Posted in Whathaveyou on April 27th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Two things to immediately note in this second lineup announcement from Burque Rock City 2023. One, it’s Brant Bjork solo, which means Stöner are still on the backburner as he and Nick Oliveri dip back into their own stuff. Two, this will be the first live performance from Yawning Balch, which is the amalgam of Yawning Man and Bob Balch of Fu Manchu. Yawning Man recently brought in Greg Saenz on drums ahead of their European tour, and presumably he’ll do this gig as well, though I suppose it’s always possible Bill Stinson could sit in for it. One way or the other, jams will be had.
I’m hopeful for a new Year of the Cobra album, if not this year then next. They had some exciting growth pre-pandemic and toured like mad, and have been somewhat quieter since, but hopefully this Fall they’re back at it hard. Tenderizor were — I’m not sure if they still are — affiliated with hometown Albuquerque weirdo heroes Leeches of Lore, so that’s a cool local tie, and Red Mesa features Roman Barham, who is organizing this fest and is a co-founder of Monolith on the Mesa of which Burque Rock City is an offshoot, maybe just for this year. Bringing in Fatso Jetson only enhances the desert vibe, and Electric Citizen will be on hand to lend their particular take on classic heavy. With Ojo Malo and Nomestomper and Street Tombs filling out, it’s a solid announcement for the two-dayer; a kind of conceptual preview for the likes of RippleFest Texas and Desertfest New York in substance if not geography. A lot to like, is the bottom line.
Tickets are on sale now, early-bird style. Dig it, and check out the TubeVision show I stumbled on from Brant Bjork, 2003 in San Francisco. Bros.-era. 20 god damned years ago. Pretty badass:
BURQUE ROCK CITY FEST: Announces MORE BANDS!
Burque Rock City Is Happy To Announce Another Round Of Bands For August 4th & 5th Downtown ABQ At The Historic El Rey Theater & Insideout Bar
Burque Rock City Would Love to Welcome:
Brant Bjork * Yawning Balch * Year Of The Cobra * Fatso Jetson * Electric Citizen * Tenderizor * Street Tombs * Red Mesa * Ojo Malo * Nomestomper
First Wave of Amazing Bands Previously Announced:
Weedeater * Pike Vs The Automaton * Belzebong * Early Moods * High Desert Queen * Thunder Horse * Sorcia * Prism Bitch * Coma Revovery
Get Your Early Bird Tickets NOW!! Once Full Lineup Is Announced, Tickets Will Go Up!
Roman Barham, co-founder of Monolith on the Mesa, has been quietly working on Burque Rock City Fest.
Branching south from the Monolith On The Mesa tree is Burque Rock City Fest in Albuquerque, NM At The Historic El Rey Theater & Insideout Bar On Friday August 4th & Saturday August 5th 2023.
More band announcements & more exciting info soon.
[Click play above to stream Ruff Majik’s Elektrik Ram in its entirety. Album is out tomorrow, April 28, through Mongrel Records and available to order here: https://orcd.co/elektrik_ram]
A career album, and the sort that not every career gets to feature. If you’ve never given Ruff Majik a shot, maybe because of their silly name, or someone told you they sound like Queens of the Stone Age — not unfair; never less so than now, if that’s to be the measure — or whatever, hearing Elektrik Ram is the reason you should. If you’ve dug in before and weren’t feeling it, you should try again now. I don’t want to get into superlatives, but both for Ruff Majik as a band — the four-piece led by guitarist/vocalist Johni Holiday and here boasting bassist Jimmy Glass, guitarist/backing vocalist Cowboy Bez and drummer Steven Bosman in the lineup, plus guests — and for South African heavy rock in general, it should be considered a landmark in addition to being one of 2023’s best albums. The latter designation pales.
There’s a narrative across the unflinchingly tight 11 songs/37 minutes that goes from kicking ass (“Hillbilly Fight Song”) and making love (“She’s Still a Goth”) to loss and grief (“Mourning Wood”), burnout and breakdown (“Delirium Tremors”) and the sense of exhaustion that goes with being in that state (“Cement Brain”), to a turnaround of momentary triumph (“Elektrik Ram” and “Queen of the Gorgons”) to the new low-low: bad-time self-destruction [“A Song About Drugs (With a Clever Title)], disaffection and disgust both (“Shangrilah Inc.”) on the way to being medicated, subdued, and wanting to die (“Chemically Humanized”).
