Posted in Bootleg Theater on November 14th, 2019 by JJ Koczan
Later this month, French heavy rockers Denizen will release their third album and second on Argonauta Records, High Winds Preacher. After more than 15 years together, the band have been long enough set on a path toward individuality that it doesn’t seem unreasonable going into their latest work with some measure of expectation, and from the initial push of “Shadow Dancer” through the thicker-toned roll of “Among the Trees” and the let’s-make-the-riff-even-bigger “Ears Wide Opened” before the pure Orange Goblinery of “Chasing the Guru,” they take a familiar but distinct shape in following up their 2017 Songs from the Kraken: The Georges Sessions EP, and their two full-lengths, 2015’s Troubled Waters (review here) and 2011’s Whispering Wild Stories (review here), and the bulk of High Winds Preacher feels dedicated more toward conjuring those high winds via all-out thrust than doing much by way of preaching.
Either way, they do what they do in full awareness of what they’re doing while they do it. To wit, after the bit of slowdown in “Mandrake is Everywhere,” which follows the high-gear “The Beast,” the four-piece are back off and running as they careen through “White Flamingo,” “Deaf Taint,” “Punch Out” and closer “Tomahawk” on what would be the vinyl side B, culminating — of course — in a big, big, big ol’ haymaker of a riff in the finale. Their style is playing to genre, let there be no doubt, but their songs make an impression just the same, and it’s through the sheer energy of their execution that much of that impression comes. Calisthenics as songwriting is a post-Truckfighters European specialty, but any number of bands can sound like they might jump around on stage. Denizen sound like they might jump around in the studio as well, and the fact that that’s the case after over a decade and a half is not a consideration to be taken lightly.
Reinventing the wheel? Nope. Fixing what ain’t broken? Nope. Asking to be anything more than the complement and maybe even some motivating fuel for your good time? Nope. Run with it. They are.
Again, “Shadow Dancer” kicks off the record, and you can see the video for it premiering below. Please note that a sample of the film clip that starts the video is actually in the audio version of the song as well, so kudos the Denizen cats on striving for accuracy.
High Winds Preacher is out Nov. 29.
Enjoy:
Denizen, “Shadow Dancer” official video premiere
DENIZEN formed in the south of France between Montpellier and Sète in 2003. After their demo debut Far From Common Strategy (2006), released on Prototype Records, the band participated in a split tribute to Black Sabbath with the bands Illtemper and Stuntman.
Following their first full length album, Snatches Into Uproar in 2009, DENIZEN moved towards a more rock groove with heavy sludge and stoner influences. With their 2011- release, Whispering Wild Stories, DENIZEN’s Classic Rock influences became assertive: 70’s typed riffing, the wah-wah and melodic vocals, took the band on higher levels and to tour Europe with acts alike Steak or Black Rainbows. The highly acclaimed, third album Troubled Waters (2014 on Argonauta Records) unleashed a heavy rock feeling with a healthy dose of the blues, but the band’s main concern has always been focused on the riff. DENIZEN’s brand new record, High Winds Preacher, will definitely preach the almighty riff again!
Recorded and mixed by Colin Trognée at Studio Mordor Except drums, recorded at Buèges Valley Recording Service by Simon Pillard & Colin Trognée
Mastered by Kent Stump at Crystal Clear Sound
Artwork by Brice Cossu
DENIZEN is: Fabien Aletto – Vocals Yann Chinette – Guitars Andreas Goumy – Drums Colin Trognée – Bass
Posted in Reviews on November 24th, 2017 by JJ Koczan
It’s a hell of a question, if you think about it. Well, are you waiting? And if so, for what? The implication would seem to be that French weirdo rock trio Frank Sabbath is directly addressing their audience, but even then, it’s pretty open as to what they could be asking. Are we waiting for the three-piece themselves? Are we waiting for Are You Waiting?, which is their third album behind last year’s Telluric Wanderers (discussed here) and their 2015 self-titled debut (review here)? Or is it a question about the question itself, as in, what are we waiting for? And if so, what’s the answer? Shouldn’t we just dive in, to the four-song/34-minute long-player and just about everything else?
Are they asking about the way we’re living our lives, or is it like when you’re at the grocery store and you can’t tell if someone is actually on the checkout line or if they’re just mesmerized by the slew of magazine covers and candybars left there to be impulse purchases. Excuse me, are you waiting? To some degree or other, aren’t we all?
