Posted in Whathaveyou on May 13th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
Let’s assume a night piller is one who pills at night. Whatever the case, Night Pillers, the new mini-LP from Carlton Melton, was recorded at the same time as the band’s 2020 offering, Where This Leads (discussed here), and it brings an ultra-diggable hypnotic half-hour of dream-laced exploration to bear across five tracks that, well, I’m only on “High Noon Thirty” so far and I’m board for wherever they’re headed. The trio are no strangers to setting their course into the farther reaches of “Far out, man,” and if you’re not up for taking the trip, so be it — they’re already gone.
The drift and drone here is resonant and mellow and if you can get on board now’s a good time. I’m sure they’ll do preorders and all that stuff. It’s a Record Store Day thing, 600 copies. I don’t even know if they’re gonna stream it, but oh it’s cool if you can catch it somehow some way.
Info follows:
Announcing New CARLTON MELTON RSD Release
Carlton Melton drift in on their sike-magick-karpet with a 30 minute mini album to celebrate the impending Summer Solstice, phasers and drones set to STUN! Released on RSD June 12th for maximum Solstice benefit.
Tune in, Drone on, Drop Out……..
5 Newly mastered tracks from the same session that spawned 2020’s 2LP release “Where This Leads” Spaced sike-drone fizzle and eyeball-shaking distorto rock leading the way on this late night head-nodder!
Californian Magick Karpet riders, Carlton Melton, soar high on this Mini album, recorded/engineered by Phil Manley/El Studio and Mastered as ever by John McBain. Almost phasing out further than before, some of Millman’s lead guitar hits sike stratospheres and orbits we cant even dream of, more synth, a drum machine, more guitars and Clint Golden holding down the back line whilst Andy and Rich duel in space with riff-lazers… well, thats what we thought late on saturday night…flyyyy onnnnnn…….
600 copies WHITE VINYL ONLY!
LP Released 12th June 2021 on Agitated Records
Tracklist 1. Resemblance 2. Morning Warmth 3. High Noon Thirty 4. Safe Place 5. Striatum
Carlton Melton is: Andy Duvall (drums, guitar) Clint Golden (bass) Rich Millman (guitar, synths)
Posted in Reviews on March 31st, 2021 by JJ Koczan
Third day, and you know what that means. Today we hit and pass the halfway mark of this Quarterly Review. I won’t say it hasn’t been work, but it seems like every time I do one of these lately I continue to be astounded by how much easier writing about good stuff makes it. I must’ve done a real clunker like two years ago or something. Can’t think of one, but wow, it’s way more fun when the tunes are killer.
To that end we start with Dopelord today, haha. Have fun digging through if you do.
Quarterly Review #21-30:
Dopelord, Reality Dagger
They put it in a 12″, and that’s cool, but in addition to the fact that it’s about 22 minutes long, something about Reality Dagger, the latest EP from Poland’s Dopelord, strikes me as being really 10″ worthy. I know 10″ is the bastard son of vinyl pressings — doesn’t fit with your LPs and doesn’t fit with your 7″s. They’re a nuisance. Do they get their own shelf? Mixed in throughout? Well, however you organize them, I think a limited 10″ of Reality Dagger would be perfect, because from the melodies strewn throughout “Dark Coils” and the wildly catchy “Your Blood” — maybe the most complex vocal arrangement I’ve yet heard from the band — to the ultra-sludge interplay with screams on the 10-minute closing title-track, it sounds to me like standing out from the crowd is exactly what Dopelord want to do. They want to be that band that doesn’t fit your preconceptions of stoner-doom, or sludge, or modern heavy largesse in the post-Monolord vein. Why not match that admirable drive in format? Oh hell, you know what? I’ll just by the CD and have done with it. One of the best EPs I’ve heard this year.
Don’t be surprised when you see Kozmik Artifactz, Nasoni Records, or some other respected probably-European purveyor of heavy coming through with an announcement they’ve picked up Scorched Oak. The Dortmund, Germany, trio seem to have taken the last few years to figure out where they were headed — they pared down from a five-piece, for example — and their rolling tides of fuzz on late-2020’s debut LP Withering Earth bears the fruit of those efforts. Aesthetically and structurally sound, it’s able to touch on heavy blues, metal and drifting psychedelia all within the span of a seven-minute track like “Swamp,” and in its five-songs running shortest to longest, it effectively draws the listener deeper into the world the band are creating through dual vocals, patient craft and spacious production. If I was a label, I’d sign them for the bass tone on 14-minute closer “Desert” alone, never mind any of the other natural phenomena they portray throughout the record, which is perhaps grim in theme but nonetheless brimming with potential. Some cool riffs on this dying planet.
