Posted in Questionnaire on March 9th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.
Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.
Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.
The Obelisk Questionnaire: Spencer Robinson from Into the Valley of Death
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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?
I like to say that I make loud music for sad people. I always write different types of music, but with Into the Valley of Death, I ended up writing about a lot of darker stuff. It’s not all doom and gloom, but I started writing songs for the first EP during the early days of Covid, so it was not the happiest of times. I often like to look at the underbelly of something. Whether it’s death, sex, depression, etc., I think it’s interesting to try to come at it from a different perspective than I’m used to seeing commonly reflected.
Describe your first musical memory.
My parents were not musicians, but heavily into music. I was lucky because their tastes were different, so I wasn’t just exposed to one thing. My dad was the Rock ‘N’ Roll fan, and my mom was into soul music. My early memories were equal parts The Beatles, and Sly and The Family Stone. I remember specifically hearing both I Want To Hold Your Hand and Dance To The Music coming from the family turntable.
Describe your best musical memory to date.
I was in a band called The Lords of Altamont that toured a ton, and I was able to play with bands I loved like The Who, The Cramps, Guitar Wolf, The Pixies, and a bunch of others. All of that was amazing, but there was one show where we opened for X in Los Angeles, and that was such a huge deal for me. I grew up in L.A., and X was always a big part of my musical life. It was just really cool to be able to play with a band I’d idolized for so long.
When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?
I actually thought about the answer to this question for two days, and I have to admit that I’m stumped. I’m pretty damn stubborn, so my beliefs aren’t tested all that often. I guess the 2016 election was pretty eye-opening. I kinda thought we were making more progress, and I was proven way wrong there.
Where do you feel artistic progression leads?
Well, if you’re progressing, it always leads to something new, right? It might not be as good as something that came before it, but it’s definitely not the same. I don’t think that every band needs to push into new territory all the time, though. Some of my favorite music is from bands that just did what they did really well, and made a career of that. For me, I try to find new ways to work in the genre of music I’m writing in, and hope that whatever comes out isn’t garbage. I also try writing different types of music. I guess that’s how I progress musically.
How do you define success?
That’s a really interesting question, and I don’t know that I have the exact right answer. I think that success as a musician is tough. Making a living playing Rock ‘N’ Roll these days ain’t easy. I like the look at each thing I try to do, and see if it worked out the way I hoped, or at least some version of it. Like was I successful in recording the song the way I wanted, or playing that show well, etc. I guess that is hopefully the way to keep my brain from going too crazy.
What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?
I once accidentally saw someone giving birth, and it was frightening. I know they say that childbirth is a “miracle,” but it looked like horror movie stuff to me. Needless to say I won’t be having any children.
Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.
In addition to writing all the early songs for the first Into the Valley of Death EP during quarantine, I also started working on a ton of druggy Trip Hop tracks. I have a lot of that stuff just lying around now, and I’d like to make a record in that genre sometime soon. Something that sounds like Portishead and Massive Attack.
What do you believe is the most essential function of art?
I don’t think there is one answer to that question. I guess to entertain is the obvious one, but I just want to make people feel something…anything. I think, if you can illicit an involuntary emotional response (smile, laugh, cry, etc) well that’s pretty powerful.
Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?
I’m getting ready to produce a horror film that will shoot this year. I’ve been working on putting that together for almost 3 years, and it’s just about ready to go, so that’ll be really exciting.
Oh we’re in the thick of it now, make no mistake. Day one? A novelty. Day two? I don’t know, slightly less of a novelty? But by the time you get to day three in a Quarterly Review, you know how far you’ve come and how far you still have to go. In this particular case, building toward 100 records total covered, today passes the line of the first quarter done, and that’s not nothing, even if there’s a hell of a lot more on the way.
That said, let’s not waste time we don’t have. I hope you find something killer in here, because I already have.
