What does it tell you about an album when five record labels get behind the release? Well, first it tells you that globalization was a farce that requires multiple DIY distributors to cover different territories around the planet because instead of actually helping smooth processes like releasing albums in multiple territories, it made the same five old white men who were already rich that much richer over the course of the last 30 years, but more immediately, it perhaps tells us that it’s time to start thinking of Volume‘s 2002 debut/only-LP Requesting Permission to Land (not the original cover below) as a lost classic, and maybe that it’s time to revisit that pre-social media era of heavy rock and roll in a similar fashion to how about 10 years back it seemed like every other week there was another lost classic from the heavy ’70s coming out on labels like Akarma and Rockadrome. Feels early, but I bet if you were there in the 1970s it felt early a decade ago too.

There are, of course, a near-infinite amount of treasures to be unearthed, because while I’d call the heavy underground well populated today and bolstered by the (semi-)democratization of recording gear/software and streaming, but whatever comes of it in the next few years, Volume‘s Requesting Permission to Land is easily worth the revisit, calling to mind nostalgia for the MySpace era when, say, one might’ve sent Patrick Brink a message requesting a copy of the record to play on one’s college radio stoner rock show. I’d say those were the days, but they weren’t really. I could go on off-topic, but you don’t care. If you want to talk and be friends in real life, hit me up. Also, don’t tell anybody that 2023 is actually the 21st anniversary of the album. Doesn’t matter. Pressing delays, timing, whatever. It exists and it’s coming out. That’s good enough for me.

The relevant info from the PR wire:

VOLUME To Release 20th Anniversary Edition of Requesting Permission To Land

Heavy fuzzed out psychedelic rock from the desert of Twentynine Palms, CA, is the offering from VOLUME. Formed in 1993, VOLUME are back following a hiatus to finish what they started and celebrate a career milestone. The 20th Anniversary edition vinyl pressing of Requesting Permission To Land will be released on October 27th.

“I’m super stoked that ‘Requesting Permission To Land’ will finally be out on vinyl like it was always supposed to be. Get ready to get cosmically freaked out!” – Patrick Brink

From the riff-fueled percussive-frenzy sound of the EP’s opener “Habit” to the rhythmic and progressive conclusion “Headswim”, Requesting Permission To Land is a thrilling collection of heavy acid rock tracks. The EP features a number of talented musicians with drums recorded by Scott Reeder (FU MANCHU), and bass played by James Scoggins (FINAL CONFLICT). If you like straight up fuzzed out psychedelic rock, sit back and let VOLUME spin your head!

About VOLUME:

Patrick Brink began VOLUME back in 1993 with the desire to have a project with which he could take the lead and steer the musical reins down psychedelic rocking routes. Having performed with a number of acts including doing vocals for FU MANCHU in their early days, VOLUME offered Patrick a new creative outlet. Over their career the band has shared stages with QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE, FU MANCHU, MASTADON and GOATSNAKE, and performed at festivals including Emmisions of the Monolith and Stoner Hands of Doom (SHoD). VOLUME draw musical influences from bands such as THE STOOGES, MC5 and BLACK FLAG to name a few, while also crafting their own distinctive heavy psychedelic identity.

Requesting Permission To Land will be released via Weird Beard (UK) We Here & Now (CA) Echodelick (US) Worst Bassist (EU) Ramble Records (AU)

Tracklisting:
1. Habit
2. Colossalfreak
3. Dont Look Around
4. Make Believe
5. Headswim

https://www.facebook.com/volumerocksofficial
https://www.instagram.com/volume_rocks/
https://twitter.com/RocksVolume
https://volume-rocks.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/ERECORDSATL
https://www.instagram.com/echodelickrecords/
https://echodelickrecords.bandcamp.com/
https://www.echodelickrecords.com/

https://www.facebook.com/WeHereandNow
https://www.instagram.com/wehereandnowrecordings/
https://wehereandnow.bigcartel.com/
https://wehereandnow.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/worstbassistrecords
https://www.instagram.com/worst.bassist.records
https://worstbassistrecords.bandcamp.com/
https://www.worstbassist.com/

https://www.facebook.com/Ramble-Records-104456548098088
https://www.instagram.com/ramble_records
https://ramblerecords.bandcamp.com/
https://ramblerecords.com/

https://www.facebook.com/WeirdBeardRecs/
https://weirdbeardrecs.bandcamp.com/
https://theweirdbeard.bigcartel.com/

Volume, Requesting Permission to Land (2002)

Mondo Generator did a European summer tour like this last year as well, where I was fortunate enough to see them play at Freak Valley Festival. This year, the Nick Oliveri-led trio hit StonerKras, Red Smoke, Hoflärm, SonicBlast and more besides over the course of more than a month of consistent bang bang bang, show show show, plugging away. This is an admirable thing. Gotta get paid, of course, but consider that Mondo Generator could easily be marketing itself as ‘Nick Oliveri‘s gonna sing some Kyuss and QOTSA songs too!’ and probably draw more heads, but to-date they haven’t really gone there. Yes, the bulk of what they do are the band’s own punk rippers, but Oliveri‘s whole catalog is fair game and I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s down to whatever a given evening calls for as to what’s played.

