Posted in Bootleg Theater on January 18th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
I’ll be honest. It felt a little weird on Xmas Day 2020 when, sitting around my wife’s sister’s living room with family, I loaded up the Kadavar live stream on my phone and watched the Berlin trio kick out jams on after presents were opened. But hey, it was that kind of year.
Established as forerunner of German, and really, greater European heavy rock and roll, Kadavar peaceably severed ties with Nuclear Blast in 2020 and announced the formation of their own imprint, Robotor Records. As early adopters of the live-stream format that’s become so common in the COVID-19 era, the band would have Studio Live Session Vol. I on their Bandcamp page before most acts even figured out how to go live on Facebook through their phones, taking the momentum they had from an interrupted tour and translating it to that setting. The Xmas show, some nine months later, was all the more welcome.
In November, the three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Christoph “Lupus” Lindemann, bassist Simon “Dragon” Bouteloup and drummer Christoph “Tiger” Bartelt issued The Isolation Tapes (review here), which singled itself out from their past offerings not just by being their first self-release, but adopting a sound fitting to the moment of its creation during pandemic lockdown. Germany, as Lindemann explains in the interview below, is currently under another round of closure until at least the beginning of March, so one finds the lonely spirit of some of this material striking in their relevance, even as Lindemann talks of writing a dirty rock record to follow-up. Given the restlessness and anxiety of existing in this stretch of time, you get where he’s coming from there too.
And not to harp on it, but that was part of what made the second livestream, the Xmas show, so refreshing as well; the feeling coming through that Kadavar, who under normal circumstances would’ve spent a significant portion of 2020 on tour, were no less anxious to play than their audience was to listen and watch. I don’t know how the rest of the living room felt, but I was definitely on board.
I’d never interviewed Lindemann before, so I’m glad to report he wasn’t a jerk. We talked about The Isolation Tapes, about the first and second streams, leaving Nuclear Blast and starting a label, writing new songs, the Leipzig-based Re-Generation Festival they were putting together that was of course postponed, flat earth and other conspiracy theories (no, he’s not a believer), and much more.
Hope you enjoy.
Kadavar, Interview with Lupus Lindemann, Jan. 14, 2021
Posted in Reviews on December 8th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
When the various histories of 2020 are written, they may or may not deign to include a sentence about the struggle of creativity for survival amid the global COVID-19 pandemic. And even if they do, that sentence will very likely leave out the persistence and the urgency with which that struggle has been met. German trio Kadavar, who in addition to touring consistently the world over would’ve this year hosted their own outdoor festival for the first time, were early adopters of the streaming model, resulting in the Studio Live Session Vol. I digital outing that they now follow up with The Isolation Tapes on their own nascent Robotor Records imprint through Pelagic Records. Like so much of 2020 has been, The Isolation Tapes feels like a step outside the normal progression of time, and in Kadavar‘s case, of sound as well. It was just Fall 2019 that the band — guitarist/vocalist Christoph “Lupus” Lindemann, bassist Simon “Dragon” Bouteloup and drummer Christoph “Tiger” Bartelt — offered up For the Dead Travel Fast (review here). Their fifth full-length and fourth through Nuclear Blast, it continued the trio’s exploration of moodier vibes and blends of classic heavy rock and metal that the prior Rough Times (review here) introduced in 2017.
Their sound and delivery has always been a mercurial thing. Together now for a decade, Kadavar began their evolution as arguably the best vintage-styled act of the 2010s, and their 2012 self-titled debut (discussed here) and 2013 sophomore outing, Abra Kadavar (review here), remain a standard other acts strive meet. Already there was progression from one record to the next, but 2015’s Berlin (review here) was a departure point, boldly modernizing Kadavar‘s production style and aesthetic while staying loyal to the songwriting that’s always underpinned their efforts. Running 10 tracks and 44 minutes, The Isolation Tapes reads as another such pivot in approach in some ways, but in others it is resoundingly consistent. It is easily the most atmospheric release the band has ever done, and yes, that includes things like the occasional sprawling album-closer and their “The White Ring” collaboration with Aqua Nebula Oscillator in 2012. Its spaciousness is born in part from synth contributions from all three members and a dynamic that ranges between minimalism and restlessly bouncing rock and roll, but it’s also a reaction toward structure itself, as the band demonstrates plainly by positioning the 6:19 longest track “The Lonely Child” as the opener (immediate points).
