Posted in Whathaveyou on February 19th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
When I started this post, Poland’s Red Smoke Festival had just unveiled the first names for its 2024 edition, set for this July 12-14. That was Domkraft, Coogans Bluff, Earth Tongue and Narbo Dacal. You know how it goes, you get caught up with stuff, a couple days go by, and now there’s four more adds in Acid Rooster, Kanaan, Perilymph and Tuskar, so it’s safe to say the event is taking shape at a fairly good clip. I don’t know the announcement schedule or anything like that, but if you’re in Poland or thinking of making the trip, I imagine you also don’t need me to suggest following their socials, etc. Even if you don’t, I believe you are capable.
So does the festival, which admirably dispenses with some of the social-media-era hoopla around these things by making a slogan out of ‘The Less You Know the Better.’ They might be right, or at least there’s a philosophical argument waiting to be made there. Either way, there were YouTube and Facebook links for the bands, but again, I believe in your power to dig and would encourage you to do so. I only took them out because it looked funny on the page and this site does weird things with YouTube hyperlinks. Certainly all parties involved have online presences and audio, which even 30 years later kind of makes the internet feel like a miracle. Not to mention it’s how I know this fest exists in the first place.
Even so, I don’t know much more than this, so I suppose I’m doing alright in that regard:
First announcements for RSF2024
COOGANS BLUFF – Horns Rock’n’Roll Dance From Germany
Domkraft – Riffs Riffs Riffs Repeat From Sweden With Love
Earth Tongue – Odd But Gold Heavy Psych Fuzz From New Zealand
Narbo Dacal – (Be)Witching Metal From Poland
Acid Rooster – Endless Trippy Kraut Experience from Germany
Kanaan – Blazing Freeform Psychedelic Rock From Norway
Perilymph – Beautiful Psychedelic Sounds From Germany
Posted in Whathaveyou on October 30th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Hey alright, new Coogans Bluff on the way. The Berlin-based prog heavies released their Metronopolis (review here) in the early days of 2020 and followed up quickly that non-summer with four more songs under the complementary banner of Side-C of Metronopolis, so I guess they at least had been in a productive mode before… well… before. But 2024 will make it four years since then — an eternity in dog and rock and roll years — and if they’re ready to answer the equal-parts soothe and scorch considered sometimes-mania of those works with new material, whether it’s an album, a short release of some sort between EP, split, whatever, so much the better.
I know neither what shape the next offering they allude to in announcing the tour below will take nor when it will arrive, but while I’m in the dark I have both the luminescent comfort of the tour poster below and the blazing vision of an alternate, more complex classic heavy rock that a revisit to Metronopolis unveils for lighting the way, so no sweat to the anticipation, but yeah, this will be one to look forward to. The dates below are mostly in Germany, as will happen, but they veer into Austria and the Netherlands on either side of their home country as well, and one expects this won’t be the last batch of shows to be announced since, whatever’s coming, the band will obviously look to support it as much as possible.
So, with more to come, here are the dates from their socials:
Dear lovely Bluffonians,
We’re pleased as punch to present you the upcoming dates of the
!!!! TOUR BALADA 2024 !!!!
It’s gonna be a “release”- tour with lots of new music and first-class performances.
That’s right. You heard right. The secret word for tonight is… Releeeeeeeeeease.
25.01.24 Nürnberg, Z-Bau 26.01.24 München, Feierwerk 27.01.24 AT – Wien, ARENA WIEN 08.02.24 Hannover, kulturzentrumfaust 09.02.24 Dresden, Chemiefabrik 22.02.24 Köln, Helios37 23.02.24 NL – Nijmegen, Doornroosje 24.02.24 Oldenburg, Cadillac 07.03.24 Bielefeld, Forum Bielefeld 08.03.24 Frankfurt/Main, DAS BETT 09.03.24 Jena, Cosmic Dawn 21.03.24 Hamburg, Knust Hamburg 22.03.24 Rostock, Peter-Weiss-Haus 23.03.24 Berlin, Neue Zukunft
Posted in Reviews on March 26th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
Thursday. Everyone doing well? Healthy? Kicking ass? Working from home? There seems to be a lot of that going around, at least among the lucky. New Jersey, where I live, is on lockdown with non-essential businesses shuttered, roads largely empty and all that. It can be grim and apocalyptic feeling, but I’m finding this Quarterly Review to be pretty therapeutic or at least helpfully distracting at a moment when I very much need something to be that. I hope that if you’re reading this, whether you’ve been following along or not, it’s done or can do the same for you if that’s what you need. I’ll leave it at that.
