This week, Argentinian duo Les Nadie re-release their debut full-length, Destierro y Siembra (review here), through a veritable swath of labels: Echodelick Records in the US, Spinda Records in Spain, Psychedelic Salad Records in Australia, and Dirty Filthy Records in the UK. The level of support that’s rallied behind the first outing from the Córdoba-based two-piece of guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Juan Conde and drummer Rodri Deladerova should tell you something about the album even before you hit play on this bonus-track-inclusive reissue/first-physical-release streaming below.

Offered first by the band in 2022, it’s still a manageable 37 minutes with “Mal Viaje” (2:20) and “Hellkhan” (4:45) tacked onto the back end, and between the opening dense strums and swagger of “Grito el Indio” and the atmospheric guitar of “Venenauta” that used to close after the airy finish to the chugging “Del Pombero,” I’ll just say outright that you should consider yourself invited to hear it. If I’d had time to mail out cards, I might have. This will have to suffice.

I’ve promised myself I won’t re-review the album, and I won’t. Cut my hand open and swore a blood oath. But it doesn’t feel out of line to say that, for a record to be self-released by a band only to have four labels collaborate to pick it up and put it out less than a year later is pretty significant. The catchy melody in “Zhonda,” the way Codne and Deladerova weave in and out of riffy density and the playful desert weird of the airier guitar work. It’s the kind of record that has so much blended into it, it’s become something new, atmospherically.

And about those bonus tracks, “Mal Viaje” unfolds with a far back vocal over classically fuzzy guitar, less grunge than some of the proceedings, a stoner riff so groovy it feels like Fu Manchu wrote it circa 1995, but a drone runs throughout the entire song (it’s not long, but still) and gives it a personality of its own, while “Hellkhan” is more Kyuss in purpose and the tension in its rhythm. It also has its swirling element — effects, I think — and circles around an instrumental procession as that plays out, until just before 2:30 it drops out to a bridge to build back to full tonality (and drone) and they finish it cold.

Fair enough. Neither of the bonus tracks is knock-your-socks-off difference-maker must-own by itself — and that’s a lot to ask of studio leftovers or demos or whatever they are — but this is the first physical pressing for the album, and invariably this is the version of Destierro y Siembra most listeners will know because of that and the additional support behind the release. And neither do the bonus tracks take anything away from the original edition of the record, which is still under 40 minutes long and has what was the quiet atmospheric finish bolstered by the manner in which the mellow guitar stretch of original closer “Venenauta” meets with Deladerova‘s kick at the start of “Mal Viaje,” reinvigorating toward the next hypnotic close and that much more dynamic for how that procession plays out.

In addition to not reviewing, I’m not going to get into hyperbole about the album’s importance or the up-and-coming generation of heavy rockers in Argentina of which Les Nadie (not to be confused with Los Naides) would seem to be part — releases this year from Black Sky Giant and Moodoom and the continued success of an act like IAH, as well as a horde of other instrumentalists haunting Bandcamp also argue in favor — but suffice it to say there’s something happening there right now as there is in many other places and as the 2020s come into focus after their tumultuous and traumatic beginning, the shape that the next few years in heavy will take is being sculpted now, maybe also in Destierro y Siembra.

Not going to speak in absolutes — it’s an unpredictable world set in a universe of infinite possibilities — but part of enjoying Destierro y Siembra is wondering what Les Nadie might do from here, how they might flesh out their sound or deep-dive into the rawness that a duo configuration can provide, or both, or neither. Whatever comes, their debut is a special record and I’m glad to host it here and glad to have the excuse to listen again.

I hope you dig it:

Producido por Manu Collado en @fusisestudio (Córdoba , Argentina)

Grabación y mezcla a cargo de Manu Collado en @fusisestudio ,(Córdoba, Argentina) y Xavi Esterri Comes en @nomadstudio.es (Lleida, Catalunya) entre los meses de Marzo de 2021 y Julio de 2022.

Drum doc. Maxi Mansur

Mastering por Timone Brutti en Abdijan Studios , Lavaur, France.

