Posted in Questionnaire on February 16th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
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: Roman Tamayo of Vinnum Sabbathi, LSDR Records & Doomed and Stoned Latinoamerica
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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?
Hola, my name is Roman Tamayo from Mexico.
I feel so honored to be here, I´m a big fan of The Obelisk, thanks JJ for all your support to the scene.
Well, I play synth and samples in the band Vinnum Sabbathi, I run the record label LSDR Records and I’m the main editor of Doomed and Stoned Latinoamerica (website, radio show, etc.).
My brother Juan (Vinnum Sabbathi & Fumata) and I grew up in the outskirts of Mexico, a place commonly charged with violence, poverty and lack of services. In this semi-urban area, most people listen rancheras (kind of tex-mex music), reggaeton and just a few classic rock.
Well, 15 years ago Stoner Rock was a very underground genre around here, even the people who listen rock didn´t have any clue about Kyuss, Nebula, or Monster Magnet. I discovered these sounds thanks to the journalist Iván Nieblas (Stoner Rock Mexico).
One day I bought a magazine and I saw names such as Los Natas, Kyuss, and Nebula. It took me some time with the prehistoric internet I had, but I found some songs from these bands and my world changed, I felt a strong connection, I knew that all these bands were special and I finally found part of my identity.
Describe your first musical memory.
Music was not a big deal at home, usually my parents and uncles listened to traditional racheras like Los Tigres del Norte (they are amazing btw). I got involved in rock when my mom bought me a rock compilation CD and I discovered Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, etc.
When I studied High School, my friends started to show me records and I discovered bands like Pantera, The Doors, Slayer and Judas Priest. Suddenly I started to buy more magazines and found tons of amazing bands. I became a music junkie, I quickly jumped from The Rolling Stones to NIN.
Describe your best musical memory to date.
Ohhh man, there is a lot, especially with Vinnum Sabbathi.
Touring over Europe for the very first time was a beautiful experience: we played at Sonic Blast in Portugal and met some of our heroes there. I remember that when we played, Philip from Colour Haze was there, I was in shock. Also, that year we went to Freak Valley which was the paradise.
Probably another special memory is when we received our first release on vinyl, for a small band from Mexico that was a big deal.
Finally, thanks to Doomed and Stoned I’ve had the chance to interview a lot of my favorite bands, that´s a blessing. I feel so honored and happy to live in this golden era of heavy rock.
When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?
Well, as I said we have grown up in a violent area, walking during the night in the hood is a challenge, you don´t know if you will be back home safe. That kind of stuff makes you strong somehow.
As a band probably the major challenge has been when we started to live in different cities and realized that we don´t have the same chances to play and tour as in the past. I think at this point the best is to enjoy the shows and have fun with my friends.
Where do you feel artistic progression leads?
Art helps to heal and transform lives, if your work doesn´t have an effect on the people who follows you in a positive way, you are doing something wrong in my opinion.
I’m proud that with Vinnum Sabbathi we try to share, in a way, science topics to people through the music. I like stoner-doom clichés, but we need just one Electric Wizard.
How do you define success?
Success is not about money or fame; success is to know that your work can transform lives in a positive way. Is to realize that we are humans and if we support each other, we can create a community and be part of a positive chance to achieve a peaceful life.
What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?
People killed by cartels and kidnappings.
Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.
I love horror movies, so I would love to create a soundtrack for a fictional horror movie.
What do you believe is the most essential function of art?
Personally, art is the one of the purest things humans can create.
In this economical system, you can buy-sell anything, even paintings, music, poems, etc.
But, the way that each piece of art makes you feel, that does not have a price. Art is the way to express our feelings, beliefs and thoughts, if your work does not have these elements, it’s a completely different thing.
And as I said previously, I think art heals and transforms lives.
Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?
I work in a NGO called Habitat for Humanity, that´s my real job.
We are focused to build homes and sustainable projects in indigenous communities, basically we work with disadvantaged families.
I would love to see my country with more equality, more emphatic.
I would love to see more and more people working together for a better world, people should stop being selfish and care more for others.
Somewhat unbelievably, we’ve reached the penultimate day of the Summer 2022 Quarterly Review. I believe it because every time I blink my eyes, I can feel my body trying to fall asleep. Doesn’t matter. There’s rock and roll to be had — 10 records’ worth — so I’mma get on it. If you haven’t found anything yet that speaks to you this QR — first of all, really??? — maybe today will be the day. If you’re feeling any of it, I’d love to know in the comments. Otherwise, off into the ether it goes.
In any case, thanks for reading.
Quarterly Review #81-90:
Hemlock Branch, Hemlock Branch
[Note: art above (photo by Nikita Gross) is not final. Album is out in September. Give it time.] Those familiar with Ohio sludge metallers Beneath Oblivion might recognize Scotty T. Simpson (here also guitar, lap-steel and vocals) or keyboardist/synthesist Keith Messerle from that band, but Hemlock Branch‘s project is decisively different on their self-titled debut, however slow a song like “The Introvert” might be. With the echo-laden vocals of Amy Jo Combs floating and soaring above likewise big-sky riffs, the far-back crash of drummer David Howell (White Walls) and the it’s-in-there-somewhere bass of Derda Karakaya, atmosphere takes a central focus throughout the 10 tracks and 22 minutes of the release. Hints of black metal, post-metal, doom, heavy psychedelia, and noise-wash dirgemaking experimentalism pervade in minute-long cuts like “Incompatible,” the sample-topped “Temporal Vultures” and “Küfür,” which gives over to the closing duo “Lifelong Struggle” and “High Crimes & Misdemeanors.” As even the longest track, “Persona Non Grata,” runs just 4:24, the songs feel geared for modern attention spans and depart from commonplace structures in favor of their own ambient linearity. Not going to be for everyone, but Hemlock Branch‘s first offering shows an immediate drive toward individualism and is genuinely unpredictable, both of which already pay dividends.