It’s Holiday‘s story and he asserts the presence to tell it in a dynamic tour de force performance, in terms of using his voice across a range of modes, and of the arrangements and layers; the extra backup in “Hillbilly Fight Song,” the higher-register flourish as the verse of “Elektrik Ram” readies to turn to the chorus, the lower swagger in “Mourning Wood” to play up the goth, the robot voice that “wants that techno” in “Rave to the Grave,” the duet with Bez (who sings lead initially) in “Chemically Humanized,” on and on with these moments, sometimes on a more-than-one-per-song basis.
The instrumentation behind, sometimes in front, sometimes alongside him is no less impeccable in its detail. Handclaps in “Rave to the Grave” and the playfully bopping earlier-Beatles lead in the second half, a tambourine shaking lazily but steadily amid the hip-hop piano in the centerpiece “Cement Brain,” an actual box of small percussion instruments being jostled in “Shangrilah Inc.,” that god damned triangle in “Delirium Tremors” that is so correctly placed to be maddening? As addled and pained as so much of this record is, it is exquisite.
Ruff Majik have always been capable songwriters; it was what made The Devil’s Cattle (review here) a highlight of 2020 along with the elaborate and varied presentation. Elektrik Ram is more crafted than anything the band has released to-date, and that’s true in the shifts in tempo from the initial ragers to the mid-tempo “Cement Brain,” picking back up into “Elektrik Ram” and “Queen of the Gorgons” then on the downswing for “A Song About Drugs (With a Clever Title)” and marching the declining nod of “Shangilah Inc.” into the acoustic-led “Chemically Humanized.”
Where the last album found Holiday collaborating with producer/multi-instrumentalist Evert Snyman even to the degree of sharing lead vocal duties, Elektrik Ram internalizes the lessons of that methodology and moves forward on its own (Snyman was involved in some of this record but not nearly as much so as last time). Holiday, then, becomes a uniting factor. Individual songs go where they will, but between the sharpness of their execution, the storyline they’re making, and Holiday at the center of that storm — not at all the calm eye of a hurricane; he’s in it — there’s never a point at which Ruff Majik step so far out as to lose momentum or make a transition seem disjointed.
The samples are another tie together. Sometimes absurd and mostly from 1959’s The House on Haunted Hill — Vincent Price’s recognizable voice gives just the right amount of kitsch to tracks about addiction, paranoia and suicidal ideation — they speak either directly or not to the themes of the songs they’re about to start: “Hillbilly Fight Song,” “Cement Brain,” “Elektrik Ram,” “Queen of the Gorgons,” “Shangrilah Inc.” and “Chemically Humanized,” while adding to the persona of Elektrik Ram as a whole. Short, sometimes backed by piano as on “Cement Brain” — the timing of the drunkard’s croon first lyric “It’s all coming back to me slowly…” as the start of the song proper is an on-rhythm highlight of timing.
Elsewhere the work is done by the quick feedback of “She’s Still a Goth” or the right-in guitar line of “A Song About Drugs (With a Clever Title),” as no moment of Elektrik Ram seems unconsidered, while at the same time the album effectively and somewhat ironically recounts what it’s like to be an absolute mess in one’s own life. You could sit and do this all day. It’s everything here. Every level. All the detail, all the acuity. It’s not just one element, one stretch or one track, it’s not even just one player, though the perspective from which the songs are speaking is in Holiday‘s voice.
The way desert rock kind of blows wide after “Mourning Wood” starts the comedown after “Hillbilly Fight Song” and “She’s Still a Goth.” The sort of playful cynicism of including a voicemail from All This for Nothing‘s Paul Gioia as an executive in the “high-flying world of riff management” going on to list the cities that will be blown away by the riffs he’s just heard. All of these things become characters in the play that’s happening in the songs, the lyrics themselves not directly telling a narrative in the first-this-happened-then-this-happened sense, but stepping into new perspectives as they go — in the case of “Elektrik Ram,” that’s a shift from defeat to triumph in the span of a verse. Everything is what and where it needs to be. Even the “Delirium Tremors” triangle. You don’t like it, but you’re not supposed to like it. You’re supposed to pay attention.
