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Since I don’t do theme podcasts or anything, the thoroughly unofficial subtitle of this latest one is “SOME of the Best of 2014.” Truth be told, it’s four hours long and I feel like I barely scratched the surface, so definitely the emphasis should be on “some.” By no means is it meant to be comprehensive, or am I claiming that it’s all the best and the rest sucked or anything like that. But some of the best stuff is here, so, you know, I hope you enjoy.

My intent was to make it three hours long, and then I got there and it just didn’t feel done without another hour’s worth of extended psych jams. That’s an odd habit to have. Could be worse. For what it’s worth, I was thinking of this as a companion for some of the year-end coverage that’s already been posted and is still to come. Some of this was inspired by picks from the Readers Poll, the submissions for which are still open. If you haven’t added your list yet, I’d greatly appreciate it.

And once again, hope you dig it:

First Hour:
YOB, “Nothing to Win” from Clearing the Path to Ascend
Fu Manchu, “Radio Source Sagittarius” from Gigantoid
Radio Moscow, “Death of a Queen” from Magical Dirt
The Golden Grass, “Stuck on a Mountain” from The Golden Grass
Monster Magnet, “No Paradise for Me” from Milking the Stars: A Reimagining of Last Patrol
Pallbearer, “The Ghost I Used to Be” from Foundations of Burden
The Skull, “Sick of it All” from For Those Which are Asleep
Electric Wizard, “Time to Die” from Time to Die
Orange Goblin, “The Devil’s Whip” from Back from the Abyss
Moab, “No Soul” from Billow

Second Hour:
Sleep, “The Clarity” from The Clarity 12”
Mars Red Sky, “Hovering Satellites” from Stranded in Arcadia
Floor, “Rocinante” from Oblation
Slomatics, “And Yet it Moves” from Estron
Conan, “Foehammer” from Blood Eagle
Druglord, “Feast on the Eye” from Enter Venus
Apostle of Solitude, “Die Vicar Die” from Of Woe and Wounds
Pilgrim, “Away from Here” from II: Void Worship
Blood Farmers, “The Road Leads to Nowhere” from Headless Eyes

Third Hour:
Lo-Pan, “Regulus” from Colossus
Elephant Tree, “Vlaakith” from Theia
The Well, “Mortal Bones” from Samsara
Lucifer in the Sky with Diamonds, “Counting Time” from The Shining One
Brant Bjork and the Low Desert Punk Band, “Stokely up Now” from Black Power Flower
Joy, “Driving Me Insane” from Under the Spell of Joy
Greenleaf, “Depth of the Sun” from Trails and Passes
Mothership, “Priestess of the Moon” from Mothership II
Truckfighters, “Get Lifted” from Universe
Mos Generator, “Enter the Fire” from Electric Mountain Majesty
Mammatus, “Brain Drain” from Heady Mental

Fourth Hour:
Øresund Space Collective, “Beardlandia” from Music for Pogonologists
My Brother the Wind, “Garden of Delights” from Once There was a Time When Time and Space were One
The Cosmic Dead, “Fukahyoocastulah” from Split with Mugstar
Montibus Communitas, “The Pilgrim to the Absolute” from The Pilgrim to the Absolute

Total running time: 4:02:57

Thank you for listening.

Download audiObelisk Transmission 043

When Swedish three-piece Truckfighters debuted in 2005 with Gravity X, it was clear they had a firm grip on the traditions of fuzz rock. That album bristled with desert and stoner influence; Kyuss, Fu Manchu, flourishes of countrymen acts like Dozer. There were flashes of brilliance in cuts like “Desert Cruiser” — which still opens all their shows with its clarion riff — and “Manhattan Project,” “In Search of (The)” and elsewhere.On 2007’s Phi, lineup changes brought a second guitar and though the output was quality, the dynamic didn’t work quite as well as the debut. Phi and subsequent touring led them to 2009’s Mania (review here), which seemed like the capstone on the decade of quality semi-revivalist fuzz. Progressive in songs like “The New High,” “Majestic” and “Con of Man,” the trio of vocalist/bassist Oskar “Ozo” Cedermalm, guitarist Niklas “Dango” Källgren and drummer Oscar “Pezo” Johansson proved there was more to their sound than riff worship and that they indeed had something to offer that even their Californian influences couldn’t at that point match: A future. It’s been four years since Mania — twice as long as all the other breaks between albums — and after years of road time across Europe and the US and losing Johansson to Witchcraft only to replace him with Andre “Poncho” Kvarnström, the trio from Örebro make a return with the long-awaited Universe on their own Fuzzorama Records. Self-sustaining between the label and recording in their own Studio Bombshelter, Truckfighters are a more mature band than they were four years ago, but they keep both the roots in fuzz from their earliest work and the progressive mindset of Mania intact on the 44-minute/seven-track Universe, resulting in a vinyl-minded flow that in longer cuts like “The Chairman” (7:54), “Get Lifted” (7:55) and closer “Mastodont” (13:54) pushes the boundaries of what Truckfighters have done before and blends that with catchy hooks and strong riffing on the shorter opener “Mind Control” (3:57), on “Prophet” (4:47) and the penultimate “Dream Sale” (4:30).

