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Lost Orb Release New Single “Low Ebb’s Lament” with Mos Generator & Vodun Members

Posted in Whathaveyou on September 23rd, 2019 by JJ Koczan

lost orb

Yeah, I know these are hairs I split all the time around here, but if you’ve got a 17-minute long track, that’s an EP. I think I might’ve heard an early version of “Low Ebb’s Lament” years ago, but that certainly would’ve been before Chantal Brown of Vodun and Tony Reed of Mos Generator added vocals and drums, respectively, to the song. Multi-instrumentalist Christopher West — who’s amassed a significant pedigree over the last 10 years or so in Trippy WickedLandskap and Stubb, as well as founded two of his own labels in Superhot Records and the more recent Giganto Records — is at the helm of the project, but there’s no question the other involved parties make a mark on the track. As this piece took seven years to come together in its final form, I’m not holding my breath for a 40-minute single-song full-length anytime soon as a follow-up — though it’d certainly be welcome — but I think you can certainly hear here that such a scope would be well within West‘s reach.

The PR wire has info:

lost orb low ebbs lament

LOST ORB releases new single “Low Ebb’s Lament”

Lost Orb, the project of Christ West is now streaming his 17-minute odyssey entitled Low Ebb’s Lament. The song has been several years in the making and is a departure from the style of the bands he’s usually associated with (Stubb, Trippy Wicked & the Cosmic Children of the Knight, Landskap).

The track draws from a gamut of styles, ranging from Earth-esque graceful doom through stoner rock to folksy strumming. It doesn’t end there – guests come in to broaden the palette, such as the supremely talented Chantal Brown of Vodun, whose beautiful wordless vocalizations soar over the riffs, and Tony Reed (Mos Generator) puts in the right level of showmanship and class to round out the track.

“Working with Chan and Tony was a great experience. I had basic drum patterns written out for the demo but I let Tony do his thing and let’s just say the man delivered. With Chan’s vocal parts I had a few ideas written that I wanted to include but we spent a day getting those and a lot of other ideas down on the spot. I tend to obsess over perfecting ideas during the writing process with many revisions and iterations so it was good to contrast that with a more relaxed approach to the vocals.

I originally wrote Low Ebb’s Lament towards the end of 2012 and it was based on some themes and ideas I had been developing for a long while before then. I didn’t realise what was happening at the time but it was a last burst of creative energy as I embarked on a steady descent into some significant mental health issues. It took me until 2013 to record the music and while I eventually put it on Bandcamp the year after that, I had little energy to promote it.

A lot of personal work, some essential help and a little luck has led me to where I am now. It was hugely important at the time of writing to be able to present the ideas I had been working on in one cohesive movement and I’m grateful to be in a position to give the music a proper release now.”

Written, recorded, mixed and mastered by Chris West
Drums recorded and mixed by Tony Reed at HeavyHead Recording Co.

Artwork by Sagüi (www.instagram.com/saguidotart)
Lost Orb logo by Adam Burke

Lost Orb lineup for “Low Ebb’s Lament”:
Chris West – guitar, bass
Chantal Brown – vocals
Tony Reed – drums

https://www.gigantorecords.com
https://gigantorecords.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/gigantorecords

Lost Orb, Low Ebb’s Lament (2019)

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Quarterly Review: Glanville, Destroyer of Light, The Re-Stoned, Ruff Majik, Soldat Hans, High Priestess, Weed Demon, Desert Storm, Ancient Altar, Black Box Warning

Posted in Reviews on July 17th, 2018 by JJ Koczan

quarterly-review-CALIFORNIA-LANDSCAPE-Julian-Rix-1851-1903

So Day 1’s done and it’s time to move on to Day 2. Feeling stressed and totally overwhelmed by the sheer amount of stuff still to be done? Why yes, I am. Thanks for asking. In the past, I used to handle the Quarterly Review well ahead of time. It’s always a lot to get through, but the week before, I’d be setting up back ends, chasing down links and Bandcamp players, starting reviews, etc., so that when it came time, all I had to do was the writing and plug it all into a post and I was set.

There was some prep-work done this past weekend, but especially this time, with my old laptop having been stolen in May, it’s all been way more jazz-improv. I was still adding releases as of last Friday, and writing beforehand? Shit. With the baby having just figured out how to climb? Not bloody likely. Accordingly, here we are, with much to do.