A scorching set culled from two nights of performances in their native Nashville, what’s essentially serving as Kings of the Fucking Sea‘s debut long-player, In Concert, is a paean to raw psychedelic power trio worship. High order ripper groove pervades “Witch Mountain” and the wasn’t-yet-named “Hiding No More” — which was introduced tentatively as “Death Dealer,” which the following track is actually titled. Disorienting? Shit yeah it is. And shove all the poignancy of making a live album in Feb. 2020 ahead of the pandemic blah blah. That’s not what’s happening here. This is all about blow-the-door-so-we-can-escape psychedelic pull and thrust. One gets the sense that Kings of the Fucking Sea are more in control than they let on, but they play it fast and loose and slow and loose throughout In Concert and by the time the mellower jam in “I Walk Alone” opens up to the garage-style wash of crash cymbal ahead of closer “The Nile Song,” the swirling fuckall that ensues is rampant with noise-coated fire. A show that might make you look up from your phone. So cool it might be jazz. I gotta think about it.
They bill themselves as ‘Mantarraya – power trío,’ and guitarist/vocalist Herman Robles Montero, drummer/maybe-harmonica-ist Kelvin Sifuentes Pérez and bassist/vocalist Enzo Silva Agurto certainly live up to that standard on their late-2020 self-titled debut full-length. The vibe is classic heavy ’70s through and through, and the Peruvian three-piece roll and boogie through the 11 assembled tracks with fervent bluesy swing on “En el Fondo” and no shortage of shuffle throughout the nine-minute “120 Años (Color),” which comes paired with the trippier “Almendrados” in what seems like a purposeful nod to the more out-there among the out there, bringing things back around to finish swinging and bouncing on the eponymous closer. I’ll take the classic boogie as it comes, and Mantarraya do it well, basking in a natural but not too purposefully so sense of underproduction while getting their point across in encouraging-first-record fashion. At over an hour long, it’s too much for a single LP, but plenty of time for them to get their bearings as they begin their creative journey.
At the risk of repeating myself, someone’s gonna sign Häxmästaren. You can just tell. The Swedish five-piece’s second album, Sol i Exil (“sun in exile,” in English), is a mélange of heavy rock and classic doom influences, blurring the lines between microgenres en route to an individual approach that’s still accessible enough in a riffer like “Millennium Phenomenon” or “Dödskult Ritual” to be immediately familiar and telegraph to the converted where the band are coming from. Vocalist Niklas Ekwall — any relation to Magnus from The Quill? — mixes in some screams and growls to his melodic style, further broadening the palette and adding an edge of extremity to “Children of the Mountain,” while “Growing Horns” and the capper title-track vibe out with with a more classic feel, whatever gutturalisms happen along the way, the latter feeling like a bonus for being in Swedish. In the ever-fertile creative ground that is Gothenburg, it should be no surprise to find a band like this flourishing, but fortunately Sol i Exil doesn’t have to be a surprise to kick ass.
Launching with the nine-minute instrumental “Benares” is a telling way for Kyiv’s Shiva the Destructor to begin their debut LP, since it immediately sets listener immersion as their priority. The five-track/44-minute album isn’t short on it, either, and with the band’s progressive, meditative psychedelic style, each song unfolds in its own way and in its own time, drawn together through warmth of tone and periods of heft and spaciousness on “Hydronaut” and a bit of playful bounce on “Summer of Love” (someone in this band likes reggae) and a Middle Eastern turn on “Ishtar” before “Nirvana Beach” seems to use the lyrics to describe what’s happening in the music itself before cutting off suddenly at the end. Vocals stand alone or in harmony and the double-guitar four-piece bask in a sunshine-coated sound that’s inviting and hypnotic in kind, offering turns enough to keep their audience following along and undulations that are duly a clarion to the ‘others’ referenced in the title. It’s like a call to prayer for weirdo psych heads. I’ll take that and hope for more to come.
The first and only lyric in “Heal” — the opening track of Sydney, Australia, trio Amammoth‘s debut album, The Fire Above — is the word “marijuana.” It doesn’t get any less stoned from there. Riffs come in massive waves, and even as “The Sun” digs into a bit of sludge, the largesse and crash remains thoroughly weedian, with the lumbering “Shadows” closing out the first half of the LP with particularly Sleep-y nod. Rawer shouted vocals also recall earlier Sleep, but something in Amammoth‘s sound hints toward a more metallic background than just pure Sabbath worship, and “Rise” brings that forward even as it pushes into slow-wah psychedelics, letting “Blade Runner” mirror “The Sun” in its sludgy push before closer “Walk Towards What Blinds You (Blood Bong)” introduces some backing vocals that fit surprisingly well even they kind of feel like a goof on the part of the band. Amammoth, as a word, would seem to be something not-mammoth. In sound, Amammoth are the opposite.
