Posted in Whathaveyou on May 6th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
You can see it for yourself. Among the many Sound of Liberation-adjacent festivals taking place throughout any given non-pandemic-afflicted year — thinking of Desertfest Berlin, Up in Smoke, Keep it Low, this year’s anniversary party, etc. — you know Desertfest Berlin 2022 is going to be special. Look at that Thursday lineup. Look at that Saturday lineup. Look at Friday. Look at Sunday. There’s no weak day.
Even if the thought of one or the other of the headliners doesn’t set you on fire, there are so many other ways to go. To wit, I’ve never been a huge Baroness fan, but you got Elder, Ufomammut and Stöner right there, though I also kind of feel like the rest of Sunday’s lineup needs to be in the bigger font too, with Slift, hometown heroes Rotor, Slomosa from Norway, Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs and SÂVER rounding out the final evening. I guess you could say the same all the way through.
A few more bands have been added — The Well, Vug, Velvet Two Stripes and Love Machine — and the day splits are below. It’s a no-filler lineup, and that’s about the bare minimum one can say about it.
If you’re going, right friggin’ on.
From the PR wire:
DESERTFEST BERLIN Reveals Final Line-Up & Day Splits for 2022!
Finally, Desertfest Berlin returns on May 26 – 29th, feat. ELECTRIC WIZARD, YOB, BARONESS, ORANGE GOBLIN, WITCHCRAFT, KADAVAR, ELDER, MY SLEEPING KARMA & many many more!
After two long years, this May the Desertfest Berlin community finally re-unites. To celebrate the return of heavy live music, and its 10th anniversary edition, this year Desertfest Berlin will excel with one of their best line-ups to date!
Alongside headlining bands such as ELECTRIC WIZARD and Berlin’s very own KADAVAR, 2022 will see high class acts such as WITCHCRAFT, ORANGE GOBLIN, BARONESS, Desert Legends Brant Bjork and Nick Oliveri with their new outfit STÖNER, YOB, TRUCKFIGHTERS, ELDER, MY SLEEPING KARMA, 1000MODS, the return of mighty UFOMAMMUT among many more renowned as well as up & coming bands storm the stage of Desertfest Berlin! Today, the unique underground festival in the heart of Berlin has revealed its final line-up, adding VUG, LOVE MACHINE, THE WELL and VELVET TWO STRIPES to their eclectic bill of 2022!
Grateful for the loyal support and while most of the Desertfesters kept their tickets since 2020, the cult festival has extended its upcoming edition from 3 to 4 days. All 3 Days Ticket Holders will get access to all 4 Days of Desertfest Berlin, the 2020 ticket will be valid for the entire festival in 2022!
Taking place between May 26 – 29, 2022 at the Arena Berlin, and since most day and all weekend passes are sold-out, you better act quick to get a ticket for at least Thursday and/or Sunday! These rare, handful of tickets are available at www.desertfest.de – The Day Splits will look as [above.]
Posted in Whathaveyou on December 8th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
The lineup for Desertfest Berlin 2022 is serious gosh darn business, and no less so with Baroness newly announced as the final night’s headliner. That puts them in the company of Orange Goblin, Kadavar and Electric Wizard, though frankly if you look further down the bill for each of the four days, it’s not like the headliners are the whole story. From Samavayo and Polymoon and YOB and Temple Fang, Lowrider and Black Rainbows to Rotor and Slomosa, it’s a packed roster that by the time it happens (thinking positively now) will have been more than two years in the making. Not, not, not to be trifled with.
Some personal favorites added today, among them SÂVER, Rotor and the aforementioned Temple Fang, but I’m pretty sure I said last time that if the lineup for Desertfest Berlin 2022 was done, they’d be good to go. That opinion hasn’t changed as the festival has gotten more badass.
From the PR wire:
BARONESS HEADLINES DESERTFEST SUNDAY – 10 NEW BANDS, DAY SPLITS & SINGLE DAY TICKETS ON SALE
Friends, we’re proud to present you 10 new names for our Desertfest Berlin 2022, including the last headlining act: the one and only BARONESS (USA)
Additionally, you can check out the first day splits of our line-up and purchase single day tickets from now on.
TICKETS: 4 day passes + single day tickets are available viawww.desertfest.de
INFO: – 4 day passes are running really low! Be fast before they are gone – remember that weekend passes from 2020 stay valid automatically but single day tickets from 2020 do NOT! Please check our website for further info
We’re looking forward to Desertfest Berlin A LOT and we hope so are you. Can’t wait to see you all again on May 26th – 29th 2022.
