Posted in Bootleg Theater on October 23rd, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Videomaking has been a part of the Mars Red Sky story since the Bordeaux-based band first started rolling out self-made clips for “Strong Reflection” and “Marble Sky” some 14 years ago. The trio’s ongoing collaboration with director Seb Antoine (also drums in Starmonger) is a narrative thread unto itself in the growth of the band over the last 15 years, and the clip out today for “Slow Attack” from the band’s late-2023 album, Dawn of the Dusk (review here), is among the most cinematic clips the two entities have worked together to produce.
In the spirit of 2016’s ambitious clip “Alien Grounds” (posted here) that included “Apex III” and “Sapphire Vessel” from the band’s third album, Apex III (Praise for the Burning Soul) (review here), “Slow Attack” uses more than one piece from Dawn of the Dusk to soundtrack the tale being told. “Heavenly Bodies” from the same record also features in the bookending quiet moments of guitarist/vocalist Julien Pras soft-strumming while bassist/vocalist Jimmy Kinast and drummer Mathieu “Matgaz” Gazeau clean up the place, at the start making way for the eyepatch-clad leader of a biker gang who’s about to forced-marry the protagonist of the video.
I won’t spoil how it ends, or the twist of plot that becomes so crucial to understanding it, but there’s a chase and a big bad that feel reminiscent in concept of a sans-pyro Mad Max: Fury Road, and with intermittent shots of the band playing the nearby saloon in this apparent Western ghost town, the song “Slow Attack,” which precedes “Heavenly Bodies” at the end of Dawn of the Dusk, makes a resounding backdrop for a tale of bitter triumph over the trauma that’s held one back. The metaphor is there, but also the visceral visual — you’ll see what I mean when you watch the clip.
Which is what I recommend you do next. In the blue text, there are the credits — I bet this was a good day of filming — and also the December tour dates that Mars Red Sky will pick up with to follow on the Fall US touring they’ve already done in the company of Nashville’s Howling Giant. That Dec. 5 show in Brooklyn is among the things I’m most looking forward to for the rest of 2024, and that list also includes Thanksgiving with family, just to give you some idea of the scale of anticipation. If you’ve never seen either band, you’re in luck as it’s a crucial moment to see both, and if you’re in Baltimore, Brooklyn, Boston or Philly, you get Black Lung for a bonus.
Clip and all info follow, courtesy of the PR wire:
Mars Red Sky, “Slow Attack” official video
Bordeaux-based doom-psych/heavy-progressives MARS RED SKY launch a video featuring three tracks off their new album ‘Dawn Of The Dusk’ – released back in December on Mrs Red Sound and Vicious Circle Records. MARS RED SKY’s new video “Slow Attack” focuses on a biker gang roaming through a retro-futuristic setting. It’s reminiscent of Mad Max or Easy Rider, but the video is more modern, with a female character at the centre of the action. The short film includes the songs “Trap Door”, “Slow Attack” and “Heavenly Bodies” from the band’s latest album, ‘Dawn Of The Dusk’.
It was directed by Seb Antoine at Fort Rainbow, Cestas (France), with the help of Ronan Boudier and Hugo Vandekerckhove.
Video credits: Directed by Seb Antoine Starring: Anne-Sophie Picard, Gregory Dreyfus Cinematography by Ronan Boudier Motorcycle and stunt double: Dominique Kinast, Floriane Fontaine Camera assistant: Hugo Vandekerckhove Accessoiries and costumes: Frozen Joke Creation, Ouicube Design Photo creation: Pierre-Gérard David Catering: Germain Kpakou Set photographer: Jessica Calvo
Posted in Reviews on October 8th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Welcome back to the Fall 2024 Quarterly Review, which started yesterday and will continue through next Friday. This week and next week, my life is pretty much cutting up pizza for the kid, Hungarian homework, and this. I could do worse.
There’s good stuff in this one though, and a lot of it, today and really throughout. I hope you find something you think is cool, tomorrow or the next day if not today.
Quarterly Review #11-20:
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Pia Isa, Dissolve
Pia Isaksen, also of Superlynx, offers a follow-up to 2022’s solo debut as Pia Isa, Distorted Chants (review here), and with songs like “Into the Fire” and “Dissolve,” a heavy-meditative take on grunge is imagined, with Isaksen‘s lumbering bass leading the way with a low rumble behind often quietly delivered vocals, and Ole Teigen‘s drums placed deep in a three-dimensional mix, and spaciousness added to the bulk of the proceedings through Gary Arce‘s signature floating guitar tone; the Yawning Man founder guests on guitar for six of the eight tracks, and is a not insignificant presence in complement and contrast to some of the more morose elements and rhythmic churning, as in “New Light.” But Isaksen is no stranger to crafting material heavy in ambience and mood as much as tone, and Dissolve feels like a deep-dive into experimentalism that pays off in the songs themselves. As Isaksen and Arce get ready to unveil their new collaborative project SoftSun, nothing here makes me look forward to that less.
