Posted in Whathaveyou on March 13th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
I saw Kadabra one time a couple years ago, and you know what my first thought was when their set was finished? “Wow, I need to see this band again.” That was Psycho Las Vegas, and the Washington trio were supporting their first album, Ultra (review here), which came out on Heavy Psych Sounds in 2021.
Last year’s follow-up, Umbra (review here, also discussed here), outdid its predecessor on just about all fronts, sharpening the songcraft while expanding the sound, touching on garage doom and psych and stoner rock and cult horror and so on with a clarity of purpose in the mood of the material that was even more their own. It was number seven in my 2023 top 10, and it hasn’t gotten any less repeat-listenable since then in my experience.
This tour draws together previously announced confirmations for Maximum Festival, Desertfest Oslo, Desertfest London, and the two-night Heavy Psych Sounds Fest in Trieste and Bologna, Italy, and there are still some open dates if you can help out.
Dates as per the label’s socials:
*** KADABRA – European Tour 2024 ***
Hey all, we are stoked to announce that our fuzznrollerz KADABRA will tour Europe in May !!! STILL FEW OPEN SLOTS
*** KADABRA European Tour 2024 *** TH. 25.04.24 IT PESCARA – SCUMM FR. 26.04.24 IT SAVONA – RAINDOGS SA. 27.04.24 IT ZERO BRANCO – MAXIMUM FESTIVAL SU. 28.04.24 HR ZAGREB – MOCVARA TU. 30.04.24 IT BOLZANO – PIPPO STAGE WE. 01.05.24 IT MANTOVA – ARCI TOM TH. 02.05.24 ***OPEN SLOT FR. 03.05.24 IT TRIESTE – HPS FEST SA. 04.05.24 IT BOLOGNA – HPS FEST SU. 05.05.24 ***OPEN SLOT*** MO.06.05.24 ***OPEN SLOT*** TU. 07.05.24 ***OPEN SLOT*** WE. 08.05.24 DE MÜNSTER – RARE GUITAR TH. 09.05.24 NL AMSTERDAM – DE TANKER FR. 10.05.24 NO OSLO – DESERTFEST SA. 11.05.24 ***OPEN SLOT*** SU. 12.05.24 UK SHEFFIELD – YELLOW ARCH STUDIO MO. 13.05.24 ***OPEN SLOT*** TU. 14.05.24 UK BRIDGWATER – THE COBBLESTONES WE. 15.05.24 UK DERBY – THE HAIRY DOG TH. 16.05.24 UK LEEDS – BOOM FR. 17.05.24 UK BRISTOL – THE GRYPHONE SA. 18.05.24 ***OPEN SLOT*** SU. 19.05.24 UK LONDON – DESERFEST TU. 21.05.24 ***OPEN SLOT*** WE. 22.05.24 ***OPEN SLOT*** TH. 23.05.24 ***OPEN SLOT*** FR. 24.05.24 FR NICE – ALTHERAX MUSIC SA. 25.05.24 IT TORINO – BLAH BLAH SU. 26.05.24 IT ROMA – GLITCH
Kadabra formed during the dark days of 2020 and were quickly signed by Heavy Psych Sounds, who released Ultra in the fall of 2021 and established the band’s penchant for delivering crushing doom riffs and haunting vocals accentuated by bursts of psychedelic flair and swampy Americana swagger. And while the chemistry of long-time friends Garrett Zanol (guitar/vocals), Ian Nelson (bass) and Chase Howard (drums) was apparent upon listening to their debut, their bond was further strengthened by relentlessly touring the western United States and completing a month-long tour of Europe.
The trio almost immediately began looking forward, road-testing and crystalizing the songs that would comprise their follow-up, which found the band reuniting with Ultra producer Dawson Scholz. The result is Umbra: a singular statement that is more focused and cohesive than its predecessor, while managing to capture the immersive, free-flowing experience of their live show. Umbra was released on October 6 via Heavy Psych Sounds Records.
KADABRA is: Garrett Zanol (Vocals/Guitar) Ian Nelson (Bass) Chase Howard (Drums)
Mario Lalli and the Rubber Snake Charmers hit Australia in the company of Stöner in Fall 2022, and their debut full-length, Folklore From the Other Desert Cities, was recorded on Sunday, Nov. 5 at Mo’s Desert Clubhouse. The show was featured on a streaming series called ‘Desert TV’ the audio issued on notably-limited cassette through Northern Haze before the band — spearheaded of course by namesake Mario Lalli, of Fatso Jetson, Yawning Man, etc. — signed on to release it March 29 through Heavy Psych Sounds. There are differences from the set video/live tape to the four-song/38-minute Folklore — some editing to let it flow as an album and shape songs, the mix/master from Mathias Schneeberger, etc. — and the result is an engrossing, sometimes lush, sometimes spacious, exploration of desert psychedelics. Lalli himself holds down bass in place of Nick Oliveri, who’d have been on the tour as part of Stöner but for visa issues as frontman/lead-poet Sean Wheeler informs at one point while introducing the band, and Brant Bjork and Ryan Güt, both also of Stöner, rounded out the lineup on guitar and drums, respectively.
I was lucky enough to see the semi-conjoined outfits together in Sept. 2022 (review here) before they headed Down Under, and the setup was much the same. That night, it was Lalli, Wheeler and all three members of Stöner on stage to jam, hypnotize, reach into the ether and give Wheeler‘s desert-punk bohème proclamations the textural setting they deserve. The Rubber Snake Charmers took the stage first and Stöner closed out. Super-casual. And the who-knows-where-we-might-end-up-but-let’s-go approach of the project that was so vivid that night in Jersey resonates in the loose sway and swing throughout Folklore From the Other Desert Cities, which transitions mid-jam between “Creosote Breeze” and “Swamp Cooler Reality” (note the video for the latter premiering below), mid-lyric between “Other Desert Cities” and “The Devil Waits for Me,” and puts its side flip between two standalone spoken lines from Wheeler. Clearly the intention is that the album should be taken as a whole — said the dude premiering a single track; I take what I can get — and it has more than enough fluidity between its two sides to support that experience. You can get lost in it, and I’m not about to tell you that you shouldn’t.