Quarterly Review #31-40:
Slift, Ummon
The second album from French space/psych trio Slift is a 72-minute blowout echoshred epic — too aware not to be prog but too cosmic not to be space rock. Delivered through Stolen Body Records and Vicious Circle, Ummon is not only long, it speaks to a longer term. It’s not an album for this year, or for this decade, or for any other decade, for that matter. It’s for the ongoing fluid now. You want to lose yourself in the depths of buzz and dreamy synth? Yeah, you can do that. You want to dig into the underlying punk and maybe a bit of Elder influence in the vocal bark and lead guitar shimmer of “Thousand Helmets of Gold?” Well hell’s bells, do that. The mega-sprawling 2LP is a gorgeous blast of distortion, backed by jazzy, organic drum wud-dum-tap and the bass, oh, the bass; the stuff of low end sensory displacement. Amid swirls and casts of melodic light in “Dark Was Space, Cold Were the Stars,” Slift dilate universal energy and push beyond the noise wash reaches of “Son Dong’s Cavern” and through the final build, liftoff and roll of 13-minute closer “Lions, Tigers and Bears” with the deft touch of those dancing on prior conceptions. We’d be lucky to have Ummon as the shape of space rock to come.
Two LPs telling two different stories released at the same time, Grinding Teeth/Zero Sleep (on Consouling Sounds) brings Josh Graham‘s aural storytelling to new cinematic reaches. The composer, guitarist, synthesist, programmer, visual artist, etc., is joined along the way by the likes of Jo Quail, Ben Weinman (ex-The Dillinger Escape Plan), Dana Schecter (Insect Ark), Sarah Pendleton (ex-SubRosa) and Kim Thayil (Soundgarden) — among others — but across about 90 minutes of fluidity, Graham/IIVII soundtracks two narratives through alternatingly vast and crushing drone. The latter work is actually an adaptation from a short sci-fi film about, yes, humanity losing its ability to sleep — I feel you on that one — but the former, which tells a kind of meth-fueled story of love and death, brings due chaos and heft to go with its massive synthesized scope. Josh Graham wants to score your movie. You should let him. And you should pay him well. And you should let him design the poster. And you should pay him well for that too. End of story.
Following the initial sax-laden prog-rock burst and chase that is opener “Gadfly,” Berlin’s Coogans Bluff bring a ’70s pastoralia to “Sincerely Yours,” and that atmosphere ends up staying with Metronopolis — their fifth album — for the duration, no matter where else they might steer the sound. And they do steer the sound. Sax returns (as it will) in the jabbing “Zephyr,” a manic shred taking hold in the second half accompanied by no-less-manic bass, and “Creature of the Light” reimagines pop rock of the original vinyl era in the image of its own weirdness, undeniably rock but also something more. Organ-inclusive highlight “Soft Focus” doesn’t so much touch on psychedelics as dunk its head under their warm waters, and “The Turn I” brings an almost Beatlesian horn arrangement to fruition ahead of the closer “The Turn II.” But in that finale, and in “Hit and Run,” and way back in “Sincerely Yours,” Coogans Bluff hold that Southern-style in their back pocket as one of several of Metronopolis‘ recurring themes, and it becomes one more element among the many at their disposal.
An underlying current of social commentary comes coated in Rough Spells‘ mysticism on Ruins at Midday, the Toronto unit’s second LP. Recorded by Ian Blurton and presented by Fuzzed and Buzzed and DHU Records, the eight-track LP has, as the lyrics of “Chance Magic” say, “No bad intentions.” Indeed, it seems geared only toward eliciting your participation in its ceremony of classic groove, hooks and melodies, even the mellow “Die Before You Die” presenting an atmosphere that’s heavy but still melodic and accessible. “Grise Fiord” addresses Canada’s history of mistreating its native population, while “Pay Your Dues” pits guitar and vocal harmonics against each other in a shove of proto-metallic energy to rush momentum through side B and into the closing pair of the swaggering “Nothing Left” and the title-track, which is the longest single cut at five minutes, but still keeps its songwriting taut with no time to spare for indulgences. In this, and on several fronts, Ruins at Midday basks in multifaceted righteousness.