I don’t know where the lines between genres are supposed to be anymore and I’m done pretending to care. If Sun and Sail Club had Barney from Napalm Death singing lead, you’d call them grindcore. It’s Tony Adolescents, making his second appearance with Sun and Sail Club after 2015’s The Great White Dope (review here), alongside founding guitarist Bob Balch (also Fu Manchu, Big Scenic Nowhere, etc.), bassist Scott Reeder (ex-Kyuss, Goatsnake, The Obsessed, etc.) and drummer Scott Reeder (Fu Manchu) for another mostly-blistering round of heavy punk, full in its charge and crossover punk-metal defiance, in “The Color of War” and the early-C.O.C.-esque “Drag the River,” which follows. Oh, and Balch gets a little surf in there too in “Tastes Like Blood” and the wistful bookending intro and outro. Borders on goth for a moment there, but it works. In the Balchian oeuvre — somewhere on the opposite side of the spectrum from where Slower now reside — Sun and Sail Club found itself as a project with The Great White Dope. Shipwrecked is correspondingly more aware of what the band wants their music to do as a result, and so able to hit more directly.
The third album from Los Angeles-based heavy progressive rockers Vitskär Süden, Vessel is quick to establish ambition as a central element. That is to say, in the depth of their arrangements vocally and instrumentally, in their ability to set and vary a mood, and in being able to convey a sense of experimentalism in a four-minute track with a hook like “R’lyeh,” Vitskär Süden come across as cognizant of trying new ideas in their material and bringing these to fruition in the finished products of the songs. The material feels built around specific parts, some rhythmic, some melodic, in “Through Tunnels They Move” it might be Inxs, maybe the piano and strings in “Hidden by the Day,” and so on, and that it isn’t always the same thing adds to the character brought by guitarist/synthesist Julian Goldberger, bassist/vocalist Martin Garner, guitarist TJ Webber and drummer Christopher Martin as the songs coalesce and challenge the band’s own conceptions of their work as much as the listener’s. It is cinematic in both its sprawl and dramatic intent, and I won’t spoil the ending but yes of course it goes gospel.
German murk-doomers Daevar keep affairs dark on their second long-player, Amber Eyes, as the trio of bassist/vocalist Pardis Latifi, guitarist Caspar Orfgren and drummer Moritz Ermen Bausch explore nodding patience and grim atmospherics across the six included cuts, and Windhand are still an influence, but “Pay to Pray” has a rolling, Acid King-style fluidity and the guitar takes to someplace more decisively evil, and Electric Wizardly, so you figure it out, because what it sounds like to me is Daevar beginning to step out from any single influence and to more comfortably find their own, often hypnotic niche, meeting the post-metallic feel of “Caliban and the Witch” with layered vocal harmonies before the megaplod finish. The title-track is faster and represents the grungier intentions, and if that’s the start of side B, then “Lizards” and “Grey in Grey” could only be called a plunge from there. The finale in particular is consuming in a way that reminds of Undersmile, which isn’t a complement I would lightly give.
Have you ever heard Endless Floods and not wanted more? Me neither. The French art-doom four-piece made a single out of the eight-minute “Décennie” from their fourth full-length, Rites Futurs, and as that song works its way into a minimalist drone progression worthy of Earth before offering stark reassurance in intertwining human voices before exploding, gloriously, into a guitar solo the size of any number of partially undersea volcanoes, there is little that feels beyond the band’s creative reach. Volume is a part of what makes the material so affecting, with a progressive metal-style fullness of tone and voices treated to become part of what’s creating the sense of space. In its quiet reaches and surges of worshipful sounds — the choir on “Forge,” for example — Rites Futursis somehow dystopian, but it’s not an empty world “after” humans. There’s life in these songs, in the way the title-track builds into its post-punk shove and then just into this undulation of noise is twice as universe-devouring for the acoustic guitar that emerges by itself on the other side. Underrated band.
Dark heavy rock with a metallic underpinning that seems to come forward in “She Was a Witch” more than, say, opener “Alleyway Ecstasy,” from Black on High‘s debut, Echoes Through Time, notably brings elements from the likes of Mastodon and Alice in Chains together with songs that don’t just retain their immediacy but build upward from the leadoff, so that “Take These Pills” in the penultimate spot of the tracklisting becomes a punk rock apex for a trajectory the Dallas-based four-piece with members of Gypsy Sun Revival and Turbid North set forth on “I Feel Lethal,” and the drop into lower gears for the closing title-track seems to hit that much harder as a return. It’s like the meme where the riff comes back but heavier and Vince McMahon or whoever is laser-eye stoked, except it’s set up across the whole album and not actually so simple as that, and Echoes Through Time ends up being more about the journey than the destination. Fine. It’s a high level of craft for being a first record, and it feels like the beginning of an evolution for a longer term.
Greek experimentalist two-piece Anomalos Kosmos may or may not evoke a Grails-y impression with their ’70s-prog-informed soundtrack-style instrumentals, but the thing is, with Live at 102 FM, they seem at least to be making it up as they go along. Sure, looping this or that layer to fill out the sound helps, as “Flow + Improv 1” proves readily in its first half, then again in its second, but what makes it jazz is that the exploration is happening for the creator and the consumer at the same time. It gets weird, and weirder, and “The + Improv 2” throws down a swinging groove for a bit after that vocal sample in the last couple minutes, but even if part of “Me Orizeis” is plotted as opposed to being 100 percent made up like they just walked into the room and that noise happened, it represents a vibrant and encompassing process that can’t help but feel organic as it’s recorded live. The band’s 2022 debut, Mornin Loopaz (review here) was both more restless and more concept-based. I like that I have no idea how Anomalos Kosmos might follow this.