It’ll get done. I haven’t flubbed a Quarterly Review yet, and if I took an extra day to get there, I’m under no delusion that anyone else would care. So there you go. Let’s hit it for Day 2:

Quarterly Review #11-20:

Glanville, First Blood

glanville first blood

First Blood is the aptly-titled five-song debut EP from Glanville, a newcomer dual-guitar outfit with established players Philip Michel (The Earwix) on lead and Christopher West (Named by the Sun, ex-Stubb, etc.) on rhythm, Wight’s Peter-Philipp Schierhorn on bass and René Hofmann on vocals, and Thomas Hoffman (ex-Bushfire) on drums. Based in Germany and the UK, the group present 23 minutes of material on their first outing, drawing from the guitar-led likes of Thin Lizzy and Judas Priest to capture early metal and present it with a heavy rocking soulfulness and modern production. The most raucous of the cuts might be centerpiece “Durga the Great,” but neither “God is Dead” nor “Dancing on Fire” before nor “Demons” and “Time to Go” after want for action, and especially the latter builds to a furious head to close out the release. Hofmann as a standalone singer wants for nothing in range or approach, and the band behind him obviously build on their collective experience to dig into a stylistic nuance rarely executed with such confidence. They’ve found a place willfully between and are working to make it theirs. Can’t ask for more than that.

Glanville on Thee Facebooks

Glanville on Bandcamp

 

Destroyer of Light, Hopeless

destroyer of light hopeless

Having just recently signed to Argonauta Records for a new album in 2019, Austin doomers Destroyer of Light follow their 2017 long-player, Chamber of Horrors (review here), with a further auditory assault in the lumbering Hopeless. Psychedelic and yet still somehow traditional doom lingers in the brain after “Nyx” and “Drowned” have finished – the latter with an Alan Watts sample discussing alcoholism – and the band moves into demos for Chamber of Horrors cuts “Into the Smoke,” “Lux Crusher” and “Buried Alive.” Between the two previously unreleased songs and those three demos, Hopeless pushes to 39 minutes, but it’s probably still fair to call it an EP because of the makeup. Either way, from the miserable plod of “Nyx,” in which each chug in the riff cycle seems to count another woe, to the rolling nod early and surprising melody late in “Drowned,” Hopeless is anything but. Anticipation was already pretty high for Destroyer of Light’s next record after the last one, but all Hopeless does is show further depth of approach and more cleverly-wielded atmospheric murk. And the more it sounds like there’s no escape, the more Destroyer of Light seem to be in their element.

Destroyer of Light on Thee Facebooks

Destroyer of Light on Bandcamp

 

The Re-Stoned, Stories of the Astral Lizard

the re-stonEd stories of the astral lizard

The inevitable question is “Why a lizard?” and if you make it four minutes into 11-minute opener “Fractal Panorama” and don’t have your answer, go back ad start over. Moscow heavy psych instrumentalists The Re-Stoned intend the reptile as a spirit guide for their new outing Stories of the Astral Lizard (on Oak Island Records), which follows quickly behind their late-2017 offering, Chronoclasm (review here), and given the ultra-patient desert vibes in the opener, the acoustic-laced folk-prog of “Mental Print for Free,” the languid meander of “A Companion from the Outside,” the swirling sprawl of the 16-minute “Two Astral Projections” and the final cowpoke drift of “The Heather Carnival,” one might indeed just find a lizard sunning its belly amid all the atmospheric evocations and hallucinatory vibes. I’ll take “Two Astral Projections” as the highlight, but mostly because the extra length allows the band to really dig in, but really the whole album feeds together gorgeously and is a new level of achievement when it comes to atmosphere for The Re-Stoned, who were already underappreciated and find themselves only more so now.

