Norwegian progressive instrumentalists Full Earth will make their full-length debut with the 2LP Cloud Scuptors on March 15. The Oslo-based outfit release through respected purveyor Stickman Records, which makes them labelmates to Elder, Iron Jinn and King Buffalo — Stickman is also the ancestral home of Norwegian prog dispensers Motorpsycho, which will be relevant shortly — and like each of those outfits, Full Earth have their own take on a progressive heavy ideology. To call it expansive is to say the least of it.

There’s been a palpable buzz around Full Earth, and reasonably so. With the three members of Kanaan all involved — guitarist Ask Vatn Strøm, bassist Eskild Myrvoll, and drummer/project spearhead Ingvald André Vassbø — alongside bassist Simen Wie and organist/synthesist Øystein Aadland, the five-piece seemed to be immediately embraced as part of that band’s ongoing momentum. Before a song was released, let alone word of Cloud Sculptors or more details about the project’s prog-honoring, sometimes-longform, deeply methodical approach, the band were popping up on festival bills for Spring 2024, and indeed, they’ll be at Desertfest in Oslo and Berlin as well as Roadburn, with Freak Valley in Germany this June and Down the Hill in Belgium in August and probably tours hither and yon as well.

The actual arrival of the album, then, is anticipated. Full Earth meet that electric undercurrent with a massive glut of headspinning prog and other atmospheric and purposeful explorations. The bulk of Cloud Sculptors‘ feature-length 85 minute runtime resides in its most extended pieces: opener “Full Earth Pt. I – Emanation” and the title-track for a 40-minute one-two pairing at the start of the record. This initial impression, the runs of keyboard notes alongside sustained distortion and feedback around 14 minutes into the leadoff, or the bounce of organ that sweetly starts “Cloud Sculptors” hinting at some of the vintage-synthery both of the largely-melancholy-in-the-Lake-era-King-Crimson-tradition “The Collective Unconscious” (18:37) and the exploratory “Echo Tears,” which premieres below.

You would be hard-pressed to find someone less qualified than I to discuss the work of Daniel Lopatin or probably any number of the other krautrock and classic prog influences under which Full Earth are operating, but what you really need to know in listening to the album is everything’s under control. Yeah, Full Earth are kind of doing for krautrock and the headier end of kosmiche what Earthless did for classic heavy in cherrypicking stylistic aspects and blowing them out to epic proportion while staying conscious enough to actually guide the listener. But it’s that last part that’s the most important, because what most affects the listening experience is the skill with which Full Earth execute these pieces.

I won’t pretend that “Full Earth Pt. I – Emanation” or its closing counterpart “Full Earth PT. II – Disintegration,” “The Collective Unconscious” or “Cloud Sculptors” itself aren’t overwhelming. They absolutely are and I think that’s the point; operating under the “put it out now and let them spend the next six years picking it apart” ethic, and indeed Cloud Sculptors might be densely packed enough at its most intense to provide fodder for a long-term deep-dive (if they do more records, I expect the phrase “long term deep dive” to come up again as a summation of their career arc), while remaining dynamic in the starts-peaceful “Full Earth Pt. II – Disintegration” and “Weltgeist,” which makes me want to put on a lounge jacket and make a documentary about space with all the latest science 1976 has to offer, speaking in clear, Saganian tones about the mysteries of the universe while Full Earth remind that at its heart all of the cosmos is math.

It is rare that a debut album comes with such a sense of mastery, and Cloud Sculptors has purpose to match. Each song, each change, a little swap in the drums or on keys in that all-in immersive rollout at the start, is in its place and keyed to bring as much to the proceedings as possible. They’re willing to reside in parts, as a band with 20-minute songs had better be, but cognizant of the listener’s place in and interaction with the material. Songs unfold in movements, ideas fluidly melding with graceful performances, a marked heft in reserve for when it’s needed, and guide the listener through Cloud Sculptors‘ otherwise staggeringly complex path. They might be pairing the half-time drums and what sounds like double-time guitar on “The Collective Unconscious” or making aural references that at very least I’ll probably never get, but you can also put on the album and Full Earth, through the music itself, act as a guide to get you safely from one end to the other. So while it’s a lot to take on, you can also roll with it as Full Earth quickly earn a trust that can’t be faked.

In talking about “Echo Tears” under the player below, Vassbø talks about using instruments “to their full extent.” That’s a classic prog phrase and mentality. He’s pushing himself and the instrument(s) as part of the same drive, trying to “get as much out” of the drums, organ, whatever it might be. Keep that in mind as you listen to “Echo Tears,” which is drumless and comparatively minimal next to “The Collective Unconscious” before or “Full Earth Pt. II – Disintegration” after. Because it doesn’t just have to mean playing fast, or making a part as busy as it can be, but utilizing a given instrument as a tool of emotive expression or sonic exploration, as seems to be the case with this track. And no, “Echo Tears” doesn’t represent the whole crux of Cloud Sculptors‘ 85 minutes — how could it? — in terms of basic sound, but as you listen to the track, know that Full Earth‘s ability to carry the listener through its atmospheric contemplations absolutely does.

The potential here is vast, and it’s difficult not to think of what Full Earth might accomplish in the future based on their achievements here, but worth staying in the moment as you listen.

