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Review & Track Premiere: Josiah, rehctaW EP

Posted in audiObelisk, Reviews on October 30th, 2023 by JJ Koczan

josiah

UK heavy psych fuzz rockers Josiah will release a new EP, titled rehctaW, on Dec. 1 through Interstellar Smoke Records. The band returned last year through Blues Funeral with the full-length We Lay on Cold Stone (review here), following a dearth of activity in the 2010s as founding guitarist/vocalist Mathew Bethancourt explored new spaces in Cherry Choke and began to feel out the experimentalist foundations of the solo-project Mathew’s Hidden Museum, which made its own self-titled debut (review here) earlier this year, also on Interstellar Smoke. With rehctaW — and yes, that’s ‘watcher’ backwards; sit tight, we’ll get there — Bethancourt, newcomer bassist Andy Shardlow and drummer Dan Lockton offer four songs that each have their own basis, style and function in the linear, 21-minute whole but that flow together with a kind of bruised grace in addition to the fuzz and vibe veering into the psychedelic at even its most straightforward moments, like the intro of second cut “By My Left Hand,” which peppers its repeating riff with right-channel wisps of lead guitar from Jack Dickinson (also Stubb), for whom Shardlow took over on bass.

Or the blowout buzz in the guitar of titular opener “rehctaW,” which takes peak-era Queens of the Stone Age bounce and sets it against garage boogie vibes for a swing that’s heavy and fluid in kind, lyrics tossing out references to mind control and machine-induced hypnosis around the kind of hook that, once written, was likely the impetus for the release in the first place. Since his early days roaming the pre-social-media English underground proffering riffs to a then-receding ’90s-generation audience around the turn of the century, and even through his contributions to other outfits, on We Lay on Cold Stone, etc., etc., as a defining feature of his work, Bethancourt has had an ability to lend accessible songs an element of danger through the looseness of their groove. It’s not that Josiah are pushing themselves so hard physically that “rehctaW” or anything else on the EP might come apart — much as “Become” is ‘together’ in any traditional sense to start with — like their hands would fall off or something, but in the internalized classic-heavy influence the band so ably wields, in the way they take a willfully simple idea like garage rock and use it as a vehicle for more complex craft, they’re less predictable than it seems.

Both “rehctaW” and the seven-minute “By My Left Hand” reinforce this, the latter starting gradually before it gets to the chic wub of its verse with Dickinson‘s second guitar distinct from Bethancourt‘s holding down the riff, building up and rolling forward an instrumental procession further bolstered by the piano guest spot from Morgan Sol, who complements the rise in rhythmic tension moving higher on the keyboard until a sudden cut to a lower thud ends a subtly fervent push. “By My Left Hand” further highlights the chemistry of the band as a whole as they sleek into and through a short and dreamy break at the start of that last build, and certainly their willingness to mess with form Josiah rehctaWand the flexibility of their approach are on display in “Become,” which as alluded above departs from structure toward ambient ends. Echoing fills of drums at the start feel loosely ritualized, and when Bethancourt begins singing, his voice is in full incantation mode. The line, “scratch out your eyes and see no more,” arrives early in the piece, and becomes a defining point for the EP as right around 1:20 into the song, Bethancourt repeats the “no more” portion of that lyric in a delivery precisely drawn from a track written during his time in Leicester’s The Kings of Frog Island.

Can you guess the song? Well it’s “The Watcher,” of course, from 2008’s II (discussed here), and that meta-reference — just a tiny easter egg of a thing — brims with purpose no less in light of the context in which rehctaW places it. It is the juncture at which rehctaW reveals its full intention in engaging the scope of Josiah‘s work at this point, supplying on-theme introduction and even a last-second horror-style jump-cut while opening the door to the dark dimension for their reworking of “Black Annis (The Evocation Of),” originally by Cherry Choke. And what’s funny about that is when Bethancourt and Cherry Choke released the song on 2015’s Raising the Waters (review here), sure it was fleshed out with organ and had a similar sneak to its groove, but it was shorter and the character in the evocation’s jam is perfect for being tucked into the closer position on the EP, maintaining the ultra-weird of “Become” in a context of the band’s signature, swirl-prone class-ic heavy rock. Like each of the three songs before it, “Black Annis (The Evocation Of)” represents a different side of who Josiah are — the power trio, in the jam space, maybe freaking out — and after its done, the fading-in vocal echoes come forward just long enough for Bethancourt to once more advise, “Scratch out your eyes and see no more,” tying the closer to “Become” right before and bringing to light the expanses Josiah are able to reach in terms of atmosphere while remaining at their essence a rock and roll band.

Be it in the strange and eerie vocal layering, backward this-and-that, various whispers, shakers, and so on that finish “Become” or the catchy midtempo swing of its title-track, rehctaW draws together elements from the past of Josiah and other Bethancourt-inclusive or -led outfits — and that’s not to minimize the contributions of LocktonShardlow, or even Dickinson or Sol, but Josiah begins and ends at the say-so of its founding principal — and in so doing moves the band forward from where they were even a year ago. And they were plenty weird a year ago too, but the message being sent to the listener on rehctaW is that they’ll continue to push creatively in this state, reignited after nearly a decade’s absence and transitioning from ‘reunion band’ to ‘active band’ as many others have done before them. And where they likely could rest on the laurels of their first three records and do shows in London forever pumping out the same riffs to the same heads each year, that they’re choosing a more challenging (and ideally more fulfilling) creative path is the most essential display of character Josiah could make as a statement of who they are. They’ll do something after this. I have no idea what it’ll be in terms of sound, and that mystery is whole lot of fun.

