Up to this point, the chief appeal of Chilean duo has been the tone. Their first two albums — 2012’s Chapter II: Vulgo Gratissimus Auctor (review here) and their 2011 self-titled debut (review here) — practically shocked the listener once it was understood that there was no bass, and that guitarist/vocalist Néstor Ayala and drummer/backing vocalist Francisco Alvarado were creating that richness of sound with just the two of them. That and a burgeoning lean toward catchy hooks made particularly the second album and the band’s ensuing digital EPs and singles indicative of potential for something more intricate and skillfully crafted, and their third album, Plan B: Sin Revolución no hay Evolución, arrives self-released on CD/digital with vinyl due March 2014 on Bilocation Records as the realization of that potential. In the layers of Ayala‘s vocals and in the songs overall the band’s melodic sensibility has bloomed, and the 10-track/55-minute offering is all the more engaging for it. One is tempted to compare it on paper to Torche, who also blended thick tones, pop melodies and irresistible hooks to satisfying effect, but the reality of Plan B: Sin Revolución no hay Evolución is different, less upbeat musically and more socially themed in its lyrics, as heard on the extended “40 Years Ago,” which deals directly with the 1973 coup in Chile that saw the rise of Augusto Pinochet, even breaking in the middle to a long sample (in Spanish) of the news about the government being overthrown by the military before the lyrics (in English) return to decry the theft of natural resources for capitalist ends and land on repeating the lines, “Never again in our country.” That the words to that song and all the others save for the mostly-acoustic “Time to Flee” would be in English is even more interesting in the context of an anti-colonialist stance, but ultimately the album is about more than just that, with opener “Don’t See You Around” offering a laid back, rolling groove that catches the ear immediately and allows At Devil Dirt a platform from which to launch the varied explorations of “I Lost My Guide,” “Mommy,” “40 Years Ago” and so on.

Unmistakably, the mood of closer “There is Not a God or a Devil” is darker than a lot of the rest of Plan B: Sin Revolución no hay Evolución, and while “40 Years Ago” is mournful, then the finale is more horror-themed, but even in those last moments, At Devil Dirt hold to a psychedelia that sounds full and heavy and balanced. The inclusion of a cover of The Beatles‘ “Across the Universe” is telling, and that famous single is treated to a suitable rumble and vocal layering, but really, the songs showcase a diversity of spirit each almost unto itself, and where “Don’t See You Around” is practically dream-pop with tonal gravitational pull, “Conscience” takes more of a heads-down rush to get to its own strong chorus, more definitively stoner rock in its vibe, with rougher vocals over top of the continually-impressive low end. Those vocals still arrive in layers, whether it’s Ayala adding tracks to his own voice or Alvarado backing, and provide the uniting factor that ties much of the record together throughout the various shifts in mood and approach. The semi-title-track, “Sin Revolución no hay Evolución,” begins one of the album’s most significant of these moves, though admittedly it’s more thematic than sonic, acting as a kind of introductory chapter in a four-piece set of political material. There are those automatically turned off by social consciousness in music. I’m not one of them. South America has beautiful traditions both of heavy rock and political philosophy in art, and At Devil Dirt in no way sacrifice songwriting for message, so all the better. “Sin Revolución no hay Evolución” keeps firm to the opening duo’s memorable ethic, pulling back on some of the crunch of “Conscience,” and even with the long break from about 3:20 to 9:37, “40 Years Ago” carries with it one of the most resonant hooks At Devil Dirt have composed to date, which leaves a lasting impression even though the slower third movement of the song doesn’t return to it (I had been hoping for just one final runthrough). The second-longest cut, “People Raise Again” (6:30) ups the pace initially and moves fluidly through a languid verse chug that devolves into droning and noise that foreshadows the psychedelia to come on “I Lost My Guide” and “Mommy.”

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Milwaukee trio Moon Curse left a sizable impression at this year’s Days of the Doomed fest back in June, and today brings the news that they’ve inked a deal to release a new pressing of their 2012 self-titled debut through Bilocation Records. The band has done two vinyl editions of the album already — both limited, the first completely gone — but the Bilocation version, in addition to being 180 gram, will also feature the bonus track “Seminary Woods” and a new mastering job from Tony Reed of Mos Generator, et. al. No word as yet on when the three-piece might have a follow-up to the self-titled in the works, but in the meantime, a Bilocation release should be a good way for new ears to be introduced.