As always, I hope you enjoy:

Full Earth, “Echo Tears’ track premiere

Echo Tears is the second single from the up and coming experimental rock band Full Earth’s debut album, Cloud Sculptors. Album preorders launch Feb. 9 via www.stickman-records.com.

The tune is one out of two shorter organ-compositions from the album that are more inspired by electronic and modernist classical music. The song is an echo-jam for Full Earth’s combo-organs in the style of Oneohtrix Point Never’s early releases, and an attempt to adapt this cosmic style for fluttery organs. The French band Heldon and Laurie Spiegels Expanding Universe are two other important references. The organ-arpeggios, recorded by Øystein Aadland and Ingvald Vassbø in their rehearsal space, feels like they are levitating and circling freely in the air. One goes into a trance and the insisting and repetitive music grows continuously. In a mechanical but analog way, always towards an ecstatic vision. Echo Tears is exploring another edge of the Full Earth-universe than the band’s first single Cloud Sculptors did, and shows how wide and multicoloured the bands’ pallet at times can be.

Says Ingvald Vassbø: «A few years ago, I was totally in love with the early and cosmic synth-works of Daniel Lopatin, and listened to it almost every night before going to sleep. It was a really fun process to let myself be inspired by that music, make some kind of echo-jam in that vein and record it together with Øystein in our rehearsal space. We got really inspired, and I really feel that we managed to utilize our instruments, my Terry Riley-organ, Øystein’s Farfisa and our tape-echo to their full extent.»

Cloud Sculptors tracklisting:
1. Full Earth Pt. I – Emanation (21:06)
2. Cloud Sculptors (20:05)
3. Weltgeist (6:08)
4. The Collective Unconscious (18:37)
5. Echo Tears (5:36)
6. Full Earth Pt. II – Disintegration (13:46)

The fantastic “Echo Tears” artwork is made by Sunniva Hårstad
Pre save: https://bfan.link/echo-tears

Full Earth live:
18.04 – @rare_guitar Münster 🇩🇪
19.04 – Magazine 4 Brüssel 🇧🇪
20.04 – @roadburnfest , Tilburg 🇳🇱
22.04 – @le3pieces , Rouen 🇫🇷
23.04 – @linternational_paris Paris 🇫🇷
24.04 – Venue tbc, Köln 🇩🇪
25.04 – @trauma_marburg Marburg 🇩🇪
26.04 – Freaques de la Musique, Bremen 🇩🇪
27.04 – @husetkbh , København 🇩🇰
10.05 – @sonic_whip , Nijmegen 🇳🇱
11.05 – @desertfest_oslo 🇳🇴
23.05 – @gjovikkinoogscene 🇳🇴
24.05 – @lokal.trhm , Trondheim 🇳🇴
26.05 – @desertfest_berlin 🇩🇪
29.05 – Blauer Salon/Hausbar, Tübingen 🇩🇪
30.05 – @freakvalleyfestival Netphen 🇩🇪
30.05 – Posten, Odense 🇩🇰
31.05 – @esbjerg_fuzztival l 🇩🇰
31.08 – @downthehillfestival Rilaar 🇧🇪

Full Earth are:
Øystein Aadland – farfisa organ, yamaha yc30 organ, mellotron, synthesizer
Ask Vatn Strøm – guitars
Simen Wie – electric bass, additional guitar
Eskild Myrvoll – additional guitar, korg MS-20 synthesizer, noise
Ingvald Vassbø – drums, yamaha yc30 organ

Full Earth, Cloud Sculptors (2024)

Full Earth on Facebook

Full Earth on Instagram

Full Earth on Bandcamp

Stickman Records website

Stickman Records on Facebook

The second Kariti full-length, Dheghom, releases tomorrow, Feb. 2, through Lay Bare Recordings. The 11-song LP is the Russian-born-Italy-residing polylingual dark atmospheric folk singer-songwriter’s first for the Dutch imprint, and it brings 43 minutes of new material that greatly expand the context wrought for Kariti — née Katerina, also stylized all-lowercase: kariti — by her 2020 debut, Covered Mirrors (review here). While still able to offer the voice-on-tape minimalism of some of the first album’s loneliest fare, Dheghom broadens the reach of Kariti‘s arrangements, such that the quiet electric guitar on the harmonized highlight “Vilomah” that brings a duet with Dorthia Cottrell of Windhand (and her own solo work) and the keyboard-driven “A Mare Called Night” that gets its instrumental answer at the end of the proceedings in closer “So Without, ” the title of which bookends with in-Russian spoken intro “As Within,” as Kariti translates that spoken poem to English, switching languages throughout no less fluidly than she leads “Reckoning” with piano and the subsequent “Metastasis” with electric guitar.

“Emerald Death” touches on Irish folk traditions and pairs its melody with harsh distorted strums of guitar in true doom-folk style, which picks up from the surprisingly-full-band-sounding “River of Red,” with drums and a darkly progressive exploration that feels consistent with the rest of Dheghom, even if its sad metallurgy is coming from somewhere else than the initially-largely-empty “Son,” which Katerina‘s voice easily carries in layers before it shifts into its more distorted second half drone. Goth plays a big role as “Reckoning” follows “Vilomah,” with flourish of strings to coincide with its steady piano line, less foreboding than “Metastasis” still to come, but consistent in its downerist melodic spirit. Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony gets referenced at the outset of “Sanctuary,” but the song itself is moved elsewhere by its vocals, harmonized in a kind of American folkishness far removed from any sense of twang. The point is underscored with a plains-rumble of piano near the finish, from which “River of Red” picks up and transitions smoothly to its fuller arrangement before giving over to “Toll,” which is 41 seconds of bells — because what else — before the keyboard of “So Without” brings Dheghom full circle with ethereal operatics backing the lead vocal line and a sense of warning that’s almost cultish as presented.