Bethancourt was kind enough to offer a track-by-track breakdown of the EP to go with the premiere, discussing the folkloric background of “Black Annis” and “Become” — tying into the release’s definitely-NSFW cover art by Sara Koncilja; gorgeously detailed if perhaps wanting subtlety in concept — and the impetus behind “rehctaW” and “By My Left Hand.” You’ll find it after the player below, followed by release particulars for the EP.

Please enjoy:

Josiah, “rehctaW” track premiere

Josiah, Rehctaw EP track-by-track with Mathew Bethancourt:

1. rehctaW

Written and demo’d early January 2023. This track dropped like a fully formed ear worm. rehctaW was the driver for the EP, as it couldn’t wait for an album and almost felt at odds with everything else I’ve been writing lately. Lyrically based on the ideas of the inspiration that is Austin Osman Spare. Among many things AOS believed rehctaW was the symbol of reaching backwards in time to infinite remoteness by the mechanism of intense nostalgia. He also felt otherworld energies flowed through him when he reached this state of bliss. A creative force using the flesh to manifest its intent. Whilst not directly leaning on any AOS texts, rehctaW embodies the idea of a force within and without. The watcher within and without. Who’s really in control of your mind. Are you the one that’s always driving. Why did the Kozmik soup present me this fully formed track, did I write it – or…

2. By My Left Hand

This was originally written and recorded for Mark Lannegan. I wrote 6 tracks during the winter/spring of 20/21 for inclusion on what would have been his latest album, if it wasn’t for his sad and untimely death. I decided to keep it instrumental for the EP as I couldn’t get past the notion of Mark singing over the music. It was written for Mark with love and respect for a great artist. Another track that dropped into my mind fully heard. Like an old familiar friend. By My Left Hand speaks to those who take the other way.

3. Become

The rebirth of an idea under the spell of local Leicester folk legend Black Annis. Designed as the prefix to Black Annis. Become lets her spirit back into the band, back into our lives. Both Dan and I grew up with her legend and now we both live metres away from her bower. We live the folk lore that impregnates all our traditions and rituals. Annis is a bittersweet character that we have once again chosen to evoke. Obviously a woman of great power, hence her subsequent horrific action.

4. Black Annis (the evocation of)

There’s a few Cherry Choke tracks that could quite easily have been Josiah works. I felt we never quite did this song justice on Raising The Waters and the revisiting and ultimate reworking of the track felt right for this EP. It’s something I like the idea of. Revisiting your own work over and over. We will do it again in the future. Something common in jazz and blues but so well utilised in rock. We love the outcome though. There’s a ghost in the machine for sure and it’s thick with the scent of folklore. Sounds can be heard that none of us made. It’s a strange one to listen to.

You may pre-order the exclusive band edition of 75 black/gold hand numbered vinyl & gold CD via Josiah bandcamp store and limited label edition of 225 red/gold vinyl & gold CD via Interstellar Smoke Records from October 31st.

EP Release date: December 1st 2023 via Interstellar Smoke Records
Single streaming date: October 31st 2023

1. rehctaW (4:47)
2. By My Left Hand (7:02)
3. Become (3:31)
4. Black Annis (The Evocation Of) (6:00)

The Makers::
Dan Lockton – Drums
Andy Shardlow – Bass
Mathew Bethancourt – Voice, Guitar & Keys

By My Left Hand features additional musicians Morgan Sol on piano & Jack Dickinson on acid guitar.
Recorded & mixed by Mathew Bethancourt with the assistance of Kev ‘The Druid’ Lloyd at Ivy Road June 2023. Mastered by Satanic Audio.

Cover illustration by Sara Koncilja.

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Josiah Announce New Bassist Andy Shardlow & New Booking Agency

Posted in Whathaveyou on July 5th, 2023 by JJ Koczan

All well and good for Josiah as they bring in bassist Andy Shardlow as part of the band’s reinvigorated trio lineup with founding guitarist/vocalist Mathew Bethancourt and drummer D.C. Lockton, and all well and good for them to have a new booking agency in Heavy Mountain. Put the two together, however, and it might just be that the London-based outfit will look to get out and tour at least in Europe to support their 2022 album, We Lay on Cold Stone (review here), which was released through Blues Funeral RecordingsShardlow has played in a bunch of other bands as you can see below, and he takes the place of Jack Dickinson — also of Stubb; wherefore a third record, Stubb? — with whom the band leave open the possibility of continuing to work as a second guitarist. A fascinating thought.

Josiah will join GNOB, The Jonny Halifax Invocation, DVDE, Purple Kong and Longheads on July 29 at Hazy Fest in London at Signature Brew in Haggerston in the eastern part of the city. It will be their first show with Shardlow in the lineup, and, as noted above, there may be more to follow.

From socials, with emojis removed:

josiah cropped (Photo by Jojo Nouveau)

In recent times we’ve been evoking all things dark with the very welcome addition of Andy Shardlow (@beerded_bass_man) on low end duties.

Andy has previously played bass with the likes of @devilswitches @wildfuzztrip @jr_and_the_echo & many more sonic outlaws.

Our beloved Jack (@deathtofalsepsych) of @stubbrock stays within the circle of fire. His guitar slinging will feature live & on the next Josiah full length.

Come experience the new lineup at Hazy Fest @signaturebrew Haggerston, London on the 29th July.

Sonic rituals require a constant flow.

Josiah are proud to be a part of the incredible @heavymountain booking agency.

Contact tyler@heavymountain.co.uk to book some live action now.