Maybe it won’t come as a shocker that a live record with takes on the band’s songs that are upwards of 14, 17, 19, 23 minutes long is expansive? Maryland’s Mountainwolf offer seven tracks across Dust on a New Moon, which were recorded live at some point, somewhere, ever, maybe at New Year’s? I don’t want to speculate. In any case, what happens over the course of the ‘evening with’ is Mountainwolf plunge into an Appalachian vision of Earthless-style instrumental epicness. East Coast groove set to a more Pacific ideology; I guess at a certain point jams is jams. Mountainwolf have plenty of those, and while it’s not at all their first live release, Dust on a New Moon unfolds the sludgy crash of “Edging” and the bassy jabs of “Heroin x 1991” with purpose in each twist of turn captured. I assume the show is a little different every night as a given song might go here or there, but it sounds like a show worth seeing, to say the very least of it.
The Giraffes don’t have to be out there burnin’ barns, but Cigarette is indeed incendiary in “Pipes” and “Limping Horse,” and that’s barely a fraction of the business the long-running New York outfit get done in short order across their eighth album’s 34 minutes. NYC has had its share of underheralded heavy rock bands and so fair enough for The Giraffes being part of a longstanding tradition, but the moody vibe in “Lazarus,” the eerie modernity cast in “Baby Pictures,” and the citified twang in “Dead Bird” — which is fair enough to consider Americana since it’s about drug addiction — or the way “The Shot” has a kind of punctuated strut that is so much the band’s own, it’s worth reiterating that The Giraffes have earned far more plaudits than they’ve ever received for their recorded work, and as “Pipes” and “Million Year Old Song” bring a bluesy tinge to the madcap groove, I don’t know Cigarette will change that or if the band would even want it to if it did, but they’re an institution in New York’s underground and LPs like this are why.
While the drift of psychedelia ranges further back, there’s something about even the most shimmering of moments on Filthy Hippies‘ Share the Pill that’s much more ’97 than ’67, more Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine adding a current of noise to the mellow-heavy groove, maybe. That’s all well and good but doesn’t account for the universe-tearing “Good Time” or the spacey post-punk of “Catatonic” (though maybe it does, in the case of the latter) or the dub-psych roll “Stolen From Heaven” that bridges the two halves of the record, so take it for what it is. The stylistic truth of Filthy Hippies is more complex than the superficial trappings of drug rock might lead one to believe, and it’s not without its challenging aspects, even though the material in pieces like “Candy Floss” or the tambourine-insistent “Dreaming of Water” veers readily into poppish frequencies. There doesn’t seem to be a ton that’s off limits, but it feels rooted in heavy groove just the same and that sits well next to the flashes of the brighter contrast.
Hey, here’s a tour I haven’t posted about in… days? But, you know, sometimes shows get added to a thing, then sometimes more shows get added to that same thing, and here we are. When last we left US jaunt from Bordeaux’s Mars Red Sky in the company of Nashville’s Howling Giant, the groups had added a stretch of Dec. 5-15 to the in-progress September stint. The span of dates is the same as of now, but the shows taking place over that time have begun to fill in. Asheville, Toronto and Youngstown are new here at least, so hey, if you live in one of those places, good for you. I see an open date where a New Jersey show could be handily slotted, but more likely they’ll split that drive from Philadelphia to North Carolina, because that’s a hike.
Also notable, Baltimore’s Black Lung will jump on board for the first four nights, in their hometown as well as Brooklyn, Boston and Philly. Mars Red Sky, Howling Giant, Black Lung is a pretty sick show. I can’t and won’t tell you how to live your life, but that doesn’t seem to me to be a terrible way to do it, again, if that’s where in the world you happen to be at the time.
Crucialfest tomorrow, though, and a bunch more to go — also Ripplefest, because it’s also been like three minutes since I talked about that, on the 21st — before they get there, as the post from Mars Red Sky‘s socials reminds:
USA TOUR / NEW DATES
A quick update on the US tour with all the confirmed dates in December! Still with our dear Howling Giant and also with BLACK LUNG for a few gigs. Cheers!
FALL (remaining) 09.13 SALT LAKE CITY, UT – Crucialfest 09.14 LAS VEGAS, NV – Sinwave Vegas 09.15 SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Bottom of the Hill 09.16 SACRAMENTO, CA – Cafe Colonial 09.17 LOS ANGELES, CA – El Cid on Sunset 09.19 ALBUQUERQUE, NM – Launchpad 09.20 EL PASO, TX – Rosewood 09.21 AUSTIN, TX – RippleFest Texas
WINTER 12.05 BALTIMORE, MD – Metro Baltimore * 12.06 BROOKLYN, NY – TV Eye NYC * 12.07 CAMBRIDGE/BOSTON, MA – Middle East * 12.08 PHILADELPHIA, PA – MilkBoy * 12.10 ASHEVILLE, NC – Eulogy 12.11 LOUISVILLE, KY – Portal Louisville 12.12 DETROIT, MI – Sanctuary Detroit 12.13 YOUNGSTOWN, OH – Westside Bowl 12.14 TORONTO, ON 🇨🇦 Monarch Tavern 12.15 MONTREAL, QC 🇨🇦 Foufounes Electriques * with BLACK LUNG
MARS RED SKY are: Julien Pras : guitar, vocals Jimmy Kinast : bass, vocals Mathieu “Matgaz” Gazeau : drums, vocals
Posted in Whathaveyou on September 2nd, 2024 by JJ Koczan
I’ve been waiting for these rescheduled Mars Red Sky and Howling Giant dates in no small part out of self-interest. That is, I want to see the bands. I was selfishly hoping for a Jersey show somewhere, but doing so in December in Brooklyn — or maybe Philly if I feel like driving just as long in the other direction — should be fine too. I’m not sure what the timing concern was that required these shows to be re-booked for after the two bands are out together starting this week in Chicago, en route to Crucialfest and Ripplefest Texas, but whatever works. The good news is they’re happening at all.