Les Nadie son:
Juan Conde (guitar, voices)
Rodri Deladerova (drums)

Les Nadie on Instagram

Les Nadie on Facebook

Les Nadie on Bandcamp

Spinda Records on Facebook

Spinda Records on Instagram

Spinda Records on Bandcamp

Spinda Records website

Echodelick Records on Facebook

Echodelick Records on Instagram

Echodelick Records on Bandcamp

Echodelick Records website

Psychedelic Salad Records on Facebook

Psychedelic Salad Records on Instagram

Psychedelic Salad Records on Twitter

Psychedelic Salad Records store

Dirty Filthy Records on Facebook

Dirty Filthy Records on Instagram

Dirty Filthy Records store

I was not 24 hours removed from recommending this band to a friend who had just put me onto Black Sky Giant‘s new album as a candidate for the current best outfit in Argentinian heavy. A few years back, I might’ve said Certainly there are other candidates, but Les Nadie‘s Destierro y Siembra (review here) hit a nerve like few debuts do and particularly coming from a duo had a real sense of live chemistry without giving up production value. Just killer stuff. The kind of thing that maybe at least four labels would want to get behind for a proper release.

Well wouldn’t you know, that’s exactly what’s happened. Spinda Records sent the announcement below, but Psychedelic Salad in Australia, Echodelick in the States, and Dirty Filthy in the UK will also be giving a push. Psychedelic Salad and Echodelick are no strangers to collaborating (the same may be true of Dirty Filthy, I honestly don’t know) and you might recall Spinda‘s last roster-add was Bismut (info here), which was in collaboration with Lay Bare in the Netherlands. Shit is awesome, is all I’m saying. More collaboration. I don’t know what that does for the logistics of distribution, let alone anyone who works for a distributor outside the given network of ones involved in a given release, but it feels like a cool idea as a way to mitigate shipping costs to different regions while, again, everybody gets another voice behind promotion. Everybody wins.

In this case, Les Nadie do too. Their debut album will have four homes instead of just one, and there you go. Also, I think it’s hilarious that the glut of links in between the announcement text and the Bandcamp embed takes up more space than either that text or the player. You have to get your laughs where you can.

From Spinda via the PR wire:

Spinda Records – Argentinian psych-shoegaze band Les Nadie joins the family!

As many of you, we usually discover new music thanks to different magazines, websites and podcasts… Well, back in July 2022 we were reading a review of the debut album of an Argentinian band whilst we were listening to their songs, and we simply loved it. Immediately after, we contacted them with a proposition: to reissue that album on physical format, as it was available only on digital.

That band was the power duo Les Nadie, originally formed in 2018 by two young lads that, inspired by their predecessors such as Los Natas or Los Antiguos and the vast emptiness of the desert and the northern winds of their region, started mixing heavy riffs with other passages much calmer and reverberated, getting sometimes even very close to shoegaze and psych rock.

Les Nadie joins now Spinda Records in order to finally reissue on physical format that debut album that they self-released last year. And we’ll do it in collaboration with our friends at Psychedelic Salad Records (Australia), Dirty Filthy Records (UK) and Echodelick Records (US). ‘Destierro y Siembra‘ is the name of this awesome album, and it will be out (including some surprises) this Spring!

https://www.facebook.com/lesnadie

https://www.facebook.com/SpindaRecords
https://www.instagram.com/spindarecords
https://spindarecords.bandcamp.com/
https://www.spindarecords.com/

https://www.facebook.com/ERECORDSATL
https://www.instagram.com/echodelickrecords/
https://echodelickrecords.bandcamp.com/
https://www.echodelickrecords.com/

https://www.facebook.com/psychsalad/
https://www.instagram.com/psychsalad/
https://twitter.com/psychsalad
https://psychedelic-salad.com/shop/

https://www.facebook.com/dirtyfilthyrecords/
https://www.instagram.com/dirtyfilthyrecords/
https://dirtyfilthyrecords.bigcartel.com/

Les Nadie, Destierro y Siembra (2022)

[Click play above to stream Jack Harlon and the Dead Crows’ The Magnetic Ridge in full. Album is out May 17 on Psychedelic Salad and Forbidden Place Records.]

