Posted in Whathaveyou on October 27th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
Think there’s any chance at all the French government will let an American into the country by next March? I can think of worse ways to enter life as an emigrant refugee — if need be — than to kick around France and go see a couple socially-distant, seated Mars Red Sky shows. It’s not exactly a plan for survival in the doomsday-prepper sense, but let’s be honest, I wasn’t making it through doomsday anyhow.
While we’re being honest, Mars Red Sky doing three shows next month and three shows next March in France is nice and all, but I was really kind of hoping the Bordeaux three-piece were about to announce a new EP that was a half-hour long single-song epic of progressive heavy psychedelic melody. I’m glad they’re getting out — their live stream a few months back (review here) was certainly good fun — but these days one is trying to find anything to look forward to at all, and new Mars Red Sky is always something to look forward to. Maybe next year.
Said everyone, about everything.
If you need me, I’ll be investigating visa applications. Here’s the info on their shows, with links and whatnot:
MARS RED SKY – France Shows
We are super excited to be able to announce this tour in France! The concerts will all be sitting but in beautiful rooms and with compliance with the health rules. And you can find our merch of course…
[Click play above to stream Serpents of Secrecy’s Ave Vindicta in full. Album is out on Halloween through Moving the Earth Records.]
Releasing an album can be an emotionally loaded experience in the best of contexts, so one struggles to approach Serpents of Secrecy‘s Ave Vindicta imagining how it might feel for the members of the band. The roots of the project go back to 2012/2013, with earlier lineups featuring members of Alabama Thunderpussy, Gypsy Chief Goliath, and When the Deadbolt Breaks, but at the core of the group was the rhythm section of drummer Chuck Dukehart III (Foghound, ex-Sixty Watt Shaman) and bassist Rev. Jim Forrester (also later Foghound, ex-Sixty Watt Shaman), and expectations for Serpents of Secrecy were essentially shunted when Forrester was murdered in late 2017. That horrific context in no small part defined Foghound‘s most recent LP, 2018’s Awaken to Destroy (review here), and as the Baltimore/greater-Maryland underground heavy community continues to grieve, it defines Ave Vindicta as well — perhaps all the more so because of the potential shown in the record’s 11-track/52-minute run.
Serpents of Secrecy‘s debut LP and possible swansong — one never knows — arrives with the lineup of Dukehart, Forrester, vocalist Mark Lorenzo (Zekiah, Crawler), and guitarists Steve Fisher (Borracho) and Todd Ingram (Pimmit Hills, who were formerly King Giant), the latter of whom is a founding member as well. Their collective pedigree makes them something of a Chesapeake Watershed supergroup, and with the production of J. Robbins at the Magpie Cage (also guest keys on “Bleeding Still”) as a sixth member in terms of bringing the album to light, the sense throughout Ave Vindicta is all the more complete, dynamic, and purposeful. As a straight-up, sans-nonsense heavy rock and roll band, they hit all their marks, rolling out at a nod with the six-minute title-track before the bass opens “Heel Turn” with a post-Clutch groove that Lorenzo meets with due burl en route to the semi-Southern “The Cheat” — a sound still more Maryland than Carolina; if you know what I mean — and “Time Crushes All,” which is the longest inclusion on the outing at 7:36 and veers between calm and volatility all the while giving the melody space to flourish before the wash of crash turns raw at the last apex, giving a beastly finish to the opening salvo. Ass meet boot.
And that was always going to be the story of this band. For what they’re delivering — and let’s be frank and say it’s not a stylistic reinvention of form as much as an offering made for the joy of these players combining their influences and writing the best songs they can because that’s what they’re driven to do; they’re not concerned with shifting genre paradigms here and they don’t — Serpents of Secrecy were going to be a no-doubter from the outset, and even through the various lineup changes that brought them to the five-piece of Dukehart, Forrester, Ingram, Fisher and Lorenzo, that remained the case. As Ave Vindicta give its first breather in the instrumental “Lament” ahead of barreling through “Warbird’s Song” and the moody-but-also-huge “Orphan’s Dream,” finally breaking out the cowbell on “Dealer’s Choice” — and leading with it, no less — it is a promise being fulfilled. In the sureness of their hooks and the impact with which their material lands, Serpents of Secrecy not only fill out what they teased on 2017’s Uncoiled – The Singles two-tracker (which featured what seem to have been the same recordings of “Warbird’s Song” and “The Cheat,” with guest organ from Mark Calcott on the latter), but pay off the years of expectation preceding them.