With emotional stakes sufficiently high throughout, MCMXIII is urgent enough to be post-hardcore, but there’s an underpinning of progressive heavy rock even in the mellower stretch of the eight-minute “Dogfight” that complements the noisier and more angular aspects on display elsewhere. Opener “Post Blue Collar Blues” sets the plotline for the newcomer Dayton, Ohio, four-piece, with thoughtful lyrics and a cerebral-but-not-dead-of-spirit instrumental style made full and spacious through the production. Melodies flesh out in “Cripple John” and “Old Face on the Wall,” brooding and surging in children-of-the-’90s fashion, but I hear a bit of Wovenhand in that finale as well — though maybe the one doesn’t exclude the other — so clearly Nineteen Thirteen are just beginning this obviously-passion-fueled exploration of sound aesthetic with these songs, but the debut EP they comprise cuts a wide swath with marked confidence and deceptive memorability. A new turn on Rust Belt heavy.
Hey, you process trauma from living through the last year your way and Genova, Italy’s Ikitan will process it theirs. In their case, that means the writing, recording and self-release of their 20-minute single-song EP, Twenty-Twenty, a sprawling work of instrumentalist heavy post-rock rife with spacious, airy lead guitar and a solid rhythmic foundation. Movements occur in waves and layers, but there is a definite thread being woven throughout the outing from one part to the next, held together alternately by the bass or drums or even guitar, though it’s the latter that seems to be leading those changes as well. The shifts are fluid in any case, and Ikitan grow Twenty-Twenty‘s lone, titular piece to a satisfyingly heft as they move through, harnessing atmosphere as well as weight even before they lower volume for stretches in the second half. There’s a quick surge at the end, but “Twenty-Twenty” is more about journey than destination, and Ikitan make the voyage enticing.
Loops, far-out spaces and a generally experimentalist feel ooze outward like Icelandic lava from Bodkin, the five-song debut LP from UK-based solo-outfit Smote. The gentleman behind the flow is Newcastle upon Tyne’s Daniel Foggin, and this is one of three releases he has out so far in 2021, along with a prior drone collaboration tape with Forest Mourning and a subsequent EP made of two tracks at around 15 minutes each. Clearly a project that can be done indoors during pandemic lockdown, Smote‘s material is wide-ranging just the same, bringing Eastern multi-instrumentalism and traditionalist UK psych together on “Fohrt” and “Moninna,” which would border on folk but for all that buzz in the background. The 11-minute “Motte” is a highlight of acid ritualizing, but the droning title-track that rounds out makes each crash count all the more for the spaces that separate them. I dig this a lot, between you and me. I get vibes like Lamp of the Universe here in terms of sonic ambition and resultant presence. That’s not a comparison I make lightly, and this is a project I will be following.
Everyone comes to it at their own speed, and there’s nothing wrong with that at all, but when you’re really ready to let it all go, Carlton Melton will be waiting. It’s no easy feat to discard all your hangups, all those things in you that don’t feel right or like they help push you forward rather than hold you back, that don’t — in the parlance of our times — “bring you joy” from within yourself, but maybe you’ll be one of the lucky few who get to that plane. I imagine it’s a bit like the pointillist pastoralia of the cover art to Carlton Melton‘s upcoming album, Where This Leads. I wouldn’t know myself, but maybe that’s how some people see the world.
In my mind everyone out in Northern California (at least what’s left of it after years of unprecedented wildfires) is a pot farmer, and if Carlton Melton aren’t, the made-for-TV-but-for-his-horrifying-ex-girlfriend governor Gavin Newsom should do everything in his power to subsidize them in that regard, but of course their meditations are more than weedian worship, and the sweet psychedelia they bring to bear across Where This Leads — beginning with the side A-consuming exploration “The Stars are Dying” and running from there into varied progressions of hold-your-breath-and-dive-in fluid immersion across a 70-minute entirety, offering spacious complement in side C’s “Smoke Drip Revisited,” brash cascade in “Three Zero Two” and alt-jazz expectation-defiance on “Dezebelle” along the way — is the stuff of afternoon daydreams.
They call it “dome rock.” Okay. Put it in your dome.
Along with the album announcement below, I have the distinct pleasure to host the premiere of “Waylay” from Where This Leads, which you’ll find at the bottom of this post. No single song on the record speaks for the whole of it (not even that opener), but I’m not kidding when I tell you it’s an honor to host this track, and I’d appreciate it if you could take the time to listen and (and you know I rarely ask this so directly) please share accordingly.
Breathe deep. Here goes:
CARLTON MELTON – Where This Leads Agitated Records 2LP / CD / DL Released 30th October 2020
Nestled deep in the forests of Mendocino County in Northern California, huddled under the protective shade of towering redwoods and within earshot of frothy waves crashing against the Pacific coastline, squats a geodesic dome that has served as crucible for the experimental genius of Carlton Melton. Nature and Man operate under different logics. But here, Carlton Melton wholly entrusts this idyllic environment with the task of inspiring and guiding their musical improvisations.
The Dome has been the ideal setting to facilitate their creativity. Without forcing a specific dynamic or theme, the band inhabits its womb-like confines to improvise, explore, dream. Their music draws on psychedelia, stoner metal, krautrock, and ambient atmospherics to convey, above all else, a mood.