Structures are spare to the point that “A Song About Drugs (With a Clever Title)” is twice through a verse and chorus and that’s it, and the likes of “Hillbilly Fight Song” isn’t much more than that with an instrumental break and another chorus after. Likewise, “She’s Still a Goth” is the same minus the last hook. The album pivots, smoothly. Every song has an identity of its own, and the story — music and lyrics — is told as much in the mood as in the actual content of the track in question. And it gets dark. “Rave to the Grave” is nigh on manic, and that’s a whole separate issue, but “Shangrilah Inc.” is looking around and justly bitter almost as a mask for the underlying misery that comes forward in “Chemically Humanized.”
And the lyrics that turn self-awareness into strength. Looking at a song like “Delirium Tremors” — the play on ‘delirium tremens’ emblematic of the wit throughout — there’s a distance between the narrative voice of the lyrics and the unfolding plot that feels literary. Holiday refers to poetry twice in “Chemically Humanized” and Edgar Allen Poe comes up (as he would) in “She’s Still a Goth,” and if these are clues to the mindset from which the lyrics were approached, that allows the material to move more deftly within and between pieces as well while signaling to the listener that the narrator is trustworthy. The sub-three-minute bang-bang-bang of “She’s Still a Goth” into “Mourning Wood” into “Rave to the Grave” after “Hillbilly Fight Song” launches at just over that same mark guides the audience across per-track changes of mood before slamming into “Delirium/I’m spinning out of control again…” and “I need an icepick lobotomy” in “Delirium Tremors.”
That’s a hard crash, existentially speaking. Elektrik Ram makes it fun so that the chorus of “You found me in a coma/Naked on the floor/You said ‘I’ve had enough’/I said I’d have one more/You probably should’ve cut me off/But I wouldn’t listen to you anyway,” becomes a sing-along as much as a confession acknowledging the narcissism of addiction — that “you” is accusatory; it casts blame even if the next line redirects that blame toward the self. The first chorus on this album could not possibly be more swaggering as Holiday in a faux-Southern accent intones, “Sit your ass down when grown folks is talking,” heading into, “And I don’t give a fuck/About the mess I made/And I don’t recall/Asking you a god damned thing.” Meanwhile, at the other end, the last lyric in “Chemically Humanized,” pleading, is “I wish I was dead.”
It is a remarkable journey between those two ends, meeting inwardly- and outwardly-imposed difficult times with cleverness, honesty and humor, unflinching as that examination is supposed to be in “Cement Brain” for the chorus lines, “Please don’t let me fall off/The fucking wagon,” and perhaps most importantly, sounding no less sincere in that than in the wife-worship of “Queen of the Gorgons” or the allusion to poker in “A Song About Drugs (With a Clever Title)” that asks, “Are you all in?/In on the joke,” after references to alcohol and other abuse, admonitions of choking on pride, and so on. The second verse of “A Song About Drugs (With a Clever Title)” does some particularly heavy lifting: “I told you/I need to know/I need to see where this tunnel goes/Will there be a light?/Probably/There’ll be a light/Just not for me.” Ditto “Plug me out/Plug me back in/See if that does anything” from the start of “Elektrik Ram.”
However embellished those lines might be for the purpose of telling the story, that doesn’t make it less true as an experience, and Elektrik Ram is brave in laying it out in plain-but-not-stale terms while also serving as Ruff Majik‘s boldest sonic reach yet. Considerations of genre are by no means absent, but “Cement Brain,” “Shangrilah Inc.,” “Chemically Humanized,” even “Delirium Tremors” with its thematic confusion and disorder, careening groove, are mindful in their rule-breaking, and the album accordingly transcends style while pushing the band forward into new, individualized ground for the band.
I said as much at the outset, but it’s not the kind of accomplishment that happens every year or to every act, and there is not one song among the 11 included that couldn’t (or shouldn’t) be a single. Each serves to enhance the whole while offering something of its own musically, vocally, thematically, to stand out from the rest. Even “She’s Still a Goth” and “Queen of the Gorgons,” which are close in sound and substance and perhaps separated so as to mirror each other on sides A and B of the vinyl, feel purposeful in that and follow different structures. Not unflawed, Elektrik Ram is nonetheless flawless in being what it needs to be, and it places Ruff Majik even more at the forefront of South African heavy, which is a spot that suits them well. Recommended.
[This review contains factual information gleaned in this interview, which is also posted here.]