Quarterly Review #21-30:
My Diligence, The Matter, Form and Power
The Matter, Form and Power is the third long-player from Brussels’ My Diligence, whose expansive take on melodic noise rock has never sounded grander. The largesse of songs like the Floor-esque “Multiversal Tree” or the choruses in “On the Wire” and the layered post-hardcore screams in “Sail to the Red Light” — to say nothing of the massive nod with which the title-track opens, or the progressively-minded lumbering with which the 10-minute “Elasmotherium” closes — brims with purpose in laying the atmospheric foundation from which the material soars outward. With “Celestial Kingdom” as its centerpiece, the heavy starting far, far away and shifting into an earliest-Mastodon chug as drift and heft collide, there are hints of Cave In in form if not all through the execution — that is, My Diligence cross similar boundaries but don’t necessarily sound the same — such that the growling that populates that song’s second half isn’t so much a surprise as it is a slamming, consuming, welcome advent. Music as a force. As much volume as you can give it, give it.
Their moniker derived from the initials of the three members — bassist/vocalist/synthesist Pietro Brunetti, guitarist/vocalist Claudio Banelli and drummer Carlo Forgiarini — Italian troupe BBF aren’t through I Will Be Found‘s five minute opener “Freedom” before they’ve transposed grunge vibes onto a go-where-it-wants psychedelia from out of an acoustic, bluesy beginning. Garage rock in “Cosmic Surgery,” meditative jamming in “Rise,” and a vast expanse in “T-Rex” that delivers the album’s title line while furthering with even-the-drums-have-echo breadth the psych vibe such that the synthy take of the penultimate “Wake Up” becomes just another part of the procession, its floating guitar met with percussion real and imagined ahead of the bookending acoustic-based closer “Supernova,” which dedicates its last 90 seconds or so to a hidden track comprised entirely of sweet acoustic notes that might’ve otherwise ended up as an interlude but work just as well tucked away as they are. Here’s a band who know the rules and seem to take a special joy in bending if not outright breaking them, drawing from various styles in order to make their songs their own. To say they acquit themselves well in doing so is an understatement.
Progressive and melodic, the fourth album from Iowan trio Druids is nonetheless at times crushingly heavy, and in a longer piece like “Ide’s Koan,” the band demonstrate how to execute a patient, dynamic build, beginning slow and spaced out and gradually growing in intensity until they reach a multi-layered shouting apex. Drew Rauch (bass), Luke Rauch (guitar) and Keith Rich (drums) all contribute vocals at one point or another, and whether it’s in the plodding rock of “Dance of Skulls” or the not-the-longest-track-but-the-farthest-reaching closer “Cloak/Nior Bloom,” their modern prog metal works off influences like Baroness, Mastodon, Gojira, etc., while retaining character of its own through both rhythmic intricacy and its abiding use of melody, both well on display in “Othenian Blood” and the subsequent, drum-intensive “Traveller” alike. “Path to R” starts Shadow Work mellow after the ceremonial build-up of “Aether,” but the tension is almost immediate and Druids‘ telegraphing that the heavy is coming makes it no less satisfying when it lands.
Though it’s spread across two LPs, don’t think of Kandodo4‘s Burning the (Kandl) as an album. Or even a live album, though technically it’s that. You might not know, you might not care, but it’s a historical preservation. ‘The time that thing happened,’ where the thing is Simon Price of The Heads leading a jam under the banner of his Kandodo side-project featuring Robert Hampson of Loop, and bassist Hugo Morgan and drummer Wayne Maskell — who play in both The Heads and Loop — as part of The Heads‘ residency at Roadburn Festival 2015 (review here). I tell you, I was there, and I’ve seen few psychedelic rituals that could compare in flow or letting the music find its own shape(lessness) as it will. Burning the (Kandl) not only has the live set, but the lone rehearsal that the one-off-four-piece did prior to taking stage at Het Patronaat in Tilburg, the Netherlands, that evening. Thus, history. Certainly for the fest, for the players and those who were there, but I like to think in listening to these side-long stretches of expanse upon expanse that all of our great-grandchildren will worship at the altar of this stuff in a better world. Maybe, maybe not, but better to have Burning the (Kandl) ready to go just in case.
The second EP in about nine months from Los Angeles’ Spencer Robinson — operating under the moniker of Into the Valley of Death — the seven-song Ruthless feels very much like a debut album despite a runtime circa 25 minutes. The songs are cohesive in bringing together doom and grunge as they do, and as with the prior Space Age, the lo-fi aspects of the recording become part of the overarching character of the material. Guitars are up, bass is up, drums are likely programmed, vocals are throaty and obscure at least until they declare you dead on “Ghost,” and the pieces running in the three-to-four-minute range have a kind of languid drawl about them that sound purely stoned even as they seem to reach out into the desert after which the project is seemingly named. Robinson, who also played bass in The Lords of Altamont and has another outfit wherein he fronts a full backing band, is up to some curious shit here, and whether or not it was, it definitely sounds like it was recorded at night. I’m not sure where it’s going, and I’m not sure where it’s been, but I know I’ll look forward to finding out.
