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: Alex Bossen of Oxx

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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?

I like to play and write music. I try to keep it at that.

An unhealthy consequence, I think, of how we tend to mythologize art and artists, is that it ends up being about everything else than the art. We’re so obsessed with the personal lives of our favorite musicians, that the music becomes intrinsically linked to their sufferings and trials. I mean, even the PR campaign for Oxx’s own, most recent record, has been heavy on the personal stuff. So I’m no better. But I think there’s a widespread misconception that suffering produces great art, and that miserable people are more creatively inclined. Or more broadly: that music is as much about how you feel as it is about the actual music. Which is wrong. Everybody suffers in very real, very valid ways. Some suffer a lot more. A lot of both groups make music. And most of it sucks. The notion that the intensity of your emotional life is somehow linked to the validity of your music is a distraction that keeps people from seriously discussing the art and practicing the craft as much as they should.

I’ve certainly been guilty of this myself. So I try to keep it simple these days. I play and write because I enjoy being around art as much as possible. And it keeps me out of trouble.

Anyway: how did I come to do it? Too dysfunctional to do anything else, I suppose.

Describe your first musical memory.

My parents playing Ibrahim Ferrer on the stereo while having guests over.

Or Scatman John on some shitty eurodance-for-kids-compilation. I don’t remember which. The first is vastly more romantic, but eurodance gets a bad rap. So let’s go with Scatman John. Rest in peace, King.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

Probably by myself, practicing. Occasionally, everything falls into place, and I fool myself into thinking that I’m completely uninhibited, without any technical or cognitive constraints, and get to just play and feel good about it. That’s pretty great.

Or perhaps walking 6 k through a literal storm in Copenhagen with shit falling from the buildings and debris flying everywhere, to get to a Mark Lanegan concert. Only to arrive and find out that 1: the gig is cancelled and 2: me and the five other morons stupid enough to brave the weather are forced to stay and wait out the storm. Turns out Lanegan was stuck as well, and though pissed, decided to play anyway. In a massive concert hall for eight people sitting on the floor. I got to see Lanegan a bunch of times, and every one was transformative in different ways, but this was perfect.

And Lou Reed had just died the day before, so they did four impromptu Velvet Underground songs as well.

And a million others. I love music.

When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?

All the time. I resist the urge to rant about politics here…

But in the less serious department: it’s a continual source of frustration and mild disillusionment to me how many bands insist on espousing the old hardcore tenets of scene-solidarity and community, without any actual interest in either beyond how it can benefit them personally. That posturing is especially exhausting, but every other kind of careerist behaviour in heavy music is off putting to me as well.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

Poverty? I’m not sure… sorta continuing where my massive rant a couple of questions back ended, i don’t think it’s very constructive to attach any grandiose goals to creative pursuits, or make it out to be anything more noble than any of the innumerable other ways of passing the time while we’re waiting to croak. I play and write music because it makes me happy. And in order to stay happy I need to do my best with it and keep in tune with whichever directions my musical interests might be heading. So it’s self-regulating in that it’s only fun if I put in an unreasonable amount of effort. It’s a worthwhile pursuit, and making an effort at honing a craft should be reward enough.

How do you define success?

If I can get to a point where I, with reasonable confidence, can declare that I’m not an asshole, I’d be happy. Not being miserable would be a bonus. Hippy shit.

What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?

I feel like this question could lead me down a road that might end up at me becoming unemployable. Or at several other, less serious, but no less regrettable pit stops on the spectrum of oversharing.

But pertaining specifically to the topic at hand, music, I’m immensely bummed out every time I’m confronted with how much my favorite musicians have to hustle to scrape by. It’s symptomatic of much broader structural problems in late-stage capitalism as well, but Jesus Christ. We should really get our collective acts together and take better care of the people keeping art alive and evolving.

Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.

Let me count the ways… I suffer from the same malaise that has driven The Rock to the delusion that he should act. The affliction in the grasp of which Dwight Yoakam thought it wise to direct a movie (he really can act though). The very ailment that, in its most terminal stages, had Sean Penn write a book.

That is to say, the particular kind of arrogance that creative people have, that makes them think they should stray from their chosen craft, and would probably be “like, pretty sick, brah,” at something completely unrelated, aside from the fact that it’s another act of “creative” self-realization. To wit: I have recurring fantasies (delusions?) of writing novels, making movies and.. I think I got offered to do porn once as well. Luckily, these kinds of moonlighting are a privilege reserved for the filthy rich. And since I’m occasionally filthy and always broke, I never had the chance of acting upon any of it. Which is probably in humanity’s best interest. I do however have a, slightly more modest, ambition of making a guitar record. Like a guitar-guitar record. I’m hoping for some weird mix between Danny Gatton, Charlie Parker and Allan Holdsworth. That I could make in good conscience, and I probably will at some point.

What do you believe is the most essential function of art?

Letting us get in contact with the sublime.

But for me, this implicates a much broader definition of art. Same thing goes for sports. Or food. Actually standing face to face with proof of the extent of what a human body/mind is capable of, in spite of everything, is the most life affirming thing to me, and very far removed from any mystical notions of the soul of the artist as it relates to the cosmos, or whatever.

Experiencing someone at the peak of their craft freely expressing themselves is the most genuinely touching thing, and I try to get as much of that as I can. But again, that’s not restricted to the arts. My most substantial aesthetic experience last year was Alexander Volkanovski’s performance against Max Holloway in their third match.

Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?

The inevitable fall of western civilization.

A distant second place, and much less probable: that the upcoming Blood Meridian adaptation doesn’t disappoint me immensely.

Nah, fuck it… I’ll go with something much more mundane, and much more adult. I’m looking forward to getting out of bed tomorrow, hanging out with my cat, having a good 4 hours of practice time and going to the gym.

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https://oxxmusic.bandcamp.com

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Oxx, “The Coast” official video

I’m drinking coffee out of a different mug today. It may not surprise you to learn that I’m particular about that kind of thing. I have two mugs — one from Baltimore, one from Salem, Mass. — that are the same. They are huge, blue and black, and they curve slightly inward at the top. They can hold half of a 10-cup pot of coffee. I use one of them per day for a pot in the morning.

Not today. The Pecan gifted me a Mr. Spock mug — he’s in his dress uniform, so it’s likely based on the TOS episode ‘Journey to Babel,’ where we meet his parents for the first (our time) time — and it’s smaller and lighter in the hand, will require an extra trip up to the kitchen to finish the pot, but I think she’ll be glad to see me use it, and maybe that’ll help her get a decent start to the day in a bit when she comes downstairs.

Today’s the last day for this week of QR, but we dive back in on Monday and Tuesday to close out. Hope you find something you dig, and if I don’t catch you at the closeout post for the week, have a great weekend.

Quarterly Review #41-50:

Motorpsycho, Yay!

Long-running and prolific Norwegian prog rockers Motorpsycho have proven time and again their stylistic malleability across their north-of-100-strong catalog of releases, and comprised of 10 tracks running 42 minutes of acoustic-led-but-still-lushly-arranged, melodic and sometimes folkish craft. If you ever needed an argument that Motorpsycho could have been writing simplified, ultra-accessible, soundtrack-to-your-summer fare — and I’m not sure you have — Yay! provides that, with a classic feel in the harmonies of “Sentinels” and “Dank State,” though the lyrics in that last cut and in pieces like the leadoff “Cold & Bored,” the later isolated strummer “Real Again (Norway Shrugs and Stays at Home)” and in the lost-love-themed “Loch Meaninglessness and the Mull of Dull” have a cynical current to their framing contrasts that the outwardly pretty face lent to it by the Paul Simon-style lead vocals from Bent Sæther (also guitar, mandolin, omnichord here and more elsewhere). If the record is a gimme for an audience looking for a more earthbound Motorpsycho, then the arrival of the 7:46 “Hotel Daedalus” is where they give a nod to the heavier heads in their fanbase, with one of several guest spots from Reine Fiske (Dungen, Träden, etc.) and a shift in the balance between electric and acoustic guitar and synth at the foreground. Standout as that is, it’s also consistent with the spirit of Yay! more generally, which is built to be more complex in emotion than it presents on its face, and the work of masters, whether they’re writing longform prog epics or sweet closer “The Rapture,” which paints the change of seasons through an image of unmelted leftover snow “sulking in the shade.” One should expect no less than that kind of reach and attention to expression, and one should never engage Motorpsycho with expectations beyond that.