Oliveri is someone preceded by his reputation as a wildman, but I’ll say this: when I was introduced to him outside the show Stöner played in New Jersey last year, he was polite to my wife, which many with less wild reputations are not. Even if they hadn’t killed it when I saw them in 2022, that’d probably be enough motivation for me to put these dates here, if the general relevance wasn’t already enough, which I’ll point out that it is.

You may have recently caught wind of the collaboration between Oliveri and Italy’s Temple of Deimos. I don’t know if there’s anything else planned for while Mondo Generator are in Europe, but their schedule sure seems full, as told by the PR wire:

MONDO GENERATOR announce full European & UK summer tour + festival appearances!

Californian stoner punk icons MONDO GENERATOR (fronted by former Kyuss and Queens of the Stone Age bassist Nick Oliveri) are taking over Europe and the UK this summer, with an extensive summer tour including a few festival appearances!

Mondo Generator European summer tour:
13.07 – Prato (IT) Orto Sonoro Santa Valvola
14.07 – Genova (IT) Bau Fest Villa Rossi
15.07 – Trieste (IT) Stoner Kras Fest
16.07 – Pleszew (PL) Red Smoke Fest
18.07 – Dresden (DE) Chemiefabrik
20.07 – Hoofddorp (NL) Duycker
21.07 – Münster (DE) Rare Guitar
22.07 – Eindhoven (NL) Popei
23.07 – London (UK) Underworld
24.07 – Milton Keynes (UK) Craufurd Arms
25.07 – Swansea (UK) Bunkhouse
26.07 – Corby (UK) The Raven Hotel
27.07 – Bournemouth (UK) Anvil
28.07 – Bradford (UK) The Underground
29.07 – Glasgow (UK) Ivory Blacks
30.07 – Manchester (UK) Satans Hollow
31.07 – Norwich (UK) Waterfront Studio
01.08 – Cheltenham (UK) Frog & Fiddle
02.08 – Dover (UK) The Booking Hall
03.08 – Tilburg (NL) Little Devil
04.08 – Steenwijkerwold (NL) Dicky Woodstock
05.08 – Paris (FR) Petit Bain
08.08 – Chambery (FR) Brin De Zinc
09.08 – Zurich (CH) Safari Bar
10.08 – Marienthal (DE) Hoflärm Festival
11.08 – Ancora (PT) Sonic Blast Festival
12.08 – Innsbruck (AT) Pmk
13.08 – San Zenone Degli Ezzelini (IT) Villa Albrizzi
14.08 – Pula (HR) Monte Paradiso
16.08 – Cagliari (IT) Cueva Rock
17.08 – Caramagna (IT) Last One To Die
18.08 – Ravenna (IT) Hana-Bi
19.08 – Francavilla Al Mare (IT) Frantic Fest
20.08 – Carhaix (FR) Motocultor Festival

MONDO GENERATOR is:
Nick Oliveri – Bass & Vocals
Mike Pygmie – Guitars
Mike Amster – Drums

https://www.facebook.com/officialmondogenerator/
https://www.instagram.com/nick_o_1971/
https://open.spotify.com/artist/5Ug0EkTXplXiip0C2OzVi7
https://www.mondogenerator.net/

heavypsychsoundsrecords.bandcamp.com
www.heavypsychsounds.com
https://www.facebook.com/HEAVYPSYCHSOUNDS/
https://www.instagram.com/heavypsychsounds_records/

Mondo Generator, Fuck It (2020)

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: Andrea Van Cleef

—

How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?

For me, it’s all about creating a different reality from the everyday life experience. Much like the science fiction I adored as a child (wait, I still do), it’s an opening towards a world made of all the things that I need, a world I can be comfortable in, where I can relax and forget all of the bad stuff.

Describe your first musical memory.

I think it’s listening to the opening theme of “Goldrake”, a cartoon show that was very popular in Italy at the beginning of the 80s.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

I was 16 and listening to Yes, I think it was “and you and I” from “close to the edge” and I suddenly realized I didn’t want to gi to church again, because my religion was music and art.