Ruff Majik, Interview with Johni Holiday, March 17, 2023
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 27th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
As you can see in the tracklisting below, there are three extended pieces in Mud Spencer‘s new album, Kliwon, and one shorter one called “Dead on the Heavy Funk.” I dig the edit posted of the 16-minute “Ratu Kidul,” and the Indonesian solo-project of Rodolphe — go there and look him up; how many Rodolphes can there be? — established a penchant for meditative repetitions on last year’s Fuzz Soup (review here), which also came out on Argonauta, so while I’m well on board for longform experimentalist psych, self-jams and the intimacy of shared sonic exploration, I’m also curious to hear what a sub-six-minute song from this outfit sounds like. Could be one huge drone for all I know. I just like outliers.
May 26 is the release date, and again it’s through Argonauta. I’d love to go on about it but the promo just came this morning and I haven’t even had the chance to unzip the file yet — it’s been a pickle of a morning; you’d rather not know, I promise — but at least I can hope for some soothing vibe when I get there this afternoon. I think to-date, Rodolphe‘s work has been perhaps a bit more challenging than someone randomly encountering a heavy band called Mud Spencer might expect to find, but that’s not a detriment. I’m looking forward to digging in here, will hope to have more coverage for the project either around the time or after the album is out. That’s a month from now.
The PR wire gracefully takes it from there:
Java-Island based Psych-Fuzz Rockers Mud Spencer Announce New Album and Share First Single
By following their collaboration with Studio Berserk (run by Monolord drummer Esben Willems), MUD SPENCER says: “For this second album, I focus more on the global atmosphere, taking the time to slowly build variations based on a main idea. I have enjoyed the work based on samples in parallel, especially including horror Indonesian movie soundtrack at the beginning of the album as opening.
“As it is always difficult to explain with words, instrumental music, and more experimental, the best is to listen to get an idea. Finally, and in short, this album was built, without headaches, without very precise direction, like a kid playing with his toys, just need a little discipline so as not to forget where I am concerning long tracks production, to not wasting time.
“The fact of working several months on just one track, was a big change in my habits, usually I work 2-3 tracks at the same time with different style to not be bored. So, I took the tracks as a single project and the challenge was to keep focus and motivation during this long process flow, to finish it with no rush. And of course, having fun to doing it as always.”
MUD SPENCER “Kliwon” will be released via Argonauta Records on CD and DIGITAL and available from May 26th.
TRACKLISTING: 1. Suzzanna 9:10 2. Ratu Kidul 16:15 3. Dead on the Heavy Funk 5:28 4. Jasmin Eater 15:52
Preorders will start soon, in the meantime make sure to track the band on your fave streaming platform: https://songwhip.com/mudspencer
MUD SPENCER ‘s prologue begins in 2017, when band visionary Rodolphe and drummer Eddie recorded a full-length album, “Left Empty”, in within 4 days under the band name of “Chiefing Cloves”. Eddie returned home to Texas, US, right after the recording sessions. As many drafts of song ideas were still there, Rodolphe decided to do it with the means at hand then, and created MUD SPENCER, for low tempo late 60s early 70s sound influences. The one-man-show is Rodolphe, playing all guitars, drums, organ, FX and other instruments. In 2019, he began the production of his debut FUZZ SOUP releases in 2022 by Argonauta Records. According to MUD SPENCER, it’s “made on ze bed music”. He records on his bed, and he mixes outside in the island’s mountain while he just brings the iPad and headset on his trail motorcycle. The new album, mastered by MONOLORD Esben Willems is entitled “Kliwon”, for fans of: My Sleeping Karma, Spiritual Beggars, Clutch, Los Natas, Karma To Burn, Colour Haze, Monster Magnet and Monkey3.
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 26th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Catchy and melodic with clarity behind its construction and fullness in the actual recording, “The Call” is a first listen to what New Jersey’s Ego Planet will have on offer with their upcoming debut LP. North Jersey, no less. Dudes are practically in my backyard, recording in Rockaway. See you down at Factory Records there, Ego Planet. Maybe stop through Shop-Rite in Wharton? Hit the mall and talk about when it had the brown tiles everywhere and smelled like cigarettes all the time — otherwise known as the ’80s?