Motorpsycho on Facebook

Stickman Records store

Det Nordenfjeldske Grammofonselskab site

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Severed Satellites, Aphelion

“Apollo,” which was the first single released by Severed Satellites, opens the Baltimore instrumentalists’ first EP, Aphelion, as well, its uptempo blues-informed groove an enticing beginning before “Lost Transmissions” digs further into riffer nod. With five tracks running 27 minutes, Severed Satellites — guitarist Matt Naas, keyboardist Dave Drell, bassist Adam Heinzmann and drummer Chuck Dukehart, the latter two both of heavy rockers Foghound, among others — offer material that’s built out of jamming but that is not itself the jam. Songs, in other words. Recorded by Noel Mueller at Tiny Castle Studio, the EP proves solid through “Lost Transmissions” and the bassier “Hurtling Toward Oblivion” with its ending comedown leading into the coursing keyboard waveform at the start of “Breaking Free From Orbit,” which is the longest inclusion at 7:21 and uses most of that extra time in the intro, building afterward toward a ’70s strutting apex that puts energy ahead of largesse before the keys lead the way out in the two-minute outro “Reaching Aphelion.” Through the variety in the material, Severed Satellites showcase a persona that knows what it’s about and presents that fluidly to the listener with a minimum of indulgence. A rousing start.

Severed Satellites on Facebook

Severed Satellites on Bandcamp

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Edena Gardens, Live Momentum

The collaboration between baritone/bass guitarist Martin Rude, drummer Jakob Skøtt, both also of Danish psych-jazz and psych-as-jazz explorers Causa Sui, and guitarist Nicklas Sørensen of molten-but-mellow jammers Papir, Edena Gardens issue their first and perhaps not last live album in Live Momentum, a three-song set taped at Jaiyede Jazz Festival — their first onstage appearance — in 2022 and pressed concurrent to the second Edena Gardens studio full-length, Agar (review here) while still not so far removed from their 2022 self-titled debut (review here). “Veil” from the sophomore LP opens, with a thicker guitar sound and more active delivery from the stage, a heavier presence in the guitar early on, hinting at Link Wray and sounding clear enough that the applause at the end is a surprise. Taken from the self-titled, “Now Here Nowhere” is more soothing and post-rocking in its languidity — also shorter at seven minutes — an active but not overbearing jazz fusion, while side B’s 17-minute “Live Momentum” would seem to be the occasion for the release. Exploratory at the start, it settles into a groove that’s outright bombastic in comparison to the other two tracks, brings down the jam and pushes it out, growing in volume again late for a slow, howling finish. What should be a no-brainer to those who’ve heard the band, Live Momentum portrays a side of Edena Gardens that their ‘proper’ albums — which is also where new listeners should begin — hasn’t yet shown, which is no doubt why it was issued to start with. Only fortunate.

Edena Gardens on Facebook

El Paraiso Records store

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Delco Detention, Come and Get It!

Following up 2022’s What Lies Beneath (review here) and the intervening covers collection, Cover Ups, and the Crack the Lock EP, prolific Pennsylvania heavy rock outfit Delco Detention, led by the son/father duo of Tyler and Adam Pomerantz return with their Come and Get It! is suitably exclamatory fashion. The nine-track collection is headlined by a guest guitar spot from Earthless‘ Isaiah Mitchell on “Earthless Delco” near the album’s middle, but stop-bys from familiar parties like Kevin McNamara and Mike DiDonato of The Age of Truth and Jared Collins of Mississippi Bones, among others, assure diversity in the material around the foundation of groovy heavy rock. Clutch remain a strong influence — and the record finishes with a take on “I Have the Body of John Wilkes Booth” — but the fuzzy four minutes of the penultimate “Rock and Roll God” and the swing in opener “Domagoj Simek Told Me Quitters Never Smoke” continue to show the band’s growth in refining their songwriting process and aligning the right performers with the right songs, which they do.

Delco Detention on Facebook

Delco Detention on Bandcamp

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The Gray Goo, Circus Nightmare

The second full-length from Montana heavy-funk shenanigans purveyors The Gray Goo, Circus Nightmare, sounds like there’s a story to go along with every song, whether it’s the tale of “Nightstocker” no doubt based on a 24-hour grocery store, or the smoke-weed-now anthem “Pipe Hitter” that so purposefully and blatantly takes on Sleep‘s “Dragonaut,” or even the interlude “Cerulean” with its backward wisps of guitar leading into the dreamy-Ween-esque, Beatles-reference-dropping “Cosmic Sea,” or the Primus-informed absurdity of “Alligator Bundee,” which leads off, and the garage punk that caps in “Out of Sight (Out of Mind).” Equal parts brilliant and dopey, “BEP” is a brief delve into surf-toned weirdness while “Wizards of the Mountain” pays off the basement doom of “Pipe Hitter” just before with its raw-captured slowdown, organ included in its post-midpoint creep and “Cumbia de Montana” is perhaps more dub than South American-style mountain jamming — though there’s a flute — but if you want to draw a line and tell me where one ends and another starts, I won’t argue. Bottom line is that after an encouraging start in last year’s 1943 (review here), The Gray Goo are more sure of themselves and more sure of the planet’s ridiculousness. May they long remain so certain and productive. Heavy rock needs more oddballs.

The Gray Goo on Facebook

The Gray Goo on Bandcamp

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Shit Hexis, Shit Hexis

It’s like they packed it with extra nasty. The seven-song/27-minute Shit Hexis is the debut offering from Saarbrücken, Germany’s Shit Hexis, and it stabs, it scathes, it skin-peels and not in the refreshing way. Flaying extreme sludge riffs presented with the cavernous echo and murky purposes of black metal, it is a filthy sound but not completely un-cosmic as “Latrine Odins” feedsback and lumbers through its 92 seconds, or “Erde” drone-plods at terrifying proportion. On paper, Shit Hexis share a mindset with the likes of Come to Grief or even earlier Yatra in bringing together tonal weight with aesthetics born out of the more extreme ends of heavy metal, but their sharp angles, harsh tones and the echoing rasp of “Le Mort Saisit le Vif” are their own. Not that fucking matters, because when you’re this disaffected you probably don’t give a shit about originality either. But as their first release of any kind, even less than a half-hour of exposure seems likely to cause a reaction, and if you’re ever somewhere that you need people not to be, the misanthropic, loathing-born gurgling of “Mkwekm” should do the trick in clearing a room. This, of course, is as the duo of guitarist/vocalist Mo and drummer Pat designed it to be, and so, wretched as it is, their self-titled can only be called a success. But what a vision thereof.

Shit Hexis on Facebook

Bleeding Heart Nihilist Productions website

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Oromet, Oromet

That Sacramento, California, two-piece Oromet — guitarist/vocalist/layout specialist Dan Aguilar and drummer/bassist/synthesist/backing vocalist/engineer Patrick Hills — have a pedigree between them that shares time in Occlith accounts for some of the unity of intent on the grandly-unfolding death-doom outfit’s self-titled three-song Transylvanian Recordings debut full-length. Side A is dedicated solely to the opener/longest track (immediate points) “Familiar Spirits” (22:00), which quiets down near the finish to end in a contemplative/reflective drone, and earlier positions Oromet among the likes of Dream Undending or Bell Witch in an increasingly prevalent, yet-untagged mournful subset of death-doom. “Diluvium” (11:31) and “Alpenglow” (10:07) follow suit, the former basking in the beauty in its own darkness and sounding duly astounded as it pounds its way toward a sudden stop to let the residual frequencies swell before carrying into the latter, which is gloriously tortured for its first six minutes and comes apart slowly thereafter, having found a place to dwell in the melodic aftermath. Crushing spiritually even as it reaffirms the validity of that pain, it is an affecting listening experience that can be overwhelming at points, but its extremity never feels superfluous or disconnected from the sorrowful emotionality of the songs themselves.