Snapped by @jojonouveau.

https://www.facebook.com/Josiah-106875318556254
https://www.instagram.com/josiah_rock_uk/
https://josiah-rock-uk.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/bluesfuneral/
https://www.instagram.com/blues.funeral/
https://bluesfuneralrecordings.bandcamp.com/
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Josiah, We Lay on Cold Stone (2022)

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Album Review: Mathew’s Hidden Museum, Mathew’s Hidden Museum

Posted in Reviews on February 3rd, 2023 by JJ Koczan

mathew's hidden museum self titled

The eponymous Mathew in Mathew’s Hidden Museum is Mathew Bethancourt, best known as the guitarist/vocalist of reignited fuzz rockers Josiah, who in 2022 issued We Lay on Cold Stone (review here) as their first full-length in 15 years. Formed at the turn of the century, that band released three albums and a kind of wrap-up session/live collection during their initial run in the aughts, preceding and then concurrent to Bethancourt‘s participation in the first three LPs from The Kings of Frog Island, released 2005-2010. After leaving that band, Bethancourt would form Cherry Choke, at first in more of a garage rock vein, then later moving into a deeper-hued psychedelia on 2015’s Raising the Waters (review here) before themselves (not quite) fading out, leading to the return of Josiah.

As that band resolidified and moved toward their eventual comeback, Mathew’s Hidden Museum emerged in 2020 with the EP Golden Echoes (review here), a home-recording solo-project for Bethancourt to explore reaches that, for one reason or another, didn’t seem to fit anywhere else. In his Interstellar Smoke Records-released self-titled debut, Mathew’s Hidden Museum, he presents 10 songs and 41 minutes of boldly captured scope, intense creative drive, melodic psych atmospheres, and a bit of boogie for good measure. Some is in conversation with his past work, as the lead single and second track “Naked and Rolled in that Rotten Dirt” (premiered here) shoves and stomps throughout its three minutes with a Josiah-worthy groove, even if all that echo and later deconstruction takes it elsewhere ultimately. Other pieces, like the intro “The Resurrectionist” or the later, ultra-brief “Sinphony” and the closer “(Golden) Kiss Divine” are more ambient and textural, weaving flowing wavelengths of drone, guitar, and synth/keys/organ/etc. to cinematic effect.

Through it all, the temptation is to say that Bethancourt retains a master’s hand when it comes to craft, but that doesn’t seem to be the point of Mathew’s Hidden Museum. Rather, while still the auteur of the project from the basic songwriting through the entire process of recording, Bethancourt seems to will himself to let go of some, not all, of his impulses toward structure and making songs in a given style. To be sure, Mathew’s Hidden Museum is a work of heavy psychedelia, but whether it’s the play with sonic hot-shit arrogance in “Born on the 3rd of July” or the almost-entirely-drift “Echoes Flow,” there are multiple avenues taken to get there, and to further the cliché, sometimes Bethancourt seems to take his hands off the wheel, all in the name of adding a bit of danger and unpredictability to the proceedings. The songs feel built up during the recording process, layers on layers, guitars spanning channels in ultra-fuzzy leads, piano looped in “Golden,” and so on, but as Bethancourt shows with “The Voyage of Psyche,” which is the longest inclusion here at 7:20, he’s also capable of constructing a legitimate jam on the foundation of his own drumming; improvising with himself even as he works to the plot in his own head.

Indeed, doing so seems part of what allows Mathew’s Hidden Museum to so comfortably reside in different styles; there is a purity in its nebulousness, a kind of plan-of-no-plan that inherently can never be as open as it is here again since Bethancourt will invariably have some firmer idea of what the project is after this first album, wherever its outward progression may lead, whenever, if ever, it does. It is of all the more value to the listener, then, to engage with these layers and variations in structure and intent, to find the places Mathew’s Hidden Museum is charging through and the places it isn’t, and to try to understand how songs like “Golden” and “(Golden) Kiss Divine” are speaking to each other and why or why not. It is doubly fortunate that the record allows for this interaction in its spaciousness, its diversity of approach, and its richness of performance.

Laughter begins “The Resurrectionist” along with a few mouthy noises — maybe a ‘meow’ tossed in there quickly — before the first notes of a fuzzy lead establish the dirge. A kick drum thuds, first with the guitar, then by itself, then rejoined. Harder distortion enters over a declining progression and is grandiose but raw, bordering on the first wash but not quite going all the way in and, at two minutes long, too short to really be a drone. But the long fade and stretch of silence before the troubled piano glimpse at the start of “Naked and Rolled in that Rotten Dirt” makes it a substantial mood-setting piece just the same. The second cut is soon onto a funk that resides as much in the emphasis of the snare drum hits as in its fuzzed-out guitar and bass, turning hypnotic before the lead lines come in to confirm the party underway, harmonies ripping back and forth, one channel then the other, setting the stage for Bethancourt‘s coming preach. He’s post-Dave Wyndorf, post-’70s soul, but echoing and swirling effects give a decisively lysergic bent around that well-grounded bass, drums and guitar.

Vocals move into a call and response, guitar effects are layered in, lines coming and going. Some cymbal crash is dared at 2:20 and seems like a good idea so Bethancourt follows that impulse through the next turn on the toms as more twisted distortion enters, a preface to the title-line intonation — a tale of who the fuck knows what — as the placement of “Naked and Rolled in That Rotten Dirt” feels as though Bethancourt is using heavy rock as a gateway to the multifaceted fare to come while still sounding fervent in his weirdo purposes. It’s only three minutes long, just one more than the intro, but “Naked and Rolled in That Rotten Dirt” is emblematic of the detail put into the construction of these songs more generally, and its somewhat madcap spirit carries even into the quietest moments of Mathew’s Hidden Museum. As even the name of the project/record hints, there’s something playful about the entire affair. Fun, and perhaps a bit subversive in that.

