It makes sense somehow that after 12 years and countless studio and live releases, Øresund Space Collective would at last go transdimensional. The vehicle for the beginning of their evolution into a noncorporeal cybernetic form is called Kybalion, and actually the title refers to the book of Hermetic philosophy teaching, among others, the principle of mentalism that puts thought as the basis for, well, everything, but either way, they sound thrilled to make the trip. Featuring eight songs and an 80-minute 2LP run, it was recorded in Nov. 2016, at either the same session or concurrent gathering to when the somewhat amorphous improv jam unit put down what became late 2017’s Hallucinations Inside the Oracle (review here). That’s by no means the first time Øresund Space Collective have gotten more than one record out of a session — 2016’s Visions Of… (review here), Different Creatures (review here) and Ode to a Black Hole (review here) were all recorded over a period of three days in Oct. 2014 — so there may yet be more to come from the Nov. 2016 session.

Either way, they certainly give plenty to chew on in extended jams like 21-minute opener and longest track (immediate points) “Open the Door and Ride,” and as alluded to at the outset, they’re working in multiple dimensions. The Space Rock Productions vinyl and a special edition of the CD come with cover art and extra artwork that works with an augmented reality app to give a 3D art experience, the cover coming to life as Øresund Space Collective synth wizard and bandleader Scott “Dr. Space” Heller speaks in echo about the mentalism and the power of thought in the universe and so on. Even the labels of the LP itself see the artwork of Batuhan Bintas (CyberRabbit) come to life. It looks to be remarkably well done, and as the cover is filled with various iconography, there’s plenty to dig into, from blue Venus to a rocking future Stephen Hawking and acid guru Owsley Stanley on what seems to be a cosmic bicycle.

As to the songs themselves, on the whole they’re shorter snippets than Øresund Space Collective sometimes manifest, but whether it’s the funky guitar and violin in the 17-minute “Take a Trip” or the classic rock flair to the extended guitar lead in “Open the Door and Ride,” there is a sense of personality to each jam that stands it out among its peers, whether it’s the running water sounds and later psychedelic thrust of “Pixie Dust,” the more forward synth of and motorik beat of “Down the Tube” or the sci-fi wash of “Sequencing the Human Brain,” synth and keyboard intertwining along with pulled bluesy guitar notes and an ultra-psychedelic crux that pushes the drums deep into the mix to let the ambience hold sway. Two sort-of-interludes appear as the second and second-to-last tracks, with “Drop It – Tropical Flavour of the Month” and “New Tropical Flavor” that indeed are named for the surf sound of the guitar, and they’re quick at under three minutes apiece and do well to tie together some of the disparate sides of Kybalion.

The band must have a million of these “usable moments” hanging around from their periodic get-in-the-studio-and-hit-record sessions, but the “Tropical” duo are put to effective use here. The last cut and the just the third out of the eight to touch the 10-minute mark is “Smooth Future,” and while, again, it’s relatively short at 10:10, it’s a gorgeous and serene note to end on, with synth gently cascading in and out in a slow-motion swirl as violin and guitar accent each other and the drums and bass hold together a steady and laid back space rocking outward progression. It comes to a pretty fervent push in its final minutes, but by the time they get there, the sense of drift is so palpable that there’s really nothing overstated about it, and they end, as the title indicates, smooth, with drums, synth and effects-laced guitars gently letting the listener go back to reality.

But who the hell wants to be in reality? Obviously not Øresund Space Collective, or they wouldn’t proffer such resonant sparefaring jams in the first place. As always for them, the music is improvised, and that exploratory sensibility has come to define their work. I have no doubt that they have their bumps in the creative road, and when I called pieces “snippets” above, that wasn’t an accident Even as “Pixie Dust,” “Down the Tube” and “Sequencing of the Human Brain” reach over nine minutes long, they feel like glimpses of longer jams, fluid moments captured on tape. Behind September’s Live in Berlin 2018 (review here) and May’s Chatoyant Breath (review here), Kybalion is the third Øresund Space Collective offering of 2018 — though Dr. Space also had a second solo album out — and it may or may not be the final collection culled from that Nov. 2016 session, but either way, for its multi-phase presentation and its as-ever glimpse at the big-bang moment of the creative process, the very beginnings of the spark that for many becomes the foundation of verses or choruses, the collective’s latest astrojazz/krautronaut excursion should well please fans looking to bask in the grand kosmiche chill that unites the various strings of galaxies and mind, thought and form.