In “Siren” and at the grand, swelling progression of “Zero Trust,” one is drawn back to The Devil’s Blood‘s off-kilter psychedelic occultism by Swedish five-piece Știu Nu Știu — also stylized all-caps: ŞTIU NU ŞTIU — and their fourth album, New Sun, but if there’s any such direct Luciferianism in the sprawling eight-song/47-minute long-player, I’ve yet to find it. Instead, the band’s first outing through respected purveyors Heavy Psych Sounds takes the stylistic trappings of psychedelic post-punk and what’s typically tagged as some kind of ‘gaze or other and toss them directly into the heart of the recently born star named in the title, their sound subtle in rhythmic push but lush, lush, lush in instrumental and vocal melody. “New Sun” itself is the longest piece at 8:17 and it closes side A, but the expanses crafted are hardly more tamed on side B’s “Nyx” or the get-your-goth-dance-shoes-on “Zero Trust,” which follows. Opening with the jangly “Styx” and capping with the also-relatively-extended “Dragon’s Lair” (7:57) — a noisy final solo takes them out — Știu Nu Știu bask in the vague and feel entirely at home in the aural mists they so readily conjure.
The title of Veljet‘s debut LP, Emerger de la mentira llamada dios, translates from Spanish as, ‘Emerge from the lie called god.’ So yes, the point gets across. And Veljet hint toward metallism and an overarching darkness of purpose in “Estar vivo es nada,” “La construcción de los sentimientos negativos,” and the buzzing, bounce-bass-until-it-falls-apart “Arder al crecer,” despite being instrumental for the album’s half-hour duration save perhaps for some crowd noise filling out the acoustic “Mentir con tristeza” at the finish, people talking over acoustic guitar notes, as they almost invariably, infuriatingly will. That three-minute piece rounds out and is in form a far cry from the push of “Inundata” or the buzz-tone-click-into-airiness “Lucifer luz del mundo,” but there’s room for all of these things in what feels like Satanic escapism more than any occult trappings — that is to say, while it’s pretty safe to say Veljet aren’t religious types, I don’t think they’re rolling around holding devil-worship masses either — and the album as a whole is drawn together by this immersive, mood-altering slog, a sense of the day’s weight conveyed effectively in that of the guitars, bass and drums, making the acoustic finish, and the human shittiness of speaking over it, all the more of a poignant conclusion. If god’s a lie, people aren’t much better.
Longform avant metal that draws on atmospheres from Pacific Northwestern blackened tropes without bowing completely to them or any other wholly rigid style, doom or otherwise. Some of the vocals in the more open moments of “Still Life” bring to mind Ealdor Bealu‘s latest in their declarative purpose, but Swamp Lantern‘s The Lord is With Us takes its own presumably-left-hand path toward aural identity, finding a sound in the process that is both ambient and obscure but still capable of deep heft when it’s called for — see “Still Life” again. That song is one of two to cross the 10-minute mark, along with closer “The Halo of Eternal Night,” though wholly immersive opener “Blood Oath (on Pebble Beach)” and “Graven Tide” aren’t far off, the latter nestling into a combination of groove-riding guitar and flourish lead notes intertwining on their way toward and through a well charred second half of the song, the way eventually given to the exploratory title-track, shorter but working off a similarly building structure. They cap vampiric with “The Halo of Eternal Night,” perhaps nodding subtly back to “Blood Oath (On Pebble Beach)” — at least the blood part — while likewise bookending with a guest vocal from Aimee Wright, who also contributed to the opener. Complex, beautiful and punishing, sometimes all at once, The Lord is With Us is a debut of immediate note and range. Who knows what it may herald, but definitely something.
The hellscape in the Jason Barnett cover art for Mexico City duo Terror Cósmico‘s fourth full-length, Miasma, is a fair update for Hieronymus Bosch, and it’s way more Hell than The Garden of Earthly Delights, as suits the anxiety of the years since the band’s last album, 2018’s III (review here). The eight instrumental selections from guitarist Javier Alejandre and drummer Nicolás Detta is accordingly tense and brooding, with “En un Lugar Frio y Desolado” surging to life in weighted push after seeming to pick at its fingernails with nervousness. A decade on from their first EP, Terror Cósmico sound fiercer than they ever have on “Tonalpohualli” and the opener “Necromorfo” sets the album in motion with an intensity that reminds both of latter day High on Fire and the still-missed US sans-vocal duo Beast in the Field. That last is not a comparison I’ll make lightly, and it’s not that Miasma lacks atmosphere, just that the atmospherics in question are downtrodden, hard-hitting and frustrated. So yes, perfectly suited to the right-now in which they arrive.
Somewhere between aggressive post-metal, post-hardcore, sludge and ambient heavy rock, Stockholm’s Urna find a niche for themselves thoroughly Swedish enough to make me wonder why their self-titled debut LP isn’t out through Suicide Records. In any case, they lead with “You Hide Behind,” a resonant sense of anger in the accusation that is held to somewhat even as clean vocals are introduced later in the track and pushed further on the subsequent “Shine,” guitarist Axel Ehrencrona (also synth) handling those duties while bassist William Riever (also also synth) and also-in-Ocean–Chief drummer Björn Andersson (somebody get him some synth!) offer a roll that feels no less noise-derived than Cities of Mars‘ latest and is no more noise rock than it either. “Revelations” fucking crushes, period. Song is almost seven minutes. If it was 20, that’d be fine. Centerpiece indeed. “Werewolf Tantrum” follows as the longest piece at 8:06, and is perhaps more ambitious in structure, but that force is still there, and though “Sleep Forever” (plenty of synth) has a different vibe, it comes across as something of a portrayed aftermath for the bludgeoning that just took place. They sound like they’re just getting started on a longer progression, but the teeth gnashing throughout pulls back to the very birthing of post-metal, and from there Urna can go just about wherever they want.