Geographic novelty aside, the single is solid. Forward structurally in a way that says to me someone here is a KISS fan, but filtered through a bevvy of ’90s influences, some straightforward some not, and a serving-notice showcase for vocalist Jarrett Mead, who tracked his parts while living in Seattle. The melody and hook in “The Call” are resonant, tinged with an atmosphere of sociopolitical resistance — they don’t name names, but that aspect is there and I’m not complaining — and the song is enough to remind you that Monster Magnet are from my beloved Garden State too and once had a song called “Ego the Living Planet” without sounding like either of those things so directly. If you’re tentative on diving in (why?), it’s under four minutes and ain’t hurting nobody.
Have at it:
New Jersey Heavy Rockers EGO PLANET Sign To ARGONAUTA Records; New Single “The Call” Now Streaming
Ego Planet is a Heavy Rock band based in New Jersey, formed in 2020 from a collection of instrumental demos founder, Chris Baker, wrote in the midst of the Covid-19 quarantine.
After several months of writing, Chris partnered up with vocalist/lyricist, Jarrett Mead, to add a voice to his music. The two collaborated to finish 10 songs remotely while Jarrett was living in Seattle, WA. In January of 2021 recording began at Backroom Studios in Rockaway, NJ with owner/engineer Kevin Antreassian. The studio band features Jarrett Mead (Vocals), Chris Baker (Guitars/Bass) and Steve Iannettoni (Drums).
Says the band: “We are beyond stoked to join the Argonauta family for the release of our first full-length album. We can’t thank Gero enough for the opportunity and for believing in our music. Can’t wait for everyone to hear the songs.”
Give ear to the first single THE CALL, from the upcoming full length whose complete details will be revealed soon:https://youtu.be/_1c-VUgumog
Los Angeles heavy rockers Max Boogie Overdrive are gearing up for the release of their debut album, Stoned Again, in the coming months, and after unveiling the initial single “Suffer Sister” in March, they’ve got a new video for the track premiering below. And when I say ‘premiere,’ I do so in full knowledge of the fact that the clip has been live (and public) for well over a week. Does that make it a premiere? Not really. But look outside! Flowers are growing, light is shining. Perhaps even a soft-breeze blowing. I was asked to premiere a thing so here I am. Not my fault it got published on YouTube as open to everybody instead of ‘unlisted,’ and frankly, the band has been plugging the premiere, so I don’t think anyone’s trying to get away with anything and I’m not sure why they would. This is stoner rock. Accidents happen. And I don’t think 100-someodd views is going to hurt the clip anyway.
The “Suffer Sister” song and video are likewise straightforward. The lyrics to the track have a couple wink-and-nudge references to Sabbath tunes, etc., the second verse starting “Monster magnet lady/I’m your iron man,” after the first verse’s use of “Snowblind” and “The Wizard,” maybe some Danzig tossed in for good measure, and so on. The clip has its easter eggs as well in posters and whatnot around them as they play through the song in the rehearsal space, double-kick drum being wobbled as things begin to shake apart, as though the band and video were both exalting you to get off your ass and move. How much you actually boogie is between you, your doctor, and/or your deities, but the opportunity is there to be taken, and while I’m not sure who the sister is who is ‘suffering for her man,’ or why she’s doing that, or how, it’s a catchy tune and they’re not wrong when they give it a Motörhead comparison below, for both the shove of its riff and the vocals of bassist Daren “Drop Dee” Ford (nice Supershitty to the Max shirt, by the way), whose grit here is a defining feature of the song.
As to what the rest of Stoned Again sounds like, well, if I knew I’d probably have told you by now. Not trying to be out here keeping secrets. The good news is the song bodes well and Scary Larry does solid camera work. The bad news is I don’t have a release date for the record to list. But they made a video and they’re starting up the push toward their debut album and that’s enough for me for today, I guess. As to the rest? Screw it. Relax for barely three minutes and enjoy.
PR wire info follows the video below:
Max Boogie Overdrive, “Suffer Sister” video premiere
Max Boogie Overdrive was originally conceived in 2022, as a recording project between guitarist Max Boogie a.k.a. Jim Bacchi (Hittman, Fuzzbubble, The Tikiyaki Orchestra) and Drop Dee a.k.a. Daren Ford (Red Square Black, Ravine and the Generals) as a way to pursue their passion for all things Stoner and Boogie… mammoth guitar riffs, bellowing vocals, and the swagger of early 70’s Detroit rock n’ roll — dirty, fuzzy, with just a dusting of doom, and whole lotta Boogie (not Disco; Heavy Boogie Rock).
