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Bismuth Announce The Slow Dying of the Great Barrier Reef Due Nov. 2; Premiere Album Trailer

Posted in Bootleg Theater, Whathaveyou on September 27th, 2018 by JJ Koczan

bismuth

You only get a taste of it in the album trailer by Chariot of Black Moth streaming at the bottom of this post, but the 32-minute title-track of Bismuth‘s upcoming second full-length, The Slow Dying of the Great Barrier Reef, is heavy enough that you’ll be mopping your melted brain cells off the floor after they leak out your damaged ears. Provided you still have enough coordination to do so after the onslaught of noise and tonal weight. The Nottingham-based bass/drum duo will release the album Nov. 2 through no fewer than four labels — Dry Cough Records, Tartarus Records, Medusa Crush Recordings and Rope or Guillotine — and hearing it leaves little mystery as to why they’d garner such populous backing. Comprised just of the title-track and the subsequent six-minute scathe of noise-doom in “Weltschmerz,” it works around the theme of climate change and human impact on the planet, so yes, it is quite fucking grim. Quite fucking grim indeed. Just like our prospects for making it out of the next two centuries with a civilization intact. Good work, my fellow fuckwads.

Bassist/vocalist Tanya Byrne, when she’s not rumbling out the extreme-sludge chaos of Bismuth‘s low end alongside drummer Joe Rawlings in a bevvy of splits with the likes of UndersmileGnaw Their Tongues and Legion of Andromeda — significant company to keep, all of them — works as a volcanologist, and wrote the lyrics for The Slow Dying of the Great Barrier Reef in consideration of exactly what the title describes. Not subtle, but certainly a devastating aural interpretation of a continually devastated ecosystem. You”ll find some comment from her below relating to the album, followed by the release info, followed by the trailer premiere.

All thanks to the mighty and seemingly-carbon-free-but-still-probably-somehow-toxic PR wire. Remember, kids. We’re all complicit:

Bismuth The Slow Dying of the Great Barrier Reef

Tanya Byrne on The Slow Dying of the Great Barrier Reef:

Last year I’d been reading a lot about climate change and the impacts it has been having on various parts of the world. There are particular habitats that act as warning flags for other ecosystems, because they are more sensitive to subtle changes. The Great Barrier Reef is one such area: It has been experiencing drastic changes due to a rise in global sea temperatures. In recent years, up to 70 percent of the reef has experiencing bleaching. The corals die, and as less survive every year, the extent of the reef decreases.

My hope is that through listening to this album, listeners will be prompted to do their own research into the effects that our species are having on this planet, and to rely less on the over-simplification of this issue that is so often presented by media outlets or political parties. Their soundbites are good for quotes, but not for explaining this complex and interconnected problem. As an environmental scientist, I try to be hopeful for the future, but I feel optimism can only be gained if all countries and political parties stop blaming each other and start working together to prevent further degradation of our planet.

The current political discourse on how to reduce our impact on ecosystems is stuck in semantics, all while these systems degrade. I believe we can reduce our impact, and I am hopeful that solutions will be found. However, many of these solutions are halted, while governments argue over who is to blame. The album title makes reference to the fact that climate change is affecting this habitat extremely, and inaction is one of the biggest causes of its decline.

Heavy/ slow duo, BISMUTH’s upcoming album, titled The Slow Dying of the Great Barrier Reef, will be released on November 2 via a collaboration between four independent labels; Dry Cough (UK), Rope or Guillotine (NL), Medusa Crush (CA), and Tartarus Records (NL) who will jointly share release duties.

The two piece are based in Nottingham, featuring Joe Rawlings on drums and Tanya Byrne on bass/vocals. The Slow Dying of the Great Barrier Reef is their second full length release, and is in many ways a continuation of earlier work; a strong focus on multiple layers and frequencies coming together to create an enveloping and often oppressive sound is very much BISMUTH’s MO.

