Over the last couple years, Kozmik Artifactz and its close cohort, Bilocation Records, have assembled one of the most enviable label rosters in the world for heavy rock and roll and psychedelia. Their commitment is to vinyl releases in limited quantities, and their stuff usually goes. It’s harder to get in the States with import prices, but their reach includes American acts like Ruby the Hatchet, Bison Machine, Valley of the Sun, Space God Ritual and The Dirty Streets, all of whom are featured alongside European groups Somali Yacht Club (Ukraine), Earthmass (UK), Sonora Ritual (Germany) and Domadora (France) as well as Australia’s Child on the new 18-track Home of the Good Sounds Vol. 2 label sampler, which is out today.

With new music from The Heavy Eyes — “Somniloquy” is the first I’ve heard of their upcoming third LP, He Dreams of Lions — as well as Buzzard, the new project from Place of Skulls and Pentagram drummer “Minnesota” Pete Campbell, and UK trio Mammothwing, the sampler should have no trouble piquing interest among the converted while more familiar cuts from The Kings of Frog Island and Valley of the Sun reinforce a solid mixtape feel. I won’t belabor the point that you’re probably about to spend a decent portion of your afternoon head-to-head with these songs — it’s 18 tracks, after all — but there’s a decent flow from one to the next and it’s clear the label was looking to do more than just toss together something haphazardly. Anyone who’s ever held a piece of their vinyl can probably tell you that’s not how they roll.

Plenty of variety, plenty of heavy, and some brand new stuff to preview what they have coming hopefully before the end of 2015, there’s really no way to lose. If nothing else, you can’t beat the price. Kozmik Artifactz was kind enough to let me announce the comp’s arrival, and you’ll find it on the player below, courtesy of their Bandcamp, followed by their official word on today’s release.

Please enjoy:

Kozmik Artifactz and Bilocation Records are very proud to offer to their new and old followers the second label compilation ‘Home of the good sounds – Vol. 2’. The sampler features 18 bands from all over the planet including 12 tracks that are not published on vinyl yet, three of them are exclusively to be heard here: new stuff from The Heavy Eyes from their forthcoming third album ‘He dreams of lions’, mighty Buzzard (featuring Pete Campbell from Pentagram) with ‘Is you Is’ and Mammothwing with a new track from their upcoming epic album ‘Morning light’.

For further informations to bands and releases visit our website www.kozmik-artifactz.com and our shop at http://shop.bilocationrecords.com/.

Thanks to our artist for creating so exciting music and to our customers and friends for their endless support – It is the music that matters!

The Kozmik Crew.

Kozmik Artifactz on Bandcamp

Kozmik Artifactz on Thee Facebooks

Kozmik Artifactz website

The PR wire brings word that Ohio-based Southern-style heavy rockers Mississippi Bones have inked a deal to release their third album, Songs for the Rejects, Slackers and Rabble Rousers later this year on German vinyl-minded label Bilocation Records. No exact release date yet, but it seems likely they won’t waste too much time getting the album out provided it’s actually done — Bilocation has a busy schedule just about all the time for their constantly expanding operation. If I hear, I’ll let you know.

Announcement goes like this:

MISSISSIPPI BONES are signing with Bilocation Records.

Hardin County, Ohio: Mississippi Bones signed for a vinylrelease with Bilocation Records. Their album ‘Songs for the Rejects, Slackers and Rabble Rousers’ will be out during 2015 on handnumbered, limited edition high performance 180g vinyl.

“Mississippi Bones formed in the flat lands of Hardin County, Ohio in 2010 as a 2 man studio project, thanks to some free studio time, with no other motives than to lay down some rock and no intentions of a future. In the last 4 years the rock has not stopped. They have moved from a 2 to a 6 man (5 men 1 lady) band, and have went from peddling discs in their small town to selling albums across the globe, but the goal remains the same, laying down some rock.

Inspired by all things that rock, bad sci-fi movies, beer, comics, good sci-fi movies, and bad jokes, they come bearing loads of riffs, tasty grooves, run on sentences, and a serious irreverence. Over the years they have continued to expand the borders of their sound but one thing always holds true, whether it be fast and furious, tinged with metal, dirty, swampy, bluesy, fuzzed out, or low and slow just like a good barbeque, it will always be about laying down some sweet rock.

They like to laugh. They like to make music. They like watching horror movies on the garage door in the drive way while eating pulled pork sandwiches. People know them as Mississippi Bones. You can become one of those people. I’m sure they’d appreciate it.”

Mississippi Bones:
Dusty Donley – Guitars
Jared Collins – Vocals
Derik “The Moustache” Dunson – Guitars
Jason Rector – Bass
Jason Miller – Drums
Heather “Baby Swiss Pissy Sheets” Collins – Backing Vocals

https://www.facebook.com/mississippibones/
http://mississippibones.bandcamp.com/
http://kozmik-artifactz.com/artist/mississippi-bones/
http://shop.bilocationrecords.com/index.php?s=3

Mississippi Bones, Tracks (2012)

Going from just the music on the burned copy I was given to review, I pictured Ohio rockers Mississippi Bones consisting of five dudes in various stages of beer-bellied burliness, all with different haircuts, ripped jeans, leather vests – the very picture of commercial booze rock aspiration. Their 2010 self-titled, self-released full-length, topping out with nine tracks at just over half an hour, is a collection of viciously catchy chorus-based songs that, were the climate different (maybe it is in Ohio, I couldn’t say one way or another from personal experience), would be the toast of whatever rock radio station’s local spotlight, packing the nearby midsized venue in the opening slot for Black Label Society or the like. You get the idea.

Almost needless to say after that setup, I was thoroughly mistaken. Not necessarily in my impression of the sound, just what went into making it. Mississippi Bones (not to be confused with either Southern boogie mongrels Mississippi Sludge or reactivated Canadian stoner rockers Mister Bones) is two dudes: guitarist/bassist/programmer Dusty Donley and vocalist/programmer Jared Collins. Though they sounded clean and consistent throughout, I still thought there were live drums on Mississippi Bones, and that perhaps they’d been triggered with samples à la so many latter day commercial heavy/hard rock productions. Turns out there was never a drummer there to start with. That’s what I get for making an assumption in the age of ProTools.

Together, Donley and Collins construct a full-sounding record of tightly-written songs that pull much of their influence from Clutch’s relentless groove. Collins’ lyrical subject matter, referential style and rhythmic cadence on tracks like opening duo “Sasquatch Paparazzi” and “Makin’ Deals with the Robot Devil” owes no small debt to Neil Fallon, but Donley’s guitar is crunchier, more metallic and less funk-driven than anything Clutch has put out to date. At 4:44, “The Silverforked Tongue of Mr. Toad” is Mississippi Bones’ longest cut, and also one of the album’s most infectious, a handclap/vocal break inviting more beer-hoisting than in-depth analysis, and I find that the more and the louder I hear it, the more willing I am to go along for the ride Mississippi Bones are taking. Collins’ bottom-of-the-mouth “hey whoa yeah” vocals are a big part of what aligns the band to modern commercial hard rock, but the cleanliness of the production across the board on a song like “The Leopard, the Lion and the She-Wolf” makes me wonder if one or both Collins and Donley aren’t recording professionals. If not, maybe they should think about a career switch.

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