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audiObelisk Transmission 038

Posted in Podcasts on July 30th, 2014 by JJ Koczan

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Here is the Music Player. You need to installl flash player to show this cool thing!

As I’ve tried not to do since I started making podcasts again, I kept away from a consistent theme this time around, but I wanted to at least get a blend of bands you’ve probably heard and bands maybe you haven’t. Of course the new Sleep was a given, and new cuts from Electric Wizard and Karma to Burn felt like they needed to be there as well, so they are. But there are a few corresponding inclusions of stuff I’ve been digging that I haven’t had the chance to write about yet — looking at you, USA out of Vietnam, Lewis and the Strange Magics and Deamon’s Child — and while I’ve no doubt you’re already down with those and the rest of what’s included here because you’re on it like that, putting them in here seemed a good way to feature them for anyone not yet exposed who might be interested in checking them out.

If that’s you, please enjoy. The second hour, as usual, is consumed by longer songs, but there are a few in the first hour as well (that Electric Wizard track is over 10 minutes, and the Sleep is close to it), but of the podcasts I’ve put together in the last few months, this one easily flows the best. It was pretty late as I was putting it together last night, so I had the headphones on and was working totally without distraction. I know it’s an unrealistic expectation to think anyone will be able to listen in that manner, but if you get the chance or if you don’t, I hope you have a good time.

First Hour:
Sleep, “The Clarity” from Adult Swim Singles Series (2014)
Electric Wizard, “I am Nothing” from Time to Die (2014)
Lewis and the Strange Magics, “Cloudy Grey Cube” from Demo (2014)
USA Out of Vietnam, “You are a Comet, You are on Fire” from Crashing Diseases and Incurable Airplanes (2014)
Serpent Venom, “Lord of Life” from Of Things Seen and Unseen (2014)
Deamon’s Child, “Lutscher!” from Deamon’s Child (2014)
Rabbits, “Reek and Ye Shall Find” from Untoward (2014)
Karma to Burn, “Fifty Seven” from Arch Stanton (2014)
The Heavy Co., “One Big Drag” from Uno Dose (2014)

Second Hour:
Wolf Blood, “Dancing on Your Grave” from Wolf Blood (2014)
Frown, “Harpocrates Unborn” from The Greatest Gift to Give (2014)
Merlin, “Lucifer’s Revenge” from Christ Killer (2014)
Causa Sui, “Incipiency Suite” from Pewt’r Sessions 3 (2014)

Total running time: 1:57:27

 

Thank you for listening.

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Causa Sui, Pewt’r Sessions 3: A Beginning in Progress

Posted in Reviews on July 24th, 2014 by JJ Koczan

The Pewt’r Sessions collaboration between Danish heavy psych explorers Causa Sui and Ron “Pewt’r” Schneiderman, known for his work with Massachusetts’ improvisers Sunburned Hand of the Man and his label, Spirit of Orr, traces back to live shows performed in 2006. In 2009, the two entities got together for a couple days’ worth of recording, and that resulted in the first two installments, and the new Pewt’r Sessions 3 was put to tape by Causa Sui guitarist Jonas Monk during Summer 2013, just as they were issuing the stellar Euporie Tide full-length on their own El Paraiso Records imprint. With the lineup of SchneidermanMonk, bassist Jess Kahr, drummer Jakob Skøtt and keyboardist Rasmus Rasmussen, Pewt’r Sessions 3 fills out two vinyl sides with just three tracks, and stands in the spirit of Sessions 1 and 2 by being completely improvised. Perhaps the most impressive aspect of all is that four years had passed from when the other two releases were tracked and when this one came to be, considering the smoothness of the pieces — “Abyssal Plain” (8:29), “Eutopia” (5:03) and “Incipiency Suite” (26:34) — and the flow that Causa Sui and Schneiderman are able to elicit over the course of the release. It’s not quite a full-length album feel, and being the third installment of what’s so far a trilogy, there’s a bit of a work-in-progress spirit behind the music, but they leave little to question why they’d want to document the renewed collaboration, and Pewt’r Sessions 3 engages gorgeous washes of psych/Krautrock wanderings delivered with a rare spirit of spontaneity.

Its circumstances don’t do justice to the listening experience. Seems simple enough that Causa Sui and Schneiderman got together for a day or two and jammed out and kept what they wanted to keep, but it’s the open, creative atmosphere in which Pewt’r Sessions 3 was crafted that the recording most conveys. “Abyssal Plain” winds its way to life with some faded-in feedback and cymbal and tom hits, ambient, swirling guitars, and it liquefied before it’s even really underway, one movement flowing from the next as the jam begins to take shape. Distortion hums behind, but if there’s a threat, it’s vague and far off, and Causa Sui and Schneiderman gradually make their way into a build, languid and tripped out as it is, but with the guitars weaving lines around each other, that initial feeling of spaciousness is never lost, even as Skøtt starts to move to more solid drum progressions, keeping a beat, jazzy and loose as it is. A free-jazz feel is a good starting point, since while a definite riff emerges for a time in “Abyssal Plain,” the vibe persists, and carries into both “Eutopia” and especially “Incipiency Suite” as well. But immediately the feeling is smooth, comfortable, the chemistry familiar. I’m sure there was more to it, but if you told me these guys just flipped a switch, hit it and this is what came out, I’d believe you. The central guitar line of “Eutopia” seems more plotted, but the dreamy atmospherics built up around it in guitar and keys carry the experimentalism forward, the drums stay calm, and a course of-the-moment is worked through before a fade brings it to a close for a moment of serenity before the go-anywhere-do-anything trip-out of Pewt’r Sessions 3‘s second side.