Oromet on Instagram

Transylvanian Recordings on Bandcamp

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Le Mur, Keep Your Fear Away From Me

Each of the four tracks of Le Mur‘s fourth record, Keep Your Fear Away From Me, corresponds to a place in time and point of view. That is, we start in the past with 15-minute leadoff “…The Past Will Be Perfect…” — and please note that the band’s name is also stylized all-caps where album and song titles are all-lowercase — moving through “Today is the Day/The Beauty of Now” (9:27) in the present and “Another Life/Burning the Tree/I See You” (11:19) confirming the subjectivity of one’s experience of self and the world, and closer “…For the Puzzles of the Future.” (12:12) finishing the train of thought by looking at the present from a time to come. Samples peppered throughout add to the otherwise mostly instrumental proceedings, focused on flow and at least semi-improvised, and horns on the opener/longest cut (immediate points) sets a jazzy mindset that holds even as “Another Life/Burning the Tree/I See You” forays through its three-stage journey, starting with a shimmy before growing ever-so-slightly funky in the middle and finishing acoustic, while the (electric) guitar on “…For the Puzzles of the Future.” seems to have saved its letting loose for the final jam, emerging out of the keyboardy intro and sample to top a raucous, fun finish.

Le Mur on Facebook

Aumega Project website

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10-20 Project, Snakes Go Dark to Soak in the Sun

Pushing through sax-laced, dug-in space jamming, Tunisia’s 10-20 Project reportedly recorded Snakes Go Dark to Soak in the Sun during the pandemic lockdown, perhaps in a bid just to do anything during July 2020. Removed from that circumstance, the work of the core duo of guitarist Marwen Lazaar and bassist Dhia Eddine Mejrissi as well as a few friends — drummer Manef Zoghlemi, saxophonist Ghassen Abdelghani and Mohammed Barsaoui on didgeridoo — present a three-track suite that oozes between liquid and vaporous states of matter across “Chutney I” (25:06), “Chutney II” (14:32) and “Chutney III” (13:00), which may or may not have actually been carved out of the same extended jam. From the interweaving of the sax alongside the guitar in the mix of the opener through the hand-drumming in the middle cut and “Chutney III” picking up with an active rhythm after the two pieces prior took their time in building quietly, plus some odd vocalizations included for good measure, the 52-minute outing gets its character from the exploratory meld in their arrangements and the loose nature with which they seem to approach composition generally. It is not a challenge to be entranced by Snakes Go Dark to Soak in the Sun, as even 10-20 Project seem to have been during its making.

10-20 Project on Facebook

Echodelick Records store

Worst Bassist Records store

We Here & Now Recordings store

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Landing, Motionless I-VI

If one assumes that “Side A” (19:58) and “Side B” (20:01) of Landing‘s are the edited-down versions of what appeared as part of the Connecticut ambient psych troupe’s Bandcamp ‘Subscriber Series Collection 02’ as “Motionless I-III” (29:56) and “Motionless IV-VI” (27:18), then perhaps yes, the Sulatron Records-issued Motionless I-VI has been markedly altered to accommodate the LP format. The (relatively) concise presentation, however, does little to undercut either the floating cosmic acoustics and drones about halfway through the first side or the pastoral flight taken in “Side B” before the last drone seems to devour the concept with especially cinematic drama. Whereas when there are drums in “Side A” the mood is more krautrock or traditional space rock, the second stretch of Motionless I-VI is more radical in its changes while still being gentle in its corner turning from one to the next, as heard with the arrival of the electric guitar that fades in at around six and a half minutes and merrily chugs through the brightly-lit serenity of what might’ve at some point been “Motionless V” and here is soon engulfed in a gradual fade that brings forward the already-mentioned drone. There’s more going on under the surface than at it — and that dimension of mix is crucial to Landing‘s methodology — but Motionless I-VI urges the listener to appreciate each element in its place, and is best heard doing that.

Landing on Facebook

Sulatron Records store

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Been a trip so far, has this Quarterly Review. It’s been fun to bounce from one thing to the next, drawing imaginary lines between releases that have nothing more to do with each other than being written up on the same day, and seeing the way the mind reels in adjusting from talking about one thing to the next. It’s a different kind of challenge to write 150-200 words (and often more than that; these reviews are getting too long) about a record than 1,000 words.

Less room to make your argument means you need to say what you want to say how you want to say it and punch out. If you’ve read this site with any regularity over the last however many years, or perhaps if you’re reading this very sentence right now, right here, you might guess that such efficiency isn’t a strong suit. This assessment would be correct. Fact is I suck at any number of things. A growing list.

But we’ve made it to Thursday anyhow and today this 70-record Quarterly Review passes its halfway point, and that’s always a fun thing to mark. If you’ve been digging it, I hope you continue to do so. If nothing’s hit, maybe today. If this is the first you’re seeing of any of it, well, that’s fine too. We’re all friends here. You can go back and dig in or not, as you prefer. I’ll keep going either way. Speaking of…

Quarterly Review #31-40:

The Howling Eye, List Do Borykan

I don’t often say things like this, but List Do Borykan is worth it for the opening jam of “Space Dwellers, Episode 1.” That does not mean that song’s languid flow, silly stoned space-adventure spoken word narrative, and flashes of dub and psych and so on, are all that Poland’s The Howling Eye have to offer on their third full-length. It’s not. The prior single “Medival” (sic) has a thoughtful arrangement led by post-Claypool funky bass and surf-style guitar, which are swapped out for hard-riff cacophony metal in the second half of the song’s 3:35 run. That pairing sets up a back and forth between longer jams and more structured material, but it’s all pretty out there when you hear the seven song/44 minutes of the entire record, as the 10-minute “Brothers” builds from silence to organ-laced classic rock testimony and then draws itself down to let the funkier/rolling (depending on which part you’re talking about) “Space Dwellers, Episode 2” provide a swaying melodic highlight, and “Caverns” drones into jazz minimalism for nine minutes before “Space Dwellers, Episode 3” goes full-on over-the-top 92-second dance party. Finally. That leaves the closer, “Johnny,” as the landing spot where the back and forth jams/songs trades end, and they’re due a jam and provide one, but “Johnny” also follows on theme from “Space Dwellers, Episode 3” and the start of “Medival” and other funk-psych stretches, so summarizes List Do Borykan well. Again, worth it for the first song, but is much more than just that as a listening experience.

The Howling Eye on Facebook

Interstellar Smoke Records store

Galactic Smokehouse store

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Avi C. Engel, Sanguinaria

Toronto-based folk experimentalist, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Avi C. Engel starts off the 10-song Sanguinaria with the first of its headphone-ready arrangements “Sing in Our Chains” assessing modernity and realizing, “We were better off in the trees.” In addition to Engel‘s actual voice, which is well capable of carrying records on its own, with a distinctive character, part soft and breathy in delivery but resilient with a kind of bruised grace and, as time goes on, grown more adventurous. In “Poisonous Fruit” and “The Snake in the Mirror,” folk, soul and organically-cast sprawl unfold, and where “A Silver Thread” brings in electric guitar and lap steel, “Deathless” — the longest cut at 6:33, arriving paired with the subsequent, textural “I Died Again” — is sparse at first but builds around whatever stringed instrument Engel (slow talharpa?) is playing and Paul Kolinski‘s banjo, standout vocal harmonies and a subdued keeping of rhythm. Along with Kolinski, Brad Deschamps adds lap steel to the opener and the more-forward-in-percussion “Extasis Boogie,” which is listed as an interlude but nearly five minutes long, and Lys Guillorn contributes lap steel to “A Silver Thread,” with all due landscape manifestation. Sad, complex, and beautiful, the 52-minute long-player isn’t a minor undertaking on any level, and “Personne” and the penultimate “Bridge Behind the Sun” emphasize the point of intricacy before the looping “Larvae” masterfully crafts its resonance across the last six minutes of the album.