Some crowd noise at the outset of “Creosote Breeze” places you in the room, but a humming e-bow guitar and underlying drone silence most of the conversation. Güt gives a quick cymbal wash and they shift to a meditative riff laid out by Lalli as their true launch point. What unfurls from there does so with a chemistry that shouldn’t shock anyone familiar with the players involved — Bjork and Lalli‘s storied history in the Californian desert scene, Güt‘s near-decade drumming with Bjork between Stöner and Bjork‘s solo band, and Wheeler‘s long involvement with the Palm Springs weirdo underground in fronting Throw Rag, and so on — but they’re not so much riding pedigree here as they are pushing themselves outward, and that’s the whole point. This record, this amorphous band, wouldn’t exist without the creative passion that so clearly fuels it. The chance to tap something not yet known and see what you can make. That first riff in “Creosote Breeze” is almost surprising with a kind of brooding vibe, but they open it up cosmic and are funky long before the eight-plus minutes allotted to the track are done.
Schneeberger is credited with keys, and as the band settles into a roll before the guitar steps back circa 6:40 to let Wheeler start his next spoken recitation — he weaves back and forth between singing and spoken word, and it’s not always perfect and that’s why it works — they seem indeed to be dubbed in as part of the molten wash, but that feels fair enough for Folklore From the Other Desert Cities being based on a live set and presented as the band’s debut album. It’s not supposed to be easy to categorize outside of itself. You might say that’s how ‘desert rock’ happened in the first place; it wasn’t already another thing. “Creosote Breeze” entrances and “Swamp Cooler Reality,” mid-groove at its outset, finds its own way to build on that movement. Standout lines from Wheeler give impressionistic visions in rhythm as Bjork clicks on the wah and the drive gets accordingly funkier. They’ll mellow out a few minutes later, as one would expect, but that’s fleshed out with synth or other effects and some self-gathering-style meander comes together around the bass and drums to an open but satisfying finish of its own, “Other Desert Cities” kicking in either immediately or after the platter flip, depending how you’re listening.
But the vibe is set and the this-night incarnation of Mario Lalli and the Rubber Snake Charmers carry it through to the finish of “The Devil Waits for Me,” Wheeler steering them into a desert-themed take on the blues classic “In the Pines” that allows for no sleep whatsoever. The longer-form trip they’re on in terms of the whole set has plenty of space for that kind of thing, but it’s not like they’re doing a cover or something — it’s the immediate pursuit of inspiration and the moment captured in the recording. A thing that happened that day. A short while later, in “The Devil Waits for Me,” they seem to purposefully submerge in volume, fuzz and the underlying earthy groove, but not before the whole Gold Coast crowd gets invited back to L.A. for what one assumes would be a party worth the requisite travel.
If you didn’t see them on the tour that produced Folklore From the Other Desert Cities, the recording represents well the untethered spirit that seems to be at heart in Mario Lalli and the Rubber Snake Charmers and expands on it in how the material is delivered structurally and sonically. At the same time it’s their debut, it’s also right in its moment, and by it’s very nature, whatever Lalli and not-necessarily-the-same-company do next will likewise stand on its own. What one wonders is if how much Mario Lalli and the Rubber Snake Charmers appreciate that they themselves are part of the folklore they’re portraying, even in this new form and modus, just by getting together and weirding out. Hasn’t that always been the idea?
Enjoy the video for “Swamp Cooler Reality” below, followed by more info from the PR wire:
Mario Lalli and the Rubber Snake Charmers, “Swamp Cooler Reality” premiere
The first release from this band of pioneering Desert rock musicians captures the band and its purest form exercising the desert born ethic and approach of rock improvisation, psychedelic and flowing, heavy and explorative.
Tracklisting: 1. Creosote Breeze 2. Swamp Cooler Reality 3. Other Desert Cities 4. The Devil Waits For Me
Recorded live at Mo’s Desert Clubhouse, Gold Coast Australia by Guy Cooper and mixed and mastered by Mathias Schneeberger at Donner & Blitzen Studios, California. The band’s first release features BRANT BJORK, SEAN WHEELER, RYAN GUT and MARIO LALLI, capturing the band in a engaging special performance in Gold Coast Australia.
The album will be issued on March 29th on vinyl, CD and digital via Heavy Psych Sounds. Enjoy!
MARIO LALLI & THE RUBBER SNAKE CHARMERS is: Mario Lalli – bass and vocal Sean Wheeler – vocals and poetry Brant Bjork – Guitar Ryan Güt – Drums Mathias Schneeberger – keys
Mario Lalli and the Rubber Snake Charmers, Folklore From the Other Desert Cities (2024)
This Friday, March 8, marks the arrival of Hijss‘ debut album, Stuck on Common Ground, which is many things throughout its varied 10 tracks but pointedly not stuck and well removed from common ground in terms of style. Issued through Heavy Psych Sounds, the first offering from the Northern Italian three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Alexander “Lois Lane” Ebner, bassist/synthesist Heinrich Pan and drummer Maurice Bellotti (also Deadsmoke), is both strikingly ambitious and admirably low-key about it.
It’s an aural meld they call “cosmic grunge,” which is a tag I’ve used here as descriptor for acts like Hijss‘ labelmates Oreyeon, as well as Sun Voyager, Terry Gross, and a couple others over the years, but that doesn’t necessarily encapsulate the totality of what they do. Following the loose-swing-into-emergent-push of opener “Ingraved” — and mind you I’ve seen the band’s name, album and track titles in both all-caps and all-lowercase, so I’m writing it normal because perhaps the situation is fluid, which actually fits the record’s character well — the modern heavy space boogie of “1234me” solidifies around its bassline and dug-in drumming, guitar and vocals in their own place until the harder tone kicks in and is consuming. Like side B leadoff, “1234me” was a prior single, posted by the trio in 2021 — the tracks have been taken down, but I was assuming they’d re-recorded them for the LP, which was engineered, mixed and mastered by Toni Quiroga and co-produced by the band — and its rhythmic urgency serves as preface to the quirky, krauty bounce in “Train Tracks” supplemented with synth, as well as the motorik vibing in “Narcolepsy” or even the lighter post-punk resonance around the three-minute mark in “Black Disease.”
