Posted in Whathaveyou on February 25th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
Albuquerque-based imprint Desert Records would seem to be working on the Ripple Music model in terms of embarking on a new series of splits, which it has opted to call Legends of the Desert, and you might note that the first installment of the series — which isn’t to be confused with that of the same name run by H42 Records to coincide with Desertfest London and Berlin — comes with a definitive end date in mind as well. Given production schedules and the fact that this isn’t all Desert Records is planning to put out in that time, seven vinyl releases of any sort over two years is an ambitious undertaking, as I think PostWax could probably confirm if Ripple can’t, but they’ve got their modus in the right place with the first pairing, which brings together Austin’s Lord Buffalo and Denver’s Palehorse/Palerider and is due out June 12.
You ever have one of those bands you avoided listening to because you knew you’d dig it and you kind of felt like maybe you didn’t have the energy to spare for the emotional commitment of actually undertaken a considered listen of their work? That’s me and Palehorse/Palerider. I knew I’d be into it, but I hadn’t actually listened to them for the first time until putting this post together. And you know what? I dig it. Not a surprise.
Desert Records sent the announcement down the PR wire. For what it’s worth, I heart-emoji Sister Bar, should you happen to be in the neighborhood:
“Legends of the Desert” new album series by Desert Records
Desert Records is excited to announce a new compilation series called “Legends of the Desert”. The series kicks off on June 12th with the release featuring the split with Lord Buffalo (Austin, TX) and Palehorse/Palerider (Denver, CO). Spanning seven albums total over the course of two years, the series will include legendary Desert Rock bands (to be announced) mixed in with new and upcoming bands.
“Legends of the Desert” meaning is a double entendre, with the most obvious referring to the legendary Desert Rock bands that will be featured throughout the series. The second meaning is “musical tales or legends of the desert”, reflected in the songs from all the bands.
The artist for the series will Joshua Mathus (Phoenix, AZ) , the creator of the comic Sherbet Lock and stunning album covers for bands over the years.
The albums will be released on limited edition 12″ Vinyl LP, deluxe CD, and on all digital platforms worldwide via Desert Records.
Each album release will be accompanied by the “Legends of the Desert release shows in each of the band’s cities.
Lord Buffalo / Palehorse/Palerider “Legends of the Desert” upcoming shows June 26th – Albuquerque, NM – Sister Bar June 27th – Denver, CO – High Dive
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 25th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
Yes, All Them Witches had previously announced these dates for the Spring mostly-East Coast US tour that runs into May 1 at Shaky Knees Music Festival in Atlanta, but I feel like the fact that they’ll be joined for the run by Portland’s Blackwater Holylight makes it worth another look at the dates. April 23 in NJ, you say? Well, I’ll have gotten back from Roadburn earlier that week, but if anything’s worth a trip to Asbury Park, it’s a show like this at The Lanes, with open bowling surrounding the bandstand on either side.
It’s been many, many years since the last time I was there, and but for the aforementioned travel plans, I actually think Hamden would have fewer people even on a Saturday, so a somewhat less anxious experience, but still, I’ll take it as it comes. We’ll see how dead on my feet I am when we get there, but you bet your ass it’s going on the calendar.
All Them Witches live dates follow. Note the beginning of an August European tour already starting to take shape. I assume there will be more to come there, and honestly, they’re kind of coming up on due for a new album too, so if that emerges around September, I wouldn’t be surprised, especially given their penchant for sometimes recording in secret.