Posted in Whathaveyou on October 19th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
Just now, putting this post together, I read that Stonebirds are back in the studio working on their next album for a presumed 2022 release through Ripple Music. That they’ll be at the upcoming Ripplefest Cologne 2021 alongside Plainride — who as I recall have a hand in organizing the festival — Savanah, Fire Down Below, (that) Vug (under the rug), Aptera and Astral Kompakt is all the more appropriate, then, as they’ll have new material to showcase. Somehow I doubt they’ll be the only ones. As the pandemic-era dust begins to settle across the European touring circuit, governments ease lockdowns with a seemingly permanent “for now” attitude, it’s worth emphasizing how special something like this really is for the bands playing it and the people fortunate enough to be there.
That is, there’s a part of me for which an event like this — little more than a poster and a list of cool bands as far as I’m concerned; it’s not how I’m spending my Thanksgiving weekend — feels mundane. Then there’s the part of me that’s lived through the last 20 months or however long kicking myself in the brain with the reminder that, no, this is something to be treasured.
So take a breath, I guess is where I’m at. If it doesn’t hurt to do so, be glad.
From the PR wire:
German stoner and doom festival RIPPLEFEST COLOGNE reveals final names for 2021 edition, to take place on November 27th at Club Volta!
Ripple Music announce the final batch of names for the 2021 edition of RippleFest Cologne, taking place at Club Volta on November 27th. Tickets are on sale now!
RIPPLEFEST returns! After almost two years of pandemic break and three postponements, the Ripple Music-curated event finally returns to the city of Cologne. On November 27th, Club Volta will get suddenly filled with the finest retro rock, heavy rock, psych metal, and doom riffage, provided live by European up-and-coming acts Savanah, Aptera, Fire Down Below, Astral Kompakt, Stonebirds, and Vug.
During the day, festival-goers will be able to enjoy the fine delicacies of the Ripplefest food truck, some great art with local and international poster artists showcases, and the expertise of Diana Matthess and her Guitar Tech Truck — a special workshop offering guitar setups and repairs to musicians. Tickets are on sale now, so don’t wait any longer to treat yourselves to this one-off rock event in the beautiful city of Cologne!
RIPPLEFEST COLOGNE 2021 November 27th, 2021 at Club Volta (Cologne, Germany) Info & Tickets (14,90€/19,90€) atripplefest.de
❱ PLAINRIDE Beer-fueled heavy rock (Germany – Ripple Music) ❱ ASTRAL KOMPAKT Light-bending instrumental doom (Germany) ❱ FIRE DOWN BELOW Interstellar psych metal (Belgium – Ripple Music) ❱ STONEBIRDS Soul-crushing existential doom (France – Ripple Music) ❱ APTERA Titan-slaying doom metal (Germany) ❱ VUG Time-traveling 70’s hard rock (Germany) ❱ SAVANAH Planet-devouring Psychedelic Stoner Doom (Austria)
Posted in Reviews on January 6th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
I’d like to hope y’all know the drill by now. It’s the Quarterly Review. We do it (roughly) every quarter. The idea is 10 reviews per day for a Monday to Friday span, running 50 total. I sometimes do more. Sometimes not. Kind of depends on the barrage and how poorly I’ve been doing in general with keeping up on stuff. This time is ‘just’ 50, so there you go. You’ll see some bigger names this week and some stuff that’s come my way of late that I’ve been digging and wanting to check out. It’s a lot of rock, which I like, and a few things I’m writing about basically as a favor to myself because, you know, self-care and all that.
But staring down the barrel of 50 reviews over the next few days has me as apprehensive and how-the-hell-is-this-gonna-happen as ever, so I think I’ll just get to it and jump in. No time to waste.
Quarterly Review #1-10:
Mos Generator, Exiles
Worth it just for the Sabbath cover? Most definitely. As Mos Generator take on “Air Dance” from Never Say Die as part of the Glory or Death Records LP compilation release, Exiles, they blend the proggy swagger of later-’70s Iommi leads with the baseline acoustic guitar fluidity that makes those final Ozzy-era records so appealing in hindsight. It’s just one of the six reasons to take on Exiles however. The A side comprises three outtakes from 2018’s Shadowlands (review here), and guitarist/vocalist Tony Reed‘s Big Scenic Nowhere bandmate Bob Balch sits in on “Battah,” while a duly manic reworking of Van Halen‘s “Light up the Sky,” the Black Sabbath track and a live version of Rush‘s “Anthem” from 2016 make up side B. It’s a quick listen and it’s Mos Generator. It may be a stopgap on the way to whatever they’re doing next, but if you think about it, so is everything, and that’s no reason not to jump in either for the covers or the originals, both of which are up to the band’s own high standard of output.
