The final two acts announced for Esbjerg Fuzztival 2020 are The Goners, the new Salem’s Pot offshoot, and Captain Caravan. From Sweden and Norway, respectively, they’ll head to Denmark in early May to play the two-day festival, which will also be preceded the day before by a free pre-party, at which Australia’s Khan and Sweden’s Stew will accompany a screening of the heavy rock documentary Such Hawks, Such Hounds, which, somewhat oddly, I’ve never seen, aside from the bonus scene with Wino talking about his pepper garden and knowing that Sleep‘s telling of the story of Dopesmoker in the film essentially helped revive their career. But yeah, never seen it. Go figure. I hear good things.

Speaking of good things, the lineup for Esbjerg Fuzztival 2020 in its full-packed-with-band-itude can be seen on the posters below (click to enlarge and then click to shrink again), and the fest put out word that it’s still a go as of now despite current restrictions on travel and some such. Whether there will be any changes ultimately of course depends on the ongoing pandemic, but what the hell doesn’t at this point.

Here’s what they had to say about all of it:

We are thrilled to announce THE GONERS at Fuzztival ’20!

A new fuzz’n’roll band from Sweden with their debut album out in March on the famous RidingEasy Records, Fuzztival is looking to be the band’s first festival appearance. At least we think so! You will probably recognise the unique vocals from the famous Salem’s Pot as well as the approach to songwriting, and we can’t wait to see this band in action!

The temperature are rising in Norway, and we’re positive it’s largely because of the scorching desert riffs of CAPTAIN CARAVAN!

Signed to Cursed Tongue these desert rockers are sure to satiate your thirst for the riff!

Just when you thought it couldn’t get more badass, we go right ahead and do a free pre-party the day before — just because we think you deserve it! Adding Khan and STEW to play as well as screening ‘Such Hawks Such Hounds’ during the day! We’ll have plenty of our Fuzz IPAs on tab as well as a selection of other beer!

Are you psyched yet?!

—

We just wanted to reach out once more to assure everyone: Fuzztival is going ahead as scheduled!

While the next 4 weeks are going to suck for so many bands, fests, and events, right now we have nothing that should indicate that Fuzztival would have to be cancelled.

We get why you ask us, and we get why you’re nervous. We are reaching out to say: Please don’t hesitate buying a ticket. While the pandemic is bad enough, not selling tickets would be so much worse for a small DIY fest as ours.

Stay safe & wash your hands. That apply in general as well. /Thomas & Bo

TICKETS AVAILABLE AT www.fuzztival.com

Huset Esbjerg
May 8+9 2020

https://www.facebook.com/events/2277251089027506/
https://www.facebook.com/esbjergfuzztival/
https://www.fuzztival.com/

The Goners, “World of Decay”

The two-piece Cegvera, with members based in Mexico and the UK, recently announced the release of The Sixth Glare, their new full-length, as well as tour plans. The band will join Vinnum Sabbathi — with whom they share guitarist Gerardo Arias — in the lineup for Esbjerg Fuzztival 2020 in Denmark this May. Does this mean they’re touring together? Wouldn’t be the first time, but of course nothing’s definite at this point from what I’ve seen and not seen.

With the album announcement — part of which you can see below, talking about the record’s environmental theme — Cegvera also unveiled “Red Swarm Beyond,” a new single that showcases some of the atmosphere and severity of impact throughout the offering as a whole. You can stream that at the bottom of the post here and I’ll hope to have more to come on it before it’s out.

Dig it:

Proud to announce the British/Mexican duo Cegvera will grace Fuzztival ’20 with their presence!

Some might recognise one member of Vinnum Sabbathi in this post-doom outfit and remember the split album they made together. Cegvera have a new album out in March, and we can’t wait to doom on with these legends!

Following on from their now sold out split release with Vinnum Sabbathi ‘The Good Earth Is Dying’ in 2018, Cegvera have become a two piece – Gerardo Arias (guitar) and Matt Neicho (drums). The bass duties have been taken on by Gerardo splitting the guitar between guitar and bass amps. A sound that needs to be seen to be believed. ‘The Sixth Glare’ represents the first full-length album that Cegvera has to offer as a duo. Recorded and mixed by Joe Clayton at No Studios (Manchester, UK) and mastered by KB at Testa studio (León, Gto. México).

‘The Sixth Glare’ is a reference to the environmental crisis that we are living through today and the anthropogenic extinction events that are referred by world-renowned scientists as ‘the Sixth Mass Extinction’.