Shows with the asterisk are with Blackwater Holylight:
MAR 14 SAT Vive Latino Mexico, Mexico FRI. APRIL 17 – BALTIMORE MD – Ottobar* SAT. APRIL 18 – HAMDEN CT – Space Ballroom* SUN. APRIL 19 – PROVIDENCE RI – THE MET* TUE. APRIL 21 – PORTSMOUTH NH – 3S Artspace* WED. APRIL 22 – NORTHAMPTON MA – Gateway City Arts* THU. APRIL 23 – ASBURY PARK NJ – Asbury Lanes* FRI. APRIL 24 – PITTSBURGH PA – Mr. Smalls Theatre* SAT. APRIL 25 – ANN ARBOR MI – The Blind Pig A2* SUN. APRIL 26 – CINCINNATI OH – The Woodward Theater* TUE. APRIL 28 – COLUMBUS OH – Skully’s Music-Diner* WED. APRIL 29 – LEXINGTON KY – The Burl* FRI. MAY 1 – ATLANTA GA – Shaky Knees Music Festival* JUL 22-26 WED FloydFest Floyd, VA AUG 7 FRI Krach Am Bach Beelen, Germany AUG 8 SAT Re-Generation Fest Leipzig, Germany AUG 17 MON Mascotte Zurich, Switzerland *w/ Blackwater Holylight
All Them Witches is: Charles Michael Parks, Jr – bass, vocals Ben McLeod – guitar, vocals Robby Staebler – drums, vocals
Posted in Reviews on February 25th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
While it’s true that The Ghost of Orion is My Dying Bride‘s 14th album in a career that hits the 30-year mark in 2020, it’s also their first in a half-decade. That is a longer break between full-lengths than they’ve ever had, and in addition to signing to Nuclear Blast after issuing 2015’s Feel the Misery (review here) and each of its predecessors through Peaceville Records, the distance from one LP to the next might be found in vocalist Aaron Stainthorpe dealing with an illness in his family. More specifically, his child, and even more specifically, his five-year-old daughter got cancer. This is something addressed directly in the material itself, and as the eight-song/58-minute offering passes between the opener “Your Broken Shore” and its brief choral counterpart, the finale “Your Woven Shore,” the theme is writ large throughout, perhaps most directly in “Tired of Tears,” which remains an exceptionally beautiful work of songcraft despite its tragic lyrical origin — it is also equal parts sorrowful and catchy — and a piece like “The Solace,” where Wardruna‘s Linda Fay-Hella steps in on lead vocal joined only by the guitar of Stainthorpe‘s fellow My Dying Bride founder Andrew Craighan. Fay-Hella is one of two guests alongside cellist Jo Quail, and as Lena Abé‘s bass and Jeff Singer‘s drums and Shaun MacGowan‘s keyboards and violins flesh out arrangements, the encompassing whole remains characteristic with the particular style of emotive death-doom that Craighan and Stainthorpe helped pioneer in the band’s landmark early work. The Ghost of Orion, to put it as simply as possible, is the work of masters.
That’s evident from the first strains of guitar and the first thuds of drums that introduce “Your Broken Shore,” and as that track unfolds with its blended death-growl chorus and melodic-vocal verse, its string accompaniment and its unadulterated feeling of rhythmic force, there’s no mistaking My Dying Bride for anyone else among the minimum-two generations of acts they’ve influenced and no doubt will continue to influence, not the least because of the work they do here. As gutturalism and melody come together in the crescendo, “Your Broken Shore” gives way to strings in a fluid transition to the quick keys at the outset of “To Outlive the Gods,” which will return in both the midsection and at the finish, while in between, what plays out is an immersive shift between the leadoff and “Tired of Tears,” of which the immediacy is not at all dulled by the fact that it’s nearly nine minutes long. It is a signature hook for The Ghost of Orion, more so even than “Your Broken Shore,” while and seems very much intended to standout from what surrounds. The fact that it comes situated next to “The Solace” might have something to do with that as well, since that at-least-partial-departure-from-form is also a chance to digest the proceedings up to that point even as they progress through a new stage, but that only adds another level of consideration to how effective The Ghost of Orion is on the whole. Again, the work of masters.