Certainly Covered Mirrors had its sense of adventurousness, but it was also the launch point for Kariti as a project and the fact that it existed was part of the adventure. Dheghom is a genuine branching out of intent and composition, a different way of constructing songs around ideas for what they need and/or want to express. And because the backdrop she’s working with is still largely minimal — to wit, only “River of Red” has drums — each tweak in arrangement throughout has an impact on the material and the scope of the whole outing, even as they cast her voice in the role of unifying the songs, which it does without trouble. Affecting emotionally and striking in its reach, it’s Kariti‘s vocals and sometimes bleak melodicism that give Dheghom such a sense of personality amid its complexities, and whether it’s a flourish of keys, the strings on “Reckoning” or Cottrell showing up on “Vilomah,” there’s never a pivot made that removes the album from what feels like its intended course. That that would coincide with such a significant uptick in attention to detail makes Dheghom all the more of a triumph, even if it’s too morose to outwardly enjoy its own accomplishments.

The expansion of the collaboration with guitarist Marco Matta (also Grime) and engineer Lorenzo Della Rovere likewise feels organic and purposeful, helping to build Dheghom up as a showcase of Wovenhand-style go-anywhereism that nonetheless retains its crafted feel. And while it seems safe to imagine Katerina would keep that collaborative thread going on a third Kariti LP when and if she gets there — note she put out an EP with the experimentalist Néant last year; some of that attitude seems to have bled into Kariti — I find I’m less comfortable predicting where she might go sound-wise than I was coming off of Covered Mirrors. This, despite a style that’s almost entirely balanced toward the subdued, is one of the most exciting reasons to be a fan of an artist, and Dheghom is sure to pull more of those into Kariti‘s sphere as well. I think I might be one too.

Dheghom, accompanied by PR wire info, streams in full below.

Please enjoy:

kariti (карити) – ‘to mourn the dead’ in church Slavonic – is a Russian-born artist based in Italy. Her debut ‘Covered Mirrors’ was released in September 2020 by the cult Italian label Aural Music (Negură Bunget, Imperial Triumphant, Messa) and represents a ‘cathartic peregrination through bereavement’. Marco, the leader of the heavy sludge outfit Grime contributes to some of the songs and often joins kariti for live performances.

In September 2023, an industrial/trip-hop/shoegaze s/t EP was released under the moniker Néant – a collaboration between kariti and Void of the anonymous Parisian industrial sludge collective Non Serviam.

kariti’s next record will see the light on February 2, 2024 courtesy of the independent forward-thinking Dutch label Lay Bare Recordings (Frayle, Thief (ex-Botanist), Yawning Man), focussed on high-quality vinyl releases, and sees a notable development in sound, songwriting and instrumentation used: apart from electric guitars it features various synthesizers, analogue piano, strings by Jon K (live Cough, Dorthia Cottrell), a song with drums and bass, multiple contributions of Marco (Grime, Simian Steel) on guitar/noise, and a haunting duet with Dorthia Cottrell (Windhand, solo).

kariti’s atmosferic mournful ‘ambient folk’ is recommended to those who enjoy ‘dark explorations accompanied by the smell of burning wood and the moonlight reflecting off snow’ delivered through profound lyrical content. kariti toured Europe several times, shared the stage with Messa, Grift, Conny Ochs, Plum Green among others, and recently was invited by Brutus to open the Italian leg of their tour. her intense live shows have been described as liturgy-like and cathartic and the touring schedule for 2024 is in the works upon the release of Dheghom.

Kariti on Facebook

Kariti on Instagram

Kariti on Bandcamp

Lay Bare Recordings on Facebook

Lay Bare Recordings on Instagram

Lay Bare Recordings on Bandcamp

Friday, Feb. 2, marks the awaited release for Troy the Band‘s first album, Cataclysm, through Swedish imprint Bonebag Records. The six-song/41-minute offering follows behind 2022’s debut EP, The Blissful Unknown (review here), and is weighted and spacious in kind, the London-based four-piece immersed in a sound that’s part heavygaze, but fuzz-grunge and almost universally molten. Opening with its title-track, Cataclysm lumbers with large-snail-creature presence but isn’t so unipolar in its approach as the overarching wash might make it seem, whether it’s the boogie in the second half of “Cataclysm” itself or the crash-laden shove of “IHOD,” on which vocalist Craig Newman is at his most reminiscent of Facelift-era Layne Staley, or “Only Violence” just before which seems to be working under the influence of earlier Mars Red Sky or the Sabbath-via-Sleep stonerized Declaration of Riff in “Flesh Wound,” bolstered by the production of Wayne Adams at Bear Bites Horse, who you probably already know because he also helmed your album. Or at least mixed it.