Upside the head extreme sludgeoning! UK trio Goblinsmoker take on the more vicious and brutal end of sludge with the stench of death on A Throne in Haze, A World Ablaze (on Sludgelord Records), calling to mind the weedian punishment of Belzebong and others of their decrepit ilk. Offered as part two of a trilogy, A Throne in Haze, A World Ablaze is comprised of three tracks running a caustic 26 minutes thick enough such that even its faster parts feel slow, a churning volatility coming to the crash of “Smoked in Darkness” at the outset only to grow more menacing in the lurch of centerpiece “Let Them Rot” — which of course shifts into blastbeats later on — and falling apart into noise and echoing residual feedback after the last crashes of “The Forest Mourns” recede. Beautifully disgusting, the release reportedly furthers the story of the Toad King depicted on its cover and for which the band’s prior 2018 EP was named, and so be it. The lyrics, largely indecipherable in screams, are vague enough that if you’re not caught up, you’ll be fine. Except you won’t be fine. You’ll be dead. But it’ll be awesome.
Progressive metal underpins French trio Homecoming‘s aptly-titled first record, LP01, with the guitars of second cut “Rivers of Crystal” leading the way through a meandering quiet part and subsequent rhythmic figure that reminds of later Opeth, though there’s still a strong heavy rock presence in their tones and grooves generally. It’s an interesting combination, and all the more so because I think part of what’s giving off such a metal vibe is the snare sound. You don’t normally think of a snare drum determining that kind of thing, but here we are. Certainly the vocal arrangements between gruff melodies, backing screams and growls, etc., the odd bit of blastbeating here and there, bring it all into line as well — LP01 is very much the kind of album that would title its six-minute instrumental centerpiece “Interlude” — but the intricacy in how the nine-minute “Return” develops and the harmonies that emerge early in closer “Five” tell the tale clearly of Homecoming‘s ambitions as they move forward from this already-ambitious debut.
Tracked in the same sessions as the Budapest outfit’s 2019 album, Ima (review here), it should not come as a major surprise that the six-track/49-minute Logos from Lemurian Folk Songs follows a not entirely dissimilar course, bringing together dream-drift of tones and melodies with subtle but coherent rhythmic motion in a fashion not necessarily revolutionary for heavy psych, but certainly well done and engaging across its tracks. The tones of guitar and bass offer a warmth rivaled only by the echoing vocals on opener/longest cut (immediate points) “Logos,” and the shimmering “Sierra Tejada” and progressively building “Calcination” follow that pattern while adding a drift that is both of heavy psych and outside of it in terms of the character of how it’s played. None of the last three tracks is less than eight minutes long — closer “Firelake” tops nine in a mirror to “Logos” at the outset, but if that’s the band pushing further out I hear, then yes, I want to go along for that trip.
Progressive heavy rockers Ritual King display a striking amount of grace and patience across their Ripple Music-issued self-titled long-player. Tapping modern influences like Elder and bringing their own sense of melodic nuance to the proceedings across a tightly-constructed seven songs and 42 minutes, the three-piece of vocalist/guitarist Jordan Leppitt, bassist Dan Godwin — whose tone is every bit worthy of gotta-hear-it classification — and drummer/backing vocalist Gareth Hodges string together linear movements in “Headspace” and “Dead Roads” that flow one into the next, return at unexpected moments or don’t, and follow a direction not so much to the next chorus but to the next statement the band want to make, whatever that might be. “Restrain” begins with a sweet proggy soundscape and unfolds two verses over a swaying riff, then is gone, where at the outset, “Valleys” offers grandeur the likes of which few bands would dare to embody on their third or fourth records, let alone their first. Easily one of 2020’s best debuts.
You know what? Never mind. You ain’t weird enough for this shit. Nobody’s weird enough for this shit. I have a hard time believing the two souls from Portugal who made it are weird enough for this shit. Think I’m wrong? Think you’re up for it and you’re gonna put on Sunflowers‘ Endless Voyage and be like, “oh yeah, turns out mega-extreme krautrock blasted into outer space was my wavelength all along?” Cool. Bandcamp player’s right there. Have at it. I dare you.
