” the push it deserves, making it their own across a hypnotic four and a half minutes that tell as much about Burning Sister‘s own influences — what they mean by ‘downer rock,’ for example — and the take on heavy they’re aiming toward. I look forward to hearing “When Tomorrow Hits” in the context of the rest of Get Your Head Right, but it seems like that in-between, pre-grunge moment circa 1988-1991, where ’80s punk and noise was starting to fill out its bottom end and hit with slower tempos, is a definite factor in the makeup of their sound. Noted.
There’s also a personal connection, as bassist/vocalist/synthesist Steve Miller explains in the quote below. I have yet to hear a solid release date for the EP, but frankly, the album’s not that old — the Bandcamp player is down there, you’ll see it — and in thinking about the song in relation to the full-length preceding, the cover adds some reach to what Mile High Downer Rock showed without actually departing in mood. And by mood, I mean downerism and heft.
With the hope of more to come near the EP’s arrival, enjoy “When Tomorrow Hits”:
Steve from Burning Sister on “When Tomorrow Hits”:
“When Tomorrow Hits” by Mudhoney is a late-’80s downer rock classic and the song is just as impactful today as when it came out in 1989. Then Spacemen 3 come around a couple of years later with their final album and make what I consider to be one of the most definitive cover tunes ever—they managed to capture the gravity and essence of the original track, but also successfully make it their own. If we get even halfway there, we’re stoked. This song is dedicated to my friend, Aaron, who passed away in 2011. He introduced me to Spacemen 3 and was with me when I bought my first bass in a pawn shop in Detroit. I can remember many of our conversations about music, particularly about “When Tomorrow Hits,” as if it was yesterday. This one’s for him.
The first single from the band’s upcoming EP Get Your Head Right, out later in 2023.
A powerful cover of Mudhoney’s classic song When Tomorrow Hits that breathes new life and meaning into the track.
Released independently on June 9th. Tracked/Mixed/Mastered by Austin at All Aces Studios.
Steve Miller – bass, synth, vox Nathan Rorabaugh – guitars Alison Salutz – drums
Posted in Whathaveyou on June 2nd, 2023 by JJ Koczan
In the grim early winter hours of 2023, Denver, Colorado, classic heavy rockers Love Gang offered their Meanstreak (review here) LP as a salve for January’s inherent woes. The album was like the party you think you’re not cool enough to be at, but then you go and it turns out you were and you had a bunch of friends all along and the magic was in you the whole time and something something E.T.’s light-up finger. For a record titled as it was and that started with a song called “Deathride,” it was deceptively good fun. And whether you got there or not, you were invited.
And as Love Gang announce a European incursion that will take them across two-plus weeks on their way to SonicBlast Fest in Portugal, they’ve still got some open slots, so not only is it not too late for you to check out the album — it’s streaming at the bottom of the post, of course — but if you happen to live, say, between Zero Branco in Italy and Bratislava in Slovakia, or somewhere else close by, you can be the hero who picks up on of the TBAs here and turns it into a night you at very least won’t regret having put together. It could be you. At that party.
Go for it:
LOVE GANG – Euro Tour 2023
We are stoked to announce the LOVE GANG Euro Tour 2023 !!
Our US rockenrollerz LOVE GANG will smash Europe this Summer including the mighties Kommz Festival and Sonic Blast!! The band will present the latest album MEANSTREAK !!!
Still few open slots
*** LOVE GANG *** EURO TOUR 2023 WE 26/07/2023 *** OPEN SLOT *** TH 27/07/2023 IT LECCO – CIRCOLO LIBERO PENSIERO FR 28/07/2023 IT ALESSANDRIA-CASCINA BELLARIA SA 29/07/2023 IT TORINO – BLAH BLAH SU 30/07/2023 IT PISA – PONTILE 102 MO 31/07/2023 IT ZERO BRANCO – ALTROQUANDO TU 01/08/2023 *** OPEN SLOT WE 02/08/2023 SK BRATISLAVA – KONCERTY NA GARAŽACH TH 03/08/2023 *** OPEN SLOT *** FR 04/08/2023 DE SAARBRUCKEN – HORST SA 05/08/2023 DE ASCHAFFENBURG – KOMMZ FESTIVAL SU 06/08/2023 CZ BILINA – ROCK PUB MOSKVA MO 07/08/2023 CZ PRAGUE – CROSS CLUB TU 08/08/2023 *** OPEN SLOT *** WE 09/08/2023 DE MANNHEIM – ALTER TH 10/08/2023 CH BASEL – QUARTERDECK SA 12/08/2023 PL ANCORA – SONIC BLAST
Love Gang is a rock ‘n roll band based out of Denver, Colorado. Formed in 2015, Love Gang is a throwback to the golden days of rock ‘n roll when the amps were loud, the hair was long and the drugs were cheap. Influenced by the obscure and underground rock of the 70s, they manage to keep their sound classic and true while also creating original, compelling songs that don’t grow tired or sound as if you’ve heard it all before. Love Gang likes to play fast, high energy songs full of driving blues boogie, wailing psychedelic guitar solos and crunchy hammond organ.
