Posted in Whathaveyou on January 19th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Listen to the two singles back to back and you can hear some of the differing sides of Iron Jinn‘s makeup coming forward, between psychedelia and some more urgent push. The Amsterdam-based four-piece, which boasts Oeds Beydals on guitar — see also Death Alley, Molassess, The Devil’s Blood, etc. — will release their self-titled debut full-length through Stickman Records this April, playing a release show at, where else?, Roadburn Festival, where Beydals and Wout Kemkens (also Birth of Joy) first came together, then under the moniker of Iron Chin, in 2018.
Neat, right? New song, release show, things happening. Cool. You’ll also note the part below at the end where it mentions ever so casually that members of Iron Jinn (all or some, I don’t know) will pull double-duty this coming Fall, touring with and playing in the backing band for Alain Johannes. That is a show I would like very much to see. Johannes has promised a career-spanning set, if such a thing is even possible in a single night, and I feel like only good things can come from these two parties meeting and working together over a stretch of dates.
The PR wire takes it from there:
IRON JINN (feat. members of The Devil’s Blood, Death Alley & more!) announce Roadburn record release & share new single “Winding World”!
Years after debuting at Roadburn 2018 as a European counterpoint for the San Diego-Takeover, Iron Jinn, featuring members of The Devil’s Blood, Death Alley, Shaking Godspeed and Birth Of Joy, comes full circle with a release party at Roadburn 2023!
Iron Jinn will be released on April 21, 2023 coinciding with the band’s appearance at the festival. A limited Roadburn edition of the vinyl will be available exclusively there and in the Stickman Records webshop.
You can get a taste of their woozy rock’n’roll on debut single Soft Healers, and get swept along with the tide on Winding World – their brand new track released today to coincide with this very announcement. Listen to Winding World now!
Says guitarist/singer Wout Kemkens of the new single: ”Winding World is like a sonic action painting to me; the parade of seemingly unrelated images/happenings that pass by during the song is an ode to the fact that everything is constantly changing, which is maddening, but beautiful. I always loved Louis Armstrong’s ‘Wonderful World’ and for me ‘Winding World’ feels related, but as a hectic 21st century version. A stroll in this particular moment of time, and really feeling and seeing what is happening, such a day.”
Ever since we came off stage at Roadburn 2018 as the one off Iron Chin project, I always wondered what would happen if Wout Kemkens and I would share writing duties equally and develop an actual band,” Oeds says, “By circumstances beyond our control we suddenly had the time to make it happen and Iron Jinn quickly developed a mind of its own. To be able to present it where the first seeds were sown makes it all the more special.
The Amsterdam-based band has also announced a slew of live dates celebrating the record, as well as an upcoming tour with Alain Johannes (Queens of the Stone Age, Them Crooked Vultures). Not only will Iron Jinn be directly supporting Johannes on the tour, but also playing in his live band. Dates have not been made public yet, but the tour is slated for September/October of this year. Find more info HERE:https://alainjohannes.eu/alain-johannes-european-tour-2023/
One could not accuse Temple Fang of not making the most of their 2022. In addition to following the late-2021 release of their debut album, Fang Temple (review here), with a vinyl issue through Electric Spark this past Spring, signing to Stickman Records to release the 2CD just last month, touring and making stops at the likes of Roadburn, Freak Valley (review here) and frickin’ Duna Jam, releasing 2020’s Live at Merleyn (review here) on tape and hosting their own inaugural Right on Mountain Festival in Nijmegen, the Amsterdam-based four-piece will wrap the year on Nov. 29 — tomorrow — by issuing Jerusalem/The Bridge, a 21-minute, two-song offering on Electric Spark and Right on Mountain that pushes their sound even further.