“The Solace” also functions as a transition into the remaining tracks, which take a somewhat different approach than the album up to that point, though perhaps one might look at the structure of “To Outlive the Gods,” with its breaks into clearly-defined sections, as something of a precursor. Positioned as the final cut on side B, “The Solace” itself is stark for its lack of drums and inherently folkish with Fay-Hella‘s vocals standing alone overtop the layers of guitar leads, and what it lends to The Ghost of Orion in terms of atmosphere isn’t out of character certainly with what’s come before, but is definitely built upon in what comes after, as the shape of the second LP moves between the most extreme moments in “The Long Black Land” and the penultimate “The Old Earth” — both of which top 10 minutes long — and the shorter pieces that accompany in the tense but ultimately quiet piano/guitar interlude title-track and the aforementioned closer “Your Woven Shore,” which shifts smoothly in its two-minute stretch between a choir of voices either organic or synthesized and a movement of strings that seems to represent the resolution so much of the album has been begging for — its second half doing so in especially visceral fashion. Though neither wants for overarching lushness or dynamic, they nonetheless represent the darkest reaches of The Ghost of Orion, and even as Stainthorpe self-harmonizes in an especially mournful lower register in the later portion of “The Long Black Hand,” the emotional weight is no less grueling than that of the tone or rhythm surrounding.
Likewise, after “The Ghost of Orion” leaves off its brief passage, the quiet introduction of “The Old Earth,” subtly building to a cymbal-wash-and-stop as the full-thickness riff joins in, the ensuing roll is a setup for the punishment of the record’s harshest, sound-like-they-physically-hurt-to-deliver-in-the-studio growls. Stainthorpe plays back and forth almost in a call and response as “The Old Earth” lumbers through its midsection, and it’s not until after six and a half minutes into the total 10:52 that the tempo picks up to a more kinetic chug. The drums also join that build, and thus drive it, and it seems like My Dying Bride will ride that chug to the song’s finish, but they turn to a more angular section derived from earlier, the strings and guitar continuing to mount tension before finally letting go somewhere just before the final minute begins, Craighan holding on through the last fade from which “Your Woven Shore” emerges to underscore the death-and-life-from-death-and-life thematic that all of The Ghost of Orion has been working through on at least one level for its duration, and usually more than that. Taken individually, its initial salvo feels poised to capture the listener and engage the beginning of the story the band are telling, while everything thereafter answers that by deepening and enriching the plot as it unfurls. An interchange between beauty and pain is not by any means new aesthetic territory for My Dying Bride, and one must allow for the context in such a consideration here perhaps more than one otherwise might, but rarely has their turmoil ever sounded so genuine, and rarely has their triumph through it felt so resonant.
My Dying Bride, “Tired of Tears” lyric video
My Dying Bride, “Your Broken Shore” official video
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 25th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
I like the fact that the reason Ocean Chief have a bonus track exclusive to the CD version of their new album, Den Tredje Dagen, is probably because with it included the album would be too long to fit on an LP. The crush-doom Swedish four-piece will put out the record on April 17 through none other than Argonauta Records, and to mark the occasion of unveiling the grim-enough-to-suit-their-atmospheric-purposes cover art, they’ve also posted the title-track, which opens the outing at just under 10 minutes long. It’s a plodder, and a throaty shouter, and yes, a crusher, and frankly, if you can’t get on board with the kind of pummel these dudes are bringing to bear — if this doesn’t get you raising a claw in appreciation — then I promise you it’s your loss. Because Ocean Chief will just go right on bludgeoning without you if they have to.
The PR wire tells it like this:
Doom Heavy Weights, OCEAN CHIEF, Reveal Album Details + First Single!
Den Tredje Dagen Coming April 17th on Argonauta Records!
Hailing from the contemplative province of Mjölby, Sweden, their music in contrast speaks volumes. April 17th will see doom heavy weights OCEAN CHIEF release their sixth studio album, titled Den Tredje Dagen, via Argonauta Records! After 5 years since their last record, this is a heavy ride through the band’s sound roots between the psychedelic and doom, with a crisp approach and a new hunger! The four-piece, formed in 2001 by Björn Andersson and Tobias Larsson, evolved their sound to perfection in long tracks combined with electronic ideas. Following OCEAN CHIEF’s latest album, Universums härd, today the Swedes are not only sharing the album details about their upcoming magnum opus, but also a first single to the heavy as hell album title. Listen HERE!