A prickly guitar melody will float lazily, a wall of dissonant feedback will resolve into a hypnotic drone, or a colossal riff will exhume the soul of Jimi Hendrix. One hears Hawkwind or Spacemen 3 jamming with Pink Floyd at Pompeii.
Indeed, Carlton Melton have one foot in the ancient world and one tentacle in deep space. They are both the pack of proto-humans drumming with femurs in Kubrick’s 2001 and the film’s inscrutable monolith hinting at the universe’s mysteries. The “Stoned Ape” theory holds that early hominids ingested psychedelic mushrooms that provided an evolutionary boost to their brains, helping them blossom into Homo Sapiens. Imagine such cavemen trippin’ balls, their nightmarish visions sending them into feverish bouts of rage and then gentle moments of introspection. They very well could have heard the music of Carlton Melton rattling inside their skulls, first driving our ancestors mad then upward into a higher realm.
Andy Duvall (drums, guitar), Clint Golden (bass), and Rich Millman (guitar, synths) have yet to play Pompeii, but they have already wowed crowds at European festivals such as the Liverpool International Festival of Psychedelia, Roadburn, and Desertfest Antwerp. Live, they are jaw-dropping. On record, mind-altering.
In fact, with each album, Carlton Melton adds a subtle new element, synapses firing new neural connections. In 2020, they release new full-length Where This Leads, marking ten years of the band’s working relationship with their UK label Agitated Records and five years of recording with Phil Manley in his El Studio in San Francisco. With Where This Leads, the band rewires the listener’s mind. “Smoke Drip Revisited” is a ticklish acid flashback, “Porch Dreams” a dabbling in country psych, and “Closer” a driving, freak-out of guitar heroics.
One senses that the group is conveying a message that cannot be expressed verbally but only suggested through synth sighs, walloping rhythms, and soaring solos. Would Carlton Melton therefore be a group of stoned apes dizzily grasping for meaning or telepathic futurists communicating to us through crude man-made instrumentation?
Well, lower the stylus to find out. – Eric Bensel, Paris July 2020
Tracklist 1. The Stars Are Dying 2. Butchery 3. Waylay 4. Dezebelle 5. Smoke Drip Revisited 6. Crown Shyness 7. Three Zero Two 8. Porch Dreams 9. Closer
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 19th, 2018 by JJ Koczan
If you live or will happen to find yourself in the UK sometime in the next week, you might just have a good excuse here to freak the fuck out. Carlton Melton, San Franciscan lysergic experimentalists if ever there were any, are headed over this week to begin a tour in London that will take them up into Scotland and loop back down to finish in Leeds after an eight-show stretch supporting their new album, Mind Minerals (review here), which came out Feb. 2 via Agitated Music. So that’s the good news.
What’s the bad news? Nothing. There is no bad news this time. Isn’t that nice?
Carlton Melton had a couple of shows previously booked for Belgium and the Netherlands that I’ve included below just in case they’re still on, though the press release this time was only about the UK run. Better safe than sorry, but if you’re thinking about heading to Antwerp or Nijmegen, you might want to check those are actually still a go. Fair warning.
From the PR wire:
CARLTON MELTON UK TOUR DATES
CARLTON MELTON are bringing their futurescape soundtrack to the UK….
20/02 – London – The Shacklewell Arms 21/02 – Todmorden – Golden Lyon 22/02 – Glasgow – Nice n Sleazy 23/02 – Manchester – Soup Kitchen 24/02 – Brighton – Hope & Ruin 25/02 – Salisbury – The Winchester Gate 26/02 – Northwich – The Salty Dog 27/02 – Leeds – Wharf Chambers
Previously announced live dates: 28/02 BE Antwerp – Het Bos 03/03 NL Nijmegen – Doornroosje
New album “Mind Minerals” out now on Agitated Records
Searing guitar piercing the drone with relentless power, the core trio of Carlton Melton; Andy Duvall (drums/guitar), Clint Golden (bass guitar), and Rich Millman (guitar/synth), have some alchemical bond that’s helped them create a post-rock / psychedelic / freeform organic slab of American Primitivism / space drift , this is unashamed head-music from the melting pot of Northern California.. 5 decades ago this album would have been released on the ESP Disk Label or even Apple.. .there would have been no helter skelter if the desert Hippies had locked onto these vibes, plug in, turn on, tune out..float free.. Carlton Melton can provide your own aural microdose to reset your Mind / Psyche!!
Posted in Reviews on January 8th, 2018 by JJ Koczan
Today begins the Quarterly Review. You know the deal by now. 50 records written up between today and this Friday, 10 per day. As always, it’s a huge swath of stuff, and by the end of it I’m usually ready to collapse in a heap, but I’ve yet to regret it afterwards, so we press on. I hope you find something you dig in all this. I say that every time, but it’s still true.