Enköping, Sweden’s Stuck in Motion issued their 2018 self-titled debut (review here) to due fanfare, and Still Stuck (changed from the working title ‘Ut på Tur,’ which translates, “on tour”) arrives with a brisk reminder why. Jammy in spirit, early singles “Höjdpunkternas Land,” “Lucy” and “På Väg” brim with vitality and a refreshing take on classic heavy rock, not strictly retro, not strictly not, and all the more able to jam and offer breadth around traditional structures as in “I de Blå” for that, weaving their way into and out of instrumental sections with a jazzy conversation between guitars and keys, bass and drums, percussion, and so on. Combined with the melodies of “Tupida,” the heavier tone underlying “Fisken” and the organ-and-synth-laced shuffle of the penultimate “Tung Sol,” there’s a balance between psych and prog — and, on the closing title-track, horns — which are emblematic of an organic style that couldn’t be faked even if the band wanted to try. I don’t know the exact release date for Still Stuck — I thought it was already out when I slated this review — but its eight songs and 40 minutes are like the kind of afternoon you don’t want to end. Sunshine and impossible blue sky.
A blurb posted by Spanish instrumentalists Sageness — also written SageNESS — with the release of Tr3s reads as follows: “The future seen from the past, where another current reality is possible, follow us and we will transfer to a new dimension. (Tr3s),” and fair enough. One could hardly begrudge the trio a bit of escapism in their work, and listening to the 36 minutes across four songs that comprises Tr3s, they do seem to be finding their way into the ‘way out.’ Though if where they’re ending up is 12-minute finale “Event Horizon,” in which the very jam itself seems to be taffy-pulled on a molecular level until the solid bassline and drums dissipate and what takes hold is a freakout of propulsive, drift-toned guitar, I’m not sure if they do or don’t ultimately make it to another dimension. Maybe that’s on the other side? Either way, after the scope of “Greenhouse” and the more plotted-seeming stops of “Spirit Machine,” that end is somewhat inevitable, and we may be stuck in reality for real life, but Sageness‘ fuzzy and warm-toned heavy psychedelic rock makes a reasoned argument for daydreaming the opposite.
You think you’re up for Kaleidobolt, and that’s adorable, but let’s be honest. The Finnish trio — whose head-spinning, too-odd-not-to-be-prog heavy rock makes This One Simple Trick laughable as a title — are on another level. You and me? They’re running circles around us in “Fantastic Corps” and letting the truth about humans be known amid the fuzz of “Ultraviolent Chimpanzee” after the alternately frenetic and spaced “Borded Control,” momentarily stopping their helicopter twirl to “Walk on Grapes” at the album’s finish, but even then they’re walking on grapes on another planet yet to be catalogued by known science. 2019’s Bitter (review here) boasted likewise self-awareness, but This One Simple Trick is a bolder step into their individuality of purpose, and rest assured, they found it. I don’t know if they’re a “best kept secret” or just underrated. However you say it, more people should be aware. Onto the list of 2022’s best albums it goes, and if there are any simple tricks involved here, I’d love to know what they are.
It probably wouldn’t fit on a 7″, but The Tazers‘ Outer Space EP isn’t much over that limit at four songs and 13 minutes. The Johannesburg trio’s melodicism is striking nearly at the outset of the opening title-track, and the fuzz guitar that coincides is no less right on as they touch on psychedelia without ever ranging so much as to lose sight of the structures at work. “Glass Ceiling” boasts a garage-rocking urgency but is nonetheless not an all-out sprint in its delivery, and “Ready to Die” hits into Queens of the Stone Age-esque rush after an acoustic opening and before its fuzzy rampage of a chorus, while “Up in the Air” is a little more psych-funk until solidifying around the repeated lines, “Give me a reason/Show me a sign,” which culminate as the EP’s final plea, like Witch played at 45RPM or your favorite stoner band’s cooler cousin. Four songs, it probably took more effort to put together than they’d like you to think, but the casual cool they ooze is as infectious as the songs themselves.