The answers aren’t exactly forthcoming throughout Are You Waiting?, but the immediate affect the question has lingers and would seem to play directly into the band’s intention to shake their listeners out of a comfort zone. With a parabolic structure of two six-minute tracks — opener “Goat” (6:40) and closer “Sasume” (6:00) — bookending two longer jammers in “Lazarus” (11:25) and “Take the Lead” (10:09), the record sets itself up for mirrored-style vinyl sides, but works with a linear flow as well, each piece seeming to offer something of its own to the overarching freaked-out entirety.
The expectation going into Are You Waiting?, which arrives in a handmade CD sleeve under the banner of the band’s own Bermuda Cruise Records imprint, shouldn’t necessarily be that Frank Sabbath — who continue to have very much picked the correct moniker — will never lock into a solid groove together and rock out because they’re too busy being oddballs. Apart perhaps from “Sasume,” the abundant and maybe-Japanese lyrics of which seem like a questionable choice at best, politically and in terms of the raw sonic outcome, there’s very little on Are You Waiting? to evoke that check-us-out-we’re-weird, post-Mr. Bungle performative sort of experimentalism. It’s more about sonic quirk.
Despite “Sasume” and despite the fact that “Lazarus” and “Take the Lead” both have lyrics, it’s probably fair to say the album is mostly instrumental, since that’s where the bulk of its impression is made, and as they start off “Goat” with an immediate freakout before guitarist Jude Mas, bassist Guillaume Jankowski and drummer Baptiste Reig tap into a kind of uptempo, low-end-driven surf rock, the spirit is immersive in its blend of grunge skronk and offkilter rhythmic turns. Maybe more immersive than one might think, in fact. Subtly, Mas and Jankowski set a theme of interplay between the guitar and bass that will continue into “Lazarus” and be most effectively put to use in “Take the Lead,” and this happens with a bit of subterfuge via the overarching groove being propelled by Reig‘s drums, which by the time they get to the opener’s fifth minute is practically space rock in its thrust.
They cap that launch with another freakout to mirror that at the start, and it’s not until a couple minutes into the fuzz-drenched “Lazarus” that the first lyrics on Are You Waiting? arrive, following nuanced lead guitar work and a corresponding fluidity of bass that in tone and in terms of what Jankowski does to complement the work of Mas and Reig both, qualifies as being of the “must-hear” variety. They slow down at about three minutes in to make room for the verse over a heavy psychedelic drift, but are soon enough on their way again, and though they might seem to meander, I’m not at all convinced Frank Sabbath don’t have an underlying plan at work in their extended solos and instrumental stretches, making their work progressive rather than haphazard or merely the manifestation of jams put to tape.
“Take the Lead” further demonstrates this idea with a fluidity that not only makes it a highlight of Are You Waiting?, but sets Frank Sabbath apart from the bulk of European heavy psych in terms of their chemistry and the approach they undertake, which seems as much inspired by Samsara Blues Experiment as Zappa himself. But it’s ultimately the patience of the execution itself that one finds most encouraging when it comes to the basic listening experience, and that makes the goof-off rush of “Sasume” something of an atmospheric crash landing as it rounds out the LP.
This is obviously by design, and I’m not going to hold their having a fun against Frank Sabbath or anyone else for that matter — at least not most of the time — but there’s something about the way the Japanese language is used in “Sasume” that comes through more like someone doing an impression of old samurai movies than actually speaking the language. Lyrics are spoken, seemingly back and forth between the band members, while beneath they do lock into a more than solid groove, once more held together by the bass and drums as the guitar goes off where it will. “Sasume” rolls out a stoner rock-style instrumental hook and spends the final two of its six minutes first in a layered guitar solo and then with a late inclusion of keys/organ that signals a rhythmic turn into the last big push that ends.
It is the nature of experimentation that sometimes ideas work and sometimes they don’t, and while I’m not prepared to call “Sasume” a dud for the effect its increased pace has on the final statement the album makes overall, it feels nearly like an element of minstrelsy is at play, and even if that’s born of an appreciation for the Japanese language and culture, it’s almost too easy to read it into another context. Still, and again, Frank Sabbath acquit themselves well throughout Are You Waiting?, and while we may never get the response directly to that question, the sense by the time the record is done is that the trio have only just started to really explore the heights their chemistry might attain and the reaches they might yet conjure as songwriters.
In that sense, yes, we are waiting, but they’ve certainly provided plenty to chew on in the meantime in their most realized work to-date.