The Re-Stoned on Thee Facebooks

Oak Island Records on Thee Facebooks

 

Ruff Majik, Seasons

Ruff Majik Seasons

Right on fuzz, right on groove, right on vibe – there isn’t much else one might say about Ruff Majik’s Seasons (on Rock Freaks Records and Forbidden Place Records) beyond “right on.” Heavy rock with twists of psychedelia, the Pretoria, South Africa, three-piece of Johni Holliday, Jimi Glass and Benni Manchino make their home on the lines of various subgenres, but wherever they go, the proceedings remain decisively heavy. To wit, a cut like “Breathing Ghosts” or the later “Birds Stole My Eyes” might dig into shuffle boogie or extreme-metal-derived thrust, but there’s a chemistry between the members and a resonant looseness that ties the material together, and as the last 14 of the total 66 minutes are dedicated to “Asleep in the Leaves,” there’s plenty of progressive weirdness in which to bask, one song moving through the next such that neither “Hanami Sakura (And the Ritual Suicide” nor the semi-doom-plodding “The Deep Blue” nor the funky twists of “Tar Black Blood” come across as predictable. Seasons might take a few listens to sink in, but it’s easily worth that effort.

Ruff Majik on Thee Facebooks

Ruff Majik at Rock Freaks Records webstore

Forbidden Place Records on Bandcamp

 

Soldat Hans, Es Taut

SOLDAT HANS ES TAUT-750

Hyperbole-worthy post-ism from Switzerland’s Soldat Hans makes their sophomore outing, Es Taut – on Wolves and Vibrancy Records as a 2LP – a forward thinking highlight. As rich in atmosphere as Crippled Black Phoenix and as lethal as Converge or Neurosis or anyone else you might dare to put next to them, the six-piece made their debut with 2014’s Dress Rehearsal (review here) and served notice of their cross-genre ambitiousness. Es Taut finds them four years later outclassing themselves and most of the rest of the planet across three extended tracks – “Story of the Flood” (26:15), “Schoner Zerbirst, Part I” (8:03) and “Schoner Zerbirst, Part II” (18:56) – that sprawl out with a confidence, poise and abrasion that is nothing short of masterful. Es Taut may be a case of a band outdoing their forebears, but whatever their legacy becomes and however many people take notice, Soldat Hans singlehandedly breathe life into the form of post-metal and prove utterly vital in so doing, not only making it their own, but pushing forward into something new in ambience and heft. This is what a band sounds like while making themselves indispensable.

Soldat Hans on Thee Facebooks

Wolves and Vibrancy Records website

 

High Priestess, High Priestess

high priestess high priestess

Calling to order a nod that’s immersive from the opening strains of leadoff/longest-track “Firefly” (still immediate points), Los Angeles trio High Priestess build out the psych-doom ritualizing of their 2017 demo (review here) to make their self-titled full-length debut through Ripple Music. The difference between the demo and the album in terms of what’s included comes down to artwork and the track “Take the Blame,” which adds its bell-of-the-ride swing between the atmosphere and melodic focus of “Banshee” and the spacious roller “Mother Forgive Me.” Potential is writ large throughout from guitarist/vocalist Katie Gilchrest, bassist/vocalist Mariana Fiel and drummer Megan Mullins, as it was on their demo, and even the harsh growls/screams on “Despise” seem to have found their place within the proceedings. As they wrap with the guitar-led jam of “Earth Dive,” High Priestess put the finishing touch on what’s hands-down one of 2018’s best debut albums and offer a reminder that as much potential as there is in their sound for future development, the accomplishments here are considerable unto themselves.

High Priestess on Thee Facebooks

Ripple Music website

 

Weed Demon, Astrological Passages

weed demon astrological passages

Four tracks of gurgling riffy plunder pervade Astrological Passages, the 41-minute – longer if you get the digital version or the tape/CD, which includes the 7:24 “Dominion of Oblivion” – debut album from Columbus, Ohio’s Weed Demon. Delivered on vinyl through Electric Valley Records, the nodder/plodder carves out a cave for itself within a mountain of tonally thick stoner metal riffing, infusing a sense of sludge with shouted and growled vocals from guitarists Andy and Brian and bassist Jordan – only drummer Chris doesn’t get a mic – and an overarching sense of bludgeoning that’s Sleep-derived if not Sleep-adjacent in terms of its actual sound. Nasty? Why, yes it is, but as “Sigil of the Black Moon” heads toward the midpoint of its 10-minute run, the repetitive groove assault makes the band’s intention plain: worship weed, worship riff. They get faster on “Primordial Genocide” and even sneak a bit of speed in amidst the crawl before the banjo takes hold in the second half of 12-minute closer “Jettisoned” – more Americana sludge please; thank you – but they never lose sight of their mission, and it’s the uniting factor that makes their debut hit like the brick to the head that it is.

