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
Tomorrow, Dec. 7, is the release date for Dawn of the Dusk, the fifth full-length from Bordeaux, France, progressive heavy psychedelic rockers Mars Red Sky. Issuing through Vicious Circle Records and the band’s own Mrs Red Sound, it is their first LP since 2019’s The Task Eternal (review here), and it comes preceded by the earlier-2023 EP, Mars Red Sky & Queen of the Meadow (review here), which paired the trio of guitarist/vocalist Julian Pras, bassist/occasional-vocalist Jimmy Kinast and drummer Mathieu “Matgaz” Gazeau with folk singer Helen Ferguson, otherwise known as Queen of the Meadow. A past and present collaborator with Pras in his and her solo work, she both fit with the band and delivered a standout lead vocal performance with Pras backing. “Maps of Inferno” — which along with an edit of itself and the B-side “Out at Large” completed the EP’s tracklisting — reappears on Dawn of the Dusk as well, as part of a multi-tiered opening salvo that feels like nothing so much as the band purposefully pushing themselves in different directions.
To wit, “Break Even” which was the first single from the album-proper, opens and leads into the aforementioned “Maps of Inferno,” which all the more threatens to dominate the record due its prior release on the EP — threading short- and long-players is a standing tradition for Mars Red Sky — and “The Final Round,” and each of those three songs has a different lead singer. And even in “Break Even,” which unfurls itself with a roll very much characteristic of Mars Red Sky‘s style, melding languidity and tonal heft, breadth in the mix with forward rhythmic turnings and a lyrical message that feels like perhaps it’s earned some of its cynicism in the Frank Sinatra-referencing lyrics “If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere/Just what you’d be making exactly is anyone’s guess,” reassuring the listener that the band hasn’t ‘gone disco’ or some such while laying out the expanse of atmosphere in which the rest of the changes throughout the record will take place.
And it’s not just the first three songs that make up the vinyl’s A-side; it’s everything, but those first three songs are a clear example of Mars Red Sky‘s active participation in their creative growth. Pras takes “Break Even,” and while that’s the standard for the band, you can still hear them itching to try new ideas. The sweep into the chorus. The floating lead guitar near the end. Next, Ferguson steps in for “Maps of Inferno,” which is a landmark — as on Mars Red Sky & Queen of the Meadow, the collaboration cries out here for a full-length — and Kinast has a turn on “The Final Round.”
It’s not the first time he’s sung lead on a Mars Red Sky track, as one might recall “Marble Sky” from their 2011 self-titled debut (discussed here, review here), but if you’d like a convenient analogue for how much the band have grown in the 12 years since, a side-by-side of the two isn’t a terrible way to go. Here, Kinast is more confident. The construction of the song is broader. Its layers are dynamic. Its flow is psychedelic without losing its place or purpose. It goes somewhere. Not that these things weren’t true of “Marble Sky” — you will not hear me shit-talk that record, ever — but in concept and execution, Mars Red Sky‘s maturity has seen them become masters of a heavy, immersive rock that’s progressive not because it’s putting on a show of technique, though Matgaz patterns “Maps of Inferno” with subtle math, but because they build an instrumental like side B opener “A Choir of Ghosts” layer by layer with care and detail, mindful of their audience and how material might be perceived by their listenership, but always driving to balance that with an internal artistic chase — running, or rolling as with the riffs, after some idealized version of the thing, the sound, the song that’s perfect and always just ahead.
Side B has its own structure. The instrumental “A Choir of Ghosts” leads into “Carnival Man,” which is the longest inclusion at 7:42 and downtrodden in its storytelling as it moves through the chorus toward the halfway point at about three minutes deep, the break to a long stretch of serene psych meandering taking hold for the next two-plus minutes. That’s step one.
Step two, “Trap Door” sets up “Slow Attack.” The former is 46 seconds long and an acoustic intro for “Slow Attack” playing the next song’s central riff, quiet and unplugged, but they’re not kidding (though no doubt they’re having a bit of fun) when they call it “Trap Door” because it does feel very much like you’re being dropped into the penultimate cut as it bursts in at the start of a new measure and proceeds onward from there with stately march. Step three, the bottom drops out.
While not as much of a spectacle as “Maps of Inferno” or “The Final Round,” “Slow Attack” is quintessential Mars Red Sky. Again, Matgaz makes an intricate riff accessible through the drums. Kinast‘s bass winds beneath the chorus with an uptick in low end compared to the verse riff, which is more of a bounce as Pras delivers the title-line after the first chorus. And for step four, they finish with a wash that cuts back to the acoustic guitar, perhaps to shut the “Trap Door” behind them as they move on to the end of the record, but also to shift directly into “Heavenly Bodies,” which closes.