Recent past outings have seen them partnered with former Siena Root/Indian classicist multi-instrumentalist KG Westman (Hallucinations Inside the Oracle) and guitarist Gary Arce of Yawning Man (Chatoyant Breath), but Kybalion reminds that so much of the appeal of Øresund Space Collective in the first place comes from the chemistry happening in the moment the jams are taking place, in that marriage between the ephemeral and the ethereal, their music seeming to speak to something so timeless while also being fleeting and gone the moment it’s put down, since, inevitably, the same improvisation can’t happen twice. Their megajams continue to stand them out in the sphere of heavy psychedelia and space rock, and while I don’t know the next time Øresund Space Collective will get together for a few days in Copenhagen or elsewhere, they only ever seem to push themselves further into the greater reaches of Far Out, and I can hear nothing in Kybalion to indicate their expansion will stop anytime soon.

Øresund Space Collective, Kybalion AR demonstration

Øresund Space Collective, Kybalion (2018)

Øresund Space Collective on The Facebooks

Øresund Space Collective on Bandcamp

Øresund Space Collective website

If you’re looking at the band moniker and thinking of the 2011 flop/would’ve-been-high-budget-blockbuster, the Belgian rockers predate it by more than a decade. In fact, taking their name presumably from the comic on which that movie was based, Belgian rockers Cowboys & Aliens predate the film by more than a decade. They formed in 1996 — ancient history by any measure; ha — and put out four records in the pre-social media era before fading out circa the middle of the last decade, only to return in this one. Still, a more than 20-year history backs them and Horses of Rebellion, which is due out March 15 on Polderrecords, will be their first long-player since 2005’s Language of Superstars, though they also had EPs out in 2011 and 2014.

Long-underrated European underground heavy rock looking to make a comeback after more than a decade from their last album? Yeah, you know that’s my jam.

Info follows here, courtesy of the PR wire:

Polderrecords announces new album by Cowboys & Aliens

POLDERRECORDS is happy to announce the signing of Belgian’s finest stoner rock legends for their 5th full-length album ‘HORSES OF REBELLION’ out March, 2019.

Cowboys & Aliens is a four-piece stoner rock band from Bruges, Belgium. Formed in 1996, they released 4 full studio albums before falling into hiatus in 2006. The band reunited with the original lineup from ‘’ in 2011 with a brand new EP: “Sandpaper Blues Knockout” and gave a hell of a show at DesertFest Antwerp and opened up for Deep Purple (for the second time) at Vorst Nationaal. After playing countless festivals around Europe they released another EP in 2014: “Surrounded by Enemies” that took them once more to numerous stages in Belgium, Holland and Germany.

Now the time has come for their 5th full album: HORSES OF REBELLION to be released March 15th on POLDERRECORDS. The album was recorded and mixed by Pieter Nyckees at Shellshock Studio and mastered by Uwe Teichert at Elektropolis Brussels.

‘HORSES OF REBELLION’ is a classic guide on how to mix different styles into a breathtaking heavy cocktail. It’s all about melodic guitars and classic vocal harmonies, maintaining the riff-loaden grooves and ponderous rhythms Cowboys & Aliens are so well known for.

‘HORSES OF REBELLION’ is a diverse album with some punk attitude injections, classic stoner rock and the heavy edge of nineties grunge … and even an acoustic masterpiece!

Prepare yourself for a trip loaded with heavy fuzz, riffs and catchy melodies.

Brace yourself for impact soon as the album will release digitally on Cowboys & Aliens Bandcamp and all streaming platforms March 1st, 2019 and get ready to groove along to an absolute monster of an album! CD and Vinyl release: March 15th, 2019.

PR018 – COWBOYS AND ALIENS – ‘HORSES OF REBELLION’,
out on cd and vinyl March 15th, 2019.

