Peruvian progressive doomers Don Juan Matus have joined forces with countrymen classic metallurgists Oxido for a split 7″ that seems almost too heavy for a platter that size to hold. It seems an odd match at first. Oxido trace their roots back to a 1983 demo and play a post-Judas Priest type of straightforward classic heavy metal, while Don Juan Matus seem to be on a trip of thickened progressive heavy psychedelia if their third album, Más Allá del Sol Poniente (review here), and the song “Kadath,” included here, is anything to go by.

And yet, it works. At the end of the day, heavy is heavy, and that’s something Oxido and Don Juan Matus certainly have in common. The 7″ was released on New York’s Wardance Records, owned by Freddy Alva (he of Last Cause and the much-heralded 1989 New Breed NYHC compilation; not a bad endorsement to have), and finds the two bands united by that underlying love of classic heaviness. Oxido may move faster and Don Juan Matus‘ prominent organ keeps them well aligned to ’70s rock one way or another, but both “El Angel de la Muerte” and “Kadath” are imbued with a guitar-driven righteousness, whether it comes in the form of the chugging gallop of the former or the lumbering largess of the latter.

The record, which is limited to 300 copies and is a split release between Wardance and Basilica Records, has been out for a minute or two, but I haven’t seen the tracks online anywhere (maybe they are, it’s a big internet from what I’m told), so I asked if I could host them for streaming and was graciously granted permission. You’ll find both sides of the 7″ on the player below. Please enjoy:

For more info on the Oxido/Don Juan Matus split, check out Don Juan Matus on Thee Facebooks or Oxido on Thee Facebooks, or hit up the Wardance Records store.

Word came down on Friday that Más Allá Del Sol Poniente (review here), the 2010 third album from Peruvian prog/psych rockers Don Juan Matus, has just received a vinyl issue in a variety of pressings, including a limited diehard edition with a poster, postcards and marbled grey platter.

The release comes via Clostridium Records, while the original CD was handled by Golden Procession (Japan) and Espíritus Inmundos (Perú).

Here’s the latest and the links:

Don Juan Matus – Más Allá Del Sol Poniente vinyl release

Clostridium Records are proud to announce the exclusive, worldwide vinyl release of Peruvian collective Don Juan Matus’ third album, Más Allá Del Sol Poniente.

The album, which earned record of the year accolades in such mainstream media as El Comercio and Caretas magazine, was originally issued in late 2010 via joint release between Espíritus Inmundos (Perú), and Golden Procession (Japan), only on CD format, making this the first time the album’s available worldwide in an analog format.

The LP has been released on gatefold 180g vinyl, featuring reimagined cover art by Karen Müller, in classic black, white, and ultra-limited die-hard marbled grey wax. The latter also includes an A2 sized poster and 3 postcards.

The hardest part about listening to Peruvian experimental doomers El Hijo de la Aurora is trying to imagine whether their mysterious musical concoctions were crafted in a darkened science laboratory amid bubbling vials of green and blue liquid, or in a pagan forest amidst animal skulls and unspoken heathen rites. If the cover and general atmosphere of the Lima trio’s second full-length (first for R.A.I.G.), Wicca: Spells, Magic and Witchcraft Through the Ages, is anything to go buy, it’s probably the latter, but given some of the bizarre turns and villainous twists contained within these eight tracks (there are nine listed on the back of the disc, but eight show up when I put it in my player), I’m still not sure. Something about this kind of stuff just seethes with malefic and haunting forethought.

El Hijo de la Aurora — which boasts drummer and effects-master Joaquin Cuadra (who also produced here) and bassist Manolo Garfias (also guitar), formerly of Don Juan Matus alongside vocalist Rafael Cantoni – made their full-length debut with last year’s avant drone outing, Lemuria (review here). What the two records have in common, aside from dense atmospherics and a foreboding throughout, is a slew of guest appearances. Wicca engineer Saul Cornejo shows up on Hammond for the later shuffling rocker “Akasha,” Marcos Coifman wrote the lyrics to that song, and takes vocals on it and “Vril,” which follows, Tania Duarte sings on the shorter acoustic closer “Cuentos de Bosque Encantado Part II,” as she sang on the finale of Lemuria, and there are numerous other appearances as well on theremin, Hammond, Moog and vocals. A big difference between Lemuria and Wicca is the inclusion of Cantoni as a uniting vocal factor throughout at least several if not most of the tracks, and as Wicca is less barren and instrumentally drone-based, I’d say there’s been a shift in songwriting approach as well.

That shouldn’t be surprising, given the avant and openly creative feel El Hijo de la Aurora showed on the debut, but the raw Sabbathian doom definitely comes to the fore from the start of Wicca with opener “Der Golem,” which I think is combined with the sampled intro “El Ojo Hipnotico” (“The Hypnotic Eye”) to get the track listing/disc disparity. The song starts with Cuadra on drums setting a mid-tempo plod for Garfias to follow on the riff before Cantoni rides the groove vocally. All told, Wicca is a more active-feeling album than what Lemuria, but nothing feels sacrificed in terms of ambience, and the blend of classic riffage and doom that El Hijo de la Aurora proffered there remains one of the strongest assets here. In the hands of a band less capable of affecting a mood, “Psicodrama” might just come off as stoner rock, but El Hijo de la Aurora make the song more than the sum of its riffs, setting up the massive 14-minute “Libro de las Sombras (Including Dios Astado & el Escrito)” like the person who bends down behind you while someone in front pushes you over. Just when you think you know what to expect from El Hijo de la Aurora, they change it on you.

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I can’t believe it was only a week ago, but last Tuesday, Peruvian psych heads Serpentina Satelite posted an outtake from their Mecanica Celeste album to Soundcloud for all to hear, and I embedded it. As that tune was killer and as the band put up another, I figured we’d just repeat the process and do a weird deja vu kind of thing, like the ensuing week never happened and now you have to go through Xmas all over again. Yikes, what a nightmare.