TICKETS AVAILABLE AT www.fuzztival.com

Huset Esbjerg
May 8+9 2020

https://www.facebook.com/events/2277251089027506/
https://www.facebook.com/esbjergfuzztival/
https://www.fuzztival.com/

Cegvera, “Red Swarm Beyond” official video

Good news keeps rolling in from Denmark. Last time out — and by that I mean just last week — it was confirmation that the headliners of Esbjerg Fuzztival 2020 would be no less then countrymen psychedelic masters Causa Sui, and following-up on that, the fest has gone ahead and brought San Diego five-piece Monarch on board to perform. They’re of course on El Paraiso Records, so one can’t help but wonder if they might be doing a few shows around Esbjerg Fuzztival in the company of the aforementioned Causa Sui, who run the label, but one way or the other, they’re keeping excellent company there, as well as with other slated acts like The Whims of the Great Magnet, Hazemaze, fellow San Diegans Sacri Monti (who share Thomas DiBenedetto in their lineup), Japan’s Dhidalah an others.

Not trying to tell anyone how to live their life or anything, but the vibe here seems like it’s going to be pretty insane for these two days, and the getting’s good.

Monarch‘s latest offering was last year’s Beyond the Blue Sky (review here), which was every bit as sweet as whatever pie you want to put it next to.

Here’s what the fest had to say:

Esbjerg Fuzztival 2020 – Monarch

Thrilled to add Monarch to Fuzztival ’20!

In recent years Southern California has proved to be fertile ground for heavy psych, prog and free rock. The amount of excellent bands growing out of the San Diego soil is simply unparalleled. Among the youngest generation of these bands are the five-piece Monarch, a band rooted in psychedelia and experimental prog, with a view towards broader horizons.

There’s something refreshing about Monarch’s take on psychedelic rock: they aren’t afraid to weave allman brothers-esque dual guitar lines with synthesizers and saxophone. They can be heavy, but there’s an unmistakable panoramic quality to their compositions too, reflecting the rich and diverse environment they’ve grown up in, with dazzling pacific coastlines, mountains and desert highways.

TICKETS AVAILABLE AT www.fuzztival.com

Huset Esbjerg
May 8+9 2020

https://www.facebook.com/events/2277251089027506/
https://www.facebook.com/esbjergfuzztival/
https://www.fuzztival.com/

Well that’s only appropriate. Causa Sui headlining Esbjerg Fuzztival 2020 in their native Denmark, on a bill that includes the likes of Dhidalah, Sacri Monti, Vokonis, Hazemaze and Vinnum Sabbathi, among others? Yeah, that makes sense to me.

Given the recent stirrings in the Causa Sui camp — they’ll be at Sonic Whip in the Netherlands as well in May and Høstsabbat in Norway in October — and the fact that their last proper studio LP was Vibraciones Doradas (review here), which came out in 2017, I’m wondering if we won’t get a new record from them sometime this year. They’ve done a few reissues of late, with re-pressed Summer Sessions stuff and Free Ride (review here), but they’re probably due a new record at some point in 2020, if you believe in “due.” Could be the shows are a way of trying new material in front of a crowd, or could be it’s all already hammered out and ready to record, or could be recorded or could be they haven’t yet jammed out a note. We live in a universe of infinite possibilities, friends. Causa Sui‘s music is nothing if not a reminder of that.

I applied to cover Esbjerg Fuzztival 2020. Wrote a bio for myself — which was awkward in a hilarious, absurdist kind of way — as part of a grant application and everything. I haven’t heard anything about it so I’d assume it’s a no-go, and my travel schedule isn’t hurting at this point, but if it had happened, I know Causa Sui would be high on the list of reasons I’d be excited to make the trip. I put the entire El Paraiso Records playlist for the band at the bottom of this post, just to make your day better.

Enjoy:

Causa Sui will HEADLINE Fuzztival 2020!

One of the biggest names in free-form jazz influenced instrumental heavy psych in the world will join our small fest! We’re still celebrating the news, and we imagine that you will too! This party will be absolutely legendary – hope to see you there!

Causa Sui consists of Jakob Skøtt, Jonas Munk, Rasmus Rasmussen and Jess Kahr, and have released eight albums since 2005. The trilogy set Summer Sessions that saw the band move away from the heavy-psych of their two first albums to more abstract, instrumental sounds that owes as much to electric Miles Davis or Can as to american stoner-rock.