Bethancourt enters “Golden” sooner on vocals, but already by then the mood is different than “Naked and Rolled in that Rotten Dirt,” driven by stomp on the piano with more space in the drums. His voice is lower in register over the key dum-dum-da-dumdum that will repeat throughout the five-minute stretch, either looped or played straight through. Taps on a pan or some such trade channels through the verse, rhythmic in placement as well as in themselves. What might be melodica enters at the two-minute mark, then everything solidifies around an explosion led by voice layers, more taps on pan, and gradually evens out as that central rhythmic piano and drum figure comes forward again, having been buried under the brighter guitar but there all the while, peppered with flecks of guitar noise, not quite chords. Held organ lines and more prominent thuds after 3:30 make a duly horror-show setting for a return of the laughter from “The Resurrectionist,” as it turns out you’ve been in the dungeon or maybe it’s the laboratory all along and nostalgia was the trap that put you there. The drumless sinister-psych drone continues, melodica present again amid the drift, until it suddenly cuts out to residual echo. The only way to end it, really.

“The Voyage of Psyche” is a crucial moment, deepening the multi-hued scope of the album on the whole and boasting a kind of process-as-art mindset that seems at the heart of Mathew’s Hidden Museum itself. And it is fairly called a voyage as well, holding sustained notes of organ at its start with cymbal taps soon joining. The first change is at 40 seconds, and there’s something Kubrickian about it, then guitar kicks in at 1:05 with the organ and a melancholy blues vibe arises but is progressive too in an interplay of different keyboard layers, the organ and other synth working out some argument or other while the guitar recounts the plot; there are vocal ‘oohs’ but no lyrics. It’s loosely Floydian, but really that might just be the VHS grit in the video playing in my head for it. Some possible accordion or keyboard enters ahead of another change around that nailed-down organ line, a swirl-in of drums and a for-a-walk bassline show up, the song riding a groove by the time it’s passed four minutes.

It is a self-jam, which sounds easy enough on paper but requires a mentality limber enough that few actually can pull it off believably, let alone in a situation of self-recording as Bethancourt is here. His voice comes through but isn’t really part of the trip underway so much as an ambient reminder humans exist somewhere else. Fuzz guitar unveils one of the album’s finest instrumental hooks, and bass follows. Drums change then everything changes. The drums turn again, bass takes a solo and guitar makes its way back into that hook and carries it to the finish. Improvisation is at its core, the plot built from that. Songwriting for one, roughly conveyed but intentional in that. “The Voyage of Psyche” ends in its low-end heavy fuzz turns, a last tom hit, and “Echoes Flow” sweeps in to deliver on its titular promise almost immediately.

mathew's hidden museum

Contrasting the mostly-instrumental prior song, vocals float no less than guitar at first in “Echoes Flow,” and are more prominent. String-sound keys add flourish, harmonic shimmer, the lights bright, almost blinding but still a dream so there’s no conscious danger. Second verse is a little more forward vocally, a beach or an open field with an impossibly blue sky overhead, but channels swap and Bethancourt inhabits different levels of the mix before seeming to fade into it altogether until everything is one melodic churn and then it’s only been two minutes and you’re out in open space and there’s just a melody playing far away and then nothing. A mini-voyage of psyche, headed in its own direction as is so much of Mathew’s Hidden Museum, with the 33-second “Sinphony” gracefully entering from the silence, distinctly soundtracky with, yes, an orchestral lean, well placed to open side B and cut off in a way that “(Golden) Kiss Divine” won’t be when it picks up the thread of graceful gradualness and scoring some unseen visual at the album’s conclusion.

Elbowing in as only an American via British interpretation might, “Born on the 3rd of July” builds up through garage rock hairiness and feels like something of a return after the two songs before it moved away, Bethancourt speaking to Josiah or maybe the rampant swagger of his final outing with The Kings of Frog Island, but the solos are layered and a lead line comes across drenched in fuzz. It’s there twice, suitably Hendrixian, and all the while the drums still hold the this tension through the first minute. Guitar is freaking out soon before some la-la-la vocals start à la Chris Goss, but the guitar drains out the left channel and a more percussive jam takes hold for a moment, cymbals and hand drumming holding sway before the guitar starts coming back around.

Then suddenly, the verse, and that tension in the drums? Just so happens it’s been funk all along. And there you are, dancing. There’s a chorus but there’s also swirling guitar solos all over it and that’s cool too, you know. A shift at 3:20 brings the next stage as the drums work their way out and soon back with their own in-wormhole swirl across channels. Then the guitar sneaks back and directs all into a grunge twist and push, turning around to the verse, and back again like this has been the song the entire time. The drums move to cymbals, then back, then cymbals and back again and it’s the beginning of “Born on the 3rd of July” coming apart, which it does, like everything, before the wistful ’70s folk rock procession of “Summer Rain (Will Fall)” begins, too barebones in the drum sound to be wholly retro, but not far off.

Some willfully divergent lines of guitar have their say amid some classic-style soloing and a distinctly Beatles-circa-AbbeyRoad — I said Get Back when last I posted about the record, but I agree more with myself now, so take that as you will; the difference is the smoothness of tonality — and maybe we’ve been George Harrison all along as another instrumental hook makes its presence felt. It comes around a second time, with piano embellishment, the bassline buried but righteous. There’s a moment at 2:04 where the ride cymbal and piano and guitar seem like they want to wrap it up, but the ‘band’ takes “Summer Rain (Will Fall)” for another quick go before an actual crash and finish. If I was the daring type, I’d dare Bethancourt to put vocals on it.