The tracklisting is ordered in alternating fashion, shorter song into longer, into shorter, and so on. Anomalous in this is standout and (what I imagine is) side B opener “Convention,” which clocks in at 1:40 and arrives before “Dream Sale” and “Mastodont.” One might expect an interlude or throwaway filler based on its runtime, but they actually launch and completely payoff an instrumental build in that time and manage to provide a hook as well. A lesson in efficiency, then. It’s not the first on Universe. From the gritty-to-full launch of “Mind Control” on through its signature Truckfightersian tonality and chorus, there’s little waste to be found. Cedermalm sounds clear, comfortable and dynamic as a vocalist and as the layers in the chorus of “Mind Control” illustrate, Truckfighters are continuing to do something they’ve always done: Making complex ideas sound easy. He pushes himself vocally throughout, perhaps most of all on “Get Lifted,” but between touring with Truckfighters and his tenure in Greenleaf supporting their 2012 outing, Nest of Vipers (review here) — he’s since left the band — there’s clearly growth evident in his approach and comfort with harmonies, as displayed both in “Mastodont,” which very much is the culmination of Universe, and in “Prophet,” which feels almost in direct conversation with the unceasing movement of “Monte Gargano” from Mania. Second cut “The Chairman,” which also served as the title-track for a late-2013 EP released by Fuzzorama and Last Hurrah Records, offers a glimpse  at Truckfighters‘ more exploratory tendencies, with Cedermalm starting on vocals before Källgren and Kvarnström join in and lead the way toward the first verse. The tone is fuzz but there’s an underlying thud to “The Chairman” in the bass and drums that works exceedingly well to give it a sense of gravity, and though they hold back on delivering the chorus, that only serves to make it all the more satisfying upon its arrival, Källgren soloing past the halfway point to a boogie break that leads to a payoff that is both a landmark within the album itself and a foreshadow for what “Get Lifted” and “Mastodont” will continue to build upon.

It’s worth pointing out that for as much as Universe was intentionally structured to feed shorter songs into longer ones, it has already mounted considerable momentum by the time “The Chairman” is done, getting quiet and wandering a bit in layers of acoustic and electric guitar with steady drum thump and subdued vocals before exploding into its apex just before seven minutes in, and positioned as it is, “Prophet” only keeps that push going. Kvarnström is steady on his kick for a desert rocker with a restrained verse with open guitar and underscoring bass rumble, and the song solidifies around its chorus, which is one of Universe‘s strongest. A full stop around the three-minute mark gears into full-on fuzz riffing for the bridge that builds, stops, repeats, and the drums circle around to establish the transition back to a final chorus, ending cold with a ringing cymbal that gives way to the silence from which “Get Lifted” fades in its bassline. Were it not for the level of execution shown in “Mastodont” and the diversity within that song, “Get Lifted” would be the high point of Universe. Its build is masterful, its hook infectious, and its linear construction only highlights how far Truckfighters have come as songwriters and how seamlessly Kvarnström has blended with the founding and core duo of Cedermalm and Källgren, being a player of both power and character. He’s rarely driving the material here — that’s mostly left to the guitar or bass — but in moments like that bridge in the back half of “Prophet” and in his transitions throughout “Get Lifted,” he’s no less fluid than either of the other two members, and at 2:25 when “Get Lifted” launches from its quiet start to full-breadth, full-weight rocking, he doesn’t oversell it, doesn’t overplay it, just rides the groove with class. Like “The Chairman” before it, “Get Lifted” teases its chorus before it actually unveils the thing, but they get there around the halfway point and though Cedermalm‘s vocals are deep in the mix as if to suggest he’s being swallowed by the fuzz emanating from his and Källgren‘s amps, you just know in listening that a bigger payoff is soon to arrive.

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While I wouldn’t expect the track to be any more indicative of the overall scope of Universe than “Monte Gargano” was when it came to the expansive sound the band presented on 2009’s Mania, it’s good to hear Truckfighters‘ fuzz once again, and “Prophet” has me anticipating the new album’s arrival even more than I already was. True, it was pretty recently that the riff-rocking trio from Örebro — who one gets the sense are just beginning to make their mark on North American shores — unleashed their EP based around “The Chairman” (video here), but a full-length release is a different beast entirely and I can’t wait to hear the context that surrounds “Prophet” when the time comes. It’s going to be a fuzzy start to the New Year.