“We are very happy to present this album after nearly 20 years as a band.“ OCEAN CHIEF comment. “The intension to stay with our roots, with the heavy riff bonanza, and also to present an even harsher and darker side of the band, has been accomplished to our satisfaction. There are haunting passages on the album that almost make us afraid of ourselves…
The album was recorded during a weekend in the spring of 2019, and we have stayed with the formula of not overworking the final product. This is uncompromising doom, not for the faint of heart! And this is meant to be played LOUD.“
Album Tracklisting: 1. Den Tredje Dagen 2. Hyllningen 3. Dömd 4. Den sista resan 5. Dimension 5 (CD Bonus Track)
Slated for a release on April 17th as CD, Vinyl and in Digital formats, the album pre-sale will be available at THIS LOCATION! In support of Den Tredje Dagen, OCEAN CHIEF will perform live at Gloomy Days Stockholm on April 25th, with many more shows to follow soon.
Ocean Chief is: Tobias Larsson Björn Andersson Christian Sandberg Magnus Linhardt
Foot release their third album, The Balance of Nature Shifted, on May 1 through Copper Feast Records. The follow-up to the Melbourne-based progressive heavy rocking four-piece’s 2018 LP, Buffalo, it comprises a nine-track and 46-minute run conjured seemingly at the songwriting behest of guitarist/frontman Paul Holden, whose resonant vocal harmonies are an essential characteristic of the band’s approach that have never sounded so full or lush as they do here. Whether it is in the pastoralism of later “Manic Progression” or the full-on riff-fueled push of “Despair on Hope Street” and “E-Sports” at the outset, it’s an Alice in Chains comparison well earned as Holden singly brings together both sides of the Staley/Cantrell dynamic that once set an entire generation of rockers singing from the bottom of their mouth, while somehow retaining an identity of his own throughout.
The wall of fuzz surrounding his voice, from his own guitar as well as that of Dave Pemberton and the thickened tonality of bassist Shaun Stolk, is satisfyingly rich and remains so across The Balance of Nature Shifted, but with drummer Jack Eddie punctuating their undulations and the next chorus never too far off, the listener doesn’t at all get lost in the wash. Foot find a rare balance between aesthetic and craft so as to build on the identity they began to forge on their 2016 self-titled and hold to a largely similar purpose while realizing their form to a new degree of effectiveness and scope. Even the high-low guitar chug interplay on “Break the Altar (Light Shade)” and the solo that caps the three-and-a-half-minute “Ride it Out” tie into this sense of who Foot are and the complexity of the sonic mission they’ve undertaken to best serve their own material.
They succeed in that outright, and it’s difficult to imagine a form of The Balance of Nature Shifted that is more realized than that which the band present. As “Green Embers” shifts from its moody beginning into the sheer largesse of riff that takes hold, lurching in a way that seems to immediately contradict the first two tracks before it, there’s nonetheless a sense of continuity and unfolding that takes place on the LP as a whole, a flow that continues in “Ride it Out” and the (I-wish-)pop(-was-this)-tinged centerpiece “Investment,” as Foot find room for added dynamic in volume trades for what’s their longest cut at 6:28. The only other piece that touches six minutes is closer “High,” which sets its foundation in the blend of melogrunge and fuzzgaze — or was that melogaze and fuzzgrunge? — that has been at the core of the proceedings all along, but patiently digs in its heels and offers one final look at the world the band have created throughout, melodic and encompassing, but hardly serene or still.