Based in Melbourne, Australia, with a sound that reaches across continents, Jack Harlon and the Dead Crows return after three years with The Magnetic Ridge, their second full-length and the follow-up to 2018’s well-received Hymns debut. The new offering finds band-spearhead Tim Coutts-Smith carrying over some of the elements that helped make the first record such a success. He produced, mixed and mastered The Magnetic Ridge‘s 12 tracks himself (10 on the vinyl), donning role of Jack Harlon III at will in the songs — the closest thing I could find to a lineup around him is Lightning Bolts Richardson, The Ghost of Ed Parsons and One Giant Pig in the group with Coutts-Smith — and Adam Burke‘s stirring cover art again features, as the sound holds firm to a heavy Western/psychedelic tonk feel and an overarching narrative construct.

Opener “The Tale Of” feeds directly into “The Magnetic Ridge,” and the way the two titles play off each other might lead one to believe the former is just an intro, but its substance is broader, and in fact it cleverly showcases much of the range that will stretch across the rest of the album that follows, going from its minimal, cinematic guy-and-guitar storytelling to a resonant, weighted soundscape of layered guitar, bass and crashing drums in its final moments before giving over to the transitional noise that stops with a snare pop as the riff to the title-track signals its own takeoff. Just then, all is thrust and all is vital, but though The Magnetic Ridge has plenty of brash fare in the West Coast US-style shred of side B opener “Stray” or the presiding bombast in the crescendo of the prior “Langolier,” among others, the core of their approach is more about the dynamic, the intertwining of different melodies and rhythms and energies to enact an aesthetic familiar in its heavy blues foundation — All Them Witches circa Lightning at the Door are a distinct presence — and given its own personality through Coutts-Smith‘s conceptual framework and performance.

Likewise, there is a strong commitment to atmosphere. The digital (and presumably CD) version of The Magnetic Ridge push no less deep in this regard than does the vinyl with interludes as separate tracks, but even the LP boasts “De la Luna,” a 90-second stretch of warm heavy psych guitar following the title-track that allows a breather after the initial salvo, sets up the shamanistic Doors-ness of “Rat Poisoning” and offers a hint of Colour Haze-y influence even if that comes through the filter of the aforementioned All Them Witches. In any case, it’s an attention to detail and tone that works entirely to Jack Harlon and the Dead Crows‘ credit there and within subsequent tracks, as one can feel the narrative shifting and twisting in the music even without the benefit of a lyric sheet — or at very least, one can imagine it doing so.

Ambience is further fleshed out in linear formats by “Dream Sequence 1” and “Dream Sequence 2,” two brief inclusions of manipulated voice samples; the latter is William Melarc’s LSD test, the footage of which is widely available. These provide transitions in sides A and B, and are integrated on the vinyl, the first bringing about the immediate shove in “Langolier,” and the second the more gradual meandering lead-in jam for the preach that comes in “The Painter in the Woods,” but both serve a purpose of creating an impression, bolstering the lush, otherworldly vibe and further enabling Coutts-Smith and company to put the listener where they want them to be, as might a film, novel or other vehicle for storytelling. As it goes, “The Painter in the Woods” is about as tripped out as The Magnetic Ridge gets — though that’s not to take away from the open-landscape breadth of “Rat Poisoning” earlier on — and its being sandwiched between “Stray” and “Absolved Pt. 1” is effective in that there’s a grounding feel as the latter takes hold in a more intense rush of fuzz.

The drums will settle, such as it is, into a shuffle, but the tension is still there for sure and the shouting vocals reach out from the depths of the mix such as to make it even more spacious. The melodic resolution there, subtle and ceding to the return of the central riff to begin “Absolved” Pt. 2,” is a high point of craft, as is the linear build that follows. Breaking the two tracks up will not matter to someone hearing it on vinyl, but it’s a clear signal of the structural change around that same progression and further evidence of the thought put to the work on the whole.