What do you do with that at this point? I won’t feign impartiality here — I was always going to like this record and I do — but it’s hard to listen to it too. I knew Forrester in kind of a secondary way, through his music and being in touch over his years in his various bands. We spoke a few weeks before he was killed. He was a complex person. He had a dark side and a light side completely separate from his on-stage persona of the tongue-wagging, up-front bass player engaging the crowd, calling you “brother,” and so on. He was sweet, and someone worthy of missing as he is missed. If you didn’t know him, or you don’t know that Ave Vindicta arrives as a posthumous release for the bassist, it’s entirely possible listen blind to that mournful aspect of it. I suspect that most people who hear it won’t be so fortunate, but having known Forrester even to the extent that I did, there’s no way he would have ever wanted this material to languish, unheard, unreleased, in the event of his death or anything else. It is right and proper that Ave Vindicta sees release in homage to him.
The album’s final movement begins with “Dealer’s Choice,” which brings back guest organ alongside the noted “cowbell,” and moves into the more spacious “Bleeding Still” before the final pair “Broke the Key” and “In the Lock” round out, the penultimate track finding Lorenzo doing his best oldschool Life of Agony while the sees him taking on the role of a dollar-hungry preacher — “the salvation van is rolling, but a lack of gas money can stop it” — as the band jams out behind. It’s good fun, and indicative of the cathartic reasoning behind putting out Ave Vindicta in the first place. It’s a look at what was and what might’ve been from Serpents of Secrecy. It’s entirely possible that the band may decide to continue in some form, and certainly they have that right, but Ave Vindicta is as much a final word on the years it took to bring it about as it is a demonstration of the group’s potential. One suspects that if the album had come out in 2018, the five-piece would already be at work on a follow-up, if not already doing shows to support that next release, but then, what might’ve been is nothing if not an underlying theme to what actually is in this case. Whatever happens or doesn’t from this point on, this is a record that summarizes, earns, owns and deserves its moment.
Posted in Bootleg Theater on October 26th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
The recently-issued single by Mexico City heavy psych rockers Mengers is the third the three-piece have put out in 2020, and it comes preceded by May’s Tiempos Suicidas / No Hay Futuro and March’s Celebra. What distinguishes Pantitlán as a release from those two- and one-track outings is the lack of mention of the full-length from which it might come. That album would be the second for Mengers behind last year’s I, and it’s been given the title Golly and set for release through the revived imprint Devil in the Woods. Release date unsure, like, well, everything else.
“Pantitlán” is named for a metro station on the Mexico City subway system, and the portrayal of the commuter rail makes up the video itself with due comings, goings and in-betweens. All this motion is accompanied that by of the song, which is more ethereal perhaps in its space-ready fuzz, blown out and set to a classic kind of push given further momentum by the energy with which it’s issued. And oh, the tone. And oh, the echoes. Psychedelic immersion meets with sun-shining push, languid and flowing, but not shooting for graceful so much as spacious and getting there easy, effects continuing to spread in airy guitar even as the song itself has moved onto the next measure.
They cross the halfway mark of “Pantitlán” teasing heavier riffery, and you don’t throw that in at all if it’s not going to return. It does, as lead-in for a down-the-tracks jam that uses consistency in the snare to evoke the feeling of a train en route, chugging forward on its appointed path. “Pantitlán” is ultimately more fluid and less bound to a set of rails than one thinks of trains being — they seem ready to wander in terms of sound — but the vibe in the song is right-on “whatever, just go with it,” and the argument it makes in that regard is not one against which I’m likely to fight. So yeah, go with it.