And in fascinating ways. They offer the narrative below, and the timing is a little opaque, but as the band — guitarist/vocalist Jevin de Groot, bassist/vocalist Dennis Duijnhouwer, guitarist/pianist Ivy van der Veer and drummer Egon Loosveldt — looked to integrate Loosveldt into the lineup, it seems they essentially did so by writing together. “Jerusalem” (10:04) and “The Bridge” (11:44) came about as a part of that. They had already moved forward from Fang Temple, the basic tracks for which were taken from live recordings, and though they were ostensibly touring to support that album, would head out with new songs in tow, and having seen them perform live this summer, I can tell you first hand that what they present on stage is a vision of cosmic psychedelia very much their own.
“Jerusalem” and “The Bridge” capture an emerging duality in progress, structurally and in terms of presentation. Duijnhouwer and de Groot switch out as lead vocalists between the two, and each has a strong persona coming through the material. For Duijnhouwer, he fronts the mellow-space-riffer “Jerusalem” very much in command of the proceedings, not a krautrock auteur — the band’s vibe is too collaborative for such things — but aware of the audience and mindful of the engagement of the listener. a A hairy roll of groove is duly underscored by righteous-punch bass, and a verse/chorus pattern unfolds, molten but catchy, across the song’s first half before a short break of guitar introduces the build on which they’re about to embark.
Enter van der Meer on piano — an element one does not expect (or hope, for that matter) Temple Fang are utilizing for the last time — as an essential part of the lush fluidity that ensues. In plotted but exploratory fashion — that is, they know where they’re going even if they’re willing to throw in a few turns en route — the band coalesce toward a mini-apex, a dropdown and rebuild, pushed into prog territory by Loosveldt‘s snare work alone, never mind the trades in guitar lines between de Groot and van der Meer or the winding conclusion that seems to end the song suddenly despite the distance traveled. “Jerusalem” is vibrant, a push in tempo and rhythm but not a shove, memorable in its early chorus, and it insists on nothing because it doesn’t need to. By the time they’re done with it, the case is well and gorgeously made.
“The Bridge” also has a build, but is less business-up-front-party-in-the-back (the mullet structure) in enacting it. There’s little hint early of the consuming wash of distortion to come, but a standalone guitar introduction clues the listener immediately to the shift toward outright exploration. There are verses, a chorus of sorts, but as de Groot takes over on vocals, with Duijnhouwer seeming to answer each measure of the initial echoing vocal lines on bass, the direction is handwriting-on-page lyrically and there’s a patience in how the track plays out that feels like a departure from “Jerusalem” even as the tonal richness of the guitar and bass is consistent. A second-ish verse is backed by headphone-ready, am-I-imagining-this whispers circa the five-minute mark as the volume continues to grow into the chorus, and it’s when the howl of lead guitar starts that the song reveals its full scope.
The great irony of “The Bridge” is that it never really lets go of its structure. But it sounds like it does. “Jerusalem,” on the other hand, drops the verse/chorus tradeoffs for an instrumental back end while coming across as more straightforward. This is Temple Fang. As “The Bridge” slow-careens through its somewhat understated payoff, it’s more about spiritual realization than pummeling volume, and the execution remains dynamic — which is to say, it’s not like they get to a riff, ride it out for four or eight lines and end the song; there’s more happening — and Loosveldt and Duijnhouwer hold the central progression together even as the guitars seem intent on pulling it apart at around eight minutes in. There’s a comedown, a quick resurgence, and over bass and sparse guitar, de Groot ends with cyclical recitations of the chorus lyric; the band letting go with gentleness that probably shouldn’t be as surprising as it is.
It is a tale of the going and the gone, and what does any of it mean? Well, we exist in an incomprehensible universe that’s either expanding around us at all times every single atom or perhaps already contracting in an unstoppable crush of everything and who the hell even knows. So what does anything mean? We live, maybe, and we die. Maybe there’s solace in that truth — it is a thing to know — but if you want to talk about rock and roll, it means that Temple Fang have left Fang Temple behind, and that their first album, glorious as it was, was not the sum total of what they have to offer by a longshot in sound or style. Not one for betting, but I’d wager Jerusalem/The Bridge isn’t either, and rather that the real heart of the band is in the process of manifestation, the sheer creativity itself. However they choose to interact with their audience, whatever route they take to entrancing the crowd before them, real or imagined, it is the journey that will define them and the journey that they’re for and with which they’re searching and communing.
