Posted in Whathaveyou on June 24th, 2016 by JJ Koczan
I’m pretty sure what the W. Ralph Walters cover art for the new Devil to Pay record is going for is an accurate historical depiction of humanity’s encounter with ancient aliens. No doubt A Bend Through Space and Time is exactly how it went down, or so the ancient astronaut theorists believe, a big-boobed alien blowing knowledge-smoke in the face of a caveman/Neanderthal-type who may or may not be the titular character for the song “Knuckledragger.” I’m getting pretty tired of supporting the objectification industrial complex when it comes to cartoon tits, I’ll be honest, but I like Devil to Pay, so you’ll find the cover art and the tracklisting for the album below. You might recall the band premiered their video for “Your Inner Lemmy” here back in February.
If you don’t recall and don’t feel like clicking, that video is also below. A Bend Through Space and Time is out Aug. 12 on Ripple Music. Art and info:
DTP RELEASE ‘A BEND THROUGH SPACE AND TIME’ ALBUM ART & TRACK LIST
Today DEVIL TO PAY release album art and the track list for their upcoming release, “A Bend Through Space and Time”. Recorded in 2015 by Mike Bridavsky at Russian Recording in Bloomington, Indiana, “A Bend Through Space and Time” showcases the further development of DEVIL TO PAY’s songcraft and explorations in heavy, riff-oriented rock and roll. The album was preceded by the early release of a download and music video for the song “Your Inner Lemmy” in honor of the rock legend Lemmy Kilmister’s passing last December.
The cover art features an original painting by the amazing W. Ralph Walters.
“A Bend Through Space and Time” will be released worldwide August 12th on Ripple Music.
A BEND THROUGH SPACE AND TIME: 1. On and On (in your mind) 2. Don’t Give Away the World 3. Kobold in the Breadbasket 4. Laughingstock 5. the Meaning of Life 6. Recommended Daily Dosage 7. Knuckledragger 8. Kerfuffle 9. Your Inner Lemmy 10. the Demons Come Home to Roost
Posted in Whathaveyou on June 24th, 2016 by JJ Koczan
As announced last month, Austin’s Bellringer will make their full-length debut this summer. In addition to that release on Rock is Hell, Bellringer mainman Mark Deutrom will have a vinyl split with Australia’s Dead tomorrow. So what’s new? Well the title of that Bellringer offering is Jettison — presumably calling it “release” would’ve been too straightforward — and two Melvins records that Deutrom played bass on, Stag and Stoner Witch, will be reissued tomorrow on Third Man Records. And that’s enough for me.
The PR wire has it like this:
BELLRINGER: Texas Act Formed By Ex-Melvins/Clown Alley Guitarist Mark Deutrom To Issue Jettison LP Via Rock Is Hell In August
Austin, Texas-based BELLRINGER, founded by guitarist/vocalist Mark Deutrom, has completed the brand new Jettison LP, and is preparing for it to strike this August through Rock Is Hell.
The live vehicle for the music of Deutrom – formerly of West Coast hardcore punk outfit, Clown Alley, and Prick/Stoner Witch/Stag/Honky-era Melvins, and others – BELLRINGER currently also embodies the contributions of musicians James Flores, Aaron Lack, Monique Ortiz, and Brian Ramirez. Recorded in Austin earlier this year, the outfit’s swanky new Jettison album was fully written and produced by Deutrom. The six expansive tracks traverse an immense volume of genre territory with nearly forty minutes of action, fusing elements of psychedelic and exploratory rock with bluesy and jazzy jam elements, all coalescing in the signature Mark D style. Outer-cosmos radioactive dust cloud soundscapes go head-to-head with lush, organic, earthling grooves, while a quirky edge stimulates hallucinations of animated characters colonizing psychedelic parallel existences.