Finnish songwriter, synthesist, vocalist, guitarist, bassist, etc. Santtu Laakso started Astral Magic as a solo-project, and he’s already got a follow-up out to Magical Kingdom called Alien Visitations that’s almost if not entirely synth-based and mostly instrumental, so he’s clearly not at all afraid to explore different vibes. On Magical Kingdom, he somewhat magically transports the listener back to a time when prog was for nerds. The leadoff title-track is filled with fantasy genre elements amid an instrumental spirit somewhere between Magma and Hawkwind, and it’s only the first of the eight explorations on the 42-minute offering. Keyboards are a strong presence throughout, whether a given song is vocalized or not, and as different international guest guitarists come and go, arrangements in “Dimension Link” and “Rainbow Butterfly” are further fleshed out with psychedelic sax. Side B opener “Lost Innocense” (sic) is a weirdo highlight among weirdo highlights, and after the spacious grandiosity of “The Hidden City” and the sitar-drone-reminiscent backing waveforms on “The Pale-Skinned Man,” closer “Seven Planes” finds resolution in classic krautrock shenanigans. If you’re the right kind of geek, this one’s gonna hit you hard.
The story of Turn to Stone seems to take place in opener “The Man, the Devil and the Grey Giant” in which a man sells his soul to the devil and is cursed and turned into a mountain for his apparent comeuppance. For a setting to that tale, Santander, Spain’s Grey Giant present a decidedly oldschool take on heavy rock, reminiscent there of European trailblazers like Lowrider and Dozer, but creeping on chunkier riffing in “Unwritten Letter,” which follows, bassist/vocalist Mario “Pitu” Hospital raw of throat but not by any means amelodic over the riffs of Ravi and Hugo Echeverria and the drums of Pablo Salmón and ready to meet the speedier turn when it comes. An EP running four songs and 26 minutes, Turn to StoneSabbath start-stops in “Reverb Signals in Key F,” but brings about some of the thickest roll as well as a particularly righteous solo from one if not both of the Echeverrias and the Kyussy riff of closer “Last Bullet” is filled out with a grim outlook of Europe’s future in warfare; obviously not the most uplifting of endings, but the trippier instrumental build in the song’s final movement seems to hold onto some hope or at very least wishful thinking.
Symmetrically placed for vinyl listening, “The Return” and “Golden Skies” open sides A and B of Great Rift‘s second long-player, Utopia, with steady grooves, passionate vocals and a blend between psychedelic range and earthier tonal textures. I feel crazy even saying it since I doubt it’s what he’s going for, but Thomas Gulyas reminds a bit in his delivery of Messiah Marcolin (once of Candlemass) and his voice is strong enough to carry that across. He, fellow guitarist Andreas Lechner, bassist Peter Leitner and drummer Klaus Gulyas explore further reaches in subsequent cuts like “Space” and the soaringly out-there “Voyagers” as each half of the LP works shortest-to-longest so that the arrival of the warm heavy psych fuzz of “Beteigeuze” and minor-key otherworldly build-up of the closing title-track both feel plenty earned, and demonstrate plainly that Great Rift know the style they’re playing toward and what they’re doing with the personal spin they’re bringing to it. Four years after their debut, Vesta, Utopia presents its idealistic vision in what might just be a story about fleeing the Earth. Not gonna say I don’t get that.
Most prevalent complaint in my mind with Torpedo Torpedo‘s The Kuiper Belt Mantras is it’s an EP and not a full-length album, and thus has to go on the Best Short Releases of 2022 list instead of the Best Debut LPs list. One way or the other, the four-song first-outing from the Vienna psychedelonauts is patient and jammy, sounding open, lush and bright while retaining a heaviness that is neither directly shoegaze-based nor aping those who came before. The trio affect spacious vibes in the winding threads of lead guitar and half-hints at All Them Witches in “Cycling Lines,” and cast themselves in a nod for “Verge” at least until they pass that titular mark at around five and a half minutes in and pick up the pace. With “Black Horizon” the groove is stonerized, righteous and familiar, but the cosmic and heavy psych spirit brought forth has a nascent sense of character that the fuller fuzz in “Caspian Dust” answers without making its largesse the entire point of the song. Loaded with potential, dead-on right now, they make themselves the proverbial ‘band to watch’ in performance, underlying craft, production value and atmosphere. Takes off when it takes off, is languid without lulling you to sleep, and manages to bring in a hook just when it needs one. I don’t think it’s a listen you’ll regret, whatever list I end up putting it on.
Posted in Reviews on January 18th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
If you, like me, drink coffee, then I hope that you, like me, have it ready to go. We enter day two of the Jan. 2022 Quarterly Review today in a continued effort to at least not start the year at an immediate deficit when it comes to keeping up with stuff. Will it work? I don’t know, to be honest. It seems like I could do one of these for a week every month and that might be enough? Probably not, honestly. The relative democratization of media and method has its ups and downs — social media is a cesspool, privacy is a relic of an erased age, and don’t get me started on self-as-brand fiefdoms (including my own) that permeate the digital sphere in sad, cloying cries for validation — but I’m sure glad recording equipment is cheap and easier to use than it once was. Creativity abounds. Which is good.
Lots to do today and it’s early so I might even have time to get some of it done before my morning goes completely off the rails. Only one way to find out, hmm?
