Up and coming German imprint Electric Magic Records has unveiled a new digital sampler touting its wares. The 10-track comp features output from recent releases by House of Aquarius and Heat and Samsara Blues Experiment — whose guitarist/vocalist, Christian Peters, also heads the label — among forthcoming acts like Suns of Thyme, whose desert sweetness immediately piqued my interest, and familiar names like Pater Nembrot, who aren’t signed to Electric Magic, but were nonetheless compelled to donate some boogie to the cause. Right on.

Free music is the name of the game. Those so inclined can get out Electric Magic Volume Eight via the link below. Here’s art and info:

FREE SAMPLER: Electric Magic – Volume Eight

This includes highlights of our label´s very recent outputs by House Of Aquarius, Heat and This Is Ghost Country as well as the soon to be released lysergic gems of Soulitude and the Suns Of Thyme. Further we included some very rare demo-versions and amazing contributions by friends of the label like Pater Nembrot, Dunst and others. Not to forget the free version of SBE´s “Midnight Boogie”. All together these 10 bands will (hopefully) deliver you a 66 minute instant high. Oh and this time we also included a full CD-artwork, beautifully drawn by Lori at ParadiseParasite Artworks.

Tracklisting:
1. Suns of Thyme, “Soma (God for Gods)”
2. Heat, “Warhead”
3. The Harvest, “Celebrating Wild Horses” (Excerpt)
4. Samsara Blues Experiment, “Midnight Boogie”
5. House of Aquarius, “Unholy”
6. Soulitude, “Awakening”
7. Pater Nembrot, “Exile”
8. Dunst, “Dhaimahi Prachodayat”
9. This is Ghost Country, “Black Trekker”
10. Juicy Mother, “Mole in the Fry”

So please enjoy: http://www.electricmagic.de/free/emsampler8.rar

Suns of Thyme, “Soma (God for Gods)”

Originally released in 2003, Swedish heavy rockers House of Aquarius‘ lone full-length, The World through Bloodred Eyes, is given new life on LP thanks to Germany’s Electric Magic Records. The Norrköping four-piece — from which vocalist Mikael Popovic and guitarist Thomas Eriksson went on to found Year of the Goat — fit well alongside Mammoth Volume and Dead Man in the category of underrated Swedish riffers, with a sound dense and bluesy an album that runs even a decade later between groove-laden and viciously catchy. Popovic‘s vocals are a standout element, stonerly without much posturing, and the rhythm section of bassist Lare Hultman and drummer Jens Gustavsson fill out an organic low end without pulling the focus away from Eriksson‘s prevalent cyclical modus. Whatever the members have gone on to do since, the 48 minutes of The World through Bloodred Eyes shows them as having been considerably adept at a more straightforward stoner rock style, and while the album might not have garnered as much acclaim as the output of some of their countrymen over the years — be it Dozer or Witchcraft — the fact remains that House of Aquarius at least belong in the discussion. Thus does the Electric Magic reissue live up to the standard: Does this album deserve another look? One doesn’t have to be even fully through “Lord of Vermin,” the first of the LP’s nine tracks, to understand why the answer is yes. A softer lead guitar line at the halfway point calls back to early Suplecs smooth fuzz even as House of Aquarius build to individualized grit and transition easily between their parts, resulting in an immediately palpable flow that stays strong as one cut progresses to the next.

Also notable is the fact that for being a decade old, The World through Bloodred Eyes sounds no more dated now than it was supposed to then. I suspect that’s a discovery that will remain prevalent for some time with reissues such as this — that records put to tape with a classically-influenced production didn’t sound of their day then so they don’t necessarily harken to it now — but it works to House of Aquarius‘ favor, and as the swampy wah of “Rock ‘n’ Roll Grandma and the KKK” toys with a Southern heavy influence and Popovic puts on a touch of accent, there’s nothing in the tonality or presentation that makes me think The World through Bloodred Eyes couldn’t have been recorded a few months back instead of a decade ago. The two-cycle build of “Fear No Evil,” starting soft, getting heavy and repeating, does little to contradict this assertion, and while one can hear shades of Graveyard‘s first record in some of the quieter guitar progression if one strains to do so, neither are House of Aquarius so fully given to a retro aesthetic as to sacrifice tonal thickness. Hultman‘s bass is rich and warm, but can come on as weighted as one could reasonably ask, and along with Eriksson‘s chug in the second half of “Fear No Evil,” it’s the bass providing the foundation for Popovic‘s soulful exclamations. “Azteroid Zombiez” is memorable mostly for its faster thrust and backing vocals in the chorus, but it provides a change from the bluesy feel, which resumes partway with “Cosmic Weed,” as lines like “Lick my lizard” and “Slap me silly” assure the listener that House of Aquarius aren’t about to take themselves too seriously, and in case none of that was enough to wake you up, they end with an alarm clock going off, jolting the blood as the riff of the longer “Unholy” revives stonerly burl with a winding but easy-to-follow instrumental hook.

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