Weed Demon on Thee Facebooks

Electric Valley Records website

 

Desert Storm, Sentinels

desert storm sentinels

With Sentinels, Oxford, UK, five-piece Desert Storm pass a decade since making their self-titled debut in 2008. They followed that with 2010’s Forked Tongues (review here), 2013’s Horizontal Life and 2014’s Omniscient (review here), and though they had a single out in 2014 on H42 Records as a split with Suns of Thunder (review here) in 2016, Sentinels is their first outing on APF Records and their first long-player in four years. Burl has always been an important factor in what they do, and the High on Fire-meets-Orange Goblin slamming of “The Brawl” backs that up, but Desert Storm have left much of the hyper-dudeliness behind in favor of a more complex approach, and while Sentinels isn’t a minor undertaking at 10 songs and 51 minutes, longer cuts like “Kingdom of Horns” and “Convulsion” demonstrate the maturity they’ve brought to bear, even as the one-two punch of “Drifter”  and “The Extrovert” offer swinging-fist hooks and beard-worthy chug that assures any and all testosterone quotas are met.

Desert Storm on Thee Facebooks

APF Records on Bandcamp

 

Ancient Altar, Cosmic Purge/Foie Gras

ancient altar cosmic purge foie gras

Based in Los Angeles, Ancient AltarScott Carlson (bass/vocals), Barry Kavener (guitar/vocals), Jesse Boldt (guitar) and Etay Levy (drums) – were last heard from on 2015’s dug-in atmosludger Dead Earth (review here), and they return lo these several years later with the two-tracker Cosmic Purge/Foie Gras, pushing into more extreme crush-of-riff with an abandon that’s anything but reckless. On the contrary, there’s some clear development in the 10-minute “Cosmic Purge” and 13-minute “Foie Gras,” rolling out oppressive grooves with blended screams/shouts and cleaner vocals. As with the last album, a drive toward individuality is central here, and Ancient Altar get there in tone while bringing forth a sense of scope to a sound so regularly thought of as closed off or off-putting in general. In its early going, “Foie Gras” hypnotizes with echoing melody and spaciousness only to resolve itself in a deeply weighted dirge march, furthering the pummel of “Cosmic Purge” itself. I don’t know if the EP – on vinyl through Black Voodoo Records, CD on Transcendental Void Records – will lead toward another album or not, but the sense of progression in Ancient Altar’s style is right there waiting to be heard, so here’s hoping.

Ancient Altar on Thee Facebooks

Black Voodoo Records on Thee Facebooks

 

Black Box Warning, Attendre la Mort

black box warning attendre la mort

Listen to it on headphones and the kickdrum on Black Box Warning’s Attendre la Mort is downright painful. Next-level blown-out aggro pulsations. Brutal in a physical sense. The rest of the band doesn’t follow far behind in that regard. Riffs are viscous and violent in noise rock tradition, but denser in their tone despite some underlying punkishness, and the vocals are likewise distorted and abrasive. The five-song/23-minute EP’s title translates to “Waiting for Death,” and each of the tracks is a dose: Opener “5 mg” is followed by “4 mg,” “1 mg,” “2 mg” and “3 mg.” Unsurprisingly, pills are a theme, particularly on “4 mg,” and the sense of violent threat is clear in “2 mg” and 3 mg,” which boast lines like, “Watch them all scream/Watch your enemy bleeded,” and “You are the pig/I am the butcher,” respectively. Between the lyrical and the general aural cruelty, the dis-ease is consuming and unmitigated, sludge becoming a slow-motion grindcore, and that’s clearly the point. Not stabbing, but gouging.

Black Box Warning on Thee Facebooks

Black Box Warning on Bandcamp

 

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Giganto Records Launches with Scuzzball Debut EP

Posted in Whathaveyou on December 4th, 2017 by JJ Koczan

giganto records logo

The four-song Reality’s Flux EP by crusty noisemaking trio Scuzzball is the first release from the newly-launched UK imprint Giganto Records. Out now as a name-your-price download, it runs about as long as that sentence — each track is just on either side of a minute long — but gives a 7″-worthy sampling of the band’s viciousness in that time, with vocalist Jill Mikkelson growling in sludgy fashion atop sharp-edged progressions that, again, are over before they have time to do much more than jab at the frontal cortex of the listener. A blindside release, in other words. Cool by me for the weight established in so short a time.