Partnering once again with trusty label counterpart Rock Is Hell, who also released Deutrom’s Brief Sensuality & Western Violence LP+7″, Ruckus Juice 12″, The Value Of Decay 2xLP, as well as titles from his wife Jennifer Deutrom, Burmese, Bulbul, Shit & Shine, and others, BELLRINGER’s Jettison LP will see release am an offset/hand-screened limited edition LP and digital download on August 1st. Stand by for the cover art, audio samples, a video trailer, an official video, preorders, and more as the LP nears release in the coming weeks.
In related news, Mark Deutromhas a split LP with Australian outfit DEAD which sees release on WeEmptyRooms Records this Friday, June 24th, the release limited to 250 copies on 180g vinyl with a hand-screened cover. This will be a vinyl only release, with no digital available in any form. A promo video is available HERE, and is the only way to hear any audio from the release online. The preorder is up HERE for USA customers, and HERE for Australia/Oceania customers.
Additionally, this Friday, June 24th, Third Man Records is reissuing the classic Melvins titles, Houdini, Stoner Witch, and Stag, the latter two of which Deutrom performed on, which sees any of these albums being pressed on vinyl for the first time in over two decades; preoreders are live HERE.
BELLRINGER Live: 7/22/2016 Andy’s Bar – Denton, TX 8/19/2016 Curtain Club – Dallas, TX 9/03/2016 Bang Bang Bar – San Antonio, TX
It’s been a little more than a month since German heavy rock forerunners Kadavar posted the last installment of their series of videos for their 2015 third album, Berlin (review here). That clip was for “Filthy Illusion” (posted here) and was a distinct shift in vibe from the preceding “Pale Blue Eyes” (posted here), the band working on the stated intention of releasing a video for every song on the record within the next year. If they include the Nico cover “Reich der Träume” that closed the record, they’re on pace to finish by roughly next March — a year from when they started — so it could legitimately happen. I’ve never undertaken coordinating the logistics of making a music video, but it never struck me as something that would be particularly easy to do.
One has to imagine that when they’re done, Kadavar and director Nathini van der Meer will somehow put together a physical version of the clips to sell, whether it’s part of a deluxe Berlin reissue that Nuclear Blast does (no confirmation on that, this is just speculation) or with a live album, live show or some other kind of DVD release. Nothing against YouTube, but it seems like for as much effort is clearly being put into making these videos — van der Meer again gives a different look with the latest, for “Lord of the Sky” — they deserve some kind of physical issue. Maybe that’s me being old. Actually, no maybe about it. That’s definitely me being old. Not sure that makes me wrong.
I’ve been doing my best to keep up with these as they’ve come out and will continue to do so for the duration, however long that might actually last. If nothing else, it highlights the point of just how front-to-back Berlin was, in that every song on it stood out and was worthy of attention and focus. A year-long reminder of that would seem to be fitting as far as giving the record its due, so long as it doesn’t hold the band back from writing the next one.
Enjoy “Lord of the Sky” below, followed by more info from the PR wire:
Kadavar, “Lord of the Sky” official video
Together with long-time friend and collaborator Nathini van der Meer (http://nathinivandermeer.com), who has created artwork and videos for them in the past, they are working on their first “Visual Album”- 12 short films accompanying each of the albums’ songs, to be released once a month throughout the entirety of the year.
Comments the band: “The song is about freedom, about watching your city and your life from a certain distance – from the bird’s-eye view. Just like we see our city from that perspective when we’re on tour. Problems and tasks just seem to vanish the more you recede from ground. At the same time you need to push your wings against the wind to gain altitude and not get off course. The hopes, memories and expectations with which you leave your city you will always keep.”
“The video is also about things that simply don’t change,” adds Nathini. That’s why we chose to use this old man who’s just doing his thing for like forever. He goes to work every day, does his job and probably doesn’t realize that his surroundings are changing and becoming crazier and crazier. He lives in the bird’s-eye perspective and keeps a certain distance to things.”