Amid all these haunting ghosts and howling winds of guitars, such poise and clarity of vision isn’t to be ignored, but there’s more to The Magnetic Ridge than cinematography. Each song offers its own plot of the wider sphere, from the scene-setting in “The Tale Of” through the “Absolved” duo pushing to where the limits go. Ultimately, this journey brings the listener around to the patient, gets-loud-but-not-too-loud credits roll of “Black Road,” a finale that doesn’t try to top “Absolved Pt. 2” as to provide a denouement from it, an engaging last show of melody and trance-inducing psychnosis. Thusly subdued, Jack Harlon and the Dead Crows wrap their sophomore outing to fit with how it opened, less than predictable, not entirely unfamiliar or so willfully weird as to forget songwriting, reckless only when it wants to be, just as they have been all along.

As regards the strengths of the album as a whole, this is no less overarching than the thread of the plot unfolding, and the control Jack Harlon and the Dead Crows so ably wield over their material makes it that much easier and more of a joy for the audience to be led across the span, littered with dry bones, sunbaked dust and scuttling life on the fringes as it may be. There’s still forward potential here as the band moves toward individual realization, but the lure of The Magnetic Ridge is not to be understated. I’d read this story.

Jack Harlon and the Dead Crows on Facebook

Jack Harlon and the Dead Crows on Bandcamp

Psychedelic Salad Records on Facebook

Psychedelic Salad on Instagram

Psychedelic Salad Records webstore

Forbidden Place Records on Facebook

Forbidden Place Records on Instagram

Forbidden Place Records on Bandcamp

Blaak Heat will reissue their 2010 self-titled debut (review here) through Psychedelic Salad Records on Oct. 20. I’ll admit it’s a little strange to go back and listen to the Scott Reeder-produced first full-length from the then-Parisian progressive desert rock outfit, knowing not only that they’d go on to change their name from Blaak Heat Shujaa to just Blaak Heat, and that guitarist/vocalist Thomas Bellier would change out multiple lineups before putting the band on hiatus in 2018, but also just how expansive they’d become over the course of subsequent releases. Blaak Heat Shujaa‘s Blaak Heat Shujaa, a decade later, can’t help but feel like a portent of things to come and how their work would evolve over subsequent years, touring, and so on, but it’s also a reminder of how much was already there in the sound.

The Eastern-inflected lead work of Bellier and the mellow vocal delivery of “High on Altitude” or the quick fuzzy turns of “The Brown Buffalo” would go on to become a deeply nuanced approach by the time the band got around to 2013’s The Edge of an Era (review here) and 2016’s Shifting Mirrors (review here), but the nascent, sometimes jammy spirit of the self-titled remained a foundation from which they would continue to explore outward. The Morricone-tinged “Montaña de Oro” — presaging some of the collaboration Bellier would go on to do with Western desert obsessives Spindrift — was recorded as a demo in the same era as the self-titled itself, with the 2010 lineup of the band (seen above) of Bellier, bassist Antoine Morel-Vulliez, and drummer Timothée Gacon. It’s instrumental, but the galloping acoustic and plucked lead notes make the point just the same, and in a quick three minutes, Blaak Heat Shujaa remind of the potential they’d go on to fulfill during their time. It feels refreshing in a way to go back to the start.

Bellier has an album out this year with his new outfit Al-Qasar, specifically highlighting the Middle Eastern influences that informed Blaak Heat‘s take on desert rock, and though “Montaña de Oro” is a departure somewhat from that sphere, it nonetheless represents the intersection of ideas and cultural elements that the band explored so well during their time.

PR wire info follows. Please enjoy:

Preorder: http://www.psychedelic-salad.com/product/blaak-heat-shujaa/
European/UK Preorder: https://europe.psychedelic-salad.com/product/blaak-heat-shujaa/

Psychedelic Salad Records brings us the 10-year anniversary, double LP gatefold re-release of Blaak Heat Shujaa’s eponymous debut album, which first came out in October 2010. Remastered, this first ever vinyl pressing of the album also contains “Montan?a de Oro”, an exclusive lost demo tape from the same era!