When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?

All firmly held beliefs sooner or later are tested by the constant need of money that the world is forcing on you. Choosing music as my main job is a constant challenge, I am tested every given day.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

I think it should lead you to a constant evolution. Even if it’s not always a straight path. You can go back sometimes, because it’s what you need to evolve further. But progression is change, a constant change to better understand who you really are.

How do you define success?

Being able to make the things in your mind a real thing.

What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?

I’ve seen bad things happen to good people. Sometimes I’ve been able to help. Wish I could help all the time. I can’t.

Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.

I’d like to make a record that can express all the different sides of my mind, listening to it, people who know me would say “hey, that’s really him!”. Maybe I should write a novel. I’ll never have the time or the craft to write a novel.

What do you believe is the most essential function of art?

I think art is the best entertainment ever. It has the ability of entertain you, while at the same time it can elevate you and your conscience of yourself and of the questions we all have about the great unknown.

Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?

I want to be remembered as a good father. I love being a father. I am very close to my son, Martin, and to my family. I think it’s the only thing I’m really good at, being a father, I’m pretty terribile at everything else. But wait until my son is 16 or 27, he might have a different opinion!

https://www.facebook.com/avcrocks
https://www.instagram.com/andreavancleef/
https://andreavancleef.bandcamp.com/
http://www.andreavancleef.space/

Andrea Van Cleef & The Fuzz Resistance, “Apache Road” official video

Andrea Van Cleef, Folksession Live Official Bootleg (2022)

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: Daniel Taylor of Cold Blue Mountain

—

How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?

I’m the drummer in the band Cold Blue Mountain, but I’ve also been fortunate enough to be able to contribute by playing keyboards on the records we’ve made. And for the newest stuff we’ve been working on and will be recording soon, I even got to help out on a couple guitar parts, so maybe now I’ve risen to the level of Drummer+.

Growing up, I never played drums, never owned drums, never really even thought about drums. I took piano when I was a young kid and picked up guitar when I was a teenager, and my bands in high school were me playing guitar or piano; even the first real band I played with in college I played guitar. But I quickly realized that finding a drummer was the hardest part of starting a band and being 19 and wanting to be in cool bands I figured I should probably learn how to play drums. So I started playing drums in a punk band which was definitely a good starting point, and once you become A Guy with Drums in a college town like Chico, you are automatically a drummer no matter your skill level. So from then on I’ve always been a “drummer” who occasionally dabbles in other stuff when I can, and thankfully Cold Blue Mountain is a band where there is a lot of opportunity to add some fun layers with organ, piano, and synths, which really make up some of my favorite parts of some of our recordings.

Describe your first musical memory.

It’s not technically my “first” musical memory, but I really feel like it was my first musical “a-ha” moment. My dad had an old nylon string guitar laying around the house but coming from the piano it seemed like a pretty daunting thing to even pick up, like with the strings and the frets and all of that. One day I was just sort of fucking around with the open strings and I realized that you could play the opening riff to “Nothing Else Matters” by Metallica–which was still sort of a new song at that point–just with the open strings and it was like a light bulb went off: “Holy shit the music on the radio is just this?” It was the first time I had really considered that the rock bands I was listening to weren’t necessarily creating these extremely challenging, master-level works of art, and it made me instantly dive into guitar by learning the first position chords and trying to figure out any song that came on the radio.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

Cold Blue Mountain organized and mostly pulled off a full US tour in the first part of 2015 following the release of our second album on Halo of Flies that sort of felt like the payoff for a lot of years of sort of putting all the pieces of the puzzle together slowly. We had really lucked out with getting our first record pressed on vinyl by Gogmagogical Records and getting some decent press here and there and had been touring up and down the West Coast as much as we could fit in one -or two-week stints. We recorded the second record without really knowing what we were going to do with it but it worked out that Cory at Halo of Flies said that he would put it out on vinyl so we wanted to do something a little bigger to really get the most mileage out of what was, to us, a pretty rad situation getting our new record out on a really badass record label. So we booked a pretty bonkers tour that went all the way from California to New England and back down and around, sort of a big circle across the majority of the country.

Of course, January and February in a lot of places is absolute shitting snow so we had a lot of hairy drives and ended up breaking down once or twice and not making a hand full of the shows. But so many of my favorite shows ever were on that tour. We got to play Saint Vitus in Brooklyn, we played an awesome in Milwaukee with Cory from Halo of Flies’ band Protestant that was packed to the absolute rafters; we played a show on Super Bowl Sunday in Des Moines Iowa during an absolute Blizzard and there was actually not a single person there except for us and the people working and it was such a bizarro-world type of feeling. And for me personally, I had semi-quit my job and ended up quitting it completely by the end of the tour so a month in a van freezing and stinking and eating way too much truckstop dried fruit was incredibly conducive to the sort of transitional state I was occupying.