The PR wire sends its regards on the subject:

Milwaukee doomsters MOON CURSE sign with Bilocation Records/Kozmik Artifactz

Beneath the faded light of Milwaukee’s infamous “polish moon” clock tower (a structure built for the sole intent of dominating the night sky and the view of its immigrant residents), three bleary eyed mystics brew stoner hymns dedicated to baphomet bongsmoke, Pontiac muscle and 70’s rock n’ rollers. following a DOOMED path, tred by true HEAVY fanatics before them, a path that will always remain for those dedicated to the riff; MOON CURSE walk with intent to play loud and proud! Keith bangs the drums, Rochelle strums the Squier P bass, and Matt breaks Orange amplifiers and howls. One could cite Sabbath (duh!), Zeppelin, or a handful of other protometal-fuzz-stoner-whatever-rock as influnces, but you get the idea! You know it! You love it! so.. GET CURSED!

We are proud to announce that mighty doomsters Moon Curse signed with us for an expanded re-release of their epic debut LP!

The album will feature the yet unheard exclusive track “Seminary Woods” and will be vinylmastered by Tony Reed (Mos Generator).

The album will be available in 2014 – of course on high quality 180g vinyl and housed in a heavy gatefold cover…all handnumbered and limited!

http://kozmik-artifactz.com/artist/moon-curse/
http://mooncurse.bandcamp.com/

Moon Curse, Moon Curse (2012)

While I’m not sure to whom I’d give the title of “Germany’s finest fuzz rockers” — where do you even start? — Bilocation Records‘ passion for Dortmund upstarts Daily Thompson seems well enough earned by the significant promise the trio showed on their debut demo. That promise, also on display in the warm tones of “Attract Me,” the video for which you can see below, will hopefully begin to pay off for the band as they enter the studio to record their first album for release in 2014. Thus far, their sound seems more desert than retro-minded, which is kind of refreshing at this point. One to keep an ear out for, maybe.

The PR wire has the goods, and by goods, I mean details. Since details are good. Ah hell, here’s the press release:

Germanys finest Fuzzrockers Daily Thompson sign to Bilocation Records

The band will go into studio in the next weeks and record their first full length after the huge success of their 3 track demo, featuring their version of superfuzzy heavyrock! The debut album will be available in 2014.

The three soundvisionaries of Daily Thompson mix their personal influences from early Grunge & best Stonerrock combined with their special groove to a massive overridden, extremly fudgy Superfuzz-Bigmuff! Guitar, bass, drums. Rehearsals – Recordings – playing shows!

Out of this mentality, musical playfulness and the associated enthusiasm for absolute lunacy the band “Daily Thompson” was formed in late 2012. The listeners can hear from the live in the studio recording sessions the usual Fuzz-, WahWah- and distortion attacks of Daily Thompson in such a raw and honest manner that everybody will notice: this band from Dortmund/Germany takes no prisoners!

https://www.facebook.com/dailythompson.band/
http://shop.bilocationrecords.com/

Daily Thompson, “Attract Me” official video

Upstanding Berlin imprint Bilocation Records sends word of two new releases for the coming months, continuing their dedication to vinyl issue of quality heavy. The first, by The Great Khan, features a mastering job by Tony Reed, whereas the second band, Bite the Bullet, boasts former members of defunct Beatles aficionados Highway Child. Both records are available now for pre-order in a variety of editions detailed below, and both have sample tracks as well you can check out, in case you felt like doing a little shopping on your Friday afternoon.

Dig it:

New releases on Bilocation Records!

We are proud to announce that pre-sale started for the BITE THE BULLET and THE GREAT KHAN vinyl albums.

GREAT KHAN, THE – Rise Of The Khan LP
BILOCATION #11 – Release date: approx. Oct 11

This album is a monster: it has been long that such a groovy and varied full length hit the public! Combining best southern influences from the seventies in the purest tradition of ZZ Top with modern fuzz sounds and mexican trumpets you feel like being thrown back into a western movie ala “Django” or “Per un pugno di dollari”.

This release features for the very first time on vinyl the complete 2012 output, featuring hits like “Eye for an eye” or “Papa was an alligator”. Side B features four Bonustracks from the 2007 session, also never before released on vinyl. We guarantee you 40minutes of pure listening pleasure – you won’t stay in your seat!!

TRACKS
A1. Eye for an eye 3:29
A2. Can you see 2:59
A3. Papa was an alligator 4:25
A4. No. 4 2:38
A5. Lay me down 3:43
A6. Dia De Los Muertos 3:36
B1. Return of the Khan 3:54
B2. Knee of the serpent 2:55
B3. Wizzard’s daughter 5:44
B4. Gasoline slave 3:50
B5. Burnin stone 3:19

VINYL FACTZ
– 100x red vinyl (exlusive mailorder version)
– 200x marbled vinyl
– 100x black vinyl
– all high-quality heavy 180g vinyl pressed in Germany
– matt laquered 300gms gatefold cover
– handnumbered
– Artwork by C. Heuer
– special vinyl mastered by Tony Reed (Stone Axe, Mos Generator, etc.)