Posted in Whathaveyou on September 22nd, 2017 by JJ Koczan
This one’s coming up quickly, so keep an eye out. French trio Frank Sabbath released their second album, Telluric Wanderers (discussed here), last year through Argonauta as the follow-up to their 2015 self-titled debut (review here), and even after two later-2016 sessions-type offerings posted on their Bandcamp, it would seem the Paris/Montpellier troupe are unwilling to let 2017 pass without a proper full-length, so on Oct. 2 they’ll drop Are You Waiting?, of which they’re giving a first taste now in the off-the-wall “Sasume.”
Crazed is nothing new as regards a general status for these guys, but I feel like this might even be a different level in that regard. Not sure how I feel about those maybe-Japanese vocals, but it’s weird, and the bass tone is inarguable, so there are definitely elements working in its favor.
Are You Waiting? will be Frank Sabbath‘s first record through their new label, Bermuda Cruise, and you can see more info about it below, courtesy of the PR wire, as well as hear “Sasume” if you’re feeling particularly brave:
Frank Sabbath is proud to reveal the cover and first extract from their new album, Are You Waiting?
With their third album Are You Waiting? the French psychedelic jokesters Frank Sabbath present a concentrate of their composition style in four songs, ranging from high energy psychedelic rock, to progressive doom-laden melodies, and trippy atmospheric soundscapes.
The first track off the album, “Sasume,” album premiere is a japanese infused psychedelic tune, reminding the seemingly forgotten times where humor did belong in rock music.
Are You Waiting? will be released on CD and digital format by the new associative label Bermuda Cruise, which is focusing on psychedelic, experimental and improvised music. The date of release for the album is set to October 2nd.
Frank Sabbath is: Guillaume Jankowski : Bass Baptiste Reig : Drums, vocals Jude Mas : Guitare électrique, vocals Léo Minart : Sound engineer, tapist
Posted in Reviews on October 1st, 2015 by JJ Koczan
We’re in the thick of it now. It’s hard sometimes putting these things together to remember that each band has worked incredibly hard to put out an album. I’ve been through that process (once), and so I know it can be harrowing at times between acts going back and forth about recording, what’s included, how to release, when, and so on. There’s a lot to cover this week — and we’re not out of the woods yet — but I hope that, just because each review is short, you don’t take that as a sign I don’t have the utmost respect for the effort that has gone into making each of these releases. It can be a tremendous pain in the ass, but of course it’s worth it when you get to the end product. We continue.
Fall 2015 Quarterly Review #31-40:
We Lost the Sea, Departure Songs
To be blunt, We Lost the Sea’s Departure Songs is the kind of album that immediately makes me want to own everything the band has done, in hard copy, for posterity. The Sydney outfit’s third full-length finds its crux in its two-part closing duo of “Challenger Part 1 – Flight” and “Challenger Part 2 – A Swan Song,” enacting a lush instrumental interpretation of the Space Shuttle Challenger flight and disaster that took place nearly 30 years ago in Jan. 1986. In its progression, patience, flow and discernable narrative thread it is nothing short of brilliant, a lush and sad beauty that serves as a genuinely affecting reminder of the hope for a better future that died with that shuttle’s civilian crew and the era of aspiration that tragedy brought to a close. I think the closing sample is the only time I’ve ever heard Ronald Reagan speak in my adult life and felt something other than anger, and that’s a testament to the ground Departure Songs covers – on the preceding three cuts as well as the final two – and the masterful execution on the part of We Lost the Sea.
There does not yet exist a name for what Finland’s Dark Buddha Rising bring to bear on the two side-consuming tracks of their Neurot Recordings debut and sixth album overall, Inversum. Self-recorded and presented following some shifts in lineup, the album swells to a massive head of bleak, noise-infused psychedelia, fully ritualized and self-aware but still vibrant as it makes its way further and further down into itself. It is bright black, based so much around contrasting ideas of form and tonality that to listen to it, one almost doesn’t believe that the band are accomplishing what they are on an aesthetic level, but the weight, chants, screams, cavernous feel and nod that “Eso” (24:05) and “Exo” (23:52) enact is ultimately real no matter how nightmarish and otherworldly the impression might be. A work that sounds as likely to digest as be digested, it constructs a temple of its own sound and then burns that temple and everything around it in a glorious final push into charred chaos.