Avi C. Engel on Facebook

Avi C. Engel on Bandcamp

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Suns of the Tundra, The Only Equation

Begun in 1993 as Peach, London heavy prog rockers Suns of the Tundra celebrate 30 years with the encompassing hour-long The Only Equation, their fifth album, which brings back past members of the band, has a few songs with two drummers, and is wildly sprawling across 10 still-accessible tracks that shimmer with purpose and melody. The title-track seems to harken to a ’90s push, but the twisting and volume-surging back half stave redundancy ahead of the patient drama in the 10-minute “The Rot,” which follows. On the other side of the metal-leaning “Run Boy Run,” with its big, open, floating, thudding finish representing something Suns of the Tundra do very well throughout, the three-part cycle of “Reach for the Inbetween” could probably just as easily have been one 15-minute cut, but is more palatable as three, and loses nothing of its fluidity for it, the build in the third piece giving due payoff before “The Window is Wide” caps in deceptively hooky style. Whether one approaches it with the context of their decades or not, The Only Equation is deeply welcoming. And no, its proggy prog progness won’t resonate universally, but nothing does, and that doesn’t matter anyhow. Without giving up who they are creatively, Suns of the Tundra have made it as easy as they can for one to get on board. The rest is on the listener.

Suns of the Tundra on Facebook

Bad Elephant Music on Bandcamp

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Natskygge, Eskapisme

Natskygge sneak a little “Paranoid” into “Delir,” the instrumental opener/longest track (immediate points) of their second album, Eskapisme, and that’s just fine as dogwhistles go. The Danish classic psych rockers made a well-received self-titled debut in 2020 and look to expand on that outing’s classic vibe with this 34-minute eight-tracker, which is rife with creative ambition in the slower “Lys på vej” and the piano-laced “Fjern planet,” which follows, as well as in a mover/shaker like “Titusind år,” the compact three-minute strutter “Frit fald” or what might be the side B leadoff “Feberdrøm” with its circa-1999 Brant Bjork casual groove and warm fuzz, purposefully veering into psychedelia in a way that feels like a preface for the closing duo “Livet brænder,” an organ/keyboard flourish, grounded verse and airy swirls over top leading smoothly into the likewise-peppered but acoustically-based “Den der sidst gik ud,” which conveys patience without giving up the momentum the band has amassed up to that point. I’ll note that my ignorance of the Danish language doesn’t feel like it’s holding me back as “Fjern planet” holds forth its lush melancholy or “Titusind år” signals the band’s affinity for krautrock. Not quite vintage in production, but not too far off, Eskapisme feels like it was made to be lived with, the songs engaged over a period of years, and I look forward to revisiting accordingly.

Natskygge on Facebook

Kozmik Artifactz store

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Last Giant, Monuments

Portland’s Last Giant reportedly had a bit of a time recording their fourth long-player, Monuments, in a months-long process involving multiple studios and a handful of producers, among them Adam Pike (Holy Grove, Young Hunter, Red Fang, Mammoth Salmon, etc.) recording basic tracks, Paul Malinowski (Shiner, Open Hand) mixing and three different rounds of mastering. Complicated. Working as the three-piece of founder, principal songwriter, guitarist and vocalist RFK Heise (ex-System and Station), bassist Palmer Cloud and drummer Matt Wiles — it was just Heise and Wiles on 2020’s Let the End Begin (review here) — the band effectively fill in whatever cracks may have been apparent to them in the finished product, and the 10-track/39-minute offering is pop-informed as all their output to-date has been and loaded with heart. Also a bit of trumpet on “Saviors.” There’s swagger in “Blue” and “Hell on Burnside,” and “Feels Like Water” is about as weighted and brash as I’ve heard Last Giant get — a fun contrast to the acoustic “Lost and Losing,” which closes — but wherever a given track ends up, it is deftly guided there by Heise‘s sure hand. Sounds like it was much easier to make than apparently it was.

Last Giant on Facebook

Last Giant on Bandcamp

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Moonstone, Growth

Growth is either the second or third full-length from Polish heavy psych doomers Moonstone depending on what you count, but by the time you’re about three minutes into the 7:47 of second cut “Bloom” after the gets-loud-at-the-end-anyway atmospheric intro “Harvest” — which establishes an undercurrent of metal that the rest of the six-song/36-minute LP holds even in its quietest parts — ordinal numbering won’t matter anyway. “Bloom” and “Sun” (8:02), which follows, are the longest pieces on Growth, and that in itself speaks to the band stripping back some of their jammier impulses as compared to, say, late 2021’s two-song 12″ 1904 (discussed here), but while the individual tracks may be shorter, they give up nothing as regards largesse of tone or the spaces the band inhabit in the material. Flowing and doomed, “Sun” ends side A and gives over to the extra-bass-punch meditativeness of “Night,” the guitar building in the second half to solo for the payoff, while the six-minutes-each “Lust” and “Emerald” filter Electric Wizard haze and the proggy volume trades of countrymen like Spaceslug, respectively, close with due affirmation of purpose in big tone, big groove, and a noteworthy dark streak that may yet come to the fore of their approach.

Moonstone on Facebook

Interstellar Smoke Records store

Galactic Smokehouse store

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Sonic Demon, Veterans of the Psychic War

It’s not quite the centerpiece, but in terms of the general perspective on the world of the record from which it comes, there’s little arguing with Sonic Demon‘s “F.O.A.D.” as the declarative statement on Veterans of the Psychic War. As with Norway’s Darkthrone, who released an LP titled F.O.A.D. in 2007, Sonic Demon‘s “F.O.A.D.” stands for ‘fuck off and die,’ and that seems to be the central ethic they’re working from. Like most of what surrounds on the Italian duo’s follow-up to 2021’s Vendetta (review here), “F.O.A.D.” is coated in tonal dirt, a nastiness of buzz in line with the stated mentality making songs like swinging opener “Electric Demon” and “Lucifer’s the Light,” which follows, raw even by post-Uncle Acid garage doom standards. There are moments of letup, as in the wah-swirling second half of “The Black Pill,” a bit of psych bookending in “Wolfblood,” or the penultimate (probably thankfully) instrumental “Sexmagick Nights,” but the forward drive in “The Gates” highlights the point of Sonic Demon hand-drilling their riffs into the listener’s skull, and the actually-stoned-sounding groove of closer “To Hell and Back” seems pleased to bask in the filth the album has wrought.

Sonic Demon on Facebook

Sonic Demon on Bandcamp

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From the Ages, II

If you’re taking on From the Ages‘ deceptively-titled first full-length, II — the trio of guitarist Paul Dudziak, bassist Sean Fredrich and drummer David Tucker issued their I EP in 2021, so this is their second release overall — it is perhaps useful to know that the only inclusion with vocals is opener/longest track (immediate points) “Harbinger.” An automatic focal point for that, for its transposed Sleep influence, and for being about four minutes longer than anything else on the album, it draws well together with the five sans-vox cuts that follow, with an exploratory sensibility in its jam that feels like it may be from whence a clearly-plotted song like “Maelstrom” or the lumbering volume trades of “Tenebrous” originate. Full in tone and present in the noisy slog and pre-midpoint drift of “Epoch” as well as Dudziak‘s verses in “Harbinger,” From the Ages seem willful in their intention to try out different ideas, whether that’s the winding woe of “Obsolescence” or the acoustilectric standalone guitar of closer “Providence,” and while that can make the listener less sure of where their development might take them in stylistic terms, that only results in their being more exciting to hear in the now.