Giganto is an outlet helmed by London-area multi-instrumentalist Chris West, who in recent years has drummed for Trippy Wicked and Stubb, played guitar in Groan and handled bass duties in Landskap, in addition to recording his own projects, like Scuzzball, whose EP he also mixed and mastered in an apparent effort to become the Tony Reed of St. Albans, UK. Noble endeavor if ever I heard of one, and of course I wish him nothing but the best in it.

The PR wire has the story like this:

scuzzball realitys flux-700

Chris West Announces Giganto Records.

Glanville rhythm guitar player Chris West announces Giganto Records, a new record label to serve as a platform for various and varied music projects written and recorded by himself. Releases will be less on the traditional side of 45 minute albums and will instead focus on letting each piece be what it needs to be. Whether it’s one minute songs or twenty minute jams the music will be in pursuit, as always, of heavy. Whatever that may be.

Straight out of the gate from Giganto Records comes the particularly short and intense Reality’s Flux, an EP under the name Scuzzball. Featuring Mithun Shah (Sedulus) on drums, Jill Mikkelson (Dysteria) on vocals and West on guitar and bass, Reality’s Flux consists of four small slices of sludge that waste no time in making their brief and fierce point. Mikkelson’s lyrical themes cover plate tectonics, the physics of consciousness and theories of the origins of life on Earth which provided the inspiration for West to draw an animation for the song Rudimentary Beasts.

Chris West commented on the making of the animation:

“As soon as I read the lyrics I knew I had to make a video. The style of the animation was inspired by my lack of ability to draw freehand and memories of my brother sketching out sprites on graph paper before programming them on our ZX Spectrum. I thought of it as a super low resolution screen and spent 3 months over the summer colouring in squares on graph paper with ballpoint pens. As laborious (and cramp-inducing) as it was at times, especially re-drawing the first third after realising I’d rushed it, I enjoyed the process and it became like a daily meditation. Hopefully the animation does justice to Jill’s lyrics.”

Reality’s Flux is available on all streaming services and is available on the Giganto Records Bandcamp here: https://gigantorecords.bandcamp.com/album/realitys-flux

https://gigantorecords.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/gigantorecords
https://www.instagram.com/christhewest
https://twitter.com/ChrisTheWest
https://open.spotify.com/artist/7LpVEIXYxXWJfn934iTRdP

Scuzzball, “Rudimentary Beasts” official video

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Trippy Wicked and the Cosmic Children of the Knight, Underground EP: New Beginnings

Posted in Reviews on September 3rd, 2013 by JJ Koczan

With last year’s Going Home full-length, UK heavy rockers Trippy Wicked and the Cosmic Children of the Knight began to show growth in a heavier direction tonally. Their second album (review here), it kept some of the riffier elements of 2009’s Movin’ On (review here), but was clearly headed someplace else stylistically — a burlier and more metal vibe persisted. The new Underground EP stands as the follow-up to Going Home, and as it was also recorded by drummer Chris West and guitarist/vocalist Pete Holland — also mixed and mastered by West; the three-piece is completed by Dicky King on bass — it’s not so much a surprise that it is likewise loud, meaty and weighted. Where Underground really makes itself separate from the trio’s work up to this point is in its overarching thematic. True to its artwork by Dan Schooler, the five-track collection clocks in at 30 minutes of science fiction-minded lyrics that seem to frame a loose narrative. This happens over the course of the opening title-track and closer “New Beginnings,” while between them, “Echoes Return” gives a personal angle to the story and “Enlightenment” and “Discoveries” provide instrumental continuity. At the same time, Underground is more dynamic stylistically than Going Home, and particularly in “Enlightenment” and “Discoveries,” embellishes a touch of heavy psychedelia that feels like a definite departure from the last album. In terms of approach and storyline, then, Trippy Wicked are trying something new, and whatever sonic similarities the EP has to the LP before it, that’s not the whole tale. In the interest of clarity, I consider myself a fan of Trippy Wicked both as a band and as people, so while my observations on Underground may be and I hope they’re found to be considered, I won’t exactly call them impartial. With that said, Underground strikes as the most complex and accomplished outing Trippy Wicked have crafted yet, and feels more complete as a whole work than its EP tag can properly convey. Released on the band-affiliated Superhot Records, it could just as easily have been dubbed a short album and I’d find no argument.