In a subdued reprise of “Slow Attack” on guitar and an arrangement that, while quiet and minimal-feeling is not at all the latter with Rhodes and maybe a broken piano, Ferguson returning to join Pras on ethereal vocals to enhance the ambient impression of “Heavenly Bodies” overall, which begins like a lullaby and comes to be consumed by static noise. Surprisingly harsh, almost machine-like, the noise swallows the melody and then settles itself into quick-fading static, like it was barely there to begin with. It’s not out of place, necessarily, and it’s fair enough that after spending the prior 39 minutes building a world of such vivid light and solidified ground and textures, they should be able to wipe the slate of Dawn of the Dusk and perhaps signal the arrival of nightfall.
Hopefully not. I’ve expressed a few times by now a concern that Dawn of the Dusk will be the last album from Mars Red Sky, a band I believe have more to say. Call me superstitious, but I believe in the subconscious, and when a group starts talking about endings, about circuses leaving town, about letting it be, “The Final Round” and so on, I get nervous. If this does end up being their last studio LP and touring cycle — and I don’t know that it is and I sincerely hope it isn’t — then Dawn of the Dusk serves as both a measure of how much the band have grown and flourished in their time together and of their desire to keep developing and trying new paths.
Both the familiar and not are reinforced, and even the curious structure of the two sides, the way each half develops its own personality, Dawn of the Dusk is a realized vision of Mars Red Sky‘s fluid chemistry, dynamic, malleable approach and psychedelic vision. They are a special, singular band.
—
[I was fortunate enough this week to talk to Pras, Gazeau and Kinast for a bit before a show in Germany on their current tour. The signal was spotty but the video of the interview follows here. Thanks if you check it out. The band’s remaining tour dates on this run (they’ll have more in 2024 and are confirmed for Ripplefest Texas in August), and other videos for the record follow as well.]
Mars Red Sky, Dawn of the Dusk interview, Dec. 5, 2023
Posted in Bootleg Theater on November 15th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Fresh off a performance at the Rise and Fall Festival in Niort, France, the Bordeaux-based heavy psychedelic progressive rock trio Mars Red Sky are edging closer to the Dec. 8 release of their fifth full-length, Dawn of the Dusk. Following up on the clip for “Break Even” (posted here) that itself followed the actual album announcement early last month, “The Final Round” is track three on the record after “Break Even” and “Maps of Inferno,” which featured earlier this year on the collaborative EP, Mars Red Sky & Queen of the Meadow (review here).
It’s an eight-track record and the last one is an instrumental revisit to the eerie melodies of “Maps of Inferno,” so three songs is not an insubstantial portion of the release out there before the arrival, which is still basically a month off. “The Final Round” also brings to my mind one of my greatest concerns about Dawn of the Dusk, namely that it’s either consciously or not positioning itself as the last Mars Red Sky album. The LP’s title certainly hints at beginnings of endings, and maybe “The Final Round” really is a last go on their part in some way. You’ll note it’s not the first round for bassist Jimmy Kinast taking on lead vocals. That was “Up the Stairs” on their 2011 self-titled debut (review here, discussed here), but Kinast makes the six-plus-minute track a highlight of the album — which is doubly impressive following Helen Ferguson‘s sit-in for “Maps of Inferno” and the high standard of guitarist Julien Pras‘ general handling of the role — and the effect those changes have in broadening the scope of Dawn of the Dusk isn’t to be understated. I may or may not be streaming the album in advance of the release, so I’m trying to hold back reviewing for that, but Mars Red Sky have never put out the same record twice, they’ve only ever moved forward, and this one does that too.
I only hope it’s not where they stop moving at all. I don’t think the shape of heavy rock or progressive psych would be what it is without the work Mars Red Sky have done over more than the last decade. They’re the band that showed a generation how to be heavy without having to give up melody for aggression. If they are done — mind you I have no confirmation, this is me hypothesizing; and “done” includes a hiatus for a few or however many years — the legacy they’ve left is not a trifling thing, and while I hope very much Dawn of the Dusk is not their collective final round, neither do I feel like they owe listeners or anyone else anything in terms of either the quality of their work or the ethic with which they’ve thus far delivered it. Speaking of, there’s tour dates listed below that carry into next year. Hardly the kind of thing a band wrapping up would do, you say? It is my sincere, sincere hope that you’re correct.