And when you’re done going with “Pantitlán,” go with the rest of the stuff on their Bandcamp and get yourself stoked up for Golly, about which I’ll hope to have more info in the coming days/weeks/whenever.
Producida por Hugo Quezada Monroy en Progreso Nacional, Col. San Rafael CDMX. Masterizada por Harris Newman en Grey Market Mastering, Montreal CA.
Mengers Guitarra, Voz: Carlos Calderón Ángeles Bajo: Mauricio Daniel Suárez Hernández Batería: Pablo Arturo Calderón Ángeles Sintetizadores: Hugo Quezada Monroy
Posted in Bootleg Theater on October 23rd, 2020 by JJ Koczan
In 2009, Robotic Empire released the comprehensive and consuming 11LP/8CD discography box set Below & Beyond (discussed here) from Miami bomb-tone heavy rockers Floor. The band, part of the wide-reaching family tree of sludgers Cavity, had their own sludge elements, but with the vocals and tonal heft of guitarist Steve Brooks, fostered a penchant for upbeat and almost poppy songcraft. Amid a vast swath of EPs and other short releases, their 2002 self-titled debut full-length (discussed here) gained an after-the-fact cult following despite the band’s breakup the same year, thanks at least in part to Brooks‘ subsequent work in the similarly-minded-if-less-punk Torche. Even with the box set, a Floor reunion didn’t seem likely. At that point, Torche were riding the success of 2008’s Meanderthal and their Chapter Ahead Being Fake split with Boris, and that seemed very much where the priority was. Fair enough. One more band that those who saw the first time around were lucky to have seen.
You see where this is going. By 2010, Floor — with the lineup of Brooks on guitar/vocals, Anthony Vialon on guitar and Henry Wilson on drums — were touring (review here) and drawing out the next-generation crowd who’d either heard of them through word of mouth on the burgeoning phenomenon of mobilized social media, or had otherwise traced the line back from Torche and discovered that Floor were not only the root from which that band’s early ideas grew, but a special act with landmark material of their own. One way or the other, people came out, and Floor continued activity mostly around Florida and Georgia, but elsewhere too. In 2013, the announcement came through they’d signed to Season of Mist and had a new album coming, and a little over a year and more touring (review here) later, they released Oblation (review here), collecting 14 tracks and 44 minutes of new material that even six years later continues to resonate.
Though it seemed at the time to exist in the shadow of the self-titled, Oblation was and remains its own album with its own strengths of songwriting and delivery. The opening riff of the title-track brings the massive weight that Floor always made bounce in what seemed like such a miracle, and unfolded with immediate spaciousness and melody. Slower than much of what would follow, its lurch doubled as a setup for the sprint of the hooky “Rocinante” and the bombastic “Trick Scene” — a showcase for how underrated Floor always were as songwriters and doubly so how underrated Wilson was/is as a drummer. He not only follows the changes of riff, meter and rhythm, but enhances them, and comes across as duly massive in so doing, complementing the tones of Vialon and Brooks while also being the punch behind the stops in “Trick Scene” and the wash that flows through “Find Away,” which follows. The hook party continues as the 47-second instrumental “The Key” makes an intro for “New Man,” another in the ongoing series of righteously propulsive grooves, catchy despite no obvious hit-you-over-the-head-chorus and a lead-in for “Sister Sophia” and the feedback-soaked “The Quill,” which finish the first of the two LPs with Floor‘s signature sensibility of all-momentum-until-the-crash well intact.