Drawing the material together is an organic-but-not-necessarily-low-fi production that sits Ebner‘s throaty vocals over Pan‘s blunt-object-impact low end, and that allows for “Headless Blues” to chug in its sneaky linear build like a ’90s downer before its payoff offers a brief moment of shimmering expanse. Hijss broaden the album’s atmospherics further with the drifting “Interlude #1” on side A, with a melancholy contemplation of standalone guitar, and “Interlude #2” on side B, on which Pan joins and some backing drone lingers behind before sweeping into the penultimate “Blow Out,” but they’re hardly so compartmentalized or otherwise rigid that the swaying “Ingraved” doesn’t also serve as a whole-album intro while establishing the punker undercurrent noted in the PR wire info below — consider the vocal delivery and some of the shove in the riffier sections, even coated in effects as they may be — and six-minute capper “Tilt Mode” doesn’t feel like a corresponding summary of the record’s scope at the finish. It doesn’t always sound like it, which is part of the appeal, but there’s a plan at work in each of these pieces and in the flow of their arrangement on the LP itself.
Modern in their point of view lyrically as well as in the transmogrification of space rock and terrestrial tonal heft — I don’t know if they’d get lumped in the post-KingGizzard, post-Slift spheres, but maybe; they strike me as mellower on the whole — Hijss offer the assessment, “Everyone is socializing but human contact is very rare,” in semi-spoken fashion on “Black Disease.” It’s a standout line cleverly marking one of the ironies of our age in the loneliness that can take hold when interpersonal communication becomes a mass broadcast instead of a conversation, the effect of social media on discourse, culture and mental health. “Black Disease” doesn’t linger or grow indulgently philosophical, instead hitting its mark and then drifting out, and is just one of the places Hijss go sonically, but gives timely relevance to correspond to a style drawing from decades’ worth of influences, including those from punk rock.
As “Blow Out” offers the tightest instance of songcraft and “Tilt Mode” the most spacious back-to-back at the record’s finish, I’m not ready to call Hijss settled really on any level, and in the context of the songs I mean it as a compliment. They’re exploring here, and accordingly Stuck on Common Ground is an adventure to undertake, manageable at 36 minutes, and I’m sure when they follow it up either in five years or five months from now (it really could go either way; time is fun pretend) one will be able to hear the foundations of their progression in hindsight with these songs, but I’m not about to hazard a guess as to where they’re headed or how the intention here will shake out subsequently. Which is exciting. It’s the beginning point of an excursion into the unknown, and Hijss bring immediate, stark individuality in a complex aesthetic that feels most traditional in its spirit of defying tradition. Maybe that doesn’t make sense now, but it might if you listen. Be ready to contradict your expectations.
And if you made it through reading the above, thanks. Looking back at it, I interrupted myself a lot there and kind of jumped around, but Hijss have that restless energy too, within and between its songs. Makes its own kind of sense. I’ll take the lesson and try to do the same.
If you’re up for it, Stuck on Common Ground premieres in full below, followed by more from the aforementioned PR wire.
Stuck on common ground is the debut album of the Italian Power Trio hijss.
With a mixture of heavy blues influenced riffs and synthesized Krautrock parts hijss tries to create a high dynamic range that will keep your attention at all time. On top of gritty basslines and ferocious drums lie cosmic guitars, tantalizing vocals and arpeggiated electronic drones. All three band members come from a vast musical background. Their common denominator is without a doubt a punkish attitude.
The album was produced by Toni Quiroga and hijss, drums were recorded at Nologo Recording Studio, Laives by “holy barbarian” Fabio Sforza. Engineered, mixed and mastered at accept productions by Toni Quiroga, album cover by Luca Guarino.
TRACKLIST
SIDE A INGRAVED – 02:48 1234 ME – 04:37 HEADLESS BLUES – 03:12 INTERLUDE #1 – 02:30 TRAIN TRACKS – 04:08
SIDE B NARCOLEPSY – 04:19 BLACK DISEASE – 04:14 INTERLUDE #2 – 00:56 BLOW OUT – 03:43 TILT MODE – 06:12
CREDITS Composer Name: Alexander Ebner, Heinrich Pan, Maurice Bellotti Songwriter: Alexander Ebner Producer: accept productions, Toni Quiroga & hijss Label: Heavy Psych Sounds Records Recorded: drums at Nologo Recording Studio, Laives (BZ) by “holy barbarian” Fabio Sforza Engineer: accept productions, Toni Quiroga Mixed: accept productions, Toni Quiroga Mastered: accept productions, Toni Quiroga Cover Artwork: Luca Guarino
HIJSS is Lois Lane – guitar/vocals Maurice – drums Pan – bass/synth
So this is it, but before we — you and I, not at the same time but together nonetheless — dive into the final 10 records of this well-still-basically-winter-but-almost-spring-and-god-damn-I-wish-winter-was-over Quarterly Review, how about a big, deep breath, huh? There. In occupational therapy and other teach-you-how-to-keep-your-shit-together circles, deep breathing is spoken of like it’s a magic secret invented in 1999, and you know what, I think it was. That shit definitely didn’t exist when I was a kid. Can be helpful though, sometimes, if you need just to pause for a second, literally a second, and stop that rush in your brain.
Or my brain. Because I’m definitely talking about me and I’ve come to understand in time not everyone’s operates like mine, even aside from whatever I’ve got going on neurologically, sensorially, emotionally or in terms of mental health. Ups and downs to that, as regards human experience. There are a great many things that I’m useless at. This is what I can do, so I’m doing it. Put your head down, keep working. I can do that. 10 records left? Easy. You might say I did the same thing yesterday, and that was already my busiest day, so this is gravy. And gravy, in its various contexts, textures, tastes, and delivery modes, is delicious. I hope you heard something new this week that you enjoyed. If not yet, there’s still hope.