Speaking of digging, how about that new logo up there? Thanks goes out to the Lord of the Logos himself, Christophe Szpajdel, who took on the project. This is the second one he’s done for the site, and aside from being in a completely different style from the last — I like covering a good amount of ground, even in logos — I think it fits pretty well with a variety of aesthetics. Could be doom, could be heavy rock, psych, stoner garage, whatever. Anyway, I’m into it. Hope you are too.
Quarterly Review #1-10:
Carlton Melton, Mind Minerals
It might be decades before the dimension we live in has caught up to the plane from which Northern California’s Carlton Melton emanate their resonant transmissions of space-psych, but somehow time doesn’t seem to matter anyway when actually listening. To wit, Mind Minerals, the trio’s first LP since 2015’s Out to Sea, is an 11-track/76-minute whopper – unmanageable by any standard – but once it’s on, all you want to do is roll with it and by the time post-aptly-named intro “Untimely” has begat “Electrified Sky” has begat the droning “The Lighthouse” has begat the fuzzy swirl of “Eternal Return” has begat the 10-minute rumble-and-synth soundtracking of “Snow Moon,” etc., there’s neither escape nor the desire for it. Does it need to be a 2LP? Nope, but nothing needs to be anything, man. In the subdued boogie of “Basket Full of Trumpets,” the is-it-backwards slow freakout of “Sea Legs,” the experimental guitar ambience of “Way Back When,” headphone-ready minimalism of “Climbing the Ladder,” the shaker’s tension that sustains the otherwise wispy “Atmospheric River,” and the final fuzzy resurgence of “Psychoticedelicosis,” Carlton Melton thoroughly reaffirm their residency in the far, far out. Not that anyone was questioning their paperwork or anything.
With fluid shifts between Ripple-style straightforward heavy rock, rolling Sabbathian lumber and even some harsher sludge elements, the seven-minute “Black Dawn, Bright Day” sets a varied tone for Chemical Winter Blues, the second LP from North Carolina’s Horseskull. I’m not sure I’d declare any one side or the other the winner in the fight between them by the time the death ‘n’ roll of “Luckless Bastards” gives way to closer “Lost all I Had, then Lost Again” – itself a 17-minute noise-nodder triumph of, well, loss – but the trip through “Hypocrites and Pigs” and 10-minute centerpiece “The Black Flame of Cain” is unpredictable and fun to make in kind. Guitarist/vocalist Anthony Staton reminds a bit of Slough Feg’s Mike Scalzi in his cleaner delivery, which only adds to the album’s declarative feel, and the overarching groove surrounding from guitarist Michael Avery, bassist Robert Hewlett and drummer Steve Smith only reinforces the developing individualism.
There is very little beyond the reach of Denver four-piece Dreadnought. Their third album, A Wake in Sacred Waves (Sailor Records), blends open, psychedelic jazz, progressive black metal, folk and more into a sometimes-thrashing/sometimes-sprawling meld that recalls the promise of Grayceon and the poise of Opeth while at the same time casting its own impression in melody, arrangement, variety and scope. Opening with the 17-minute longest cut (immediate points) “Vacant Sea,” it brilliantly ties its elements together to present a story arc following in elemental theme from Dreadnought’s first two offerings in centering around the rise and fall of a water-born apex predator, the narrative of which plays out across its four intense, extended and resoundingly complex inclusions, which alternate between beautiful and terrifying in a way that leaves the line utterly blurred and irrelevant. Why this band isn’t on Profound Lore or Neurot, I have no idea, but either way, A Wake in Sacred Waves is a conceptual and manifest triumph not to be missed.
A spirit of classic doom metal abounds on Forsaken’s fifth long-player, Pentateuch (Mighty Music), which is the long-running Malta-based outfit’s first offering since 2009’s After the Fall, but though righteous fist-pumpers like “Primal Wound” and “Decalogue” carry an epic and unflinchingly progressive underpinning in their layered vocal melodies, a harsh snare sound and awkwardly punching bass stifle complete immersion. It’s less an issue in a cut like “Saboath (The Law Giver),” which has a full swing surrounding, but it makes post-intro opener “Serpent Bride” sound like a demo (unless it’s my digital promo?) in a way that sets an unfortunate tone in contrasting the obvious class and high-level execution of Pentateuch as a whole. It should be noted that even a rough production can’t hold “The Dove and the Raven” back from making its Candlemassian intent clear, but a record of such overall high standard should feel as crisp as possible, and particularly for being so many years in arriving, Forsaken’s latest seems to want more in that regard, despite the quality of the material that comprises it.
I’ve already counted Highway Lord among my favorite debuts of 2017, but consider it’s worth taking a moment to underline the point of the heavy psych and stoner-fuzz wash that Moon Rats so vigilantly emit on cuts like the opening salvo of “Become the Smoke,” “The Dark Takes Hold” and “Heroic Dose,” balancing languid vibe and sonic heft atop gorgeously natural songcraft. Among the short-feeling 29 minutes and seven inclusions, with the title-track at the center shifting into “Overdose,” the deeply atmospheric “The Hunter” the and melodically spacious “Motor Sword” at the finish, there isn’t a weak spot to be found, and whether it’s the added dynamic of a key arrangement in the closer or the landmark feel of the hook to “Heroic Dose,” the Milwaukee five-piece tap into the there’s-no-rush-we’ll-all-get-there sonic sentiment that once made Quest for Fire so entrancing, while engaging subtle flourish of presentation that promises creative development to come. Bring it on. Please. The sooner the better.