The upcoming debut album ‘Stoned Again’ includes the first single “Suffer Sister,” which offers up a dirty Motörhead vibe. Other songs “The Devil Knows my Name” and “Van Boogie” conjure the spirit of the more current Sabbath-influenced desert rock scene. And then there is the KISS thing — you know, those early records, when they were heavy. “Demonaire” and “Bomb Incoming” bring the Demon to mind (when Gene Simmons was still cool).
The cyclonic drumming of Tom ‘Knuckles’ Hernandez (Lords of Altamont, Superbeez) propels the band past the sludge and doom pace, and guitarist Richard ‘RC’ Clark’s guitar adds the necessary beef to the mix, fattening up the tone, and added vocal duties.
Video produced by Joe Fugazi Camera – Scary Larry Frick Edited by Jim Bacchi
Max Boogie Overdrive are: Lead/Rhythm Guitar: Max Boogie (aka Jim Bacchi) Vocals and Bass: Daren (Drop Dee) Ford Drums: Tom (Knuckles) Hernandez Rhythm/Lead Guitar: Richard Clark
Posted in Questionnaire on April 26th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.
Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.
Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.
The Obelisk Questionnaire: Joan Francesc “Fiar” Monguió of Foscor
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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?
At my studying years of career, I remember having a conversation with a renewed poet who was explaining to the class the sort of emotional dialogue poetry allowed him to develop. Like an exercise which words were tools for defining the immaterial… I remember asking him why he couldn’t see a way higher tool and resource music than poetry, considering that the immaterial perhaps shouldn’t be defined with words, limited in meaning and scope, because responses to a way higher level of comprehension??
I remember sharing some thoughts with him about that, and how conventions and language must serve humans to define what they don’t know. From that point, I understood why I always felt that music was the path I needed to live…something special having way more to do with an untouchable emotional point of view, than a simple tool for catching a moment.
Music speaks to your guts, heart and more essential emotions, despite someone would call them perverted by the society and education we all have had… Music should only speak to that level of human consciousness, the immaterial one, and allow each of the ones you shared it too, feel it from their very unique nature.
So, Emotional Music is what I like to think I do… or face.
Describe your first musical memory.
As a kid, being at my grandparents’ living room, playing with my hands being an orchestra director. My grandfather was a classical music lover, and probably under three years, I have images of his wall furniture from where he played those vinyls and show me something I’ve always called, intensity.
Call it trauma…or whatever, but there already was a sort of seed that many years after made a spark of love for music shine. Being part of a moment of greatness, something I wasn’t able to explain and understand at that so early age, but once I started seriously to play in bands, came with strength to me.
Describe your best musical memory to date.
Interesting…and so difficult to answer though. I honestly don’t give much importance to the past in terms of nostalgia. I have always felt a sort of exciting expectation for what’s yet to come, and having this feeling every day or often, because my sight is onwards and not backwards, means the world to me.
Said that, I guess that this difficulty might come from the different way I live and approach myself to the music experience. As a creator or consumer should mark a difference regarding picking a best memory, and why not the personal moment on each parcel or the Live one perhaps should too. I know…you are just asking me for one best musical memory, but honestly, I cannot set only one when it refers to music.
I think it was “Within The Depths of Silence and Phormations”, in 1995, during a trip to the Basque Country trees one of the most intense experiences with music I’ve ever had…Ok, there was some help of substances that helped to merge us with Nature and ourselves…but this memory still gives goosebumps. There would be a couple of unique moments when listening to a couple of Norwegian Black Metal albumsin a way more lonely way, back in the days, which like nails…are deep inside and would accompany this top.
In terms of Live experience, it’s so difficult to beat the emotion once lived after a memorable concert from your own band. In my case, the best memory might be set during and after the presentation gig of our 2017’s album “Les Irreals Visions” in our hometown with a sold out venue… I’m not lying if I call it one of the best musical memories, because of the spontaneous moment and thrilling development of actions during the time it lasted…and it might be considered like that closure act for a soooo long process, which made that moment even more special and unique.
When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?
More than a belief I should say a way to face things… If I might set how much being involved in band changed a really shy guy like me from 20’s on… after probably 15 years believing I was doing things right in terms of living, moving and developing my band, a big disappointment moment after releasing our 4th album helped me out to because a new profile of person and definitely grow in a much more productive and efficient way.