The distorted wails of Andy Briston‘s guitar echo out of Freak Mammal — the five-track/46-minute third LP from London’s Psychic Lemon — like a clarion to the lysergic converted. A call to prayer for those worshiping the nebulous void, not so much kept to earth by Andy Hibberd‘s bass and Martin Law‘s drums as given a solidified course toward the infinite far out. Of course centerpiece “Afrotropic Bomb” digs into some Ethiopian groove — that particular shuffling mania — and I won’t take away from the lower buzz of “Free Electron Collective” or the tense hi-hat cutting through all that tonal wash or the ultra-spaced blowout that caps six-minute finale “White Light,” but give me the self-aware mellower jaunt that is the 13-minute second track “Seeds of Tranquility” any day, following opener “Dark Matter” as it does with what would be a blissful drift but for the exciting rhythmic work taking place beneath the peaceful guitar, and the later synthesized voices providing a choral melody that seems all the more playfully grandiose, befitting the notion of Freak Mammal as a ceremony or at very least some kind of lost ritual. Someday they’ll dig up the right pyramid and call the aliens back. Until then, Psychic Lemon let us imagine what might happen after they return.
There’s a context of social commentary to Planet of Zeus‘ Faith in Physics that makes one wonder if perhaps the title doesn’t refer to gravity in terms of what-goes-up-must-come-down as it might apply to class hierarchy. The mighty, ready to fall, and so on. Songs like the post-Clutch fuzz roller “Man vs. God” and “Revolution Cookbook” (video premiere here) would seem to support that idea, but one way or the other, as the later “Let Them Burn” digs into a hook that reminds of Killing Joke and the dense bass of eight-minute closer “King of the Circus” provides due atmospheric madness for our times, there’s a sense of grander statement happening across the album. The Athens-based outfit make a centerpiece of the starts and stops in “All These Happy People” and remind that whatever the message, the medium remains top quality heavy rock and roll songcraft, which is something they’ve become all the more reliable to deliver. The more pointed perspective than they showed on 2016’s Loyal to the Pack suits them, but it’s the nuance of electronics and arrangements of vocals and guitar on cuts like “The Great Liar” that carry them through here. If you believe in gravity, Planet of Zeus have plenty on offer.
Experimentalist keyboard-laced psychedelic goth your thing? Well, of course it is. You’re in luck then as Brass Hearse — an offshoot of once madly prolific Boston outfit Ice Dragon — unveil three new songs (plus an intro) with the Oneiric Afterlife and in 10 minutes work to unravel about 30 years of genre convention while still tying their material to memorable hooks. “Bleed Neon,” “Indigo Dust” and “Only Forever” seem simple on the surface, and none of them touch four minutes long, let alone “A Gesture to Make a Stop,” the 26-second introduction, but their refusal of stylistic constraint is as palpable as it is admirable, with a blend of folk guitar and dark-dance-party keys and percussive insistence on “Bleed Neon” and a ’60s Halloweeny rock organ line in “Only Forever” that’s complemented by low-end fuzz and a chorus that would rightly embarrass Ghost if they heard it. In comparison, “Indigo Dust” is serene in its presentation, but even there is a depth of arrangement of keys, guitar, bass and drums, and the skill tying it all together as a cohesive sound is not to be understated. A quick listen with a lot to unpack, it’s not going to be everyone’s thing, but those who get it will be hit hard and rightly so.
The first of three tracks on Greek progwinders Mother Turtle‘s fourth LP, Three Sides to Every Story, “Zigu Zigu,” would seem to cap with a message of congratulations: “You’ve listened to three musicians indulging themselves with some kind of weird instrumental music.” It then goes on to question its own instrumentalism, because it has the words presently being spoken, continuing in this manner until a long fadeout of guitar leads to the funky start of the 15-minute-long “Notwatch.” Good fun, in other words. Mother Turtle maybe aren’t so weird as they think they are, but they are duly adventurous and obviously joyful in their undertaking, bringing chants in over drifting guitar and synth swirl in “Notwatch” before building to a crescendo of rock guitar and organ, ultimately dominated by a solo as it would almost have to be, before intertwining piano lines in 16:46 closer “A Christmas Postcard from Kim” lead to further shenanigans, vocal experimentation, plays on metal, holiday shimmer, and a fade into the close. At 38 minutes, Three Sides to Every Story doesn’t at all overstay its welcome, but neither is it an exercise looking for audience engagement in the traditional sense. Rather, it resonates its glee through its offbeat sensibility and thus works on its own level to craft a hook. One can’t help but smile while listening to the fun being had.
