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R.I.P. Steffen Weigand, Drummer of My Sleeping Karma

Posted in Features on June 13th, 2023 by JJ Koczan

Sad news today from the camp of mostly-German instrumentalist meditative psych innovators My Sleeping Karma, who have announced the passing of drummer Steffen Weigand. The four-piece, of which Weigand was a founding member, put word out on social media as follows:

Dear MSK Family,

We are devastated to inform you that our brother Steffen has passed away this morning surrounded by his loved ones.

Our thoughts and deepest condolences are with his family.

We are heartbroken and have no more words right now.

Weigand’s death comes after a battle with a rare kind of cancer that consumed the final three-plus years of his life. In Dec. 2022, a GoFundMe was launched that exceeded its 50,000 Euro goal with the aim of supporting Weigand and his family as well as helping to pay for medical and other costs. His passing leaves an uncertain future for My Sleeping Karma, who have limited their live activity in the last year-plus as he struggled against the disease.

As a member of My Sleeping Karma alongside guitarist Seppi, soundboardist Norman Mehren and bassist Matte Vandeven, Weigand was an essential component in one of the last generation of heavy psychedelia’s most crucial and influential progressions. The shape of the genre would not be what it is today without their, and his, contributions to it, and his progressive style of drumming remained part of what allowed the band to remain consistently exploratory the time of their 2006 self-titled debut through their 2022 album, Atma.

Working with Elektrohasch Schallplatten, the Munich-based label run by Colour Haze guitarist/vocalist Stefan Koglek, My Sleeping Karma’s first three albums — the self-titled, 2008’s Satya and 2010’s Tri — found the band discovering the smoothness of sound and the spiritual themes that would guide them thereafter, honing an individualism of style and production that allowed for a heavy impact and a distinct, thoughtful resonance in melody complemented as always by rhythmic flow. As the drummer, Weigand was often the ground over which their guitar and keyboard, even bass, melodies floated, but his creativity in that was more than complement to the music. It was the heart, beating.

In 2012, My Sleeping Karma left Elektrohasch to release their fourth album, Soma, through Napalm Records via an imprint called Spinning Goblin Productions. That album would become a defining effort from the band as they toured and became regulars at festivals like Desertfest and Stoned From the Underground, Freak Valley and so on, and their influence spread accordingly to a new generation beginning to embrace both heavy psych rock and an instrumental approach for which My Sleeping Karma (not alone, but prominently) provided a ready guidepost. By the time Moksha arrived in 2015, My Sleeping Karma was signed to Napalm proper, and considered among Europe’s finest in the style. Their maturity was manifest throughout the album in a serene sound so much like water in its movement, and again, Weigand provided the undercurrent that carried the listener through.

The band’s only live album, Mela Ananda (Live), was issued in 2017, and for those like myself who were never fortunate enough to see My Sleeping Karma play, it reaffirmed just how much we were missing. The dynamic and chemistry between the band — who, remember, were more than a decade removed from their debut at the time — was on ready display, and new and old material was presented with vitality and palpable, infectious joy. The ‘show’ ended and one could only smile. By the time Atma arrived, Weigand’s illness was public, and the spirit of the music had grown melancholy and perhaps challenged by the pandemic, but still they harnessed the special musical conversation that has typified all their work and found a way to see light where many could find none. It was a beautiful album, and as Weigand’s last, it will remain a bittersweet landmark in their catalog.

On behalf of myself and this site, I offer sincere condolences to the remaining members of My Sleeping Karma, as well as Weigand’s family, friends and others who were touched by his work. I count myself in that number, and I am that much sadder for never having watched him play on stage. It is known that My Sleeping Karma began every set with a hug shared at centerstage by all four members of the band. To think of that embrace missing one of the four hurts in a way that tells you the magnitude of the loss. My Sleeping Karma were, are, a family, and they very much presented themselves in that light. That family has lost a loved one.

Rest in peace, Steffen Weigand, and thank you for the work you did. It is a thing to be all the more treasured, and a reminder to share your love with the world around you, as Weigand so clearly did.

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Review & Full Album Premiere: My Sleeping Karma, Atma

Posted in audiObelisk, Reviews on July 28th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

my sleeping karma atma

[Click play above to stream My Sleeping Karma’s Atma in full. Album is out tomorrow on Napalm Records and available here: lnk.to/MSK-Atma/napalmrecords.]

If you believe in a soul, the music of My Sleeping Karma could hardly come from anywhere else. The German instrumentalists have gone to lengths to position Atma — the title derived is Sanskrit, translated roughly as the non-physical totality of a universal self in Hinduism; recall the YOB album of the same name in 2011 — as their most emotive offering to-date, which in the 16 years since their self-titled debut (discussed here) and the works they’ve released in the interim is saying something. Atma collects six tracks  that break evenly across two vinyl sides, marked by the smoothness of groove and production that has in no small part defined their work and their distinctive approach to progressive heavy psychedelia, post-rock and weighted density of fuzz, and repositions the band from where they left off with 2015’s Moksha (review here), their most recent studio LP, which they followed with Mela Ananda — Live (review here) celebration of their 10th anniversary in 2017.