Enjoy “The Final Round”:
Mars Red Sky, “The Final Round” official video
From MARS RED SKY’s new album ‘Dawn Of The Dusk’ – out December 8th 2023 on MRS Red Sound & Vicious Circle. https://idol-io.ffm.to/DawnoftheDusk
French doom-psych/heavy-progressive trio MARS RED SKY unveil a striking new video for their monumental new track “The Final Round”. Their upcoming album ‘Dawn Of The Dusk’ is due out on December 8th 2023 via Mrs Red Sound and Vicious Circle Records.
‘Dawn Of The Dusk’: the beginning and the end are one. Mirror effects, reversals, double-dealing, deterioration… This fifth studio effort from French heavy psychedelic stalwarts MARS RED SKY is a genuine conceptual piece of work skilfully designed to take the listener on a journey through a shifting, unpredictable and even utterly disconcerting sonic universe. Bordeaux-based trio explore progressive and post-metal territories with boundless inspiration.
New video “The Final Round” proves that the band know how to surprise with a sumptuous Bowiesque journey with Jimmy Kinast (bass) on vocals! One of the highlights of the album. “As the film progresses, the organic elements of the creature deteriorate. This slow decline reflects the lyrics suggesting, in a pre-apocalyptic atmosphere, a balance of power between leaders and victims, the powerful ones and the weaks, power and the people it affects” comment film director Carol Teillard D’Eyry. “The Final Round” was directed by Carol Teillard d’Eyry with the help of D.O.P Nicolas Pradeau and Mathieu Disson (gaffer). Starring: Clément Gyselinck.
TRACK LISTING ‘DAWN OF THE DUSK’ 1. Break Even 2. Maps of Inferno 3. The Final Round 4. A Choir of Ghosts 5. Carnival Man 6. Trap Door 7. Slow Attack 8. Heavenly Bodies
As announced last week, Mars Red Sky‘s new album is called Dawn of the Dusk and it’s being released on Dec. 8 through Vicious Circle Records and Mrs Red Sound. I spent a goodly portion of September (and October so far) with it on repeat, so when the clip came out last Wednesday, I wanted to post it right away because I’ve been dying to talk about this record, the somewhat darker take in “Break Even” at the outset and how that comes to define the record through the diversion in “Maps of Inferno” from the Bordeaux trio’s earlier-’23 collaboration EP with Queen of the Meadow, aptly-titled Mars Red Sky & Queen of the Meadow (review here) and on from there into the heart of the band’s latest expression, built on their core approach of bringing together heavy, melodic, progressive psychedelia with memorable songwriting and identifiability of sound. That is, especially by this point, as they head to their fifth long-player and look to tour in Europe this Fall and probably next Spring (if they wait that long) ahead of traveling back to the US to tour to support it. They’ve already been announced for Ripplefest Texas 2024, and I doubt that will be the last. Recall they were on the American West Coast last year.
More even than 2019’s The Task Eternal (review here), and as four additional years — especially the last four — will, Dawn of the Dusk presents a more mature sound from Mars Red Sky, whose directional growth revealed itself on their second full-length, 2014’s Stranded in Arcadia (discussed here, review here) as the three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Julien Pras, bassist/sometimes-vocalist Jimmy Kinast (he gets lead vox on “The Final Round,” which is track three after “Break Even” and “Maps of Inferno”) and then-new drummer Mathieu “Matgaz” Gazeau set themselves forth after their 2011 self-titled debut (discussed here, review here) with an expansive take that has only continued to flourish through 2016’s Apex III (Praise for the Burning Soul) (review here) and the aforementioned 2019 outing. This should be seen as willful commitment to stylistic progression, because that’s what it is. Mars Red Sky have always been a band who have looked to push themselves toward new ideas and interpretations of what they do. “Break Even” boasts a familiar roll and breadth, and in the layering of the guitar, the somewhat downtrodden vocal delivery from Pras and the subtle angularity of its turns and the solo that complements its final lines, has a kind of urgency to it that seems to be mirrored in the lyrics.
To that end, the lyrics are here. I don’t always include them with videos unless specifically asked — and I wasn’t — but they’re relevant, and maybe you want to sing along. I do. I’m still getting to know the abiding mood of Dawn of the Dusk, but I’m also still getting to know their first record, so don’t go by me. I’ll have a full album review up at some point between now and Dec. 8 (he said with absolute confidence after being the better part of a week late posting the video; I’ve been annoyed at myself since about last Wednesday at 9AM Eastern), but I’ve heard it enough over the last few weeks to tell you with certainty that “Break Even” represents Dawn of the Dusk well and its accompanying video bolsters the atmosphere of the song itself, which of course is the idea, while mostly giving the track its own space.