Quarterly Review #11-20:
Emma Ruth Rundle, Engine of Hell
It’s not inconceivable that Emma Ruth Rundle captured a few new ears via her previous LP and EP collaborations with New Orleans art-sludgers Thou, and she answers the tonal wash of those offerings with bedroom folk, can-hear-fingers-moving-on-strings intimacy, some subtle layering of vocals and post-grunge hard-strumming of acoustic guitar, but ultimately a minimal-feeling procession through Engine of Hell, an eight-track collection that, at times, feels like it’s barely there, and in other stretches seems overwhelming in its emotional heft. Rundle‘s songwriting is a long-since-proven commodity among her fans, and the piano-led “In My Afterlife” closes out the record as if to obliterate any lingering doubt of her sincerity. Actually, Engine of Hell makes its challenge in the opposite: it comes across as so genuine that listening to it, the listener almost feels like they’re ogling Rundle‘s trauma, and whatever it’s-sad-so-it-must-be-meaningful cynicism one might want to saddle on Engine of Hell is quickly enough dispatched. Rundle was rude to me once at Roadburn, so screw her, but I won’t take away from the accomplishment here. Not everybody’s brave enough to make a record like this.
Released in November, Lost Horse Returns of its Own Accord isn’t even the latest full-length anymore from the creative ecosystem that is T.G. Olson, but it’s noteworthy just the same for its clarity of songwriting — “Like You Never Left” makes an early standout for its purposeful-feeling hook and the repeated verse of “Flowers of the End in Bloom” does likewise — and a breadth of production that captures the happening-now sense of trad-twang-folk performance one has come to expect and leaves room for layered in harmonica or backing vocals where they might apply. A completely solo endeavor, the 10-track outing finds the Across Tundras founder taking a relatively straightforward approach as opposed to some of his more experimentalist offerings, which makes touches like the layering in closer “Same Ol’ Blue” and the mourning of the redwoods in the prior “The Way it Used to Be” feel all the more vital to the proceedings. More contemplative than rambling, the way “Li’l Sandy” sets the record in motion is laden with melancholy and nostalgia, but somehow unforgiving of self as well, recognizing the rose tint through which one might see the past, unafraid to call it out. If you’ve never heard a T.G. Olson record before, this would be a good place to start.
Formerly known as Haast’s Eagled, Welsh four-piece Haast make a strikingly progressive turn with Made of Light, what’s ostensibly a kind of second debut. And while they’ve carried over the chemistry and some of the tonal weight of their work under the prior moniker, the mission across the seven-track offering is more than divergent enough to justify that new beginning. Cuts like “A Myth to End All Myths” and the from-the-bottom-up-building “The Agulhas Current” might remind some of Forming the Void‘s take on prog-heavy or heavy-prog, but Haast willfully change up their songwriting and the execution of the album, bringing in vocalist Leanne Brookes on the title-track and Jams Thomas on nine-minute closer “Diweddglo,” which crushes as much as it soars. The central question that Made of Light needs to answer is whether Haast are better off having made the change. Hearing them rework the verse melody of Alice in Chains‘ “We Die Young” on “Psychophant,” the answer is yes. They’ve allowed themselves more reach and room to grow and gained far more than whatever they’ve lost.
Have riffs, will groove. So it goes with the debut EP from Stockholm-based unit Dark Ocean Circle, who present four formative but cohesive tracks on Bottom of the Ocean, following the guitar in more of a Sabbathian tradition then one might expect from the current stoner-is-as-stoner-does hesher scene. To wit, the title-track’s starts-stops, bluesy soloing and percussive edge tap a distinctly ’70s vibe, if somewhat updated in the still-raw production value after the straight-ahead fuzz of “Battlesnake” hints toward lumber to come in its thickened tone. “Setting Sun” feels more spacious by the time it’s done, but makes solid use of the just over three minutes to get to that point — a short, but satisfying journey — and the closing “Oceans of Blood” speaks to a NWOBHM influence while pairing that with the underlying boogie-blues that seemed to surface in “Bottom of the Ocean” as well. A pandemic-born project, their sound is nascent here but for sure aware of its inspirations and what it wants to take from them. Sans nonsense heavy rock and roll is of perennial welcome.
Floridian three-piece El Castillo self-tag as “surf Western,” and yeah, that’s about right. Instrumental in its 19-minute entirety, Derecho is the first EP from the trio of guitarist Ben McLeod (also All Them Witches, Westing), bassist Jon Ward and drummer Michael Monahan, and with the participation of McLeod as a draw, the feeling of two sounds united by singularity of tone is palpable. Morricone-meets-slow-motion-Dick–Dale perhaps, though that doesn’t quite account for the subtle current of reggae in “Diddle Datil” or the somehow-fiesta-ready “Summer in Bavaria,” though “Double Tap” is just about ready for you to hang 10, even if closer “Hang 5” keeps to half that, likely in honor of its languid pace, which turns surf into psych as easily as “Wolf Moon” turns it toward the Spaghetti West. An unpretentious exploration, and more intricate than it lets on with “El Norte” bringing various sides together fluidly at the outset and the rest unfolding with similarly apparent ease.
Listening to “Hunted,” the 22:53 leadoff from Tekarra‘s two-song long-player, Kicking Horse, it’s hard not to feel nostalgic for standing in a small room with speaker cabinets stacked to the ceiling and having your bones vibrate from the level of volume assaulting you. I’ve never seen the Edmonton, Alberta, three-piece live, but their rumble and the tension in their pacing is so. fucking. doomed. You just want to throw your head back and shout. Not even words, just primal noises, since that seems to be what’s coming through on their end, so laced with feedback as it is. Coupled with the likewise grueling “Crusade / Kicking Horse” (23:11), there’s some guttural vocals, some samples, but the overarching intention is so clearly in the tune-low-play-slow ethic that that’s what comes across most of all, regardless of what else is happening. I’d be tempted to call it misanthropic if it didn’t have me so much pining for the live experience, and whatever you want to call it there’s no way these dudes give a crap anyway. They’re on another wavelength entirely, sounding dropped out of life and encrusted with cruelty. Fuck you and fuck yes.