COWBOYS AND ALIENS are:
John Pollentier – Guitar
Henk Vanhee – Vocals
Peter Gaelens – Drums
Tom Neirynck – Bass

All songs written,arranged and produced by COWBOYS & ALIENS
All lyrics by Henk V.
Recorded and mixed at Shellshock Studio by Pieter Nyckees.
Mastered at Electropolis Brussels by Uwe Teichert.
Artwork by Sandy Verfaille (Inksane Tattoo)
Photos by Trees Rommelaere
Layout & design by Tom Maene and Henk V.

Track listing:
Side A
Soaking – 04:05
Still in the Shade – 03:37
Two Times a Man – 04:45
Sheep Bloody Sheep – 05:01
Take a Good Look Around – 04:22

Side B
Horses of Rebellion – 03:59
Morning Again – 04:14
Hollow – 03:42
Refuse – 03:11
Walk a Mile in my Shoes – 04:21
Splendid Isolation – 02:20

https://cowboysandaliens.bandcamp.com
http://www.facebook.com/cowboysandaliensgrooves/
http://www.polderrecords.be

Cowboys & Aliens, Surrounded by Enemies (2013)

I was lucky enough to be in the room this past August when The Munsens took the stage at Psycho Las Vegas (review here). It was an “oh shit!” kind of scenario. They’d timed the release of the single “Dirge (For Those to Come)” to the festival, but I hadn’t heard it, so the three-piece got going and started meting out scorched-sludge punishment the whole room knew what it did wrong and why it deserved it, and it was as much a surprise (to me) as it was killer. They owned the joint by the time they were done — or was it Vinyl; ha — and seeing them only made me look forward to what they’d do with their impending full-length debut.

We’ll find that out Feb. 15 as Sailor Records issues Unhanded, for which “Dirge (For Those to Come)” serves as the leadoff.

The PR wire brought the album art and details:

THE MUNSENS: Denver’s Blackened Doom Trio To Release Debut Full-Length, Unhanded, Through Denver’s Sailor Records In February

Denver, Colorado’s THE MUNSENS will deliver their debut full-length album, Unhanded, on February 15th through their new cooperation with Denver’s Sailor Records. The LP comes following a productive 2018 Summer that included performances at Psycho Las Vegas, 71Grind IV, Austin Terror Fest, Electric Funeral Fest, and more. Album details and the opening track from Unhanded are now posted.

THE MUNSENS make noise from a Colfax Avenue dungeon, having carved out a place of their own in the much-lauded Denver metal scene over recent years. Their debut LP, Unhanded is a step in a new direction for the band, melding elements of the members’ early influences in punk, black metal, and hardcore. Offering a more complete representation of the outfit’s output from prior releases, Unhanded distinguishes THE MUNSENS as one of the more unique and enthralling bands on the metal touring circuit.

THE MUNSENS released the LP’s opening track for their Psycho Las Vegas performance over the Summer. Stream the monumental “Dirge (For Those To Come)” at YouTube RIGHT HERE, Spotify HERE, and Bandcamp HERE.

Produced by the band, Unhanded delivers nearly forty minutes of music through five mammoth songs, the album engineered by Mike Moebius at Moonlight Mile Recording, mastered by Dennis Pleckham at Comatose Studio, and finished with photography by Michael Goodwin. The record will see release on February 15th, 2019 via Denver’s Sailor Records through all digital platforms and vinyl formats, with both black and clear/black splatter variants.

Preorders for the album and additional audio samples from the LP will see release in the weeks ahead. THE MUNSENS will tour across the Southwest US for the first half of March in support of the album, with a hometown album release show on March 2nd. The band will also support Monolord on May 2nd. The remaining dates for the March tour and more live dates will be announced shortly.