Most of the record though resides in the spaces between Dead Meadow‘s languid ethereality and the more grounded ends of modern riff worship. That is to say it’s a current sound but not ready to settle into being one thing or the other and, particularly on this first long-player, that much stronger for the flashes of doom that show up amid the hot pinks and psychedelic yellows in the wah-drenched reaches of “Flesh Wound,” which is also the longest song at 8:53 and a roller that seems to lose none of its impact for all the float surrounding, perhaps best encapsulating the meld of styles Troy the Band are crafting, if not necessarily telling the entire story on its own either in their melodic penchant, the post-punk goth dance party at the start of “The Void” or closer “Fauna” casting its urban-concrete bass tone against a ranging vocal and an outbound final push speaking one way or another to an escapist sensibility maybe also behind the title. They go, have gone, are gone, and when they decide it’s time to vibe on some Earth-y drone repetition, they’re dug no less into that than they are into the expanse in the hook of “Cataclysm” that teaches the listener so much about the album that follows.

And repetition is part of the methodology here, but again, not necessary all of it, as a big part of what ultimately makes Troy the Band an exciting listen — this was true of the EP as well, but is more fleshed out on the longer release, as well as the band being more sonically developed generally — is that the songs are coherent and purposeful but don’t draw from any single source so much as to be readily placed in this or that niche. Yeah, I’ve namedropped a few bands in the course of this review, and I stand by those comparisons — none of them feels outlandish; that riff in “Only Violence” really does sound like second-LP Mars Red Sky, even if it’s been buried in other effects — but that’s just it: Troy the Band have a sound that seems aware of its influences but unwilling to be limited by them. This is something that, inherently, can’t be confirmed by one full-length alone since it’s a measure of a band’s progression over time, but in coming across more like themselves than anyone else in the genre, Troy the Band seem to have a leg up on their own growth. Or maybe I’m just spaced out on that jam halfway through “Flesh Wound.” I don’t know, but it all feels very consuming and light — not like bright colors but like light itself; the mixed wavelengths of raw sunlight — right now, and I think that means it’s working.

The big question is how much Troy the Band will do in a live setting to support it. In 2023, they played both Masters of the Riff II and Desertfest London, and certainly those are by no means the only festivals in the UK, but they’re two good ones to have in your pocket as a band putting out your first LP. But if I mention touring for an act who haven’t been out for months at a time up to this point in their still-perhaps-nascent tenure, it’s not to point out something they haven’t done up to now so much to to highlight their sound as being strong enough in its identity to stand up to the task if they wanted to take it on the road. Plenty of time for such things, though. For now, the spaces conjured and conquered throughout Cataclysm stand as testament to the efforts put in by Troy the Band performance-wise and in terms of composition, but also that potential for what they might accomplish moving on from here.

Cataclysm streams in full below, followed by more info from the PR wire.

Please enjoy:

Cataclysm, the debut full-length album from London-based Doom-gaze four-piece Troy The Band, will be released on Sweden’s Bonebag Records on February 2nd 2024. Since the release of their debut EP, The Blissful Unknown, Troy The Band have become mainstays in the London heavy music scene, with a list of accolades in 2023 that includes appearances at Desertfest London, Masters of the Riff, and Stoomfest, as well as a craft beer collaboration with East London’s Old Street Brewery.

With Cataclysm the band have taken the most unique elements of their debut EP and forged them into an album that blends elements of Stoner-Doom, Post Rock, Shoegaze and Heavy Psych. Cataclysm is dark, heavy, and identifiably their own.

For this album the band went back to work with Wayne Adams at Bear Bites Horse studio in East London. From the band’s point of view, this was a no-brainer: “We knew we wanted to work with Wayne again on this album. He’s great to work with and he had an important hand in shaping the sound of our EP. We knew he would get what we were trying to do with this album, and we really couldn’t be happier with how it has turned out.”

Each track is built from a sturdy foundation of Sean Durbin’s bass riffs which are then overlaid with Sean Burn’s distinctive guitar playing and Craig Newman’s unique and ethereal vocal style, adding layers of harmonic complexity and tension that is a defining feature of their sound.

The album title is derived from the name the band gave the initial demo of the title track, driven by its musically jarring feel rather than its lyrical content. It was then self-consciously adopted as the album title to reflect their aim of causing a musical upheaval in the heavy music scene. We believe it will.

Troy the Band on Facebook

Troy the Band on Instagram

Troy the Band on Bandcamp

Troy the Band website

Troy the Band Linktree

Bonebag Records on Facebook

Bonebag Records on Instagram

Bonebag Records website

Roman instrumentalist trio The Black Flamingo will release An-nûr through Subsound Records on Feb. 2, which, if you’re playing along at home, is this Friday. The six-song collection follows behind 2018’s Mictlan EP and shows an early penchant for atmosphere at the start of opener “Selk’nam,” which soon unfurls its central motion in a running bassline and corresponding drum pattern, the guitar stepping into the forward position as the piece begins to take shape. Over the course of the full-length, guitarist/synthesist Mattia Lolli, drummer Tiziano Giammichele and bassist Matteo Nuccetelli build and expand on the palette they set forth in the leadoff, but at about three minutes in when “Selk’nam” locks into that payoff groove, that’s most of what you actually need to know right there.