Gonna stop myself here, but know that there’s more to say on this one and that I hope to sooner or later do at least some of that saying. With that warning in mind, I urge you to please enjoy the video below:
Mars Red Sky, “Break Even” official video
From MARS RED SKY’s new album ‘Dawn Of The Dusk’ – out December 8th 2023 on MRS Red Sound & Vicious Circle. https://idol-io.ffm.to/DawnoftheDusk
Video directed by Clara Griot.
Special thanks to Paul Roucher. Project supported by ADAMI.
Recorded and mixed by Benjamin Mandeau at Cryogene Studio, France, mastering by Ladislav Agabekov at Caduceus Studio in Gimel, Switzerland.
Lyrics : For any sort of pain there’s a market and a remedy Stocks bonds up & down the chain of custody Keeper of the Flagstaff a sniper at the ready Prone to snap hands clapping cracking codes & ribs Fire up & down the rapids shoot the medecine He’ll quit and join the race, the rank & file for normality If you can make it there you’ll make it anywhere Just what you’d be making exactly is anyone’s guess
Soon it’s the pat on the back The ravings, the panic attacks Fool it’s the common mistake The fun and the fin in the lake Soon it’s the cast of a die The shrewdly slanted device
Thank the groom for a room so dank Phantom-powered light bulbs flicker in a fish tank Who’s that waiting on the other side of the receiving end Cold-blooded doner with ghastly manners I was leader of the aging pack when I found her Sketch out etching replicate shiped out built-in operator
Soon it’s the pat on the back The ravings, the panic attacks Fool it’s the bid in the auction Break even or break into heaven
A figure head of state a true visionary Joins the rank & file for dependency Investigating what lays back younder What might come out of it I dare not wonder
Soon it’s the pat on the back The ravings, the panic attacks Fool it’s the common mistake The fun and the fin in the lake Soon it’s the cast of a die The shrewdly slanted device Fool it’s the bid in the auction Break even or break into heaven
Posted in Whathaveyou on October 2nd, 2023 by JJ Koczan
This Wednesday — two friggin’ days from now — French heavy psych rockers Mars Red Sky will post their video for “Break Even,” which is the first single from their new album, Dawn of the Dusk, due Dec. 8 on Vicious Circle Records and the band’s own Mrs Red Sound imprint. In fact, the clip is already up. It was sent to media with the press release below, and I’d love to share it, but it’s a 48-hour embargo and only assholes don’t respect that kind of thing.
My question is: am I really going to put up another Mars Red Sky post on Wednesday with that video, just two days after the album announcement? On social media, that kind of thing makes sense because of the constant demand for content from the greedy algorithm. Here, especially on a week when I’m doing a Quarterly Review and that’s most of the writing/brain power/posted-stuff going up, I’m less certain.
But I’ve heard the record and it’s awesome. A wholly representative work from an essential band. Whether or not I’ll put that video up in a couple days isn’t my only question about it, either. This is the first album Mars Red Sky will have put out past their 15th anniversary last year. Is it the dawn of the dusk of the band? The beginning of the end? One never really knows, but I always get nervous when acts I like start talking about endings in record titles. That’s before you get to “The Final Round.”
So maybe I will post that clip! Getting while the getting’s good, and all that. If you heard the collaborative Mars Red Sky & Queen of the Meadow EP (review here), you’ll be happy to know that “Maps of Inferno” from it (video below) features early on Dawn of the Dusk and is part of a reprise later on as well, almost similar to how the EP ended with an edit of the track itself, but a different melodic interpretation.
I don’t know a lot of stuff coming out in December yet, and in my head, this might be the last big release of 2023. I’m sure it won’t be — because the truth is the onslaught never friggin’ ends — but in terms of my personal listening habits, it’s already been a big one and I have the feeling it will continue to be as the next few months draw down and we head into the dark of winter.
I did a video chat at some point with Julien and Jimmy that was great and I’m going to try to again for this record if I can. Keep an eye out.
Here’s this from the PR wire:
French heavy psych torchbearers MARS RED SKY to issue new album ‘Dawn Of The Dusk’ on December 8th: enjoy first extract “Break Even”.