LOVE GANG is Kam Wentworth – Guitar & Vocals Leo Muñoz – Organ Grady O’Donnell – Bass Shaun Goodwin – Drums
Posted in Questionnaire on May 16th, 2023 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: Paul Vismara of Deer Creek
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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?
I like heavy music. Always have. I remember as a boy being in church and hoping they’d play the one sort of heavy song. It had a heavy riff. I’m always aiming for something on the heavy side, but I mostly care about good songwriting. All of the technical skills mean nothing if you can’t produce interesting, compelling work. All art is subjective, so there will be plenty of people who think what we do sucks. Get in line. Sometimes I think that too. But I keep coming back and working on it and trying to push myself to improve.
I’ve always hoped to write interesting music and not necessarily conform to expectations, at least structurally. I learned that from playing with some friends in an AmRep-style band in Chicago in the early ’90s. We liked Slint, Sonic Youth, the Melvins, Jesus Lizard and were influenced by their willingness to challenge conventions. After our first album (verse/chorus/verse-style) we deliberately tried to get away from that, we jammed a lot more and allowed ourselves to sort of go anywhere. That was the first time I really started writing songs. I brought in a couple of riffs and they said, “where does it go next?” And I’d describe what I heard in my head and they really helped flesh out those ideas. I have often naturally written in odd timings and they encouraged me to have confidence and keep working at it. By the time Conan [Hultgren] and I formed Deer Creek that writing style of let-the-song-tell-you-where-it-wants-to-go was firmly rooted in my mind.
Describe your first musical memory.
My parents listened to big band music and the Boston Pops. I think they gave me this record when I was about 5 years old. Leonard Bernstein narrating Peter and the Wolf. The flip side was the Nutcracker Suite by the New York Philharmonic. I played that record obsessively for weeks and weeks. I’d listen to it pretty much every day. I think I was drawn to the idea that the music could be a character as heard on the Peter side and I just loved the energy, emotion and beauty of the Nutcracker side.
Describe your best musical memory to date.
This is nearly impossible to answer. I’ve been fortunate to have experienced a lot of wonderful musical moments in my life. One answer would be the first time I heard the first song I wrote. I wasn’t the one to first play it. My art school friend, Paul, taught me some basic chords on the guitar and I started practicing and learning. I wrote a song, mostly in my head. Paul came over and I painstakingly showed him each chord; willing my fingers into the chord shapes. I strummed each one separately and then said, “okay, now put them all together and play it fast.” Paul played it and I said, “THAT’S IT!!!”
Another could be: We got a note from a guy in Spain this morning and he said our music saved him during a recent bad stretch of his life. We didn’t set out to do that, but, man, that’s pretty damn humbling to hear.
Maybe the first time I saw Solace or Ufomammut. Being at many Emissions From the Monolith festivals. The first Psycho Vegas I attended. Just being at shows with friends.
When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?
2016 election. I trusted that the American people weren’t foolish enough to elect a man who bragged about sexually assaulting women.
Where do you feel artistic progression leads?
Hopefully, it’s a never-ending quest for expression, challenge and improvement. It’s easy to feel that everything has been done, but it hasn’t. There are always new ways to reveal the world or a part of it.
How do you define success?
You’re doing what you want to do, whether it’s financially rewarding or not.
What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?
I’ve been lucky enough to not really have an answer for this one.
Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.
More joy.
What do you believe is the most essential function of art?
Moving the viewer/listener.
Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?
