Posted in Whathaveyou on September 24th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Drifty-but-not-without-impact heavy psychedelia from German trio You Guitarprayer, sopping wet in tone but certainly not without movement amid the scorching lead layers of “Transsurfer” or the garage-space-shover “Ace of Wands,” both of which are streaming below. They’re taken from what by the PR wire’s accounts is the second You Guitarprayer full-length, I am the Light / The Light I Am, which is out Nov. 21, and together they make an immersive first impression. Which is to say I’ve never heard the band before. I never claimed to be Johnny Groundfloor.
If you skip on over to You Guitarprayer‘s Bandcamp, though, you might get more of a blowout vibe from their 2019 debut, Art Won’t Tear Us Apart Again, you’ll see there’s a version of “Ace of Wands” from 2022 — not sure if that’s the one on this record or not; “Transsurfer” was also posted in Feb. 2024 — where this May’s apparently-standalone single “Saffron Eyes” feels more dug-in rhythmically. I guess it’s all brainmelting one way or the other, but there’s nuance of intent and form if you want to hear it. And why wouldn’t you?
Like the headline says, Nov. 21 is the release date. Worst Bassist Records passed along the following:
YOU GUITARPRAYER – I am the Light / The Light I Am
YOU GUITARPRAYER is a psychedelic noise rock trio from Cologne, Germany, formed in 2016. The band consists of Soheyl Nassary (vocals, guitar), Scharco (bass), and Spiro Kotsomitopoulos (drums). All three musicians have deep roots in the German and European noise underground and were part of influential projects on BluNoise Records – the legendary label run by the late and much-missed indie pioneer Guido Lucas.
Known from bands like Nicoffeine, Tarngo, Clarkys Bacon, Toxoplasma and Genepool, the members of YOU GUITARPRAYER carry a legacy of sonic experimentation, raw dynamics, and unfiltered live intensity.
Following their acclaimed debut “Art Won’t Tear Us Apart Again” (2019, Krachladen / Timezone) and the trippy single “Ace Of Wands” (2022), the band is now ready to open a new chapter – darker, deeper, and more transcendent.
Their upcoming second album, “I Am The Light, The Light I Am”, will be released in 2025 via Worst Bassist Recordsas a limited 140g crystal-clear vinyl edition, including a round Zoetrope inlay – a true collector’s piece for analog lovers and psychedelic souls.
The sound?
Neo-psych, noise-infused shoegaze, cinematic freak-outs – woven into dense, ritualistic soundscapes that aim straight for the gut and the higher mind.
💬 “Super neo psych / noise / shoegaz’ish psychedelic rock at its finest, to blow you away!” – Worst Bassist Records
The record will be available for pre-order soon, with the release expected in November 2025.
Stay tuned for further updates, videos, and live shows – You Guitarprayer has found a new home.
Artist: YOU GUITARPRAYER Title: I Am The Light The Light I Am Limited Edition Crystal-Clear Vinyl incl. Zoetrope Inlay 300 Copies Releases November 21, 2025.
Tracks: SIDE A: 1. Transsurfer 2. I Am The Light, The Light I Am 3. New Moon Energies 4. Ace Of Wands 5. Stereostar
SIDE B: 1. Transistor 2. Transformer 3. Muntiny In June 4. Graviton 5. Radio Guidance
Posted in Reviews on April 15th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
I won’t keep you long here. Today is the last day of this Quarterly Review. It’ll return in July, if all goes according to my plans. I hope in the last seven days of posts you’ve been able to find a release, a band, a song, that’s hit you hard and made your day better. Ultimately that’s why we’re here.
No grand reflections — this is business-as-usual by now for me — but I’ll say that most of this QR was a pleasure to mine through and I’ve added a few releases to my notes for the Best of 2025 come December. If you have too, awesome. If not, there’s still one more chance.
Quarterly Review #61-70:
Daevar, Sub Rosa
While Sub Rosa still basks in the murky sound with which Köln-based doomers Daevar set forth not actually all that long ago — they’re barely an earth-year removed from their second LP, Amber Eyes (review here), and just two from their debut, 2023’s Delirious Rites (review here) — there’s an unquestionable sense of refinement to its procession. “Wishing Well” moves but isn’t rushed. Opener “Catcher in the Rye” feels expansive but is four minutes long. It goes like this. Through most of the 31-minute seven-songer, including the “Hey Bacchus” strum at the start of “Siren Song,” Daevar seem to be working to strip their approach to its most crucial elements, and when they arrive at the seven-minute finale “FDSMD,” there’s a purposeful shift to a more patient roll. But the flow within and between tracks is still very much an asset for Daevar as they take full ownership of their sound. This is not a minor moment for this band, and feels indicative of future direction. Something tells me it won’t be that long before we find out if it is.