Unhanded Track Listing:
1. Dirge (For Those To Come)
2. Pitiful
3. Unhanded
4. Bleeding From The Ears
5. Rivers Of Error

THE MUNSENS Live:
3/02/2018 The Hi Dive – Denver, CO *Unhanded release show
5/02/2018 The Hi Dive – Denver, CO w/ Monolord

THE MUNSENS:
Michael Goodwin – bass/vocals
Shaun Goodwin – guitars/vocals
Graham Wesselhoff – drums

https://themunsensnj.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/themunsens
https://www.instagram.com/themunsens
https://www.facebook.com/Sailor-Records-359148970778780/
https://www.sailorrecords.com/
https://sailor-records.bandcamp.com/

The Munsens, “Dirge (For Those to Come)”

Even for T.G. Olson, four full-lengths in a year is a lot. The once and perhaps future guitarist/vocalist of Across Tundras started 2018 by issuing Owned and Operated by Twang Trust LLC and A Stone that Forever Rolls (both reviewed here) consecutively in February and March, and it would seem Autumn has been no less productive, with Earthen Pyramid (review here) in September, the two-songer single Wasatch Valley Lady and the Man from Table Mountain (review here), and the latest collection, Riding Roughshod at the end of October. One might perhaps speculate that the successive-month patterning of albums is the result of two especially productive writing periods, but given Olson‘s solo discography — I don’t even know what number release he’s up to in the past five-plus years, but it’s well into the teens at least, and more still if one counts his noise outfit Inget Namn or his drone incarnation Funeral Electrical, not to mention the odd Across Tundras offering here and there; it’s all up on the Bandcamp site for Electric Relics Audio Artifacts, his label, as name-your-price downloads — it’s hard to imagine a time at which he’s not writing songs.

It may well be he just had time in those two seasonal blocks to record when he didn’t over the summer. In any case, four full-length albums in eight months would be enough to make Hawkwind blush, but it’s not necessarily out of character for Olson, and it’s one of the reasons to most admire his project: it’s relentless. As subdued, as melancholic as some of his output can be — and certainly is on Riding Roughshod as well, its nine-song/36-minute run based around acoustic guitar and vocals with layers of wistful pedal steel and other, more experimental aspects rolled in — there is an immediacy to it as well. It is an attempt on Olson‘s part to capture the barebones roots of American folk music, and to put his own twist thereupon. Does that make a song like “Cautious Eyes” or the preceding “Chaser” something along the lines of experimentalist traditionalism? It’s in this collision of ideas that Olson seems most comfortable.

Recording specifics for Riding Roughshod are sparse, but it seems most likely Olson tracked the songs DIY as is his wont, and along with the album, he has it tagged “A=432HZ,” referring to the tuning of A at a frequency said to have healing properties toward cosmic oneness. I’m neither an expert on music theory nor frequency manipulation, but songcraft-as-catharsis is certainly an easy idea to get on board with, and if that’s what’s happening here, so be it. From the opening title-track — making the album like poem titled for its first line — onward, a resonance persists thanks in no small part to the atmospheric layers of drone and various other instruments worked in as Olson seems to harness a mountainous naturalism to a fervent sense of human presence within an overwhelming landscape.

“Riding Roughshod” is the shortest track on the long-player that shares its name, and “Chaser” and “Cautious Eyes” follow and lead into the in medias res beginning of “Sunday Morning,” which is wistful enough to almost beg for a weepy country fiddle but does just fine with the guitar instead. His voice has a kind of breathy approach that is very much his own with no less twang than the backing pedal steel, but whether he’s forward in the mix as on the centerpiece “Keep it Hidden” or farther back as on the title-cut, he never fails to do what will best serve the song in ambience and overarching presentation. That impulse is no less a signature for Olson than his style of singing, but he barely stops to notice before he’s on to the next piece, single, project or album. Still, “Pickup Truck” is sentimental enough that its opening guitar line calls to mind The Beatles‘ “Yesterday,” and, though it’s only a little over four minutes long, almost too easy to get lost in when it comes to the emotionalism on display. The subsequent “Backslider” holds truer to a guitar-in-open-space feel, but fits atmospherically with the surroundings and the preceding “Pickup Truck,” seeming to stop early only to let the guitar carry it quietly out.