The four-piece of guitarist Seppi, bassist Matte Vandeven, drummer Steffen Weigand and synthesist Norman Mehren (credited, as always, with “soundboard”), pull back on some of the fleshed-out arrangements of the last album — so far as I can tell there are no horns on Atma — in favor of a more direct approach. And while the narrative — blessings and peace upon it — is about the emotionality of the material and that one way or the other the band has put five years of work into making this record, the truth about My Sleeping Karma‘s music is that it’s evocative and resonant enough that if they put the power of suggestion into telling you it was a story about flying to Saturn, there would be no choice to believe it; like all of their output, Atma is at very least a journey somewhere.

But in the context of the outbreak of war in Europe (which happened after the record was done, but still serves as an example), the pandemic era, a rise of political extremism, climate crisis, and health and other personal concerns within the band, and perhaps even just the apparent slog of building these tracks themselves over such a stretch of time, a wistful sensibility is easily read as the nine-minute opener “Maya Shakti” quickly nestles into its volume trade patterns over its first two minutes, and that aspect holds true across the song and record that follows.

All of which is to say, as My Sleeping Karma are out there saying Atma is driven by emotion, the music backs that up.

“Maya Shakti” takes place over three movements, the last of which is one of the album’s most expansive stretches, the melody of the guitar, bass and keys pushed forward by Weigand‘s drumming, his snare cutting through the mix in a way that will sound high enough to stand out as jarring by the time the subsequent “Prema” hits into its more swinging second half — though I’m not sure that’s not on purpose; aural punctuation as grounding effect amid so much float, perhaps, or even a spiritual wake-up call — but ultimately finding a balance with the other elements at work as “Mukti” unfolds soft and ethereal, its memorable keyboard line set to a backdrop of hypnotic guitar and breadth of atmosphere.

The Sanskrit title, as the band has said, refers to the notion of letting go and finding peace in all things. Maybe that’s what’s happening with the krautrocking synth before the more driving finish of the track, and if it’s some semblance of existential freedom being obtained as the heavier thrust to the end — that snare again marking the path — then fair enough. As ever, they make it difficult to argue.

My Sleeping Karma (Photo by Anders Oddsberg)

Side B’s “Avatara” is a mirror to “Maya Shakti,” stretching over nine minutes long and setting the ambience of the two songs that follow. There’s a tension in the line of organ, drums and bass in the song’s middle-third, and that does pay off after the quiet break in the ending, but true to Atma as a whole, “Avatara” is more about the act of going than getting there, though they do dare a bit of prog-as-funk in the guitar late and that is especially satisfying on a record that’s so weighted in mood. With purposeful drift at its finish and what seems to be a gong, they stick-click into “Pralaya” and pointedly leave behind the quiet introductions that each of the four songs before and closer “Ananda” still to come have proffered in favor of a more immediate takeoff.

There are two subsequent comedowns and launches, and taken together they highlight the dynamic of My Sleeping Karma and their interaction with various post-heavy genres as well as the individualized take on sonic meditation that has made the band so influential in their time. If an understated one compared to some of what surrounds, it’s reasonable to call “Pralaya” a highlight, and its last crash and thud seems specifically meant for a live stage.

So be it. One wonders if the denser riffing that emerges early in the eight-minute “Ananda” is intended as an answer to that as well, as it feels imbued with a similar energy, but Atma‘s finisher ultimately has different plans, pulling back to quiet synth and guitar right around three minutes in to establish the bed for the album’s last build.

And it is a build, where much of Atma has been about the band lulling their audience into a trance and then snapping them out of it either by the sudden entrance of a sweeping volume surge or some other twist, the progression of “Ananda” — keyboard notes like water drops throughout — is a more even flow, still dynamic and quite heavy by the time another three and a half minutes have passed, but seeming to find resolution and catharsis in its last wash, letting the album go on a quick fade, reminding of the impermanence of all things, including ourselves.

I will not pretend to know the totality of what My Sleeping Karma have been through over the last seven years since Moksha was released. True to the storyline, Atma is sad, longing almost for a better world, but by no means void of hope, and if the band are laying themselves bare musically, they’ve captured the expressive beauty that’s always been at the heart of their craft. That combined exclamation of soul. It is easy to feel powerless, overwhelmed, to wake up every day and know that defeat is coming to such a degree that it’s already there. It’s harder to turn that into something that speaks to a possibility for more, and that is precisely what makes this return from My Sleeping Karma so vital. Someday I’ll see this band live.

My Sleeping Karma, “Prema” official video

My Sleeping Karma on Facebook

My Sleeping Karma on Instagram

My Sleeping Karma on Twitter

My Sleeping Karma website

Napalm Records webstore

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My Sleeping Karma Announce New Album Atma; Video Posted

Posted in Whathaveyou on May 10th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

Been waiting for this one since before My Sleeping Karma actually announced the record was done in February. The stalwart heavy psychedelic instrumentalists have set July 29 as the release date for Atma on Napalm Records. It’s been seven years since 2015’s Moksha (review here), which is more than long enough as far as I’m concerned, even when one counts the 2017 live album, Mela Ananda – Live (review here), and speaking of things like My Sleeping Karma playing on stage, whatever else happens between now and the My Sleeping Karma LP after this one, I really, really want to make finally seeing them live happen. It’s not a long list of need-to-see-before-I-die bands at this point, but be assured, they’re on it.