Holland, whose confidence and range have grown in kind over the band’s five years of releases, is at his most melodically adept here. Whether he’s following his guitar on “Echoes Return” and “Underground” or subtly branching out in the verses of “New Beginnings,” he sounds comfortable in the more relaxed spaces and able to convey a depth of emotionality that wasn’t attempted even on Going Home, which had a narrative thread of its own, mostly about drinking and the resulting raucousness. Maybe it’s the more nuanced thematic bringing out the performance, but it makes more sense to me to think of the evolution as coinciding rather than sparked by one or the other. An all-around growth, in other words. Likewise, the band’s songwriting, while it has long since “clicked” in terms of creating memorable hooks across a variety of moods, seems to have stepped up as well, and Holland, King and West are a tight and fluid trio, each bringing out the best from the compatriot two. Repetition in the choruses of the three tracks with vocals also provides a consistency across the release, giving it even more of a sense of being one whole work, as “Underground” features a series of lines starting with “World slows down/Sun’s burnt out,” and ends with an almost nursery rhyme made of “Down, down, round and round/We’re lost until we’re found,” while “Echoes Return” plays homophones with “I find it hard to believe in you today/I find it hard to be leaving you this way” as a secondary chorus and “New Beginnings” moves into a first-person-plural in starting more of its chorus lines with “We had” or “We can” as it winds down the storyline. All this feeds into the overarching cohesion of Underground, making it a compelling listen that satisfies in more than just its actual audio, but it’s important to remember that although Trippy Wicked are engaging these new methods (or at very least developing past ideas to new levels of refinement), Underground is still very much a heavy rock record. Pretense is nil, and while the production is crisp and full and professional, it’s not so overblown as to take away from the natural feel of the songs themselves.

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Trippy Wicked and the Cosmic Children of the Knight Announce EP Release and Tour Dates

Posted in Whathaveyou on August 2nd, 2013 by JJ Koczan

After they spliced the riffier take presented early on with a metallic edge on last year’s Going Home full-length (review here), I was eager to hear where UK trio Trippy Wicked and the Cosmic Children of the Knight might go on their next release. Looks like I won’t have to wait too much longer to find out, since the trio of Peter Holland (guitar/vocals), Dicky King (bass) and Christopher West (drums) will have a new EP in September out through Superhot Records. The title-track, which you’ll find below, seems to emphasize just how little you can actually know what to expect from these guys. I dig it.

Trippy Wicked are headed out with Bright Curse and Wight to support the release, and they kick off with a gig alongside Steak and Kerala to start, so good stuff all around. I also like the tag “alt-stoner,” which I haven’t heard before. The PR wire sends word:

Trippy Wicked announce new EP and UK headlining tour in August

The UK’s alt-stoner trio have been working on a 5 song EP exploring the sludgier side of their split-personality genre hopping style.

Full details with release date and pre orders will be announced in the coming weeks but for now check out the title track right here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tw_h-ZM8UUU

To promote the EP Trippy Wicked will be embarking on a tour of the UK with Wight and Bright Curse in support for all but the first date. Wight have recently released their first live album ‘Live auf 603qm’ and Bright Curse have just released their self titled EP on Bilocation Records.

Here’s the full list of dates:

With Steak and Kerela
August 21st Brighton – Sticky Mike’s Frog Bar

With Wight and Bright Curse
August 22nd Bristol – Exchange
August 23rd London – The Black Heart
August 24th Birmingham – Scruffy Murphy’s
August 25th Cardiff – The Moon Club (HUB Festival)
August 26th Sunderland – Pure
August 27th (Private acoustic show)
August 28th Manchester – The Bay Horse
August 29th Edinburgh – Bannermans Bar
August 30th Cambridge – The Man on the Moon
August 31st Sheffield – The Three Cranes

Superhot Records is set to release Underground in September on digipack CD featuring the incredible artwork of Daniel Schooler. The band will have CDs for sale on tour.