Didn’t we just do this? Yeah, kind of. It’s been a weird season, but I knew last month when I launched the Spring 2023 Quarterly Review that it needed to be more than two full weeks and given the timing of everything else slated around then and now, this is what worked to make it happen. For what it’s worth, I have QRs scheduled for July and early October, subject to change, of course.
The bottom line either way is it’s another batch of 50 reviews this week and then that’s a wrap for Spring. It’s a constant barrage of music these days anyhow, and I’m forever behind on everything, but I hope at least you can find something here you dig, whether previously familiar or not. We go.
Quarterly Review #1-10:
HIGH LEAF, Vision Quest
An awaited debut from this Philadelphia heavy rock scene outfit, HIGH LEAF‘s Vision Quest makes its home among heavy tropes (also some minute cultural appropriation in the title) with unabashed glee and deceptively sharp songwriting. Certainly opener “Green Rider” is perfectly willing to beat you over the head with its chorus — and rightly so, you have it coming — but the spacious title-track that follows stretches over eight minutes and seamlessly works through drift and heavy psych impulses to get to the post-grunge roll that makes its increasingly aggro presence known past six minutes in, and that’s by no means the final bit of sludge to be had as the later “Hard to Find” leans toward nastiness only to be offset by the funky outset of “Painted Desert,” having pushed deeper from the Kyussery of “Dead Eye” and a swagger in “Subversive” worthy of comparison to Earthride. This lineup of the band has already split (there’s a new one, no worries), and how that reboot will affect HIGH LEAF going forward obviously remains to be seen, but this is a ‘serving notice’-type debut, doubling down on that in closing duo “March to the Grave” and “The Rot,” and the eight songs and 38 minutes commune with groove and riffs like they’ve been speaking the language the whole time. There’s definitely a vision at work. Let’s see where the quest takes them.
Fucking hell I wish this was what the future sounded like. It rocks. It’s interesting. It’s driven to be its own thing despite traceable roots. It’s got edge but it’s not hackneyed. It’s the tomorrow we were promised when industrial rock and metal became a thing in the 1990s and that corporate alt-everything and pop-punk usurped. I knew I wanted to write about it now, because it’s coming out now, but I’ll tell you honestly, I’ve barely scratched the surface of JAAW‘s Svart-issued debut, Supercluster — recorded at Bear Bites Horse in London by Wayne Adams, who’s also in the band alongside Andy Cairns of Therapy?, Mugstar‘s Jason Stoll and Adam Betts (of Squarepusher and others) — and this is the kind of album that’s going to be years in revealing itself. How about this? Sometime in 2028, if this site is still here, I’ll follow-up and let you know what I’ve found digging into the sinister groove of “Rot” or the shout-kraut rumble and noise of “Bring Home the Motherlode, Barry,” “The Dead Drop” going from minimalism to full heavy New Wave wash in five minutes’ time, and so on, but for right now, let it serve as the cannonball to be lobbed at anyone who says there aren’t any acts out there doing new things or pushing different styles forward, because hell’s bells, that’s the only place this goes even as it also seems to go everywhere at the same time, unto closing out with a Björk cover “Army of Me” as imagined by Ministry doing ’90s drum ‘n’ bass. Some things are just bigger than the year of their release, and I look forward to living with this record.
The Bridesmaid, Come on People Now, Smile on Your Brother
From the opening drone-and-toy-chime-forward over industrial black metal of “Leytonstone: Eat Your Landlord” through the sample-fed machine sludge-turned-psych experimentalism that gives way to a shimmering haze of jazz metal in “Cleveland: And the Rain Came Down” and the can’t-fool-me-by-now acoustic strum at the start of “Summerland: A Long, Maintenance-Free Life” that runs a current of cello under its aural collage and low-end lumber early only to bask in news-and-drone departure with percussion later on the way to what post-hardcore could still someday be, the name of the EP is Come on People Now, Smile on Your Brother and The Bridesmaid deliver the proceedings in a manner more suited to Kurt Cobain‘s fuckall rasp of that line rather than the Youngbloods original. So it’s probably the latter. In any case, the UK solo-plus-friends outfit helmed and steered by JJ Saddington are an aural barrage, and while the temptation is to think of the three-song/21-minute offering as a blender on liquefy, the truth is the material is more thought out, more considerately mixed, and more engaging, than that kind of spastic randomness implies. If you can keep up with the changes, the adventure of listening is well worth the ankles sprained in its twists, but you should go into it knowing that the challenge is part of the appeal.