These dates — not the new ones — have been posted a couple times by now between posts about Mars Red Sky and posts about Howling Giant. If you want to come at me for redundancy, go for it. Take me down a peg. I’m sure I could use it. Or maybe even better, just go to a gig instead and let Mars Red Sky‘s richly melodic progressive heavy textures and Howling Giant‘s infectious heavy-pop bounce wash away what might really be bothering you for a while. If you need me I’m gonna go put on Dawn of the Dusk (review here) again. It will have been out for a year by the time they get to Brooklyn. How about that.
From social media:
Hey there!!
So excited by upcoming USA tour with special guest Howling Giant!! Some tiny updates to declare… Baltimore, Brooklyn, Boston, Philly and Detroit are postponed to December and additional dates are added to a second leg in Winter – including a short Canadian trip!!
09.03 CHICAGO, IL – Reggies 09.04 MILWAUKEE, WI – X-Ray Arcade 09.05 MINNEAPOLIS, MN – First Avenue & 7th St Entry 09.06 SIOUX FALLS, SD – Club David 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐮𝐞! 09.07 RAPID CITY, SD – Fairgrounds/Left of the Dial 09.08 DENVER, CO – Hi-Dive Denver 09.10 PORTLAND, OR – High Water Mark Lounge 09.11 SEATTLE, WA – Substation 09.13 SALT LAKE CITY, UT – Crucialfest 09.14 LAS VEGAS, NV – Sinwave Vegas 09.15 SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Bottom of the Hill 09.16 SACRAMENTO, CA – Cafe Colonial 09.17 LOS ANGELES, CA – El Cid on Sunset 09.19 ALBUQUERQUE, NM – Launchpad 09.20 EL PASO, TX – Rosewood 09.21 AUSTIN, TX – RippleFest Texas 12.05 BALTIMORE, MD – Metro Baltimore 12.06 BROOKLYN, NY – TV Eye NYC 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐮𝐞! 12.07 CAMBRIDGE/BOSTON, MA – Middle East 12.08 PHILADELPHIA, PA – MilkBoy 12.09 RICHMOND, VA – Cobra Cabana 𝐧𝐞𝐰! 11.12 LOUISVILLE, KY – Portal Louisville 𝐧𝐞𝐰! 12.12 DETROIT, MI – Sanctuary Detroit 12.15 MONTREAL, QC 🇨🇦 Foufounes Electriques 𝐧𝐞𝐰!
More dates to be announced soon…
Tour poster artwork by Carlos Olmo Art. Cheers Heavy Talent, 3C, The Obelisk, Vicious Circle Records, Mrs Red Sound.
MARS RED SKY are: Julien Pras : guitar, vocals Jimmy Kinast : bass, vocals Mathieu “Matgaz” Gazeau : drums, vocals
Posted in Whathaveyou on June 17th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Ça va, Endless Floods?
It’s been a few minutes since last we heard from the Bordeaux-based doom-plus heavybringers, and Breathe Plastic has their fourth album, Rites Futurs, set to release July 12. The lead single is “Décennie,” likewise laced with melodic breadth and fervent crash, and while I wouldn’t necessarily expect the band to be doing the same thing on all five of the record’s tracks, the space in the production is encouraging and you won’t hear me argue with the nod as they transition to a minimalist contemplation and then, gloriously, surge back to life and use feedback like triumphant horns en route to a jazz-folk ending. So yes, the scope is pretty open.
This is a band I’ve intended to listen to way more than I’ve listened to — you know how that goes sometimes; only so many hours in the day, week, year, life — but I’ve never heard anything from them and not wanted to hear more. The same applies now, I hope you’ll agree.
From the PR wire:
ENDLESS FLOODS: new album “Rites Futurs” coming next month!
French doom metal trio ENDLESS FLOODS shares new single “Décennie”; new album “Rites Futurs” out on July 12th.
Bordeaux, France’s doom metal experimentalists ENDLESS FLOODS return after five years with their fourth studio album “Rites Futurs”, to be issued on July 12th through Breathe Plastic Records. Stream the new single “Décennie” now!
It’s a new era for ENDLESS FLOODS. Between consecutive lockdowns and various other musical projects, it took the band two years to complete “Rites Futurs”. Now reunited around vocalist Louise Dehaye, Stéphane Miollan (guitar, bass, vocals) and Benjamin Sablon (drums, synths, vocals) have spanned through the crepuscular and droney doom landscapes of their first three records to reveal in a prodigious blaze of post-metal, doom and shoegaze driven by the aerial choirs of the three musicians.