Jerusalem/The Bridge is streaming in its entirety on the player below, and I feel fortunate to host it ahead of the release tomorrow. The prior-alluded background follows in blue, courtesy of the band.
Thanks and enjoy:
When we found our new drummer Egon Loosveldt in August of 2021 we had 5 weeks with him to prepare for the upcoming run of shows we had booked, the first ‘real’ shows after the pandemic.
Because our first ever jams with him were so inspired, instead of teaching him the old songs we decided we were gonna go off the deep end and write a totally new set of material, a bit of a risky move as we didn’t know how audiences were going to react to us playing all new stuff but a decision essential to us as a band and what we hold sacred, the music and the moment.
We also knew, as the official tour started in April 2022, we wanted to hit the road hard and therefore wouldn’t have time to do much recording. However, when we heard our beloved Galloway Studios in Nijmegen was to be demolished and build back up from scratch at a different location, we knew we wanted one last chance to record there. So in May 2022, after doing three shows in Switzerland and Austria, we drove 700+ miles from Graz to Nijmegen, set up our backline and recorded what was essentially our live set at the time while the building around us was being torn down, slowly covering everything in a layer of dust.
The two songs on this EP represent two different poles of Temple Fang. Sung by Dennis, Side A (“Jerusalem”) is a hard hitter, born from the original sessions with Egon and featuring a surprise turn on piano from Ivy. This take was done right after setting up our gear and checking sounds, the only one we ended up doing of this song.
Sung by Jevin, Side B (“The Bridge”) was a song we had been kicking around for a while, originally intended for “Fang Temple” but not fully realised until a few weeks before this tour. A slow-burner, harboring a lot of tension and not much release. Thanks for listening, XO DD/TF
Jerusalem/The Bridge is released in an edition of 500 on black vinyl, 300 through Electric Spark and 200 through Right on Mountain. Digital through Stickman.
Produced, engineered and mixed by Sebastiaan van Bijlevelt at Galloway Studio, Nijmegen Assistance by Niek Manders Mastered by Alex McCollaugh at True East Mastering, Nashville Art and Design by Right On Mountain Music by Temple Fang
Temple Fang is: Dennis Duijnhouwer: Vox, Bass Jevin de Groot: Vox, Guitar Ivy van der Veer: Guitar, Piano Egon Loosveldt: Drums
Posted in Whathaveyou on October 7th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
Netherlands-based six-piece outfit Cervus impressed earlier this year with their single/video “Cycles” (posted here) and last month spent some time in Texel in the Wadden Islands in order to get to work on what will be their second EP release, tentatively titled Axis. They don’t seem to have been recording there, just getting pieces together and making demos, and it will be interesting to see where they end up since “Cycles” was something of a departure from their first EP, Ignis, which came out in Dec. 2021.
Obviously it’s too early to talk about release dates for Axis or anything like that, since, you know, they haven’t actually made it yet, but the band have a few dates lined up for this Fall, including a stop at the esteemed Le Guess Who? in Utrecht, and their working out new material live hardly seems outside the realm of possibility, so if you’re in that part of the world and want to chase down a preview, such a thing could actually happen somewhere in this mix. And when/if I hear about recording plans, I’ll let you know.
Meanwhile:
CERVUS – New Fall Dates
Howdy! Here it is, an overview of new dates for the fall. We’re super stoked to announce this and we can’t wait to play for you in the near future! Doom on!