If the hard push and tonal burl of comparatively straight-ahead opener “The Last Witch” aren’t convincing, stick around through “Celestial Bird Spirit” and “Impermanence” on the rest of side A before you resolve one way or the other as regards Milana‘s debut album, Milvus. The Mallorca-based four-piece are for sure in conversation with fest-ready modern European heavy rock, and that’s the thread that weaves throughout the album, but in the 11-minute “Impermanance,” they build on the more temperate rollout of “Celestial Bird Spirit” and find an intriguing blend of atmosphere and dense fuzz, more moody than psychedelic, but smart to hold back its weightiest tonality for the rolling end. Appropriately enough, “Lucid Reality” brings them back to ground at the start of side B, but still has an atmospheric effect in its verse, with vocal layering over open-spaced guitar and an alt-rock pickup as they move toward the chorus, and Howling Wolf gives a class-conscious definition of the blues, in the long intro of “Gray City Lights,” setting a difficult standard for the rest of the song to match, but the organ helps. And all seems well and fine for “Whispering Wind” to wrap up mirroring the rocker “The Last Witch” at the start until the song breaks, the harmony starts, and then the growls and massive fuzz start in the last minute and it turns out they were metal all along. Go figure. There’s growing to do, but there’s more happening on Milvus than one listen will tell you, and that in itself is a good sign.
Swedish upstart four-piece New Mexican Doom Cult offer a distinctly Monolordian weep of lead guitar on “Seven Spirits,” but even that is filtered through the band’s own take, and that’s true of their first full-length, Necropolis more generally, as the Gävle outfit now comprised of guitarist/vocalist/principal songwriter Nils Ahnland, guitarist Johan Klyven Kvastegård, bassist Emil Alstermark and drummer Jonathan Ekvall present seven songs and 48 minutes of dug-in rockers, distortion keyed to its fuzziest degree as Ahnland hints vocally on “Underground” toward a root in darker and more metallic fare ahead of the chugging build that rounds out the eight-minute centerpiece title-track and the make-doom-swing ethic being followed in closer “Worship the Sun.” “Vortex” is a highlight for the melody as much as the double-dose of nodfuzz guitar work, and opener “Architect” sets an atmospheric course but assures that the sense of movement is never really gone, something that’s a benefit even to the righteous Sabbath blowout verse in the penultimate “Archangel.” Much of what they’re doing will be familiar to experienced heads, but not unwelcome for that.
Capable double-guitar heavy rock pervades the 43-minute Gentle Beast by the Swiss five-piece of the same name. Mixed by Jeff Henson of Duel and issued through Sixteentimes Music, the eight-song run is defined by knowing itself as stoner rock, and that remains true as “Super Sapiens” departs into its post-midsection jam, eventually returning to the chorus, which is almost unfortunately hooky. “Greedy Man” is almost purely Kyuss in its constructed pairing of protest and riff, but the “Caterpillar” shows a different side of the band’s character in its smooth volume shifts, winding leads and understated finish, leading into the sharper-edged outset of closer “Toxic Times.” In the forward thrust of “Joint Venture,” the opener “Asteroid Miner” with its gruff presentation, and the speedier swing of “Headcage” reinforcing the vocal reference to Samsara Blues Experiment in the leadoff, Gentle Beast tick all the boxes they need to tick for this debut long-player some four years after the band’s initial 7″ single, setting up multiple avenues of possible and hopeful progression while proving dexterous songwriters in the now. Won’t change your life, but isn’t trying to convince you it will, either.