✙ Listen to Endless Floods’ new track “Décennie” ✙
About the new album “Rites Futurs”, the band comments: “On Rites Futurs, we built a mythology around the idea of the rite of passage. The five tracks symbolize this tipping point into the unknown by evoking ancient traditions where fires extinguished everything in their path.”
The album was recorded and mixed by Thibault Laisney at a/b box studio (Lestiac, France) and mastered by Ben Jones. Cover art and graphic design by Louise Dehaye. The album will be released this July 12th on cassette tape via Breathe Plastic Records, as well as on all digital streaming services.
Bordeaux, France’s doom metal experimentalists ENDLESS FLOOD formed in 2015 in Bordeaux around Stéphane Miollan (ex-Monarch, Bombardement, Faucheuse), Benjamin Sablon (ex-Monarch, Bombardement, Shock, Mégot) et Simon Bédy. With “no boundaries in heaviness” as a motto, they raise a prodigiously dense wall of sound by blending drone and doom metal aesthetics with mind-expanding ambient structures, like a sorrowful procession arising from the limbo…
The trio released their self-titled debut in 2015, quickly followed by their sophomore album “II” in the winter of 2017. This drone-sounding assault saw the band sinking deeper into bleakness and minimalism, immersing the listener in a monolithic and feedback-laden sonic experience. Their third album “Circle The Gold” epitomized a fresh start in their creative process: between chaos and light, the Bordeaux trio transcended genre boundaries while unveiling a more melodic and cathartic aspect of their music. After a five years hiatus, ENDLESS FLOODS now returns with a new lineup and their fourth record “Rites Futurs”, to be released in July 2024.
ENDLESS FLOODS on “Rites Futurs” Benjamin Sablon – Drums, percussions, synths, vocals Louise Dehaye – Vocals Stéphane Miollan – Guitars, bass, vocals Thibault Laisney – Additional guitars
This is the next-to-last day of this Quarterly Review, and while it’s been a lot, it’s been encouraging to dig into so much stuff in such intense fashion. I’ve added a few releases to my notes for year-end lists, but more importantly, I’ve gotten to hear and cover stuff that otherwise I might not, and that’s the value at a QR has for me at its core, so while we’re not through yet, I’ll just say thanks again for reading and that I hope you’ve also found something that speaks to you in these many blocks of text and embedded streaming players. If not, there’s still 20 records to go, so take comfort in that as needed.
Quarterly Review #81-90:
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Harvestman, Triptych: Part One
The weirdo-psych experimental project of Steve Von Till (now ex-Neurosis, which is still sad on a couple levels) begins a released-according-to-lunar-orbit trilogy of albums in Triptych: Part One, which is headlined by opening track “Psilosynth,” boasting a guest appearance from Al Cisneros (Sleep, Om) on bass. If those two want to start an outsider-art dub-drone band together, my middle-aged burnout self is here for it — “Psilosynth (Harvest Dub),” a title that could hardly be more Von Till and Cisneros, appears a little later, which suggests they might also be on board — but that’s only part of the world being created in Triptych: Part One as “Mare and Foal” manipulates bagpipes into ghostly melodies, “Give Your Heart to the Hawk” echoes poetry over ambient strum, “Coma” and “How to Purify Mercury” layer synthesized drone and/or effects-guitar to sci-fi affect and “Nocturnal Field Song” finds YOB‘s Dave French banging away on something metal in the background while the crickets chirp. The abiding spirit is subdued, exploratory as Von Till‘s solo works perpetually are, and even as the story is only a third told, the immersion on Triptych: Part One goes as deep as the listener is willing to let it. I look forward to being a couple moons late reviewing the next installment.
As they make their self-titled full-length debut, Asheville, North Carolina’s Kalgon lay claim to a deceptive wide swath of territory even separate from the thrashier departure “Apocalyptic Meiosis” as they lumber through “The Isolate” and the more melodic “Grade of the Slope,” stoner-doom leaning into psych and more cosmic vibing, with the mournful “Windigo” leading into “Eye of the Needle”‘s slo-mo-stoner-swing and gutted out vocals turning to Beatlesy melody — guitarist Brandon Davis and bassist Berten Lee Tanner share those duties while Marc Russo rounds out the trio on drums — in its still-marching second half and the post-Pallbearer reaches and acoustic finish of “Setting Sun.” An interlude serves as centerpiece between “Apocalyptic Meiosis” and “Windigo,” and that two-plus-minute excursion into wavy drone and amplifier hum works well to keep a sense of flow as the next track crashes in, but more, it speaks to longer term possibilities for how the band might grow, both in terms of what they do sonically and in their already-clear penchant for seeing their first LP as a whole, single work with its own progression and story to tell.