From the Ages on Facebook

From the Ages on Bandcamp

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Astral Magic, Cosmic Energy Flow

Not only is Astral Magic‘s Cosmic Energy Flow — released in May of this year — not the first outing from the Finnish space rock outfit led by project founder and spearhead Santtu Laakso in 2023, it’s the eighth. And that doesn’t include the demo short release with a live band. It’s also not the latest Astral Magic about two months after the fact, as Laakso and company have put out two full-lengths since. Unrealistic as this level of productivity is — surely the work of dimensional timeporting — and already-out-of-date as the eight-song/42-minute LP might be, it also brings Laakso into collaboration with the late Nik Turner of Hawkwind, who plays sax on the opening title-track, as well as guitarists Ilya Lipkin of Russia’s The Re-Stoned and Stefan Olesinski (Nuns on Napalm), and vocalists Christina Poupoutsi (The Higher Craft, The Meads of Asphodel, etc.) and Kev Ellis (Dubbal, Heliotrope, etc.), and where one might think so many personnel shifts around Laakso‘s synth-forward basic tracks would result in a disjointed offering, well, anything can happen in space and when you throw open doors in such a way, expectations broaden accordingly. Maybe it’s just one thing on the way to the next, maybe it’s the record with Nik Turner. Either way, Astral Magic move inextricably deeper into the known and unknown cosmos.

Astral Magic on Facebook

Astral Magic on Bandcamp

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Green Inferno, Trace the Veins

Until the solo hits in the second half of “The Barrens,” you almost don’t realize how much space there is in the mix on Green Inferno‘s Trace the Veins. The New Jersey trio like it dank and deathly as they answer the rawness of their 2019 demo with the six Esben Willems-mastered tracks of their first album, porting over “Spellcaster” and “Unearth the Tombs” to rest in the same mud as malevolent plodders like “Carried to the Pit” and the penultimate “Vultures,” which adds higher-register screaming to the already-established low growls — I doubt it’s actually an influence, but I’m reminded of Amorphis circa Elegy — that give the whole outing such an extreme persona if the guitar and bass tones weren’t already taking care of it. The tortured feel there carries into closer “Crown the Virgin” as the three-piece attempt to stomp their own riffs into oblivion along with everything else, and one can only hope they get there. New songs or the two older tracks, doesn’t matter. At any angle you might choose, Green Inferno are slow-churned extreme sludge, death-sludge if you want, fully stoned, drenched in murk, disillusioned, misanthropic. It’s the sound of looking at the world around you and deciding it’s not worth saving. Did I mention stoned? Good.

Green Inferno on Facebook

Green Inferno on Bandcamp

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Well here we are, at last. A couple weeks ago I looked at my calendar and ended up pushing this Quarterly Review to mid-July instead of the end of June, and it’s been hanging over my head in the interim to such a degree that I added two days to it to cover another 20 records. I’m sure it could be more. The amount of music is infinite. It just keeps going.

I’ll assume you know the deal, but here it is anyhow: 10 records per day, for seven days — Monday through Friday, plus Monday and Tuesday in this case — for a total of 70 reviews. Links and audio provided to the extent possible, and hopefully we all find some killer new music we didn’t know about before, or if we did know about it, just to enjoy. That doesn’t seem so crazy, right?

Quarterly Review #1-10:

Bongzilla, Dab City

None higher. Following extensive touring before and (to the extent possible) after the release of their 2021 album, Weedsconsin (review here), Madison, WI, canna-worship crust sludge-launchers Bongzilla return with Dab City, proffering the harsh and the mellow as only they seem to be able to do, even among their ’90s-born original-era sludge brethren. As second track “King of Weed” demonstrates, Bongzilla are aurally dank unto themselves, both in the scathing vocals of bassist Mike “Muleboy” Makela and the layered guitar of Jeff “Spanky” Schultz and the slow-swinging groove shoving all that weighted tone forward in Mike “Magma” Henry‘s drums. Through the seven tracks and 56 minutes of dense jams like those in the opening title-cut or the 13-minute “Cannonbong (The Ballad of Burnt Reynolds as Lamented by Dixie Dave Collins” (yes, from Weedeater) or the gloriously languid finale “American Pot,” the shorter instrumental “C.A.R.T.S.,” or in the relatively uptempo nodders “Hippie Stick” and “Diamonds and Flower,” Bongzilla underscore the if-you-get-it-then-you-get-it nature of their work, at once extreme in its bite and soothing in atmosphere, uncompromising in purpose. I’m not going to tell you to get bombed out of your gourd and listen, but they almost certainly did while making it, and Dab City is nothing if not an invitation to that party.

Bongzilla on Facebook

Heavy Psych Sounds website

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Trevor’s Head, A View From Below

Adventures await as Redhill, UK, three-piece Trevor’s Head — guitarist/vocalist Roger Atkins, bassist/vocalist/synthesist Aaron Strachan (also kalimba), drummer/flutist/vocalist/synthesist Matt Ainsworth (also Mellotron) — signal a willfully open and progressive creativity through the heavy psych and grunge melodies of lead track “Call of the Deep” before the Primus-gone-fuzz-prog chug of “Under My Skin” and the somehow-English-pastoral “Grape Fang” balances on its multi-part harmonies and loose-feeling movement, side A trading between shorter and longer songs to end with the seven-minute, violin-inclusive folk-then-fuzz-folk highlight “Elio” before “Rumspringa” brings the proceedings to ground as only cowbell might. As relatively straight-ahead as the trio get there or in the more pointedly aggressive shover “A True Gentleman” on the other side of the Tool-ish noodling and eat-this-riff of “What Got Stuck” (answer: the thrashy gallop before the final widdly-widdly solo, in my head), they never want for complexity, and as much as it encapsulates in its depth of arrangement and linear course, closer “Don’t Make Me Ask” represents the band perhaps even more in looking forward rather than back on what was just accomplished, building on what 2018’s Soma Holiday (review here) hinted at stylistically and mindfully evolving their sound.

Trevor’s Head on Facebook

APF Records website

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Vorder, False Haven

Born in the ’90s as Amend, turned more extreme as V and now perhaps beginning a new era as Vorder — pronounced “vee-order” — the Dalarna, Sweden, unit return with a new rhythm section behind founding guitarists Jonas Gryth (also Unhealer) and Andreas Baier (also Besvärjelsen, Afgrund, and so on) featuring bassist Marcus Mackä Lindqvist (Blodskam, Lýsis) and drummer Daniel Liljekvist (ex-Katatonia, In Mourning, Grand Cadaver, etc.) on drums, the invigorated four-piece greet a dark dawn with due presence on False Haven, bringing Baier‘s Besvärjelsen bandmate Lea Amling Alazam for guest vocals on “The Few Remaining Lights,” which seems to be consumed after its melodic opening into a lurching and organ-laced midsection like Entombed after the Isis-esque ambience of post-apocalyptic mourning in “Introspective” and “Beyond the Horizon of Life.” Beauty and darkness are not new themes for Vorder, even if False Haven is their first release under the name, and even in the bleak ‘n’ roll of the title-track there’s still room for hope if you define hope as tambourine. Which you probably should. The penultimate “Judgement Awaits” interrupts floating post-doom with vital shove and 10:32 finale “Come Undone” provides a resonant melodic answer to “The Few Remaining Lights” while paying off the album as a whole in patience, heft and fullness. Vorder use microgenres like a polyglot might switch languages, but what’s expressed from the entirety of the work is utterly their own, whatever name they use.