Samples at the outset of “An-nûr” places the record in the current Israeli genocide of the Palestinian people — sorry to call it what it is; genocide happened to Jews too and security is important, but that doesn’t make it right — and the three-piece allow for some meditative moments after to digest the obviously-clueless/obviously-white interviewer talking to some representative of Palestine and asking horrible, racist questions like, “Why don’t you just stop fighting?” I assume as a tank rolls over the guy’s grandmother in the background or some shit and the world pretends to care in only the most tsk-tsk’ing of fashions. The title-track moves in its second half to a breakout of noisier crashing, as it should, and thereby hints at some of the prog-metal aspects of songs like “Tredici” still to come, the samples there leading into a linear build resolved by Tool-circa-’98-ish start-stops.

Between those, “Due” lets loose with a more ruffled-sounding distortion — it’s not so much fuzzier as hairier — and shifts into its own purposeful ending as a payoff for what came before. Ambient transitions, the samples, etc., build character around “Tredici,” but it’s the percussion at the start of the penultimate “Solaris” that fades in to set the mood. Synth, or keyboard, lend a science-fiction drone to coincide melodically with the rhythmic pattern being laid out, but the jump to dreamier guitar brings a different spirit, something more serene if still otherworldly. It’s not the last rug pull, as The Black Flamingo turn shortly after three minutes into the song’s total six to a fuzzier riff that’s both twisting and more grounded than the place from which the band just came, and that sets “Solaris” on its own building course, hints of post-metal in the intensity of the wash still not giving up their heavy rock foundations.

The culmination of “Solaris” leaves only 13-minute closer “Ayahuasca,” which offers another multi-tiered build and takes the time to work from the ground up in making it. Samples throughout unite “Ayahuasca” with “Tredici” or “Selk’nam” at the outset, but The Black Flamingo are also clearly playing to the ‘big finish’ as an element of genre as well and listening to the actual unfolding of “Ayahuasca” — which, golly, I’d love to try, though I hear it very definitely makes you puke before it melts your brain — which gets heavier so that you go, “okay that’s the payoff” like three times before they’re actually there, it makes sense on the album where it is as an encapsulation of what’s been accomplished across the preceding span, which is to establish the tones, atmospheres and methods along whose lines The Black Flamingo will likely look to develop their sound going forward (some more drastic revamp notwithstanding; one never knows), speaking to something essential in groove now and informing any and all among the converted who’d take them on of their potential for more. This is, as regards hearing them, only good news.

Album stream for An-nûr follows here with more info underneath from the PR wire.

Tell two friends:

‘An-nûr’, ‘light’ in arabic language, is The Black Flamingo’s first LP. Six tracks that go across obsessive rithms, lysergic journey and stoner blows. ‘An-nûr’ is also the title of the single, a long trip of black holes and solidarity with Palestinian people. The LP has been recorded in Rome, in the ‘Cinque Quarti’ studio, under the patient supervision of Lorenzo Amato (Max Carnage), that took care of mixing and mastering. The vinyl mastering has been done by Lorenzo Stecconi (Lento).

Subsound Records will release ‘An-nûr’ on LP and digital on February 2nd, 2024.

TRACKLIST
1. Selk’nam
2. An-nûr
3. Due
4. Tredici
5. Solaris
6. Ayahuasca

BIOGRAPHY

The Black Flamingo is a stoner-psych instrumental trio, which vibes among space and desert, with a rotten attitude. The band is formed in Rome, literally in the spaces of 30 Formiche club, by Erio Destratis (guru and housekeeper), Tiziano Giammichele (Camion, Cielo Drive) and Mattia Lolli (the Whirlings). Erio soon leaves for a nomad life and his bass is taken by Matteo Nuccetelli (Mad Roller).

The Black Flamingo are:
Tiziano Giammichele – Drums
Matteo Nuccetelli – Bass
Mattia Lolli – Guitar, Synth

The Black Flamingo on Facebook

The Black Flamingo on Instagram

The Black Flamingo on Bandcamp

Tomorrow, Jan. 26, is the arrival of Greengoat‘s conceptual debut album, A.I., which is out through Argonauta Records. The Madrid two-piece formed in 2021 and have been working their way toward this release since then, dropping hints in singles “The Seed” and “A.I.,” which appear in succession following the ambience-backed spoken recitation of Isaac Asimov’s ‘Three Laws of Robotics’ in the intro “Void,” along with the late-2022 EP Unleash the Fire and initial single “The Mist” the prior May. For drummer/lyricist Ruth “Kalypso” Moya and guitarist/vocalist Ivan Flores it is a moment of realization and still the beginning stages of a longer-term exploration. Having begun as a trio, the guitar-and-drums ethic brings rawness to elements wrought from progressive metal, grunge and ’90s alternative.

The eight-song/37-minute outing centers on the singularity — the theoretical moment at which a programmed artificial intelligence becomes sentient, conscious — and the fallout therefrom, and pairs that with an instrumental scope tied together in part through the spaces left open where bass, keys, etc., might otherwise dwell, emerging with a more distinct presentation as a result. A Down-y verse riff in “A.I.” and the Sabbath chug of finale “Burn the End” have no trouble coexisting, as one would expect, and with some of Helmet‘s discordance, “Human” contrasts the pointedly YOB-style guitar that begins “Naraka II,” while a strong undercurrent drawn from Tool pulls the material together and sometimes harsh (though I don’t fully trust the speakers I’m hearing it through because of a busted laptop; bear with me) wah lead-layer injections that remind of Jerry Cantrell circa Dirt are peppered through the span, coupled with a vocal melody in “The Seed” that brings to mind Stoned Jesus.