It is something to consider, perhaps as you dive into the nine-minute “Prince Mojito” on The Legendary Flower Punk‘s Wabi Wu, that the band started as a psych-folk solo-project. Currently working as a core trio plus a range of guests, the Russian troupe make their debut on Tonzonen with the brazenly prog seven-tracker, totaling just a 44-minute run but with a range that would seem to be much broader. Alternately jazzy and synth-laden, technically intricate but never overly showy, pieces like the bass-led “Azulejo” and the penultimate “Trance Fusion På Ryska” present a meeting of the minds with founding guitarist Kamille Sharapodinov at the center of most compositions, he and bassist Mike Lopakov and drummer Nick Kunavin digging into nothing’s-off-limits textures from fusion onward through New Wave and dub. The abiding rule followed seems to be whatever moves the band about a given track is what they roll with, and though The Legendary Flower Punk has evolved well beyond its origins, there’s still a bit of flower and still a bit of punk amid all the legends being made. Good luck keeping up with it.
With the follow-up to 2018’s V – Oceans (review here), Belgian duo Slow rattle off another 78 minutes of utterly consuming, crushing, atmospheric and melancholic funeral doom like it’s absolutely nothing. Well, not like it’s nothing — more like it’s a weight on their very soul — but even so. Issued through Aural Music, VI – Dantlion brings the two-piece of guitarist/vocalist/drummer Déhà and bassist/lyricist Lore B. once again into the grueling, megalithic churn of self-inflicted riff-punishment that’s so encompassing, so dark, so deep and so dramatic it almost can’t help but also be beautiful. To wit, second track “Lueur” is a 17-minute downward journey into ambient brutalism, yet as it moves toward the midsection one can still hear melodic elements of keyboard and orchestral sounds peaking through. There is letup in the lush finale “Elégie,” but to get there, you have to make your way through “Incendiaire,” which is possibly the most extreme movement of the seven inclusions. Though frankly, after a while, you’re buried so far down by Slow‘s glorious miseries that it’s hard to tell. The world needs this band. They are what humanity would sound like if it was ever honest with itself.
Adelaide, Australia, newcomers OKO present their debut EP in the form of Haze, a 14:44 single-song outing that sees the instrumental three-piece of guitarist Nick Nancarrow, bassist Tyson Ruch and drummer Ash Matthews tap into organic heavy psych vibes while working cross-planet with Justin Pizzoferrato (known for his work with Elder, among others) on the mix and master. The resulting one-tracker has a clarity in its drum sound and clean feel that one suspects might speak of more progressive intentions on the part of OKO in the longer term, but as they are here they have a sense of tonal warmth that serves them well across the unpretentious span of “Haze” itself, the winding riff inevitably bringing to mind some of Colour Haze‘s jammier work but still managing to find its own direction. I hear no reason OKO can’t do the same, regardless of the influences they’re working under in terms of sound. Further, the longform modus suits them, and while future work will inherently develop some variety in general approach, the natural exploration they undertake on this first outing easily holds attention for its span and is fluid enough that, had they wanted, they could have pushed it further.
Vug are not the first European heavy rock band to blend vintage methods with modern production. They’re not the first band to take classic swagger and drum urgency and meld it with a pervasive sense of vocal soul. I’m not sure I’d tell them that though, because frankly, they’re doing pretty well with it. At its strongest, their Tonzonen-released sophomore outing, Onyx, recalls Thin Lizzy via, yes, Graveyard, but there’s enough clarity of intention behind the work to make it plain they know where they’re coming from. Such was the case as well with their 2018 self-titled debut (review here), and though they’ve had some lineup turnover since that first offering, the self-produced four-piece bring a character to their material on songs like “Tired Of” and the penultimate boogier “Inferno” before closing with the acoustic “Todbringer” — a mirror of side A’s “On My Own” — that they carry the classic-style 39-minute long-player off without a hitch, seeming to prep the heavy ’10s for a journey into a new decade.