Quarterly Review #41-50:
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Megaton Leviathan, Silver Tears
I’ll confess that when I held this spot for groundfloor now-Asoria, Oregon, dronegazers Megaton Leviathan, I was thinking of their Dec. 2023 instrumental album, Magick Helmet, with its expansive and noisy odes to outsider experimentalism of yore, but then founding principal Andrew James Costa Reuscher (vocals, guitars, synth, bass, etc.) announced a new lineup with the rhythm section of Alex Wynn (bass) and Tory Chappell (drums) and unveiled “Silver Tears” as the first offering from this new incarnation of the band, and its patient, swirling march and meditative overtones wouldn’t be ignored, however otherwise behind I might be. Next to Magick Helmet, “Silver Tears” is downright straightforward in its four-plus minutes, strong in its conveyance of an atmosphere that’s molten and maybe trying to get lost in its own trance a bit, which is fair enough for the hypnotic cast of the song’s ending. The lesson, as ever with Megaton Leviathan, is that you can’t predict what they’ll do next, and that’s been the case since their start over 15 years ago. One assumes the new lineup will play live and that Reuscher will keep pushing into the ether. Beyond that, they could head anywhere and not find a wrong direction.
They put their own spin on it, of course, but there’s love at heart in Merlin‘s take on the classic “Let’s All Go to the Lobby” jingle that serves as the centerpiece of Grind House, and indeed, the seven-song late-2023 long-player unfolds as an intentional cinematic tribute, with “Feature Presentation” bringing the lights down with some funkier elevator vibes before “The Revenger” invents an ’80s movie with its hook alone, “Master Thief ’77” offers precisely the action-packed bassline and wah you would hope, “Endless Calamity” horror-soundtracks with keyboard, “Blood Money” goes west with due Dollars Trilogy flourish, and the 12-minute “Grindhouse,” which culls together pieces of all of the above — “Let’s All Go to the Lobby” included — and adds a voiceover, which even though it doesn’t start with “In a world…” sets its narrative forth with the verve of coming attractions, semi-over-the-top and thus right on for where Merlin have always resided. Interpreting movie music, soundtracks and the incidental sounds of the theater experience, isn’t by any means the least intuitive leap the Kansas City four-piece could make, and the ease with which they swap one style for another underscores how multifaceted their sound can be while remaining their own. If you get it, you’ll get it.
After what seem to have been a couple more group-oriented full-lengths and an initial solo EP, Minsk-based heavy rockers Stonerhenge seem to have settled around the songwriting of multi-instrumentalist Serge “Skrypa” Skrypničenka. The self-released Gemini Twins is the third long-player from the mostly-instrumental Belarusian project, though the early 10-minute cut “The Story of Captain Glosster” proves crucial for the spoken word telling its titular tale, which ties into the narrative derived Gemini myth and the notion of love as bringing two halves of one whole person together, and there are other vocalizations in “Time Loop” and “Hypersleep,” the second half of “Starship Troopers,” and so on, so the songs aren’t without a human presence tying them together as they range in open space. This is doubly fortunate, as Skrypničenka embarks on movements of clear-eyed, guitar-led progressive heavy exploration, touching on psychedelia without getting too caught up in effects, too tricky in production, or too far removed from the rhythm of the flowing “Solstice” or the turns “Over the Mountain” makes en route its ah-here-we-are apex. Not without its proggy indulgences, the eight-song/46-minute collection rounds out with “Fugit Irreparable Tempus,” which in drawing a complete linear build across its five minutes from clean tone to a distorted finish, highlights the notion of a plot unfolding.
Guiltless make their debut with the four songs of Thorns on Neurot Recordings, following on in some ways from where guitarist, vocalist, noisemaker and apparent-spearhead Josh Graham (also ex-Battle of Mice, Red Sparowes, Neurosis visuals, etc.) and guitarist/more-noisemaker Dan Hawkins left off in A Storm of Light, in this case recording remotely and reincorporating drummer Billy Graves (also Generation of Vipers) and bringing in bassist Sacha Dunable, best known for his work in Intronaut and for founding Dunable Guitars. Gruff in the delivery vocally and otherwise, and suitably post-apocalyptic in its point of view, “All We Destroy” rumbles its assessment after “Devour-Collide” lays out the crunching tonal foundation and begins to expand outward therefrom, with “Dead Eye” seeming to hit that much harder as it rolls its wall o’ low end over a detritus-strewn landscape no more peaceful in its end than its beginning, with subsequent closer “In Radiant Glow” more malleable in tempo before seeming to pull itself apart lurching to the finish. I’d say I hope our species ultimately fares a bit better than Thorns portrays, but I have to acknowledge that there’s not much empirical evidence to base that on. Guiltless play these songs like an indictment.
The latest check-in from the dimension of Italian four-piece MR.BISON, Echoes From the Universe is the band’s most realized work to-date. It’s either their third LP or their fifth, depending on what counts as what, but where it sits in the discography is second to how much the effort stands out generally. Fostering a bright, lush sound distinguished through vocal harmonies and arrangement depth, the seven-song collection showcases the swath of elements that, at this point, has transcended its influence and genuinely found a place of its own. Space rock, Elderian prog, classic harmonized melody, and immediate charge in “The Child of the Night Sky” unfold to acoustics kept going amid dramatic crashes and the melodic roll of “Collision,” with sepia nostalgia creeping into the later lines of “Dead in the Eye” as the guitar becomes more expansive, only to be grounded by the purposeful repetitions of “Fragments” with the last-minute surge ending side A to let “The Promise” fade in with bells like a morning shimmer before exploring a cosmic breadth; it and the also-seven-minute “The Veil” serving as complement and contrast with the latter’s more terrestrial swing early resolving in a an ethereal wash to which “Staring at the Sun,” the finale, could just as easily be referring as to its own path of tension and release. I’ve written about the album a couple times already, but I wanted to put it here too, pretty much just to say don’t be surprised when you see it on my year-end list.