I haven’t heard the album yet — Napalm, insultingly, doesn’t even send promo downloads anymore; you get a soon-to-expire Haulix stream and that’s it, as if to say, “if we could give you even less to work with, we certainly would” — but I hope to at some point soon, and I’ll just go ahead and get all my hyperbole about how awesome the band are ready for the eventual review. It’s been a while. Should be a good time.

The band posted the cover art and preorder links as well as the video at the bottom of this post for “Prema,” which sounds very much like My Sleeping Karma. Wouldn’t have it another way:

my sleeping karma atma

MY SLEEPING KARMA – New Album “Atma” + Music Video For First Single “Prema”

Dear friends,
Today we are happy to finally share some great news with you.

Our new album “Atma” will be released on July 29 and pre order starts now and here: marbled blue edition in msk webstore: https://mysleepingkarma.de/vinyl
&
glow in the dark edition in sol webstore: https://sol-records.com/products/atma-lp-lim-col-edition

Preorder/presave: https://lnk.to/MSK-Atma

Many of you know about our difficulties in the last years and honestly we never thought this record would see the light.

“Atma” is our deepest and most emotional album and it surely would have not been possible without your endless support throughout the years.

We will give you more detailed info about the album, concept, videos , artwork one after another.

Now enjoy our music video for the first single “Prema”.

Love,
MSK
Steffen – Matte – Seppi – Noman

‘Atma’ Tracklist:
1. Maya Shakti
2. Prema
3. Mukti
4. Avatara
5. Pralaya
6. Ananda

Artwork by the one and only Sebastian Jerke

MY SLEEPING KARMA Live:
26.05.2022 (GER) Berlin, Desertfest
11.06.2022 (GER) Munich, 17 Years SOL
25.06.2022 (GER) Wiesbaden, 17 Years SOL
03.07.2022 (ESP) Viveiro, Resurrection Festival
30.07.2022 (GER) Hamburg, Grünspan
12.08.2022 (BE) Kortrijk, Alcatraz Festival
13.08.2022 (PT) Moledo, Sonic Blast Festival

MY SLEEPING KARMA is:
Matte – Bass
Seppi – Guitar
Steffen – Drums
Norman – Soundboard

www.facebook.com/MySleepingKarma/
https://www.instagram.com/mysleepingkarmaofficial/
www.mysleepingkarma.com

https://www.facebook.com/napalmrecords/
https://shop.napalmrecords.com/

My Sleeping Karma, “Prema” official video

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My Sleeping Karma Finish Recording New Album; Studio Update Videos Posted

Posted in Whathaveyou on February 11th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

My Sleeping Karma have been on my mind of late. Last month, they posted a full-show set from Berlin in 2017, and they’ve been eeking out updates on their next full-length all the while. Like, going back to a mid-2020 song snippet “all the while.” That’ll be at least two years by the time the album shows up — and if it comes out on Napalm as I’ve been assuming it will, it’ll show up only as a stream because that’s the world we live in — and certainly it was in discussion before that. Seeing as the band will play Desertfest in Berlin and London this Spring, to think they’d get the record in the can now means that, if they push it through mixing and mastering, they could feasibly play a release show at one or the other. Three-month promo time, and so on.

The prog-heavy almost-entirely-instrumentalists have been held back by health issues — on top of the health issues that have held everything back — and more besides over the years since their last studio release, which was 2015’s Moksha (review here), which found them branching out arrangement-wise to add flourish to a sound that’s lush even at its rawest. The seven-year differential is less brutal when one considers 2017’s Mela Ananda – Live (review here), but the news that the album has finished the recording process is nothing if not welcome.

The last installment of the video update series was shared along with confirmation that the record’s done.

From social media:

my sleeping karma studio 2022

Dear friends,

We´re done with the recording process for our upcoming album. So here is the last studio snippets movie about soundboard recording.

Even if most of the parts are already worked out during rehearsals – there is always some room for creativity – especially for the soundboard. We´d like to share a small piece of this creative process.

Our next task is to mix the whole thing.

We will keep you informed.

Love
The Karma-guys

www.facebook.com/MySleepingKarma/
https://www.instagram.com/mysleepingkarmaofficial/
www.mysleepingkarma.com
https://shop.napalmrecords.com/

My Sleeping Karma, Studio Snippets Pt. 1

My Sleeping Karma, Studio Snippets Pt. 2

My Sleeping Karma, Studio Snippets Pt. 3

My Sleeping Karma, Studio Snippets Pt. 4

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My Sleeping Karma Post Full Show Video From Berlin

Posted in Bootleg Theater on January 11th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

my sleeping karma

It’s nice My Sleeping Karma give a hug before they start playing. Maybe they do that at every show — I don’t know because I’ve never had the pleasure of seeing them live. That irks me to no end. Like a to-do list banging all the time at the back of my brain — I’m dead serious. I know they’ve had health issues over the last couple years, and time’s only marching on from their last studio release, 2015’s Moksha (review here) — they had the live album Mela Ananda – Live (review here) in 2017 — but some day I’ll watch this band play on a stage. More than 15 years on from their 2006 self-titled debut (discussed here), it certainly feels due.