Italian heavy rockers Maya Mountains formed in 2005 and issued their debut album, Hash and Pornography, through Go Down Records in 2008. Era, which follows a narrative about the title-character whose name is given in lead cut “Enrique Dominguez,” who apparently travels through space after being lost in the desert — as one does — and on that basis alone is clearly a more complex offering than its predecessor. As to where Maya Mountains have been all the time in between records — here and there, in other bands, etc. But Era, at 10 tracks and 44 minutes, is the summation of five years of work on their part and its blend of scope and straight-ahead heavy riffing is welcome in its more heads-down moments like “Vibromatic” or in the purposefully weirder finale “El Toro” later on. Something like a second debut for the band after being away for so long, Era at very least marks the beginning of a new one for them, and one hopes it continues in perhaps more productive fashion than the last.
Posted in Bootleg Theater on December 3rd, 2019 by JJ Koczan
In the interim since German horn-laced progressive heavy rockers Coogans Bluff issued their last full-length in 2016’s Flying to the Stars, the five-piece outfit celebrated 15 years since the origin of the band in 2003. 2017 brought the release through Noisolution of their Bluff Live collection recorded over the course of their touring to support the year prior’s studio LP, and on Jan. 24, 2020, the same imprint will stand behind their next studio album, Metronopolis. Fun to say, hard to type, the fifth album from the now-Berlin-I-guess?-based troupe was first introduced to the universe at large at the beginning of November with a teaser and so on, but to my knowledge, “Gadfly” is the first full-track to make its way to public ears.
Sound like a nifty proposition? Well, it turns out to be exactly that, so, you know, good instincts and whatnot. In “Gadfly,” which runs a usually paltry 3:23, Coogans Bluff offer a head-spinning array of kraut-laced executions, timing mathy guitars, bass and drums with King Crimson-y Mellotron, and yes, a goddamn wild sax solo, all the while meting out coherent verses and melodies to somehow manage to tie it together. They’re in a rush to get through it, to be sure, but when that sax solo comes around, check out the bass tone underneath — yes, I know; always the bass tone with me, but still — and dig the Mellotron grandiosity that comes out of it. At very least, it’s less than three and a half minutes. What’ve you got to lose?
Though when it comes to what you might actually gain by taking on “Gadfly” — the video for which features the band in a studio setting running through the track and making it look almost obnoxiously easy to play — that’s probably a list that should include whiplash, so keep that in mind as well.
They’re on tour with intermittent runs starting in January after Metronopolis hits. Dates and LP preorder link follow here, as posted by the band.
Good luck, and enjoy:
Coogans Bluff, “Gadfly” official video
Taken from COOGANS BLUFF‘s new album ‘METRONOPOLIS’ available January 24th 2020
Posted in Whathaveyou on June 2nd, 2016 by JJ Koczan
Our friends at Desertfest Belgium 2016 might be understating it somewhat when they refer to Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats as a ‘crowd-pleaser,’ but the point still stands. The UK outfit are every bit worthy of holding near-top position on the poster for the event, next to Pentagram, and wherever they end up on the final bill, they’re a damn good get. Also joining the lineup today are UK upstarts Vodun, Germany’s Coogans Bluff, and Wolvennest and Black Swarm, assuring that Desertfest Belgium 2016 gets its due course of offbeat vibes and varying swaths of heavy. You can see the full lineup below. It already looks like a killer weekend, and I have the feeling they’re not even close to done compiling it.
We’ve enjoyed an overwhelming load of good vibes following our first band announcements, and we expect no less from this next fresh batch. There’s something here for everyone. You want a crowd pleaser? How’s UNCLE ACID & THE DEADBEATS pleasing ya! You want crazy and original? COOGANS BLUFF will have you covered. You want the potential surprise exploding live hit of this year’s festival? We’re putting our bets on VODUN’s blend of metal and wailing soul vocals. And since we’re Belgian after all (and proud of it, dammit!), we’ve added heavy droners WOLVENNEST and singular metalheads BLACK SWARM to the line-up.
Are you hungry for more? You better be, because the next update’s only a few weeks away!
UNCLE ACID & THE DEADBEATS
Ever since their debut album hit the scene in a cloud of menacing mystery, Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats have been pulling an evergrowing fanbase of metal and rock fans alike into their own self-created world. Their heavy psychedelia has been likened to The Beatles, had they followed their own helter skelter down into the darkest recesses of the 1970s. Call them the Bong Lennon or the Crack Sabbath – in essence they’re a pop band, singing of death and murder in alluring vocal harmonies.
COOGANS BLUFF
They have been called “Retro”, but can you name any other band that combines krautrock, prog, psychedelic, stoner and bluesrock in such an unusual way? Coogans Bluff is a band that knows how to combine the best of all these genres, while still showing fresh and daring ideas. The band shows a very personal sense of humor in their image. However, their highly original brand of music is played with pure dedication. All hail the tinfoil hats!