It’s been the better part of a year since 1782 released From the Graveyard, and I could detail for you the mundane reason I didn’t review it before now, but there’s only so much room and I’d rather talk about the bass tone on “Bloodline” and the grimly fuzzed lumber of “Priestess of Death.” An uptick in production value from their 2019 self-titled debut (review here), the 43-minute/eight-song LP nonetheless maintains enough rawness to still be in the post-Electric Wizard vein of cultistry, but its blowout distortion is all the more satisfying for the fullness with which it’s presented. “Seven Priests” sounds like Cathedral played at half-speed (not a complaint) and with its stretch of church organ picking up after a drop to nothing but barely-there low end, “Black Void” lives up to its name while feeling experimental in structure. Familiar in scope, for sure, but a filthy and dark delight just the same. Give me the slow nod of “Inferno” anytime. Even months after the fact its righteousness holds true.
Alpha Waves is a sonic twist a few years in the making, as Fever Dog transcend the expectation of their prior classic desert boogie in favor of a glam-informed 10-track double-LP, impeccably arranged and unrepentantly pop-minded. A cut like the title-track or “Star Power” is still unafraid to veer into psychedelics, as Danny Graham and Joshua Adams, but the opener “Freewheelin'” and “Solid Ground” and the later “The Demon” are glam-shuffle ragers, high energy, thoughtfully executed, and clear in their purpose, with “King of the Street” tapping vibes from ELO and Bowie ahead of the shimmering funk-informed jam that is “Mystics of Zanadu” before it fades into a full-on synthesizer deep-dive. Does it come back? You know what, I’m not gonna tell you. Maybe it does and maybe it doesn’t. Definitely you should find out for yourself. Sharp in its craft and wholly realized, Alpha Waves is brought to bear with an individualized vision, and the payoff is right there in its blend of poise and push.
Led by Chris Jude Watson, the dronadelic outfit Black Holes are Cannibals may just be one person, it may be 20, but it doesn’t matter when you’re dealing with a sense of space being manipulated and torn apart molecule by molecule, atom by atom. So it goes throughout the 19-minute “Surfacer,” the 19:07 title-track of the two-songer LP accompanied by “No Title” (20:01). At about eight minutes in, Watson‘s everything-is-throat-singing approach seems to find the event horizon and twists into an elongated freakout with swirls of echoing tones, what seem to be screams, crashing cymbals and a resonant chaotic feel taking hold and then building down instead of up, seeming to disappear into the comparatively minimal beginning of “No Title,” which holds its own payoff back for a broader but more linear progression, ending up in the same with-different-marketing-this-would-be-black-metal aural morass, willfully thrown into the chasm it has made. You ever have an out of body experience? Watson has. Even managed to get it on tape.
What is one supposed to say to paying tribute to Lemmy Kilmister and Cliff Burton? Careers have been made on far less original fare than the two homage tracks that comprise Sonic Wolves‘ It’s All a Game to Me EP, with “CCKL” setting the tempo for a Motörheaded sprint and “Thee Ace of Spades” digging into early-Metallica bombast in its first couple minutes, drifting out for a while after the halfway point, then thrashing its way back to the end. Obviously it’s not the same kind of stuff they were doing with their 2018 self-titled (review here), but neither is it worlds apart. The basic fact of the matter is bands pay tribute to Motörhead and Metallica, to Lemmy and Cliff Burton, all the time. They just don’t tell you they’re doing it. In that way, It’s All a Game to Me almost feels courteous as it elbows you in the gut.
Posted in Questionnaire on December 8th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
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: Juan Alberto Tamayo of Vinnum Sabbathi, Fumata, Tamayo Amp & LSDR Records
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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?
Well, I’m involved in different projects that deal with music as the main focus, I play guitar in Vinnum Sabbathi, I play bass in another band called Fumata, together with my brother we run a very small label called LSDR Records and I build speaker cabinets and mess around with circuits in my home shop under the name Tamayo Amp.
I really can’t pin a job title that best describes what I do, I just like to do stuff and learn a lot, fortunately I’ve been able to survive so far doing what I love, whatever that is.
Almost all those projects started simultaneously when I was a freshman in college about a decade ago. Back then I was fortunate enough to be part of a great underground collective of artists called Lxs Grises, where I met a lot of talented friends that taught me about what an “underground scene” can be, with bands like Apocalipsis, Terror Cósmico, El Ahorcado and Akuma to name a few.
By that time, I started listening to heavy bands like Ufomammut and Sleep and obviously I wanted to play through a wall of Green amps, but being a broke student did not help a bit. So, by applying the DIY approach I decided to build my own speaker cabinet and later on friends started asking me to build more for them, and that’s basically how Tamayo Amp started.
As for the label, like many other stories here, it started with the aim to release our own music since no other labels were interested at the time. But very early on we discovered a LOT of great bands all around Mexico so we focused on releasing the music we love on limited physical runs. I feel fortunate to be able to work with great bands from the underground and help spread the word about them.
Describe your first musical memory.
A very early memory probably would be my dad listening to Creedence Clearwater Revival when I was like seven (still my all-time favorite band BTW).
But the first proper musical memory for me happened in secondary school; I got a Discman as a birthday gift but I had zero idea of what to listen on it, until a friend gave me a random CD from his dad’s collection, which end up being The Wall and, oh boy I went straight into the Pink Floyd rabbit hole by the time I was 14.
Describe your best musical memory to date.
Music has filled me with endless joy so far, both as a listener and as a performer. Choosing a single moment is impossible, so here are just a couple that I remember with a big smile and goosebumps:
2014 has some of the best musical memories, Apocalipsis at Lxs Grises Fest II was one of the best local shows I’ve witnessed, period. Later that year I got to play my first festival ever, Vinnum Sabbathi at Nrmal in Monterrey, that was the first time I got in a plane, stayed in a hotel, got paid a “proper” fee to play our own music and I even got a free pair of Vans. I come from a rough part of Mexico, so for me those details really made an impact, all thanks to music.