The video below was posted by the band in a kind of happy-new-year-things-are-hard spirit a few days ago, and yeah, I feel that. It was captured at Astra in Berlin on March 26, 2017, while the band was co-headlining with Colour Haze — the dates were posted here; I still remember the poster — and it’s just a show that got filmed. They do some effects with the video projections behind, but at its heart this is just a clip of the band playing live. They close with “Psilocybe” and do “Hymn” for an encore, then roll out so Colour Haze can take the stage before they go on to do the next gig of the tour in Hannover. Could hardly be more mundane, right? I grieve for that ordinariness.

But even in that grief, I post this in a spirit of joy. It’s not something I planned on, just happened to stumble on it on social media and decided to throw it on here in case you, like me, were willing to put down whatever it is you’re doing for a while and bliss out on what was probably just another night for My Sleeping Karma on this run. The band are currently slated to play Desertfest Berlin — same venue, I think — as well as Desertfest London, Resurrection Fest, and Sound of Liberation‘s much-delayed 15th anniversary party this year. I hope it all happens and everybody gets paid. I hope it feels normal.

Enjoy the clip. They kill it:

My Sleeping Karma, Live at Astra Berlin 26.03.2017

Dear friends,

we wish you all a peaceful and happy new year!

The past two years have been really difficult for us as well as for the whole world. In order to compensate the lack of live performances at least a little bit, we would like to share something with you:

In 2017 we´ve been on tour together with our friends in Colour Haze. Our performance in Berlin has been filmed by a small video-team called “Macabre Pariah”. This Video is soundwise as well as from performance side imperfection – but it´s somehow authentic.

As a small new years present we like to release this video today on Youtube. Enjoy…

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your support. We wish you and the entire human family freedom, peace, happiness and a bright future.

All the best and keep your good Karma!
Steffen, Seppi, Matte, Norman

Tracklisting:
0:00 Intro
2:05 Eleusine Coracana
8:40 Prithvi
15:00 Enigma23
21:20 Drannel Xullop
29:15 Ephedra
36:40 Vayu
42:05 Akasha
48:48 Brahama
57:14 Ahimsa
1:02:26 Psilocybe
1:12:48 Hymn

Recorded at liveclub “Astra” Berlin – Germany 26.03.2017

Videorecording by Agata and Anka – Macabre Pariah Production.
Video post production by Steffen
Sound: 50/50 mix of FOH stereo out and Zoom H2 ambient mic also at FOH.

My Sleeping Karma is:
Matte Bass
Seppi Guitar
Steffen Drums
Norman Soundboard

Thanks and hugs to our tourcrew:
Rene Hofman Soundengineer
André Stein Lightengineer
Sylvain Dessaint Merch
Daniel Stenger second soundboarder in case Norman can not do it

My Sleeping Karma on Facebook

My Sleeping Karma on Instagram

My Sleeping Karma on Twitter

My Sleeping Karma website

Napalm Records webstore

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My Sleeping Karma Playing Shows This Month; New Song Snippet Posted

Posted in Whathaveyou on August 10th, 2020 by JJ Koczan

my sleeping karma

Well, anything new from My Sleeping Karma is welcome, up to and including a 30-second snippet of a yet-unnamed new song that carries their familiar warmth of tone and smooth psychedelic feel, but even if there wasn’t that occasion to mark, there are shows! It’s a band! Playing shows! No, I’m not going to any of the shows, but god damnit, the shows exist! Doesn’t that make your day better? It certainly does mine. Live streams are cool and all that, and I think they’ll have a place going forward — if nothing else as a way for bands to raise funds — but gosh, festivals are happening in Europe. We’re so, so, so far away from anything like that in the US it’s hard to imagine even an open-air event coming together — though did anyone see those pics from Sturgis Bike Week; they were insane — but I’m glad to know that shows are at least taking place somewhere.

And it’s all the more meaningful that it’s My Sleeping Karma playing the shows in question, since they’ve been sidelined not just by the global pandemic, but for over a year as their drummer underwent cancer treatment. So their comeback, as it were, is even more of a triumph. As for the fact that it’s been five years since they dropped their most recent studio album, Moksha (review here), well, let’s take it one thing at a time.

But new music! And shows!

Sound of Liberation put word out thusly:

my sleeping karma dates

MY SLEEPING KARMA – Summer Dates

It’s no secret that My Sleeping Karma are thankfully able to perform again after more than a year, and that indeed brings us hope that everything can and will get better eventually.

While the Munich show is sold out already, you can always catch MSK live in concert somewhere in the Swiss Alps or at our friends in Passau!

– 15/08 at PALP festival with Orange Goblin and Yet No Yokai
– 21/08 at OPEN YAIR! präsentiert euch: Blackdoor • Zauberberg • MFV with Mount Hush , FILISTINE and Ozymandias
– 22/08 at My Sleeping Karma + Mount Hush | Sommerbühne im Stadion (SOLD OUT)

Stay safe everyone and see you soon!

www.facebook.com/MySleepingKarma/
www.mysleepingkarma.com
https://www.facebook.com/Soundofliberation/
https://shop.napalmrecords.com/

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Quarterly Review: Dommengang, Ice Dragon, Saint Karloff, Witch Trail, Love Gang, Firebreather, Karkara, Circle of Sighs, Floral Fauna, Vvlva

Posted in Reviews on January 7th, 2020 by JJ Koczan

quarterly review

We begin Day Two of the Winter 2020 Quarterly Review. Snow on the ground fell overnight and the day ahead looks as busy as ever. There’s barely time to stop for sips of coffee between records, but some allowances must be made. It’s Tuesday after all. There’s still a lot of week left. And if we can’t be kind to ourselves in the post-holiday comedown of wintry gray, when can we?