Doom-psych / heavy-progressive project MARS RED SKY reveal details on their new album ‘Dawn Of The Dusk’ – due out on December 8th 2023 via Mrs Red Sound and Vicious Circle Records. Fuzz-laden video extract “Break Even” is due out this wednesday 4th October
‘Dawn Of The Dusk’: the beginning and the end are one. Mirror effects, reversals, double-dealing, deterioration… This fifth studio effort from French heavy psychedelic stalwarts MARS RED SKY is a genuine conceptual piece of work skilfully designed to take the listener on a journey through a shifting, unpredictable and even utterly disconcerting sonic universe. Bordeaux-based trio explore progressive and post-metal territories with boundless inspiration. Their original signature of jagged vocals and thundering rhythm is spiced up by drones and various mid-kraut rock and mid-gothic effects. The atmospheres and settings are finely crafted, with Julien Pras’s voice adding a delicious pop languor. Debut single “Break Even” shapes the components of the album into a kind of reversible allegory, as appealing as disturbing. The video directed by Clara Griot invites us to enter their post-apocalyptic world with wild open eyes.
MARS RED SKY’s new record ‘Dawn Of The Dusk’ is coming out on December 8th via Vicious Circle (Slift, We Insist!, Shannon Wright, The Psychotic Monks) and Mrs Red Sound (their own imprint) on coloured LP, CD digisleeve, streaming and download. It will be available for preorder on October 25th through both labels. All songs by Mars Red Sky except Maps Of Inferno by Mars Red Sky and Queen Of The Meadow (off their latest EP). Produced, recorded and mixed by Benjamin Mandeau at Cryogène Studio in Bègles, France. Mastering by Ladislav Agabekov (of hardcore band Nostromo) at Caduceus Studio in Gimel, Switzerland.
MARS RED SKY New album ‘Dawn Of The Dusk’ Out December 8th 2023 on Mrs Red Sound and Vicious Circle Records
TRACK LISTING ‘DAWN OF THE DUSK’ 1. Break Even 2. Maps of Inferno 3. The Final Round 4. A Choir of Ghosts 5. Carnival Man 6. Trap Door 7. Slow Attack 8. Heavenly Bodies
Posted in Whathaveyou on September 19th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Let’s casually presume that when Mars Red Sky release their new video on Oct. 4 for the track “Break Even,” that they’ll tag an announcement for their next full-length on with that, and I’m hoping it’ll be out before the end of the year. That does make it potentially a December release, and I’d hate to think of it not getting the look it deserves because listeners are settling into the holidays and the music industry is exhaling until late January or thereabouts, but they’ve got live shows set for the next half a year with likely a bunch more to come for Spring and Summer 2024, so I don’t think they’ll be lacking for spreading the word. They’ll do Freak Valley‘s big winter to-do in December as well, so whether that’s when the record comes out or not, it’ll be a busy month for the Bordeaux trio.
They posted the dates on socials with the ticket link and other whatnots. Earlier this year, the band put out the self-titled Mars Red Sky & Queen of the Meadow EP (review here) and there’ve been some quality short releases throughout 2023 thus far, but I’m not sure I’ve heard anything to top that one in my mind. Their last full-length was 2019’s The Task Eternal (review here), so yeah, they’re about due to hit it again. Hope they come back to the States.
Here’s dates from socials:
MARS RED SKY – TOUR ANNOUNCEMENT
Here we are!! Thanks to 3C and Sound of Liberation for the gigs. New video clip “Break Even” to come out on October 4th 2023. Stay tuned ’cause we have more cool things to announce.
Bourdeaux, France, progressive heavy psychedelic rockers Mars Red Sky are drawing closer to the April 28 release of their new collaborative EP, Mars Red Sky & Queen of the Meadow, set to issue through their own Mrs Red Sound imprint and Vicious Circle Records. The trio’s first work since 2019’s The Task Eternal (review here), it sees Helen Ferguson, aka folk solo artist Queen of the Meadow, step in on lead vocals for the tracks “Maps of Inferno” (7:17) and “Out at Large” (5:39), with an edit called “Maps of Inferno (Shortcut)” (4:44) rounding out as a reprise.
All told, they’re done in under 18 minutes, and that is the source of my only complaint about Mars Red Sky & Queen of the Meadow — it’s not enough. Unless they’re planning a series of these releases as a four-piece with Ferguson up front alongside Mars Red Sky guitarist/vocalist Julien Pras, bassist/sometimes-vocalist Jimmy Kinast and drummer Mathew “Matgaz” Gazeau, two originals and the ‘shortcut’ just don’t cut it. From the wah-drenched solo in “Out at Large” and the density of the low end that feels so true to the band’s roller-fuzz beginnings to the Joni Mitchell-esque declarations delivered firmly by Ferguson in “Maps of Inferno” — long or short — and back again, the EP feels complete in its own terms with the focused-on-structure bookend they give it, but those terms leave one wanting more in a visceral way. There’s further they can go into that wash at the end of “Out at Large,” more to do with the bounce in “Maps of Inferno,” and certainly exploration to be done in the harmonies from Pras and Ferguson together.