The sometimes (purposefully) choppy waters of Olson‘s cascade of craft seem to smootth themselves out as the penultimate “Bless the Singer of he Torch Song” takes hold, its lyrics far back and murky following the opening title-line. “Bless the Singer of the Torch Song” is a highlight here in the spirit of “Pickup Truck,” “Riding Roughshod” or “Sunday Morning,” but closer “Trespasser” provides a last-minute experimentalist thrust, as Olson dons an angry-Dylan vocal style and tops his plucked guitar strings in double-layered fashion. A sample of someone yelling, presumably at a trespasser, is worked into “Trespasser,” and it gives the final cut on Riding Roughshod a standout element of its own, apart from the rest of the record before it. Olson has used samples and field recordings before, so it’s not out of line with his work necessarily on the whole, but it does serve as a last reminder of just how broad his creative process has become.

That intensity is as encompassing as it is fascinating, since it not only results int his glut of material in an ever-growing discography, it also never seems to fail to result in a quality of material and a distinct sound that belongs to Olson entirely. His work has only become all the more his own during this prolific stretch, and whether it continues or his winds carry him elsewhere, there’s no doubting who you’re hearing when you’re listening to a T.G. Olson release, and one can’t help but view the mania with which he seems to create albums and, on a more basic level, songs, as building an archive, some message from a particular now to a particular future. Maybe he’s thinking of it on those terms and maybe not, but the effect is the same, and his driven creative sensibilities continue to result in individualized endeavors waiting to catch the imagination of any and all who wander in their direction.

T.G. Olson, Riding Roughshod (2018)

Across Tundras on Thee Facebooks

Across Tundras/T.G. Olson on Bandcamp

The three-night Freak Valley fest has unveiled its first headliner in the form of Australia’s Wolfmother. You know, I wrote this announcement. Like two weeks ago. And I thought I put it up and then I got a message yesterday off of Jens, who runs the festival and he was like, “Uh dude, were you going to post that?” Hey, look. Forgetting to post a press release is one thing. It happens regularly enough around here. A lot of stuff comes in, people asking for coverage and so on. Forgetting to post a press release that I wrote? That’s a new level of head-up-my-ass for me. So yeah, if you saw this news already, my apologies, but I wanted to get it up here because, yes, I wrote it, and also because the lineup for Freak Valley 2019 is kicking ass. Next announcement I’ll be more timely. I hope.

The holidays are a special time for us all.

With apologies for tardiness:

°!° WOLFMOTHER °!° BRANT BJORK °!° YOB °!° THE OBSESSED °!° MINAMI DEUTSCH °!° DEAD LORD °!°

Freaks!

Some of you may have already seen the news that leaked, but in case not, Wolfmother are coming to headline Freak Valley Festival 2019! What you didn’t know yet is that Brant Bjork will also headline, and we’ve added Yob, The Obsessed, Minami Deutsch and Dead Lord to the bill!

WOLFMOTHER

The Australian ambassadors of classic heavy rock are celebrating 15 years since the release of their first EP next year, and we couldn’t be more proud to host them as a part of that amazing anniversary. Led by guitarist/vocalist Andrew Stockade, Wolfmother’s four albums have transcended the underground to earn acclaim from all corners of the globe.

Whether it was their landmark 2005 self-titled LP or 2016’s aptly-named Victorious, the band has never given up its roots in classic ‘70s rock and has never failed to push their ideas forward to new stages. Wolfmother have been a generation’s entrée to the ways of ‘70s heavy and its modern incarnations. We are thrilled and proud to have them headlining Freak Valley in 2019!

BRANT BJORK

Make no mistake, Brant Bjork is the godfather of desert rock. This year he joined forces with HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS to release Mankind Woman, a soulful dive into fuzzy funk and heavy groove with his signature jammy smoothness.

Brant Bjork sounds like the kind of cool we’d all like to be, and his live shows are not only a celebration of that and a chance to gawk at a living legend from Kyuss and Fu Manchu, but a chance to feel that righteousness in every fuzzy note and low desert punk vibe. He is unmistakable and we can’t wait to host him on the Freak Valley stage.

YOB

Some day, some place, in some context, you’ll be telling people about the time you saw YOB. Maybe FREAK VALLEY will be the first time you’ve ever caught the Oregonian trio live. Maybe not. But either way, that story will take place. Mark our words. YOB’s 2018 album, Our Raw Heart, continues a progressive thread that’s made them not only one of the most distinct bands in doom, but among the most pivotal heavy acts of their generation. Whether you’ve seen them before or not, they are utterly essential, like a spiritual restoration.