The Slow Dying of the Great Barrier Reef is a two song opus with quite self explanatory subject matter, lyric-wise. Outside of the band, Byrne, is a volcanologist with a passion for environmental science.

The title track is a 32 minute behemoth, which stays true to BISMUTH’s own description – heavy with a core of fragility. The second track, Weltschmerz is – musically and thematically – a continuation of the first. Whilst their songs lean towards being lengthy, the message and passion behind them never diminishes.

BISMUTH UK tour dates:
23.11 – Nottingham
24.11 – Manchester
25.11 – Glasgow
26.11 – Edinburgh
27.11 – Liverpool
28.11 – Leeds
29.11 – Birmingham
30.11 – Cardiff
01.12 – London
02.12 – Bristol
03.12 – Brighton

All dates are with VILE CREATURE.

The Slow Dying of The Great Barrier Reef is released on November 2nd via Dry Cough (UK), Rope or Guillotine (NL), Medusa Crush (CA), and Tartarus Records (NL).

https://www.facebook.com/bismuthslow/
https://bismuthslow.bandcamp.com
www.drycoughrecords.com/product/bismuth-slow-dying-pre-order
https://ropeorguillotine.bandcamp.com/album/the-slow-dying-of-the-great-barrier-reef
https://medusacrushrecordings.bandcamp.com
https://tartarusrecords.com

Bismuth, The Slow Dying of the Great Barrier Reef album trailer

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Olde to Release Temple CD on Salt of the Earth

Posted in Whathaveyou on October 9th, 2017 by JJ Koczan

olde

I have on a good many occasions made my feelings known about the compact disc as a format. I’m a fan. Not that I don’t enjoy spending the occasional day listening to vinyl records, but if I’m reaching for physical media, I generally feel way less neurotic about handling even the flimsiest of digipaks before I do the fragile, so-easily-bent corners of even the sturdiest of gatefold LPs. Plus they’re cheaper. Not as cheap as tapes, which are also cool, but still. I’m not going to say a bad word about the vinyl resurgence, because it’s helped a lot of really good music find an entire generation’s worth of ears at this point and of course that’s amazing; I guess it’s just the era I was born into was of the CD, and at this point, while I have a decent amount of 12″ and 7″ and 10″ platters around, the CD is what my archive is based around. It is my format of record.

Why am I going through all of this again? Because I’m glad to see that with an upcoming of-course-gorgeous LP through STB Records and a cassette through Medusa Crush Recordings that also looks pretty rad, Toronto noisemakers Olde will release a CD of their 2017 album, Temple (review here), through Salt of the Earth Records. Nice to not have one’s preferred format left out in the cold, and all the better since it looks like we might get some extra tracks with this version too.

Here’s the announcement from Salt of the Earth:

olde temple

Olde – Temple – Salt of the Earth

SALT OF THE EARTH RECORDS is rabidly excited to announce the signing of Toronto, Canada’s OLDE.

With the impending vinyl release of their second full length record, “Temple”, through STB Records, and a release on cassette through Medusa Crush Recordings, OLDE sought a home for the CD release of this beastly album. SALT OF THE EARTH RECORDS was a perfect fit.

This special edition CD digipack version of OLDE’s much anticipated “Temple” record will be the first edition of the release to feature all the songs written and recorded for the “Temple” recording sessions – a definitive version of the album presented as it was originally conceived and featuring expanded artwork. These additional tracks really contribute to the overall sonic gravity of the album, making this an essential release for fans of the band. Stick this in your CD player, turn it all the way up, and let the waves of heavy crush you…come worship at OLDE’s “Temple”.

Coming soon to SALT OF THE EARTH RECORDS.