When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?

There were several times on that tour, I mentioned above, where the whole idea of trying to play shows or present your music to the world in the classic DIY fashion by driving around in a van and showing up to some house or some warehouse and having zero idea what you were going to find seemed like maybe not something that was really worth doing. I mean the good shows were good, and some of the bad shows were good too, in their own way. But for me being 34 years old at the time and loading in gear in freezing snow to play for a handful of people at some guy’s house and sleeping on a wood floor you ask yourself “how much do I really want to do this?” But it’s been a lot of years since then and we are still doing it, to a lesser extent, so the answer to that question must have been more yes than no.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

I think it leads to more or less the same place as artistic regression leads: a realization that the process of change, either for better or for worse, is always ongoing. I don’t know if that’s just the answer of someone who has regressed or at least never progressed far enough to realize some sort of artistic epiphany, but it seems like even most of the people who are making art at the highest level are either strangely unconvinced of their own greatness or are striving to be whatever it is that they feel like is better than what they are doing.

How do you define success?

Success for me would be an ability to accept the outcome of something forever. There is a famous list of rules for living that Jack Kerouac wrote out at some point that I have, for whatever reason, reproduced using single letter ink stamps on the front head of my bass drum. And there are a lot of very beat writer nuggets in there like “blow as deep as you want to blow” but one of my favorites is “accept loss forever.” And I think that the idea of being able to just accept something that happened good or bad in its final form forever is probably one of the most beneficial things you can do, in any circumstance, including when taking an honest look at whatever you have done on an artistic level.

What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?

So far, I have managed to watch every episode of all 10 seasons of the television show The Curse of Oak Island and it is honestly one of the most painful things I do on a regular basis.

Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.

I have an idea for an extremely quiet band that plays very subdued, rigorously melodic instrumental post-rock, with no build-ups, no distorted guitars, nothing like that. There is a band called The Six Parts Seven who used to do the sort of thing I’m talking about and it’s really something I would like to do before I’m too old to play in bands anymore.

What do you believe is the most essential function of art?

Art is the great equalizer. Anyone anywhere can make and appreciate art out of whatever is around. In that sense art is the most universal language, even more so than math, at least in my opinion, because it takes the principles of math, ratios, shapes, etc., and makes them into something that even a child can understand has meaning.

Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?

I’m hopeful that during my lifetime there is some disclosure about the true nature of UFOs, UAP, whatever people want to call them. Maybe not a complete explanation, because maybe that’s not even possible, but at least a fuller sharing of existing knowledge about what maybe these things are not. Much to my own dismay, I have never personally experienced ANYTHING mysterious or paranormal, although I’m certainly open to the idea. If the guy who owns Skinwalker Ranch is reading this, I’m ready to come visit any time.

https://www.facebook.com/coldbluemountain
https://www.instagram.com/coldbluemountain/
https://coldbluemountain.bandcamp.com/

Cold Blue Mountain, Lost Society Demo EP (2016/2022)

True, a goodly portion of these dates has already been posted. With the same picture of the band, no less. In my defense, Austin heavy party doomers Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol have added dates to their West Coast run in the interim, and announced that on June 4 in Austin they’ll host the inaugural Big Dumb Fest, playing alongside Eagle Claw, the always-delightful Tia Carrera and a host of others as they continue to support 2022’s Doom-Wop (review here) with steady live work. In addition, that album’s vinyl release is coming up in June, and that’s like next week, so there’s relevant info here regardless of the repeated data/photography. I sincerely doubt that, had I not mentioned it already, anyone else would. Alas.

I’ve yet to see this band live — and I’ve spoken before about how I haven’t really formed an opinion on them yet in part because of that; again, nobody cares, I know — but they’re touring with Crobot, and they play Crobot at my gym, so that would seem to hint that they’re looking to find a broader audience than one might encounter on strictly underground heavy tours, even as they step into headlining on the upcoming West Coast run. As to how that will all shake out, it’ll probably be two more album cycles before it’s determined either way, but one cannot accuse them of not putting in the work. They already came East to herald Doom-Wop and I wouldn’t be surprised if they did so again before Europe inevitably beckons with its promises of stuff like food backstage and maybe a place to sleep, unheard of as those generally are in the States.