The Obsessed

Scott “Wino” Weinrich returns to Europe bringing with him the modern incarnation of ultra-classic doomers The Obsessed. The storied guitarist/vocalist known also for his work in Saint Vitus, The Hidden Hand, Spirit Caravan, Shrinebuilder, etc., leads the lineup of bassist Reid Raley (also Rwake) and drummer Brian Costantino in the revitalized power trio, and their 2017 album, Sacred, showed that their years away did nothing to dull the force of their impact. Mandatory doom.

Minami Deutsch

Tokyo space rockers Minami Deutsch make an exclusive European appearance at FREAK VALLEY 2019! That’s right: if you want ‘em — and you do — then Netphen/Deuz is the place to be. Working with the label Guruguru Brain, Minami Deutsch released their second LP, With Dim Light, this year, and mellowed out some of the space rocking furies of their self-titled debut, but the journey has just begun for these psychedelic explorers, and we can’t wait to be bathed in the warm lysergic sounds they’ll bring (only!) to FREAK VALLEY.

Dead Lord

How are you gonna say no to Dead Lord? You’re not. The Swedish Thin Lizzy-style bouncers have kicked around the underground in Europe and the UK for the last five years, and we’ve hosted them before at other events, but this will be their first appearance at FREAK VALLEY FESTIVAL itself, and we can’t wait to welcome their uptempo, classic-styled heavy rock to our stage. Their third album, In Ignorance We Trust, came out last year on Century Media Records, so make sure you’re schooled by the time they get here, because you won’t want to miss it.

Line-up 2019:
WOLFMOTHER, BRANT BJORK, YOB, The Obsessed, The Vintage Caravan, Electric Moon, Minami Deutsch, Spaceslug, Arc of Ascent, Dead Lord, Slomatics

FREAK VALLEY FESTIVAL 2019 // No Fillers – Just Killers

www.freakvalley.de
https://www.facebook.com/freakvalley
https://www.facebook.com/events/299339670806919/
https://twitter.com/FreakValley

YOB, Our Raw Heart (2018)

Hey, if it works, don’t mess with it. Poland’s Belzebong and France’s The Necromancers toured together this past Fall and they’ll head out once more in March on an apparent second leg of their run together. The shows are presented by Sound of Liberation, and with Belzebong having released Light the Dankness (review here) in the meantime as The Necromancers continue to support their second LP, Of Blood and Wine (review here), it’s all the more an occasion. One assumes the bands must have gotten along pretty well or the tour wouldn’t be happening after the first one, so that’s kind of an awesome atmosphere to think of. Shows are better when the bands playing are having a good time. Thus spake science.

Sound of Liberation posted the following dates before breaking for the holidays:

We couldn’t leave for our little x-mas/new year’s break without giving you one more tour set for the spring!

Just back from the road 3 weeks ago, BelzebonG & The Necromancers will team up again in March/April for the second leg of their “Purveyors of Dankness” Tour!

Still some dates missing, but most of the tour is here:
19.03.19 (D) Dresden / Chemiefabrik (Belzebong Only)
20.03.19 (D) Osnabrück / Westwerk (Belzebong Only)
21.03.19 (NL) Nijmegen / Merleyn
23.03.19 (FR) Le Havre / CEM (Belzebong Only)
25.03.19 (UK) Bristol / The Lanes
27.03.19 (UK) Glasgow / Nice N Sleazy
29.03.19 (UK) Cardiff / TBC
30.03.19 (UK) Manchester / Riffolution Festival
31.03.19 (UK) London / The Underworld
03.04.19 (D) Hamburg / Molotow
04.04.19 (DK) Copenhagen / Stengade
05.04.19 (D) Cottbus / Zum Faulen August
06.04.19 (CZ) Prag / 007

Polish heavy-doomfuzz-metal outfit BELZEBONG started in 2008, and since then they bring tons of evil weedian riffage for persistent ones. The band drowns themselves in a sea of distortion and fuzz, and after their appearances at prestigious festivals such as Stoned From The Underground, Desertfest Berlin & London, fans of Doom Metal have found a new hero in the scene!