Outside of the still-to-come “Sign of Aeth” (7:54), side C opener “Love Comes Crushing” is the only other track on Oblation over four minutes long. It still manages to sprint and gallop to its conclusion, and by the time “War Party” starts, Floor have picked up where they’ve left off. “War Party” was the first single released from the record ahead of its release, and fair enough. Under three minutes. Melodic. Unspeakably heavy. Motion. Quick and memorable with an emotional undercurrent to its melody — it would be and was a sign to listeners both of Floor‘s progression since their disbanding nine years earlier and of how much of their original approach was held over to their reunion. With “Homegoings and Transitions,” which would be enough of a standout to feature on a 12″ EP in 2014 with “Shadowline” and an etched B-side, pushed melody to the forefront with a rare, more patient take, and so brought about “Sign of Aeth” on side D as the beginning of Oblation‘s final movement. Riddled with Rush references, the sense of willful departure in “Sign of Aeth” is of course palpable, but as much as Floor are known for shorter songs, they’ve never had any trouble transposing that to longer material when it suits their needs. And though the fadeout of “Sign of Aeth” feels awfully final as it goes, “Raised to a Star” revives the forward thrust and “Forever Still” adds more melody to that as the record runs inexorably to its end.
Floor toured to support Oblation, and hit Europe for what I’m pretty sure was the first time ever in 2015, including a stop at Roadburn (review here) in the Netherlands. They continued to do regional Florida gigs periodically until about 2016, and by then, Brooks‘ focus seemed to have shifted back to Torche and Wilson had already released one full-length with his House of Lightning project and would soon offer a second. No one could say they didn’t put their work in or give the record its due, but Floor just kind of petered out after that, which considering the energy and the momentum built up in Oblation‘s tracks, kind of left them in the same place as the self-titled — seeming like a band with more to say leaving it unsaid.
To me, Floor is movement. I have a few albums I refuse to travel without, and Floor‘s self-titled and Oblation are both on that list, permanently. That sense of momentum. I hear Oblation and think of getting off an airplane, walking up to a gate. Maybe going somewhere else, maybe going home, but going. Floor is get-off-your-ass-and-do-something music, and more than just that too. Because it’s not just that the songs are fast, or that they lock in this mini-epic feel, or that they’re catchy. They’re almost totally individualized. Even when one puts Floor next to Torche, they don’t sound the same. Floor‘s identity as a band was/maybe-is something unique, and something that well deserved the fulfillment that Oblation gave it. As to whether it’s the final word on Floor as a whole, of course I have no idea, but its character and that distinctive shove still feel like they want to keep moving forward.
As always, I hope you enjoy. Thanks for reading.
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This weekend, The Pecan turns three, and the “still two” mantra that The Patient Mrs. and I have employed to explain various behaviors over these hard months of isolation will no longer apply. It’ll be “still three.” I love him desperately — more than I thought I would, if I can say that — and I look forward to being a grandfather.
I had one of those things this past week where you get a year older as well. I’m 39 now. As The Patient Mrs. precedes me by eight months or so, she has already been experiencing some anxiety about turning 40. Fortunately — or not at all so — there has been plenty happening throughout this year to pull her attention in other directions. I do not see myself having particular trouble turning 40. I was never particularly good at being young, except maybe for the drinking. Mostly I was just an asshole. Now I’m quieter about it and I care less about what music other people listen to or what movies they watch. I was a real prick about that stuff for a long time. Different brand of asshole these days.
Her semester continues to be hard, and harder than it needs to be thanks to her university’s handling of the situation. I have friends who teach in high school and middle school I saw this week as well and their misery was recognizable (if differentiated) from hers. My mother was a teacher, and I probably should’ve been too, if we’re honest, but I am a firm believer that no teacher at any level of education should make less than $100,000 a year. Ever. Anywhere. Plus holiday bonuses. There is no more important work, and to see those in position as educators get so screwed over time and again, in the case of my friends as benefits and positions are slowly chipped away toward the cause of privatization, only emphasizes the point that the ruling elite class of this country wants the middle and working classes beneath them to be dumber and easily controlled. Those without awareness of critical thinking are less inclined to look around and see how they’re being fucked over by capitalism.
Alas, tangent.