The PR wire has it like this:

Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol to tour with Crobot in July, headlining Western US tour begins June 4th

Austin trio Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol just completed the first leg of their summer U.S. tour dates and today added July shows with Crobot. Before that, the band headlines the West Coast in June following the first-ever RBBP Big Dumb Fest event in their hometown on June 4th. Please see all dates below. Ticket links HERE: https://taplink.cc/rickshawbillie

Rickshaw Billie’s Big Dumb Fest features 7 bands and 4 food vendors for the ultimate meeting of the ears, eyes and taste buds! Sunday, June 4th, 2023 – at Mohawk Austin – 4pm

Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol
w/ Eagle Claw, Tia Carrera, Billy Glitter, Gus Baldwin & The Sketch, Buzz Electro, Pinko
Eats by: Chilly’s Philly’s, Bad Larry Burger Club, Jim Jam’s Biscuits, Chef’s Kiss

With their 5th studio release, Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol is putting a name to the style of fuzzed out, overdriven, melodic, groovy music they have been making since 2016. In 9 concise, no bullshit songs, RBBP demonstrates their ability to blend the merciless low end of Leo Lydon’s 8-String guitar, Aaron Metzdorf’s masterful chordwork on the bass, and Sean St.Germain’s driving drumwork. Lydon and Metzdorf’s vocal melodies cut through the high frequencies to deliver fresh layers to the hooks that RBBP fans have come to love.

As the name implies, Doom Wop is a heavy, melody-driven, party metal album. With riffs as big and dumb as ever, and lyrics that stab at the worst members of society and ourselves (while keeping tongue firmly in cheek), listeners will find all the elements that make up the soul of RBBP on this record.

Doom Wop is available on CD and download, released on September 23rd, 2022. Vinyl LP coming in June.

RBBP LIVE 2023:
06/04 Austin, TX – Mohawk Austin – BIG DUMB FEST
06/05 Marfa, TX – Bad Larry
06/06 El Paso, TX – 101
06/08 Tempe, AZ – The Beast
06/09 Los Angeles, CA – Permanent Records Roadhouse
06/10 San Francisco, CA – The Kilowatt
06/11 Sacramento, CA – Old Ironsides
06/13 Seattle, WA – Substation
06/14 Portland, OR – High Water Mark
06/15 Boise, ID – CRLB
06/16 Salt Lake City, UT – Aces High Saloon
06/17 Denver, CO – Hi-Dive
06/19 Tulsa, OK – Soundpony
07/22 Lititz, PA – Micket’s Black Box *
07/25 Greensboro, NC – Hangar 1819 *
07/26 Greenville, SC – Radio Room *
07/27 Summerville, SC – Trolly Pub *
07/28 Ft Myers, FL – Buddha Live *
07/29 Orlando, FL – Conduit *
07/30 Tampa, FL – Orpheum *
08/01 Atlanta, GA – Masquerade *
08/03 Corpus Christi, TX – Mesquite Street South *
08/04 Houston, TX – Scout Bar *
* w/ Crobot

https://www.facebook.com/rickshawbilliesburgerpatrol
https://www.instagram.com/rickshawbillieandtheboys
https://twitter.com/RickshawBillie
https://rickshawbilliesburgerpatrol.bandcamp.com/
http://www.rickshawbilliesburgerpatrol.com/

Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol, Doom Wop (2022)

Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol, “Heel” official video

[Click play above to stream Eye by The Mon in its entirety. Album is out tomorrow on Supernatural Cat and available to order here.]

Eye is the second full-length from The Mon, a solo-project helmed by bassist/vocalist Urlo of Ufomammut, and whether it’s for the echoing reach of its atmosphere, the finer detailing in the ticking-clock plucked violin strings on “Burning From Afar,” the empty-space minimalism from which “The Manure of Our Remains” swells, or the low-end drone that underscores opener “The Sun,” it is an album that feels very much made for headphones.

Produced, mixed and mastered by Urlo in follow-up to 2018’s Doppelleben and sundry multimedia experiments under The Mon‘s banner, the 11-song/37-minute collection sees issue through Supernatural Cat and features artwork by Malleus, as Urlo finds his way into a kind of multi-tiered Neurot Recordings-esque DIY structure while at the same time bringing in guest contributors throughout the release, whether it’s Amenra‘s Colin H. Van Eeckhout contributing lyrics and vocals on the wistful “To the Ones,” Steve Von Till of Neurosis doing likewise, plus synth, for “Confession,” or the artist Francesca De Franceschi Manzoni adding her voice to the channel-spanning layers amid the quiet guitar march/synth of second track “Secret,” which instead of exploding into heft for another seven minutes as an Ufomammut song might, instead turns to blinding synth wash for its payoff. So it goes.