Entirely instrumental and rich in its blends of keys, guitar, foreboding drones and triumphant crash, “The Lonely Child” seems to draw on U2 guitar shimmer and classic krautrock synthesizer progressivism in kind, and in so doing, it throws wide the doors of Kadavar‘s sound. From there, they can, and mostly do, go anywhere. With recording by Bartelt, The Isolation Sessions is at once the most vintage-sounding album Kadavar have done in more than half a decade, and the most forward thinking, nodding throughout toward The Beatles circa Abbey Road, David Bowie, smooth ’70s blues and soulful progressive heavy rock. “I Fly Among the Stars” offers mellow drift underscored by warm-sounding drums and given a hook through echoing melodies met by floating slide guitar and a deceptively catchy chorus. Songs come and go with abiding melancholy throughout, but side A picks up with the quirkier bass-bouncing “Unnaturally Strange (?)” and uses that weirdo tempo momentum in the post-Queens of the Stone Age push that emerges from the quiet start of “(I Won’t Leave You) Rosi.” That stretch of about two and a half minutes in the song’s total 5:15 comes to the noisy, crashing finish it deserves, and that’s a rarity on The Isolation Tapes that’s met by the subdued build of side A closer “The World is Standing Still.”
Beginning drumless, the end of the album’s first half comes to a head in its own second with lead and rhythm guitars intertwining over subtly tense keys for a quick and classy payoff before once again receding and giving way for “Eternal Light (We Will Be OK)” to open side B with echoing sounds of children and a wash of melodic synth and vocals, moving gradually into a proggier foray that in tone and mood mirrors “The Lonely Child” at the outset, if quicker and busier in its galloping drums, itching as it seems to be to get to its own apex. The first of two shorter pieces, “Peculiareality (!)” (1:51) follows with a McCartneyan organ line, choral melodies and a mounting echo that seems to underscore the drifting-away vibe. “Everything is Changing,” which picks up the key-bounce theme from the song prior and sets it to more straightforward use, has at least three layers of synth happening atop the drums, but is neither overwrought or falling over itself in the mix. This is a testament to Kadavar as a band, of course, but also to the strength of the chorus, which is among the most resonant throughout The Isolation Tapes, the simple core message of the song’s title working with a grounding effect for the point of view of the listener.
Once again, melancholy is the preeminent spirit, but “Everything is Changing” moves all the while, where “The Flat Earth Theory,” which follows, seems to come to a purposeful halt. Mournful organ, gorgeously harmonized vocals and sweet keyboard notes find Lindemann wondering how anyone can believe the earth isn’t round, and the feel is that this question too is a stand-in for wondering how humanity got to such a place in general where one might be hunkered down in quarantine because of a pandemic raging outside, conspiracy theories abounding and so on. Valid question, but the piece — the second of the shorter ones on side B at 1:50 — doesn’t dwell, and instead transitions smoothly into the finale “Black Spring Rising,” with vocals courtesy of German singer-songwriter Ilgen-Nur Borali and lyrics by Rosa Merino Claros. Another departure? In some ways, but also consistent with the rest of what surrounds in general atmosphere and melodic resonance. Kadavar aren’t playing tricks at that point in the album, and The Isolation Tapes itself is enough of a curve that one doesn’t get the sense they’re looking to play to some idea of novelty.
Rather, the LP as a whole stands as a statement of the moment it was created amid the terror of this past Spring and Summer. As to what the future will bring on any level, either sound-wise for the band or anything else, one wouldn’t dare predict. But in addition to meeting its goal of speaking to the strange otherworldly feel that so much of the last 11 months has brought, The Isolation Tapes also reaffirms the strength of Kadavar‘s songwriting and the fact that they can bend aesthetic to their will at will. And that they, yes, will, as they see fit. Response has been mixed as it invariably will be for a group of their profile, but whether it’s a one-off or these impulses bleed into their “normal” aesthetic, Kadavar are only richer stylistically for having done this work. Whatever comes next will come.