The dog also peed on The Patient Mrs. last night while we were sitting on the couch watching the new episode of Star Trek: Discovery. I remain in camp “find this dog a better home,” and I continue to seem to be the only one there. Three months now, zero joy, zero fun. At her most tolerable moments, she is at least work. I find the best times are when I can pretend for a while she doesn’t exist. It does not feel good to actively dislike an animal.
So, family time this weekend for The Pecan’s birthday and also my niece’s, which is after Halloween — I would not be surprised to see us journeying north to see them in Connecticut next weekend even though they’re here as of whatever point today — and a full week next week both domestically and in writing terms. Premieres slated every day, which has its ups and downs like anything.
I’m going to try to do another video interview — looking at you, Peder Bergstrand from Lowrider — but with a packed weekend, a Gimme Metal show next week, and The Pecan starting pre-K on Monday, I honestly may or may not get there. We’ll see.
Or won’t see, if I don’t get it done. I kind of hated seeing my face in that Crystal Spiders interview this week. I wonder if I could take myself out of the picture.
Anyway, it’s 6:30AM and The Pecan’s starting to stir and I need a post-run shower, so I’m gonna split out. Have a great and safe weekend. Enjoy the Fall if that’s your thing — it’s my favorite season or at least it used to be before climate change — and don’t forget to hydrate. So important.
Posted in Whathaveyou on October 23rd, 2020 by JJ Koczan
So just to make your life confusing, here’s a remixed track from a remixed record. But the remixed track is a bonus track that’s not part of the remixing process the rest of the record underwent, instead an outside collaboration. But the rest of the record, Until it All Collides — originally released in 2016 on Salt of the Earth Records — has been remixed and remastered. When the Deadbolt Breaks, in sound or style or method, have never taken it easy on the listen. It’s just not the way of founding guitarist/vocalist Aaron Lewis or the Connecticut outfit that’s been his destructive, extremist sludge vehicle for 15 years.
To wit, the premiere of “Floyd’s Machine (Remix)” below is one of two Juno6 remixes included on the forthcoming new version of Until it All Collides is fascinating and unlike anything the band has done before. Think Godflesh or some of Napalm Death‘s techno experimentations and you’ll be on the right track. When the Deadbolt Breaks have always been able to harness an atmosphere of threat, and certainly “Floyd’s Machine” keeps that as part of the foundation from which it builds, but it also takes an unexpected — and effective; like, Lewis might want to consider doing a whole record like this — turn with the outside reinterpretation of the band’s work.
When the Deadbolt Breaks have a new LP in the works for Desert Records in 2021 and a new lineup as well. Lewis updates below and “Floyd’s Machine (Remix)” premieres down at the bottom:
When The Deadbolt Breaks will be releasing the album Until It All Collides as remix on Friday Nov. 29th via Desert Records along with the songs Floyd’s Machine and Just Before Twilight. The band will also release a new full-length album in 2021 on Desert Records.
“WTDB was the first band I signed to the label in 2018,” says Desert Records founder Brad Frye. “I couldn’t be happier to help them release these two albums. The remixes are dirty, grimey, filthy and disgusting in the best way possible and will be released on Black Friday 2020, as a digital album for ‘name your price’ on Bandcamp. I heard one of the new songs from the upcoming album…killer stuff. Get ready for new music from the Psychedelic Doom hailing from the woods of Connecticut.”
Aaron Lewis on Until it All Collides remixes:
I was never really quite happy with the way the Until It All Collides EP sounded, which, I can only blame myself for since it was recorded at my studio like all of our records have been. But, I probably wasn’t in the right frame of mind to be working on that project at that time due to personal issues I was facing. So, I wanted to give the album the proper mix and master that it deserves. However this time, we removed the live songs and have added two remix versions of older When the Deadbolt Breaks songs as remixed and reimagined by our friend Juno6.
Those remixes will include ‘Floyd’s Machine’ from our 2018 album Angels are Weeping… God has abandoned.,. and ‘Just Before Twilight,’ from our 2010 double album The Last Day of Sun. Juno6 first sent us the remix of Floyds Machine close to two years ago now, and we wanted to wait for the right time to release it. Now is that time through Desert Records.