Posted in Whathaveyou on June 23rd, 2016 by JJ Koczan
I wonder if the shipping on exports costs more when they’re this heavy. This fall, venerable concern Life is Noise will present the thunderdoom pairing of Italian cosmic doom progenitors Ufomammut and Swedish riff-crushers Monolord, which if the point hasn’t gotten across yet is a formidable pairing indeed, both acts preceded by their reputation for being heavy as hell.
For Monolord, this six-show run will follow an extensive US tour with Beastmaker and Sweat Lodge that will be their first time in North America as headliners, while Ufomammut have reportedly been working on new material presumably with an eye toward a 2017 release. That’s the hope, anyway. They’ve also been playing fests and other select dates in Europe.
Life is Noise sent the following down the PR wire:
LIFE IS NOISE PRESENTS: UFOMAMMUT (ITA) & MONOLORD (SWE) AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND TOUR
OCTOBER 2016
LIFE IS NOISE is proud to announce the first visit to our shores of Italian space doom virtuosos Ufomammut, along with masters of the riff, Swedish three-piece Monolord.
These two behemoths will be laying waste to cities across Australia and New Zealand this October in a truly huge doom double-header.
Playing an ear-destroying brand of sludge-filled doom that lurches from brooding slow menace to soul-crushing riff with a decent slab of psych thrown in for good measure, Ufomammut have released a stack of studio albums of unimpeachable heaviness, culminating in last year’s Ecate – truly a masterpiece of nuanced doom that perfectly encapsulates the band’s career to date.
Drawing on influences such as Sleep, Sabbath, Windhand, and Conan, Swedish trio Monolord take reverence to the riff to new extremes, with their second record, 2015’s Vænir, mixing glacial tempos with hypnotic and otherworldly vocals that coalesce into an album of both beauty and malevolence.
Catch Ufomammut and Monolord on the following dates:
Wellington – San Fran – October 3 Auckland – Kings Arms – October 4 Brisbane – Crowbar – October 6 Sydney – Bald Faced Stag – October 7 Melbourne – Max Watt’s – October 8 Perth – Rosemount Hotel – October 9
Posted in Whathaveyou on June 23rd, 2016 by JJ Koczan
Wisconsin’s Attalla — not to be confused with the differently-spelled Californian outfit of the same name — have done the requisite van maintenance and are ready to hit the road once more next month. They head west starting July 7, pretty much on a straight shot, actually, first to Minneapolis and then making their way toward the West Coast for a swath of shows in Washington, Oregon and north and south in California that then turn back inland and route them back through the Midwest.
It was last July that Attalla toured along the East Coast, so safe to say they’re putting their vacation time to good use once again, and now will have covered the entire country from one end to the other.
They go still supporting their 2014 self-titled debut (review here), which has newly seen reissue through Shadow Kingdom Records, and also to herald new material in the works for what I hear is a forthcoming LP.
More on that to come. For now, dates:
ATTALLA – West Coast Tour Dates
ATTALLA is hitting the road again this summer. We’re heading west this time and couldn’t be more excited for these dates! Here are our tour dates!