The album was recorded and produced by Scott Reeder (of Kyuss fame) at The Sanctuary, a ranch nestled in the hills at the edge of the Mojave desert. The recordings musically capture the distance traveled by a then all-French lineup, from Paris to the epic valleys of the high desert, with prior stops in the Los Angeles region.

Blaak Heat Shujaa later shortened its name to “Blaak Heat” and went on to release two more albums, one EP, and one 7″ on the likes of NYC’s Tee Pee Records and Finland’s Svart Records. With a rotating cast of French and American musicians, the band toured Europe and America before going on a partial hiatus in 2018. Blaak Heat members have played or are currently active with Nebula, Mondo Generator, Spindrift, and Al-Qasar.

Out 20 October 2020 on Psychedelic Salad Records.

Blaak Heat on Thee Facebooks

Blaak Heat on Instagram

Blaak Heat on Twitter

Blaak Heat website

Psychedelic Salad Records on Thee Facebooks

Psychedelic Salad Records webstore

Preorders are up now for Here and Beyond, the new split LP between Sydney, Australia’s Comacozer and Mexico City, Mexico’s Vinnum Sabbathi. Issuing through Tasmanian imprint Psychedelic Salad Records, the release carries just three tracks, comprising Comacozer‘s sprawling 19-minute “Sun of Hyperion” and two companion pieces from Vinnum Sabbathi on side B, “HEX IV: Cassini’s Last Breath” (6:50) and “HEX V: X-15 Research Project” (9:55). If the pairing seems odd on paper given the disparate geography, in context it’s not actually much of a surprise the bands would be aware of each other, considering the international nature of the underground, social media, and bands being listeners as well as creators in a noted style.

That style as it plays out across Here and Beyond is a marked take on instrumental heavy psychedelia with roots in stoner rock jamming and a sense of purpose beyond simply that. Both groups use samples to provide a human voice — for Comacozer, the introductory drift of “Sun of Hyperion” comes accompanied by obscure dialogue about LSD, while Vinnum Sabbathi‘s live-recorded “HEX” tracks are laced with what sounds mission control communications and clips snagged from the public domain. “HEX” is an ongoing series for the trio/four-piece (depends on the show, I think) and these tracks arrive on the heels of their recently-issued Of Theories and Dimensions full-length on Stolen Body Records and a late-2019 live three-songer that featured other “HEX” pieces en route to their stated goal of 16 total. Comacozer, meanwhile, issued their fourth album, Mydriasis (review here), last summer.

It’s noteworthy of course that Vinnum Sabbathi are continuing a series that at this point dates back five years to their 2015 split with Bar de Monjas (review here), because Comacozer are as well. A 10-minute cut called “Helios Hyperion” featured on their 2014 Sessions EP and “Sun of Hyperion” — one suspects the use of “sun” there is a play on the horror-genre convention of “son of…” as well as the actual translation of “helios” — revises that formative jam. The central guitar figure, languid and building across the first half of the piece, is roughly the same as that which defined “Helios Hyperion” and if anything the feel of “Sun of Hyperion” is that Comacozer took the demo and fleshed it out across a broader reach.

It still keeps its foundation but uses it to spread itself farther out into the spaciousness and the spaciness of its own making, and is all the more hypnotic for both the reach and depth it conjures along the way. While it was recorded at the same time as Mydriasis, it works entirely as a standalone on side A of Here and Beyond, emphasizing a bit of both sides of the title in a way that Vinnum Sabbathi have no problem answering back with their two inclusions, though for their shorter runtimes, “HEX IV: Cassini’s Last Breath”  and “HEX V: X-15 Research Project” are obviously more contained in themselves.