So yes, pause, sip — glug, more likely — then proceed.

I don’t usually play favorites with these things, but I think today’s might have worked out to be my favorite batch of the bunch. As always, I hope you find something that speaks to you.

Quarterly Review #11-20:

Dommengang, No Keys

dommengang no keys

Driving heavy psych and rock meet with spacious Americana and a suburbanite dreaminess in Dommengang‘s No Keys, the now-L.A. trio’s follow-up to 2018’s Love Jail (review here). It is a melting pot of sound, with emphasis on melting, but vocal harmonies and consistently righteous basslines like that in “Stir the Sea” act to tie the nine component tracks together, making Dommengang‘s various washes of tone ultimately the creation of a welcoming space. Early cut “Earth Blues” follows opener “Sunny Day Flooding” with a mindful far-outbound resonance, and the later “Arcularius – Burke” finds itself in a linear building pattern ahead of “Jerusalem Cricket,” which reimagines ’70s country rock as something less about nostalgia than forward possibility. Having come far on their apparently keyboard-less journey, from the breadth-casting verses of “Stir the Sea” to the doomy interlude “Blues Rot,” they end with “Happy Death (Her Blues II)” which sure as hell sounds like it has some organ on it. Either way, whether they live up to the standard of the title or not is secondary to the album’s actual achievements, which are significant, and distinguish Dommengang from would-be peers in atmosphere, craft and melody.

Dommengang on Thee Facebooks

Thrill Jockey Records on Bandcamp

 

Ice Dragon, Passage of Mind

ice dragon passage of mind

Though they don’t do it nearly as often as they did between 2012 and 2015, every now and then Boston’s Ice Dragon manage to sneak out a new release. Over the last few years, that’s been a succession of singles, but Passage of Mind is their first LP since 2015’s A Beacon on the Barrow (review here), and though they’ll always in some part be thought of as a doom band, the unassuming organic psychedelia of “Don’t Know Much but the Road” reminds more of Chris Goss‘ work with Masters of Reality in its acoustic/fuzz blend and melody. The experimentalism-prone outfit have been down this avenue before as well, and it suits them, even as members have moved on to other projects (Brass Hearse among them), with the seven-minute “One of These Days” basing itself around willfully simplistic-sounding intertwining lines of higher and lower fuzz. There are moments of serenity, like closer “Dream About You” and “Sun in My Eyes,” but “The Sound the Rain Makes” is more of a blowout, and even the darker vibe of “Delirium’s Tears” holds hits melody as top priority. Hey guess what? Here’s an Ice Dragon album that deserves more attention than it’s gotten. I think it’s the 12th one.

Ice Dragon on Thee Facebooks

Ice Dragon on Bandcamp

 

Saint Karloff, Interstellar Voodoo

Saint Karloff Interstellar Voodoo

Oslo’s Saint Karloff squash the high standard they set for themselves on their 2018 debut, All Heed the Black God (review here), with the 41-minute single-song long-player Interstellar Voodoo, basking in bluesy Sabbathian grandeur and keeping a spirit of progressive adventuring beneath without giving over entirely to self-indulgent impulses any more than one could as they careen from one movement to the next in the multi-stage work. With vinyl through Majestic Mountain Records, tape on Stoner Witch Records and CD through Ozium Records, they’re nothing if not well represented, and rightly so, as they veer in and out of psychedelic terrain in exciting and periodically elephantine fashion, still making room for classic Scandi-folk boogie on side A before the second half of the track stomps all over everything that’s come before it en route to its own organ-laced jammy meandering, Iommi shuffle and circa-’74 howl. As a new generation of doom rock begins to take shape, Saint Karloff position themselves well as earlier pursuers of an individualist spirit while still drawing of course on classic sources of inspiration. The first record was encouraging. The second is more so. The third will be the real tell of who they are as a band.

Saint Karloff on Thee Facebooks

Majestic Mountain Records webstore

 

Witch Trail, The Sun Has Left the Hill

witch trail the sun has left the hill

The jangling guitar strum in centerpiece “Lucid” on Witch Trail‘s The Sun Has Left the Hill (Consouling Sounds) has the indelible mark of classic rock and roll freedom to it. One wonders if Pete Townshend would recognize it, or if it’s too far blasted into oblivion by the Belgian trio’s aesthetic treatment across The Sun Has Left the Hill‘s convention-challenging 29-minute span, comprising seven tracks that bring together a heavy alternative rock and post-black metal vision marked by spacious echoes and cavern screams that are likewise tortured and self-assured. That is to say, there’s no mistaking the intent here. In the early intensity of “Watcher” or the shimmering and more patiently unfolding “Silent Running,” the Ghent three-piece mark out their stylistic terrain between bursts of noisy chaotic wash and clearheaded execution. The six-minute “Afloat” hisses like a lost demo that would’ve rewritten genre history some 25 years ago, and even in closer “Residue,” one can’t help but feel like Witch Trail are indeed looking to leave some lasting effect behind them with such forward-thinking craft. Sure to be a shock for those who take it on with no idea of what to expect.