Oct 29 HKU Helloween De Nijverheid Utrecht, Netherlands Nov 06 dB’s Studio Utrecht, Netherlands Nov 12 Le Guess Who? 2022 De Branderij Utrecht, Netherlands Nov 19 Cafe De Nijverheid Utrecht, Netherlands Dec 02 Cafe Neushoorn Leeuwarden, Netherlands
Artwork by @deebo.altrego (you can get it on a tshirt, check our BIO link) Graphic design by @tom_vd_linden_illustrator • TEXEL TRIP AXIS FIN •
The trip has concluded, and we have a fresh crop of ideas/demos/concepts. It’s an eclectic bunch to say the least.
Spacious, mystery, heavy, serene, subtle, huge… all qualities we want explore on the upcoming record. Dynamics is and was the keyword in the back of our heads during the sessions. We can’t wait to jam on them and refine them further.
Cervus is: Tom van der Linden – Vocals Tom Mourik – Bass Guitar Rogier Henkelman – Drums Jan Woudenberg – Guitar Ton van Rijswijk – Keyboard/Guitar Dennis de Bruin – Guitar
Posted in Whathaveyou on September 30th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
April 2023 release date for a band from the Netherlands with Oeds Beydals on guitar? That tells me Iron Jinn are at least looking to have a release party at Roadburn Festival next year. That’s supposition on my part, mind you, not insider info or anything like that, but I was fortunate enough to be there when a somewhat different incarnation of what’s become Iron Jinn played Roadburn 2018 (review here), and I recall it being righteously all over the place.
The lineup of the band has changed in the ensuing four years — and the name; they were Iron Chin at the time, which I assumed derived from Beydals‘ then-chops-heavy facial hair; I guess once you fill the beard in it makes less sense — but the first single from Iron Jinn‘s self-titled debut is “Soft Healers” and is streaming now at the bottom of this post. You will find it atmospherically rich and, well, righteously all over the place throughout its seven minutes.
More to come on this one, but the point is the music, so if you want to jump to that as you read, no one’s going to hold it against you. From the PR wire:
IRON JINN Signs With Stickman Records; Debut Album Coming April 2023 – First Single Out Now!
Stickman Records, label home for high class bands such as Elder, Motorpsycho, King Buffalo, Weedpecker and many more, is proud to announce a new signing: Iron Jinn from Amsterdam. Iron Jinn are Oeds Beydals (The Devil’s Blood, Death Alley), Wout Kemkens (Shaking Godspeed, De Niemanders), Bob Hogenelst (Birth of Joy) and Gerben Bielderman (Pauw). Their self-titled debut is a frantic album that follows the logic of a dream: none. The nine songs are the result of a chaotic accumulation of modern world impressions, information and conversations that are forcefully pushed through a human funnel: the minds of Oeds and Wout.
Iron Jinn sounds downright exciting. The voices of Wout and Oeds reverberate passionately over mesmerizing grooves and pure melodies and harmonies. A rare combination in contemporary (rock) music. Guitarists/songwriters Oeds and Wout crossed paths for several years whilst playing in Death Alley and Shaking Godspeed. Finding common ground in challenging the status quo in heavy rock music, their first real get-together birthed a festival: the all-nighter Last Night On Earth. For their second collaboration they took to the Roadburn 2018 stage and performed new original material as Iron Jinn (then spelled ‘Iron Chin’). After their Roadburn live debut they kept on writing, teamed up with longtime friend and powerhouse drummer Bob and commenced the recordings for this debut album in the spring of 2021. After that Gerben was added to the band’s line-up.
Wout Kemkens explains: “When we wrote Soft Healers, the nasty throbbing sensation of the music drove me towards the old Dutch saying, ‘soft healers cause stinking wounds’. The song also deals literally with the physical side of thoughts and actions: matter over mind, a reversal of the popular modern world catchphrase. Humans can be great tricksters, but it’s hard to outsmart some realities, I guess. You cannot always place will above matter, something we love to do.”
Rolf Gustavus (Stickman Records): ‘As a rule, we at Stickman Records don’t just sign bands out of the blue, but rules are made to be broken. We are always looking for that indefinable quality in the bands we work with, a unique spark that we feel sets our label apart from the pack. When we heard the first song “Winding World” we already knew this was a special record and a rare band that would fit our roster perfectly.’