In 2017 V.S. released Gravity Works and with it one of our wildest dreams became a reality; we got to play in Europe, all DIY and with the craziest conditions, but we made it happen. We met a lot of great people that became family to us and we had the best time ever. On top of that, we managed to attend Freak Valley and play Sonic Blast, where I met some of my heroes and finally saw some of my favorite bands live. Again, all possible thanks to music.
When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?
I believe in humans, but every day there’s a fight between pessimistic and optimistic thoughts about our species.
Where do you feel artistic progression leads?
I think you get to know yourself better, not only as an artist but also as a human being. The process of creating new art pushes you in different directions and many times frustration is one of them, but when you overcome the dead ends you find new creative paths and that helps you find who you really are and what you want to express.
How do you define success?
Success for me is to fulfil the goals we choose with aim to achieve happiness throughout our lives.
Or something like that.
What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?
Embolsados, en partes y con mensaje. For the non-Spanish readers, bagged human body parts with a message. A big “reality check” to remind me that no matter all the good things, I still live in Mexico.
Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.
I’ve been gathering lots of ambient recordings from all the places I’ve been to and I’m looking forward to sit down and start writing some music with it, whenever I finally find some time. Also, I would love to design and build my own amp, I’ve been messing around with the idea from some time now but there are just not enough hours in a day for me at the moment.
What do you believe is the most essential function of art?
I believe art can heal and liberate our minds from the physical struggles we have in our lives.
Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?
Getting my bachelor of engineering! It has been a long journey writing my thesis between shows, recordings, touring and life itself but finally it’s coming to an end after being involved in the project for almost six years.
The days grow long, but the Quarterly Review presses onward. I didn’t know when I put this thing together that in addition to having had oral surgery on Monday — rod in for a dental implant, needs a crown after it heals but so far no infection; penciling it as a win — this second week of 10 reviews per day would bring my laptop breaking and a toddler too sick to go to camp for three hours in the morning. If you’re a fan of understatement, I’ll tell you last week was easier to make happen.
Nevertheless, we persist, you and I. I don’t know if, when I get my computer back, it will even have all of these records on the desktop or if the hard-drive-bed-shitting that seems to have taken place will erase that along with such inconsequentials as years of writing and photos of The Pecan dating back to his birth, but hey, that desktop space was getting cleared one way or the other. You know what? I don’t want to think about it.
Quarterly Review #81-90:
Paradise Lost, At the Mill
If Paradise Lost are trying to hold onto some sense of momentum, who can blame them? How many acts who’ve been around for 33 years continue to foster the kind of quality the Yorkshire outfit brought to 2020’s studio outing, Obsidian (review here)? Like, four? Maybe? So if they want to put out two live records in the span of three months — At the Mill follows March’s Gothic: Live at Roadburn 2016, also on Nuclear Blast — one isn’t inclined to hold a grudge, and even less so given the 16-song setlist they offer up in what was the captured audio from a livestream last Fall, spanning the bulk of their career and including requisite highlights from ’90s-era landmarks Gothic and Icon as well as Obsidian features “Fall From Grace,” “Ghosts” and “Darker Thoughts,” which opened the studio LP but makes a rousing finisher for At the Mill.
The second long-player from Sweden’s Alastor is a surprising but welcome sonic turn, pulling back from the grimness of 2018’s Slave to the Grave (review here) in favor of an approach still murky and thick in its bottom end, but sharper in its songwriting focus and bolder melodically right from the outset on “The Killer in My Skull.” They depart from the central roll for an acoustic stretch in “Pipsvängen” after “Nightmare Trip” opens side B and just before the nine-minute title-track lumbers out its descent into the deranged, but even there the four-piece hold the line of obvious attention to songcraft, instrumental and vocal phrasing, and presentation of their sound. Likewise, the spacious nod on “Lost and Never Found” caps with a shorter and likewise undeniable groove, more Sabbath than the Queens of the Stone Age rush of “Death Cult” earlier, but with zero dip in quality. This takes them to a different level in my mind.
Its noise-rock angularity and tonal bite isn’t going to be for everyone, but there’s something about Zahn‘s unwillingness to cooperate, their unwillingness to sit still, that makes their self-titled debut a joy of a run. Based in Berlin and comprised of Felix Gebhard (Einstürzende Neubauten keyboards) as well as drummer Nic Stockmann and bassist Chris Breuer (both of HEADS.), the eight-tracker shimmers on “Tseudo,” punkjazzes on lead cut “Zerrung,” goes full krautrock drone to end side A on “Gyhum” and still has more weirdness to offer on the two-minute sunshine burst of “Schranck,” “Lochsonne Schwarz,” “Aykroyd” and finale “Staub,” all of which tie together in one way or another around a concept of using space-in-mix and aural crush while staying loway to the central pattern of the drums. “Aykroyd” is brazen in showing the teeth of its guitar work, and that’s a pretty solid encapsulation of Zahn‘s attitude across the board. They’re going for it. You can take the ride if you want, but they’re going either way.
Bones and Flowers is a welcome return from Czech Republic-based heavy rockers Greynbownes, who made their debut with 2018’s Grey Rainbow From Bones (review here), and sees the trio foster a progressive heavy flourish prone to Doors-y explosive vocal brooding tempered with Elder-style patience in the guitar lines and rhythmic fluidity while there continues to be both an underlying aggressive crunch and a sense of Truckfighters-ish energy in “Dream Seller,” some blues there and in “Dog’s Eyes” and opener “Wolves” besides, and a willful exploratory push on “Burned by the Sun and Swallowed by the Sea,” which serves as a worthy centerpiece ahead of the rush that comprises much of “Long Way Down.” Further growth is evident in the spaciousness of “Flowers,” and “Star” feels like it’s ending the record with due ceremony in its largesse and character in its presentation.