“All of the Saints Will Sin Again” answers with acoustic strum and a voice nodding toward low-key Kurt Cobain in its seeming move to flesh out what grunge was in the second half of “Born on the 3rd of July,” but keyboard and electric guitar take the song someplace more London than Seattle, shades of Britpsych and what might be slide guitar or pedal steel filling out the repeated line, “If I was a gambling man,” before vocal change around 1:20 in, the melody held strong in an expressive highlight before it all drops out and the acoustic line reestablishes itself complemented by Curtis Mayfield strings and keys working in unison.

A chorus of the earlier vocal highlight sets a backdrop for a return of the vintage tonal tint of “Summer Rain (Will Fall)” in the lead, then it’s back to “Wish I was a gambling man” across channels, with swirls of guitar like radiation waves unfurled from one side of the song to the other, howling, purposefully repetitive. As “All of the Saints Will Sin Again” fades out, other voices join in to finish the line “Wish I was a gambling man” rising on the last word in three-part harmony as had happened at about 50 seconds into the song before a speedier turn of lyrics, but with more voices, as if to underscore the build that’s happened and the intensity beneath the serene but not at all still movement on the track’s surface. It ends, in any case, and all is quiet.

Its first half-minute or so isn’t actually empty, but it is the sound of expectation that’s there in the early going of “(Golden) Kiss Divine,” an as-noted response to the patience in “Sinphony,” broader in its low mixed drones before the fade-in starts in earnest around 30 seconds via a more prominent swell of keys. Sunrise is in organ and the swelling of the day results in exploratory prog, another manifestation of the idea of cinematic music, but more krautrock in its synthy realization, meditative and contemplative like Solaris, thoughtful in its way but maybe written in a more stream-of-conscious primal mindset. At 2:45 the next narrative begins in a minor conflict between drones and keys, a kind of back and forth before diplomacy wins the day, circa 3:20, and those drones and keys seem to around to face forward,.

Soon enough “(Golden) Kiss Divine” is a different kind of aural ethereality, the guitar way in back reminding of “And I Love Her” — that’s right, a second Beatles reference; live with it — while a soft guitar corresponds with “Echoes Flow” earlier, distilling psychedelia to a pastoral essence. That lead guitar over the wash of drone and organ is gorgeous, even as it turns somewhat foreboding after five minutes in, when you can hear fingers slide on strings quickly ahead of the keys swelling again, paradise so momentary en route to more dramatic lines of organ which fade out soon, that memory of soft guitar still part of it, and all is drawn down in the middle but there enough to say goodbye in its actual concluding fade, the resonance in the final movement of Mathew’s Hidden Museum both a payoff for the album and an understated example of the level of composition throughout. It is not a piece that would make sense in many other situations, but here, its flowering can’t help but fit.

That may well be the magic of Mathew’s Hidden Museum‘s Mathew’s Hidden Museum — how much the album makes its own place and what it allows to grow there. The ideas and terrains in which it ventures, united sometimes by not much more than the venturing itself, and the manner in which by the finish it comes to find peace with cohesion, the lack thereof, and its relationship to both. It feels like a deeply personal work, sometimes brave in its intimacy, and perhaps some of its more flippant moments are a bulwark against that on the part of Bethancourt, but the range and complexity manifested in the material isn’t to be understated, missed, or cast as purely self-indulgence from their maker. For what it’s worth, “(Golden) Kiss Divine” lets go more like a chapter ending than the entire novel, and one hopes that, however long it might take to do so, Bethancourt can find a way to continue to the story he’s telling here. It is one worth being told.

Mathew’s Hidden Museum, Mathew’s Hidden Museum (2023)

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Masters of the Riff II Set for March 3-5 in London

Posted in Whathaveyou on January 31st, 2023 by JJ Koczan

This looks utterly doable. You get into London maybe Friday morning, find your way to Hackney and the Oslo venue in time for the start, check out a few killers on Friday, then spend Saturday and Sunday fully immersed in the front-to-back, digging on the variety mostly of London’s own heavy underground, but certainly from some outside as well. I kind of feel like every time Slomatics book a show at this point I end up writing about it one way or the other — they mostly play fests, so it’s almost true — but along the top line here with them is Gnome — as seen on many 2023 lineups — Conan and Esoteric. That’s a strong argument already, but with the likes of Josiah and Desert Storm and Old Horn Tooth further down the bill there’s more to dig into than headliners to be sure. If you haven’t heard Goblinsmoker yet and want a tutorial on UK sludge, they’re glad to offer.

If I had more money than gawd and fewer responsibilities than I do, this would be the kind of thing I’d pop over to hang out at. It’s not about big bands or any kind of pretense or whatever. It’s just a killer assemblage playing out over what’ll be a good weekend for those fortunate enough to see it. Some familiar, some newer acts, just the way it should be. Nothing more to ask.

Tickets are available, and the venue’s right by Hackney Central train station and there’s a Travelodge there and a Tesco down the road, so if you’re looking to set up shop coming in from out of town, it’s doable. Full lineup follows:

masters of the riff ii

We’re back in the ring to take another swing!