OLDE is:
Vocals- Doug McLarty
Guitars- Greg Dawson and Chris “Hippy” Hughes
Drums- Ryan Aubin
Bass- Cory McCallum

https://www.facebook.com/oldedoom/
https://oldedoom.bandcamp.com/releases
https://www.facebook.com/SaltOfTheEarthRec/
http://www.saltoftheearthrecords.com
http://stbrecords.bigcartel.com
https://www.facebook.com/STB-Records-471228012921184/
http://medusacrushrecs.storenvy.com/
https://medusacrushrecordings.bandcamp.com/

Olde, Temple (2017)

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Kurokuma and Under Touring the UK this Week

Posted in Whathaveyou on October 10th, 2016 by JJ Koczan

Imagine crushing sludge roving across the English countryside. Granted, it’s probably less like that and more like dudes in a van, but either way, Sheffield’s Kurokuma and Stockport’s Under have paired up to tour across Britain this week and they’ll cover a good swath of that good land. Kurokuma go supporting their EP, Advorsus, which was released last month on tape via Medusa Crush Recordings and brings about three new tracks of pummel both spacious and significant. You can check it out for yourself in full on the player below, because, you know, I posted it there and whatnot.

As one might expect, they’ve got a suitably apocalyptic backstory, which is also fun. I’ve put a bit of that under the dates below as well, which came off the PR wire. Dig:

kurokuma-tour-poster

Kurokuma / Under UK Tour

Having racked up quite the CV of support slots in their hometown of Sheffield (Conan, Primitive Man, KEN mode, Skeletonwitch) psychedelic sludgers, Kurokuma decided it was time to head out on the road themselves. Bringing along Stockport’s Under, a match for them in the realms of strange, heavy music, it’d be certainly worth your time catching two of the most unique bands in UK underground metal right now.

Wed 12th Oct – Drop the Dumbulls, Liverpool
(w/ Springbok + Leavers)
Thu 13th Oct – Subside, Birmingham
(w/ Sealclubber)
Fri 14th Oct – The Bridge Inn, Rotherham
(w/ Spaztik Munkey)
Sat 15th Oct – NOIZ Weekender, Manchester
(w/ Telepathy, 1968 + more)
Sun 16th Oct – Liquor, Lincoln
(w/ WRECK + Temple Steps)
Tue 18th Oct – Corporation, Sheffield
(Just Kurokuma w/ Trap Them, OKKULTOKRATI + Venom Prison)

Not all that sleeps is silent; from the dark awakened a visceral being that fed from the smoldering flames and dim glow of the sun.

Strip away the dirty robes and poor illusions, find yourself hideously revealed. Know you are an animal, your heartbeat a steady drum pulsing for atavistic pleasures. Cast your eye upwards from the fire, bear your teeth.

Dance with us as this world crumbles into a mist of ashes.

facebook.com/kurokumauk
https://twitter.com/KurokumaUK
http://medusacrushrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/advorsus
facebook.com/understockport

Kurokuma, Advorsus (2016)

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Yeti on Horseback, The Great Dying: Drinking Mushroom Tea (Plus Full Album Stream)

Posted in audiObelisk, Reviews on September 28th, 2016 by JJ Koczan

yeti-on-horseback-the-great-dying

[Click play above to stream Yeti on Horseback’s The Great Dying in full. Album is out Sept. 30 on Medusa Crush Recordings.]

If you were thinking of, say, tuning high and playing fast, Canadian four-piece Yeti on Horseback strongly advise against it. The Ontario atmosludgers make their debut via Medusa Crush Recordings with The Great Dying, a title that seems to nod — emphasis on “nod” throughout — in the direction of YOB‘s expanses, though Yeti on Horseback are altogether darker and more unipolar in their vocal extremity, despite some variety between screams and growls.

An initials-only lineup of RP (guitar/vocals), MS (guitar), NS (bass) and SR (drums) execute six tracks, only one of them under nine minutes long — the interlude “Lynch (A Prelude)” (2:43) that precedes “Elephant Man” (12:43) — and from the second that opener “Tree of Death” (9:23) kicks in its chug from the quiet intro, they plummet downward into a cavernous sonic punishment. So grueling is the course of The Great Dying‘s 63 minutes that one might get lost along the way in Yeti on Horseback‘s morass of screams, rolling semi-cosmic doom groove and unremitting bleakness of mood. It’s a lot to take in, in other words.