Movement can be found underneath “High,” as in even the comparatively minimal “Neighbours,” and as there to some degree is across the entire span, but Foot provide a sure guiding hand — pun absolutely intended — and let the structures of their songs do the work they’re supposed to do in terms of carrying the audience from one end to the other, front to back. Vinyl release will be later in the year, but in linear, digital form, The Balance of Nature Shifted casts an immersive totality of an impression, its melodies and harmonic accomplishment working as a distinguishing factor that’s only bolstered by the thoughtful perspective and rhythmic push surrounding, and even as its title and cover art hint at nature rising to undo the various efforts (which isn’t to say horrors) wrought by humanity, it reminds that there is still beauty to be found in a world of seemingly endless violence and decay.
There is more than an edge of psychedelia to Foot‘s songwriting, but that doesn’t come at the expense of craft, and isn’t necessarily primary to the band’s purpose. Rather, it feeds into the atmosphere of the songs themselves even as it emerges from the attention to detail that’s given to tone, to the methodical execution of pace, and the vibrant melodicism showcased in Holden‘s echoing layers of voice. Thus it becomes another element of the progressiveness of their take overall, rather than simply exploration for its own sake — though of course nothing against that either, and certainly in listening to Buffalo and Foot, the band are nothing if not willful in their forward creative evolution. The Balance of Nature Shifted bears the fruit of that mindful engagement.
It’s my pleasure to host the premiere of “Green Embers.” Please find it on the player below, followed by some comment from Holden on the track and more release info from the PR wire.
And please enjoy:
Paul Holden on “Green Embers”:
In relation to the musical side of “Green Embers,” I think around that point I had been listening to a lot of My Sleeping Karma for inspiration on different sonic textures and in particular, the world music characteristics contained in their songs. I approached the intro of the song with these concepts in mind.
The remainder of the song is a pretty straightforward fuzz rock song. I recorded the heavy riff through an Earthquaker Devices Hoof V2 Fuzz Pedal straight into a Sovtek head. I have always dug the contrast of a heavy riff combined with a clean harmonised vocal sound. You don’t always have to go hard with your vocal even if the band are going hard.
Lyrically, I wrote the tune after reading about the findings of a royal commission into the misconduct of the four biggest banks in Australia. It confirmed what we pretty much already knew which is multinational banks are completely fucking corrupt. It’s that unbridled greed thing, which remains a pretty obvious message throughout the rest of the record too.
‘The Balance of Nature Shifted’ is the follow-up to Foot’s acclaimed second album ‘Buffalo’ and is due for release digitally May 1 2020 with a vinyl release slated for August.
Foot take their well-honed desert rock sound one step further on ‘The Balance of Nature Shifted’, with songs going harder than they ever have before on a Foot record. Fans that were on board for their self-titled debut and follow-up ‘Buffalo’ are sure to be satisfied while newer audiences will love this classic blend of Queens of the Stone Age meets Alice in Chains.’
NOTE: Copper Feast Records will be releasing The Balance of Nature Shifted as a double vinyl later in mid-2020, featuring vinyl exclusive bonus tracks and demos from the recording process.
Foot are: Paul Holden (Vox, Guitar) Dave Pemberton (Guitar) Shaun Stolk (Bass) Jack Eddie (Drums)
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 24th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
Well, preorders are up for Elder‘s new album, Omens. I’m not going to tell you I’ve heard the record or anything, but I am going to tell you that it’s the most progressive thing they’ve ever done, and it sets in motion a new stage of the band’s ongoing evolution. They approach and execute it like the veterans they’ve become, and construct their songs with a masterful hand. I’m not telling you I’ve heard it, but I am telling you it’s probably going to be a consensus album of the year for 2020 when December comes.
Cover art has been unveiled today along with the title-track, which is representative of course of the album as a whole and a pretty damn fine way to spend the next 10 minutes of your life.
Dig in:
Elder have set an April 24 release date for one of the year’s most eagerly-awaited rock releases… Their 5th full length album: “Omens”.