Kadavar, The Isolation Tapes (2020)
Kadavar, “Eternal Light (We Will Be OK)” official video
Posted in Bootleg Theater on October 13th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
What’s surprising about the new Kadavar single/video isn’t necessarily the band’s foray into psychedelia. That’s ground they’ve covered before to be sure — their 2012 split/collab with Aqua Nebula Oscillator comes to mind first but it’s not the only example. And what’s surprising about “Eternal Light” isn’t the contrast between it and the more melancholy “Everything is Changing” (video posted here) that they put out with the announcement of the forthcoming LP The Isolation Tapes arriving Oct. 23 through their own Robotor Records. And it’s not really a surprise that they have kids. Lots of people procreate. It’s how the species perpetuates. What’s surprising is the resonance of the track itself.
Of course, the normally-road-ready Berlin three-piece aren’t touring in 2020 as they otherwise would be, but it can hardly be said that that’s held them back creatively based on what I’ve heard so far from these two singles. “Eternal Light” has a shimmer and a breadth to it that feels decidedly unconcerned with the stage, with being played live, and that’s a seeming departure from the more straightforward approach of some of the tracks on 2017’s Rough Times (review here), let alone the touches of darker atmosphere. Now, I don’t know what the rest of The Isolation Tapes has in store for listeners — sad to say I haven’t heard it; I’m dying to — but it’s worth speculating at this point if being more or less trapped indoors as they were earlier in the year allowed them to explore new sonic and emotional range in their songwriting patterns and bring to fruition new aesthetic ideas. Worked for The Beatles, certainly.
I’m not suggesting Kadavar will never tour again — though a rooftop show would be fun — just that in trying circumstances, there’s a good chance that Christoph “Lupus”Lindemann, drummer Christoph “Tiger” Bartelt and bassist Simon “Dragon” Bouteloup may have found a way to dig something positive out of it. That, in itself, would be an accomplishment, never mind any additional elements they may bring to their established sound.
Again, I haven’t heard the full album, but that’s where I’m at between the first single and this one. You can see for yourself if you agree.
Video and comment from Tiger follow below.
Please enjoy:
Kadavar, “Eternal Light” official video
ETERNAL LIGHT’ from the album ‘THE ISOLATION TAPES’ released on 23 October on Robotor Records.
Tiger: “In the beginning of April, we were in the middle of writing ‘The Isolation Tapes’. I started riding my bike along the canal as my morning ritual, looking for some kind of enlightenment. The sun was shining, the trees were full of green leaves and the sound of the wind filled me with joy. I was just happy to be home. For the first time in 8 years, I didn’t have single a tour scheduled. Since Judith and I became parents three years ago, and with another baby on the way there were some strong positive side effects to the corona crisis, after all.
“I still thought about the past tours a lot. And realized then I had had a constant dream on tour. It was about how I felt bad about not being home, and in it my daughter Luca appeared and she smiled at me. Making her laugh and seeing her smile is what I missed the most. In the dream it gave me a feeling of affirmation to carry on do my job, which I love without doubt. That remained a strong positive image in my mind.
“I guess that’s what the song is about – take a good memory and let it lighten you up. Luca´s smile can make a dark day bright. She´s my eternal light.”
‘The Isolation Tapes’ will be released on October 23rd, 2020 via ROBOTOR RECORDS.
Posted in Features on August 12th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
Bands and festivals have begun to announce 2021 dates and all that, but let’s be realistic: it’s going to be years before live music is what it once was. Especially in the United States, which is the country in the world hardest hit by the ol’ firelung in no small part because of the ineptitude of its federal leadership, an entire economic system of live music — not to mention the venues, promotions and other cultural institutions that support it on all levels — needs to be rebuilt from the ground up. It isn’t going to be just as simple as “social distancing is over and we can all crowd into the bar again.” Maybe not ever.