Newcomer four-piece Son of the Morning, with the crisply-realized three tracks of their self-titled debut EP, would seem right away to be trying to stake their claim on a piece of the Midwest’s doom legacy. Coiling between heavy rock swing and classic doom tonality, each cut, from “Left Hand Path,” which rounds out after its welcoming hook with a sample of what sounds like somebody hanging in the breeze, through the post-Uncle Acid riffing of “Release,” and the more ethereal, organ-laced psych of “House of Our Enemy,” offers its own take in a clearheaded and efficient five minutes, getting in, leaving its mark and getting out to make room for the next piece in this initial sampling. Potential abounds from vocalist/organist Lady Helena, bassist Lee Allen, guitarist Levi Mendes and drummer H.W. Applewhite, and the core question is how they might tie these elements together across a first full-length. It should be noted they sound more than ready to embark on that project and provide an answer.
A 31-minute debut EP clearly meant to be heard in its entirety, Jesus the Snake’s self-titled treads some familiar ground in progressive heavy psychedelic instrumentalism throughout its four tracks – “Floyds I,” “Floyds II,” “Karma” and “Moment” – but with an inherent sense of mood and reach not unlike earliest My Sleeping Karma, its tonal warmth and emergent weight of groove find welcome all the same. Particularly for being the Portuguese outfit’s first public unveiling, the interplay of Joka Alves’ keys and Jorge Lopes’ guitar is immediately fluid, and as the bass of Rui Silva provides foundation to let drummer João Costa explore jazzy snare textures and stylistic nuance. It’s a beginning, and it sounds like a beginning, but Jesus the Snake also offers a richness and patience that many bands simply don’t have their first time out, and for that and the classic stoner fuzz of “Moment” alone, it’s easily worth the time and effort of thorough investigation.
Officially defunct for some time now, Michigan’s BerT compile tracks from throughout their prolific and bizarre run in The Lost Toes (Madlantis Records), proffering a timeline of their post-Melvins avant weirdness that starts with their very first song, “Stuff,” and makes its way through various demos, lost tracks, noise experiments, etc., to the 11-minute drone-out “Return” at the finish line. The digital version on Bandcamp offers an origin story with each track – the 90-second noise rock blast “Human Bone Xylophone” was cut from 2012’s Return to the Electric Church for time concerns, and the subsequent “Commercial Break” (which, yes, is a commercial break) was a class project – but whether you engage the narrative or not, the enduring vibe remains strange and charming in its garage-fuckall, could-and-just-might-go-anywhere-at-any-moment kind of way. BerT were always good fun, and The Lost Toes serves as reminder of the personality they had together that was so very much their own.
Brazilian instrumental troupe Galactic Gulag traffic in cosmic heft across the five pieces that comprise their first full-length, To the Stars by Hard Ways, but there’s ultimately little about the album that seems to be the hard way. If anything, it’s easy: Easy to groove on, easy to let it unfold over you in a spacious psychedelic drift, easy to nod along as the bassline of “Escape from Planet Gulag” picks up from 12-minute opener “Home.” Easy even to get lost in the sax-laden swirl-bounce off-kilterism of “The Hollow Moon.” So yeah, guitarists Breno Xavier and Pablo Dias, bassist Gabriel Dunke and drummer César Silva might be overselling a sense of difficulty, but as “Space Time Singularity” rolls into the shreddy-style fuzz of 15-minute closer “Eta Orionis,” there are clearly more important issues at hand. Like space. And riffs. And tone. And everything else that’s working so well for the Natal-based foursome on this jam-laden debut.
Former Spiritual Beggars and The Mushroom River Band vocalist Christian “Spice” Sjöstrand has been fronting the namesake act Band of Spice – formerly Spice and the RJ Band — for over a decade now, and Shadows Remain (Scarlet Records) follows 2015’s Economic Dancers (review here) as their fifth overall full-length. After the suitably-drunk-sounding vocals-only intro “Only One Drink,” the album rides the line between classically metallic tones and heavy rock riffing, a cut like “Don’t Bring Me Flowers” having little time in its 2:46 for brooking nonsense of any sort while later pieces like “Apartment 8” and “The Savior and the Clown” find time for more brooding and sentimental fare, and the penultimate “Take Me Home” and closer “Apartment 8 (Part II)” offer acoustic-strummed departure, so while the 51-minute runtime gives the 13-tracker something of a CD-era throwback feel and the songwriting the resolute in its straightforwardness, neither is Shadows Remain completely single-minded in its approach. A touch of grunge-funk in “Sheaf” goes a long way as well in lightening the mood, making the whole presentation all the more pro-shop, as it should be.