They do change things up somewhat, in the aforementioned interlude (or prelude) and in the song that follows, adding cleaner guest vocals, but there’s a root in RP‘s vocals that’s metal and somebody in this band listened to or continues to listen to Devin Townsend — I promise I’m not just saying that because they’re Canadian — so there’s a bit more going on either way than just a doom band making doom that sounds like other doom.

For example, there’s sludge. Lots of it. It would be unfair to compare Yeti on Horseback directly to Eyehategod, as it’s about the laziest line one can draw for anything low-toned and screaming, but to go with their metallic side, they have a raw sensibility that seems to come from a mindset of the subgenre. As “Tree of Death” rolls through one part and another en route to the lumbering 14-minute longest cut “Viking Mushroom Tea,” the plod that emerges becomes a defining aspect of what the band does, along with the disaffection their output feels intended to convey.

Guitars offer some lead/chug interplay early behind the layered screams in the early march of “Viking Mushroom Tea,” but the chug remains primary until the guitars drop out to whispers over the drums, the band gradually making their way back to fully-weighted fare in the middle third of the track, getting there with surprisingly little ceremony.

yeti-on-horseback

A dirge is at the core of “Viking Mushroom Tea” — appropriate enough to the title’s reference — and held even in the quiet stretch by the drums, and though the immediate guitar line in the subsequent “Fables and Lies” (11:03) is faster and riffed in Mike Scheidt-style, the bell sounds that complement it build on that theme. A highlight for its cyclical drum performance, the near-centerpiece proves patient despite its more uptempo beginning, breaking after three minutes to a moment of quiet before smashing in effectively to its verse, which holds sway firmly.

They shift again into faster riffing and finish with another smooth transition to that verse progression, ending, naturally, with a return of the bells, but the journey along the path they’ve set remains engaging in that meant-to-be-a-slow-and-a-challenge kind of way. If it was pleasing to the ear all the time, it wouldn’t be sludge. They’d be doing it wrong. They’re not.

All the same, there’s a palpable sense of catching breath as “Lynch (A Prelude)” takes hold with its samples from director David Lynch‘s 1980 masterpiece, The Elephant Man, leading into the famous lines, “I am not an elephant! I am not an animal! I am a human being!” at the start of “Elephant Man” itself that underscore the feelings of otherness conveyed throughout The Great Dying.

That summation, and the grand intro of “Elephant Man” itself would seem to be fitting for a closer, but Yeti on Horseback clearly didn’t come this far to half-ass it at the finish, so while “Elephant Man” features the album’s best lead work and arguably its largest and most effective chugging, in addition to the aforementioned guest vocals, and pushes a sense of arrangement about as far as the band goes here, it works in concert with actual-closer “Dragged down to Hell” (13:24), which was previously released as a digital single.

Granted, it feels somewhat tacked on, but it’s hard to hold that against Yeti on Horseback, who’ve made no attempt to hide their will toward working in longer forms and use the last track to strip everything back down to its basic components and draw the record to a rumbling, churning, crashing finish, the last minute-plus given to a stretch of low-end noise.

Given that The Great Dying is their debut, Yeti on Horseback have put together an impressively cohesive collection culled no doubt from their four years’ experience discovering their aesthetic breadth as a unit. They have room to grow, but have set themselves up well for that in any number of directions — tuning low and playing slow isn’t a bad place to start — and if this is the kind of crushing they’re going to do at the outset, then it’s only going to be worthwhile to pay attention to what comes next.

Yeti on Horseback on Thee Facebooks

Yeti on Horseback on Bandcamp

Medusa Crush Recordings on Bandcamp

Medusa Crush Recordings on Thee Facebooks

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