Posted in Whathaveyou on August 1st, 2022 by JJ Koczan
There are two key points in the notice below that I’d like to draw to your attention. First, Temple Fang‘s make-a-joyful-noise-and-do-it-very-loud debut album, Fang Temple (review here), is being released as a 2CD through Stickman Records. Pretty snazzy, and you know the imprint is up to the task, working with the likes of Motorpsycho, Elder, King Buffalo, Orango, and so on. Second, the part where it says, “could broadly be classified as psychedelic rock, but encompass much more.”
That’s pretty much the story of Fang Temple in as concise a summary as you could hope for. It’s psychedelia-plus; an individualized take on longform exploratory craft. It may be that the Amsterdam four-piece — who as I recall very nearly didn’t put out the LP in the first place — will move forward and do something completely different, but their manner of immersion on Fang Temple is carried through the resonance of its component songs, each with its own expanse that feeds into that of the entirety. Yeah, it’s psychedelic, but it’s more than that too.
I’d say if-you-kn0w-you-know or some shit like that, and it’s kind of true I suppose, but screw that gatekeeping elitist nonsense. If you didn’t hear the album, hell’s bells, it’s streaming below. And if you, like me, enjoy music pressed on tiny, easily-stored discs that play using only the most 1980s-futurist of laser technologies, then you’re going to want to keep this in mind. Probably even more after you listen.
I am all-in on a CD revival.
From Stickman‘s newsletter:
COMING SOON: TEMPLE FANG – FANG TEMPLE ON CD!
We are proud to announce a new collaboration with the fantastic Dutch band Temple Fang for a 2CD/digital release of their debut studio album Fang Temple (which had previously only been available on vinyl).
The band, which features ex-members of Death Alley, has crafted four lengthy, epic tracks on this record that could broadly be classified as psychedelic rock, but encompass much more. We have been heavily into this release for some time now and are happy to help it reach a wider audience! As soon as the CD is delivered from the pressing plant it will be made immediately available.
While the 2CD is in production, you can already have a listen at the band’s Bandcamp.
Temple Fang on Fang Temple: Dennis Duijnhouwer – Bass, Vocals, Guitars, Synth Jevin de Groot – Guitars-Vocals, Synth, Percussion Ivy van der Veer – Guitars, Piano, Percussion Jasper van den Broeke – Drums
Additional instrumentation by Sebastiaan van Bijlevelt and Niek Manders
This past Friday, Amsterdam-based heavy psychedelic rockers Cervus released their new single Cycles, a standalone nine-minute track to follow-up on late-2021’s debut Ignis EP. The track is mellow and prog-leaning, exploratory but ultimately plotted in its direction, and while one might expect an instrumental approach for such a thing based on countrymen outfits like Monomyth or even Temple Fang — who aren’t instrumental, but at least mostly so — Cervus bring structure to what might otherwise seem to willfully meander in the verses here. A human presence in the ethereal, if you want to think about it. Voice in the mist.
I’ll readily cop to “Cycles” — birth, death, repeat on cosmic scale — being my first exposure to Cervus, and it’s something of a step aside from most of what the band had on offer on last December’s EP, where a song like “Run Baby Run” was aggressive enough in its push to ask in the hook, “You want a piece of me?,” and the sphere was much more in line with straightforward heavy fuzz, organ adding to melody and lending a classic feel in the jammier shuffle of the seven-minute finale “The Witch’s Wail” and elsewhere. Six dudes in the band, safe to say there’s room for such things.
And for the shift in approach that “Cycles” represents, it’s not so out of step ultimately with the prior EP as to be unrecognizable, despite the marked uptick in patience. Could well be that Cervus are working strictly in response to what they did last year, and if so, that’s an impulse they will hopefully continue to pursue, since whatever it leads to won’t be stagnation, or maybe they’ve adopted a more lysergic mindset on the whole and have the video to showcase that. The fact that I can’t say for sure either way makes me like them better.