You’d figure with the slash in its title, the split release pairing UK sludge upstarts At War With the Sun and Slump, who are punk-prone on “Dust” and follow the riff on “Kneel” to a place much more metal, would break down into two sides between ‘SP’ and ‘LIT,’ but I’m not sure either At War With the Sun‘s “The Garden” (9:54) or the two Slump inclusions, which are three and seven minutes, respectively, could fit on a 7″ side. Need a bigger platter, and fair enough for holding the post-Eyehategod disillusioned barks of “The Garden” and the slogging downer groove they ride, or the way Slump‘s two songs unite around more open verses, the guitar dropping out in the strut of “Dust” and giving space to vocals in “Kneel,” even as each cut works toward its own ends stylistically. The mix on Slump‘s material is more in-your-face where At War With the Sun cast an introverted feel, but you want to take the central message as ‘Don’t worry, England’s still miserable,’ and keep an eye to see where both bands go from here as they continue to develop their approaches, I don’t think anyone’ll tell you you’re doing it wrong.
They know it’s gonna get brutal, the listener knows it’s gonna get brutal, and Massachusetts riff rollers Leather Lung don’t waste time in getting down to business on Graveside Grin, their awaited, middle-fingers-raised debut full-length on Magnetic Eye Records. An established live act in the Northeastern US with a sound culled from the seemingly disparate ends of sludge and party rock — could they be the next-gen inheritors of Weedeater‘s ‘ I don’t know how this is a good time but it is’ character? time will tell — the 40-minute 11-songer doesn’t dwell long in any one track, instead building momentum over a succession of pummelers on either side of the also-pummeling “Macrodose Interlude” until “Raised Me Rowdy,” which just might be an anthem, if a twisted one, fades to its finish. I’ve never been and will never be cool enough for this kind of party, but Leather Lung‘s innovation in bringing fun to extreme sounds and their ability to be catchy and caustic at the same time isn’t something to ignore. The time they’ve put in on EPs and touring shows in the purpose and intensity with which they execute “Empty Bottle Boogie” or the modern-metal guitar contortions of “Guilty Pleasure,” but they are firm in their purpose of engaging their audience on their own level, and accessible in that regard. And as raucous as they get, they’re never actually out of control. That’s what makes them truly dangerous.
A new(-ish) band releasing their first album through Sulatron Records would be notable enough, but Italy’s Citrus Citrus answer that significant endorsement with scope on Dec. 2023’s Albedo Massima, veering into and out of acid-laced traditions in what feels like a pursuit, like each song has a goal it’s chasing whether or not the band knew that when they started jamming. Drift and percussive intrigue mark the outset with “Sunday Morning in the Sun,” which lets “Lost It” surprise as it shifts momentarily into fuzzier, Colour Haze-y heavy psych as part of a series of tradeoffs that emerge, a chorus finish emphasizing structure. The Mediterranean twists of “Fantachimera” become explosively heavy, and that theme continues in the end of “Red Stone Seeds” after that centerpiece’s blown out experimental verses, keyboard drift building to heft that would surprise if not for “Lost It” earlier, while “Sleeping Giant” eschews that kind of tonal largesse for a synthier wash before “Frozen\Sun” creates and fills its own mellow and melancholy reaches. All the while, a pointedly organic production gives the band pockets to weave through dynamically, and melody abides. Not at all inactive, or actually that mellow, Albedo Massima resonates with the feel of an adventure just beginning. Here’s looking forward.
Troubled Sleep, A Trip Around the Sun & Solitary Man
Two initial tracks from Swedish newcomers Troubled Sleep, released as separate standalone singles and coupled together here because I can, “A Trip Around the Sun” and “Solitary Man” show a penchant for songwriting in a desert-style sphere, the former coming across as speaking to Kyuss-esque traditionalism while “Solitary Man” pushes a little further into classic heavy and more complex melodies while keeping a bounce that aligns to genre. Both are strikingly cohesive in their course and professional in their production, and while the band has yet to let much be known about their overarching intentions, whether they’re working toward an album or what, they sound like they most definitely could be, and I’ll just be honest and say that’s a record I’ll probably want to hear considering the surety with which “A Trip Around the Sun” and “Solitary Man” are brought to life. I’m not about to tell you they’re revolutionizing desert rock or heavy rock more broadly, but songs this solid don’t usually happen by accident, and Troubled Sleep sound like they know where they’re headed, even if the listener doesn’t yet. The word is potential and the tracks are positively littered with it.
I’m not sure how the double-kick intensity and progressive metal drive translates to the stately-paced, long-shots-of-things-floating-in-space of Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, but Observers‘ debut, The Age of the Machine Entities, is sweeping enough to bridge cynical headscratching. And of course there were the whole lightspeed freakout and we-invented-murder parts of Arthur C. Clarke’s narrative as well, so there’s room for All India Radio‘s Martin Kennedy, joined by bassist Rich Gray, drummer Chris Bohm and their included host of guests to conjure the melodic wash of “Strange and Beautiful” after the blasting declarations of “Into the Eye” at the start, with “Pod Bay Doors” interpreting that crucial scene in the film through manipulated sampling (not exclusive to it), and the 11-minute “Metaphor” unfurls a subtly-moving, flute-featuring ambience ahead of the pair “The Star Child” and “The Narrow Way Part II” wrap by realigning around the project’s metallic foundation, which brings fresh perspective to a familiar subject in the realm of science fiction.
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 22nd, 2024 by JJ Koczan
A Geezer and Isaak split LP is an easy win for the universe. It’s out May 17, and I feel like that’s probably all I need to say, except to point out that I’m glad Geezer‘s “Little Voices” is coming out. That song was recorded when the Kingston, New York, trio were in Woodstock to track their 2022 album, Stoned Blues Machine (review here). On side B, Genoa, Italy’s Isaak — who were all-caps on their 2023 album, Hey (review here), which was their first full-length in eight years — have three tracks featuring collaborations with members of Liquido di Morte, Nerve and Ufomammut and they specifically promise an experimentalist ethic that is sure to expand their own sonic palette. Given the righteously cumbersome title Interstellar Cosmic Blues and the Riffalicious Stoner Dudes, the split already carries a lighthearted and unpretentious vibe that should fit nicely in the respective catalogs of both outfits.