Over the past few months, we have also been working on a new record, which honestly I couldn’t be more pleased about. With the addition of Charlie Platterborze on guitar and Rob Birkbeck on drums, a whole new pathway has been opened for our music. The new music is more extreme, more diverse and more crushing than anything we’ve done in the past.
We are extremely excited to welcome both Rob and Charlie to the band, and to work with Desert Records on both of these releases.
Posted in audiObelisk on October 23rd, 2020 by JJ Koczan
Exoplanets is the fourth long-player from British Columbia space rockers Moths & Locusts, due out Oct. 30 through NoiseAgonyMayhem and Weird Beard Records. “Exoplanets” is also the 15:39 title-track of said album, and from its quietly progressive flute-included opening through the gradual unfolding of harmonized vocals and opera of cosmic noise that builds to fruition across its first six-plus minutes, only to recede into airy drift and fuzz as it meanders through its midsection, through an ensuing stretch of barely-there minimalism, darker-atmosphere krautrock vocal manipulations and the fed-through-a-grinder tonality that typifies its final movement, it is only fair to call it alien.
The six-piece outfit recorded “Exoplanets” itself with James Paul in Toronto at what was apparently once a slaughterhouse — fair enough — and it’s one of at least four separate sessions in which the recording took place, the other out in rural Saskatchewan at Sinewave Studios with Chad Mason at the helm, the third at Lap of Luxury in Sooke, Vancouver Island, with Scott Henderson, and the last in the band’s studio, Republic of Doom, in Nainamo.
So, the numbers: Seven tracks, 44 minutes, six players, four studios, infinite freakout.
Comprised of vocalists Valentina Cardinalli and Samantha Letourneau (also flute), guitarists Angus Barter (also vocals) and Mike Breen (also electric sitar on “Exoplanets”), and the doubly-Dave’d rhythm section of bassist/synthesist Dave Read and drummer/vocalist Dave Bean, Moths & Locusts are simply too cognizant to not be progressive and at the same time too weird not to be experimental. Oh yes, most certainly Exoplanets opens with the five-minute fuzz-from-space rocker “Cocaine Kangaroo” tapping modern and classic heavy interstellarism with a hook to boot as it pushes outward in motorik fashion toward and through a jam and finish of residual synth en route to the percussive thud of “Ghenghis Khan,” which indulges some orientalism in its guitar, flute and chant-like vocal, but is also explosive and bombastic at its loudest, despite the flute tying its loud and quiet parts together. Low end drone adds an undercurrent layer behind the more out-there stretch, and by the time the song comes back around to its verse, Moths & Locusts have established their own sense of normality so that the return feels grounding when in fact it’s still ethereal in the extreme.
Setting their own context is a lot of what Moths & Locusts do on Exoplanets. Certainly in the title-track, but consider too the short acoustic guitar/synth/effects/chant piece “Nero’s Surgery,” which at 2:28 is the briefest cut but still more substantial arrangement-wise than an interlude. That acoustic strum takes hold after “Ghenghis Khan” and by the time it starts, the listener simply goes with it.
Track turns into layers of synth battling for dominance over stretched-out guitar and chants? In under two and a half minutes? Well of course it does. But the reason Moths & Locusts are able to bring so many disparate ideas together and make it flow over the course of the whole LP isn’t just because they’re willing to do so — though rest assured, that’s part of it — but because they establish almost immediately that Exoplanets is going to shift according to these whims.
“A Ram Named Drama” somewhat revives the motorik-ness of “Cocaine Kangaroo,” bringing a prominent and welcome bassline-as-baseline sensibility to the explorational guitar and effects work surrounding. Instrumental save for a spoken sample, it feels improvised and is no less whole for that, capping with birdsong before the more charged “Avulsion 2020” arrives to close side A.