Sarah Pendleton of The Otolith (ex-SubRosa) is the most prominent of the guests, at least in terms of affecting the sound of the record. Her violin fits seamlessly into the psychedelic synth and backward guitar of “This Dark o’ Mine,” the longest inclusion at 5:10 with samples of what sounds like some kind of crackling dug deep into the mix under the at-least-doubled lead vocal from Urlo — who seems throughout to be inventing an alien cosmic folk branched off of Ufomammut‘s alien cosmic doom — and songs like the subsequent “Burning From Afar” and the Eeckhout-sung “To the Ones” are greatly bolstered texturally by her work, never mind that she’s there alongside Urlo as “The Sun” rises at the start of Eye as one of the first impressions the album makes.

Not to be forgotten or minimalized are the two guest spots on guitar from White Hills‘ Dave W., on “Burning From Afar” and “This Dark o’ Mine,” the latter a manipulated backwards solo and the former — which of course is the track after because I’m bouncing around here and that seems to be what the record wants as it gives you different worlds to explore, some lush, some purposefully not — buried somewhere amid the violin, synth, chime-or-chime-sound, low-end undulations and vocals that make up the track, the total impact like krautrock and surprisingly un-manic for how much has gone into it. There are a few flirtations with prog throughout as some of the vocal patterns might remind of earlier Porcupine Tree in the album’s midsection, but as a whole, Eye is strange enough and enough its own thing that the only genre that applies is ‘weirdo,’ and that is a flag righteously flown.

But not gregariously. Most of Eye, at even its loudest, manifests its heft through atmosphere and emotionalism. And the guests of course add much to the proceedings and give reviewers something to talk about and it’s nice to have friends, etc., but the core of The Mon is of course in Urlo‘s craft and performance. He is all alone on “The Manure of Our Remains,” and the bulk of side B in the final four pieces, the brief instrumental “Mimmi” beginning a procession through the acoustic/synth-based poetic repetitions of “Where,” the sci-fi (or horror, I guess) drone ceremony of “Vampyr” — quick like “Mimmi” at 1:33 — and the finale “Pupi,” which builds on the folkish impression with a Donovan-from-space quiet, semi-spoken vocal delivery in layers and declarative guitar strum to announce the end of its lone verse, the song ending instrumentally before some last captured sample, obscure but likely significant if only to Urlo himself, finishes.

That shift in structure would seem to happen as “Burning From Afar” leads off side B, but with Eeckhout stepping in on “To the Ones” just prior to “Mimmi,” the feeling is more intimate by the end of the album. It’s still given aurally to breadth, but the interplay of short and kinda-short songs in that four-track last stretch of underscores the experimentalist heart of The Mon as an outfit, and highlights the shift from the voluminous drones and outright heavy — sometimes even drummed! — plods that made up Doppelleben to this more contemplative, vocally-focused style. But whatever else it does, and it does plenty, Eye does not allow for easy narrative. In its folkish shift, its experimentalist range around guitar-and-voice-centered traditions, and in the elements of sound that seem to come and go throughout, sometimes with personnel, it is a complex and multifaceted listening experience, Urlo‘s voice guiding the proceedings with emergent confidence and a still-explorational intent.

By which I mean that The Mon declares itself clearly in this material, but the clarity is in the act of feeling its way through the songs. Many artists will tell you they didn’t know where a song was going until it got there. There are moments in Eye that seem genuinely born out of that kind of experience, and the overarching impression is still one of forward growth to come, whatever that might mean in a context that’s already demonstrated such breadth and an ability to pivot in sound from one release to the next. The outer-reaches vocal chanting of “The Manure of Our Remains,” the sweet and ethereal winding of the violin and synth of “The Sun,” and the ideas-parade that caps, along with the fluidity of personnel and the general variation of sonic purpose give Eye a scope that goes beyond the hearing, but it remains emotionally resonant however far out it goes, and so its kaleidoscopic intimacy is cohesive when met on its own level. That’s not something every listener is going to want or be able to do — it never is — but The Mon is more dug into the approach than the outcome here, and there’s no guarantee that the same approach would be taken again, despite the fact that there’s enough vision at work in the material to flesh out an entire career arc.

In other words, it’ll meet you out there. It’s waiting.