They also utilize samples to a broader degree than did “Sun of Hyperion,” lacing them throughout the proceedings rather than just at the start. “Cassini’s Last Breath” hits its mark — as did the Comacozer track — near its halfway point, and takes off with its full weight accordingly, rolling out a huge-sounding crunch with no hesitation, then recedes as the sample returns with a post-script congratulating the NASA crew on Cassini’s accomplishments. In terms of incorporating the samples and recording live, the timing is exceptional enough that one wonders if the samples weren’t overlaid later, but it’s certainly possible that the band timed it out during the tracking process, whether it was with hand signals or just playing together with headphones on.

As “Cassini’s Last Breath” lolls toward its end, there’s a final push of volume, but it’s just a few hits that fade soon enough, naturally bringing to mind the cut communication from the satellite named in its title. Though the voice describing it sounds remarkably like Keith Carradine, the X-15 was a real research aircraft, meant for high speeds and altitudes, and the sample Vinnum Sabbathi use comes from a documentary clip about it that one can find easily enough on archive.org. There are other voices throughout the piece, but by then the band have launched a flight of their own, lumbering out the progression that defines the piece without looking back. They hold to it well, as Comacozer did to “Sun of Hyperion,” and it’s not until after seven minutes in that they seem willing to meander elsewhere, the drums still anchoring that initial crash that propelled them forward.

But the first finish is a fake-out, as Vinnum Sabbathi surge to life again in the last minute-plus of “HEX V: X-15 Research Project,” with a faster, more urgent burst than Here and Beyond has yet presented in its 39-minute course. They end with a sudden flash of feedback and are gone in a snap — not quite mach six, but it gets the message across.

From the beginning trance induced by Comacozer to that somewhat blindsiding shove from Vinnum Sabbathi, Here and Beyond is a journey that should be familiar enough to the experienced heads who will take it on, but that doesn’t necessarily make it any less enjoyable. As both groups maintain a sense of control over the proceedings — at least as much as they want to — they’re able to bring the listener along with them on their outward course, and whether they’re mourning for Cassini or celebrating the star of another world, their complementary nature comes through in the split in a way that emphasizes the strengths of each. It’s an easy one to dig if you’re up for the digging.

Below, to mark the occasion of preorders going live from Psychedelic Salad, you’ll find the premiere of Comacozer‘s “Sun of Hyperion,” along with the album info and one of the two Vinnum Sabbathi contributions (previously posted).

Please enjoy:

Comacozer, “Sun of Hyperion” official premiere

“Here & Beyond” a split Album between Comacozer (Sydney) and Vinnum Sabbathi (Mexico) coming on May 20th on digital and on vinyl format via Psychedelic Salad Records (Tasmania).

Australian heavy psychedelic space rockers Comacozer are back, this time with a new nineteen-minute journey that continues on from their debut track, ‘Helios Hyperion’, written and recorded in 2014. A regular feature of their live shows, ‘Sun of Hyperion’ was recorded at the same time as their last album, ‘Mydriasis’ and therefore sees them operating as a four-piece once again. As is always the case with Comacozer, this track will take you exactly where you need to go, this time in the comfort of your own
home – perfect for the current climate!

These two new tracks from Mexico’s Vinnum Sabbathi form part of the band’s HEX series, from the Base 16 or hexadecimal numeral system. The goal is to write 16 HEX songs in total for split collaborations such as this. Musically-speaking, HEX IV is quite different to the band’s usual approach – a relatively short song with little distortion – while HEX V sees a return to their classic riffing. Just like every other track in the HEX series, both songs were recorded in a single take, with only samples being added in later.

Pre orders go live on May 14th

1. Sun of Hyperion (Comacozer)
2. HEX IV: Cassini’s Last Breath (VS)
3. HEX V: X-15 Research Project (VS)

Art by Six. D. Six
Mastered by Kent Stump at Crystal Clear Sound

Vinnum Sabbathi, “HEX IV: Cassini’s Last Breath”

Comacozer on Thee Facebooks

Comacozer on Instagram

Comacozer on Bandcamp

Vinnum Sabbathi on Thee Facebooks

Vinnum Sabbathi on Instagram

Vinnum Sabbathi on Bandcamp

Psychedelic Salad Records webstore