London Doom Collective are proud to bring you the best of the underground doom/stoner/sludge with Master of the Riff II

Get your tickets here: https://www.wegottickets.com/f/12938

Friday
-Gnome
-Josiah
-Dvde
-Sky Valley Mistress

Saturday
-Conan
-Slomatics
-Wallowing
-Dessert Storm
-The Brothers Keg
-Old Horn Tooth
-Warpstormer
-Troy the Band

Sunday
-Estoteric
-Pantheïst
-Goblinsmoker
-Purple Kong
-Blood Wolf Moon
-Lowen
-Gévaudan
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Door Times:
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Josiah, We Lay on Cold Stone (2022)

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Mathew’s Hidden Museum Announce Self-Titled LP Out Feb. 3; Premiere “Naked & Rolled in That Rotten Dirt”

Posted in audiObelisk, Reviews on November 4th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

mathew's hidden museum

When I asked Mathew Bethancourt, frontman of Josiah and spearhead of the solo-project Mathew’s Hidden Museum, what the name of this debut album was, he told me it was self-titled, “Like Led Zeppelin, etc.” Perfect.

As an artist, Bethancourt is not unthoughtful or unconsidered or lacking self-awareness. Mathew’s Hidden Museum is an experimentalist outlet, and the first full-length being announced here is set to release on Feb. 3 through Interstellar Smoke Records. So when he says it’s self-titled, “like Led Zeppelin,” I can’t help but think of all the other self-titled albums out there and why he might choose that specific one for a comparison point. Even over Black Sabbath.

Well, consider how that band flourished after their first record, raw and bluesy as it was. It was the testing ground for nearly everything they’d later become, and perhaps as Bethancourt unfurls the 10 songs and 41 minutes of Mathew’s Hidden Museum, having already done a proof of concept in 2020’s soft-launch Golden Echoes EP (review here), in a similar light. Expansive as it is, the full-length may just be the beginning of a broader exploration.

So be it. As a multi-instrumentalist/vocalist and producer, Bethancourt comfortably inhabits a variety of personae across the span, from the ethereal jab-fuzz of “Naked and Rolled in that Rotten Dirt” (premiering below) to the organ-led-then-bass-led-then-drum-solo-then-the-riff-comes-back seven-minute self-jam “The Voyage of Psyche,” which sounds improvised on top of its drums — a rare feat for a track invariably recorded one layer at a time to feel made up on the spot — dropping hints in “Sinphony” of the post-grunge-and-still-shimmering “All of the Saints Will Sin Again” only before “Summer Rain (Will Fall)” noodles out like a Beatles Get Back jam that Peter Jackson found and the prior “Born on the 3rd of July” mathew's hidden museum self titledlights its fuzz on fire with classic urgency.

The droning and spacious “Echoes Flow” caps side A and the even-more spacious and atmospherically weird keyboard piece “(Golden) Kiss Divine” answers back on side B, so there’s some underlying structure even where it least feels like it, but “The Resurrectionist” at the outset sets up open expectations, if the EP didn’t, and whether it’s the hard, low piano notes before the freakout in “Golden” or the alternate-universe strut in “Naked and Rolled in that Rotten Dirt,” Mathew’s Hidden Museum indeed offer a host of treasures for close examination and study. Or, you can put it on, be like, ‘Oh hey this is some weirdo shit right here’ and just dig on it as it happens. Totally up to you. The album seems cool with it either way.

And if the message of the self-titled is ‘this is where it starts’ rather than a declaration of everything Mathew’s Hidden Museum is as a project, yeah, that tracks. Even in bringing back Josiah with a series of reissues and the new album, We Lay on Cold Stone (review here), earlier this year, Bethancourt almost couldn’t help but progress in his craft while, you know, shredding as one will. Mathew’s Hidden Museum builds on that impulse while reminding of some of the off-kilter blues/garage moments during his time in The Kings of Frog Island in its dug-in, self-made spirit and outright refusal to limit itself to one thing or one style.

I’m gonna hope to have more to come before it’s out in February, but you can dig into “Naked and Rolled in the Rotten Dirt” on the player below, followed by some preliminary album info and a quote from Bethancourt on the track.

Please enjoy:

Interstellar Smoke Records brings forth a musical offering from the open mind of Mathew Bethancourt. The Josiah (and once Kings of Frog Island) frontman looks to the spaces between spaces for creative inspiration, evoking a sense of all things fornicating, all the time. Make of this what you will as you experience Mathew’s Hidden Museum. Limited Edition LP/CD/MC available to pre-order from Interstellar Smoke Records now. Album to be released February 3rd 2023.

“An ode to the season of decay. Naked & Rolled In That Rotten Dirt speaks to my love of Autumn. In all its dying, lay an inherent beauty. Senses filled with the sent of sweet damp rotting flora and the sight of burning leaves setting the sky a flame. Mycelium earth magick guides us across narrow paths, through blackening woods to call at Lady Winters door. The earth, the dirt, enriched by death will summon new life.”
Mathew: 31.10

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The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal Playlist: Episode 92

Posted in Radio on September 2nd, 2022 by JJ Koczan

the obelisk show banner

Two weeks ago I was at Psycho Las Vegas, and so didn’t get to post the playlist for episode 91. For posterity’s sake and because I plainly love looking at lists of band names, it’s below along with the playlist for the episode airing today, which is #92. The march to 100 continues.

The esteemed Dean Rispler (who also plays in Mighty High and a bunch of other bands) is in charge of putting the shows together on a practical level from the lists I send, and to him I extend my deepest appreciation. I’m constantly late. I suck at this in general, and worse, I know it. So yeah. Dean does a bit of hand-holding and I am thankful. He emailed me this week and asked if I was thinking yet about episode 100 and would I be doing anything special?

Well… yes. I have been. And I’d like to make it a blowout or some such, but you know what the truth is? I’m more about the work. When it comes to something like that, the most honest thing I feel like I can do is keep my head down, do another episode and then do one after that two weeks later. I’d rather feel good about a thing in myself and move on. I’m not sure I can get away with that. So maybe I’ll hit up Tommi Dozer and see if he wants to chat sometime in the next few weeks.