EPs often precede LPs for Mars Red Sky — their discography is a big ol’ back and forth between long and short offerings — and this wouldn’t be the first time the band have expanded beyond their core lineup before going back to it for their next record, but the richness of “Maps of Inferno” begs to be fleshed out across at least one full-length, building as it does on an established partnership between Ferguson and Pras — on multiple levels; they may or may not be married — the latter of whom who has produced albums for the former and featured on guitar and vocals. Combining that spirit with the tonal weight of Mars Red Sky feels like a bolster to the band’s approach, influential as they’ve been in bringing together an abiding lushness in the sweetness of Pras‘ vocals and the heft of their increasingly complex grooves, which is something else “Maps of Inferno” demonstrates in its mellowed-out ambient break, peppered with sparse guitar as it moves fluidly through a swaying jam en route back to the central riff from whence it came, Matgaz‘s drums thudding the change.
There’s a lot of 2023 left, I understand, but Mars Red Sky & Queen of the Meadow are the standard to which I’ll be comparing EPs for the rest of the year, and right now that feels like a pretty mammoth ask of, well, anybody. As of this writing, I haven’t seen the video yet for “Maps of Inferno,” and honestly I don’t even know if it’s the long or short version of the track yet, but what matters here is that the collaboration between Ferguson and Mars Red Sky has resulted in something special beyond what one might’ve expected of the elements involved, and it is a release that demands to be heard no less than it demands a follow-up. I hope it gets both.
Enjoy the clip and, most importantly, the song:
Mars Red Sky, “Maps of Inferno” official video
When the power of psychedelic heavy meets the depth of dark folk harmonies, it results in a complex and exhilarating flavor. The daring combination opens up the genres to a whole new dimension. MARS RED SKY’s new EP, soberly entitled “Mars Red Sky & Queen Of The Meadow”, exalts and enhances the trio’s magic formula: namely, the blend of a robust and determined rhythm section with jagged and ambitious vocals, all evolving within a unique soundscape. The two tracks of the record suggest a disturbing journey through an immense maze directly inspired by mad architect Piranesi and his towers with terrifying staircases. Real melodic narrative, Queen Of The Meadow’s vocals carve out an unexpected intensity. Mars Red Sky offers here an abyssal production, polished and unheard of.
Produced, recorded and mixed by Benjamin Mandeau at Cryogène Studio, Bègles (France). Mastering: Ladislav Agabekov at Caduceus Studios, Gimel (Switzerland). Band photography: Jessica Calvo (photography), Fluor_99 (artwork). Cover: Machado Leão (artwork), Brett Kielick (photography). Layout: Floriane Fontaine
All songs composed, written and arranged by Mars Red Sky and Queen Of The Meadow: Helen Ferguson: lead vocals and melodies Julien Pras: guitars, back-up vocals Jimmy Kinast: bass Mathieu “Matgaz” Gazeau: drums
And so they were. The narrative behind Mars Red Sky‘s 2014 sophomore outing has always been important to the listening experience, and nine years later, the Bordeaux trio’s creative leaps feel no less resonant as the bassline underscoring the intro to “The Light Beyond” kicks in with its welcoming rumble while the atmospheric vocal melodies float overhead. Their first outing to be released through Listenable Records, the eight-song/44-minute Stranded in Arcadia (review here) had the unenviable task of following up Mars Red Sky‘s 2011 self-titled debut (review here, discussed here), and the band’s plans for it were about six years ahead of their time in completely evaporating.
Guitarist/vocalist Julien Pras, bassist/backing vocalist Jimmy Kinast and drummer Mathieu “Matgaz” Gazeau (who was still pretty new to the group at that point) were set to travel to the US, record at Thunder Underground in Palm Springs, California, between Oct. 1 and Oct. 8, 2013, and do a quick run of shows up the West Coast after. Who knows what might’ve been had that happened, but after having their visas blocked, they wound up in Brazil directly following a handful of dates there and in Argentina, working at Estúdio Superfuzz in Rio de Janeiro with Gabriel Zander at what would turn out to be a pivotal moment for them as a band.