Few endorsements carry as much weight for me as that of Germany’s Nasoni Records, so when I see that venerable imprint is on board for the release of Red Mountains’ first album, Down with the Sun, expectations immediately rise. The Norwegian four-piece don’t disappoint, calling forth a heavy psychedelia weighted enough to be immersive without really falling into the trap of sounding too post-Colour Haze or Causa Sui, finding a balance right away on opener “Six Hands” between open-vibe and structured songcraft. They toy with one side or the other, getting crunchy on “Rodents” and tripping out into ambient echoing on the penultimate “Silver Grey Sky,” but that only makes the debut seem all the more promising. Particularly satisfying is the scope between “Sun” and “Sleepy Desert Blues,” which is enough to make the listener think that grunge and desert rock happened in the same place. An engaging and already-on-the-right-track start from a band who sound like they’re only going to continue to grow.
It’s improper to think of Germany’s Black Space Riders as entirely psychedelic if only because that somehow implies a lack of clearheaded consciousness in their work, which as their fourth album, Refugeeum, demonstrates, is the very core tying all the expanses they cover together. As Europe comes to grip with its most dire refugee crisis since World War II, Black Space Riders take their thematic movement from such terrestrial issues (a first for them) and it makes a song like 11-minute centerpiece “Run to the Plains” all the more resonant. Of course, the big-chug groove of “Born a Lion (Homeless)” and the cosmic thrust of the penultimate “Walking Shades” still have a psychedelic resonance, but the balance between the earthly and the otherworldly do well to highlight the progressivism that’s been at work in the band’s sound all along. A considerable undertaking at 61 minutes, Refugeeum is an important step in an ongoing development that has just made another unexpected and welcome turn.
And so, with their third and final outing, III, Portland, Oregon, trio Lamprey reserve their strongest point for their closing argument. The two-bass trio of bassist/vocalist Blaine Burnham (now drumming in Mane of the Cur), bassist Justin Brown (now bass-ing in Witch Mountain) and drummer Spencer Norman recorded the conclusive six-tracker with Adam Pike at Toadhouse (Red Fang, Mammoth Salmon, etc.) and even the slower shifts of “Harpies” and the decidedly Conan-esque “Lament of the Deathworm” breeze right by. Like their two prior releases, 2012’S The Burden of Beasts (review here) and 2011’s Ancient Secrets (review here), III is a showcase of songcraft as much as tone, and it seems to presage its own vinyl reissue, each of the two halves starting with a shorter piece, the opener “Iron Awake” a notably vicious stomp that sets a destructive vibe that the rumble and weirdo keys and leads that finish out “Gaea” seem to be answering, a quick fade bringing an end to an underrated act. They’ll be missed.
If newcomer bruisers Godsleep seem to share some commonality of method with fellow Athenians 1000mods, it’s worth noting that on their debut, Thousand Sons of Sleep, they also share a recording engineer in George Leodis. Fair enough. The big-toned riffing and shouty burl on which Godsleep cast their foundation makes its identity felt in the post-Kyussism of “Thirteen” and stonerly grit of centerpiece “This is Mine,” which follows the extended opening salvo of “The Call,” “Thirteen” and “Wrong Turn,” the latter of which is the longest cut at 9:09 and among its most satisfyingly fuzzed nods. They’re playing to style perhaps, but doing so well, and if you’ve gotta start somewhere, recording live and coming out with a heavy-as-hell groove like what emerges in the second half of “Home” is a good place to start. Godsleep are already a year past from when they recorded Thousand Sons of Sleep in Summer 2014, so I wouldn’t be surprised if a follow-up happened sooner than later.
Slow Joe Crow & the Berserker Blues Band, We are Blues People
Kentucky-based, cumbersomely-named Slow Joe Crow and the Berserker Blues Band may indeed live up to the We are Blues People title of their debut EP, but they’re definitely riff people as well. As such, the four-track sampling of their wares draws from both sides on a cut like opener “No One Else,” the three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Austin P. Lunn, bassist Patrick Flanary and drummer Thom Hammerheart in the process of figuring out how much they want to lean to one or the other. They round out with a fuzzy take on the traditional “John the Revelator,” but the earlier “Muddy Water Rising” strikes a more effective and more authentic-feeling balance, leading to the slow jam of “Before I Go,” which adds a ‘70s rock vibe to push the bluesy feel even further and expand the palette in a manner one hopes they continue to pursue as they move forward.