The Mon, “Where” official video

The Mon on Facebook

The Mon on Bandcamp

Supernatural Cat website

Supernatural Cat on Facebook

Supernatural Cat on Instagram

Malleus website

Italian heavy rockers OJM took the stage at the Sept. 2022 Venezia Hardcore Fest playing alongside the likes of Dropdead, The Flex, Melt and Big Cheese, and a respectably aggressive slew of others. They also just played the Go Down Records-associated Maximum Festival 2023 in April, and you’re right, this April is more recent than last Fall, but the full set of the Venice show has been posted by the band and it’s all the more of an occasion since it was a special gig in celebration of their 25th anniversary performed as a reunion of the lineup that featured on 2006’s Under the Thunder.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but OJM belong to the class of ’00s-era European underground heavy rockers who did the thing before the mobilization of social media as an ecosystem for bands. Playing in a heavy desert style, OJM was the kind of band you’d hear about on StonerRock.com, or maybe you picked up their records at All That is Heavy like I did. Their most recent full-length was 2010’s Volcano (review here), which means that for 13 years of their quarter-century tenure, they haven’t had a record out. True, it hasn’t been a complete absence, as 2021’s Live at Rocket Club (review here) was a definitive sign of life, but their activity has been almost exclusively live since Volcano, the 18th anniversary compilation 18 (discussed here) that came out in — hang on, doing math — 2015 notwithstanding.

But that comp came with word that the band was taking a long break, and that’s how it’s gone since. I don’t know what their forward plans are, if anything, but vocalist David Martin, guitarist Alessandro Tedesco, bassist Andrew Pozzy and drummer Massimo “Max Ear” Recchia hit it hard enough in this clip that while they’d still definitely be a standout on any bill calling itself a hardcore fest — since, you know, they’re not a hardcore band — they did have a mosh going in front of the stage, people getting up and stage-diving off, and all that sort of happens-at-gigs-when-not-everyone-is-60-yet types of things. Not ragging on old people shows at all, by the way. If you need me, I’ll be in back looking for a chair.

I’ve included the stream of OJM‘s Under the Thunder below as hoisted from their Bandcamp. The fact of the matter is an entire generation of heavy rock’s audience has come to prominence since the last time OJM released an album, and I’m hoping that maybe one or two people will take the chance here to go back and listen to this one, or maybe their Beard of Stars-issued 2002 debut, Heavy (discussed here), or anything else on there, since the bottom line is they were a band worth knowing then and they remain one now. And if I didn’t hint at it strong enough, I’ll say outright that I’d love to hear what these guys could do on a new full-length. Maybe next year. Maybe not.

If you can dig it, then by all means, dig it:

OJM, Live at Venezia Hardcore Fest 2022

LINE UP
DAVID MARTIN – vocals
MAX EAR – drums
ANDREW POZZY – bass
ALESSANDRO TEDESCO – guitar

OJM, Under the Thunder (2006)

OJM on Facebook

OJM on Instagram

OJM on Bandcamp

Go Down Records on Facebook

Go Down Records website

[Click play above to stream the premiere of Everyone is Evil by Øresund Space Collective. Album is out tomorrow on Space Rock Productions.]

Fresh jams from Øresund Space Collective, or, depending on the adventure you choose to have with Everyone Is Evil, at least a fresh jam, because even the 2CD version that stretches over two hours long finds its heart in the 64-minute sprawl of the title-track. Divided into three parts and accompanied by the 23-minute “Everyone is Good (Maybe)” as a 2LP  D-side, “Everyone is Evil” is as vast a single procession as the multinational improv heavy space jam conglomerate has ever undertaken in my experience, perhaps taking its horror-ific title from the pulses of synth that bring a vaguely cinematic flourish to “Everyone is Evil Pt. 1” (22:15), but they count it as their 28th studio album — David Graham did the striking cover art — and more to the point, it’s as current a showcase as they have, having been recorded live (as always) at the Portuguese studio Estúdio Paraíso Nas Nuvens by modular synthesist Scott “Dr. Space” Heller in Sept. 2022.

There are nine players involved — personnel has always been somewhat fluid around a central core — and I’ll list them here for record-keeping purposes. As accounted by the band, Everyone is Evil features:

Pär Halje – Synths (4)
Scott “Dr. Space” Heller (Black Moon Circle, Aural Hallucinations, Doctors of Space, etc.) – Modular synth, production, mixing (2, 4)
Jiri Jon Hjorth (Fri Galaxe, Univerzals, etc..) Conga, cymbal and shovel (1), bass (2, 3, 4)
Hasse Horrigmoe (Tangle Edge) – Bass (1), guitar (3, 4)
Mattias Olsson (Ånglagård, etc.) – Drums, guitar, Mellotron (1)
Mogens Pedersen (Univerzals, and others) – Synths and Hammond (1, 2)
Jonathan Segel (Sista Maj, Camper van Beethoven, Hieronymous Firebrain, etc.) – Violin, guitar, mixing (1, 3), mastering
Luis Simões (Saturnia) – Guitar
Tim Wallander (Ozric Tentacles, Agusa) – Drums (4)