As the title hints, the Season 1 EP is the debut from Italy’s Ultracombo, and with it, the five-piece of vocalist Alessio Guarda, guitarists Alberto Biasin and Giordano Tasson, bassist Giordano Pajarin and drummer Flavio Gola work quickly to build the forward momentum that brings them front-to-back through the 23-minute five-track release. “Flusso” and opener “The King” feel particularly drawn from an earlier Truckfighters influence, but Guarda‘s vocals are a distinguishing factor amidst all that ensuing fuzz and straight-ahead drive, and in “Sparatutto” and the closer “Il Momento in Cui Non Penso,” they seem to strip their approach to its most basic aspects and bring together the tonal thickness and melodicism that’s been at root in their sound overall. The subtlety, such as it is, is to be found in their songwriting, which results in tracks that transcend language barriers through sheer catchiness. That bodes better for them on subsequent outings better than a wall o’ fuzz ever could, though of course that doesn’t hurt them either, especially their first time out.
Berlin-based rock classicists VUG will make their self-titled debut via Noisolution April 13. The band — who take their name from the second cut on Atomic Rooster‘s Death Walks Behind You — haven been in operation for the better part of three years and bask in the kind of modernized boogie one finds in the likes of Heat or even some of Samsara Blues Experiment’s more straightforward moments, though the sway of centerpiece “Awaken” is all early-Witchraft-via-Hendrix, guitarist Felix Scholl easily donning the cadence of the latter where earlier on in the record, on, say, the 7:07 opener and longest track (immediate points) “Lose,” his style took on a gruffer blues affect as he, guitarist Max Raine, bassist Philip Hennermann and drummer Nick DiSalvo (also guitar/vocals in Elder), careen through Graveyard-esque melancholy and energy swells, very much led by the two guitars.
This is the central methodology behind VUG‘s VUG: to craft spirited, energetic, dynamic and flowing heavy blues boogie. Rich in tone but not quite vintage in production, songs like “Garden” and the closing “VUG” offer rhythmic sway while keeping a proto-metallic feel to the riffing — the latter also has background singers, so there’s that — and the stomping forward push that emerges from the quiet opening of “Poseidon” isn’t to be discounted. Could very well be a burgeoning sense of stylistic range, but VUG do well to make the sound their own, Hennermann and DiSalvo holding together turns from NWOBHM-style strut in “Poseidon” to more open heavy rock groove to a quiet cymbal wash finish. The penultimate, three-minute, not-a-cover “White Room” is something of a curio, tapping into Stubb-style nod and smashing it head-on into dual-guitar gallop and wah-covered swirl by the time the shortest cut crashes to its end.
Compare that to the patient fluidity of “Lose” or “Prophecy,” which also just barely tops seven minutes, and a genuine sense of dynamics and creative range begins to emerge, though of course when it comes to “Prophecy,” the track is something of a summary of the self-titled’s multiple sides in itself, between the deft turns in tempo and rhythm, build toward an apex and multifaceted thrust. On the first couple listens, it can seem like VUG simply have two different methods of working — one for longer songs, one for shorter — but digging deeper reveals variety between “Awaken” and the mellower linearity of “Garden,” between the motor-readiness of “Poseidon” and the jazzy intricacy of the quiet stretches in “VUG.” Thus the 34 minutes of VUG are executed with deceptive nuance, but whether one wants to dissect or bop along, the record seems to welcome whatever level of engagement its audience might want to bring to it. That is, it works either way you want to go.
They’re not genreless, but their pursuits are clearly geared toward individuality, and in company with the more familiar aspects of their blues rock, the instrumental nuance they bring to the table speaks of future progression and overarching potential as songwriters. Where they’ll end up? Hell if I know, but their debut is striking in its clarity of mission and cohesive, vibrant execution. I’d ask nothing more of it than it delivers.
With my thanks to Noisolution and VUG, I’ve been given permission to host the premiere of “Prophecy” for your streaming pleasure. You’ll find it on the player below, followed by more info from the PR wire.
Please enjoy:
Gathering in Neukölln, Berlin in 2015, VUG quickly developed a heavy yet melodic rock sound that would feel just as at home in the Scandinavian rock capital of Gothenburg. Formed by longtime friends Max Raine (guitar), Philip Hennermann (bass) and Felix Scholl (guitar, vocals) and eventually finalized by Nick DiSalvo (drums) the band already had a diverse history of DIY punk, stoner rock and doom in the members’ collective past. However, the goal here was always simple and timeless: making loud music, having a good time and not giving a shit about labels.
In the last weeks of 2016 VUG entered Mesanic Music studio in Kreuzberg to record their eponymous debut album. Tracking entirely live in two days in winter, the band finished a record that sounded raw and energetic, a snapshot of a live show. The self-titled record was mixed by Max Körich in Berlin and mastered by Carl Saff in Chicago.
VUG will be released on vinyl, CD and digitally by Noisolution on April 13th, 2018.