Posted in Whathaveyou on November 27th, 2017 by JJ Koczan
You ever run into a band who are so good you’re almost scared to listen to them because you know if you do you’re going to want to immediately own whatever it is you just put on? Like, you know you don’t really have the money to spend, but you’re going to hear whatever release it is and be like, “Well shit, now I need this.” That’s me and NorCal psych weirdos Carlton Melton. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a track from the band that didn’t make me feel like I should purchase their entire discography, and that this point, that would be no minor undertaking. Still, as pursuits go, noble.
Carlton Melton fucking rule, I guess is my point.
Their new album, Mind Minerals, is out Feb. 2 on Agitated Records, and onto the list of 2018’s most anticipated records it goes. If you need to ask why, see the paragraph immediately above.
Info and tour dates from the PR wire:
Announcing CARLTON MELTON new album “Mind Minerals” on Agitated Records
Release date: 2nd February 2018
This will be Carlton Melton’s first full length release since 2015’s widely lauded “Out To Sea” double opus, itself a languid drifting of drones and psychedically enhanced riffmongering. Sure, there’s been some long EP releases since… Hidden Lights in 2017 (featuring the immeasurable drone sike float on “Rememory”) and Aground in 2016 (a companion, the Desert Island weather beaten psych-flow follow up to Out To Sea), now its time to soak up… Mind Minerals.
Mind Minerals finds Carlton Melton in fine fettle, all the songs were recorded and engineered at El Studio in San Francisco by Phil Manley on September 3rd and 4th 2016 (except ‘untimely’ – recorded at the Dome by Brian McDougall), the studio setting suits them — a logical progression from a weekend’s recording out at the Dome. Under Manly’s watchful ear/eye, Carlton Melton have created a futurescape soundtrack.., a “3001 Space Oddyssey”. The drums are more pounding and direct than before, the constantly re-assuring bass creates a helping hand to propel you through the clouds of static and shards of electrifying guitar dazzling your horizon. Synths help soothe the sharp edges and lull you into some out of body experience whilst and orchestrated calamitous scree pulls you back…. This is a breathless, yet deep breathing album. It demands full immersion…
Searing guitar piercing the drone with relentless power, the core trio of Carlton Melton; Andy Duvall (drums/guitar), Clint Golden (bass guitar), and Rich Millman (guitar/synth), have some alchemical bond that’s helped them create a post-rock / psychedelic / freeform organic slab of American Primitivism / space drift , this is unashamed head-music from the melting pot of Northern California.. 5 decades ago this album would have been released on the ESP Disk Label or even Apple.. .there would have been no helter skelter if the desert Hippies had locked onto these vibes, plug in, turn on, tune out..float free.. Carlton Melton can provide your own aural microdose to reset your Mind / Psyche!!
Andy Duvall plays juno synth on ‘the lighthouse’
Special guests: Phil Manley – juno synth on ‘snow moon’ and ‘sea legs’ / Guitar on ‘eternal returns’ and ‘psychoticedelicosis’. John McBain – guitar on ‘electrified sky’ and ‘way back when’ / synth/mellotron/guitar on ‘atmospheric river’.
All songs mastered by John Mcbain at JPM mastering. Cover artwork is “Walls” (2013) by Andy Vogt
Tracklist 1. Untimely 2. Electrified Sky 3. The Lighthouse 4. Eternal Returns 5. Snow Moon 6. A Basketful Of Trumpets 7. Sea Legs 8. Way Back When 9. Climbing The Ladder 10. Atmospheric River 11. Psychoticedelicosis
Carlton Melton will BE TOURING next year! Confirmed dates below: 08/02 NL Groningen – Vera 09/02 DE Wurzburg – Immerhim 10/02 DE Berlin – Noise Testament 11/02 DE Oldenburg – MTS 12/02 DE Bamberg – Pizzini 14/02 AT Wien – kramladen 15/02 ITA Treviso – AltroQuando 16/02 ITA Torino – Magazzino Sul Po 17/02 ITA Fidenza (Parma) – Arci Taun 19/02 FRA Paris – Instant Chavires 20/02 UK London – The Shacklewell Arms 21/02 UK Todmorden – Golden Lyon 22/02 UK Glasgow – Nice n Sleazy 23/02 UK Manchester – Soup Kitchen 24/02 UK Brighton – Hope &Ruin 25/02 UK Salisbury – The Winchester Gate 26/02 UK Northwich – The Salty Dog 27/02 UK Leeds – Wharf Chambers 28/02 BE Antwerp – Het Bos 03/03 NL Nijmegen – Doornroosje
Posted in Whathaveyou on August 25th, 2017 by JJ Koczan
Californian head rockers White Manna, who’ve already been confirmed for Desertfest Belgium 2017, will be releasing their third long-player, Bleeding Eyes, via Agitated Records and Cardinal Fuzz on Oct. 6. Since Desertfest is happening from Oct. 13-16 and the album is out the week before, I kind of assume that means they’ll be sticking around Europe once they finish the UK tour that will find them at Liverpool Psych Fest on Sept. 23 and continue through to Sept. 28. That’s an awful lot of air travel, otherwise, especially with a record coming out in between.