“Eutopia” is distinct enough from what Causa Sui do on their own — so is “Abyssal Plain,” for that matter — but “Incipiency Suite” is a different beast altogether, and it’s fitting it starts out with some funky-style wah since the mix plays such a large role in it. At over 26 minutes, it was pieced together by Monk after the recording was complete from various parts recorded throughout the day. One might expect this to lead to a jumpy feel, but “Incipiency Suite” flows well enough to be its own album. I don’t know how involved Monk was in arranging which movement went where, or if he just transitioned between parts as they happened, but the end result is utterly hypnotic — a dead-on jam of molten psychedelia that on its own is worth the price of admission. As for the switches between one part to the next, they’re subtle and they create an overarching progression that’s as organic as the improvisations themselves. It’s here that Causa Sui and Schneiderman come across with their jazziest influence, the guitars spacing out with echoing twirls of notes while Skøtt drives the freakout on drums. It gets noisy and it gets to be a wash, and it moves into empty minimalist space and sun-baked pastoralia in a gorgeous summary of what it is to be psychedelic, and by the time it’s over, they’ve all gone so far out that the song seems to just float away into its own gorgeousness. Both Causa Sui and Ron Schneiderman have plenty of experience with improvisational music, and to hear that play out over these 40 minutes feels like a glimpse into a raw creative process at work. Pewt’r Sessions 3 covers a lot of ground, especially in “Incipiency Suite,” but if there’s more from these recordings or if they have to get together again to make it happen, one just hopes it’s not long before Pewt’r Sessions 4 comes to fruition, because Causa Sui and Schneiderman sound ready to keep exploring.

Causa Sui and Ron Schneiderman, “Incipiency Suite”

Causa Sui on Thee Facebooks

El Paraiso Records website

 

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Causa Sui’s Pewt’r Sessions 3 Available to Preorder

Posted in Whathaveyou on July 17th, 2014 by JJ Koczan

If you’re familiar with Danish heavy psych jammers Causa Sui, then there’s really only one piece of info you need — the preorder links:

http://elparaisorecords.com/releases/causa-sui-pewtr-sessions-3-lp

http://elparaisorecords.com/releases/causa-sui-pewtr-sessions-3-cd

What you’ll find when you get there are the packages available from the band’s El Paraiso Records for Causa Sui‘s Pewt’r Sessions 3, the band’s latest round of jams with Ron Schneiderman of Sunburned Hand of the Man and their first studio outing since 2013’s spectacular Euporie Tide — though Live at Freak Valley (review here), released earlier this year, made for a nice fix as well. The new release, set for an Aug. 18 arrival, is available in CD and LP versions, with a bonus 10″ available for the first 300 who place their orders.

So like I said, there are the links. Here’s the info from the El Paraiso page:

Causa Sui: Pewt’r Sessions 3 LP + bonus 10″

Preorder – ships august 18th!

First 1000 LPs orange marbled vinyl.

First 300 orders from elparaisorecords.com gets bonus 10″ vinyl of exclusive tracks – with stunning linoleum hand printed sleeves by Martin Rude in three variations.

Following last year’s determined studio double LP, Euporie Tide, Causa Sui returns to improv with a third round of mindbending jams feat. Ron Schneiderman!

The savage, kaleidoscopic improvisations of the quintet’s previous two volumes instantly gained reverence among fans of free flowing krautrock and detuned stoner rock, and this brand new addition, recorded in the late summer of 2013, fullfills the group’s potential entirely. The krautrock grooves, the low-end heavyness and the sprawling furor is still very much present – but this set is also permeated by a rare free jazz-sensibility, at times recalling American masters of improvisation such as John Coltrane and Don Cherry in spirit.

Ferociously experimental, yet absolutely welcoming and corporal. One eye looking back to the golden age of improvised music, the other looking straight ahead, into the future. ”Incipiency Suite”, which takes up the entire B-side of this record, stands as the high pinnacle of what this group is capable of with the inclusion of Ron Schneiderman: an afternoon of spontaniously recorded parts, cut-and-pasted into an abundant whole by studio wiz Jonas Munk, creating a unique interplay between in-the-moment improvisation and creative studio editing.

Including digital download card.

https://www.facebook.com/elparaisorecords/
http://elparaisorecords.com/releases/causa-sui-pewtr-sessions-3-lp

Causa Sui, Pewt’r Sessions 3 Preview

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