ATTALLA – West Coast Tour 2016 7/07/2016 Minneapolis, MN – Cabooze 7/08/2016 Minneapolis, MN – Eagles Club 7/09/2016 Fargo, ND – The Aquarium 7/10/2016 Sioux Falls, SD – Bigs Bar 7/11/2016 Rapid City, SD – Black Hills Vinyl 7/12/2016 Billings, MT – Railyard 7/13/2016 Spokane, WA – The Checkerboard 7/14/2016 Seattle, WA – High Dive 7/15/2016 Portland, OR – The Know 7/16/2016 Chico, CA – TBA 7/17/2016 Sacramento, CA – Starlite Lounge 7/18/2016 Pacifica, CA – Winter’s Tavern 7/19/2016 Oakland, CA – The Golden Bull 7/20/2016 Los Angeles, CA – The Complex 7/21/2016 San Diego, CA – The Merrow 7/22/2016 Tucson, AZ – Surly Wench 7/23/2016 Phoenix, AZ – The Sandlot 7/24/2016 Las Vegas, NV – The Warehouse 7/25/2016 Logan, UT – Why Sound 7/26/2016 Colorado Springs, CO – Flux Capacitor 7/27/2016 Denver, CO – TBA 7/28/2016 Omaha, NE – Shamrocks 7/29/2016 Kansas City, MS – MiniBar 7/30/2016 Rockford, IL – Mary’s Place
Posted in Whathaveyou on June 23rd, 2016 by JJ Koczan
Some of T.G. Olson‘s work steers toward raw folk and blues, and some of it is flat-out drone experimentalism. With his new solo — and I do mean solo, since he performs everything on it, recorded and mixed — album, the Across Tundras guitarist/vocalist effectively brings the two sides together, resulting in a kind of ritualized soundscape Americana. There’s something lurking deep in the underlying hum of “Blisslessness,” but a steady acoustic strum there and in the earlier “Hope Slivers” that keeps the material grounded, leaving Olson‘s vocals free to become part of the ether, which they do, contributing either far-back lyrics or ambient melody, as on the aforementioned “Blisslessness,” the longest track on the album by far at over eight minutes.
The album just got released — like, an hour ago — so obviously there’s no word yet on whether or not Olson will put together a physical version. In the meantime, it’s available via the Across Tundras/T.G. Olson Bandcamp page in name-your-price fashion.
I know I’ve said this before, but if you don’t already keep up with that Bandcamp page, you should. Aside from being dirt cheap on the whole, Olson‘s physical releases are almost always gorgeously hand-made and come with extra tracks, individualized package designs, etc.
Still waiting on news one of these days about the next Across Tundras LP, but in the meantime, The Broken End of the Deal is Olson‘s second solo offering of the year behind January’s Quicksilver Sound (discussed here), so there’s been plenty to chew on:
The Broken End of the Deal by T.G. Olson
Across Tundras & T.G. Olson just released The Broken End of the Deal by T.G. Olson.
1. Tough Break 05:11 2. Hope Slivers 03:34 3. Green Sahara 01:21 4. Blisslessness 08:15 5. Hum 00:54 6. Distilled to Nothing 03:14 7. Always Turning Away 01:12 8. Walk the Lonesome Valley 04:28
All instruments and soundscapes were improvised, played, distorted, recorded, and mixed by T.G. Olson in the Spring of 2016.
New Sounds of the Past. Old Sounds for the Future.
This week, respected Brooklyn venue The Acheron announced that as of next month, it would no longer be hosting shows. It’s a considerable blow to New York’s support system for all things heavy and metal, and from grind to doom and all in between, The Acheron has been a home for one of the most vital undergrounds in the US. Goes without saying that it will be much missed.
It’s been four years since frenetic psych rockers La Otracina toured Europe, and in the interim, members have gone on to found other projects, explore other creative facets. Murmurs of a La Otracina reunion started brewing a while ago, and they’ve done a couple shows over the last few months, but even apart from The Acheron closing, it’s bittersweet to have La Otracina‘s July 6 show, with The Company Corvette and Fox 45 supporting, as one for The Obelisk Presents, because it’s also going to be the official goodbye for the band.
Just days before the venue shuts down, La Otracina will call it quits on one of Brooklyn’s most venerable stages. It’s an ending worthy of the creative breadth La Otracina showed over their prolific career, which is fodder for cult worship if ever there was.
Below, spearhead Adam Kriney talks about the show and what led to his decision to bring the band to an end. Ticket and other links at the bottom of the post.
Adam Kriney on La Otracina’s farewell:
It is with great pride, a clear head and resolved heart that I announce the final LA OTRACINA performance and the true end of the artistic entity known as such. Started many moons ago in 2003, when I had just moved to Brooklyn, the band was my outlet to explore the outer reaches of experimental, progressive, improvised and psychedelic musical worlds, merging them into a unique voice that reflected my interests, abilities, and the contributing talent of who I was playing with at the time.