Vorder on Facebook

Suicide Records website

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Inherus, Beholden

Multi-instrumentalist Beth Gladding (also of Forlesen, Botanist, Lotus Thief, etc.) shares vocal duties in New York’s Inherus with bassist Anthony DiBlasi (ex-Witchkiss) and fellow guitarist/synthesist Brian Harrigan (Grid, Swallow the Ocean), and the harsh/clean dynamic puts emphasis on the various textures presented throughout the band’s debut album. Completed by drummer Andrew Vogt (Lotus Thief, Swallow the Ocean), Inherus reach toward SubRosan melancholy on “Forgotten Kingdom,” which begins the hour-flat/six-track 2LP, and they follow with harmonies and grandeur to spare on “One More Fire” (something in that melody reminds me of Indigo Girls and I’m noting it because I can’t get my head away from it; not complaining) and “The Dagger,” which resolves in Amenra-style squibble and lurch without giving up its emotional depth. “Oh Brother” crushes enough to make one wonder where the line truly is between metal and post-metal, and the setup for closer “Lie to the Angels” in the drone-plus piece “Obliterated in the Face of the Gods” telegraphs the intensity to follow if not the progginess of that particular chug or the scope of what follows. Vogt signals the arrival at the album’s crescendo with stately but fast double-kick, and if you’re wondering who gets the last word, it’s feedback. Beholden may prove formative as Inherus move forward, but what their first full-length lays out as their stylistic range is at least as impressive as it is ambitious. Hope for more to come.

Inherus on Facebook

Hypnotic Dirge Records store

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Sonic Moon, Return Without Any Memory

Even in the second half of “Tying Up the Noose” as it leads into “Give it Time” — which is about as speedy as Sonic Moon get on their Olde Magick Records-delivered first LP, Return Without Any Memory — they’re in no particular hurry. The overarching languid pace across the Aarhus five-piece’s 41-minute/seven-tracker — which reuses only the title-track from 2019’s Usually I Don’t Care for Flowers EP — makes it hypnotic even in its most active moments, but whether it’s the Denmarkana acoustic moodiness of centerpiece “Through the Snow,” the steady nod of “Head Under the River” later or the post-All Them Witches psych-blues conveyed in opener “The Waters,” Sonic Moon are able to conjure landscapes from fuzzed tonality that could just as easily have been put to use for traditional doom as psych-leaning heavy rock, uniting the songs through that same fuzz and the melody of the vocals as “Head Under the River” spaces out ahead of its slowdown or “Hear Me Now” eschews the huge finish in favor of a more unassuming, gentler letting go, indicative of the thoughtfulness behind their craft and their presentation of the material. Familiar enough on paper and admirably, unpretentiously itself, the self-recorded Return Without Any Memory discovers its niche and comes across as being right at home in it. A welcome debut.

Sonic Moon on Facebook

Olde Magick Records on Bandcamp

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Slow Wake, Falling Fathoms

With cosmic doom via YOB meeting with progressive heavy rock à la Elder or Louisiana rollers Forming the Void and an undercurrent of metal besides in the chug and double-kick of “Controlled Burn,” Cleveland’s Slow Wake make their full-length debut culling together songs their 2022 Falling Fathoms EP and adding the prior-standalone “Black Stars” for 12 minutes’ worth of good measure at the end. The dense and jangly tones at the start of the title-track (where it’s specifically “Marrow”-y) or “In Waves” earlier on seem to draw more directly from Mike Scheidt‘s style of play, but “Relief” builds from its post-rocking outset to grow furious over its first few minutes headed toward a payoff that’s melody as much as crunch. “Black Stars” indulges a bit more psychedelic repetition, which could be a sign of things to come or just how it worked out on that longer track, but Slow Wake lay claim to significant breadth regardless, and have the structural complexity to work in longer forms without losing themselves either in jams or filler. With a strong sense of its goals, Falling Fathoms puts Slow Wake on a self-aware trajectory of growth in modern prog-heavy style. That is, they know what they’re doing and they know why. To show that alone on a first record makes it a win. Their going further lets you know to keep an eye out for next time as well.

Slow Wake on Facebook

Argonauta Records store

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The Fierce and the Dead, News From the Invisible World

Unearthing a bit of earlier-Queens of the Stone Age compression fuzz in the start-stop riff of “Shake the Jar” is not even scratching the surface as regards textures put to use by British progressive heavies The Fierce and the Dead on their fourth album, News From the Invisible World. Comprised of eight songs varied in mood and textures around a central ethic clearly intent on not sounding any more like anyone else than it has to, the collection is the first release from the band to feature vocals. Those are handled ably by bassist Kev Feazey, but it’s telling as to the all-in nature of the band that, in using singing for the first time, they employ no fewer than six guest vocalists, mostly but not exclusively on opener/intro “The Start.” From there, it’s a wild course through keyboard/synth-fed atmospheres on pieces like the Phil Collins-gone-heavy “Photogenic Love” and its side-B-capping counterpart “Nostalgia Now,” which ends like friendlier Godflesh, astrojazz experimentalism on “Non-Player,” and plenty of fuzz in “Golden Thread,” “Wonderful,” “What a Time to Be Alive,” and so on, though where a song starts is not necessarily where it’s going to end up. Given Feazey‘s apparent comfort with the task before him, it’s a wonder they didn’t make this shift earlier, but they do well in making up for lost time.

The Fierce and the Dead on Facebook

Spencer Park Music on Facebook

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Mud Spencer, Kliwon

Kliwon is the second offering from Indonesia-based meditative psych exploration unit Mud Spencer to be released through Argonauta Records after 2022’s Fuzz Soup (review here), and its four component songs find France-born multi-instrumentalist Rodolphe Bellugue (also Proots, Bedhunter, etc.) constructing material of marked presence and fluidity. Opener “Suzzanna” is halfway through its nine minutes before the drums start. “Ratu Kidul” is 16 minutes of mindful breathing (musically speaking) as shimmering guitar melody pokes out from underneath the surrounding ethereal wash, darker in tone but more than just bleak. Of course “Dead on the Heavy Funk” reminds of Mr. Bungle as it metal-chugs and energetically weirds out. And the just under 16-minute “Jasmin Eater” closes out with organ and righteous fuzz bass peppered with flourish details on guitar and languid drumming, becoming heavier and consuming as it moves toward the tempo kick that’s the apex of the album. Through these diverse tracks, an intimate psychedelic persona emerges, even without vocals, and Mud Spencer continues to look inward for expanses to be conveyed before doing precisely that.

Mud Spencer on Facebook

Argonauta Records store

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Kita, Tyhjiö

It would seem that in the interim between 2021’s Ocean of Acid EP and this five-song/41-minute debut full-length, Tyhjiö, Finnish psychedelic death-doomers Kita traded English lyrics for those in their native Finnish. No, I don’t speak it, but that hardly matters in the chant-like chorus of the title-track or the swirling pummel that surrounds as the band invent their own microgenre, metal-rooted and metal in affect, but laced with synth and able to veer into lysergic guitar atmospherics in the 10-minute opener “Kivi Puhuu” or the acoustic-led (actually it’s bass-led, but still) midsection leading to the triumphant chorus of bookending closer “Ataraksia,” uniting disparate ideas through strength of craft, tonal and structural coherence, and, apparently, sheer will. The title-track, “Torajyvä” and “Kärpässilmät,” with the centerpiece cut as the shortest, make for a pyramid-style presentation (broader around its base), but Kita are defined by what they do, drawing extremity from countrymen like Swallow the Sun or Amorphis, among others, and turning it into something of their own. Striking in the true sense of: it feels like being punched. But punched while you hang out on the astral plane.

Kita on Facebook

Kita on Bandcamp

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Embargo, High Seas

Greek fuzz alert! Heavy rocking three-piece Embargo hail from Thessaloniki with their first long-player, High Seas, using winding aspects of progressive metal to create tension in the starts and stops of “Billow,” “EAT” and “Candy” as spoken verses in the latter and “Alanna Finch” draw a line between the moody noise rock of Helmet, the grunge it informed, and the heavy rock that emerged (in part) from that. Running 10 tracks and 44 minutes, High Seas is quick in marking out the smoothness of its low tonality, and it veers into and out of what one might consider aggression in terms of style, “with 22 22” thoughtfully composed and sharply pointed in kind, one of several instrumentals to offset some of the gruffer stretches or a more patient melodic highlight like “Draupner,” which does little to hide its affinity for Soundgarden and is only correct to showcase it. They also finish sans-vocals in the title-track, and there’s almost a letting-loose sense to “High Seas” itself, shaking out some shuffle in the first half before peaking in the second. Greece is among Europe’s most packed and vibrant undergrounds, and with High Seas, Embargo begin to carve their place within it.