Thanks if you listen and thanks for reading.

The Obelisk Show airs 5PM Eastern today on the Gimme app or at: http://gimmemetal.com.

Full playlist:

The Obelisk Show – 09.02.22 (VT = voice track)

Elephant Tree Aphotic Blues Elephant Tree
Might Abysses Abyss
Author & Punisher Misery Kruller
VT
Lord Elephant Hunters of the Moon Cosmic Awakening
Swarm of the Lotus Snowbeast The Sirens of Silence
Big Business Heal the Weak The Beast You Are
The Otolith Sing No Coda Folium Limina
VT
Elder Halcyon Omens
Gaerea Mantle Mirage
London Odense Ensemble Sojourner Jaiyede Sesssions Vol. 1
Northless What Must Be Done A Path Beyond Grief
Conan A Cleaved Head No Longer Plots Evidence of Immortality
VT
Forlesen Strega Black Terrain

And #91, which was a pretty damn good show:

Dozer The Flood Beyond Colossal
Orange Goblin Blue Snow Time Travelling Blues
Monster Magnet King of Mars Dopes to Infinity
Red Fang Fonzi Scheme Arrows
VT
Slift Citadel on a Satellite Ummon
Russian Circles Gnosis Gnosis
Faetooth Echolalia Remnants of the Vessel
Caustic Casanova Lodestar Glass Enclosed Nerve Center
Brant Bjork Trip on the Wine Bougainvillea Suite
Josiah Saltwater We Lay on Cold Stone
Blue Tree Monitor Sasquatch Cryptids
VT
Torche Tarpit Carnivore In Return
Telekinetic Yeti Rogue Planet Primordial
Mezzoa Dunes of Mars Dunes of Mars
Thunderbird Divine Boote’s Void The Hand of Man
Omen Stones Burn Alive Omen Stones
1000mods Vidage Super Van Vacation
VT
Truckfighters Con of Man Mania

The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is Sept. 16 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.

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Album Review: Josiah, We Lay on Cold Stone

Posted in Reviews on August 11th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

Josiah we lay on Cold Stone

Following a discography’s worth of well-timed catalog reissues, UK-based heavy rockers Josiah issued We Lay on Cold Stone, their first full-length in 15 years, as part of Blues Funeral Recordings‘ PostWax subscription series. In the interest of full disclosure, I do the liner notes for that series (usually late) and am theoretically compensated for doing so, if in LPs. I’ve been hesitant in most cases to put together a review after speaking to the artist, writing about the record from an ‘inside’ point of view, and being involved in a small way in the release, but as with Lowrider‘s Refractions (review here) in 2020, it feels warranted to dig in here as well.

From a perspective standpoint, this is more about the result than the making of the LP — though it’s almost inevitable I’ll say the same thing twice; true from one sentence to the next — but if it’s an ethical question, I’m never claiming impartiality because I don’t believe it exists, and as I listen to the six songs and 39 minutes of We Lay on Cold Stone, the prevailing sentiment is now what it was the first time I heard the album: garage rock ain’t like it used to be. And no, that’s not a complaint.

Fronted by Mathew Bethancourt, who here handles guitar, a goodly portion of the bass, multiple channels’ worth of vocals — that’s at least three in the midsection break of “Saltwater”; again, not complaining —  all keys and even drums on three tracks, Josiah was never a band to follow rules. Even as the tenets of aughts-era stoner rock were being laid down, Josiah turned to Hendrixian garage rawness and psychedelia, creating a sonic identity born of classic swing and an ability to go not only where the song wanted, but where they wanted too, an alignment of interests that’s rarer than they make it sound.

Bassist Simon Beasley — since replaced by Jack Dickinson, best known as guitarist/vocalist for Stubb — and drummer D.C. Lockton want for nothing as a rhythm section, but after he spent a decade-plus careening through bands like Leicester’s The Kings of Frog Island, the deeply undervalued Cherry ChokeDexter Jones Circus Orchestra and his own Mathew’s Hidden Museum solo-project, Josiah‘s return feels very much like a homecoming for Bethancourt, and it accordingly bears recognizable hallmarks of his craft.

Those include but aren’t by any means limited to a fluid use of multiple fuzz tones on a single track, so that the deeper layer in the 10-minute penultimate highlight “(Realise) We Are Not Real” — more a hope than a demand in its lyrics — is a reward for headphonic engagement, an organically malleable, clear vocal that cuts through the distortion and crash surrounding, and boogie derived from whichever lost ’70s classic it makes you feel coolest enough to know. But most of all, We Lay on Cold Stone manifests Josiah‘s refusal to adhere to the meme-style, stoner-riffs-as-text-on-background tenets of microgenre, to stand still, to be one thing. In 2022, does that mean your garage rock is GarageBand? Maybe.

But throughout We Lay on Cold StoneJosiah continually turn when they’ve made you feel like they’re headed straight ahead. The music is able to carry through every pivot from the crow calls in opener “Rats (To the Bitter End)” onward through the hard ’60s boogie of “Saltwater,” the violent and self-aware soundtrack-ish opening of “Let the Lambs See the Knife” and the reinvention of Queens of the Stone Age‘s “Millionaire” riff that becomes Josiah‘s own with the leads winding around it, to the what-space-rock-would-be-if-it-was-burrowing-underground-instead “Cut Them Free,” the far out hook in the later reaches of the aforementioned “(Realise) We Are Not Real” and the bookending finale “The Bitter End,” the steady drum pattern of which has the indisputable push of an Endless Boogie track, but is something else entirely. Whatever style you tag a given song, part, etc., the LP is not primitive, or rusty, or haphazard in its execution, even when it wants you to think it is.