VODUN
This one’s going to blow your mind… Vodun hails from London, a power trio that delivers crushing metal riffs as a backbone for some high-energy soulful wailing. MOJO magazine describes them as “Aretha Franklin fronting Royal Blood after imbibing ayahuasca”, but even that won’t prepare you for the onslaught of dark ritual madness these three bring to the stage. Amidst the rushing screams of Mother Earth, the pounding drums of Ouidah, the markets of Lomé and the open heart of Erzulie, there exists VODUN!
WOLVENNEST
Wolvennest (that’s Dutch for “Wolf’s nest”) is a musical joint venture between Kirby Michel (La Muerte), Corvus von Burtle (Cult Of Erinyes) and Marc De Backer (Mongolito), a distinctive blend of guitar loops, repetitive beats, synthesizers keys mixed with darkened hypnotic ambient vocal sounds. The resulting glorious mess is a highly original mix of seventies Krautrock and nineties Norwegian Black Metal.
BLACK SWARM
Black Swarm entered the Belgian underground metal scene in 2011. With only 6 songs they took to the stage, and immediately started to rally a fanbase consisting in- and outside the metalhead community. Watch out for their flamboyant singer Sam De Roeck though… he’s known to give the crowd just “a little more” than they bargained for when he gets in the mood!
Posted in Whathaveyou on December 8th, 2015 by JJ Koczan
Hamburg’s H42 Records has kept itself pretty busy since the 2013 release of The Flying Eyes‘ and Golden Animals‘ split single (streamed here), and the imprint will take a moment to celebrate its accomplishments as it pushes past the three-year mark next month with a new compilation called Home of the Deer Vol. I. The name of course implies it’s a series with more to come, but either way, the 16 included tracks showcase some of the killer material past, present and future in which H42 has been involved with releasing.
Nothing like starting off with some Mos Generator, and from an acoustic track from Kadavar-offshoot The Loranes to previously unreleased cuts from Mangoo, Daily Thompson, Molior Superum and others, there is much to dig into from there. Release announcement and track info follow, as seen on the PR wire:
H42 Records CD LABEL SAMPLER ,Home Of The Deer – Vol. I’ sees the light of day before X-Mas!
On 22 January 2016 the Hamburg based Label H42 Records is celebrating its third anniversary. Among other things, this will be celebrated with the Promo Label Sampler ‘Home Of The Deer Vol. 1’. From the 14th December, all songs will be streamed for two days till January 22th 2016 on the Bandcamp page (https://h42records.bandcamp.com/album/the-roaring-deer-vol-one-h42-025) of the label. Among them are well-known songs from H42 Records releases such as ‘Raise Hell’ by The Flying Eyes from H42 Records first output in 2013, but also new previously unreleased tracks as ‘The Awakening’ by Mos Generator or the brand new track ‘Supernova Remnant’ of Molior Superum. Best of all, Everyone who stocks up with vinyl from the H42 Records shop (www.h42records.8merch.com), get one of these limited promo CDs for FREE. Do not forget only available while stock lasts.