An apparent redux of “Chase River Avulsion” from Moths & Locusts‘ 2011 debut 7″ The Astronomical Significance Of…, “Avulsion 2020” joins “Nero’s Surgery” (which showed up on a 2013 single as the B-side to “Nero’s Tale”) and “Cocaine Kangaroo” (which recorded in 2016 and released in 2018 to accompany “Peyote Coyote”) among Exoplanets‘ at-least-in-part-previously-issued material, but if the group are looking back on their decade together and perhaps making some effort to summarize that time, that would account for the scope one encounters moving between the tracks, such as the robot-voice oddity that comes with “Avulsion 2020” and of course “Exoplanets” itself, which consumes the bulk of side B.
Its doing so leaves “Fresh Red Blood” to close out the record, which it does with an atmospheric comedown vibe, not so much giving up the journey or even landing at its destination as offering a moment of epilogue to the stage of passage that Exoplanets might represent on the longer voyage. Or maybe that’s too meta.
Whatever. The finale answers the patience with which the title-track unfurls with a gradual wash of melodic guitar and synth, seeming to harness stability out of liquefaction, and ending the pattern of who-knows-what like a breathing exercise that’s readying listeners to return to their real lives after being so immersed in Moths & Locusts‘ preternatural quirk. Those six minutes are no less crucial than anything before them, of course, and they complete Exoplanets in a way that gives the audience space to process that preceding undertaking, though to be fair to both the band and their listenership, that might take a bit longer given how deep into far-out the band range in these songs.
I have the pleasure today of hosting the premiere of “Exoplanets” from Exoplanets. You’ll find it below, followed by more info on the various recording sessions from the PR wire.
Enjoy:
2020 marks ten years of existential exploration for Nanaimo BC space rock sextet MOTHS & LOCUSTS, a decade that saw the band release a trio of acclaimed LPs (2013’s Mission Collapse, 2016’s Helios Rising and 2017’s Intro/Outro) alongside numerous assorted EPs and 7” singles. In addition to the aforementioned albums under their own name, they also released a double live album with legendary Can frontman Damo Suzuki in 2014, plus 2019’s Think Pink IV: Return to Deep Space collaboration album with Pink Fairies/Pretty Things man Twink.
Showing only signs of acceleration with time, their 4th LP EXOPLANETS distills several studio recording sessions from across Canada into seven elemental songs that reflect a band at the height of their power.
The album’s centerpiece is the six part, near-16-minute long title track. Exoplanets is a visceral tour through a sonic spectrum of intense emotions and otherworldly landscapes, from the haunting primary melody, through layered vocal harmonies to the cathartic, crushing climax. Recorded with engineer James Paul in a former abattoir in downtown Toronto, each band member features prominently on the track, displaying the musical versatility the band is becoming known for: guitarist Angus Barter & drummer Dave Bean’s harmony vocals on the verses bring to mind pre-Dark Side era Pink Floyd; Samantha Letourneau’s layers of flute in the opening has an element of prog rock; lead guitarist Mike Breen’s serpent-like shredding (and electric sitar) is strategically placed to drill straight through listeners’ skulls. The track ends with vocalist Valentina Cardinalli’s soulful wailing and bassist Dave Read’s massive effects-laden doom choir pushing the speakers to the max.
From a session with engineer Chad Mason at Sinewave Studios, located literally in the middle of Saskatchewan canola fields and reachable only via longitude & latitude coordinates, come crushing versions of live favourites Cocaine Kangaroo and Genghis Khan, the latter remixed by Ian Blurton (Change Of Heart/C’mon/Public Animal). The Saskatchewan session also yielded the album’s closing track Fresh Red Blood, evoking some of Mogwai’s recent soundtrack work.
From closer to the band’s home base of Vancouver Island BC comes triple bass psych freakout A Ram Named Drama, recorded by Scott Henderson at his Lap Of Luxury studio in Sooke; and from the band’s own Republic Of Doom studio in Nanaimo come the tracks Nero’s Surgery and Avulsion 2020. All seven tracks together form a cohesive album, one that perfectly ends one decade and begins another for a band that’s built to last.