Many of these figures will be familiar to those who’ve spent time in Øresund Space Collective‘s e’er spontaneous orbit, as I’m fairly certain all have contributed to the band before. One would fairly call a unit with members of Agusa, Saturnia, Ånglagård, Black Moon Circle and so on a supergroup, but Øresund Space Collective have never been about fanfare; their mission consistent in their efforts to capture creative exploration as it happens and offer it to their audience as organically and as often as possible. As noted, it’s their 28th studio release, and their 40th overall — they say this in the Bandcamp info; but it’s relevant so I’m repeating it here — and that’s not counting the currently-174 show recordings posted as self-bootlegs on Archive.org, dating back to the outfit’s beginnings in 2005. One of the many ways they consult with the traditions of space rock, then, has been productivity.

Fair enough, and I won’t sit here and argue that Everyone is Evil is their greatest accomplishment in 18 years; one might as well use a ruler to measure the solar system in inches. After a few years of archival jams, older pieces edited and finished and brought forth on collections like 2022’s Oily Echoes of the Soul (review here), which was recorded in 2010, or 2021’s Universal Travels (review here), part of what “Everyone is Evil” does is to reposition Øresund Space Collective in the present. I don’t know how much more they might have recorded over the course of the three days they were together, but to their credit, “Everyone is Evil Pt. 1” (22:16), “Everyone is Evil Pt. 2” (23:43) and “Everyone is Evil Pt. 3” (18:40) do function as a single, linear work.

And if it isn’t the jam as it happened, it’s close enough, one movement unfolding into the next and parts coming and going as somebody mimics record scratches on synth about five minutes into “Everyone is Evil Pt. 2,” a long drone rises to prominence after 10 minutes into “Everyone is Evil Pt. 3” signaling the shift into the song’s final stretch, or “Everyone is Good (Maybe)” (23:44) answering the sitar-ish guitar and forward drums of “Everyone is Evil Pt. 1” with a serenity of woven guitar and synth lines, gorgeous and dreamy and allowed to flow as it seems to want. From the subdued beginnings — possibly Simões on that guitar-as-sitar, but he’s by no means alone if it’s him, keys, more guitar, Segel‘s violin soon joining — to its subdued ending, Everyone is Evil is an immersive journey to undertake. Øresund Space Collective are pushing themselves as far out as they’ve gone, and not so much daring the listener to keep up as inviting them into the space being crafted with sound.

I’ve said as much on multiple prior occasions as regards their work, but I am a fan in concept and practice of Øresund Space Collective. In their objective as a group and in the outcome of their efforts, their work is their own with a style and a chemistry that’s vital despite (because of?) the songs’ being made up on the spot, and that they would end up with a piece like “Everyone is Evil Pt. 1,” which drops to gorgeous standalone guitar and synth after eight minutes in, jazzy and fluid as the drums rejoin, or “Everyone is Good (Maybe)” with its follow-the-undulating-waveforms meditative patterns of synth, melodic wash and drone and guitar, is emblematic of the heart and passion that drives all their work, and in more than just the glut of it. While operating in a dimension of time that they seem to have all to themselves, they cast an otherworldly pastoralism — a sunny open field on a planet you just discovered — by which one would be fortunate to be carried along. And is that Rhodes along with the Hammond and guitar at the end of “Everyone is Good (Maybe)?” Could be.

But it’s telling either way how that piece ends on a fade like it could’ve kept going. Because it probably could and maybe did. The CD version includes the two bonus tracks “End of the World as You Thought You Knew It” (9:09), which feels like a snippet in comparison to what comes before it but is joyful in its beat and unfolds gracefully to end up not at all incomplete, and “Floating From Here to There” (29:04), which is an album unto itself with Mellotron sentimentality and plucked violin strings for a touch of class before the swirling synth brings its fadeout and the ultimate conclusion of Everyone is Evil.

The only remaining question is whether or not there’s more from this session [Edit: yes. A fair amount]. It could be that Everyone is Evil with the bonus tracks is everything ‘usable’ that was produced when the group assembled in Portugal early last Fall, or there could be hours of tapes still to be exhumed and properly mixed for release. Not knowing is part of the fun [Edit again: it’s also fun to know], but as a document of the reach of the current incarnation of the project, Everyone is Evil finds Øresund Space Collective at their most expansive, comfortable in musical conversation with each other, and inviting the listener into the room with them as they find the hidden spaces within their collaboration.

Øresund Space Collective on Facebook

Øresund Space Collective on Bandcamp

Øresund Space Collective website

Space Rock Productions website