Tracklist: 01 Mos Generator – The Awakening (Reference Mix) Previously unreleased – recorded at HeavyHead Recordings 2015 02 Sons Of Alpha Centauri – 27 originally released 2012 on Bro Fidelity Split 12“-Vinyl 03 Lord Of Giant – Dust Demon taken from H42-Records release H42-006 ‚Dust Demon/Woman 7“ 04 Mangoo – Hooks (Live) previously unreleased live recording – Live at VR Studios 10.04.2012 Åbo, Finnland 05 Daily Thompson – Lo-Fi previously unreleased – recorded at MountHoven Studios Dortmund 2015 06 The Loranes – Hey You Said (Acoustic Version) previously unreleased acoustic version originally from ‚Trust‘ 2015 – recorded November 2015 07 Molior Superum – Supernova Remnant previously unreleased – recorded 2015 08 The Flying Eyes – Raise Hell taken from H42-Records release H42-001 Split with Golden Animals 7“ 09 Enos – Devil Makes Work (Live) taken from DVD ‚Live at East Slope‘ – recorded 20.04.2013 10 Dean Allen Foyd –Devil’s Path taken from H42-Records release H42-007 ‚Sunshine Song‘ 7“ 11 Black Salvation – Flickering Days previously unreleased – recorded on the ‚I am Pretended‘-Session 12 Mother Of God – Dark Sun Above taken from H42-Records release H42-003 ‚Black Ocean‘ 7“ 13 Larman Clamor -Drone Monger (Bonk Then Stomp) taken from H42-Records Release H42-020 Split with Blackwolfgoat 7“ 14 Odd Couple – Nightcrawl Taken from Odd Couples debut ‚It’s a pressure to meet you‘ 2014 15 Coogans Bluff – She Gave Her Life For A Man taken fromH42-Records release H42-010 ‚Ein Herz voller Soul‘ 7“ 16 Alpha Cat – The Last Day Of Summer originally released 2009 – first time on vinyl in 2016 on H42 Records
Posted in Whathaveyou on November 30th, 2015 by JJ Koczan
If you haven’t seen the name around yet, The Loranes is the new band from former Kadavar bassist Mammut. The newcomers are one of five bands in the latest batch to be announced for Desertfest Berlin 2016, which still has Electric Wizard, Truckfighters, Crowbar and Elder at the top of its bill. If no one else joined, they’d probably be ready to roll out a three-day fest as is and call it square, but I have the feeling we’re still in the thick of it as The Loranes and other local Berlin outfits like Rotor, Coogans Bluff (they’re from Rostock, two hours north), Samavayo and Dÿse are added.
Hard to argue either way, and I’m not inclined to try. Here’s the newest update from the festival:
Desertfest Berlin 2016 – ROTOR, DYSE, SAMAVAYO, COOGANS BLUFF, THE LORANES added to the line-up!
It’s time for a DESERTFEST special BERLIN announcement! 5 Years DESERTFEST BERLIN – 5 amazing Berlin bands added to the lineup! We are thrilled to welcome aboard instrumental stoner prog pioneers Rotor, incredibly entertaining experimental duo Dÿse, fast forward stoner rockers Samavayo, “Contemporary retro” songcrafters Coogans Bluff and the brand new power trio of ex-Kadavar bassist “Mammut”, The Loranes!
These 5 acts join the first 13 bands previously announced Electric Wizard, Truckfighters, Crowbar, Elder, Wo Fat, Egypt, Monolord, Death Alley, Monomyth, Mothership, Desert Storm, Kaleidobolt and Somali Yacht Club. Our fifth edition might be the trippiest experience of your life, so join us… take the ride and buy your ticket now! (tickets’ links below).
Regular HARD TICKETS or E-TICKETS can be purchased on our WEBSITE! Our ticketprices remain the same, that’s 85 Euros for all you newbies! But remember that we were sold out last time about 7 weeks ahead, and we think we may top that this year!
By ordering a HARD TICKET, you get a free Desertfest patch!
Morale is good as I stare down day three of this Quarterly Review. I’m encouraged by the good response the two-so-far posts have gotten and hope if you’ve had the chance to check out any of this stuff you’ve been able to find something you’re into. Or if not, I hope the next three days can rectify that situation. There are 30 records still to go. Bound to be something in there for everyone, myself included.
Quarterly Review #21-30:
Royal Thunder, Crooked Doors
Royal Thunder’s second full-length for Relapse, Crooked Doors, is bound to surprise some listeners. A three-piece when they issued CVI through the label in 2012, the Savannah, Georgia, outfit arrives at Crooked Doors as a foursome with the addition of guitarist Will Fiore of Zoroaster, and embarks on a considerable shift in approach. Slickly, almost commercially produced, the album brisks past some riffy elements in songs like opener “Time Machine,” also the longest cut at 7:20 (immediate points), and “The Line” toward an aesthetic reinterpreting ‘80s pop-metal melodramas through a vaguely heavy rock filter. Between Fiore and might-spit-beer-on-you guitarist Josh Weaver, one might expect more tonal heft than Crooked Doors offers overall, but the album instead leans heavily on bassist/vocalist Mlny Parsonz to carry the emotional crux of the material (though Evan Diprima’s drums still hit with some impact as well). Parsonz’s voice proves up to the task — in pop-singer form, she carries the record — and is bolstered through layering, but by the time Crooked Doors’ hour runtime ends up at the lounge-blues and piano stylizations of “The Bear I” and “The Bear II,” it feels cumbersome and like the point has already been made.