Bit of a gap then to fill in as regards tour dates, but in addition to what’s listed here, the band has a few others in Croatia and in the Netherlands listed on their Thee Facebooks page for the time between, so maybe there’s more to be announced or that I just missed because I suck at this. Either way, here’s the info I got, which came down the PR wire:
Announcing new WHITE MANNA album ‘Bleeding Eyes’ on Agitated/Cardinal Fuzz Records
Artist: White Manna Title: Bleeding Eyes Label: Agitated / Cardinal Fuzz Format: LP/CD
Release date: 6th October 2017
Following on from an incredible one-two brace of releases on Holy Mountain, a release on Valley King, a limited Live album (Live Frequencies) on Cardinal Fuzz, and then their last sonic attack (PAN) on Cardinal Fuzz in 2016, White Manna release their new studio album as part of a joint venture between Cardinal Fuzz and Agitated Records.
Unleashed at the end of September in Europe to tie in with a UK/EU tour that features another sure to be main stage storming appearance at Liverpool Psych Fest, Bleeding Eyes is the sound of White Manna soaring and searing with riffs and grooves that float their own take on SIKE ROCK! To a higher plane. The 8 tracks herein deliver serious motorik action along the way, with some lo-fi pop glaze over the top of solid rhythmic pummel. Riffs? You got it, great rafts of guitar interplay blitzing your ears in a dronesome scree, ricocheting through space and time to transport you to a sonic enlightenment.
Recorded and mixed at El Studio San Francisco, Ca and The Compound, Manila, Ca by Phil Manley and White Manna. Mastered by John McBain at JPM Mastering San Francisco.
Fans of Hawkwind, The Heads, Loop, Mugstar, White Hills, Spacemen 3 and Amon Duul will thrill to this. Northern California has never sounded so spaced out and visceral, plug in, turn it up and drone out?
Tracklist 1. Bleeding Eyes 2. Vimanas 3. Trampoline 4. Invisible Kings 5. Speed Dagger 6. English Breakfast 7. You Are The Movie 8. Freak
UK Tour Dates 2017 22 Sept UK Newcastle- Cumberland Arms 23 Sept UK Liverpool- Psych Fest 24 Sept UK Leeds- The Library 25 Sept WAL Cardiff- Full Moon 26 Sept UK Brighton- Hope & Ruin 27 Sept UK London- Victoria Dalston 28 Sept UK Bristol- The Crofters Rights
Posted in Whathaveyou on June 26th, 2017 by JJ Koczan
Don’t sweat it if you see something waving in the distance — that’s just the collective freak-flag representing the right-on psychedelia proffered by San Francisco trio Carlton Melton. The improv-specialist instrumental three-piece have a new three-song EP titled Hidden Lights due Aug. 25 from Agitated Records that’ll be released on limited vinyl and “unlimited download” — I like that — as the follow-up to their 2015 outing, Out to Sea. They have a new video for the title-track streaming now.
The PR wire has it like this:
CARLTON MELTON announce new EP ‘Hidden Lights’ on Agitated Records & share title track video
San Francisco tripmakers-supreme Carlton Melton return with a new 25 minute-plus three track 12″ EP for Agitated Records, their first release since their widely received 2LP “Out To Sea” in 2015 and, indeed the accompanying 2016 RSD “Aground” 12″ release.
Hidden Lights is the first missive from recent recordings undertaken once again at El Studio with the watchful engineering and collaboratory help of Phil Manley (Trans AM / Lifecoach / Fucking Champs). Phil throws in some slinky guitar moves that help make the Carlton Melton Magick Karpet soar… John McBain (Evil Acidhead /Monster Magnet /Wellwater Conspiracy ) also guests on keyboards, and has once again mastered the ’Melton’s sike-adelic-drone to perfection.
The band CARLTON MELTON formed along the Mendocino County coastline in Northern California on the weekend of July 17th, 2008. The idea to play live, loud, improvised, experimental, instrumental, psychedelic music in a geodesic dome had been discussed for many years prior to this date. The opportunity came to fruition after the dome was completely rebuilt and the acoustic sounds inside were fully realized.
It is understood this music is not for everyone. If you prefer top-notch, modern day production and crafty songwriting you may want to stop here. If you prefer old SST label cassette tapes or an early Spaceman 3 cassette you recently found wedged in the back seat of your car you may dig some of this… or perhaps you like to listen and gaze at an old David Crosby LP now and then.
Released on 500 12″’s or unlimited DL!!!
Take a trip to the hidden lights… immerse…
Tracklist 01. Rememory 02. The Warbler 03. Hidden Lights
Carlton Melton: Andy Duvall Rich Millman Clint Golden