The Great Khan, “Eye for an Eye”

BITE THE BULLET – Bite The Bullet LP
BILOCATION #13 – Release date: Sep 23

Bite The Bullet‘s debut features amazing hardrock tunes with a perfect blend of blues, fuzz and late 60s or early 70s elements. The duo from Kopen-hagen developed the sound of their former band Highway Child – the result are catchy tunes with a high recognition value, songs that will spin in your ears for long!

The foundation stone for Bite The Bullet was laid for 15 years ago, when Paw and Christian met each other in a worn out youth club in Vejle. The two played together after following in a number of bands, at the same time as they individually played and guest performed a gem variety of Danish bands, including Coolsville, Cody, Magtens Korrido-rer, Jonas Breum, Hellraiser Ten and Thee Attacks.

When the boys last band, Highway Child, stopped in 2011, they decided to cut into the leg, bite it in themselves and start a band, just the two of them.

The result is Bite The Bullet: Pure, unadulterated, bluesy rock music with the heart in the right place. A lesson in playing pleasure, fuzzy and pure love for the music.

TRACKS
A1. Going out 3:42
A2. Be like you 2:46
A3. Babygirl’s got soul 3:06
A4. Every boy got a broken soul 3:40
A5. Home 4:08 3:4
B1. I feel love 4:08
B2. Hit the ground 3:56
B3. Space drums 3:21
B4. I will not die 4:50
B5. My soul 3:47

VINYL FACTZ
– 100x white vinyl (incl. A4 promopicture signed by the band, exclusive mailorder version)
– 200x marbled vinyl
– 100x black vinyl
– all high-quality heavy 180g vinyl pressed in Germany
– matt laquered 300gms gatefold cover
– handnumbered
– special vinyl mastering

Bite the Bullet, “Hit the Ground”

www.kozmik-artifactz.com
http://bilocationrecords.bandcamp.com/
www.facebook.com/bilocationrecords

Texas rockers Switchblade Jesus have inked a deal with Bilocation Records to release their self-titled debut on vinyl later in 2013. Sound nifty? It is.

The PR wire sends over foreboding word(s) of the impending vinyl issue of Switchblade Jesus‘ Switchblade Jesus, and for that we thank it as ever, but the proof is in the black gold of the music itself. Broiled in native burl and groove imported no doubt under the radar of local law enforcement from Southern heavy mainstays like Down and the funky start-stops of Clutch, it’s a ride just as likely to shake the record on the turntable as the booty of one in earshot.

Boogie:

Bilocation Records is proud to announce the signing of Texas based stonerheads SWITCHBLADE JESUS. The earthshaking debut will be released on heavy vinyl in 2013.

Hailing from the land of oil and tar Switchblade Jesus is a 5 piece equivalent of a heard of elephants slamming into a brick wall.

Jamming together since 2010 they had a killer ride so far – playing live nearly every week they were forged to a unbreakable live unit. They played a shitload of shows with great bands – just to name a few: Kylesa, Orange Goblin, The Sword, Wo Fat, Egypt, Baroness.

Asked what the fans can expect of the band, the guys state: Loud alcohol fueled heaviness laced with fuzz and slight hallucinations of tube amps piercing your mind. …that is a word!

Switchblade Jesus, Switchblade Jesus (2013)

Somewhat contrary to the monstrous and somehow still nipple-inclusive design of the album’s cover, the self-titled debut from London-based trio Bright Curse is a thoroughly human and natural-sounding affair. The three-piece, who arrived in London by way of France, offer four extended tracks and an intro that run a heavy psych gamut from the sweet jamming of Colour Haze all the way to the open-spaced vibing of earliest Witchcraft, and while the stylistic shifts they make are interesting enough, what works best about the album is the smoothness with which the lineup of Romain (guitar/vocals), Sammy (bass) and Zach (drums) transition between stretches of bare sonic minimalism to effective fuzzy propulsion, making the most of tradeoffs between loud and quiet in a manner usually reserved for post-metallers while still keeping a focus on the heavy and grooving straightforward aspects of their songwriting. Following opener “A Sonic Wave,” which sure enough is a minute-plus of a single undulating riff, “The Hermit” sets a structural pattern that “Unknown Mistress,” “What’s Beyond the Sun” and closer “Mind Traveller” will all follow to one degree or another that departs from verse/chorus interplay to an instrument-driven build that gives each track both its length and its sense of dynamic apex. What keeps Bright Curse‘s Bright Curse from sounding redundant as a result of this structural similarity is the stylistic shifts between the songs, so that though patterns may repeat, the context for those patterns comes across as fluid and malleable, and the band, which recorded the songs at Rock of London Studio with JB Pilon, who’s since taken over bass duties in place of Sammy.