This song — who knows how many others there might be? — is called “Rendencion.” It’s about three minutes shorter than its predecessor, and differentiated by ethereal spoken vocals, that, as far as I’m concerned, rule. If, like me, you’re looking for a good way to check out mentally on this post-”blizzard” Tuesday afternoon, I can personally attest to its assisting properties in this regard. Listen:

Peruvian psychedelic jam-meisters Serpentina Satelite have made an 11-plus-minute outtake from their Mecanica Celeste album (review here) available via Soundcloud, and I thought I’d stream it here in case anyone wants to listen. I’m having one of those days where it feels like I never woke up, and “Chaman” fits that mood wonderfully. It’s something you can put on and get lost in; perfect for the exhausted haze of this holiday week.

The wav form pretty much tells the story. It’s a dynamic song that ebbs and flows excellently while maintaining a strong, live feel and psychedelic mood. I (and, one assumes, the band, who emailed me the link) hope you enjoy it.

While my only prior exposure to Peruvian collective Don Juan Matus was their 2008 self-titled debut, their third album, Más Allá del Sol Poniente (Espíritus Inmundos) finds the five-piece a much more eclectic, genre-bending outfit. Lineup turmoil and artistic growth alike are to blame, but whatever did it, their sound has matured into dark textures of classic adult prog, with glimpses of the raw stoner sound they came from, but a more engrossing take overall on it. The eight tracks that comprise Más Allá del Sol Poniente’s 35-minute runtime span a wide sonic array, and although each seems to have a personality and drama all its own, there remains a flow to the album that’s essential to its ultimate success.

The way intro “Bajo la Sombra del Arbol de la Vida y La Muerte” bleeds into the riffier, classically plodding “Kadath/Más Allá del Sol Poniente,” for example, is just one of Don Juan Matus’ resident smooth transitions, going from piano and guest synth from Carlos Torres Fuentes to Alfonso Vargas’ crashing drums and what might be Más Allá del Sol Poniente’s most accomplished vocal performance from singer Alex Rojas. The semi-title-track also represents the more guitar-led side of Don Juan Matus, which doesn’t come out on every track, but when it does, comes out cleanly, the guitar work of Richard Nossar (who also produced the album and contributes synth and vocals), Manuel Garfias (also bass) and/or Veronik (also flute, theremin and vocals) sounding big enough to make an impression but not so large as to leave no room for the more experimental side of the band to come out on other tracks, such as the bass-driven instrumental space psych synth of “Ectoplasma,” which follows immediately. At just over two minutes, “Ectoplasma” is more of a transitional moment, a kind of warning to listeners that anything could happen on Más Allá del Sol Poniente, and in that it’s effective, since instead of a turn toward the weird, it leads into the riff-heaviest cut on the record, “Mundo Alterno.”

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With their last record, Nothing to Say, Peruvian psych heads Serpentina Satélite blended deep space with heady riff-led jams, coming out of it sounding neither formulaic nor offensively derivative. On the follow-up, Mecanica Celeste (Rocket Recordings) — their third record overall — the four-piece push even further into the reaches of Hawkwindian psychedelia, staying off the ground almost entirely for 43 minutes of freewheeling exploration, relying on structure about as much as the average amoeba. If they said some of this stuff was made up on the spot after pressing record, I’d believe it, though the clarity in the production leads me to assume otherwise.

Mecanica Celeste finds Serpentina Satélite expanding their repertoire some. The two guitars of Renato Gómez and Dolmo lead the way with moaning solos and almost ceaseless effects. On nine-minute opener “Fobos,” the album gets a subtle start that pans into brighter territory with the one-two hit of “Sangre de Grado” and the title track, which bleed right into each other. Vocals, provided by bassist Félix Dextre, are sparse, but come on heavy with delay on “Sangre de Grado,” drummer Aldo Castillejos providing suitable freakout behind and sounding like he’s having a lot of fun doing it. Centerpiece track “Imaginez Quel Bonheur ce Sera de Voir Nos Chers Disparus Ressuscités!” is something of a ritualistic interlude, its title translating from the French to say, “Imagine What Joy This Will Be to See Our Departed Loved Ones Resurrected.” The atmosphere created is expectedly spooky.

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Something surprising happens about seven minutes into Peruvian trio El Hijo de la Aurora’s debut CD, Lemuria (Ogro Records). What’s so far been a straightforward and admittedly terrifyingly desolate drone record takes a turn and a pure stoner rock riff is injected into the 11-minute opening title track. All of a sudden El Hijo de la Aurora – a trio with no fewer than eight guests/collaborators on the album – are like SunnO))) with payoff, and as the record plays out is near 40-minute runtime (it feels shorter), that’s only the beginning of the sonic twists the band has on offer.

I’d still call Lemuria doom, if only for the overbearing atmosphere of foreboding it creates, but there are plenty of rock moments. Opener “Lemuria” is broken down into four parts, each with a distinct personality when examined closely, but the 1:37 “Deus Sol Invictus,” is basically just a well-reverbed grooving riff from guitarist Manolo Garfias with the lively drums of Joaquín Cuadra behind. The two work well together and are obviously acquainted with each other’s playing from their time together in Don Juan Matus. Arian Lora provides vocals occasionally, but seems even more concentrated on adding sundry effects and theremin to the songs, giving El Hijo de la Aurora an experimental feel where you don’t really know where the band is going to take you next. “Portal a Venus” begins with a sample and stays in the rock vein, with guest Hammond from Saúl Cornejo and vocals from Tania Duarte, who returns also on follow-up track “Cuervo Negro.”

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