One can’t argue with Melbourne heavy post-rockers Treebeard‘s impulse to take the material from their prior two EPs, 2018’s Of Hamelin and 2019’s Pastoral, and put it together as a single full-length, but Nostalgia goes further in that they actually re-recorded, and in the case of a track like “The Ratchatcher,” partially reworked the songs. That makes the resultant eight-song offering all the more cohesive and, in relation to the prior versions, emphasizes the growth the band has undertaken in the last few years, keeping elements of weight and atmosphere but delivering their material with a sense of purpose, whether a give stretch of “8×0” is loud or quiet. Nostalgia effectively pulls the listener into its world, duly wistful on “Pollen” or “Dear Magdalena,” with samples adding to the breadth and helping to convey the sense of contemplation and melodic character. Above all things, resonance. Emotional and sonic.
Estonian five-piece Estrada Orchestra recorded Playground on Nov. 21, 2020, and while I’m not 100 percent sure of the circumstances in which such a recording took place, it seems entirely possible given the breadth of their textures and the lonely ambience that unfurls across the 22-minute A-side “Playground Part 1” and the gradual manner in which it makes its way toward psychedelic kraut-drone-jazz there and in the more “active” “Playground Part 2 & 3” — the last part chills out again, and one speaks on very relative terms there — it’s entirely possible no one else was around. Either way, headphone-ready atmosphere persists across the Sulatron-issued LP, a lushness waiting to be closely considered and engaged that works outside of common structures despite having an underlying current of forward motion. Estrada Orchestra, who’ve been in operation for the better part of a decade and for whom Playground is their fifth full-length, are clearly just working in their own dimension of time. It suits them.
Even in the sometimes blinding sunshine of Vestamaran‘s debut album, Bungalow Rex, there is room for shades of folk and classic progressive rock throughout the summery 10-tracker, which makes easygoing vibes sound easy in a way that’s actually really difficult to pull off without sounding forced. And much to Vestamaran‘s credit, they don’t. Their songs are structured, composed, engaging and sometimes catchy, but decidedly unhurried, unflinchingly melodic and for all their piano and subtle rhythmic intricacy, mostly pretense-free. Even the snare sound on “Grustak” feels warm. Cuts like “Risky Pigeon” and “Cutest Offender” are playful, and “Solitude” and closer “Only for You” perhaps a bit moodier, but Vestamaran are never much removed from that central warmth of their delivery, and the abiding spirit of Bungalow Rex is sweet and affecting. This is a record that probably won’t get much hype but will sit with dedicated audience for more than just a passing listen. A record that earns loyalty. I look forward to more.
Three records in, to call what Low Flying Hawks do “heavygaze” feels cheap. Such a tag neither encompasses the post-rock elements in the lush space of “Monster,” the cinematic flourish of “Darklands,” nor the black-metal-meets-desert-crunch-riffing-in-space at the end of “Caustic Wing” or the meditative, post-Om cavern-delia in the first half of closer “Nightrider,” never mind the synthy, screamy turn of Fuyu‘s title-track at the halfway point. Three records in, the band refuse to let either themselves or their listenership get too comfortable, either in heavy groove or march or atmosphere, and three records in, they’re willfully toying with style and bending the aspects of genre to their will. There are stretches of Fuyu that, in keeping with the rest of what the band do, border on overthought, but the further they go into their own progressive nuance, the more they seem to discover they want to do. Fuyu reportedly wraps a trilogy, but if what they do next comes out sounding wildly different, you’d have to give them points for consistency.
La Maquinaria del Sueño, Rituales de los Alucinados
Cult poetry on “Enterrado en la Oscuridad,” garage rock boogie “Ayahuasca” and classic, almost-surf shuffle are the first impressions Mexico City’s La Maquinaria del Sueño make on their debut full-length, Rituales de los Alucinados, and the three-piece only benefit from the push-pull in different directions as the seven-song LP plays out, jamming into the semi-ethereal on “Maldad Eléctrica” only to tip hat to ’60s weirdo jangle on “Mujer Cabeza de Cuervo.” Guitars scorch throughout atop swinging grooves in power trio fashion, and despite the differences in tone between them, “Enterré mis Dientes en el Desierto” and “Ángel de Fuego” both manage to make their way into a right on haze of heavy fuzz ahead of the motoring finisher “La Ninfa del Agua,” which underscores the live feel of the entire procession with its big crashout ending and overarching vitality. Listening to the chemistry between these players, it’s not a surprise they’ve been a band for the better part of a decade, and man, they make their riffs dance. Not revolutionary, but cool enough not to care.
A three-tracker EP issued through drummer Max Ear‘s (also of OJM) own Go Down Records, Karnak features an instrumental take on a previously-vocalized cut — “Anulios,” from 2018’s Anodnatius (review here) — an eight-minute live jam with Mario Lalli of Fatso Jetson/Yawning Man sitting in on guitar, and a live version of the Conny Ochs-fronted “The Pilot,” which opened 2019’s Cathodnatius, the cover of which continues to haunt one’s dreams, and which finds the German singer-songwriter channeling his inner David Byrne in fascinating ways. An odds-and-ends release, maybe, but each of these songs is worth the minimal price of admission on its own, never mind topped as they are together with the much-less-horrifying art. If this is a reminder to listen to Anada Mida, it’s a happy one.
Posted in Whathaveyou on January 22nd, 2021 by JJ Koczan
Mexico City heavy progressive instrumentalists Rostro del Sol make their self-titled debut Jan. 29 through LSDR Records. You’re going to hear some King Crimson, and that’s on purpose, as the four-piece-plus make a fascinating addition to the roster of the reliable LSDR imprint. Their sound is high-energy classic prog — like if the whole LP had been the chase scene in “21st Century Schizoid Man,” but of course that’s an exaggeration, right? A band couldn’t possibly keep all that up for a entire album, right? You can check out the suitably jazzy “Bop C Sketches” below and guess for yourself.