Embargo on Facebook

Embargo on Bandcamp

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Emil Bureau, known for fronting Copenhagen psych rockers The Sonic Dawn, has set Sept. 29 as the release date for his second album under his Emile solo moniker, Spirit. The follow-up to 2020’s The Black Spider (review here) promises broader arrangements and collaborations around the self-recording/mixing multi-instrumentalist, who is streaming the subdued but immersive “Circles” as the first audio to come from the record.

Tracked at the proverbial away-from-it-all locale, Spirit boasts 10 songs, and going by the various impressions of the first record and the pair of singles Bureau has issued since, I wouldn’t expect “Circles” to fully represent Spirit from whence it comes, but it is enough to get some idea of tone and atmosphere, and it grows more psychedelic as it moves through its utterly-digestible four-minute span, folkish in a way that reminds particularly of 16 Horsepower or the early work of David Eugene Edwards in Woven Hand. Not a thing about which to complain.

The PR wire has it like this:

Folk and psych rock songwriter EMILE to release new solo album “Spirit” this September 29th on Heavy Psych Sounds; stream first single “Circles”.

Danish psych-folk songwriter EMILE (also frontman of The Sonic Dawn) announces the release of his sophomore album “Spirit” this September 29th on Heavy Psych Sounds Records, and presents a soulful first single with “Circles”.

Danish-French singer and songwriter EMILE is also known for fronting Copenhagen acid rock band The Sonic Dawn. On his new solo effort “Spirit”, Emile unfolds a new and exciting side of his songwriting: each song ebbs and flows effortlessly with a great sense of purpose always centered around his voice and masterful acoustic guitar playing.

On “Spirit”, EMILE is backed by a small ensemble of selected musicians and blackbirds singing the sundown. The lyrics reflect an unpretentious cosmic consciousness simply marveling at existence as it is. “Spirit is about connecting with our surroundings, with nature and the universe. There is beauty in transformation too”, he reminds us. This is a different album from a different singer-songwriter, both surrealistic and easy to understand, accomplished and untamed light and heavy — like the passing of time.

About his new single “Circles”, he comments: “Circles is about expanding horizons and breaking free from tracing one’s own footsteps. About seeking out new experiences traveling, discovering and learning. With an eclectic mix of otherworldly sounds and instruments, it delivers a simple but determined idea: the universe is calling if you just listen.”

All songs were written and performed by Emil Bureau, with additional instruments by Jonas Waaben (percussion), Erik Errka Petersson (Hammond Organ), Morten Grønvad (vibraphone) and Rasmus Miehe Sørensen (flute). It was recorded and produced by Emil Bureau in a beautiful place in the countryside. Mixed by Emil Bureau at The Village Recording (Copenhagen) and mastered by Hans Olsson Brookes in Svenska Grammofon Studion Mastering (Gothenburg). Artwork by Robin Gnista.

EMILE – New album “Spirit”
Out September 29th on Heavy Psych Sounds – PREORDER: https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/shop.htm#HPS284

TRACKLIST:
1. Easy Ride
2. Nocturnal
3. Elegant Spring
4. Heavy Rain
5. Images
6. The Mountains of Cape Creus
7. Circles
8. Thunderbird
9. Wilderness
10. Images (Slight Return)

https://emilecph.bandcamp.com/
https://fb.com/emilecph/
https://www.instagram.com/thehipdimension/

heavypsychsoundsrecords.bandcamp.com
www.heavypsychsounds.com
https://www.facebook.com/HEAVYPSYCHSOUNDS/
https://www.instagram.com/heavypsychsounds_records/

Emile, “Circles”

Emile, “Efterårsblade” single (2022)

One doesn’t even have to click play to hear the original hook of Demon Head‘s “Demon Head” on the ol’, increasingly dusty mental jukebox. The song first appeared on a Danish doom rock traditionalists’ Caligari-issued Demo 2014 tape (review here), and would show up again on the two-songer Winterland (review here) later that year and on side B of their debut album, Ride the Wilderness (review here), in 2015.

It is their quintessential, in some ways defining, work, and in light of that, their revisiting the track to mark their 10th anniversary as a group could hardly be more appropriate. The ‘new’ single comes with the bonus of being made in collaboration with cult legends Coven, whose founding vocalist Jinx Dawson is positioned alongside the band’s own Marcus Ferreira Larsen in the verses and rolling hook. It was killer nine years ago, so it’s not really a surprise “Demon Head” holds up — hasn’t been that long — but the arrangement is creative here and it’s a reminder of how malleable a well-written song can be.

You can see the video at the bottom of this post, and yeah, it’s a little over-the-top with the skull and all that, but there are photos and memories from the band’s decade together, so a sweet undercurrent to the whole thing. Dig it:

Demon Head featuring Jinx Dawson & Coven

Today marks the release of a song that celebrates ten years of life, blood and demon adventures. A completely reimagined version of the very first one we ever wrote, a decade ago this month.

On this recording we are joined by our dear friends Jinx and Coven, Anders M Jørgensen and Brandon.

Thank you all for the support through the years, which has made this whole voyage worthwhile! The second decade looks to begin with a fiery spirit and there is much more to come …

Find the song and David Thelen’s music video by following this link: https://bit.ly/demonhead

The song is also available at our bandcamp as a name-your-price download: https://demonhead.bandcamp.com

Pre-save the single: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/demonhead1/demon-head-feat-jinx-dawson–coven

See you soon at this summer’s festivals!

We remain humbly,
Your Demons

Recorded at No Master’s Voice
Mixed by Flemming Rasmussen at Sweet Silence Studios
Mastered by Magnus Lindberg at VRTKL
Video footage by Kristian Blond Møller, Alex Kercheval and Jess

Guests on this recording:
Jinx Dawson – Vocals
Chris Wild – Guitar solo and vocals
Chris Vaughn Bird – Guitar solo
Alex Kercehval – Zither harp
Brandon Monohaus – Tape echo manipulation
Anders M Jørgensen – Guitar solo

Demon Head line up:
Mikkel Sander Fuglsang – bass
Birk Gjerlufsen Nielsen – guitars
Marcus Ferreira Larsen – vocals
Thor Gjerlufsen Nielsen – guitars
Jeppe Wittus – drums

https://www.facebook.com/Demoncoven/
http://www.instagram.com/demonhead_official/
http://demonhead.bandcamp.com/
https://demonhead.bigcartel.com/
http://www.demonhead.org

Demon Head, “Demon Head” (feat. Jinx Dawson & Coven) official video

[Click play above to stream the premiere of Everyone is Evil by Øresund Space Collective. Album is out tomorrow on Space Rock Productions.]

Fresh jams from Øresund Space Collective, or, depending on the adventure you choose to have with Everyone Is Evil, at least a fresh jam, because even the 2CD version that stretches over two hours long finds its heart in the 64-minute sprawl of the title-track. Divided into three parts and accompanied by the 23-minute “Everyone is Good (Maybe)” as a 2LP  D-side, “Everyone is Evil” is as vast a single procession as the multinational improv heavy space jam conglomerate has ever undertaken in my experience, perhaps taking its horror-ific title from the pulses of synth that bring a vaguely cinematic flourish to “Everyone is Evil Pt. 1” (22:15), but they count it as their 28th studio album — David Graham did the striking cover art — and more to the point, it’s as current a showcase as they have, having been recorded live (as always) at the Portuguese studio Estúdio Paraíso Nas Nuvens by modular synthesist Scott “Dr. Space” Heller in Sept. 2022.