Denver four-piece Bloodsports — also stylized all-lowercase: bloodsports — give a heavygaze impression with “Sky Mall” at the launch of their self-titled debut EP that the subsequent “Crimp” gleefully pulls the rug right from under with a solo section like All Them Witches grew up listening to The Cure after its Weezery verse, and the proceedings only gets grungier from there with the low-key Nirvana brooding of “Sustain” (also issued in 2022 as a standalone single) and its larger-scale, scorch-topped distorted finish and the shaker-inclusive indie ritual that is “Carnival” until it explodes into a blowout ending like the release of tension everyone always wanted but never actually got from Violent Femmes. Some noisy skronk guitar finishes over the hungover fuzz, which is emblematic of the way the entire release — only 11 minutes long, mind you — derives its character from the negative space, from its smaller moments of nuance, as well as from its fuller-sounding stretches. They’re young and they sound it, but there’s a sonic ideal being chased through the material and Bloodsports may yet carve their aural persona from that chase. As it is, the emotive aspects on display in “Sustain” and the volatility shown in the roll of “Sky Mall” make in plain that this project has places it wants to go and areas to explore, and one hopes Bloodsports continue to bring their ideas together with such fluidity.
Recorded seemingly almost entirely live on audio and video, vibrancy would seem to be the underpinning that draws Night Fishing‘s Live Bait together, if fishing isn’t. The Denver four-piece are a relatively new formation, with guitarists Graham Zander (also Green Druid) and Zach Amster (Abrams), bassist Justin Sanderson (Muscle Beach) and drummer Gordon Koch (Call of the Void) all coming together from their sundry other projects to explore a space between the kosmiche, heavy rock and semi-improv jamming. The turns and fills and crashes that round out the second of three cuts, “No Services,” for example, feel off-the-cuff, but throughout most of “Alone With My Thoughts” and at least in the initial Slift-like shuffle at the start of “Slapback Twister,” there’s a plan at work. At 25 minutes, they’re only about a song shy of making Live Bait a full-length — though another track might mess up the shortest-to-longest and alphabetical ordering Live Bait has now, which are fun — but the instrumentalist exploration is suited to the nascent feel of the outfit, and while I don’t think Night Fishing is anybody’s only band here, if they can build on the sense of purpose they give to the jangly rhythm and airy solo of “Slapback Twister” and the right-on push of “Alone With My Thoughts,” they can make their records as long or as short as they want and they’re still bound to catch ears.
Following last year’s self-titled debut EP, Indianapolis solo-project Wizard Tattoo cuts itself open and bleeds DIY on the seven songs and 40 minutes of the self-recorded, self-released Fables of the Damned, beginning with distinct moments of departure in opener “Wizard Van” and “The Black Mountain Pass,” the latter of which returns to its gutted-out chorus with maestro Bram the Bard (who also did the cover) cutting through the tonescape of his own creation to underscore the structure at work. There are stories to be told in “The Vengeful Thulsa Dan” and the folkish “Any Which Way but Tuned,” which brings together acoustics and chanting like a gamer version of Wovenhand, deep-mixed tom thud peppered throughout while the chimes are more forward, while the seven-minute “The Ghost of Doctor Beast” picks up with the slowest and most doomed of the included rollouts, “God Damn This Wizard Tattoo” ups the tempo with a catchy chorus, a little bit of mania in the hi-hat under the guitar solo, and hints dropped in the bassline of the grunge aspects soon to be highlighted in instrumental closer “Abendrote.” The sense of character is bigger than the production, and that balance is something that will need to be ironed out over time, but the dug-in curio aspects of Fables of the Damned make it engaging, whatever it may or may not lead toward.
I’ll never claim to be anything more than a dilettante when it comes to noise rock, and I’ll tell you outright that Kansas City’s Nerver are new to me as of this Brothers in Christ split with Oklahoma City’s Chat Pile, but both acts are coming from a strong Midwestern tradition of post-industrial (talking economy not genre) disaffection and building on momentum from strong 2022 releases, those being Nerver‘s even-the-CD-sold-out (aha! but not from the label! got it!) sophomore full-length CASH and Chat Pile‘s much-lauded debut, God’s Country (review here), and the scream-topped bombast of the one and volatile emotive antipoetry of the other make fitting companions across the included four songs, as Nerver‘s “Kicks in the Sky” underscores its jabs with deep low rumble as a bed for the harshly delivered verse and “The Nerve” shoves itself faceward in faster and less angular fashion, consuming like Chicago post-metal but pissed off like Midwestern hardcore while Chat Pile build through “King” en route to the panicked slaughter of “Cut,” which is sure enough to trigger fight-or-flight in your brain before its sub-five-minute run is up. Neither arrives at this point without hype behind them, both would seem to have earned it. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go put on that Nerver album and play a bit of catchup.