If you also missed the EP — which I know you didn’t because you’re cooler than me — it’s streaming at the bottom of this post, and you’ll find the “Cycles” video immediately below, followed by more on the song and the band.
Enjoy:
Cervus, “Cycles” official video
‘Cycles’ is a journey through time and space, about the unending cycle of life and death as it occurs throughout the universe. From the genesis of the tiniest microbe to complete solar systems being swallowed by black holes.
Music video made by Ton van Rijswijk with editing assistance by Dennis de Bruin.
Mixed by Rogier Henkelman and mastered by Wessel Oltheten of Spoor 14.
— Cervus’ music is a combination of heavy Stoner Rock, Doom and 70’s Hardrock with a psychedelic edge. The many influences of the band create a potent and moving mix of massive, pounding riffs and driving grooves, interspersed with soaring melancholic passages. This six-headed beast fires off a wall of sound, all engrossing and intoxicating.
Cervus is: Tom van der Linden – Vocals Tom Mourik – Bass Guitar Rogier Henkelman – Drums Jan Woudenberg – Guitar Ton van Rijswijk – Keyboard/Guitar Dennis de Bruin – Guitar
Posted in Reviews on November 23rd, 2021 by JJ Koczan
The first outing from Amsterdam’s Temple Fang was the 2020 live album, Live at Merleyn (review here). Recorded in Oct. 2019, it was comprised of two extended pieces that showcased the Netherlands four-piece’s megacosmic psychedelia, a blend of atmospheres conjured through effects, gradual builds and patient craft. At that point, the band had already made an impression on Europe’s festival scene, having featured at Roadburn (review here) as well as Desertfest Belgium and being slated for a slew of subsequently-canceled/postponed 2020 festivals. Fang Temple, a 2LP issued through Right on Mountain and Electric Spark, is something closer to a studio debut, but its root is still in live performance, the band having snuck three sets between lockdown mandates on Dec. 13, 2020, at Db’s in Utrecht, recorded them, and subsequently used those as “basic tracks” to build the rest of the album around. So let us understand immediately, then, that Temple Fang‘s Fang Temple is not a record looking for rigid definition.
While the 79-minute offering from vocalist/guitarist Jevin de Groot (also synth/percussion), bassist/vocalist Dennis Duijnhouwer (also guitar/synth), guitarist/pianist/percussionist Ivy van der Veer and drummer Jasper van den Broeke (since replaced by Egon Loosveldt) approaches what might be considered escape velocity for space rock in the final stretches of 22:15 closer “Not the Skull” — a somewhat shorter rendition of which capped Live at Merleyn as well — stretches like the gentle, minimal, ceremonial beginning of opener “Let it Go/When We Pray” (21:54) aren’t so easily accounted for in terms of style apart from vague catch-alls like progressive or psychedelic. Some of the guitar meandering, underscored by a firm foundation of bass, can be traced back to de Groot and Duijnhouwer‘s work together in the underrated cosmic doom outfit Mühr, but as the first verses in “Let it Go/When We Pray” begin the forward procession of that song’s two-part movement — the shift “Let it Go” to “When We Pray” follows a crescendo solo section and drift-out that happens between minutes 11 and 14 — they set up a passionate vocal delivery in both stretches that becomes an essential part of Fang Temple‘s identity, particularly as “When We Pray” transforms gospel blues into multi-hued celestial worship; the repeated line, “When we trust the hand of god,” arriving as a shared joy rather than an entreaty to conversion.