Witch Trail on Thee Facebooks

Consouling Sounds website

 

Love Gang, Dead Man’s Game

love gang dead mans game

Shortly before Love Gang are halfway through the opening title-track of their debut album, Dead Man’s Game, just when you think you might have their blend of organ-laced Radio Moscow and Motörhead figured out, that’s when Leo Muñoz breaks out the flute and the whole thing takes a turn for the unexpected. Surprises abound from the Denver foursome of Muñoz (who also handles organ and sax), guitarist/vocalist Kam Wentworth, bassist Grady O’Donnell and drummer Shaun Goodwin, who find room for psychedelic airiness amidst the gallop of “Addiction,” which doesn’t seem coincidentally paired with “Break Free,” though the two don’t run together. Love Gang‘s 2016 self-titled EP (review here) had a cleaner production and less aggro throb, and there’s some of that on Dead Man’s Game in the peaceful melody of “Interlude,” but even seven-minute closer “Endless Road” makes a point of finishing at a rush, and that’s ultimately what defines the album. No complaints. Love Gang wield momentum as another element of inventive arrangement on this encouraging first long-player.

Love Gang on Thee Facebooks

Love Gang on Thee Facebooks

 

Firebreather, Under a Blood Moon

firebreather under a blood moon

‘Tis the stuff of battle axes and severed limbs, but it’s worth noting that three of the six inclusions on Firebreather‘s second LP and first for RidingEasy Records, Under a Blood Moon, have some reference to fire in their title. The follow-up to their brazen 2017 self-titled debut (review here) starts with its longest track (immediate points) in the nine-minute “Dancing Flames,” then follows immediately with “Our Souls, They Burn” and launches side B with the eponymous “Firebreather,” as the Gothenburg trio of Mattias Nööjd, Kyle Pitcher and Axel Wittbeck launch their riffy, destructive assault with urgency that earns all that scarred land left in its wake. The High on Fire comparison remains inevitable, perhaps most of all on “Firebreather” itself, but Firebreather have grown thicker in tone, meaner in approach and do nothing to shy away from the largesse that such a sound might let them convey, as “Our Souls, They Burn” and in the volume surges of closer “The Siren.” Under a Blood Moon is a definite forward step from the first LP, showing an evolving sound and burgeoning individuality that one hopes Firebreather continue to hunt down with such vigilance.

Firebreather on Thee Facebooks

RidingEasy Records on Bandcamp

 

Karkara, Crystal Gazer

karkara crystal gazer

Presented through Stolen Body Records, the debut long-player from French trio Karkara purports to be “Oriental psych rock,” which accounts for an Eastern influence in the overall sound of its seven-track/41-minute run, but there are perhaps some geographical questions to be undertaken there, as “Camel Rider” and others show a distinctive Mideastern flair. Whatever works, I guess. At its core, Crystal Gazer is a work of psychedelic space rock, brought to bear with a duly open sensibility by guitarist/vocalist Karim Rihani (also didgeridoo), bassist Hugo Olive and drummer/vocalist Maxime Marouani as seemingly the beginning stages of a broader sonic adventure. That is to say, the stylistic aspects at play here — and they are very much “at play” — feel purposefully used, but like the foundation of what will be future growth on the part of Karkara as a unit. Will they progress along a more patient and meditative path, as “The Way” hints in some of its early roll, or will the frenetic winding of closer “Jedid” set their course for subsequent freakouts? I don’t know, but Karkara strike as a band who won’t see any point to standing still creatively any more than they do to doing so rhythmically.

Karkara on Thee Facebooks

Stolen Body Records website

 

Circle of Sighs, Desolate

circle of sighs desolate

Information is limited on Circle of Sighs, and by that I primarily mean I don’t have any. They list their point of origin as Los Angeles, so there’s that, but as to the whos and whats, wheres and so on, it’s a mystery. Something tells me that suits the band, whose four-track debut EP, Desolate, gracefully executes a blend of melodic downerism with more extreme elements at play, melodic vocal arrangements offset by screams in the closing title-track after the prior rolling groove of “Burden of the Flesh” offered a progressive and synth-laden take on Pallbearer-style emotive doom. Acoustics, keyboard, and a clear use of multiple singers give Circle of Sighs‘ first outing a kitchen-sink feel, but one can only admire them for trying something new at their (presumed) outset, and the catchy chug of “Hold Me, Lucifer” speaks to more complex aesthetic origins than the simplistic subject matter might lead one to believe. The outlier is the penultimate nine-minute cut “Kukeri,” which broods across its first three minutes in a manner that would make Patrick Walker proud before unfolding the breadth of its lumber and arrangement, harmonies and screams and the first real showcase of more extreme impulses taking hold in its second half — plus strings, maybe — which “Desolate” itself will build upon after a bookending acoustic close. There’s some sorting out to do in terms of sound, but already they show a readiness to push in their own direction, and that’s more than it would seem reasonable to ask.