Canadian trio Monobrow follow their 2014 LP, Big Sky, Black Horse (review here) with what’s essentially a new single that finds them continuing to step forward in their approach. Dubbed A Handwritten Letter from the Moon and taking its name from the 8:33 title-track, the Ottawa group’s latest offering finds the instrumental outfit smoothing out the tones a bit, still hitting into raucous grooves, but closer to Truckfighters than their prior brashness. I don’t know if it’s a method they’ll stick to going into their fourth LP next year, but the result is dynamic and suits them well. “A Handwritten Letter from the Moon” comes coupled with “Dyatlov Station 3,” a seven-minute rehearsal-space jam from 2011 that fascinatingly (and I’m sure by no coincidence) showcases some similar classic heavy rock influence. The only real shame of the release is that both these tracks are probably too long to fit on a 7”, since a small platter of vinyl would be a perfect way to hold over listeners until the next album arrives. As it stands, the digital version is hardly roughing it.
French heavy rocking four-piece Denizen issued their decidedly Clutchian debut, Whispering Wild Stories (review here), in 2011, and follow it through Argonauta Records with Troubled Waters, a more individualized 10-track outing that alternates between punkish rawness and classic upbeat grooves. Four years after their first album, their progression hasn’t come at the cost of songwriting, and while they still have work to do in distinguishing themselves in a crowded, varied European market, they deliver the material with an energy and vitality that makes even its familiar parts easy enough to get down with, be it the Southern heavy solo of “Jocelyne” or the meaner bite of “Enter Truckman.” I’ll take the pair of “King of Horses” and “Heavy Rider” as highlights, and remain interested to find out where Denizen head from here, as well as how long it might take them to get there. Four years between records gives Troubled Waters the feel of a second debut as much as a sophomore effort.
Releasing through Candlelight in their native UK, doom metal trio Witchsorrow mark a decade with their third album, No Light, Only Fire. Opener “There is No Light There is Only Fire” seems to nod immediately at Cathedral, with a speedier, chuggier take, and the record proceeds to alternate between shorter and longer tracks en route to the 14-minute closer “De Mysteriis Doom Sabbathas,” cuts like “Negative Utopia” and “Disaster Reality” sailing a black ship past the 10-minute mark on a rumbling sea of riffs and slow motion nod. They break for a minute with the acoustic interlude “Four Candles” before embarking on the finale, and the respite is appreciated once the agonizing undulations of “De Mysteriis Doom Sabbathas” are underway, using nearly every second of their 14:25 to affirm Witchsorrow’s trad doom mastery and bleak, darkened heft. No light? Maybe a little light, but it’s still pretty damn dark, and indeed, it smells like smoke.
Posted in On the Radar on June 2nd, 2011 by JJ Koczan
Rest assured, I haven’t a clue what their name means, but as they’re instrumental, I’m not counting on ÖfÖ Am for wordsmithing anyway. The French trio, who reached out to me only hours before I got the first of several emails recommending I check them out, specialize in an energetic and lightly punk-influenced (listen to the drums on “Goodbye Charles”) heavy groove rock. They’re not strictly stoner, but they’ve definitely heard Kyuss and Karma to Burn seem to have left a mark, tonally as well as ethically.
That’s not a bad thing, and neither is the vitality so evident in the songs of their debut long-player, The Beast Within: A Journey in the Life of Öctaman. To be fair, there are somevoices on the album — some gang chants, a spoken intro to the Faith No More-esque “Montée Religieuse” — but it’s the guitar, bass and drums (and on that track, some righteous guest keys) that are meant as focal points. They keep their material quick and to the point and earn almost as much respect for the punningly-titled “The Wieding Present” — the cover for the record is by Alexander Von Wieding — as for the music itself. Hard not to appreciate that.
It’s a big universe and it’s full of cool music. If you’ve the time and the inclination, the Montpellier three-piece do an awful lot of talking for a band with so few words. Check them out on Thee Facebooks or via the Bandcamp player below harvested from their page:
as they careen through “White Flamingo,” “Deaf Taint,” “Punch Out” and closer “Tomahawk” on what would be the vinyl side B, culminating — of course — in a big, big, big ol’ haymaker of a riff in the finale. Their style is playing to genre, let there be no doubt, but their songs make an impression just the same, and it’s through the sheer energy of their execution that much of that impression comes. Calisthenics as songwriting is a post-Truckfighters European specialty, but any number of bands can sound like they might jump around on stage. Denizen sound like they might jump around in the studio as well, and the fact that that’s the case after over a decade and a half is not a consideration to be taken lightly.