Let’s say that our relationship with our label and booking agent at that time suddenly ended after them feeling disappointed on the kind of band they thought we were and they truly found. They were kind enough for explaining the lack of attitude and qualities despite the creative one. I remember feeling so bad at that time, like defeated… and of course it meant big issues in the band’s core.
After that, and a really thoughtful period, I remember jumping to an “empty pool” trying to prove myself that I was much better than what the mirror those guys put me in front showed me. It was like a challenge in terms of changing 360º the manners I used to have…probably improve and polish many I already had but didn’t used right…and learn in a really short time what even in more than 15 years I was not capable to realize. I’ll be always grateful for such experience and bad moment for everything that changed on me and allowed me later to live.
I might write many names who are worth mentioning, but I feel this is about ideas, not stories in itself… Anybody in need to know when I’m talking about, simply look for the band we were before and after 2015.
Where do you feel artistic progression leads?
And artist shall take care of many sources and resources in order to be able to express his ideas and what comes from heart. From the skills and tools he need, to the inspirational seas where feel drowned in ecstasy… progression should lead to be able to express yourself more and better every time you need it.
I’m thinking on progression linked to your own personal development, what I feel should be natural and healthy in terms of creating and expressing something coherent with yourself. Perhaps this personal development is not necessary leading to communicate and connect much better with people, but at least should allow you to feel as much control as possible of your speech and the process and result of what you need to express.
More often, than someone might think, when all of this occurs, progression in terms of music language appears from nowhere…and it is so thrilling.
How do you define success?
Feeling renovated enthusiasm and motivation for the main things you are led by.
Let’s put an example in terms of music… I might mention an album not reaching or receiving the attention and response you would had expected. I am talking about the passion that moves you on to need expressing yourself with music. All the process lived from the first conception act to the very last effort put into layout, lyrics or promotional visuals cannot be dragged because it doesn’t get “results”.
Maximum, it should make you reconsider your way of expressing if what you want is results, but never get down the passion running through your veins. Same thing goes for values which too often and put to test.
What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?
The coldness on people that shows no empathy with the others… I’ve seen and see that every day in too much life circumstances, and really hurts and makes me feel fed up of the society I live in. You are probably asking me for a music related topic, but even in this small artistic bubble, this is something I wish I would not see anymore.
Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.
An album with no schedule nor money limitations… Let’s say this in a way more positive way: I would love to create an album or even a way more complex creation, gathering as many artistic disciplines as possible, worked from a total feeling of freedom in terms of time and resources. Looks like there’s always a sort of presence pushing behind when recording music, that would be lovely to make disappear…of course it has to do with the fact that we always have had to deal with such moments among many other life matters and obligations, and probably it may affect to the result.
Every new recording gives me the impression that we are way more efficient, productive and capable to manage everything better than before; but even then, there’s job times to deal with, money limits we cannot afford, etc… That’s the dream I have.
What do you believe is the most essential function of art?
With no doubt it’s a communicative one…
You might fill that with all the aesthetical theory and philosophy, but in the end art is the main tool we humans have to connect with the immaterial world. There’s no need to define what’s immaterial, but I’m pretty sure each one of your readers may have a very own idea of how defining the immaterial from a social, cultural, religious or simply emotional point of view, something we cannot explain but we need to express. And even more… share, because the act of communication, although being based on a dialogue with ourselves, always translates previous moments into something new…so, knowledge, to keep living.
Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?
My son is 2 years and 8 months old, and beyond the challenging moment that paternity means for someone who lives music the way I live, I’m very much looking forward seeing my son develop himself the way he feels. I would love him to be able to express himself in any artistic discipline…but way more important, I would love to see him growing moved by a healthy passion, and surrounded by life aspects that he feels good with.
Cheers to whoever runs the Deadly Vipers video editing department. I suppose it’s not that crazy for a tour to end and a good-times-we-had video to surface a couple weeks later, but the French four-piece were out at the end of March alongside Fuzzorama Records imprint heads Truckfighters (from Sweden, if it needs to be said) and Wizzerd for a multinational stint supporting their late-2022 album, Low City Drone (review here), the three labelmate acts rolling through Germany, Austria and the Netherlands as one will. And while I don’t know if they made the clip themselves in terms of actually putting the footage together, having such a project to work on would be a decent way to beat the post-tour blues, if in fact that’s the case.