True, their 2012 collaboration with countrymen Year of No Light (discussed here) and their 2013 Be My GuideEP (review here) put forth the notion that the playful bounce and blend of folkish melodies and weighted tones of the self-titled were the beginning point as opposed to the sum of all they had to offer, but when Stranded in Arcadia landed, it marked not only the next stage of an LP-then-EP-then-LP methodology that they’ve kept up ever since — their new EP, a collaboration with Queen of the Meadow, is out April 28 (info here) in time for a grand run of European festivals and more this May — but also a flourishing of sound and style on which their two subsequent full-lengths, 2016’s Apex III (Praise for the Burning Soul) (review here) and 2019’s The Task Eternal (review here), would continue to build.
From the grand unfolding of eight-minute opener and longest track (immediate points) “The Light Beyond” (premiered here) through “Join the Race” setting up a direct lineage for pieces on the next two records like “Under the Hood” and “Crazy Hearth,” to the double-kick surge late in the instrumental “Arcadia” and the drench of wah offsetting the languid march of the penultimate “Seen a Ghost” before “Beyond the Light” calls back to the leadoff with a blasted-out-there noisy reprise, Stranded in Arcadia used songwriting to overcome circumstance. Where it could have been haphazard or sloppy or rushed considering the improvised nature of the band finding and hitting a studio, it isn’t at all.
Even “Holy Mondays,” which arguably has the most shove behind its hook (Kinast taking over lead vocals from Pras for the moment), is laid back in its verses, and in following the memorable “Hovering Satellites” (video premiere here), it demonstrates the branching into sonic progressivism that was taking place across the larger span. Hypothetically speaking, had all gone according to plan, if that had been the end result, the album (presumably called something else) would be a triumph. That they overcame legitimate adversity — I don’t know if you’ve ever been told you can’t fly to where you’re supposed to fly, but it is a very particular helplessness — to do it takes that to another level entirely.
And ‘another level’ is kind of the running theme for Stranded in Arcadia anyway. The distance of years has done nothing to-date to dull the warmth of tonality in either Pras‘ guitar or Kinast‘s bass or the sheer largesse through which Gazeau‘s snare cuts so readily and yet so perfectly set in the mix such that even the twists in the later “Circles” find the needed round edges from out of the surrounding sharper angles. Likewise, the solidity of their purpose, the element of craft in the material structurally and in the layers of the production, is only enhanced by the fluid grooves and gentle melody in Pras‘ voice as Mars Red Sky reveal a more ambitious scope than the first album could have presented and yet couldn’t exist without that first album behind it.
Their combination of heft and float has proven a major point of influence across multiple niches within heavy rock, psychedelia and doom, but it’s the active nature of the progression across Stranded in Arcadia that’s most striking; the sense that, having gotten their feet under them, they were ready to begin their journey in earnest, and both Apex III (Praise for the Burning Soul) and The Task Eternal have felt like they have more in common with the second LP than its predecessor. They went from having their original idea for making the record bureaucratically pulled out from under them to giving themselves a model to work from on their third and fourth full-lengths. As regards turning lemons into lemonade, gambling and winning, that’s pretty god damned impressive.
If I say it doesn’t seem like it’s been so long since Stranded in Arcadia was released, take that as a sign of my enduring affection for it, which I’ll make no attempt to hide. I recall hearing “The Light Beyond” for the first time, not really knowing what to expect after Be My Guide and the self-titled, and being summarily blown away by the uptick in breadth. You won’t hear me say a bad word about the debut — at all. ever. ever. ever. — but the pivot in Stranded in Arcadia‘s material and the use it makes of what Mars Red Sky had already established as the tenets of their approach is still stunning. Yes, I’ve belabored the point, but it feels justified to say this would’ve been a brave record to make in the best of conditions. They turned it into a defining statement of intent and one of the best albums of the 2010s. It’s a great story and an even greater album. How and why would you not celebrate such a thing?
As always, I hope you enjoy. Thanks for reading.
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The moral of this week, I suppose, is that everything is easier when The Patient Mrs. is around. Not new learning, necessarily, but reinforced by her Spring Break this week. We got more cabinets hung in the kitchen — one of the doors is too low; my fault of course — and moved the fridge to where we eventually want it to be, etc. Has not been a fast process, but we’ve done more in the last three weeks than probably in the six months prior, so not bad. At least there are cabinets now. I put plates in them. And so on.