Circle of Sighs on Thee Facebooks

Circle of Sighs on Bandcamp

 

Floral Fauna, Pink and Blue

floral fauna pink and blue

Way out west, Chris Allison of the band Lord Loud is taking on psychedelic shimmer under the ostensible solo moniker of Floral Fauna, but the situation of the project’s 11-tracker debut LP, Pink and Blue is more complicated in personnel and style than that, melding fuzzy presence, classic ’60s surf-tone, rampant hooky melody and ready-to-go-anywhere-as-long-as-it-works pop experimentalism together in a steaming lysergic cauldron of neo-yourface-ism that’s ether blissed enough to tie funk and ancient R&B to cosmic flow together in a manner that feels like an utter tossoff, like, hey, yeah man, this kind of thing just happens all the time here. You know, no big deal on this wavelength. Mellow dreams in “Great White Silence,” a spacey ramble in “Velvet and Jade” and the echoing leadwork of “Red Anxiety” continue the color theme from the opening title-track, and the record caps with “Herds of Jellyfish,” which at last brings forward the vocal harmony that the whole album seems to have been begging for. Cool debut? Shit, man. It’s 36 minutes of straight-up psych joy just waiting to bring you on board. Legal psilocybin now.

Floral Fauna on Thee Facebooks

King Volume Records on Bandcamp

 

Vvlva, Silhouettes

vvlva silhouettes

There are a couple things you can figure on in this wacky universe, and one of them is that German imprint World in Sound knows what it’s doing when it picks up a classic heavy rock band. Silhouettes is the second long-player the label has released from woefully-monikered Aschaffenburg-based four-piece Vvlva, and indeed in the upfront boogie of “Cosmic Pilgrim” or the more progressive unfolding of pieces like “Tales Told by a Gray Man,” the centerpiece “Gomorrah,” or the longer “Night by Night/The Choir” and “Dance of the Heathens,” which seem to bring the two sides together, there’s enough vintage influence to make the case once again. Like the more forward thinking of their contemporaries, Vvlva have brought this modus into the present when it comes to production value and clarity, and rather than sound like it’s 1973, they would seem to be making 1973 sound like them. Whether one dives in for the early hooks in “Cosmic Pilgrim” or “What Do I Stand For?” or the fuzzy interplay between the solo and organ in the maddeningly bouncing “Hobos,” there’s plenty in Silhouettes to demonstrate the vitality and continued evolution of the style.

Vvlva on Thee Facebooks

World in Sound website

 

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Friday Full-Length: My Sleeping Karma, My Sleeping Karma

Posted in Bootleg Theater on September 13th, 2019 by JJ Koczan

 

If you asked the band, I bet Germany’s My Sleeping Karma would probably think of their 2006 self-titled debut as primitive in some way, at least compared to what’s come after, the way the arrangements stay relatively straightforward and the spiritual themes that would take hold across subsequent releases only beginning to be explored. Maybe they’d be right in that context, but the six-tracker is also the foundation for all that later growth and exploration. More over, it is an album of detail. Listen to the way the drums complement the emphasis on guitar line in “InTENsion” or the counterpoint to the guitar lines that the bass brings in “Glow 11.” The wisp of effects backing the central guitar line in the quiet stretches of second cut “23 Enigma.” The synth line pushing alongside the space rock drive of “Drannel Xu Ilop” and the way eight-minute closer “Eightfold Path” so gracefully unfolds its rolling progression across its early going. Even just the warmth of its tones. Guitar and bass, granted, but how often do you hear drums that sound warm? Recorded by drummer Steffen Weigand, who shared a prior tenure in underrated rockers The Great Escape with bassist Matte Vandeven — that band’s last album, Nothing Happens Without a Dream, came out on Nasoni in 2005 — My Sleeping Karma‘s My Sleeping Karma arrived through Elektrohasch Schallplatten and delivered an aural smoothness the likes of which heavy rock hadn’t heard before. Sure, Weigand, Vandeven, guitarist Seppi and keyboardist Norman Mehren drew form a well of influences in progressive, heavy and psychedelic rock, but their intent toward individuality, even at this moment of outset, is plain to hear in the tracks of their self-titled. And also in everything that’s come since.

I’d dug The Great Escape, played tracks from 2003’s Escape from Reality on college radio, etc., but the arrival of My Sleeping Karma was something on its own wavelength. At the time, much of my frame for heavy psychedelia was based around the also-Germany-based Colour Haze, and fair enough since they were among the principal European forebears of the style, but My Sleeping Karma‘s My Sleeping Karma emphasized how much more there was to say with heavy psych, how it could go to different places and occupy more than one mindset. There was something spiritual about it from the start. In the crucial unfurling of the 9:21 opener and longest track (immediate points) “InTENsion” (9:21), the four-piece from my sleeping karma self titledAschaffenburg created an immersion of the listener that went beyond “setting the tone” in the spirit of so many opening tracks and moved into a genuine sense of creating a mood, finding a headspace and bringing the listener to it. It was heavy in presence and weighted in tone, but peaceful even in its later, driving reaches, as its intended tension came to a head. And from the resonant keyboard lines of “23 Enigma” to the more active jump and shove of “Hymn 72,” My Sleeping Karma worked its way outward from the start, setting up the deep dive that its final three tracks, “Glow 11,” “Drannel Xu Ilop” and “Eightfold Path,” would represent on a clearly purposeful and clearly hypnotic and clearly switched on side B.