Either way, it’s a welcome check-in from the Perpignan outfit in addition to a reminder/herald for the album. You can see the tour was a good time and the crowds showed up and that’s all fine, but the song brings to the forefront the strengths of the band in terms of craft and presentation, the songwriting wholly embracing a desert rock style while keeping the production full and modern. Maybe that doesn’t sound so off-the-wall on paper, but on “Last Rise” and throughout the record they bring freshness of perspective to the tenets of genre without coming across as too derivative or needing to mask their influences by superfluous arrangement elements. Solid, fuzzy, engaging heavy rock. You’ll pardon me if I don’t argue with it.
The video follows here and the album stream is down near the bottom of the post. You know the drill.
Please enjoy:
Deadly Vipers, “Last Rise” official video
Deadly Vipers did a video to the song ‘Last Rise’ with material from their European tour spring 2023 supporting Truckfighters.
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 26th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
The fact that Berlin-based progressive instrumentalists Weite haven’t put out a full song from their upcoming Assemblage debut with this announcement/details unveiling makes considerably more sense when you consider the record only has four tracks on it. And given the stated propensity for classic krautrocking vibes, one assumes those four tracks are substantial in their runtime. But this is the second teaser for the record — which like so many of the best things in life was tracked live at Big Snuff Studio by Richard Behrens — so one assumes they’ll get around to featuring a track at some point between now and July, which is far enough in the future that I have no idea what life will be like. Warmer? Who knows. See? It’s a mystery.
If you haven’t already skipped to the teaser, let me offer gentle encouragement to abandon this sentence in progress and do so. You’ll note the involvement of Elder‘s Nick DiSalvo and Mike Risberg, and I guess I didn’t realize with the last post about the band that Ingwer Boysen (also High Fighter) was in Delving with that pair as well. Does that make Weite an offshoot of an offshoot? Sure, or maybe just a band. Their lineup completed by Ben Lubin (also Lawns), they’d probably be okay with being called ‘band.’ Or maybe even ‘group,’ if you’re feeling fancy.
Haven’t heard this record yet — see: “July,” “future” above — but I’ve no moral objection to anything that’s been thus far hinted toward. Perhaps you’ll feel the same as you peruse the PR wire info and teaser clip below:
WEITE Feat. Members Of ELDER, HIGH FIGHTER, DELVING & LAWNS, Reveal Album Details & Teaser!
Debut album, “Assemblage”, out on July 14, 2023 via Stickman Records!
Weite, the new prog-psych/kraut band featuring Nicholas DiSalvo (Elder, Delving) and Michael Risberg (Elder) alongside Ingwer Boysen (High Fighter) and Ben Lubin (Lawns), has announced new details about their upcoming, much-awaited debut album! “Assemblage” will be released on July 14, 2023 through Stickman Records. A first glimpse has just been revealed in the following video teaser.
Weite was initially conceived as a one-off winter project by Boysen, who contacted DiSalvo and Risberg with the idea to write and record a record within a week. Having played together in DiSalvo’s live band for his project Delving, a certain musical chemistry was already apparent. The three recruited Berlin-based English guitarist Lubin to round out the quartet and proceeded to bunker in for a week of intense songwriting.
Sharing their diverse musical interests and swapping instruments frequently, a body of songs was quickly created that channeled a collective love for 60’s and 70’s psychedelic music, krautrock, jazz and listening to one motorik beat for 20 minutes straight. The troupe set off to record in a short session at Big Snuff Studio with frequent collaborator Richard Behrens and within a few days “Assemblage” was born. Recording live, Behrens captured the essence of the session, at times mellow and times intense, with the five together then embellishing the raw recordings with a hearty dollop of experimental overdubs.
After many banal discussions and almost a year after the project was finished, Weite was officially born as the group decided to continue the project as a proper band. “We didn’t intend to start a band, but it kinda happened“, the band recently commented. “It turned out pretty cool, too cool to let it be a one-off, so we decided to keep it going. WEITE was officially born; the word means “expanse” “vastness” or “width”, a few adjectives we’d use to describe our sound.“
“Assemblage” track listing:
1. Neuland 2. Entzündet 3. Rope 4. Murmuration
In support of their upcoming debut, the band has announced a few first live shows, with more to follow in the not so distant future. Make sure to catch the band live and follow Weite on: www.instagram.com/_weite
Weite Live: 13.07.23 – DE – Berlin | Kantine am Berghain 15.07.23 – DE – Hamburg | Hafenklang