A little scattershot this morning, I guess. It was a pretty effective work-week for me in terms of writing. A little extra time here and there as a result of the aforementioned Spring Break doing wonders generally for my state of being. I’ve still been getting up before the alarm — yesterday a little before 2:30AM, today just after 3AM — but I’m also asleep by 9PM barring disaster, so you know, you get by. But I’m all over the place today. It’s just after 4:20AM and I’ve been back and forth between email, FB messages, putting together a Questionnaire to go up on Monday — which I’ve managed to finish — listening to Les Nadie, looking up info on Dopelord (who are the next PostWax band I need to write about), reading about AI, downloading a bunch of records I need to check out, the myriad mental interludes of the internet, and so on. I need to get my second cup of coffee, so a sojourn to the kitchen is the thing that will hopefully renew my focus. Distraction, you say, between here and there? Possible. I might just end up emptying the dishwasher midsentence at the rate I’m going.
To wit, the point of the paragraph above was that I actually managed to write the piece above about Mars Red Sky yesterday (Thursday) after finishing the Dun Ringill video premiere, and I can’t remember the last time I actually did the writing for a Friday Full-Length before Friday morning. It was easier since Dun Ringill was just writing about one song, and I had most of the back end already set up to roll, but still. But I didn’t do shit yesterday afternoon, and I don’t really plan on doing shit this afternoon either, so yeah. If I’m in that position today it’s because it was a pretty smooth week leading up to it. There’ll probably be like six new album releases I want to put up today. The one my brain goes back to is ‘Electric Wizard Announce New Album‘ from 2016. That’s become my shorthand for some-shit-I-should-post-now. The numbers seem to have been erased, but that post is one of the most shared in the history of this site. It had over 10,000 likes on FB or something. I’ve only hit that mark once or twice. Shame to see it gone, actually, but these things are flimsy on the internet.
Part of the trouble of having a bunch of stuff I need to hear is that I can’t stop listening to the new Ruff Majik album. It’s one of those. Even when I’m not actually playing it, the songs are running through my mental jukebox. A good problem to have, to be sure, but a hard standard for other records to meet in terms of my mental priority. A couple times a year I get hit with records like that. Last year, Author & Punisher and Caustic Casanova were the two that most come readily to mind — records that just had to be heard over and over and over and over, like I’m watching my favorite videos as a kid, Spaceballs or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or whatever it was. Secret of the Ooze. My retro arcade has the original Turtles in Time on it. I’m very much looking to dive into that.
See? All over the fucking place. Started that paragraph talking about Ruff Majik, ended with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. That’s about where my head is at. All this free time. I got to shower before the alarm would’ve gone off, which felt like a luxury, and I’ve now finished my coffee before the first post of the day is still up. That’ll be the aforementioned Dun Ringill. Then the Lazy Bones announcement that came out the other day on socials. Then maybe Høstsabbat or the Gimme wrap. The day proceeds.
I’m not sure if you can chat through the web interface, but it’s kind of cool on the app. Last time was really good. I have the feeling this one’s going to be dead. Longer songs. So it goes. Can’t all be radio hits all the time or there’s no point.
Next week, on Monday a new single from Ape Machine and the aforementioned Les Nadie, a full stream for their bonus-track-inclusive reissue on however many labels it was. I can double up because the Les Nadie was already reviewed so that won’t be a full writeup, but I wanted to feature the record anyway because it’s so good. Les Nadie and Moodoom have me wondering if there’s a new generation taking over in Argentina, which would be awesome. Something to keep an eye on over the next couple years, though South America’s pretty much a constant stream of quality heavy largely overlooked by the gringo world because it’s not in English. Whatever. I guess I care less about that than some.
So that’s Monday. Tuesday an interview with Keith Gibbs and Craig Riggs of Sasquatch. First non-Questionnaire interview I’ve done in months, and if it was a band I hadn’t been covering for the better part of 20 years it would probably have been a disaster, but, you know. They’re friendly guys. Wednesday a premiere for The Crooked Whispers. Thursday is Oreyeon, who are always fun and weird to write about. And Friday, on its release day, I’ll review the Acid King record. I had wanted to do that earlier but moved it due to other timely stuff. That’s how it goes. Things that don’t have to be on a specific day always end up getting moved, falling through the cracks, etc. I do my best, but soon enough my head is back to Turtles in Time, and that’s that.
Pretty sure I’m finishing with fewer emails than I started the week, though, which is a definite win.
But it’s 5:05AM now and The Patient Mrs. is up and The Pecan just came downstairs so I guess it’s time to get the party started. I hope you have a great and safe weekend. Have fun, watch your head, hydrate. You know the drill. Back here on Monday.