A sophomore EP from this London five-piece following their impressive 2013 self-titled (review here), Luia doesn’t top half an hour, but its five included tracks show marked progression in pushing Strauss away from the Kyuss-isms that in large part defined their prior work. Opener “Mud at You” is immediately more aggressive, and though “Humanphobic (to Mary Shelley)” (note: anthropophobia), slows the pace and opens wide in its middle third, vocalist Stef shouts to remind of the core intensity in the songwriting. That takes a back seat as centerpiece “For all the Wrong Reasons” moves toward an apex of a cleaner-sung chorus, but the riffs of guitarists Charles and Bano, and the groove from bassist Bill and drummer Doc, remain heavy enough that the point isn’t lost. The eight-minute “Eclipse” has it all – doomed chug, screams, singing, crash, tempo changes, nod and so on – but the funky jam that starts closer “2015” shows Strauss are willing to have some fun with their heaviness as well. All the better. Time for a full-length.
Comparisons to Witch Mountain are inevitable for Minneapolis four-piece Kult of the Wizard, whose vocalist, Mahle Roth, carries a bluesy inflection not dissimilar from Uta Plotkin on the five-song EP, The White Wizard. Self-released, it’s the band’s first work with Roth as frontwoman, guitarist Aaron Hodgson, bassist Ryan Janssen and drummer Travis Nordahl having released two prior outings – The Red Wizard (2013) and The Blue Wizard (2014) – instrumentally, and the difference is palpable. Roth adds a commanding presence to the rolling leadoff track “Tusk of the Mammoth,” showcases a noteworthy range on “Black Moon” and steps back only for an eerie wash of noise and samples on centerpiece “Plasma Pool,” but the finest performance on all fronts is closer “Devil Delight,” which meters out stomp and echo at its peak to concoct an otherworldly churn of psychedelic cult doom, Roth once again steering the progression with a sure hand. One does not expect The White Wizard to be the last we hear from Kult of the Wizard. Hell, they haven’t even done all the primary colors yet.
With 350 copies pressed by H42 Records in no fewer than five different color variations and at least that many versions of the cover art, Ein Herz Voller Soul, the latest 7” single from horn-laden German rockers Coogans Bluff hits with a fair amount of circumstance. It is, nonetheless, two songs and a quick listen. Its A-side is “Ein Herz Voller Soul,” a German-language retelling of “Heart Full of Soul” from the band’s 2014 full-length, Gettin’ Dizzy, and the B-side is “She Gave Her Life for a Man,” a classic rocker given middle-era Beatlesian flair by Stefan Meinking’s trombone, which feels fitting after the garage style of “Ein Herz Voller Soul,” though both cuts retain an element of the progressive in their approach, the band – Meinking, guitarist Willi Paschen, bassist/vocalist Clemens Marasus, drummer Charlie Paschen and saxophonist Max Thum – not afraid to branch wherever the song might take them, to a call and response hook or harder drum stomp. A stopgap, maybe, but Coogans Bluff have a tendency to engage and here they do so in hardly any time at all.
Papir Meets Electric Moon, The Papermoon Sessions Live at Roadburn 2014
Members of German psych-jam godsends Electric Moon and Copenhagen progressive explorers Papir took the stage at Roadburn 2014 in the Netherlands as a follow-up to their 2013 outing, The Papermoon Sessions (review here). I don’t think they’d played live together before and I’m pretty sure they haven’t since (though don’t quote me on that), but in any case, the billing Papir Meets Electric Moon isn’t something that happens every day, and the two north-of-20-minutes pieces conjured up for inclusion on The Papermoon Sessions Live at Roadburn 2014 only emphasize how special the collaboration actually is, washes of synth and effects layered over gloriously krautrocking rhythms, swiftly turning one minute and peaceful the next, but never disjointed, never losing the sense of flow. Each track — the second one is shorter at 22:15 — has its own movement, but the thing to do is put on The Papermoon Sessions Live at Roadburn 2014 and just let it go and go along with it. For a group that came together in the wake of a tragedy — the untimely passing of Danish promoter Ralph Rjeily — Papermoon proves yet again that beauty can spring even in dark times. I hope they do another record.