Bong-worship sludge from London. It’s hard to know the extent to which Obelos — which for some reason my fingers have trouble typing correctly — are just fucking around, but their dank, lurching riffs, throaty screams and slow-motion crashes certainly paint a picture anyhow. Paint it green, with maybe some little orange or purple flecks in there. Interludes “Paranoise” and “Holy Smokes” bring harsh noise and a kind of improvised-feeling, also-quite-noisy chicanery, but the primary impression in Green Giant‘s six tracks/27 time-bending minutes is of nodding, couchlocked stoner crush, and I wouldn’t dare ask anything more of it than that. Neither should you. I’d argue this is an album rather than the EP it’s categorized as being, since it flows and definitely gets its point across in a full-length manner, but I’m not even gonna fight the band on that because they might break out a 50-minute record or some shit and, well, I’m just not sure I’m ready to get that high this early in the morning. Might have to reserve an entire day for that. Which might be fun, too.
Los Angeles-based solo outfit Into the Valley of Death self-released its debut EP, Space Age, last Fall, and the five-songer has been newly picked up for release through Atlanta’s Doomsayer Records. The project is spearheaded by Spencer Robinson, also known for his bass work in The Lords of Altamont and for playing/recording with his backing band, The Wolf Spiders. On Space Age, he is on his own with what might be programmed drums pretty deep in the mix and very-much-real thickened guitar strumming at the forefront.
Doesn’t sound like anything too fancy, I know, but that balance — guitars up, drums down — turns out to be crucial in the EP’s overall affect. A song like opener “Leeches” or the centerpiece “Strip” present a vision of desert-style heavy rock redone in the methodology of bedroom solo folk. Where others might try to ape the sound of a full band, Into the Valley of Death does everything a band does — “100 Feet Tall,” with the video premiering below, proves that handily enough — but with the mellow-gruff vocal delivery casting shades of Mark Lanegan and the often stark instrumental spaces, Space Age sounds like it’s a one-person offering. The resulting vibe is intimate but not minimalist, tripped out and exploring but based on solid footing. Second cut “Under the Ground” has a march that would work on stage, and “Leeches” might too, if in more grumbly fashion, but the more languid moments feel geared toward something else entirely. They are what they are.
Rock gets the last word as “Malice” rounds out the 18-minute IPO with more uptempo riffing and a daring bit of rhythmic shake, but already the brooding sensibility has resulted in a style richer than just one thing and richer too than the rawness of the production might at first lead one to believe. In the video for “100 Feet Tall,” Robinson mines the public domain to discover animated footage from the 1982 Korean film, Raiders of Galaxy (yes, I asked; that is not information I could just pull out my ass), which, if you’re interested in reading about the politics of post-war importing of cultural products between Asian nations, offers some fodder for that. Mostly when it comes to the clip for “100 Feet Tall,” it’s got giant robots. Accordingly, you could only really say it’s on theme.
According to Doomsayer, there’s a follow-up EP in the works. Until then, the full Space Age EP is streaming near the bottom of this post, and you can see and hopefully enjoy the “100 Feet Tall” video below.
Right about here:
Into the Valley of Death, “100 Feet Tall” video premiere
Spencer Robinson on “100 Feet Tall”:
100 Feet Tall: Have you ever ingested something that mistakenly made you feel bigger than life? Invincible? That’s what 100 Feet Tall is about.
We are excited to announce and welcome Into The Valley Of Death into the Doomsayer fold. Our hope in this partnership is to gain more eyes and ears for the hardworking efforts of Into The Valley Of Death.
They have already been writing and working on a new EP, which will find its home here with us. So go experience “Space Age” and get familiar with them before the EP drops.
Into The Valley of Death is Los Angeles Stoner Metal. Taking their cue from the bands of the low desert, Doom Metal, and Psychedelic Garage, Into The Valley Of Death creates something dark and heavy, druggy and trippy.