Surely there’s some element in Agriculture‘s self-applied aesthetic frame of “ecstatic black metal” in the power of suggestion, but as they follow-up their 2022 self-titled debut with the four-song Living is Easy EP and move from the major-key lightburst of the title-track into the endearingly, organically, folkishly strained harmonies of “Being Eaten by a Tiger,” renew the overwhelming blasts of tremolo and seared screams on “In the House of Angel Flesh” and round out with a minute of spoken word recitation in “When You Were Born,” guitarists Richard Chowenhill (also credited with co-engineering, mixing and mastering) and Dan Meyer (also vocals), bassist/vocalist Leah B. Levinson and drummer/percussionist Kern Haug present an innovative perspective on the genre that reminds of nothing so much as the manner in which earliest Wolves in the Throne Room showed that black metal could do something more than it had done previously. That’s not a sonic comparison, necessarily — though there are basic stylistic aspects shared between the two — but more about the way Agriculture are using black metal toward purposefully new expressive ends. I’m not Mr. Char by any means, but it’s been probably that long since the last time I heard something that was so definitively black metal and worked as much to refresh what that means.
Apparently self-released by the intercontinental duo last Fall and picked up for issue through Heavy Psych Sounds, Saltpig‘s self-titled debut modernizes classic charge and swing in increasingly doomed fashion across the first four songs of its A-side, laces “Burn the Witch” with samples themed around the titular subject, and dedicates all of side B to the blown out mostly-instrumental roll of “1950,” which is in fact 19 minutes and 50 seconds long. The band, comprised of guitarist/vocalist/noisemaker Mitch Davis (also producer for a swath of more commercially viable fare) and drummer Fabio Alessandrini (ex-Annihilator), are based in New York and Italy, respectively, and whatever on earth might’ve brought them together, in both the heavy-garage strut of “Demon” and the willfully harsh manner in which they represent themselves in the record’s back half, they bask in the rougher edges of their tones and approach more generally. “When You Were Dead” is something of a preface in its thicker distortion to “1950,” but its cavernous shouted vocals retain a psychedelic presence amid the ensuing grit, whereas once the closer gets underway from its feedback-soaked first two minutes, they make it plain there’s no coming back.
Newcomer UK doomers Druidess nod forth on their debut EP, Hermits and Mandrakes, with a buzzing tonality in “Witches’ Sabbath” that’s distinctly more Monolord than Electric Wizard, and while that’s fascinating academically and in terms of the generational shift happening in the heavy underground over the last few years, the fuzz that accompanies the hook of “Mandragora,” which follows, brings a tempo boost that situates the two-piece of vocalist Shonagh Brown and multi-instrumentalist/producer Daniel Downing (guitar, bass, keys, drum programming; he even had a hand in the artwork, apparently) in a more rocking vein. It’s heavy either way you go, and “Knightingales” brings Green Lung-style organ into the mix along with another standout hook before “The Hermit of Druid’s Temple” signs over its soul to faster Sabbath worship and closer “The Forest Witches’ Daughter” underscores the commitment to same in combination with a more occult thematic. It’s familiar-enough terrain, ultimately, but the heft they conjure early on and the movement they bring to it later should be plenty to catch ears among the similarly converted, and in song and performance they display a self-awareness of craft that is no less a source of their potential.
Astral Construct, Traveling a Higher Consciousness
One-man sans-vocals psych outfit Astral Construct — aka Denver-based multi-instrumentalist Drew Patricks — released Traveling a Higher Consciousness last year, and well, I guess I got lost in a temporal wormhole or some such because it’s not last year anymore. The record’s five-track journey is encompassing in its metal-rooted take on heavy psychedelia, however, and that’s fortunate as “Accessing the Mind’s Eye” solidifies from its languid first-half unfolding into more stately progressive riffage. Bookended by the dreamy manifestation of “Heart of the Nebula” (8:12) and “Interstellar” (9:26), which moves between marching declaration and expansive helium-guitar float, the album touches ground in centerpiece “The Traveler,” but even there could hardly be called terrestrial once the drums drop out and the keys sweep in near the quick-fade finish that brings about the more angular “Long View of Astral Consciousness,” that penultimate track daring a bit of double-kick in the drums heading toward its own culmination. Now, then or future, whether it’s looking inward or out, Traveling a Higher Consciousness is a revelry for the cosmos waiting to be engaged. You might just end up in a different year upon hearing it.
Although their moniker comes from an indigenous group who lived on Hokkaido before that island became part of modern Japan, Ainu are based in Genoa, Italy, and their self-titled debut has little to do sound-wise with the people or their culture. Fair enough. Ainu‘s Ainu, which starts out in “Il Faro” with sparse atmospheric guitar and someone yelling at you in Italian presumably about the sea (around which the record is themed), uses speech and samples to hold most positions vocals would otherwise occupy, though the two-minute “D.E.V.S.” is almost entirely voice-based, so the rules aren’t so strictly applied one way or the other. Similarly, as the three-piece course between grounded sludgier progressions and drifting post-heavy, touching on more aggressive moods in the late reaches of “Aiutami A. Ricordare” and the nodding culmination of “Khrono” but letting the breadth of “Call of the Sea” unfold across divergent movements of crunchier riffs and operatic prog grandiosity. You would not call it predictable, however tidal the flow from one piece to the next might be.