Over the years, the lineups would change, vibe would change, intentions would change, and generally speaking the group became a pure extension of both my artistic discoveries and creative wants, and I was forever on a search for those who wanted to chart unknown territories with me… and I found many, both willing and resistant, to leap off of the abyss with me, to quite a mixed effect!
So here we are, 13 frenetic, chaotic, and shoulder-shrugging years later, and after about 20 releases (from CD-Rs and splits/comps to 12” EPs and double-albums), and approximately 300 concerts across the US and two European tours (the final one being the massive 46-date/18-country 2012 EU Tour), I have come to the conclusion that there is nothing more to say artistically under this group name. The sordid, bizarre, schizophrenic, multi-genre, juggernaut of LA OTRACINA no longer holds any interest for me to pursue, and is filled with enough emotional baggage and unrequited output/dedication to fill a 747!
Of course since the initial hiatus in 2012, I got extremely involved with the creation of THE GOLDEN GRASS where the majority of my time/energy now resides, to which things are going quite well and joyous! Current (as well as past) guitarist Philippe Ortanez has also been busy with his groups POLYGAMYST and VIMANA which are both worth your investigation. It’s been a wild ride, and the discography speaks for itself… but alas, July 6 2016, shall be the last cosmic dance of the Otra-sonic Spaceship!
Also performing at The Acheron gig will be Rochester, NY heavy doom rock quartet Fox 45 and Philadelphia, PA, psychedelic doom trio The Company Corvette! It’s sure to be a heavy pulsing night from some top notch northeast US bands!
We continue today to make our way through The Obelisk’s Summer 2016 Quarterly Review. Yesterday we passed the halfway point, always pivotal, and today brings another batch of 10 albums from the realms of doom, heavy rock, heavy psych, boogie rock, and beyond that I’m looking forward to digging into. I’ve been waking up early mornings all week to put these together — in bed circa 10PM, out of bed at 6AM — but it’s been worth it to see the response the posts have gotten so far and, I’ll say it once again, I hope you’ve found something you dig in what’s already out there, or if not, that by the time we wrap tomorrow something piques your interest. Let’s do it.
Quarterly Review #31-40:
The Order of Israfel, Red Robes
Swedish double-guitar four-piece The Order of Israfel make their second offering in Red Robes. Issued, like its 2014 predecessor, Wisdom, by Napalm Records, the new collection tops out at 59 minute/eight tracks of classically rolling doom. Guitarist/vocalist Tom Sutton (also Horisont, ex-Church of Misery) leads the charge for the Gothenburg-based unit, and along with guitarist Staffan Björck, bassist Patrik Andersson Winberg and drummer Hans Lilja, he brings to light a trad doom not so far removed in some of its impulses from some others throughout Northern Europe in the post-Reverend Bizarre sphere, but showing a personality of its own in the layered vocals of “Von Sturmer” and the acoustic “Fallen Children,” which follows, the choral arrangement in the earlier “The Red Robes” and the speedier “A Shadow in the Hills,” which precedes the crawling 16-minute closer “The Thirst,” its slow-nodding finish underscoring what The Order of Israfel bring of themselves to the classic form in songwriting and overall cohesion of purpose.
It’s a little bit of everything. Landskap’s aptly-titled third album, III, brings out ‘70s vibe with the organ and underlying shuffle of opener “Wayfarer’s Sacrifice,” but offers a doomier feel in the vocals and guitar, and the band go on to execute Doors-gone-prog moodiness on centerpiece “The Trick to Letting Go” and more psychedelic fuzz on the subsequent “The Hand that Takes Away.” So yeah, the London five-piece of vocalist Jake Harding, guitarist George Pan, bassist Christopher West (ex-Trippy Wicked, Groan), drummer Paul Westwood and keyboardist Kostas Panagiotou cover a good bit if ground in just five tracks, tying it all together via Harding’s vocals and a comfortable pace across the board, even on the more insistent “Awakening the Divide,” though that consistency gets toyed with some as nine-minute closer “Mask of Apathy” moves from its dreamy, spacious initial stretch into more uptempo push as payoff for the album as a whole. All the better to have Landskap shift their own methods as fluidly as they meld different styles across III’s engaging span.