As a record with a story would and probably should, A.I. ends up in a different place than it starts, but Moya and Flores establish their own tonal presence and intricacies in the drumming, extra hits around the snare here and there or the creation of a roll like that in “Naraka I,” further solidify their individuality. Of course, one would be remiss not to note the boom in heavy and particularly progressive heavy happening today on the Iberian Peninsula, and Greengoat strike as being aware of the modern heavy sphere — I think you probably name your band something else if you’re not — but on their own course, and while the subject matter is oft-discussed, at a certain point, hooks are hooks, and “Human,” the atmospheric “The Seed,” “Awake” and “A.I.” demonstrate a purposeful songwriting modus beyond just telling or describing the narrative of this LP. That is to say, as they move forward, that sense of craft will move with them.

I won’t pretend to understand how A.I. works beyond ‘computer eats data and tells you about it,’ which is a modern kind of technological corpse-puppetry. But I use it and would love to be able to tell a robot “go find me all of Greengoat‘s album info and social media links and lay them out in a post so I can write their album premiere” and have it happen. For now that kind of thing is still a manual operation.

PR wire info follows said premiere on the player below. Please enjoy:

Greengoat, A.I. album premiere

Spanish Psychedelic Stoner/Doom band GREENGOAT is pleased to unveil long-awaited details about their upcoming album “A.I.,” scheduled for release on January 26th, 2024, through Argonauta Records.

The band says, “Hey, friends! Brace yourselves for the rollercoaster of emotions we’ve poured into our new album “A.I.,” which will finally be available on the 26th of January 2024. It’s not just music; it’s a piece of our hearts, a ride through our dreams about Humanity’s relationship with artificial intelligence. From the depths of its first tune “Void,” this album tells a story where AI takes consciousness with “The Seed,” meets its creator in “A.I.,” the creator claims its control in “Human,” goes through the dilemma of “Awake” to the outcome of “Naraka I and II” and “Burn the End.” We hope you feel every note as we did creating it.”

“A.I.” tracklisting:
01 Void
02 The Seed
03 A.I.
04 Human
05 Awake
06 Naraka I
07 Naraka II
08 Burn The End

Formed in 2021, the band goes through changes in their ensemble until it consolidates as a duo with guitarist/singer Ivan Flores (Dsgarre, Magnus Ficus) and drummer/lyricist Ruth “Kalypso” Moya (Suevicha, Dashara, Magnus Ficus).

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This Friday, Jan. 26, marks the debut from the new heavy psych jam outfit Minerall. Issued through Sulatron Records and titled Bügeln, which is German for ‘ironing’ (see cover), the collection features expansive improvisation-rooted breadth presented across two side-consuming pieces as the trio of guitarist Marcel Cultrera (also Speck), drummer Tommy Handschick (also Kombynat Robotron and the decidedly more crushing Earthbong) and the indispensable Dave “Sula Bassana” Schmidt (Zone Six, Sula Bassana, on and on) on bass and synth feel their way through a course of rousing cosmic rock and hypnotic dronescaping. Between the two-part “Bügeln/Unerforscht” (‘iron’/’unexplored’ in translation) at 22:07 and the subsequent “Sachebene” at 21:26, the live-recorded album sounds duly organic in its rollout and offers some of its most lush and engrossing moments in its most subdued stretches.

The story as I understand it is that Schmidt, Handschick and Cultrera came together with producer Yannick Aderb at Studio Buffbergen for a two-day session on Jan. 27 -28, 2023 (a year ago), that doubled as a birthday party. A celebration, in other words. It’s easy enough to read that mindset into the audio if one is so inclined, though the context here is open enough that if they said they recorded it at the top of a mountain in a thunderstorm, I’m not sure it wouldn’t also work for a narrative.

But “Bügeln/Unerforscht,” which was recorded on the 28th, makes a suitable opener as its more active first half draws the listener in with a lightly-insistent space rock push that would probably still be mellow in many other situations but here is complemented/contrasted by the textures that follow as the drums step back, Schmidt moves from bass to synth and the guitar likewise drones out. Krautrock, expanded-definition heavy, and through “Sachabene,” a molten, heroic-dose lysergic middle ground that finds balance between the two ends of “Bügeln/Unerforscht” — these things all come into play to crate a complete picture of scope and dynamic.

I don’t know if all this stuff was made up on the spot or if anybody came in with a part they’d dreamed about the night before, but even the stillest moments on Bügeln carry the vitality of their moment of creation — that spark of life, if you want — and though they’re presented in reverse order of how they happened, the fluidity Minerall capture in and between the two pieces shouldn’t be discounted and is nothing if not emblematic of the component players’ pedigrees.