Seems unlikely a band is going to dive into songs like “Hippies are Dead,” “Whore Island (Jim Loves His Wife” or “King Mullet Destroyer” and not have a sense of humor, let alone call themselves We are Warwick Davis – please note: the actor is nowhere to be seen – so yeah, the Illinois double-guitar five-piece get up to some chicanery on their Storming the Castle full-length. Lots of chicanery, as it happens. Vocalist Joe Duffy is blown out over the punkish progressions of “Audio Visual” but reminds more of Jello Biafra on “Mind Enemy Mine,” which launches the album following a voicemail intro about blowing people off the stage. Former Monster Magnet guitarist John McBain mastered the album, and it was apparently a couple years in the self-recording process. It’s accordingly raw, and at 57 minutes, I doubt the band could be accused of understating their argument. Out of balance here and there to the point of abrasion, but ultimately harmless.
Rongeur, The Catastrophist and As the Blind Strive Demos
With members of folk metallers Trollfest, off-kilter hardcore punkers Ampmandens Døtre and atmospheric post-metallers Sju in tow, it may or may not be fair to call Rongeur a side-project, but they sure as hell are varied in their influences. The Oslo trio of drummer/vocalist Jostein, guitarist/vocalist Ken-Robert and bassist/vocalist Dag Ole (who belong respectively to the bands above) arrange their two-to-date demos with the newer tracks first on The Catastrophist and As the Blind Strive Demos, on Disiplin Media, so that the listener encountering them for the first time hears where the trio are as of 2014, then goes back to their first explorations, from 2013. Raw noise ensues, a post-hardcore vibe delivered with shouts and sludgy heft, but the older tracks offer a fuller distortion that they seem to have stripped down before getting around to songs like “Traitors” or the barebones-aggro “Jon Hogg.” One wonders where they might go from here, which is probably the whole point of the release.
Heavy rock and death metal rarely tread the same ground without being immediately cast to one side or another. Gothenburg’s Crowlegion seem determined to stake a claim to both sides, and the 24-minute The First Offering EP, issued on CD by Grave Goods Productions, makes good on that attempt. The seven tracks are short – only two top four minutes – but stylistically ambitious, guitarist/vocalist Linus Pilebrand seeming to be the driving force behind the project’s blend of rolling riffs and guttural growls. He’s since replaced the rhythm section, having played bass on this recording in addition to guitar, with Jonas Jörgensen also on guitar and Sarah Tefke drumming, and four of the seven cuts also feature guest vocals, most of them working in extreme styles as well. I’m not sure if The First Offering is the release that finally crosses that long bridge between aesthetics, but Crowlegion position themselves well with these tracks to continue to make the journey. Nod or headbang. Your choice.
Chris Forsyth and the Solar Motel Band, Intensity Ghost
Less about the sonic heft of any given moment than the overarching freedom of exploration throughout its five instrumental tracks, Intensity Ghost is the first studio offering from Chris Forsyth and the Solar Motel Band (released on No Quarter), and it’s fucking brilliant. The Philly-based five-piece got together in 2013 but play like they’ve been sharing stages for a decade, whether it’s the smoothness with which they ride the bassline and current of synth in “Yellow Square” or closer “Paris Song”’s subtle move from minimalism into contemplative psychedelia. Dreamy centerpiece “I Ain’t Waiting” is the shortest of the bunch at 5:16, and opener “The Ballad of Freer Hollow” the longest and jammiest at 11:25 (immediate points), but wherever these guys – Forsyth on guitar, plus guitarist Paul Sukeena, bassist Peter Kerlin, drummer Steven Urgo and synth/organist Shawn Edward Hansen – seem to go, they get there with an engrossing fluidity that’s nothing short of masterful. A joy, front to back.
Eldorado’s Babylonia Haze, at 10 tracks and 55 minutes, is not an insignificant undertaking. The Spanish four-piece brazenly take on classic rock hooks topped with organ-and-guitar fluidity and the soar-ready singing of Jesus Trujillo, joined in the band by guitarist Andres Duende, bassist Cesar Sanchez and drummer Christian Giardino (since replaced by Javier Planelles). A progressive clarity marks out acoustic-led cuts like “Breathe the Night” and the later “Resurrection Song,” the arrangements natural and purposeful in kind, and longer inclusions like “Flowers of Envy” (8:02) and “Karma Generator” (11:35) have breadth enough to sustain their runtimes while keeping a structured feel, the latter providing plotted movements toward the apex of the album before “Moon Girl” offers a lesser build of its own as afterthought, reimagining prog-fueled heavy rock as the fodder of a pop wistfulness. Accomplished and precise, it’ll be too clean for some ears, while others will no doubt wonder how its brilliance can be ignored.