www.superhotrecords.com

Trippy Wicked, “Underground” from Underground EP (2013)

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Euroventure Pt. 8: Into Crypts of Rays of the New Red Sun Arising

Posted in Features on April 24th, 2013 by JJ Koczan

04.24.13 — 4:05PM GMT — Wednesday — Holiday Inn, Camden Town

Looking up at the Cathedral at St Albans, it was pretty easy to understand why doom was invented here. The building, massive and begun about a millennium ago, is as ornate as it is elaborate as it is definitely-letting-you-know-who’s-in-charge-of-this-here. Mix something like that in with some inherited post-WWII trauma (I have a whole theory about how World War I was the end of the world; ask me about it sometime and then interrupt before I finish), driving blues rock, industrial/working class Birmingham malaise, twisted psychedelia, and you’re good to go. Every now and again something just clicks into place in my brain.

I got into St Albans on Tuesday night after the train to London. Chris West, drummer of Trippy Wicked and the Cosmic Children of the Knight and now guitarist for Groan as well (both bands play Desertfest this weekend), was kind enough to meet me at the Kings Cross St Pancras station, which resulted in a few anxious minutes until we ran into each other — I had been outside, back in, downstairs, upstairs, whathaveyou looking for the statue where we were supposed to wind up, and we went into Camden to catch Elder, Pet the Preacher and Serpent Venom at The Black Heart. Review forthcoming on that, but afterwards, it was back to St Albans, where most of yesterday after sleeping late was dedicated to checking out the area and chatting in a variety of pubs.

The cathedral is a sight to see, old crypts dating back centuries and still basically saying, “Yeah, this guy was alright. We liked him well enough,” but even the pubs have more history to them than the country I call home. One had a sign up that it was rebuilt “After the flood of 1599.” Oh yeah.Thatflood.

A walk through Verulamium Park — which in the States would be a golf course not in the slightest dedicated to public use — had me run into a bird that looked like a hybrid pigeon and chicken that I not surprisingly dubbed the chicken-pigeon, finally giving me a reason for the distinction of saying pigeon pigeon twice, as I often do. So now it’s “‘Pigeon pigeon,’ as opposed to what?” “Well, as opposed to chicken-pigeons.” Those conversations, incidentally, never happen.

We hit a couple pubs and I sampled the local tap water whilst digging on the low ceilings and townie vibes, wood beams, dogs sharing benches with people, the whole thing. Chris happens to be an exceedingly good dude, and though I was kind of run down post-Roadburn, it was a great time to see the town and get a feel for something that wasn’t the big city in London. I ended up watching the whole first series of the tv show Big Train, which I can now safely recommend to anyone who enjoys the Python tradition and may not yet have seen it.

Early this afternoon, following a bangers and mash lunch that was just what I was looking for, I and Big Blue made our way to the St Albans city station and headed to Kings Cross St Pancras and then Camden Town, winding up on the Northern line of the Tube for the last of it after taking what I guess is the normal commuter train. It wasn’t an overly long trip, but I patted myself on the back for being able to do it without asking anyone where I was supposed to be. I walked from the Camden Tube station to the hotel here to basically catch up on writing and crash out for the rest of the day.

I may or may not see if I can head over to Music and Video Exchange, but probably not before a nap, given the fact that I’m currently typing with my eyes closed. I can hear the murmur of conversations and laughs coming up from the cafes below, and for just right now, that’s really all the reminder of the world  outside that I’m looking for. Big things coming up over the next couple days — by the time I get to Heathrow on Monday, I will have seen Dozer, and by that I mean “life complete” — so it’s worth my time to regroup, and that’s just what I intend to do.

A Nobel to whoever invented blackout curtains!

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Euroventure Pt. 7: Turns the Grinding Wheel

Posted in Features on April 22nd, 2013 by JJ Koczan

04.22.13 – 16.17 Euro Time – Monday – Eurostar Train to London

My only goal for today was to get from Tilburg to London. This meant up at nine to shower, finish packing and roll out of the Mercure – another fond farewell – walk down the street to the train station, catch the 10.24 train bound for Utrecht Centraal, change at Den Bosch, keep on to Amsterdam Centraal, catch a Thaly’s train to Brussels and then get on the Eurostar to London. I’m not there yet, but it seems I’ve been successful in this barring disaster from here on out. For what it’s worth, I’m way less concerned about twisted metal impalement than I am about sky-explody-fireball, which is part of why I’m taking the train in the first place.