First word came down the PR wire a bit ago, and you can stream “Little Voices” down at the bottom. Preorders and whatnot included:
Heavy Psych Sounds to announce split album GEEZER // ISAAK – Interstellar Cosmic Blues & The Riffalicious Stoner Dudes – presale starts TODAY !!!
Today we are stoked to start the presale of a brand new split album featuring the US blues rockers GEEZER and the Italian heavy stoners ISAAK.
The release is called INTERSTELLAR COSMIC BLUES & THE RIFFALICIOUS STONER DUDES !!!
RELEASED IN 10 ULTRA LTD TEST PRESS VINYL 100 ULTRA LTD COLOR IN COLOR TRANSP. BACK. RED/SPLATTER BLUE VINYL 350 LTD BLUE VINYL BLACK VINYL DIGIPAK DIGITAL
TRACKLIST SIDE A Acid Veins (Geezer) Little Voices (Geezer) Mercury Rising (Geezer) Oneirophrenia (Geezer)
SIDE B The Whale (Isaak) Crisis (Isaak) Flat Earth (Isaak)
ALBUM DESCRIPTION
GEEZER
As the “Interstellar Cosmic Blues” half of this EP, we consider these songs to be some of the best that we’ve produced. Songs that could all be “singles” all on their own. And they better be because “The Riffalicious Stoner Dudes” brought some savage riffage of their own! Put it all together with amazing artwork by Mirkow Gastow and release it on Heavy Psych Sounds, the BEST record label on the planet… and you’ve got all the makings of a great record! A modern classic right out of the box. Dig it!
Songs 1 & 4 Recorded and Mixed by David Andersen at the Artfarm (Accord, New York) Songs 2 & 3 Recorded and Mixed by Chris Bittner at the Applehead Recording (Woodstock, New York) All Songs Mastered by Scott Craggs
GEEZER are: Pat Harrington – vocals/guitar Richie Touseull – bass Steve Markota – drums
ISAAK
Art comes from change and experimentation. These three songs are exactly that. Three songs, three different souls.
This recording session is born from the collaboration of some friends invited by the band, and these are:
Fabio Cuomo from Gotho & Liquido di Morte – THE WHALE Fabio Palombi from Nerve & Burn the Ocean – CRISIS And last but not the least, Levre from Ufomammut – FLAT EARTH
ISAAK is Giacomo Boeddu – vocals Francesco Raimondi – guitars Gabriele Carta – bass Davide Foccis – drums
Posted in Reviews on February 16th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Guitarist Bob Balch would seem to be on something of a creative binge, between an impending Fu Manchu 2LP and recent releases from Yawning Balch and Big Scenic Nowhere, and with Slower he presents a manifestation of the ultimate beer-drunk band idea. “What if, like, you took Slayer, and slowed it down?”
That’s what Slower is on paper. The songs of seminal Californian thrashers Slayer, played slower. The reality of Slower, which is the Balch-led project’s Heavy Psych Sounds-delivered debut album, is a selection of five covers that offers a richer experience than the math of the band’s purpose might lead one to believe. The Slayer originals they’ve chosen to rework — “War Ensemble,” “Blood Red,” and “Dead Skin Mask” from 1990’s Seasons in the Abyss, “The Antichrist” from 1983’s Show No Mercy and, to close, the title-track of 1988’s South of Heaven — are classics within the sphere of metal, and are treated with due respect even as they’re rearranged and turned into something pointedly not what they originally were.
This is done with care and love of the source material, and a sense of curation that is all the more resonant with the lineup Balch assembled for the project. Drummer Esben Willems (of Monolord; he has a solo album coming in addition to appearing here) in Gothenburg, Sweden, vocalist Amy Tung Barrysmith (Year of the Cobra) in Seattle, and bassist Peder Bergstrand (Lowrider) in Stockholm comprise the ‘main band’ on the record, developing a persona of their own even on covers through means of the rearrangement process. That is, they took the songs and reworked them. No one here is inexperienced or incapable. If you believe in supergroups, Slower‘s pretty damn super even before you get to Laura Pleasants (The Discussion, ex-Kylesa) and Scott Reeder (currently Sovereign Eagle, ex-Kyuss, The Obsessed, Goatsnake, needs to do another solo record, etc.) swapping in on vocals and bass, respectively, for “South of Heaven” at the finish. A goofy, fun idea for a band/album as Slower might be, the end result is pointedly not bullshit where it very easily (perhaps with different personnel) could have been.
Underlining the point: Slower is not a tossoff. It’s not a joke band. While indeed the songs are largely reduced in tempo, there is an aspect of the project that feels a bit like the impetus behind it was Balch wanting to take on playing both the Kerry King and Jeff Hannneman (from whose 2013 death the band never really recovered) solos, which he does with all suitable respect for the personalities of Slayer‘s two guitarists, whammy squeals and speed enough to speak to thrash. If that was the case, fair enough for the homage. It’s just a thing not everyone could do at the level it’s done here. Some of those shredfest ripper solos are no less iconic than the lyrical declarations of the choruses to “War Ensemble” or “Dead Skin Mask,” and they are put on a pedestal along with a treasure trove of groove that was lurking beneath the furious intensity of the originals. “War Ensemble,” opening here as it does on Seasons in the Abyss with some transposed urgency, unveils its central riff as a righteous nodder with Bergstrand bringing new tonal presence to the verse, Willems‘ casual double-kick giving an easy ride into the stop, and Barrysmith in immediate command.