Posted in Whathaveyou on September 29th, 2017 by JJ Koczan
Birmingham, Alabama, post-sludge doomers Ember will follow-up their 2016 261 EP (discussed here) by upping the stakes. By 10, apparently. The forthcoming release is titled 271 and it’s set to arrive on Nov. 12. Before they get there, Ember have a handful of dates booked in throughout October in Alabama and Georgia, including what I’m assuming is a video filming session in Tuscaloosa on Oct. 14 that will be for one of the tracks from the new EP. It’s listed with the shows, but seems to maybe be at a hospital?
Yeah, you might want to hit the band up to find out if that one’s actually open to the public, but I’ve included it here just in case. Maybe they want a crowd to show up. I don’t know. Either way, while I’m making rash assumptions, I’ll just go ahead and figure the gig on Nov. 12 — EP release date, if you forgot in the jump from one paragraph to the next — is a hometown release show. So if you can’t make it to the hospital, there’s always The Nick. Plenty of chances to have a good time.
They sent the following info down the PR wire:
EMBER announce release date for “271”
Birmingham, Alabama’s female fronted Doom/Rock outfit EMBER announce the official release of the 3 song EP “271”. The release is set for November 12th, 2017 and promises to be the band’s most focused and uncompromising material yet. Recorded, mixed and mastered by Matt Washburn at Ledbelly Sound (Mastodon, Royal Thunder, Norma Jean) this 3 song EP is a 25 minute musical journey through a dark myriad of peaks and valleys.
EMBER has imaginatively combined their vast influences to give us a hard-hitting and powerful follow-up. “271” is promising and incorporates new elements while staying true to the EMBER sound they established on their previous release “261”.
EMBER was established in 2015 and have crafted their own brand of doom/rock. Thick dynamic riffs, crushing guitar and bass tones, powerful hard-hitting drumming, all lay the framework for clean, intense and stunning vocals. From the first note, EMBER demand attention.
EMBER live: 11 Oct The Nick Birmingham, AL 14 Oct Bryce Hospital Video Shoot Tuscaloosa, AL 28 Oct The Oglethorpe Lounge Albany, GA 12 Nov The Nick Birmingham, AL
Ember is: Crystal Bigelow – Vocals Craig Shadix – Guitar Jeremy Allen – Bass Eric Bigelow – Drums
Posted in Whathaveyou on November 29th, 2016 by JJ Koczan
I’m not sure which numbers to follow, but Ember have either been a band for five years or for one year. 2011 or 2015. I can admit it when I don’t know something. For what it’s worth, the Birmingham, Alabama, dual-guitar five-piece are getting ready to release their debut three-song EP, given the mysterious numerical banner of 261 — which I’m sure is either an apartment number or of some cultish significance that an earthly rube like me could never truly comprehend — and that seems to be the first thing they’ve put together, period, so their having gotten started last year would make more sense. Deduction! I’m probably wrong. Every time I try to fucking think about anything, it’s wrong.
However long they’ve been together, the Crowbar-style crunch that underlies the melodic vocals and post-metallic flourish of the streaming track “Living Bones / Dying Flesh” is just about soul-wrenching enough to suit my spirits this afternoon. If you’re also dug into that special early-week blend of misanthropic and wistful, by all means have at the nine-minute cut under the info below, which comes from the PR wire:
Birmingham, Alabama based Doom / Heavy Rock outfit EMBER are set to release their debut EP, “261”, via Doomsayer Records on December 1st 2016.
261 was forged by Crystal Bigelow (Vocals), Eric Bigelow (Drums), Jeremy Allan (Bass), Justin Treece (Rhythm Guitar) and Jon Reid (Lead Guitars) – have combined their efforts into this explosive, hard hitting album. Recorded by Eric Watters (Beitthemeans & Stoned Cobra) and mastered by Matt Washburn at Ledbelly Sound (Mastodon, Norma Jean & GZA of Wu Tang).
EMBER perfectly blends heavily dynamic riffs with dual guitar textures, solid, no holds barred drumming and vocals that are beautifully haunting and unparalleled. Ember will be supporting this EP throughout the Southern USA in 2017.
The full track list of “261” 1. 7TH CIRCLE 2. NICHE 3. LIVING BONES / DYING FLESH
Artwork by: Eric Bigelow
EMBER is: Crystal – Vocals Justin – Guitar Eric – Drums Jon – Guitar Jeremy – Bass