Causa Sui’s sound has been described as the sound of a giant wave rolling up through the last four decades of rock.

TICKETS AVAILABLE AT www.fuzztival.com

Huset Esbjerg
May 8+9 2020

https://www.facebook.com/events/2277251089027506/
https://www.facebook.com/esbjergfuzztival/
https://www.fuzztival.com/

The big name here is Sacri Monti, who move to the top billing of the poster for Esbjerg Fuzztival 2020 to rest alongside Vokonis. I don’t know if they’re headlining or what, but if they were, you’d have to believe it, as San Diego is a long plane ride from Denmark. I actually take this to mean the Cali heavy rockers will be back on tour in Europe in the Spring, which seems fair enough, so we’ll have to see where else their name pops up on festival bills and so on. Speaking of traveling significant distances, Slowjoint won’t, as they’re coming from the northern Danish peninsula Jutland, but Earth Tongue are coming all the way from New Zealand, which certainly qualifies, and the same applies to Dhidalah, from Japan.

Four bands, four different countries? Yeah, that kind of seems to be the story of Esbjerg Fuzztival 2020 through its first two lineup announcements. The first announcement had Hazemaze and Vokonis, who are both Swedish, but also Mexico’s Vinnum Sabbathi and Denmark’s own Vestjysk Ørken, who are also involved in organizing the fest, so it’s quite an international assemblage that’s coming together for the lineup. Especially for a festival that, while it’s two days, won’t be massive by the time it’s done if the one that took place earlier this year is anything to go by — that is, it’s not four days/three stages has some other events are, though I think there’s a pre-party, so that could technically be considered a third day if you wanted to push it — it shows an impressive commitment to geographic as well as sonic diversity. They make it easy to dig what they’re doing, and indeed I do.

Looking forward to seeing who else is involved once January comes around. That’s also when tickets go on sale, as they inform:

Second Band Announcement!

Thrilled to add SACRI MONTI from the US to the 2020 line-up as well as Dhidalah from Japan, Earth Tongue from New Zealand and SLOWJOINT fra Jylland! The most ambitious line-up at Fuzztival yet, showcasing the many nuances of the “stoner”-genre. We can’t wait!

Tickets go on sale in January, where we’ll also reveal the next bands!

Huset Esbjerg
May 8+9 2020

https://www.facebook.com/events/2277251089027506/
https://www.facebook.com/esbjergfuzztival/
https://www.fuzztival.com/

Sacri Monti, Live at SonicBlast Moledo 2019

I’ve been through Denmark’s airport, so while my passport has the stamp — and the last time I was there, the guy at the customs counter had some very nice things to say about the photo from 2013 as relates to my current look; they almost always comment or at least give me a second look — I can’t really claim to have ever been there. If I was going to go, a smaller-ish festival like Esbjerg Fuzztival 2020 would be the reason why. The event, put together by members of Vestjysk Ørken, will feature not only that band for another go in its third incarnation, but also Vokonis and fellow Swedes Hazemaze as well as Mexico’s Vinnum Sabbathi, who one assumes will be announcing a European tour any minute now or at very least sometime in the next couple months — you know, before they fly over. That’s usually how these things work. But yeah, even from here I can feel this one being all about the vibe, being chill but heavy, and everyone there being laid back and having a good time.

2019 looked like an utter blast. I’d expect no different from 2020 once it’s finished being built up. Hell, this already looks like fun.

To wit:

ESBJERG FESTIVAL 2020 – FIRST BAND ANNOUNCEMENT!

We are very proud to present the first 4 bands on the poster for 2020!

VOKONIS will travel across the shallow waters from Sweden with a style that ranges from the heavy riffage and vocals of heavy bands such as Baroness to utterly clean Pink Floydish soundscapes, they aim to completely immerse you!

All The way from Mexico Vinnum Sabbathi merges heavy walls of sound with samples from science and sci-fi to create a unique sonic experience!

Also from Sweden Hazemaze will give you all the Sabbath riffs you could ever hope for and so much more! Today also marks their second full album release!

As per tradition (3 times IS a tradition!) we welcome back Vestjysk Ørken to open the festival for us on Friday!

https://www.facebook.com/events/2277251089027506/
https://www.facebook.com/esbjergfuzztival/
https://www.fuzztival.com/

Vestjysk Ørken, Live at Esbjerg Fuzztival 2019