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 6th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
A fascinating turn here for Denver guitarist Zach Amster, whose other outfit Abrams recently announced a tour for May in the company of BleakHeart (dates here), and joins members of Green Druid, Muscle Beach and Call of the Void in the new instrumentalist four-piece Night Fishing. One doesn’t even have to get through the nine-minute entirety of “Alone With My Thoughts” — which one surely is when fishing at night; I’d also like to mention that my phone corrected ‘thoughts’ to ‘thighs’ there, which would be a winner as regards typos — to get the sense of shift that Night Fishing‘s impending Brutal Panda-delivered three-songer, Live Bait (getting the theme?), is playing toward. There’s some of Slift‘s Euro-style space boogie in there, along with a touch of psychedelic atmosphere, but a solid rhythm lies beneath the sprawl of its exploration, and you would definitely still call it rock rather than a loose lysergic jam. There’s a plan at work.
That’s something Night Fishing shares with Abrams, but the absence of vocals is interesting. They could probably tour Europe on these songs for two months, hit festivals and whatnot, and never look back, and nor could they be faulted for doing exactly that if it came to it. Of course, I don’t know what they will or won’t — I haven’t even heard the other two tracks here yet, so any assessment of aesthetic is partial at best — but when I think about Abrams poppish aspects next to this, let alone the other members’ main projects, it feels like a change that’s worth noting and I look forward to where it might lead, even if that’s just a lot of riffs about fishing. Here for it, in the parlance of our times, or, more likely, a couple years ago. I’m always behind on that shit.
The PR wire has the AI art, release info and the song stream. Live Bait is out April 21. Enjoy:
Instrumental Psych Rockers NIGHT FISHING Share New Single, “Alone With My Thoughts”, + Video
New EP, ‘Live Bait’, Out April 21st via Brutal Panda Records
Brutal Panda Records will release ‘Live Bait’, the debut EP from Denver, CO’s NIGHT FISHING, on April 21st. Comprised of four seasoned Rocky Mountain Road Dogs (members of Call of the Void, Green Druid, Abrams, Muscle Beach), NIGHT FISHING exist to explore the boundaries of improvisation, mood and structure within the realms of heavy, instrumental sound. Today, they’re revealing the music video for “Alone With My Thoughts,” the record’s second single.
Across three tracks and 25+ minutes of fuzzed-out Heavy Psych, hypnotic Krautrock and free-form jazz, NIGHT FISHING seamlessly weave together a melting pot of brain-liquifying sonic euphoria. An experience that could only be formulated live in the studio and within the confines of the moment…NIGHT FISHING is for lovers and will take you where the vibe wants to go.
Drummer Gordon Koch, who also created the album’s trippy artwork via Artificial Intelligence, commented on how the project came together:
“NIGHT FISHING is a Heavy Psych/Krautrock improv concept I mulled over during the lockdown period of the initial COVID-19 outbreak. My longtime touring metal band (Call of the Void) had just broken up (December 2019) and my jazz connection had moved out of state so I had no musical prospects while I was held up in my apartment. I wanted to combine elements of improv jazz into a rock format using light song structure to allow for more natural flow of solos, giving each player room to breathe and express themselves. Once the city opened back up a little bit I hit the pavement looking for players. I found 3 friends from the Denver metal scene who were looking for something different and could handle the riffage!
“This EP was recorded live, as both an audio and visual experience, by Chris McNaughton at Rocky Mountain Recorders. We sat in the round with a full camera crew in the studio, led by Alex Pace, to capture the moment and energy, bouncing solos off each other all in one take. I feel like these first songs are a more “live” experience so I wanted the video crew there to allow everyone to join us. We were mostly familiar with all the hits but use a lot of eye contact and musical cues to move things along. This session was a BLAST to record, I think about 4 hours total in the room.”
He elaborated further on their second single “Alone With My Thoughts”, saying:
“This was our first song written as a group that took the NIGHT FISHING idea to fruition. Once we played it live in front of people we knew we had a great formula to expand on.”
‘Live Bait’ will see an April 21st release on tape, CD and digital formats.
A super limited deluxe, tackle box edition complete with a one-of-a-kind fishing certificate will also be available along with a gently used fishing vessel, limited to 1, for the TRUE DIE-HARDS ONLY!