You’ve likely seen a band do a live stream at this point, even if after the fact, and I have too. Not the same as a real-life gig, duh, but if it helps raise some funds and keeps creative people working on something and gives an act a way to connect with its audience, you can’t call it bad. I’ve found, though, that with the dearth of live music happening and the nil potential that “going to a show” will happen anytime soon, I’ve been listening to more and more live albums.
This, in no small part, is because there are plenty to listen to. Some groups attempting to bring in cash either for themselves or relevant causes have put out live records in the last few months and made use of the downtime that would’ve otherwise been given to actually being on a stage or writing together in a room or whatever it might be. It’s been a way for a band to not just sit on its collective hands and wonder what the future will bring. When so much is out of your own control, you make the most of what you’ve got.
In that spirit, here’s a quick rundown of 10 recent live outings that I’ve been digging. If you’ve found you’re in the need of finding comfort in live music and whatever act you want to see isn’t doing a stream just this second, maybe you can put one of these on, close your eyes, and be affected a bit by the on-stage energy that comes through.
Thanks as always for reading, and thanks to Tim Burke, Vania Yosifova, and Chris Pojama Pearson for adding their suggestions when I asked on social media. Here we go, ordered by date of release:
Arcadian Child, From Far, for the Wild (Live in Linz)
Released Jan. 24.
Granted, this one came out before the real impact of COVID-19 was being felt worldwide, but with the recent announcement of Arcadian Child‘s next studio album coming out this Fall, including From Far, for the Wild (Live in Linz) (discussed here) on this list seems only fair. The Cyprus-based four-piece even went so far as to include a couple new songs in the set that’ll show up on Protopsycho as well this October, so it’s a chance to get a preview of that material as well. Bonus for a bonus. Take the win.
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Kadavar, Studio Live Session Vol. 1
Released March 25.
Germany began imposing curfews in six of its states on March 22. At that point, tours were already being canceled, including Kadavar‘s European run after two shows, and the band hit Blue Wall Studio in Berlin for a set that was streamed through Facebook and in no small part helped set the pattern of streams in motion. With shows canceled in Australia/New Zealand and North America as well, Kadavar were hoping to recover some of the momentum they’d lost, and their turning it into a live record is also a part of that, as is their upcoming studio release, The Isolation Tapes.
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Øresund Space Collective, Sonic Rock Solstice 2019
Released April 3.
Of course, I’m perfectly willing to grant that Sonic Rock Solstice 2019 (review here) wasn’t something Øresund Space Collective specifically put out because of the pandemic, but hell, it still exists and that enough, as far as I’m concerned. As ever, they proliferate top notch psychedelic improv, and though I’ve never seen them and it seems increasingly likely I won’t at the fest I was supposed to this year, their vitality is always infectious.
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Pelican, Live at the Grog Shop
Released April 15.
Let’s be frank — if you don’t love Pelican‘s music to a familial degree, it’s not that I think less of you as a person, but I definitely feel bad for you in a way that, if I told you face-to-face, you won’t find almost entirely condescending. The Chicago instrumentalists are high on my list of golly-I-wish-they’d-do-a-livestream, and if you need an argument to support that, this set from Ohio should do the trick nicely. It’s from September 2019, which was just nearly a year ago. If your mind isn’t blown by their chugging progressive riffs, certainly that thought should do the trick.
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SEA, Live at ONCE
Released June 19.
Also captured on video, this set from Boston’s SEA finds them supporting 2020’s debut album, Impermanence (review here) and pushing beyond at ONCE Ballroom in their hometown. The band’s blend of post-metallic atmosphere and spacious melody-making comes through as they alternate between lumbering riffs and more subdued ambience, and it makes a fitting complement to the record in underscoring their progressive potential. The sound is raw but I’d want nothing less.
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Sumac, St Vitus 09/07/2018
Released July 3.