EXOPLANETS is a co-release by NoiseAgonyMayhem Records (North America) and Weird Beard Records (EU).
Tracklist: Cocaine Kangaroo 5:00 Genghis Khan 5:59 Nero’s Surgery 2:28 A Ram Named Drama 5:29 Avulsion 2020 3:54 Exoplanets 15:39 Fresh Red Blood 6:02
Moths & Locusts are: Angus Barter – guitar, vocals Dave Bean – drums, vocals Mike Breen – guitar, electric sitar on “Exoplanets” Valentina Cardinalli – vocals Samantha Letourneau – flute, vocals Dave Read – bass guitar, synths
Posted in Whathaveyou on October 23rd, 2020 by JJ Koczan
Three years between new releases isn’t at all uncommon, but for Russia’s The Grand Astoria, it would seem to be a bit longer than they’d prefer. At least if the “finally” below is anything to go by. Band founder and spearhead Kamille Sharapodinov hasn’t been idle since 2017’s many-pedaled The Fuzz of Destiny EP (review here), as other projects The Legendary Flower Punk and Slovo Mira have brought new outings to fruition, and even The Grand Astoria have posted a couple live recordings to Bandcamp, but for an act not strangers to putting out multiple releases the same year, I guess it’s fair enough they’d be ready to offer up something new. Hello, From the Great Beyond.
The EP has been given a Nov. 30 release digitally, and I’m not sure if there’s a plan for a physical version as yet, or if one is intended or what, but with the eight-minute “Us Against the World” currently streaming via Bandcamp and preorders up, I’m already wondering how much of an EP this is as opposed to an LP — entirely possible the other five tracks are all two minutes long; one never knows with The Grand Astoria and that’s why it’s fun — and already encouraged by the scope of the band’s continually progressive take on heavy rock and roll.
Note also “Ten Years Anniversary Riff” as a follow-up to “Eight Years Anniversary Riff” from The Fuzz of Destiny. May they continue that count.
Here’s info cobbled together:
New music from The Grand Astoria finally!
Our EP “From the Great Beyond” will be out on November 30.
Posted in Whathaveyou on October 22nd, 2020 by JJ Koczan
Brisbane trio Fumarole have their ducks in a row on their debut album, Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes, and by ducks I definitely mean riffs. Posted for digital consumption on Oct. 16, the record will be released on vinyl next week through Interstellar Smoke Records, beating the glut of Halloween offerings by a day. Take that, everybody else.
You can hear the record, so by all means, don’t let me keep you. You’ll find it to be a garden of fuzzy delights set to a sci-fi narrative that serves as a pretty clear analog to existence under capitalism, “Desert Worms” and all.
PR wire has info, audio is at the bottom:
FUMAROLE TO RELEASE NEW ALBUM ON VINYL
Australia’s FUMAROLE are pleased to announce that their newly released album Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes will see a vinyl release via Interstellar Smoke Records on October 30th. The album was released digitally today on Bandcamp.
As with all great bands, Fumarole initially met… through work? Having pulled together a full lineup in April of 2018, the Australian outfit rapidly developed a sound reminiscent of their heroes in bands like Orange Goblin and Earthless but also local bands like Zong and Witchskull. Having gelled almost instantly, the band record their debut EP, Mountain, in their rehearsal space and have since followed that up with singles “Ghost Smoke” and “Valley” in 2019. Heads started to turn, and now the band seeks to push their fully solidified sound, further focusing on dark creatures and bleak futures. Taking the Antipodes by storm, it’s only a matter of time before Fumarole blows out an amp near you!
Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes is set in a future where the rich have enslaved the poor and placed them on a planet to mine a bacteria that can keep them alive forever. Recorded at Love Street Studios and mixed with Scott French. Mastered at Satanic Audio.
Fumarole are: Ryan Stewart (drums) Dan Bartsch (bass) Kurt Werder (Guitar and Vocals)