It is not the first nor the last beautiful moment on Fang Temple. In fact, the album is rife with little-seeming flourishes that might be passed over on one listen while a highlight of the next, whether it’s the percussion backing the Floyd-via-Motorpsycho prog unfurling of “A Strange Place to Land” (18:01) or the jazzy jab of guitar at 5:22 that just seems to have a bit extra behind it than the others around it. No surprise, immersion of the listener is part of the intention, but as with their longform runtimes, Temple Fang are working on a scale of their own — aided by Niek Manders, who recorded the live tracks, and engineer/mixer Sebastiaan van Bijlevet at Galloway Studios in Nijmegen; both also provided “extra instrumentation” — in terms of aesthetic reach, and even if one might drift in and out on the float of guitar interplay from de Groot and van der Veer throughout “A Strange Place to Land,” both the vocals and the rhythm section effectively complement with a hint toward structure, even as elements might come and go, as the drums do after crashing out 13 minutes into the second cut fading way back as the guitars and bass set the plotline for the song’s last linear build, which brings the vocals back as part of the payoff no less engaging than was that of “Let it Go/When We Pray.”
Is that a landing? Not really. Duijnhouwer‘s bass becomes the central piece of “The Knife” (the shortest song at 17:42), but one would still hardly call the proceedings grounded. If anything, bringing the bass more relatively forward allows the initial guitar lines and effects swirls to feel all the more exploratory. “A Strange Place to Land” doesn’t hit the same kind of intensity as “Not the Skull,” but neither is it completely languid, and across its first 10-plus minutes, “The Knife” makes it seem like a rager, and it’s to the band’s credit that even when they begin the louder stretch of their penultimate inclusion, they hold firm to the graceful manner in which their journey began, either on that song or in “Let it Go/When We Pray” nearly an hour earlier. As “The Knife” hits its swell, it remains melodically resonant and light in its swing, not insisting, inviting, ending with a final curiosity of guitar as if to ask if you’re ready yet to go where “Not the Skull” inevitably leads.
And yes, the closer is inevitably about its thrusters-fired breakout in the second half, but that’s not even the only climax in the song, let alone the album surrounding. In a fitting summary of the record proceeding, “Not the Skull” balances its urgency with serenity, and its plotted feel with an improvised, this-is-how-it-happened-this-day-tomorrow-might-be-different sensibility that can be heard in the drums and guitar before it hits its midpoint. Maybe that’s reading into it knowing that it was at least in part recorded live — they are a band aware of narrative and their own ability to set it — but it’s supported as well by the fact that Temple Fang to-date have two releases, “Not the Skull” is on both of them, and it’s changed from one to the next. Further, “Not the Skull” does not neglect the finer details and nuances wrought by the songs before it, and even as the wash gives way to feedback ahead of the fireball about to be launched — have I mentioned that last payoff yet? — the hum feels mindful and no less purposeful than what follows as it relates to Fang Templeas a whole. It must have been quite a show last December.
As to Temple Fang‘s plans to return to touring or festivals or whatnot, I don’t know, but there is no question Fang Temple draws benefit from its methodology. The energy. The substance and the ethereal. The chemistry. They’ll be a different band their next time out, should such a thing happen, but with as much fervency as they deliver these songs, it’s hard to imagine they won’t want to push themselves further.
Posted in Whathaveyou on November 15th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
I wanted to listen to the Temple Fang album before writing about it, and now, having listened to it — it’s called Fang Temple and they put it out digitally the other day ahead of a vinyl release sometime in 2022 — all I want to do is review it. Hearing the thing is not a minor undertaking — its four tracks run a statistically significant 79 minutes, and the amount of journey they pack into that time supercedes, well, certainly whatever else you were going to do with your afternoon.
So I guess I’ll be finding a day to review it. This week? Maybe. Depends on how many chunks of 79 minutes I can devote to listening. Not that you’re holding your breath, I know, but I do feel a certain sense of urgency to talk about it, which is always fun. The Pecan was playing ukulele along to it this morning while we made our way through. He asked how many people were in the band and then added himself to the lineup. Cute kid. I should probably encourage him to go into finance or some shit, but I just can’t bring myself to do it.
Electric Spark posted the following:
Temple Fang vinyl album out on Electric Spark in April 2022
Fang Temple: The album that (nearly) got lost.