The element of contrasting loud and quiet stretches is immediate almost from the start, as “A Sonic Wave” gives over its established rolling groove to the subdued low-end beginnings of “The Hermit,” which Sammy opens in ambient rumbles while Romain adds punctuation on the guitar for the first minute until the vocals kick in and the stage is set for Zach‘s entry a short while later and a push not far off from some of what Elder has managed to hone commences, though it moves more into a modern European heavy psych jam, Romain taking a rising solo that the bass follows as Zach holds the flow together. There’s only really been one verse so far, but the song has come a long way, and the instrumental build winds up providing the crux of the motion as it continues to play out, rising to full-toned heights before locking into a sizable riffy groove before the five-minute mark and from there crashing into the from-the-ground-up build that will comprise its last couple minutes, Romain repeating the takeaway line “In my head…” that also appeared earlier in the song as the first lines as setup for another run through the verse and the heavier part of the song. “Unknown Mistress” works in more of a shuffling vein with an effective chorus and delivery from Romain of the title line and a more immediate groove. Here too, Bright Curse take their time in letting the track unfold, but the clearer divisions between verse and chorus — though less ambitious stylistically — suit them well and showcase a knack for the straightforward as well as the less predictable that adds depth to the album. Around the halfway point of the song’s 7:27, they break into a still-moving just jazzier atmospheric stretch that carries past the six-minute mark before a Tool-style return finds Zach adding palpable stomp. They pick up the pace to end somewhat raucous, but a final nod to the chorus gives a last-second sense of symmetry to the whole affair, which never came off as that out of control to start with.

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Apparently they’ve been at it since 2006, but the new self-titled LP on Bilocation is the first studio full-length from Swedish triple-guitar six-piece Mexicoma. The band shares a hometown — Umeå, in the north of the country — with Meshuggah, Refused, Cult of Luna and Nocturnal Rites, but from what I can tell, there’s not much in common with any of them or much to point sonically to the low temperatures from which Mexicoma hail. Maybe rock is how they stay warm.

I’ve been a sucker for a “John the Revelator” cover since I first heard The Midnight Ghost Train do the song years ago. It’s included as a bonus to Mexicoma‘s self-titled vinyl, and you can hear it below, vocalist Magnus Olsson giving it a gruff, Mark Lanegan-style treatment. First, to the PR wire:

BILOCATION #10

You’re about to witness one of the heaviest bands of the gerne. These 6 dudes (incl. 3 guitars and 1 heavenly hellish voice) from Sweden bring you an earth shattering melange of stoner rock, doom and metal. So heavy, so melodic, so unique … no need to categorize any further, just listen for yourself …

BANDINFO

Since the beginning in 2006, Mexicoma has grown from being a clean-cut stonerband to expressing a much more ambient and heavier sound. Just as a good whiskey, Mexicoma has needed the time to age and evolve to get the right taste. The earlier flirt with the 70s and more peeled off sound, has developed into a heavier and saturnine presence, without discarding their riff-based foundations. The sound today is easiest described as heavy-hearted and transformative, but at the same time still captivating and progressive.

Mexicoma’s self-titled EP is far from the first recordings, still the release is stated as the first official issue. Although the band has been a part of Swedish scene in the north for several years, the time is now to reap what once was sown. Mexicoma is ready to conquer both the international scene as well as, once again, the Swedish one.

VINYL FACTZ

– 300 copies total: 200x transparent yellow / (100x transparent red-SOLD OUT)
– transparent red vinyl exclusively available from Kozmik Artifactz incl. tarot card signed by the band
– all high-quality heavy 180g vinyl pressed in Germany
– matte laquered 300gsm gatefold cover
– handnumbered

TRACKS

Side A:
1. 5.27 (7:04)
2. Pray (6:14)
3. Relentless (5:02)
Side B:
4. Truth Been Told (4:20)
5. Bright Black Day (3:50)
6. Omega Doom (7:27)
Bonustrack:
7. John The Revelator (Cover) (6:43)
Total 40:40

www.kozmik-artifactz.com
www.bilocationrecords.bandcamp.com
www.facebook.com/bilocationrecords

Mexicoma, “John the Revelator” (Blind Willie Johnson cover)

Science — whose greatest hits include gravity and, more recently, the Higgs boson — has proven time and again that Dutch trio Toner Low are as heavy as, if not heavier than, your face. Next month, the heft purveyors will unleash their first album in five years, III, on CD, tape and LP.

Not much of a surprise, but it sounds heavy as hell. Toner Low‘s fattened fuzz is many things, and in the trailer posted below, which feature song samples from the upcoming, you can find out just a few of the descriptors that the band use for themselves. Spoiler alert: “Meaner” is included. Enjoy:

When the time comes, you can get yourself some Toner Low at their BigCartel store.