The effect of pairing “Glow 11” and “Drannel Xu Ilop” in particular isn’t to be understated. Like having “23 Enigma” and “Hymn 72” back-to-back just at the end of side A, having “Glow 11” into “Drannel Xu Ilop” lead into side B provides the proverbial “meat” of the album in terms of atmosphere — so yes, the meat you can’t see or touch, but meat nonetheless; don’t you touch that intangible meat! — and drawing the listener deeper into the record’s sphere. It’s not just that the songs are both seven-plus minutes long, or remarkably mellow, or hyper-repetitive. In fact they’re none of those things, but together they make up 15 minutes of a 44-minute LP and go a long way toward creating the saga of My Sleeping Karma‘s creative breadth. Their lushness isn’t overbearing — they’re never a wash of tone or effects or crash — but the movement is so fluid within and between them that one almost can’t help but be caught up in their sweep, and even though the payoff of “Drannel Xu Ilop” hearkens back to an earlier riff to make its impact, that impact is only more engaging for the subconscious familiarity of its figure. And as a bookend with “InTENsion,” “Eightfold Path” finishes with a reinforcement not only of the outward cast of My Sleeping Karma as a whole, but of the progressive future that was at the time ahead of the band. Held together by the bassline, a slower, drifting movement brings the track to its finish, not really soft, but subtle in its groove, with just bursts of intensity in the guitar before the last airy exhale comes forward, closing on a suitably meditative note.

My Sleeping Karma would go on to release two more albums through Elektrohasch in 2008’s Satya (review here; discussed here) and 2010’s Tri (review here) before signing to Napalm Records‘ short-lived heavy rock imprint Spinning Goblin Productions that was soon enough folded into Napalm proper for 2012’s Soma (review here), 2015’s Moksha (review here) and the 2017 live album, Mela Ananda — Live (review here). They put in a fair amount of road time in 2018, playing festivals like Desertfest Belgium and Freak Valley, and just last month they put in an appearance at SonicBlast Moledo ahead of touring in November with Stoned Jesus on an Obelisk-presented run (info here) called ‘Sonic Ride’ that has Somali Yacht Club opening the shows. No way that’s not going to be a good time.

I haven’t heard plans about a new album, but even if something’s in the works, it presumably wouldn’t be out until 2019 at this point, which would  mean a five-year stretch between studio My Sleeping Karma offerings, which is by far the longest they’ve ever had. For all I know they’ve got something mastered and there’s a press release in my email right now about it, though. Hang on, I’ll check… nope. Well, I’ll check again in five minutes and see if there’s anything then. Will keep you posted.

In the meantime, as always, I hope you enjoy the self-titled. It had been a while since I last dug into it, and while their style may have become more complex with the 13 years since, there’s no question that My Sleeping Karma knew they wanted their music to be a soulful, expressive experience right from the start. And so it was.

Thanks for reading.

Got that burnout working pretty hard on me this week. All levels. I’ve been reminding myself it’s the start of The Patient Mrs.’ semester. And she’s starting a new job. And I’m probably still tired from the move. And we have a toddler. And no dishwasher. The list goes on. But I also still have projects like Lowrider PostWax liner notes (this weekend is it; tomorrow they’re getting done), Acrimony liner notes (waiting on interviews back, so there’s still some time there), a piece on the art at Høstsabbat I said I’d put together and a press release for a certain New England band of marked impact hanging over my head, and all that stuff is feeling pretty overwhelming, and not in that good Quarterly Review kind of way. Like in the what-the-hell-am-I-doing-this-for kind of way.

Example: it’s just about 6AM. I’ve been writing for the last hour and a half and I’m falling asleep at the keyboard. The Pecan will be up any minute now. What the hell am I doing this for?

Whatever.

Next week? Fucking packed. Stream of the interview with Lori from Acid King goes up I think on Friday?, but don’t quote me on that. Premieres slated for Cavern, and Iron & Stone, and reviews of Ecstatic Vision, High Fighter, Mars Red Sky and the Ode to Doom show that’s happening next Wednesday in Manhattan. It’ll be my first Ode after co-presenting the series for three years. I’m already a little nervous to go.

I also this week had to take my new lens in for repair and that became a whole thing with Canon. Apparently they sent my warranty to an old email that doesn’t exist anymore, so I never activated it — which means nothing, by the way; the idea of “activating” a warranty by signing up for their system and giving them all the information about what you have and what you do with it? yeah, it’s a data mine and nothing more — and the first time I went to the office it was like I was coming from another planet. Took me all of Tuesday to sort out what had happened to that email, then I got it and had to wait for the warranty confirmation for a day and blah blah blah but I took the lens back in yesterday to the place and it was fine. Hopefully I’ll have it in time for the show next Wednesday, but if not, I’ll slum it with the just-one lens I always used until a couple weeks ago when I bought the new one. Could be worse.

Today is a new episode of The Obelisk Show on Gimme Radio. You saw the playlist. It’s a good ‘un, and I kind of get sentimental in the last voice-break, so that’s fun too. Listen at http://gimmeradio.com.

Alright. The baby-monitor shows the boy is still down, so I’m going to take a couple minutes, finish the rest of this coffee and read and probably fall asleep on the couch.

I wish you a great and safe weekend. Have fun doing what you do.

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