Is all of this a long way of saying, “Hey, check out the jammers jamming?” Could be, and there’s definitely a they’ve-done-this-kind-of-thing-before sense to Minerall‘s dynamic. If you think of jazz players sitting in on open jams, different groups combining and players coming and going, Minerall‘s first and reportedly not last LP has some of that sensibility — just a thing that happened over a couple days and/or nights — but is all the more special for what came out of that fleeting time. Immediately it holds a character of its own in its widescreen vista, with sounds that can bristle with tension or dwell at rest as they will, and as Bügeln arrives, one can only wonder what’s in store for that birthday party this year.

Not just a studio project or the one-off they might’ve otherwise been, Minerall have a couple live shows booked for February in Germany. You’ll find those dates and more info below, courtesy of the PR wire.

Please enjoy:

Minerall, Bügeln album premiere

PRE-SALE of the vinyl (incl dl code) on NOW at Sulatron Records: www.sulatron.com/xoshop/lng/en/vinyl/minerall-buegeln-lp-dl.html

In the spring of 2023, musicians from three of the most creative psych bands in the German-speaking world came together for a session at Buffbergen Studios in Hanover. Birthdays were celebrated and hours upon hours of music were recorded.

Through a broad spectrum of common ideas, the jams range from hard riffs to spherical ambient soundscapes and enchant not least through the interplay of synthesizer and space echo. “Bügeln” is now the first work of this creative process. An endless jam with hypnotic dynamics, carried by bass and drums, the three musicians lose themselves in the spheres of space echo only to land again after 45 minutes. Minimally edited at the beginning and end, this work is a non-reproducible snapshot that will be released on vinyl exactly one year after the recording session.

Recorded by Yannick Aderb in his Studio Buffbergen.
Mastered by Eroc. (www.eroc.de)
Coverdesign by Sula, bandpic by Marcel.

LP on black 180 grams recycling wax made in Germany, plus download code, limited to 500 copies! Distributed by Echodelick Records (USA), Clearspot (in NL, worldwide) and Broken Silence (in Germany, for Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Poland, UK, Scandinavia, Japan, USA)

Tracks:
1. Bügeln/Unerforscht 22:07
2. Sachebene 21:26

Minerall live:
08.02. Hamburg, Bar 227
09.02. Göttingen, Vinyl Reservat
10.02. Halle (Saale), G.i.G.

Minerall is the project of Marcel Cultrera (Guitar, Speck), Tommy Handschick (Drums, Kombynat Robotron, Earthbong) and Sula Bassana (Bass, Synth, Zone Six, Interkosmos…).

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I was pretty stoked last week when word came through that Glasgow’s The Cosmic Dead had signed to Heavy Psych Sounds for their next record, and at that point I didn’t even know the album announcement would be here. Turns out the LP-to-come is called Infinite Peaks, and it’s got at least one entire-side-consuming jam, from which the video-premiering-below “Space Mountain Part I: Desert Djilo” has been carved out as an initial single.

A longer-form modus isn’t new for The Cosmic Dead, for whom Infinite Peaks serves as their ninth full-length as noted by the PR wire below. The band’s most recent outing, 2021’s split with Giöbia, The Intergalactic Connection – Exploring The Sideral Remote Hyperspace (review here), also came out on Heavy Psych Sounds, so it’s not the first time the band and label have worked together, and by adding the Scottish space racers to their roster, the Italian imprint only further cements its position at the forefront of heavy consciousness within and beyond Europe’s borders.

And if I told you “Space Mountain Part I: Desert Djilo” was a scorcher, would you believe it? How could you not? The Cosmic Dead‘s contribution to the Giöbia split was the 19-minute “Crater Creator,” and it doesn’t take them long to nestle into a groove on the new single, with threads of cosmic synth coursing along with the central outward nod; vibes and tones heavy, aimed at the sun, launch’d. There’s a lot of space rocking this and that out there right now. What distinguishes The Cosmic Dead from the glut of chic cosmic whatnot is the low end. It’s where heavy lives, and where bass is an afterthought in so much psych as there’s barely room on stage with guitar pedal boards the size of neighborhoods, The Cosmic Dead have always been able to hone a sound with float as well as heft. They’re heavier.

That’s what I’m hearing in “Space Mountain Part I: Desert Dijlo,” anyhow, and five years after 2019’s Scottish Space Race (review here), I’m glad for the reminder of what I thought was so badass about these guys to start with. The track is six minutes long, so more than a teaser, but you can still expect to be left hanging as the segment of the longer jam cuts out. The band comments on the piece under the player below, where you’ll also find the ever-crucial preorder links.

V-i-b-e:

The Cosmic Dead, “Space Mountain Part I: Desert Djilo” video premiere

THE COSMIC DEAD – New album “Infinite Peaks” out April 12 on Heavy Psych Sounds

“Infinite Peaks” is the long awaited ninth full length album from tumultuous Glaswegian astral travellers The Cosmic Dead. The album features two extended incantations recorded and mixed at Glasgow’s 16 Ohm Recording Studio. About the new single: “‘Desert Djilo’ is the opening section of our 20-minute instrumental track ‘Space Mountain’, completely improvised and recorded live in the studio, it was in itself part of a larger jam. This is a jam within a jam, synth follows bass follows drums follows fiddle. The sound of the radioactive desert.”