Josiah

To jam or not to jam, that is the question. And when listening straight through, the answer is “yes” often enough to keep you guessing, but sneaky hooks in “Saltwater,” “Let the Lambs See the Knife,” and even “(Realise) We Are Not Real,” lyrics repeating in different forms, different layering — the barks and croons in their own channel in “Saltwater,” for example — also offer landmarks along the way, so that you’re not just following Josiah as they go farther and farther into hi-we’re-back aural oblivion. There’s structure at work right unto “The Bitter End,” with its subtly proto-doomed descending riff and insistent but unrushed answer back to the nigh-on-perfect pacing of “Let the Lambs See the Knife.”

Mood, tone, vocal and instrumental melody and pace are all likewise bendable in Josiah‘s work, and the band are no less effective in conveying the violence of “Let the Lambs See the Knife,” than the connection between rodents and rising oceans in “Rats (To the Bitter End)” and “Saltwater;” the not-quite-unspoken accusation of our responsibility for the currently unfolding climate disaster around the world. But while We Lay on Cold Stone is inherently Josiah‘s in terms of presentation, the deftness of the music and the flow that makes it such a joy to follow, the double-meaning there is that it belongs to Bethancourt as the driving force in the trio.

That’s not to take away from the contributions of Beasley or Lockton, or those Dickinson might make as they continue to move forward (it would be a crime not to have him join Bethancourt on vocals, at least once), but the personal vibe, the almost intimate nature of the progression through “Cut Them Free,” into side B’s “(Realise) We Are Not Real” and “The Bitter End,” is directly traceable to the guitarist, and it is the guitar that is at the root of the songs. Garage rock it might be, but Josiah were always and still are more about the fuzz and fulfilling the needs of their songs more than the expectations of their audience.

I would not expect their next record — which, as I understand it, is a thing that’s going to happen — to sound like We Lay on Cold Stone, since at least one hopes it won’t be made in quarantine and the lineup has changed as noted, but in capturing the advent of Josiah in the 2020s, the album holds as much promise for what’s to come as it harkens to what made the band’s first run so engrossing to begin with. I won’t say I’m impartial about it, but I will say it’s a ripper and this is a band who earn twice over every bit of hype they get, for the work they did back then and for the work they’re doing now. May they keep it going.

Josiah, We Lay on Cold Stone (2022)

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The Obelisk Questionnaire: Mathew Bethancourt of Josiah

Posted in Questionnaire on July 18th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

Mathew Bethancourt of Josiah

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: Mathew Bethancourt of Josiah

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

I define myself as a creative person. I’ve always been driven to make, imagine, create. Whether it’s music, art, design, storytelling, media etc; coming up with often ridiculous ideas and constantly wanting to challenge myself to be more, push boundaries. It’s simply a way of life for me. I’m lucky enough to earn my living as a creative, and that keeps me sane (just) :-) I was a songwriter before I could play any instruments. Sure I’d drum and make rhythms up like any kid does, but it was the melodies and lyrics that came first. I’d just imagine songs and record them to cassette for my own pleasure. I dabbled with the classical guitar for a few months aged 10, but art was my first creative pull and all my passion was focused on becoming a fine artist. At 18 I found myself in a group of sorts. A summer just hanging with musical friends and they started to play my songs. I wanted some of the action, so I picked up a guitar, played piano, and got stuck in. A friend showed me two chords and loaned me a nice Tokai strat copy and I just hit the ground running. 6 months later, I bought a Les Paul, Marshall amp – formed a new band and was playing live with a full set of original tracks. Playing music came naturally to me. I picked up the guitar relatively late but caught up pretty fast :-)

Describe your first musical memory.

I’m not sure which one came first but it was either my Galician Abuela (Grandmother) singing Gallego folk songs during family gatherings. Absolutely mesmerising. No background chit chat. Time stood still and emotions ran high. Or it was my dad’s HiFi geek-prog rock obsessed friend sitting me down in front of his record collection with a set of expensive cans on my head and trippy lights filling the room while he and my dad talked DIY or something. He introduced me to Pink Floyd, Yes, Hendrix etc. In glorious Hi-Fidelity sound.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

I think it has to be my Abuela singing. She was magical! The first time I experienced this beautiful woman summon up so much passion and command such keen attention from all around her with just her voice, will never leave me. I carry it as an inspiration always.

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

I’m not very good at suffering fools. Especially when their ideals and behaviour affect those around them negatively. So it was probably yesterday and I was definitely on a bike having a word with some dick in a car who almost cleaned up someone in front of me :-)

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

To deeply interesting places. If you do not seek to progress, you only stand to stagnate. Go where the challenges live.

How do you define success?

Freedom to create. If that then resonates with anyone out there – amazing! But the freedom to make is the key.

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

Not one thing. I’ve seen some upsetting events unfold in my time. But I wouldn’t want to un-see anything.

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

Leaving time machines, world peace and an end to poverty, hunger and greed aside :-) The next song I have written yet.

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

To enhance life for the living by inspiring freedom whilst creating with abandon. The freedom of expression is not to be taken lightly. And even though we may not all agree on what makes art, art or how to define it beyond the commercial realms. It is art’s very nature to be undefinable and as such be free of any rules or any reason.

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

Reading that next book. Watching that next sunset. Seeing my family grow. Falling asleep.

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Josiah, “Saltwater” official video

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