“To me, Omens is our most complete work to date: a set of songs that express the breadth of the band’s collective influences,” explains singer/guitar player Nick DiSalvo. “After recording The Gold & Silver Sessions EP, it felt like we fully scratched the itch to explore our minimalist side, taking a step back from the proggy song structures and heavy guitar work of our previous records and just letting the music drift along. When beginning to work on Omens, the goal was to integrate these two tendencies in the band – to make a modern day progressive rock record, but also to take time to jam and float when need be. Most importantly, I feel the spirit of adventure in our music is alive and well, and we missed no opportunity to bring in a whole new arsenal of sounds to the record.”
The five song, 54-minute album is a concept album that mimics the lifespan of a civilization, and also reads as a commentary on our own society hell-bent on profitability at the expense of our own lives and environment.
Omens was produced by Peter Deimel (Anna Calvi, The Kills, The Wedding Present) and recorded at Studio Black Box in Noyant-La-Gravoyêre, France. Deimel and DiSalvo mixed the collection.
Elder is Nick DiSalvo (guitar, vocals, keyboards), Jack Donvan (bass), Michael Risberg (guitars, keyboards) and Georg Edert (drums). The New Bedford, Mass. born band have released five full-length studio albums: Elder (2008), Dead Roots Stirring (2011), Lore (2015) and Reflections of a Floating World (2017).
1. Omens 2. In Procession 3. Halcyon 4. Embers 5. One Light Retreating
Elder US 2020 Tour: May 6 Brooklyn, NY Elsewhere May 7 Philadelphia, PA Underground Arts May 8 Richmond, VA Richmond Music Hall May 9 Asheville, NC Mothlight May 10 Atlanta, GA The Earl May 12 Lexington, KY Cosmic Charlies May 13 Nashville, TN Mercy Lounge May 14 New Orleans, LA One Eyed Jacks May 15 Houston, TX Secret Group May 16 Austin, TX Barracuda May 17 Dallas, TX Blue Light May 19 Albuquerque, NM Sister Bar May 20 Denver, CO Hi Dive May 22 St. Paul, MN Turf Club May 23 Chicago, IL Reggie’s May 24 Cleveland, OH Grog Shop May 26 Detroit, MI Sanctuary May 27 Toronto, ON Lee’s Palace May 28 Montreal, QC Café Campus May 29 Boston, MA ONCE Ballroom
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 24th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
This is a record I dig, and while I’m fairly certain the news of the March 13 release date isn’t new, I realized that the last time I posted about Lord Buffalo was in December, when they signed to Blues Funeral Recordings and premiered the title-track of their impending second album, Tohu Wa Bohu. Clerical error. Not my first.
So yes, March 13. The band will tour to support it — pretty sure that news is newer, if it helps — and they have a second single streaming through a YouTube channel that isn’t the one that caused the kerfuffle last week but you’ll pardon me anyhow if I’m more gunshy than usual on posting from such sources. If you want to search it out, the song is “Halle Berry” and it’s my favorite on the record for more than just the title. I assume it’ll be on Bandcamp eventually, so I’ve included the album’s embed below to be ready for when it might show up there. See? I can be ahead of the game even as I’m behind it.
As Ronnie James Dio once said, “magic.”
To the PR wire:
Austin’s LORD BUFFALO Embrace Dark Folk and Psychedelic Americana on TOHU WA BOHU
Atmospheric quartet capture western skies and unsettling prairie on Blues Funeral Recordings debut
America’s vast ocean of rolling prairie, brutal in its rhythmic repetition and sameness, can be unsettling to take in. The plains force a communion with the open sky, the endless landscape turning the eyes inward.
LORD BUFFALO’s second LP is just that: the outward gaze forced inward, where the unknowable treads the blurred borders between land, sky and mind.
On March 13, Blues Funeral Recordings will release Tohu Wa Bohu, the new album from Austin’s Lord Buffalo, a band whose dark folk and Gothic Americana sees them chasing the same storm-threatening horizon sky as All Them Witches, Woven Hand, Nick Cave and Dead Meadow.