The five-minute original becomes the 10-minute cover (it is both opener and longest track; immediate points), and as a lead-in for “The Antichrist,” “Blood Red” and “Dead Skin Mask,” “War Ensemble” blends the familiar — it was one of Slayer‘s many landmarks and a live-set feature for decades before the band ‘ended’ (never say never) in 2019 with 12 records and enough influence to make a project like this happen across microgenres — the surprises it holds and affirmations it makes are crucial to what follows. One doesn’t necessarily think of Slayer as an atmospherically-minded band, though they were at times (and perhaps a second Slower LP could honor Slayer and Sabbath both in opening with the storm at the start of “Raining Blood”; uniting worlds or at least disparate ends of the same one), but Slower dig into “The Antichrist” and find a gritty slog that becomes insistent in a chorus that takes the already-doubled vocals and adds backing tracks to emphasize a depth that is Slower‘s own in a song that, being a deeper cut — as opposed to a Slayer ‘hit,’ I guess? they did used to play their music videos on the tee-vee sometimes — allows Balch (who trips out the midsection admirably taring toward psychedelia), Barrysmith, Bergstrand and Willems to flesh it out and find a new path to the rotted-soul ascension of its title figure.
The melody emergent in “The Antichrist” is expanded upon in “Blood Red,” the centerpiece of the CD and presumed side B opener on the LP, as the verse riff becomes a strut and the chorus opens to a breadth Slower have been holding in reserve. It’s an un-pop singalong, complete with backing ‘oohs’ for “You cannot hide the face of death/Oppression ruled by bloodshed/No disguise can deface evil/The massacre of innocent people,” which are lines that sadly retain their relevance these 34 years after the fact, and are more sinister for the sweetness of Barrysmith‘s delivery. With “Dead Skin Mask” and “Seasons in the Abyss” still to come, “Blood Red” has a harder road making an impression, and that was true with Slayer‘s version as well in 1990, but amid the forward roll and chug of the verse and the arrival-point feel of the hook, it is the vocals even more that distinguish it as an unexpected highlight.
And I know Slayer have a ton of iconic tracks, from the prior-mentioned “Raining Blood” through “Disciple,” “Angel of Death” — maybe better to leave that one alone? — and “Piece by Piece,” but especially the first and maybe only time out, pairing “Dead Skin Mask” and “South of Heaven” at the end of Slower‘s Slower feels natural. The latter came before the former, and is arguably the most ‘doom’ Slayer ever got, where “Dead Skin Mask” showed up on the next album and refined those very purposes. Both are the kinds of songs dudes get tattoos of, but as they have all along, Slower tread carefully in terms of balancing respect for where the songs came from and taking them where they want to go. Not to be understated is the subversive element of a woman delivering the lyrics to “Dead Skin Mask,” which was never explicit but strongly implied misogynist violence, and Barrysmith resounds in the chorus, where “Dance with the dead in my dreams…” becomes a chant and all the more consuming for that. While I wish they repeated that finish four or five more times, I’m happy to take what I can get.
As noted, “South of Heaven” brings a lineup switch, Reeder stepping in for Bergstrand — the inclusion of those two speaks as well to Balch wanting to bring a new sense of presence to the low end; he could easily have handled bass himself as an afterthought; as is, bass becomes an essential part of the character of the band in a way Slayer‘s Tom Araya probably wouldn’t have expected — and Pleasants taking over for Barrysmith. Dark toned, Balch begins on guitar and Reeder and Pleasants soon join for the opening build, ending of course with the line “Before you see the light” stretched to fill the new spaces in the riff before the guitar, bass and drums stop cold to let Pleasants croon the second part of the lyric: “You must die.”
Shit, I’m ready. Let’s go. If you could get audio tattooed on your person, that moment might be worth carrying around for the rest of your life but it’s already ingrained in the heads of Slayer fans, so take that as you will. Pleasants toys with the verse arrangement somewhat, perhaps covering some awkwardness in the patterning born of the change in pace with effects and layering, but it’s nothing that feels out of line with the mood or atmosphere Slower bring to “South of Heaven,” the stinkface-inducing stomp of Willems‘ drums glorious in manifesting a sense of methodical aggression over the chaos referenced in the chorus — “Chaos rampant/An age of distrust/Confrontations, impulsive habitat (or ‘sabbath’)” before they got right down to it, “On and on, south of heaven” — as Balch likewise digs deeper to find a nastiness of tone that is undeniable. It ends, as it invariably would, with shred given over to noise and a tease of the thuds at the end of “Postmortem” that, on 1986’s Reign in Blood, mark the transition into “Raining Blood” itself. The message seems to be: maybe next time.
Generally speaking and across a wide range of contexts, I suck at fun. Accordingly, I was a little apprehensive in taking on Slower because I felt like maybe it would be a party and I wouldn’t really be able to get my head into the right space for it. That’s not how it went, either in terms of the atmosphere of the record or my listening experience with it. I don’t know that Slower will or won’t do more — certainly no one involved lacks other projects to focus on — but I hope they do, and as a love letter to Slayer, the execution of these songs and the obvious heart and thought put into them, Slower resonates, however familiar you may or may not be with the originals.
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 16th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
All-caps Italian psychthrusters MR.BISON have announced a European tour supporting their new album, Echoes of the Universe. And I’ve got a slot saved for that record — which was announced here with a track premiere, as sometimes happens — in the next Quarterly Review, which kicks off in about a week, but it’s out today on Heavy Psych Sounds, and considering the spaces the four-piece traverse within its component songs, the richness of the flow they conjure and the classic-rooted-but-forward-looking mindset under which they seem to operate, basking in bright melodies and swinging groove set to evocative purpose and willing to dive into ethereal headspinning, as later cut “The Promise” demonstrates, without losing track of the audience’s place in the song, its ringing bells and softer accompanying guitar a sanctuary before the sweep of the next chorus.
If I keep going I’m just gonna review the thing — sometimes I need to stop myself, especially if I’m listening to an album as I am this one now; it’s just how my brain is trained to work at this point — so I’ll stop myself and say that it’s great MR.BISON are getting out to herald Echoes of the Universe because I think it’s a worthy cause. Note the open slot March 18 in Germany if you can help out, and that the actual tour picks up in March and spreads across April and May and into June — obviously there are breaks in there — with appearances set for Heavy Psych Sounds Fest in Italy and Switzerland, as well as Maximum Festival and Space Goat Fest in Italy along with copious club shows.
June’s a ways out, so don’t be surprised if more shows are added around that trip to Switzerland as well. Especially after more people hear the record, which, again, is out today. If you’ve got ears to dig it, it’s at the bottom of this post.