Issued as a benefit to Black Lives Matter Seattle and a host of other causes, among them the Philadelphia Womanist Working Collective, this Sumac set is precisely what it promises in the title — a live show from 2018 at Brooklyn’s famed Saint Vitus Bar. I wasn’t at this show, but it does make me a little wistful to think of that particular venue in the current concert-less climate. Sumac aren’t big on healing when it comes to the raw sonics, but there’s certainly enough spaciousness here to get lost in should you wish to do so.
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YOB, Pickathon 2019 – Live From the Galaxy Barn
Released July 3.
They’ve since taken down the Bandcamp stream, but YOB’s Pickathon 2019 – Live From the Galaxy Barn (review here) was released as a benefit for Navajo Nation COVID-19 relief, and is an hour-long set that paired the restlessness of “The Lie that is Sin” next to the ever-resonant “Marrow.” Of all the live records on this list, this is probably the one that’s brought me the most joy, and it also inspired the most recent episode of The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal, which jumped headfirst into YOB‘s catalog. More YOB please. Also, if you haven’t seen the videos of Mike Scheidt playing his guitar around the house, you should probably hook into that too.
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Dirty Streets, Rough and Tumble
Released July 31.
If you’re not all the way down with the realization that Justin Toland is the man when it comes to heavy soul and blues guitar, Dirty Streets‘ new live record, Rough and Tumble, will set you straight, and it won’t even take that long. With the all-killer bass and drums of Thomas Storz and Andrew Denham behind, Toland reminds of what a true virtuoso player can accomplish when put in a room with a crowd to watch. That’s an important message for any time, let alone right now. These cats always deliver.
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Amenra, Mass VI Live
Released Aug. 7
Look, I’m not gonna sit here and pretend I’m the biggest Amenra fan in the world. I’m not. Sometimes I feel like they follow too many of their own rules for their own good, but there’s no question that live they’re well served by the spectacle they create, and their atmospherics are genuinely affecting. And I know that I’m in the minority in my position, so for anyone who digs them hard, they put up this stream-turned-record wherein they play a goodly portion of 2017’s Mass VI, and even as the self-professed not-biggest-fan-in-the-world, I can appreciate their effort and the screamy-scream-crushy-crush/open-spaced ambience that ensues.
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Electric Moon, Live at Freak Valley Festival 2019
Releasing Sept. 4.
Yeah, okay, this one’s not out yet, but sometimes I’m lucky enough to get things early for review and sometimes (on good days) those things happen to be new live records from Germany psychonauts Electric Moon. The Always-Out-There-Sula-Komets are in top form on Live at Freak Valley Festival 2019 as one would have to expect, and they’re streaming a 22-minute version of “777” now that rips so hard it sounds like it’s about to tear a hole into an alternate dimension where shows are still going on so yes please everyone go and listen to it and maybe we’ll get lucky and it’ll really happen. The magic was in you all along.
Immediate points to Kadavar for accuracy when it comes to their new single. The first track to be unveiled from the upcoming The Isolation Tapes LP — available for preorder from the Berlin trio’s website as of today — is “Everything is Changing,” and I suspect that when frontman Christoph “Lupus” Lindemann intones the title, he’s talking about more than just the fact that he and drummer Christoph “Tiger” Bartelt have shaved their long-worn beards. The song, with synthesizer where a guitar might otherwise lead the way — not at all the band’s first foray into synth, if you’re wondering, but still a departure from expectation — is melancholy and autobiographical featuring, with Lindemann describing restlessness in lyrics like, “Trying to make sense at home/Like the new guy coming into town,” and “I said I wouldn’t be home tonight/But things have changed too fast.”
One has no trouble believing both those sentiments are true. Kadavar — rounded out by Simon “Dragon” Bouteloup — of course had tour plans scuttled by the COVID-19 pandemic, and they’ve been on the road so persistently and for so long, that it’s easy to imagine being stuck at home as they might’ve been earlier this year was a marked change personally as well as a dent in their always-busy album cycle. As the song unfolds over its six minutes, the lonely feeling suits a year marked by social distance broken only by social unrest, and in the last verse, restlessness turns into apathy as the last verse finishes, “Now I want to stay for a while/Resting my tired limbs/And I want to hide for a while/From the sound of my strings.”