With their spacious soft/loud dynamics and violin drone, Lord Buffalo is often the loudest band on folk night and the softest on a metal bill, never failing to hold their own and make the dichotomy feel effortless.
An unsettling ride through open plains and melancholic Midwestern imagery, Tohu Wa Bohu is thick with captivating intensity and brooding heaviness of the soul. With its haunted themes and spacious soundscapes, the record plays across genres, taking cues equally from Morricone and Badalementi as well as Sabbath and Swans.
Tohu Wa Bohu will be released on digital, CD and LP from Blues Funeral Recordings on March 13th.
LORD BUFFALO is on tour in March and will perform at this year’s Psycho Las Vegas festival (August 2020).
Live Dates: Fri 3/6/20 Austin, TX— The Lost Well Wed 3/11/20 El Paso, TX — Rockhouse Thu 3/12/20 Bisbee, AZ — The Quarry Bisbee Fri 3/13/20 Tempe, AZ — Yucca taproom Sat 3/14/20 Los Angeles, CA — 5 Star Bar Sun 3/15/20 Spring Valley, Ca — Bancroft Tue 3/17/20 Salt Lake City, UT — Loading Dock Wed 3/18/20 Denver, CO — Cervantes Thu 3/19/20 Albuquerque, NM — Sister Bar Sat 3/21/20 Arlington, TX — Division Brewing Thu 4/30/20 Austin, TV — Waterloo Records (in-store performance) August 2020 Las Vegas, NV — Psycho Las Vegas Festival
LORD BUFFALO: Daniel Pruitt – Vocals, Guitar Garrett Hellman – Guitar, Organs Patrick Patterson – Violin Yamal Said – Percussion
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 24th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
In some ways, Vestjysk Ørken are very much a heavy psych jam band, but within that framework, there’s still a lot of refusal to be defined in their sound. In May, they’ll follow-up 2018’s Cosmic Desert Fuzz (review here) with their second long-player for Interstellar Smoke Records, Full Dark No Stars, and is it instrumental? Not entirely. Is it laced with samples? Not entirely. Is it improv jamming? Not entirely. Is it all of these things? Well, sometimes definitely.
It’s spacious and weighted and exploring psychedelic reaches in its own way, and one gets the sense that the three-piece — who are also the crew behind putting together the Esbjerg Fuzztival, which will be their release party this year — are finding their approach out there in the sonic ether even as they’re having a good time gathering up clips from their favorite movies and, in this case, picking out some of Kurt Russel’s many awesome lines from over the years. No, I don’t think any from Captain Ron made it in, but I could be wrong.
Kind of amazed some studio hasn’t rebooted Captain Ron, frankly. Missed opportunity.
In any case, there’s no music out yet from Full Dark No Stars, but it’s coming next month, as the PR wire informs:
’FULL DARK NO STARS’ sophomore album by Vestjysk Ørken out May 8th 2020
Danish cosmic desert fuzzers Vestjysk Ørken once again sign to Interstellar Smoke Records to release their second album ’Full Dark No Stars’ in May of 2020 on name appropriate black vinyl, limited to 250, just in time for the festival ‘Esbjerg Fuzztival’, which the tree-piece space rockers organize themselves.
Vestjysk Ørken once more take your hand through a grand back catalogue of 60’s and 70’s sci-fi films, dusty desert guitar riffs, smoldering fuzz, funky bass, and earth shattering drums, all mixed with samples, synthesizer drones, and a loose and open relationship with vocals. Once more they take their DIY approach to music and recording to present you with a spacey desert rock opera of epic proportions.
The album follow up on the debut from 2018 (released on vinyl via Interstellar Smoke Records in 2019) with 4 new tracks, clocking in at around 45 minutes total runtime.
First single and pre-order of the album on March 13th 2020!