From Progressive Rock to Doom Metal, THE NECROMANCERS’ music is a condensed hybrid of muddy influences emerging from fuzzy and mesmerising witchy riffs, metallic passion, and thickened doom. Think of an unhappy encounter between dark gods at the corner of a foggy street and you’ll get a feeling.

https://www.facebook.com/belzebong420/
www.soundofliberation.com/belzebong

https://www.facebook.com/thenecromancersband/
www.soundofliberation.com/the-necromancers

Belzebong, Light the Dankness (2018)

The Necromancers, Of Blood and Wine (2018)

I can’t help but wonder what the next studio album from Papir will bring. The Copenhagen-based progressive instrumentalists kind of blew the doors open with 2017’s V (review here) as regards the spaces their sound explores, and they’ve always been a forward-thinking band, so as they’re aligned to the progressive-minded Stickman Records and with Nicklas Sørensen also venturing into a string of solo releases, it seems fair to expect a new Papir outing to have a broad reach. The last one certainly did. Also the one before that. And the one before that. Etc.

So while I go ahead and get my hopes up, we’ll see as more solid release dates come around when the album is done and all that. But it’s in progress, and I have little doubt that “progress” is the right word for what’s happening. Here’s looking forward as one so often does at the beginning of a year.

Stickman sent word down the PR wire. Dig it:

Papir in studio

We’ve received word that Papir is already back in the studio recording what will become their 6th studio record! Last year, the band released their first album with us (their fifth – V) and in 2018 we reissued their first. Undoubtedly one of the most unique bands in psychedelic rock – if one can even call it that, with their recent tendencies towards atmospheric soundscapes – we’re looking forward to seeing what the band has been working on!

Papir has gradually developed their unique vision of instrumental rock over the course of four studio albums, culminating in their first full-length for Stickman Records, the aptly titled “V”. The amazing thing about Papir is how they transform psychedelic music into something new and relevant, something truly unique. Sure, they know their kraut- and prog-rock history, but unlike the majority of bands in the present day psych-rock scene they venture far beyond mere pastiche. Mounting the stage, the trio surprise from the get-go: no fully-tattooed longhairs with ostentatious battle vests or getups in sight – just three clean-cut young men, cheery, authentic. Pretense and image are rendered unnecessary – these guys can play and let their music do the talking. 

Papir is:
Nicklas Sørensen
Christoffer Brøchmann Christensen
Christian Becher Clausen

https://www.facebook.com/papirband
https://papir.bandcamp.com/
https://www.stickman-records.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Stickman-Records-1522369868033940

Papir, V (2017)

Pittsburgh four-piece Horehound worked quickly after forming to turn around their impressive 2016 self-titled debut (review here), which was first released through Blackseed Records and picked up shortly thereafter by Hellmistress Records. In the intervening two years, they’ve worked toward becoming forerunners of Pittsburgh heavy, and their second long-player, Holocene, would seem to do nothing to slow their momentum in that regard. Fronted by the multifaceted vocals of Shy Kennedy — also of Blackseed Records and Pittsburgh’s Descendants of Crom fest — with Brendan Parrish on guitar, Nick Kopco on bass and JD Dauer on drums, Horehound undertake significant development in the six-track (well, six and a quick hidden bonus cut, anyway) and 45-minute long-player, and aligned with Doom Stew Records, they seem to signal their embarking on a different level of their approach even with the Brian Mercer album art.

Their songcraft is in the process of becoming no less textured, and while influences blend from the likes of Paradise Lost, Year of the Cobra, Candlemass (looking at you, “Sloth”) and traditionalist American doom, there is a grit to the production that keep the album earthbound no matter how far it might reach in terms of melody or atmosphere. It’s worth noting that at this point, Horehound have been a band for about three years, and Holocene is their second full-length in less time than than it takes some bands to get together a debut EP, so the fact of their motivation is writ large in their growing body of output, but it’s in their songwriting as well. One can hear a more dynamic presence taking shape in “Dier’s Dirge,” with its hook, “What we’ve become, can’t be undone/What we’ve destroyed, can’t be undone,” delivered patiently by Kennedy atop Parrish‘s severe riffing. That grim outlook is manifest in leadoff and longest track (immediate points) “The Kind,” which begins with a wistful minute-plus stretch of acoustic guitar and seems to work in movements to introduce various elements from the album, be it the somber mood, the melo-sludge push, Kennedy‘s play between growls and clean-sung lines, or the song’s what-if-Electric–Wizard-got-clean capstone solo.