From the PR wire:
Heavy Psych Sounds Records & Booking to announce MR.BISON – Echoes From The Universe EUROPEAN TOUR !!!
Our beloved psychedelic prog rockerz MR.BISON will tour Europe presenting their latest album Echoes From The Universe !!!
*** MR.BISON – Echoes From The Universe EUROPEAN TOUR *** 16th February / EXWide Pisa (IT) – Release Party 17th February / Bloom Mezzago -MB (IT) – Release Party 14th March / Channel Zero – Lubjana (SLO) 15th March / Mocvara – Zagreb (HR) 16th March / Music House – Graz (A) 17th March / Schokofabrik – Bayreuth (DE) 18th March / *** OPEN SLOT *** GERMANY 19th March / Black Label – Leipzig (DE) 20th March / Stereowonderland – Cologne (DE) 21th March / Extrablues Bar – Belefield (DE) 22th March / Waldmeister – Solingen (DE) 23th March / Ruefetto – Freibourg (DE) 21th April / Space Goat Fest – CPA – Firenze (IT) 26th April / Maximum Fest – ZeroBranco -TV (IT) 27th April / Verona – TBA (IT) 03th May / Bocciodromo – Vicenza (IT) 04th May / HPS Fest – Bologna Trieste (IT) 05th May / HPS Fest – Bologna Trieste (IT) 11th May / Blah Blah – Torino (IT) 17th May / Le Bout du Monde – Vevey (CH) 18th May / Durrorsdorf – TBA (DE) 07th June / HPS Fest – Martigny Winthertur (CH) 08th June / HPS Fest – Martigny Winterthur (CH)
Copenhagen psychedelic heavycrafters The Sonic Dawn are releasing their new album, Phantom, on May 10 through Heavy Psych Sounds. Preorders are up as of this announcement and you’ll find the links below, under the player bringing us “Iron Bird” as the first single to come from the record. You might recall their most recent long-player was 2020’s Enter the Mirage (discussed here). That was their third outing under the Heavy Psych Sounds banner behind 2019’s Eclipse (discussed here), 2017’s Into the Long Night (review here), their debut, Perception (review here), having been issued through Nasoni in 2015.
That makes Phantom their fourth album, and it’s also the first to be released since they marked their 10th anniversary as a band last year. In the interim since Enter the Mirage, frontman Emile Bureau has focused on solo work playing as just Emile and also releasing through Heavy Psych Sounds. “Iron Bird” marks a striking return for The Sonic Dawn, who with it present an earthier groove than one might expect from a band so generally given to ethereal float. Not that there’s none of that happening in the track, but they call it proto-metal, and you can hear that in there; a lean toward a more straightforward side of vintage-ism is by no means beyond The Sonic Dawn‘s reach at this point, or entirely unexpected. They’re songwriters. At a certain point, once you’ve got that, you can take it anywhere.
I haven’t heard Phantom in full, so can’t speak to how “Iron Bird” ties in, but it’s neither the band’s nor the label’s nor my first time at this particular dance, so I’ll cut the bullshit and say I hold this band to a pretty high standard of craft. They’ve shown themselves to be up to that over time, and their work has developed a personality and perspective of its own while remaining open to new ideas and thoughtful of its audience. They’re not going to be for everyone, but nothing is. Maybe they’re for you and that’s why you’re here. Great, and I mean that.
You’ll find “Iron Bird” on the player below, followed by a quote from the band, preorder links and more info from the PR wire.
Goes like this:
The Sonic Dawn, “Iron Bird” track premiere
The Sonic Dawn on “Iron Bird”:
Iron Bird is a protest against organized mass murder and the war pigs who run the show. As we see it humanity stands at a crossroads – a choice between sharing and coexistence or inevitable extinction. There will be no winners only death. Such a message calls for a heavy sound. On Iron Bird we explore an almost proto-metal style but fully psychedelic. If that sounds unsettling to you you’re getting the right picture. Much like the psychedelic experience itself our new album “PHANTOM” oscillates between the terrifying and the beautiful. Iron Bird certainly resides on the dark side of that spectrum. Brace yourself for a journey into some heavy acid rock.
THE SONIC DAWN – New album “PHANTOM” out May 10th on Heavy Psych Sounds
Hailing from Copenhagen, Denmark, The Sonic Dawn is one of Europe’s most prominent current acid rock bands.
Formed in 2013 by childhood friends Emil Bureau, Jonas Waaben, and Niels ‘Bird’ Fuglede, the trio has delivered four albums, celebrated for their dynamic fusion of genres from sitar pop to heavy psych. Their highly anticipated fifth LP is slated for release this spring via Heavy Psych Sounds.
The debut album, Perception (2015), marked their international breakthrough with Berlin-based Nasoni Records. The sophomore release, Into the Long Night (2017), launched on Heavy Psych Sounds, accompanied by an extensive European album tour—some 60 shows, including two weeks with Brant Bjork (US)—solidifying their presence. The subsequent album, Eclipse (2019), earned acclaim as “easily one of the best psychedelic pop albums of the decade,” and once again the group hit the road hard, playing in 11 different countries.
In 2020, The Sonic Dawn unveiled Enter the Mirage, recognized as “a modern psych classic” by Shindig Magazine. While the planned album tour was cut short, it was possible to play on WDR’s legendary TV show Rockpalast, which has featured David Bowie, the Grateful Dead, and many more through the years.
Now, their highly anticipated fifth album, Phantom (2024), is set for a worldwide release on May 10th, 2024. Formally welcoming long-time collaborator Erik ‘Errka’ Petersson as a new studio band member on organ/keys, The Sonic Dawn continues its sonic journey. Culminating from four years of creating music, the album showcases a raw and heavy musical style blended with the melodic psychedelia for which the band is renowned.
The band is gearing up for an extensive European tour in 2024-2025, promising a further development of their mind-altering exploration.
THE SONIC DAWN is Emil Bureau – Guitars / Vocals Jonas Waaben – Drums Niels Bird – Bass