Progressive sludge set to a backdrop of science-fiction and extrasolar range, The World Before Us marks a turn from heretofore instrumental New York trio Grid, who not only feature vocals throughout their 38-minute six-tracker third LP, but vary their approach in that regard such that as “Our History Hidden” takes hold following the keyboardy intro “Singularity” (in we go!), the first three of the song’s 12 minutes find them shifting from sub-soaring melodicism to hard-growled metallic crunch with the comfort of an act who’ve been pulling off such things for much longer. The subsequent “Traversing the Interstellar Gateway” (9:31) works toward similar ends, only with guitar instead of singing, and the standout galloping kickdrum of “Architects of Our World” leads to a deeper dig into the back and forth between melody and dissonance, led into by the threatening effects manipulations of the interlude “Contact” and eventually giving over to the capstone outro “Duality” that, if it needs to be said, mirrors “Singularity” at the start. There’s nuance and texture in this interplay between styles — POV: you dig OpethandHawkwind — and my suspicion is that if Grid keep to this methodology going forward, the vocal arrangements will continue to evolve along with the rest of the band’s expanding-in-all-directions stylizations.
The stated intentions of Bordeaux, France’s Dätcha Mandala in bringing elements of ’90s British alternative rock into their heavier context with their Koda LP are audible in opener “She Said” and the title-track that follows it, but it’s the underlying thread of heavy rock that wins the day across the 11-song outing, however danceable “Wild Fire” makes it or however attitude-signaling the belly-belch that starts “Thousand Pieces” is in itself. That’s not to say Koda doesn’t succeed at what it’s doing, just that there’s more to the proceedings than playing toward that particular vision of cool. “It’s Not Only Rock and Roll (And We Don’t Like It)” has fuzzy charm and a hook to boot, while “Om Namah Shivaya” ignites with an energy that is proggy and urgent in kind — the kind of song that makes you a fan at the show even if you’ve never heard the band before — and closer “Homeland” dares some burl amid its harmonized chorus and flowing final guitar solo, answering back to the post-burp chug in “Thousand Pieces” and underscoring the multifaceted nature of the album as a whole. I suppose if you have prior experience with Dätcha Mandala, you know they’re not just about one thing, but for newcomers, expect happy surprises.
Given the principals involved — Scott “Dr. Space” Heller of Øresund Space Collective, Black Moon Circle, et al, and Chris Purdon of Hawklords and Nik Turner’s Space Ritual — it should come as no surprise that The Bubbles Scopes complements its grammatical counterintuitiveness with alien soundscape concoctions of synth-based potency; the adventure into the unknown-until-it’s-recorded palpable across two extended tracks suitably titled “Trip 1” (22:56) and “Trip 2” (15:45). Longform waveforms, both. The collaboration — one of at least two Heller has slated for release this Spring; stay tuned tomorrow — makes it clear from the very beginning that the far-out course The Bubbles Scopes follows is for those who dwell in rooms with melting walls, but in the various pulsations and throbs of “Trip 1,’ the transition from organ to more electronic-feeling keyboard, and so on, human presence is no more absent than they want it to be, and while the loops are dizzying and “Trip 2” seems to reach into different dimensions with its depth of mix, when the scope is so wide, the sounds almost can’t help but feel free. And so they do. They put 30 copies on tape, because even in space all things digitalia are ephemeral. If you want one, engage your FOMO and make it happen because the chance may or may not come again.
Having just wrapped a stretch of European touring that found them keeping company with Stoned Jesus, Bordeaux heavy psych progressives Mars Red Sky today reveal the US stint leading to their previously-announced appearance at this September’s Ripplefest Texas, stopping at Crucial Fest along the way. They go on the back of this past December’s Dawn of the Dusk (review here), and with support from Nashville uptempo melodymakers Howling Giant, who issued their second album, Glass Future (review here), in October, that’s two of 2023’s very best records paired up for in-person delivery. Such efficiency brooks no argument.
The Obelisk has presented Mars Red Sky tours in the past, and I’m especially proud to have it do so again in light of the LP they’re heralding to the US audience. In addition to the basic routing here, the tour also answers the question in my mind of whether they would appear at Desertfest NYC with a decisive no — they’ll be in Boise, Salt Lake City and Vegas at the time — but if you’re in New York and worried about missing out, the tour starts Aug. 29 in Brooklyn, so don’t sweat it. More dates are TBA as well.
From the PR wire:
MARS RED SKY US tour announced with special guest HOWLING GIANT
Psych/prog trio MARS RED SKY is getting ready to cross the Atlantic Ocean to join Nashville’s heavy psych quartet HOWLING GIANT on a North American adventure. Their USA tour will kick off this August 29th in New York to end up with RippleFest Texas in Austin on September 21st. All dates and info below.
Brought up on bands like Sonic Youth, The Jesus Lizard or My Bloody Valentine, Bordeaux-based outfit MARS RED SKY had no idea that they were about to become French stoner scene cornerstones when they founded the band in 2007. Julien Pras’ ethereal and melodic voice emerges from a thick and complex rhythm, carried by sci-fi literature’s lyricism. Almost cinematic, MARS RED SKY’s sounding has a peculiar and unique flavour, standing out within the heavy rock scene.
New album ‘Dawn Of The Dusk’ – out on December 2023 on Vicious Circle & Mrs Red Sound – is a genuine conceptual piece of work skillfully exploring progressive and post-metal territories with boundless inspiration. The eight-track album is packed with the band’s overflowing inspiration that has made their reputation in France and around the World over the last decade.
Hailing from Nashville, Tennessee, HOWLING GIANT blast forth a cosmic convergence of pulpy sci-fi themes and blistering psych-prog songcraft. Across a variety of recorded and live experiences since 2014, have become an essential act of the US forward-thinking heavy rock scene.