Record’s out Jan. 29 — which I’m told is next week — so you don’t have to wait long for the rest.
The PR wire has it like this:
This is the first release of the year of LSDR Records (Mx). We want to introduce to you the debut album of the Mexicans ROSTRO DEL SOL (Psych Rock, Krautrock, Progressive)
The debut Album from Mexico City’s Rostro del Sol, is a musical collage of Blues, Jazz, Funk, Progressive and Psych rock from the golden eras of the 60’s and 70’s, which offers unexpected moments, developed trough diverse sonorities & intensities as the music goes on, each song is intended to tell a history on its own, just listen and set your imagination free to find the essence inside.
“The album was recorded between 2019 – 2020, in Rec On Studios on Mexico city, the recording & mixing engineer was Jorge Trejo, and mastering goes by Juan Puget, the insane artwork comes from the Spanish Illustrator Elena Ibañez, and it’s an ideological collaboration, where we told the artist a few references and we gave her the freedom to express whatever she felt inspired by listening to our music.”
Tracklisting: 1. Effect Of Creation 2. Solar Flare 3. Backyard’s Blues 4. Bop C Sketches 5. Tales… I-III
Posted in Whathaveyou on December 9th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
Just plain old badass fuzz. Doesn’t need to be anything more than it is because what it is rules. Juárez, Mexico, newcomers El Culto del Ojo Rojo released their debut album, El Viaje del Hombre Prometeo, this past Spring, offering up as a balm for the rampant global anxiety of that particular moment. Now, perhaps as a balm for the rampant global anxiety of this particular moment, they have a CD version coming out this weekend through respected countryman purveyor LSDR Records. The record is bilingual, which is more than I can say for my own ignorant gringo ass, and another shining example of the quality heavy being brought to bear on the other side of the US’ southern border. Though separated geographically from the Mexico City hotbed scene, El Culto del Ojo Rojo bring plenty of their own heat.
Stream is below as well as links to order the disc. Have at it:
El Culto del Ojo Rojo is releasing debut album in CD
Mexican psychedelic blues rock band EL CULTO DEL OJO ROJO is releasing for the very first time in physical version their great debut álbum “El Viaje del Hombre Prometeo” (a great psychedelic odyssey through the sixties and seventies sonorities).
Blues, psychedelic and Stoner condensed in a breathtaking álbum release in April and delivered by a hell of a power trio. This is “El Viaje del Hombre Prometeo”, debut álbum from mexican hard-hittin heavy rockers EL CULTO DEL OJO ROJO released in April, 20 and that now will have a physical release in CD by the mexican label LSDR Records. The release have their presale already open, will be available starting December, 12 coming in Digipack and can be purchased through the Facebook of the band and of LSDR Records. Will be limited to just 100 copies and other ways do buy will be announced soon.
The band El Culto del Ojo Rojo started three years ago in the city of Juarez/Mexico under the name HEAVY SOUL formed by the guitar and singer Alejandro Delgadillo and the bass player Jesús Fierro, but with the add of drummer Marco Aranda and moving to Mexico City, with the new name, the band started their transition to the new phase moving from the Hard/Garage-inspired sonority to the psychedelic and bluesy stoner rock with Sabbath-verve. “El Viaje…” is the epitome of this evolution and a indispensable record for lovers of the good and old rock´n roll, now available in physical release.
“El Viaje del Hombre Prometeo” was released in April 20 with art of Mariana Gomez.
El Culto del Ojo Rojo are: Jesús Fierro: Bass Alejandro Delgadillo: Guitar and Vocals Marco Aranda: Drums
Posted in Whathaveyou on November 9th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
Even if you don’t know the story, you know the story. Band is around for a little bit, maybe a few years ahead of their time, don’t get the love they maybe deserved, are either too ignored, too unstable, or too drunk to keep going anyhow, and dissolve or disband or just kind of fade out. Later on, someone who appreciates what they were doing does the unearth-a-lost-classic thing and everybody gets a second chance to check it out. Nobody loses, everybody wins. Good jams are had and a band like La Orquesta de Animales maybe get some after-the-fact vindication.
I told you that you knew the story. After last month releasing the band’s En Rock album, LSDR Records has now gone further and stood behind Archivos Inéditos Redux: 2007, another collection of primo psych jams done back in the day (as much as 2007 is back in the day) and shelved until now. And knowing the story or not, if you’re not willing to give this stuff the time of day, well, that’s your business and your loss, but having of course whiffed on it the first go ’round, I’m glad now to have the chance to hear something I missed.
Info and whatnot follows, audio’s at the bottom:
LA ORQUESTA DE ANIMALES (México) – Archivos Inéditos Redux: 2007 (2020)
La Orquesta de Animales (LODA) was an instrumental, 70’s-infuenced psych and hardprog band form Mexico City, Mexico. A power trio formed by Carlos Bolivar (ex Orfeo) on guitar, Adolfo Sarabia (ex Bailarinas, THC) on bass and occasional keys and Fernando Benítez (ex El Diablo, Sweet Leaf, THC) on drums, they were very active from 2004 up until 2008.
After 13 year, we found the lost album of the band and we rel’ed under the name ‘Archivos Inéditos Redux: 2007’. It’s the whole album, recorded back then by Adolfo and re-mixed with a few overdubs by Carlos, just a couple years ago. Please grab yer bong, drop a little acid, drink a couple of shots and come take a trip to a time when stoner rock was not even a dirty word in Mexico. You’ll make it back, my friend… or will ya?
La Orquesta de Animales (LODA) are: Bass: Adolfo Sarabia Guitar: Carlos Bolívar Drums: Fernando Benítez