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The Cosmic Dead is:
Omar Aborida – Bass, Guitars, Wah
Tommy Duffin – Drums, Wah
Calum Calderwood – Fiddle, Wah
Luigi Pasquini – Synthesizer, Wah

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Homecoming, whose very moniker speaks to their desire to evoke an emotional response in their listener — no matter who you are or what it is, you feel some way about the notion of going home — will release their second album this Spring. Titled Those We Knew as if to underscore the evocative point, the six-song outing follows late-2019’s LP01 (review here) and is the band’s first for UK imprint Copper Feast Records, which snagged the band this past summer following their appearance at Desertfest London 2023.

The Parisian four-piece draw as much from progressive metal as progressive heavy rock, and they meet the nine-minute urgency-parade of “Tell Me Something” at the album’s outset with the slower creep into volume of the subsequent “Red Rose,” which begins acoustic and follows a linear course of emotive heavy focused more in the melodic flow where the song prior spun heads on the way to, well, spinning more. Elements recognizable from the likes of Mastodon, Neurosis, maybe even Paris’ own Abrahma or similarly textured units given to shimmering guitars like those heard in “Gift of Eyes,” which premieres below and closes the record.

It’s not a minor journey to get there as regards acquiring bumps and bruises, but Homecoming offer encouragement along the way and the scope of “Tell Me Something,” the smoothness with which it departs its earlier aggro-isms for more atmospheric fare before building back up around blackened squigglies and a chugging rush, sets up (and fulfills) any expectation or anticipation for breadth one might have. Like the music propelling them, the vocals are dynamic, switching between lower-register cleans and harsher growls. By the time “Gift of Eyes” lays out its headspinning course, Homecoming have already brought that melodic style into focus on “Red Rose,” set up the bright-toned intertwining leads of “Blood of My Blood” as well as its screaming payoff, subtly reaffirmed their penchant for ironic titles with “Interlude II” at 9:02 (though some days we all need a nine-minute interlude), and landed in the 11-minute “Shores.”

The latter pushes guitarist, vocalist and songwriter Théo Alves Guiter, guitarist/backing vocalist Renaud Fumey-Seguy, bassist Basile Chevalier and drummer Theo Giotti about as far they go, but there’s another level of intensity reserved for “Gift of Eyes,” the position of which as the closer after “Shores” would make it an epilogue were it not so forcefully delivered. Pairing the melodic singing and contorting riffery gives the track a particularly progressive feel even among its compatriots, and with lyrical mention of symmetry to boot, Homecoming tie that proggy urgency back to the start of Those We Knew before dropping everything.

Minimalism and consumption follow, in that order, to end the record. Homecoming let go of the angularity that brought them through the first half of “Gift of Eyes” and dig into quiet standalone guitar, but the explosion is coming and they rightly saved the more extreme barks for the second half. Speaking of epilogues, though, “Gift of Eyes” has its own in the subdued, sweetly contemplative guitar that ends after the assault has subsided. Like “Tell Me Something New,” or “Shores,” or hell, even “Interlude II,” it’s kind of an album unto itself.

So much the better that you can hear it here. Comment from the band and info from the PR wire follows.

Please enjoy:

Théo Guiter on “Gift of Eyes”:

This tune is a treatise of the hubris of which man is capable, the folly of attempting to grasp the infinite and the possibility of stumbling upon something far greater, as incomprehensible in its immensity as in its designs. Each glance demands a sacrifice, a gift.

Lyrics:
Light, filtered through bars
Can’t conceal the stars
Demented by the erudite scroll I correlate it all

Halls carved in strange stone, The symmetry is wrong
Thrown into this cell
Entombed in waking hell
Demented by the effort of it all
Don’t let me fall asleep

Halls hewn in strange stone, The symmetry is gone

Now the walls they grow and writhe
I hear the wails of thousand lives
Calling me there
Anywhere’s better than here

Now they seem to carry on
To conclude their fateful song
Calling me home
Take my eyes for your throne

Wrenching the macula brings no anguish
Keeping these is all but useless
Adorn the vitreous wreath with this gift of eyes

Light
Eyes on the inside
This my gift to you
Borne to spy the space between the veil and and all that we were meant to see

New album ‘Those We Knew’
Out April 19th 2024 on Copper Feast Records
LP, CD, download and streaming

The album reveals the band’s well-honed personality, fusing grunge, 90s rock and progressive metal. “Those We Knew” showcases remarkable vocal work that guides the listener through various musical tableaux. The vocals adapt to the moods and unite the tracks, tying together the influences. The gloomy, heavy, sometimes hushed 90s tones collide with endless imagination, peppered by ethereal atmospheres, enticing introspection.

TRACK LISTING ‘THOSE WE KNEW’
1. Tell Me Something
2. Red Rose
3. Blood Of My Blood
4. Interlude II
5. Shores
6. Gift Of Eyes

Lyrics composed by Theo Alves Guiter
Mixed and mastered by Francis Caste at Sainte-Marthe Studios, Paris.
Artwork by Vaderetro Studios

Produced by Noon Brings The Fire
Distributed by Copper Feast Records
Promoted by Shake Promotion

Homecoming are:
Voices : Théo Alves Guiter
Backing vocals : Théo Alves Guiter, Renaud Fumey-Seguy
Guitars : Théo Alves Guiter, Renaud Fumey-Seguy
Bass : Basile Chevalier
Drums : Theo Giotti (“Atc De Giotto”)

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