There are nine players involved — personnel has always been somewhat fluid around a central core — and I’ll list them here for record-keeping purposes. As accounted by the band, Everyone is Evil features:

Pär Halje – Synths (4)
Scott “Dr. Space” Heller (Black Moon Circle, Aural Hallucinations, Doctors of Space, etc.) – Modular synth, production, mixing (2, 4)
Jiri Jon Hjorth (Fri Galaxe, Univerzals, etc..) Conga, cymbal and shovel (1), bass (2, 3, 4)
Hasse Horrigmoe (Tangle Edge) – Bass (1), guitar (3, 4)
Mattias Olsson (Ånglagård, etc.) – Drums, guitar, Mellotron (1)
Mogens Pedersen (Univerzals, and others) – Synths and Hammond (1, 2)
Jonathan Segel (Sista Maj, Camper van Beethoven, Hieronymous Firebrain, etc.) – Violin, guitar, mixing (1, 3), mastering
Luis Simões (Saturnia) – Guitar
Tim Wallander (Ozric Tentacles, Agusa) – Drums (4)

Many of these figures will be familiar to those who’ve spent time in Øresund Space Collective‘s e’er spontaneous orbit, as I’m fairly certain all have contributed to the band before. One would fairly call a unit with members of Agusa, Saturnia, Ånglagård, Black Moon Circle and so on a supergroup, but Øresund Space Collective have never been about fanfare; their mission consistent in their efforts to capture creative exploration as it happens and offer it to their audience as organically and as often as possible. As noted, it’s their 28th studio release, and their 40th overall — they say this in the Bandcamp info; but it’s relevant so I’m repeating it here — and that’s not counting the currently-174 show recordings posted as self-bootlegs on Archive.org, dating back to the outfit’s beginnings in 2005. One of the many ways they consult with the traditions of space rock, then, has been productivity.

Fair enough, and I won’t sit here and argue that Everyone is Evil is their greatest accomplishment in 18 years; one might as well use a ruler to measure the solar system in inches. After a few years of archival jams, older pieces edited and finished and brought forth on collections like 2022’s Oily Echoes of the Soul (review here), which was recorded in 2010, or 2021’s Universal Travels (review here), part of what “Everyone is Evil” does is to reposition Øresund Space Collective in the present. I don’t know how much more they might have recorded over the course of the three days they were together, but to their credit, “Everyone is Evil Pt. 1” (22:16), “Everyone is Evil Pt. 2” (23:43) and “Everyone is Evil Pt. 3” (18:40) do function as a single, linear work.

And if it isn’t the jam as it happened, it’s close enough, one movement unfolding into the next and parts coming and going as somebody mimics record scratches on synth about five minutes into “Everyone is Evil Pt. 2,” a long drone rises to prominence after 10 minutes into “Everyone is Evil Pt. 3” signaling the shift into the song’s final stretch, or “Everyone is Good (Maybe)” (23:44) answering the sitar-ish guitar and forward drums of “Everyone is Evil Pt. 1” with a serenity of woven guitar and synth lines, gorgeous and dreamy and allowed to flow as it seems to want. From the subdued beginnings — possibly Simões on that guitar-as-sitar, but he’s by no means alone if it’s him, keys, more guitar, Segel‘s violin soon joining — to its subdued ending, Everyone is Evil is an immersive journey to undertake. Øresund Space Collective are pushing themselves as far out as they’ve gone, and not so much daring the listener to keep up as inviting them into the space being crafted with sound.

I’ve said as much on multiple prior occasions as regards their work, but I am a fan in concept and practice of Øresund Space Collective. In their objective as a group and in the outcome of their efforts, their work is their own with a style and a chemistry that’s vital despite (because of?) the songs’ being made up on the spot, and that they would end up with a piece like “Everyone is Evil Pt. 1,” which drops to gorgeous standalone guitar and synth after eight minutes in, jazzy and fluid as the drums rejoin, or “Everyone is Good (Maybe)” with its follow-the-undulating-waveforms meditative patterns of synth, melodic wash and drone and guitar, is emblematic of the heart and passion that drives all their work, and in more than just the glut of it. While operating in a dimension of time that they seem to have all to themselves, they cast an otherworldly pastoralism — a sunny open field on a planet you just discovered — by which one would be fortunate to be carried along. And is that Rhodes along with the Hammond and guitar at the end of “Everyone is Good (Maybe)?” Could be.

But it’s telling either way how that piece ends on a fade like it could’ve kept going. Because it probably could and maybe did. The CD version includes the two bonus tracks “End of the World as You Thought You Knew It” (9:09), which feels like a snippet in comparison to what comes before it but is joyful in its beat and unfolds gracefully to end up not at all incomplete, and “Floating From Here to There” (29:04), which is an album unto itself with Mellotron sentimentality and plucked violin strings for a touch of class before the swirling synth brings its fadeout and the ultimate conclusion of Everyone is Evil.

The only remaining question is whether or not there’s more from this session [Edit: yes. A fair amount]. It could be that Everyone is Evil with the bonus tracks is everything ‘usable’ that was produced when the group assembled in Portugal early last Fall, or there could be hours of tapes still to be exhumed and properly mixed for release. Not knowing is part of the fun [Edit again: it’s also fun to know], but as a document of the reach of the current incarnation of the project, Everyone is Evil finds Øresund Space Collective at their most expansive, comfortable in musical conversation with each other, and inviting the listener into the room with them as they find the hidden spaces within their collaboration.

Øresund Space Collective on Facebook

Øresund Space Collective on Bandcamp

Øresund Space Collective website

Space Rock Productions website

Danish heavy rockers Sonic Moon will release their debut album, Return Without Any Memory, on Aug. 4 through Olde Magick Records. Well, that’s the headline repeated, so I guess that about covers it, right?

Before you click off to something else, take a second to check out the video for the first single “Give it Time.” It’s a tonally-telling glimpse at where the album — self-recorded after working with a variety of producer/engineers on prior short offerings — is at least in part coming from, and the brooding atmosphere talked about in the announcement below is resonant aurally and visually, but the song still rocks, which is a tougher balancing act than it might seem at first.

If you dig what you hear/see, you’ll also find 2019’s Usually I Don’t Care for Flowers EP below as well at the bottom of this post, courtesy of Sonic Moon‘s Bandcamp, and if you find yourself thinking ‘wasn’t there a Sonic-something-in-the-sky band from Denmark?’ the answer is yes. That’s The Sonic Dawn. Different band. Plenty of room for everybody.

From the PR wire:

Sonic Moon announce debut album on Olde Magick Records

First single “Give It Time” out May 12

After spending the better part of two years unfolding their contrasting and riff-based take on psychedelic stoner rock, Sonic Moon announce their 7-track self-recorded debut album Return Without Any Memory to be released in august 2023 on Olde Magick Records.

The first single Give It Time is out May 12 on all major streaming services. Give It Time introduces the band’s shared feeling of encapsulated loneliness, anger and frustration, all contained within the refined sound produced by the intensive care, effort
and soul that the band fueled the album with.

The single will be released alongside a music video. The video depicts thematics of cold, melancholy, time and decay through a variety of tableaus recorded by the members of the band and assembled by Emil Gam Klinkby. The dark and heavy groove of the first track from the album will be the foundation of what’s to come.

The album is recorded by Sonic Moon, mixed and mastered by Haldor Grunberg at Satanic Audio, and the artwork is designed by Mirkow Gastow.

Tracklisting:
1. The Waters
2. Tying Up The Noose
3. Give It Time
4. Through The Snow
5. Head Under The River
6. Distant
7. Hear Me Now

Releases August 4, 2023.

Sonic Moon is Oliver, Emil, Niclas, Jeppe and Emil

https://sonicmoondenmark.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/sonic.moon/
https://www.facebook.com/SonicMoonDenmark

https://www.facebook.com/oldemagickrecords
https://www.instagram.com/oldemagickrecordsofficial/
https://oldemagickrecords.bandcamp.com/

Sonic Moon, “Give it Time” official video

Sonic Moon, Usually I Don’t Care for Flowers (2019)