Fair enough, but Kadavar aren’t exactly hiding. “Everything is Changing” is meticulously arranged and holds the mark of songcraft that has typified their material all throughout the creative progression that’s made them one of heavy rock’s most pivotal acts of the last decade. And to be surrounded by change is to be alive, but the consistency with which Kadavar bring their material to light is the rare reassurance of a steady hand, and even “Everything is Changing” — a willful step-down in energy from some of their more brazen moments — benefits from how much of themselves the band puts into it.
As noted, The Isolation Tapes is up for preorder as of today. It’s out Oct. 23 through Robotor Records — the band’s new self-release label; which seems to be an imprint of Pelagic? — and as one might expect, the different color vinyls look lovely.
Enjoy the video:
Kadavar, “Everything is Changing” official video
‘EVERYTHING IS CHANGING’ from the album ‘THE ISOLATION TAPES’ released on 23 October on Robotor Records.
Lupus: ‘The time of isolation has been a very intimate one that would not invite to write another hard rock album just like that. At home I wasn’t looking for loud guitars or walls of sound: everything turned quiet, both inside and outside, until sound almost disappeared. I would start listening to things I usually wouldn’t, like water drops, steps, birds or wind… So we started recording out of this new mental state, we would use loops for the very first time or play around with sounds we have never used before, resulting in a trip through our minds that captured these special times where everything was changing.’
Directed and Edited by Victor Puigcerver
Head Of Production Xavi Galindo Color Grading Lita Bosch
Thanks to Robin Banks Olivia Airey
Early morning breaks the night I get up I’ve slept way too long doubt is moving through my mind its been some time that i’ve played my songs
33 and things are changing so long I’ve served you well living the dream for many years left alone in the hotel
Everything is changing And there’s nothing I can do i see all the good times fading while I’m trying to get through
trying to make sense at home like the new guy coming into town There’s a world out there and it calls my name but i don’t know how to get along
33 and things are changing so long I’ve served you well living the dream for many years left alone in the hotel
i said i wouldn’t be home tonight but things have changed too fast
now i want to stay for a while resting my tired limbs and i want to hide for a while from the sound of my strings
Posted in Whathaveyou on July 21st, 2020 by JJ Koczan
Well, they had to do something. Not only did Kadavar have Australia/New Zealand and North American tour plans shit the bed this Spring, they were also set to hold their first festival endeavor, the Re-Generation Fest, next month in Berlin, where they’d co-headline with All Them Witches. Obviously not happening, because at some point it would probably require two people to, you know, stand next to each other. A terrifying thought, even outdoors, and I’m not even being that sarcastic when I say so.
So that will happen in 2021 (hopefully), and in the meantime, the always-up-to-something trio have been accordingly up to something. The something is a new album. Dubbed The Isolation Tapes, the new record is set to go up for preorder on Aug. 6, at which time a new single will also be unveiled. While you’re noting that date, putting a reminder in your phone or some such, also take a second to lift an eyebrow at the fact that Kadavar are releasing the album on their own, through a new imprint they’ve dubbed Robotor Records, rather than with Nuclear Blast, which handled their last four studio albums — including last year’s For the Dead Travel Fast (review here) — as well as two live records.
Could be they were on a six-LP deal and that has been fulfilled, or this could be a one-off due to the extenuating circumstances of that pesky global pandemic, but I don’t know at this point. Presumably we’ll find out more when the first single hits next month.
The news caught my eye on the social medias, not the least because it was in all-caps. Here it is:
KADAVAR – The Isolation Tapes
AUGUST 6, 2020 – SAVE THE DATE !!!
NEW STUDIO ALBUM „THE ISOLATION TAPES“ ON OUR OWN LABEL ROBOTOR RECORDS!
PRE-ORDER, MORE DETAILS AND FIRST SINGLE ON AUGUST 6, 2020.