The short version of this story is that yeah, this is the first recorded studio album by the band Temple Fang and it sounds fuckin’ awesome.
However, the story runs much deeper than this being just a debut album. If you want to hear a story about persistence, going off the beaten path, getting stuck, and nearly losing everything accomplished, then just read on. This album has quite a fascinating story. As the title already implies, it almost did not see the light of day.
When Temple Fang started thinking about recording a studio album, the story so far was already very remarkable. From the first show supporting Lonely Kamel to their last gig with Mondo Generator, right before the whole world got in lock-down. Performing at Into The Void, Roadburn, Desert Fest Antwerp, Fortarock, Sonic Whip, and numerous club shows in between, all without a single note recorded in the studio. No album, no video clips, and no record label behind them. They did it all on their own strength and terms. As fans and friends were increasingly putting pressure on the band to record and release an album, the band decided to release a live album as their first official recorded output.
At the start of 2020, Temple Fang seemed on an unstoppable rise. With more gigs and the release of their live album on the horizon, the future looked bright. Then the world stopped spinning. Gigs were either postponed or canceled entirely, but the band did manage to accomplish something truly amazing. Their live album “Live at the Merlyn” sold out on Bandcamp within a week!
That gave them the confidence needed to start working on a proper studio album. The band worked out a plan. They would play and record several shows in the fall/winter of 2020 and use those as reference material for what songs to put on the album. They made plans to record the album in the spring of 2021. It seemed like a solid plan until The Netherlands was forced into another lock-down, causing most of those planned shows to be postponed or canceled. On top of that, they also lost their drummer. For a band that heavily relies on the interaction between its members, it wasn’t just a simple case of finding a new drummer and continue, and what to do with the booked studio time?
Producer Sebastiaan van Bijlevelt asked for the tapes of the three recorded reference shows, intending to make another live album out of those. The band reluctantly gave him the tapes but he was not too keen on mixing another live album. After hearing those tapes, Sebastiaan came with a new proposal. He offered to use the tapes as the framework for their first studio album and have the band use the studio time to record and add parts on top of that frame. In some kind of Frankenstein fashion, only done before by giants like Frank Zappa, the band started recording and adding to the base tracks that were recorded live in Utrecht. The result is this Temple Fang album, released as a double gatefold vinyl, clocking in at nearly 80 minutes!
After the recordings, the band found a new drummer and decided to start with a clean slate. So what to do with these recordings if none of the songs will be played live again? Should they be released only digitally, up for grabs for the fans? Should they be released as a limited cassette run? Or just leave them in the vault, gathering dust forever? The band couldn’t decide what to do with this album, how to approach or how to promote it.
Then the owner of Electric Spark got wind of these recordings and convinced his old childhood friend Dennis Duijnhouwer to release this album the way it properly should, on shiny black vinyl. They struck a deal to release this beast together, both as an ode to the first 3 years of Temple Fang and a transition to the new lineup. So there will be no promotional tour or release show, but these recordings are so good, that all those whistles and bells aren’t necessary. This record speaks for itself!
The first disc starts off nice and serene, like monks praying in a Temple, but by the time you put the needle on the second slab of vinyl, the tone shifts more to a vicious venomous delirium a bite of a snake Fang can deliver. The journey in between is mesmerizing.
Electric Spark is truly grateful to announce that this album will come out in the Spring of 2022 as a double 180 grams vinyl record with a gatefold sleeve.
1. Let It Go / When We Pray 21:54 2. A Strange Place To Land 18:01 3. The Knife 17:42 4. Not The Skull 22:15
Temple Fang on Fang Temple: Dennis Duijnhouwer – Bass, Vocals, Guitars, Synth Jevin de Groot – Guitars-Vocals, Synth, Percussion Ivy van der Veer – Guitars, Piano, Percussion Jasper van den Broeke – Drums
Additional instrumentation by Sebastiaan van Bijlevelt and Niek Manders