“The Kind” is very much a closer made opener, with the acoustic intro serving largely as the difference in runtime between it and subsequent pieces, and as its feedback ending fades out into the starting crashes of “Dier’s Dirge” — which, as it happens is the second-longest cut at 7:50 — Holocene clearly enters another phase. If we’re picking highlights, I’ll take “Dier’s Dirge” for the already-noted chorus, which is a standout in the departure of the vocals from the melodic patterning of the guitar, but neither is the accomplishment of “The Kind” to be undersold as a standout work. But there’s clearly a shift in momentum with “Dier’s Dirge” picks up and leads into the rest of the album, and as the faster, shorter-at-6:17 “L’Appel du Vide” completes side A, that momentum only gets more fervent as pushed by the ultra-solid rhythm section of Dauer and Kopco, the latter of whom brings a tonal weight to the rolling crash of the drums that proves crucial in conveying the sludgier aspects of what Horehound do.

Those too are prefaced in “The Kind,” of course, but as Holocene pans out, it builds on the parameters set forth in the opener, such that the spacious moments in the beginning of “L’Appel du Vide” set up what follows as a surge of energy, and the compression effects on the vocals add a monstrous feel to the track that the also-sub-seven-minutes “Sloth” picks up as it starts side B. That kind of multi-level structure to the album is further emblematic of the progression they’ve made overall, but also of the changing in their thinking of how an LP should function. Whether you’re listening on a linear format — CD/DL — or one requiring a side switch — LP/CS — there are considerations made such that a flow is maintained front-to-back as well as in individual parts. As the melancholy apex of “Sloth” carries over to the long-held notes of the guitar at the end, giving way to feedback, there’s not interruption of what the band has thus far worked hard to build. And yet the personality of the album is changing.

A bluesy edge makes its way into the beginning verses of “Anastatica,” and trades of volume are effectively made as the track rolls into its chorus of “ooh”s and fluid, languid chorus. But the song, which takes its name from the Rose of Jericho, or the “resurrection plant,” follows suit in a subtle shift from “Sloth” before it in eschewing harsher vocals and so, while it benefits from the tension that at any moment it might become more aggressive, it ultimately shows a willingness on the part of Horehound to do what best serves the whims of their craft — an impulse that will only help them as they continue to move forward, no matter what those whims might dictate as regards screams or anything else. “Sloth” hints at harmonies in its midsection, and closer “Highball” follows suit in terms of casting off the more abrasive growling as it finds Parrish leading the way into the song’s second half with a guitar meander topped with layers of vocal melody for an effect somewhere between Sabbath and Type O Negative that nonetheless carries an air as well of heavy post-rock while building smoothly to a bigger finish.

Dauer tosses in choice cymbal work like it’s nothing as Kopco holds steady on low end and Kennedy brings an ethereality to the final moments on vocals, having said just about all there is to say in the last lines: “You can’t see me/You don’t know me/Yet I know you/You are weak, untrue.” “Highball” caps at just under seven minutes, which is right about standard for Horehound, and a hidden bonus track reverses the screamed portion of the chorus to “Dier’s Dirge” to close out. So technically, there are screams on side B one way or the other. Fair enough. There are those who decry the use of harsh vocal styles outright. I’m not one of them. But it’s interesting that Holocene would divide its sides along such lines, and given the obvious thought put into songwriting and the album’s presentation overall, that doesn’t seem like an accident. As to what it might say about the direction and creative development under way, I wouldn’t guess. The fact of the matter is that as fast as Horehound have worked, they’re still a relatively new band. Holocene is a crucial moment for them in establishing who they want to be in terms of sound and form.

Horehound, “L’Appel du Vide” official video

Horehound, Holocene (2018)

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