The other reason is that my past experience with the Eurostar was nothing but pleasant, and so comparing that to any flight I’ve ever taken in my life – I wouldn’t go as far as to call even the best of them “pleasant” – it was an easy enough choice to make. I’m pretty sure the route I took from Tilburg to the Eurostar wasn’t the most efficient, but familiar names help. I’ve never been much for cartography.

While on that train, I met Joe Hall from British instrumental post-metallers Wiht, totally by random, and had a good chat as he was on his way back to Leeds. Aside from having seen them at Desertfest last year, we also had the same watch (Casio F-91W — accept no substitutes), so there was much to discuss. We walked to the Eurostar terminal at Brussels Midi together, but where his UK passport got immediately stamped and he was sent on his way, I was detained by the officer for a pretty extensive line of questioning. Where are you going, what are you doing there, how long, where are you staying, do you have friends, who are your friends, what do you do for a living, what do your friends do for a living, I don’t believe you, I think you want to come and stay in the UK, I think you’re lying to me, when are you leaving, show me your flight confirmation (which I didn’t have – huge help that was), and so on. Finally I got my, “I’m gonna let you go,” which was marvelous because I hadn’t realized I’d been detained. He told me in which direction to fuck off and I made it to the train a couple minutes before departure. Hall, who was being polite and waited for as long as he could, had split. He’s somewhere on the train, presumably. Nice to meet you, man. Hope you got home safe.

In London, I’ll meet Chris from Trippy Wicked at the Kings Cross St. Pancras station and go to see Elder in Camden tonight at The Black Heart, which is also one of the Desertfest venues for this weekend. That’ll be good. I’m still kind of keyed up after talking to the customs agent – my inner smartass came out at first and I had to work really hard not to be a complete prick, which of course would have gotten me nowhere except stuck in Belgium for an indeterminate amount of time. Hardly a fate worse than death, but not where I’m trying to be at the moment. I put on some Kyuss and then Mars Red Sky’s new EP (it’s France and I couldn’t resist) to get my head right, slow my breathing. I was really glad I had my old passport to show the guy I’d actually been to the UK twice before, though on some level it’s nice to know that despite being old, married, fat and balding, I can still look dangerous to somebody. If I had a fucking nickel for every, “I’m gonna let you go,” I’ve heard when there’s no reason for me to have been stopped in the first place. Yeah homie, search my baggage. Do it. Prepare to be bored.

Rolling through France on the train and it’s beautiful, so no complaints. Everything up to this point has worked out. I have no reason to think it will not continue to work out from here.

 

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Trippy Wicked and the Cosmic Children of the Knight Join London Desertfest Lineup

Posted in Whathaveyou on January 12th, 2013 by JJ Koczan

I guess until we can get these dudes over for a run of the US East Coast, I’ll just have to make due with seeing Trippy Wicked and the Cosmic Children of the Knight at Desertfest in London. Not exactly a hardship, as it happens. Trippy Wicked released the surprisingly metallic Going Home in 2012 (review here) and I don’t know what else they might have in the works for 2013, but when I see ’em, I’ll be sure to ask.

Looking forward to this one for sure. Here’s the official announcement:

Trippy Wicked and the Cosmic Children of the Knight at DesertFest 2013

Yippee-ki-yay motherfuckers! St. Albans’ premier exponents of bluesy sludge are back for a second bite at the DesertFest cherry after packing out the WPC/h_d_p stage earlier in 2012.

Trippy’s exciting blend of grungy wrecking-ball riffage, thunderous drumming, sing-a-long-able choruses and all with a swaggering bluesy twang, has won them a strong following across the South of England and beyond. Sure to be showcasing tracks from latest release Going Home, along with fans’ favourites from their debut proper Movin’ On, get ready to chow down on equal helpings of both mosh-pit and ho-down with these modern-age masters of the groove. Like QOTSA? Like Soundgarden? Like Hank3? Get ready to rock with your new favourite band. Dig it!

words courtesy of Pete Green

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