Truckfighters — Oskar “Ozo” Cedermalm on bass/vocals, Niklas “Dango” Källgren on guitar and Andre “Poncho” Kvarnström on drums — will issue Universe through their own Fuzzorama Records on Feb. 4. They’re taking pre-orders through PledgeMusic now, and one can expect they’ll support the album with a massive run of touring. They’ve been to the US a couple times the last few years (the latest was this summer), and that was before even The Chairman got released, so that’s an awful lot of work to put in not to return and hopefully reap the reward. Until they make their appearance at SXSW next year, we’re left with drips and drops ahead of the new long-player, and as the first audio from Universe made public, “Prophet” shows some of the moodier side of the band.

Not at all surprisingly, they’ve kept the desert rock tonality that’s made their recorded output so essential, but Mania saw them expand their emotional and atmospheric reach with those tones, and “Prophet” seems to be continuing that progression. See for yourself as they quite literally get screwed in the video below, which was directed by Joerg Steineck (who also helmed the feature-length documentary about the band with Christian Maciejewski), and please enjoy:

TRUCKFIGHTERS to Release New Album “Universe” February 4

Swedish Hard Rock Buzz Band Sets Sights on North American Takeover Including Major Touring, Appearance at SXSW 2014

Scandinavian power trio TRUCKFIGHTERS will release its fourth studio LP Universe in North America on February 4 via Fuzzorama Records. The spectacular Swedish band, who Queens of the Stone Age front man Josh Homme has called “not just the best band I’d ever heard, but the best band that ever existed” and who has created some of the best stoner rock records of the last decade, describes the new album as simply “the ultimate fuzz.” Universe supercharges the riff-heavy roots of TRUCKFIGHTERS’ signature sound while charting a more progressive, challenging path — a hybrid of fuzz and prog — with an increased focus on textures and dense arrangements loaded with engaging melodies and outstanding musicianship. These advancements don’t come at the expense of the catchy and heavier aspects of the group’s sound, rather it shoots TRUCKFIGHTERS psychedelically-tinged rock into rich and rewarding new dimensions. Universe is available for pre-order purchase now at this location.

With Universe, the ideas TRUCKFIGHTERS have offered since 2001 — a colossal, airtight rhythm section, psychedelically-tinged guitarmonies, teasing maneuvers/crushing payoffs and pure climactic catharsis — are realized with purpose and aim. From the sonic high arc of the opening cut “Mind Control” to the fuzzy riffs, vocal hooks and proggy passages of the leviathan-like “The Chairman” to the monstrous groove of “Convention” and through to the album-closing, tongue-in-cheek nod to buddies Mastodon (“Mastodont”), TRUCKFIGHTERS’ Universe is a definitive mission statement and an accurate portrait of a band that has molded its veracious desert session anthems into chiseled hard rock monoliths.

Tracklisting:
1.) Mind Control
2.) The Chairman
3.) Prophet
4.) Get Lifted
5.) Convention
6.) Dream Sale
7.) Mastodont

TRUCKFIGHTERS will tour North America extensively this spring in support of Universe, bringing its explosive energy and contagious enthusiasm to as many cities as possible. The band is also planning an appearance at the 2014 South by Southwest Music and Media Conference and Festival, this coming March in Austin, TX. This, you won’t want to miss.

https://www.facebook.com/truckfighters
http://www.truckfighters.com/

Not really much of a surprise that Truckfighters are coming back to North America to support the Feb. 4 release of their fourth album, Universe, but it’s nice to see it made official anyway. The Örebro trio will hit up SXSW and presumably a bunch of other cities as well, and hopefully some of the roadtime they’ve put in since the release of Mania in 2009 will pay off. That remains to be seen, but in the meantime, Universe is pretty high on my list of gotta-hear records for 2014, so any news about it is good news as far as I’m concerned.

Can’t stop the PR wire today:

TRUCKFIGHTERS to Release New Album “Universe” February 4

Swedish Hard Rock Buzz Band Sets Sights on North American Takeover Including Major Touring, Appearance at SXSW 2014

Scandinavian power trio TRUCKFIGHTERS will release its fourth studio LP Universe in North America on February 4 via Fuzzorama Records. The spectacular Swedish band, who Queens of the Stone Age front man Josh Homme has called “not just the best band I’d ever heard, but the best band that ever existed” and who has created some of the best stoner rock records of the last decade, describes the new album as simply “the ultimate fuzz.” Universe supercharges the riff-heavy roots of TRUCKFIGHTERS’ signature sound while charting a more progressive, challenging path — a hybrid of fuzz and prog — with an increased focus on textures and dense arrangements loaded with engaging melodies and outstanding musicianship. These advancements don’t come at the expense of the catchy and heavier aspects of the group’s sound, rather it shoots TRUCKFIGHTERS psychedelically-tinged rock into rich and rewarding new dimensions. Universe is available for pre-order purchase now at this location.