NIGHT FISHING will be performing a record release show at The Crypt on April 28th in Denver, CO
‘Live Bait’ Track List: 1. Alone with My Thoughts 2. No Services 3. Slapback Twister
About NIGHT FISHING:
Four Denver road dogs (Call of the Void, Green Druid, Abrams, Muscle Beach) having a good time in the space of improvisation and slight structure. Heavy psych and Krautrock with jazz rules, a project meant to include both listeners and musicians.
We go where the vibe is pushing us. NIGHT FISHING is for lovers.
NIGHT FISHING are: Gordon Koch – Drums Graham Zander – Guitar Zach Amster – Guitar Justin Sanderson – Bass
Posted in Whathaveyou on March 22nd, 2023 by JJ Koczan
It’s about two weeks that Denver now-four-piece Abrams will spend touring the West Coast in support of their 2022 album, In the Dark (review here), the latest and most accomplished manifestation of their songwriting to-date. They’re joined for the stint by BleakHeart, whose Twilight Visions two-tracker was released last February. Thus ‘Twilight Visions of the Dark’ is only suitable as a title for the tour, which begins with a hometown Denver show on May 5 ahead of hitting Salt Lake City, Boise, Seattle, and so on through May 20, when they wrap up in Albuquerque and head back to Colorado.
The part about already having new material to try out on the road is certainly noteworthy — there was a glut of songs for In the Dark, so maybe some of what didn’t get on the record last time around is being carried over? certainly not impossible they’ve just kept writing, though — but what stands out more is the combination of styles here, Abrams complementing the heaviness of BleakHeart and BleakHeart drawing an ear to the more ambient elements at work beneath the surface in Abrams‘ sound, even if the two acts might seem counterintuitive as compatriots. Not rocket science, but it’s the kind of pairing that turns a good show into a memorable night.
The PR wire has dates and whatnot:
ABRAMS: Denver Sludge/Post-Metal Outfit Announces May Tour With BleakHeart; In The Dark Full-Length Out Now On Small Stone Recordings
Denver sludge/post-metal outfit ABRAMS will join BleakHeart for a Western US tour this May! The twelve-date Twilight Visions Of The Dark run begins May 5th in Denver, Colorado and ends May 20th in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Comments ABRAMS, “We are stoked to go on road this May to promote our latest release In The Dark. Our sets will also include some older staples while debuting new songs to prepare for our next recording. We couldn’t be happier to split the bill with our friends in BleakHeart who bring their beautiful blend of shoegaze, doom, and rock. Their live show is incredible. This tour is not to be missed, see you out there!”
See all confirmed dates below.
ABRAMS w/ BleakHeart: 5/05/2023 Hi Dive – Denver, CO 5/09/2023 Aces High Saloon – Salt Lake City, UT 5/10/2023 CRLB – Boise, ID 5/11/2023 Funhouse – Seattle, WA 5/12/2023 The Six – Portland, OR 5/13/2023 The Dip – Redding, CA 5/14/2023 Bottom Of The Hill – San Francisco, CA 5/15/2023 Cafe Colonial – Sacramento, CA 5/17/2023 Permanent Records – Los Angeles, CA 5/18/2023 Transplants – Palmdale, CA 5/19/2023 Tempe, AZ 5/20/2023 Sister Bar – Albuquerque, NM
ABRAMS’ most recent studio offering, In The Dark, was released last Fall via Small Stone Recordings. A fine-tuned, forty-five-minute sonic journey detailing the angers, fears, frustrations, and joys inherent in living in a world gone mad, In The Dark boasts cinematic guitar riffs, brooding leads, and addictive vocal hooks for a record that’s at once mature, polished, and intensely passionate. With hints of early AmRep mixed in with the larger sounds of ‘90s alt heroes Failure, Quicksand, and Hum combined that with the heaviness of recent Mastodon and stoner psychedelia of All Them Witches, ABRAMS delivers a distinct sound that’s fresh yet warrmly familiar.
In The Dark features cover art by Robin Gnista and is available on CD and digitally. A second vinyl pressing of the record in Red is also available. Find all ordering options at THIS LOCATION:https://smallstone.bandcamp.com/album/in-the-dark
Abrams is: Zach Amster – Guitars and Vox Taylor Iversen – Bass and Vox Patrick Alberts – Guitar Ryan DeWitt – Drums