If I have a speed at this point, Pooty Owldom is pretty much it. The Virginia-based duo of Matt “Big Jim” Shively and Walter Barry – also two-thirds of the trio Olson/Shively/Barry, which released their debut, Teirra del Fuego Blues (review here), in 2014 – cross the lines between psychedelia, krautrock, folk, weirdo prog and funk with the carefree fluidity of pre-jam-band Ween on their self-titled first outing under their new moniker, and hopefully it’s not the last one, because whether it’s the soap-opera daydream keys of “The Owlet” or any number of the other owl-themed cuts here – “Fuzzy Pellet” is a personal favorite, but who could argue with the bassline/piano tap of “Owls with Big Donuts?” – there’s a considerable creative breadth at work in kind with what sounds like a really good time in progress. Not one for everybody, but for me, I’d love to hear Shively and Barry flesh these ideas out further over longer pieces – “Torus Landing” goes furthest here at 4:53 – and bring the jazzy rhythmic sunbathing of “Target: Mouse” to even greater experimental realization. However it comes, more please.
A guitar/drum duo based in Cherkasy, Ukraine, Celophys issued their third album, Ammonite, last year through Robust Fellow Records. The CD arrives as yet another example of the Ukraine’s burgeoning heavy scene, along with Kiev acts like Stoned Jesus, Bomg, Soom, Mozergush, Ethereal Riffian and others, and brings a noteworthy sense of lumbering across its mostly-extended seven tracks, beginning with 12-minute opener and longest cut (immediate points) “Baron,” which melds slow-grind sludge riffing with deathly growls and rasp, which the charmingly-named “Spaceburger” and the later drumless drone-feast “Caveman Ritual” continue to build out in atmosphere and snail’s-pace intensity. Feedback, massive tonality, plodding groove – these are hardly unfamiliar elements, but drummer/vocalist Alexander Beregovoy and guitarist Miroslav Kopeyka bring about a fervent bludgeoning across Ammonite that should have even the jaded among those who approach it nodding approval. Also noteworthy is the limited-to-53 “Nautilus Pack” which comes in a hand-carved, custom-designed oversized wood case with special graffiti art, a sticker and a pin, as well as the digipak version of the album.
Dunbarrow’s self-titled debut hits at a curious moment. They might be a few years ahead of their time in returning to the roots of vintage-style heavy rock, but in so doing, they basically take up the mantle that groups like Witchcraft, Graveyard, Kadavar and Blues Pills have left behind in favor of more modern production styles. Specifically, the Norwegian four-piece, who had a handful of shorter digital releases out before, come across in direct conversation with the self-titled Witchcraft debut from 2004. Strange to think that a record with an aesthetic so bent on looking backward could actually be forward-thinking — portrait of what goes around, coming around — but Dunbarrow offer persuasive argument in favor of retro orthodoxy in the swaying “You Knew I was a Snake” and the subdued brooding of “Guillotine.” Whether their bet pays off will be something to find out over the next couple years and as their sound continues to develop, but for their first full-length, they show clever songcraft, a clear idea of what they want to do, and the potential to move that forward in intriguing ways.
I’ll rarely hone in on one instrument throughout an album, but the bass tone on Brutus’ third LP, Wandering Blind (on Svart), has to be heard to be believed. With a goodtime take on ‘70s shuffle, there’s plenty of room for the low end to wind its way around the guitar, and it does. Of course, that’s not all the Swedish/Norwegian five-piece have going for them in these nine live-sounding tracks, as shown in the swaying solo section of “Whirwind of Madness” or the stomp of “Blind Village.” They’re not through the opening title-track before multiple Sabbath references are dropped in the lyrics, and indeed they’re a touchstone, but the more upbeat feel of “The Killer” and the back and forth of closer “Living in a Daze” play to deeper influences from classic heavy rock and its modern incarnations, culminating in a multi-layer guitar solo backed by tambourine, bass, and drums that really seems to sum up the friendly and unpretentious vibe Brutus elicit.