With Universe, the ideas TRUCKFIGHTERS have offered since 2001 — a colossal, airtight rhythm section, psychedelically-tinged guitarmonies, teasing maneuvers/crushing payoffs and pure climactic catharsis — are realized with purpose and aim. From the sonic high arc of the opening cut “Mind Control” to the fuzzy riffs, vocal hooks and proggy passages of the leviathan-like “The Chairman” to the monstrous groove of “Convention” and through to the album-closing, tongue-in-cheek nod to buddies Mastodon (“Mastodont”), TRUCKFIGHTERS’ Universe is a definitive mission statement and an accurate portrait of a band that has molded its veracious desert session anthems into chiseled hard rock monoliths.

Tracklisting:
1.) Mind Control
2.) The Chairman
3.) Prophet
4.) Get Lifted
5.) Convention
6.) Dream Sale
7.) Mastodont

TRUCKFIGHTERS will tour North America extensively this spring in support of Universe, bringing its explosive energy and contagious enthusiasm to as many cities as possible. The band is also planning an appearance at the 2014 South by Southwest Music and Media Conference and Festival, this coming March in Austin, TX. This, you won’t want to miss. Or as Josh Homme said, “Beatles, Schmeatles; Rolling Stones, Rolling Bones. Truckfighters: that’s the good shit.”

https://www.facebook.com/truckfighters
http://www.truckfighters.com/

Truckfighters, “The Chairman” official video

It’s Truckfighters‘ universe, we’re all just living in it. The fuzz forerunner trio from Örebro already have a new EP, The Chairman, available, and they’ve backed that up with the announcement below that they’ll release a new full-length, titled Universe, in January 2014. This will be the first Truckfighters long-player since 2009’s spectacular third offering, Mania (review here), and it’s already high up on my gotta-have list for the New Year. Awesome.

The news just came down the PR wire:

BACK IN THE GAME. NEW ALBUM ”UNIVERSE” TO BE RELEASED IN JAN 24TH, 2014

It’s been almost five years since last time around but we are now delighted to announce the release of our fourth studio album, due Jan 24th, 2014.We’ve been working on this piece of art that we named ”Universe” the last year and more and are now satisfied to 100%.

We are so much looking forward to sharing our new music with you. Inspired by our touring over four continents, this album is the deepest and widest one we’ve done so far. Simply the best songs we’ve ever made. We feel confident you will like it a lot! Start the countdown, the fuzzy tones will open up a new Universe.

“Universe” will be released on Jan 24th, 2014, in Germany / Switzerland / Austria / Scandinavia & Finland, rest of the world to follow on Jan 27th / 28th onwards.

+++ PLEDGEMUSIC CAMPAIGN ON NEW ALBUM +++

Universe will come with many many special incentives – so don’t miss it!

Pre-orders of the new album can already be placed through PledgeMusic: http://www.pledgemusic.com/truckfighters

This system is a fan friendly way to purchase the longplayer, but to also having it bundled in some special deals and w/ cool stuff associated with the new album. You can buy stuff here that you can not buy in any store, not even in our webshop. It also gives a percentage of profits to a charity organization.

We decided to donate our share (after reaching the campaign’s goal / 100%) to LIFEWATCH, a Swedish foundation that supports research targeting autism and cancer.

So not only you will purchase exclusive items nowhere else available, but also will purchase this for a good cause. We thaught this is an honorable way to offer out the album and all its exclusives. And – among those things we are offering – there is also a gig at your very own place!!!

+++ LIVE! LIVE! LIVE! +++

Just home from the Chairman Central European tour, we are alrady preparing for weekends in Sweden, Russia, and Norway the coming month.
Nov 01 KlubbFuzz – Gavle, Sweden
Nov 02 Dynamo – Norrköping, Sweden
Nov 16 Mod St. – Petersburg, Russia
Nov 17 Plan B Club – Moscow, Russia
Nov 27 Union Scene – Drammen, Norway
Nov 28 Hulen – Bergen, Norway
Nov 29 Checkpoint Charlie – Stavanger, Norway
Nov 30 Trashpop – Kristiansand, Norway
Dec 27 Sticky Fingers – Goteborg, Sweden

Greece is also on the map in January 2014:

Jan 10 An Club – Athens, Greece
Jan 11 Eightball – Thessaloniki, Greece

Big thanks to everone who came out to the shows in October. We hope you had a super good time just as we did. See you next time around! That next time around is not too far away from now. We can already alert you that the Truck from Örebro, Sweden, will conquer Europe in February / March 2014 again, more details on exact cities and venues to follow soon! Also, there are likely to be other continents on our roadmap in 2014, so stick around, we will alert you soon!!!

Please always check TRUCKFIGHTERS.com for exact live dates!

Truckfighters, “The Chairman” official video