8/29 Thu – Brooklyn, NY – Baby’s All Right 8/30 Fri – Cambridge – Boston, MA – Middle East 8/31 Sat – Philadelphia, PA – Milk Boy 9/1 Sun – Baltimore, MD – Metro Gallery 9/2 Mon – Detroit, MI – Sanctuary 9/3 Tue – Chicago, IL – Reggies / Music Joint 9/4 Wed – Milwaukee, WI – X-Ray Arcade 9/5 Thu – Minneapolis, MN – 7th St Entry 9/6 Fri – Sioux Falls, SD – Remedy Brewing 9/7 Sat – Rapid City, SD – Fairground 9/8 Sun – Denver, CO – Hi-Dive 9/10 Tue – Portland, OR – The High Water Mark 9/11 Wed – Seattle, WA – Substation 9/12 Thu – Boise, ID – The Shredder 9/13 Fri – Salt Lake City, UT – CRUCIAL FEST 9/14 Sat – Las Vegas, NV – Sinwave 9/15 Sun – San Francisco, CA – Bottom Of The Hill 9/16 Mon – Sacramento, CA – Cafe Colonial 9/17 Tue – Los Angeles, CA – Residen 9/18 Wed – Tempe, AZ – Yucca Tap Room 9/19 Thu – Albuquerque, NM – Launchpad 9/20 Fri – El Paso, TX – The Rosewood 9/21 Sat – Austin, TX – RippleFest Texas
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 8th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Pardon me for just a minute as I once again go look at flight prices from Newark, NJ, to Austin, TX, where this September, Mars Red Sky (along with Dozer and literally dozens of others) will take part in Ripplefest Texas 2024 from Sept. 19-22, unquestionably the largest of the various city-based Ripplefest franchises. My motivation in doing so comes from putting on Mars Red Sky‘s Dec. 2023 album, Dawn of the Dusk (review here) and imagining a world in which basically I don’t fly to Texas to see them play live. I don’t want to live in that world. It’s $297 on United right now. That doesn’t seem so bad, but then you get into lodging.
Ripplefest is but one stop the Bordeaux trio will make as they support Dawn of the Dusk over the course of this year, and I wouldn’t be surprised if some other US shows were announced as well. Ditto that for the UK the month after. Australia? South America? Japan? Not a lot of places I can imagine they wouldn’t find welcome.
Fests and club shows and dates with Stoned Jesus; oh my. From social media:
MARS RED SKY – TOUR ANNOUNCEMENT
Stoked to unveil a bunch of new gigs in Germany, Denmark, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, France and the UK! Can’t wait to see your faces!! Game plan below, presales links here:https://marsredsky.rocks/tour
07.02.2024 LYON (FR) Marché Gare 10.02.2024 CAEN (FR) BIG BAND CAFE ** 17.02.2024 PAU (FR) La Ferronnerie 22.02.2024 DIJON (FR) Consortium Museum 23.02.2024 MONDORF LES BAINS (LU) Casino 2000 Mondorf-les-Bains 24.02.2024 EINDHOVEN (NL) Into The Void 21.03.2024 ANGERS (FR) Le Chabada – Angers (club et salle de concerts) 22.03.2024 SAINT-BRIEUC (FR) DRAKK METAL FEST officiel 23.03.2024 AMIENS(FR) 1001 Bières Amiens 03.04.2024 PARIS (FR) Le Trabendo ** 04.04.2024 BREST (FR) Cabaret Vauban 20.04.2024 HONDARRIBIA (SP) Psylocibenea * 21.04.2024 PORTO (PT) Hard Club * 22.04.2024 LISBON (PT) LAV – Lisboa ao Vivo * 23.04.2024 MADRID (SP) nazcacluboficial * 24.04.2024 BARCELONA (SP) Razzmatazz (Sala 3) * 25.04.2024 TOULOUSE (FR) ) Le Rex de Toulouse * 26.04.2024 TOULON(FR) Omega Live * 24.05.2024 LE GRAND-PRESSIGNY (FR) JURASSIC FEST 2024 28.05.2024 KARLSHRUE (DE) Alte Hackerei 29.05.2024 MUNICH (DE) Feierwerk 30.05.2024 WIESBADEN (DE) Schlachthof Wiesbaden 01.06.2024 ESBJERG (DK) Esbjerg Fuzztival 02.06.2024 HAMBURG (DE) Hafenklang Hamburg 04.06.2024 LEIPZIG (DE) Soltmann 05.06.2024 BRAUNSCHWEIG (DE) B58 – Braunschweigs behänder Live-Club! 06.06.2024 BOCHUNM (DE) Die Trompete 07.06.2024 LEEUWARDEN (NL) Metalfestival Into The Grave 08.06.2024 CAMBRAI (FR) BetiZFest 14.06.2024 LA ROCHE SUR YON (FR) QUAI M 23.06.2024 LA SARRAZ (CH) Humus & Wine 19.09.2024 AUSTIN (USA) RippleFest Texas 19.10.2024 GLASGOW (UK) Sword of Damocles Festival * with Stoned Jesus ** with HINT
MARS RED SKY are: Julien Pras : guitar, vocals Jimmy Kinast : bass, vocals Mathieu “Matgaz” Gazeau : drums, vocals