Finnish trio Vallihauta make their self-titled debut on Future Lunch with eight raw tracks that span between the hardcore punk/death ‘n’ roll of “Puoliverinen” and the doomed churn in the early going of “Reviiri.” One can basically tell looking at the runtimes of the cuts where Vallihauta are headed with each song, and they adjust their songwriting capably to coincide with the given tempo shifts, resulting in a back and forth as playful as it is aggressive in its sound and harsh low-end buzz, but to their credit, they bring the two approaches together effectively on closer “Ote,” shifting from the record’s most gurgling rumble and tortured plod to increasingly intense punkishness that hits headfirst into a final slowdown to end the album. A multi-faceted approach is rarely something to complain about, and it certainly isn’t here, but the challenge going forward for Vallihauta will be to build on that bridging of gaps in “Ote” without losing either the ferocity of their faster material or the weight of the slower.
The third Pater Nembrot album, Nusun (on Go Down Records), follows five years behind 2011’s Sequoia Seeds (review here), and for Italian heavy rock, it’s been a hell of a half-decade. Now recognized as one of the strongest scenes in Europe, Italy has become a hotbed and Pater Nembrot’s return couldn’t be better timed. The nine-track outing brings some genuinely expansive moments, as with the 10-minute “Architeuthis” for which Christian Peters (Samsara Blues Experiment) guests on synth, or the wah-soaked second half of “The Rich Kids of Teheran,” but even shorter pieces like “Young Rite” effectively bring together grunge and heavy psych influences. The piano-laced opener “Lostman” and acoustic-strummed closer “Dead Polygon” seem to be speaking right to each other and are somewhat at remove with the rest of the record, perhaps the minute-long bass interlude “Uknap” aside (perhaps not), but the four-piece know their game by this point and just when a song like “Overwhelmed” seems like it’s going to lose its course, they bring it around to Nusun’s most satisfying instrumental build.
Almost immediately upon the band starting “Device,” the sense of ambition in Floodlore’s debut album, When it was Written, is palpable. A psych-infused trio from Northern Virginia, they range freely between the classic-minded “Justice” and fuzzy push of “Bars” before heading back to jammier fare for “Release,” which calls to mind All Them Witches for its meandering blues, and into harder-edged winding riffs for “Evening.” Both “Peace” and “Glow” continue to flesh out one side or the other, but an obvious focal point is the three-part/28-minute closer “Sun/When the Floodlore was Written/In Praise of Alan Watts,” which starts out nodding at surf rock before space-progging out for about 20 minutes, working into an out of extended solos and culminating in swirl and thrust that lives up to the band’s clear will for exploration. Some smoothing out to do in terms of balancing the mix (vocals came through high, though I’ll allow that could be my speakers), but When it was Written impresses in concept and execution and as Floodlore’s first full-length, it’s remarkably encouraging.
When it starts to feel like maybe you’ve got a given track figured out, that seems to be the moment when Eugene, Oregon, five-piece Red Cloud turn something around on their full-length debut, Ursa Minor, and though their foundation is still very much in heavy rock, they build on that shifting into and out of desert stylizations and psychedelic swirl. The band – here guitarist/vocalist/bassist Aaron Williams, guitarist Dennis Medina, drummer/engineer Lauren Roberts and bassist/guitarist Sean Loos, though Loos seems to have left the band and bassist Mike Nemeth and keyboardist Garrett Davis come aboard – keep the material consistent by going back to that heavy rock foundation and through a clear focus on songwriting. Even in the somewhat lumbering starts and stops of “Smoke Screen,” these tracks feel worked on and carefully arranged, and though they go different places – “Ghost Dance” with its manic shuffle, closer “Sick Eagle” with its Songs for the Deaf-style drive – they universally take an efficient route to get there.