The follow-up to Rainbows Are Free‘s impressive 2023 outing, Heavy Petal Music (review here), Silver and Gold is the Norman, Oklahoma, six-piece’s fifth album since 2010 and second through Ripple Music. With nine songs that foster psychedelic breadth and tonal largesse alike, the album still has room for frontman Brandon Kistler to lend due persona, and in pairing sharp-cornered progressive lead work on guitar with lower-frequency grooves, Rainbows Are Free feel ‘classic’ in a very modern way. They remain capable of being very, very heavy, as crescendos like “Sleep” and “Hide” reaffirm near the record’s middle, but emphasize aural diversity whether it’s the garage march of “Fadeaway,” the barer thrust of “Dirty” or “Runnin’ With a Friend of the Devil” earlier on, of which the reference is only part of the charm being displayed. Rarely does a band so obviously mature in their craft still sound so hungry to find new ideas in their music.
The pedigreed spacefaring trio Minerall — guitarist Marcel Cultrera (Speck), bassist/synthesist Dave “Sula Bassana” Schmidt (Sula Bassana, Zone Six, etc.), and drummer Tommy Handschick (Kombynat Robotron, Earthbong) — return with two more side-long jams on Strömung, captured at the same two-day 2023 session that produced their early-2024 debut, Bügeln (review here). If you find yourself clenching your stomach in the first half of “Strömung” (19:35) on side A, don’t forget to breathe, and don’t worry, opportunity to do so is coming as the three-piece deconstruct and rebuild the jam toward a fuzzy payoff, only to raise “Welle” (20:24) from its minimalist outset to what seems like the apex at the midpoint only to blow it out the airlock in the song’s back half. That must have been one hell of a 48 hours.
By the time its five minutes are up, “Resources 2.0” has taken its title word and turned it into an insistent, chunky, noise-rocking sneer, still adjacent to the chicanery-laced psych of the song’s earlier going, but a definite fuck-you to modernity, evoking ideas of exploitation of people, places and everything. Philadelphia duo Deathbird Earth — first names only: BJ (Dangerbird, Hulk Smash) and Dave (Psychic Teens, etc.) — offer three songs on Mission, which has the honesty to bill itself as a demo, and from “Resources 2.0” they move into the sub-two-minute “Mission 1.0,” more ambient and laced with samples. The only song without a version number in its title, “Dead Hands” finds the duo likewise indebted to Chrome and Nirvana for a burst-prone, keyboardier vision of gritty spacepunk, vocal bite and all, but honestly, Mission feels like the tip of an experimentalism only beginning to reveal its destructive tendencies. Looking forward to more.
Approaching the 20th anniversary of the band next year, now-more-upstate New York heavy rockers Thinning the Herd return after 12 years with Cull, their third album. Guitarist/vocalist Gavin Spielman in 2023 recruited drummer Rob Sefcik (Begotten, Kings Destroy, Electric Frankenstein, etc.), and as a trio-sounding duo with Spielman adding bass, they dig into 11 raw, DIY rockers that, as one makes their way through the opening title-track, “Monopolist” and “Heady Yeti” and “Burn Ban” — themes from not-in-the-city-anymore prevalent throughout, alongside weed, beer, life, getting screwed over, and so on — play out in fuzzbuzz-grooving succession. Two late instrumentals, “Electric Lizard of Gloom” and the lush, unplugged “Acustank,” provide a breather from the riffs and gruff vibes, the latter with a pickin’-on-doom kind of feel, but across the whole it’s striking how atmospheric Cull is while presenting itself as straightforward as possible.
Let The Edge of Oblivion stand for the righteousness of anti-trend doom. You know what I’m talking about. Not the friendly doom that’s out there weed-worshiping and making friends, but the crunching doom metal proffered by the likes of Cathedral and Saint Vitus. Doom that wore is Sabbathianism as a badge of honor all the more for the fact that, at the time they were doing it, it was so much against the status quo of cool. Phantom Druid‘s fourth album is similarly strident and sure of its approach, and yeah, if you want to say some of the chug in “The 5th Mystical Assignment” sounds like Sleep, I won’t argue. Sleep liked Sabbath too. But the crawl in “Realms of the Unreal” and the dirge in instrumental “The Silent Observer” tell it. This is doom that knows and believes in this form, and is strident and reverential in its making. That “Admiration of the Abyss” caps could hardly be more appropriate. Hail the new truth.
Some context may apply. Kodok is the third long-player from adventurous Cambridge, UK, heavy post-rock/metallers The Grey, as well as their first outing through Majestic Mountain Records, and though much of what the band has done to this point is instrumental and that’s still a big part of who they are as 11:45 opener/longest track (immediate points) “Painted Lady” readily demonstrates, there’s a clear-eyed partial divergence from the norm as guitarist Charlie Gration, bassist Andy Price and drummer Steve Moore welcome guests throughout like Grady Avenell, who adds post-hardcore scathe to “Sharpen the Knife” ahead of the crushing “CHVRCH,” also released as a single, or fattybassman and Ace Skunk Anasie, who appear on the duly textural “AFG,” which also rounds out with a dARKMODE remix. Not a typical release, maybe, but not not either as the band do more than haphazardly insert these guests into their songs; there is a full-length album flow from front to back here, and while they purposefully push limits, the underlying three-piece serve as the unifying factor for the material as perhaps they inevitably would.
With a forward lumber marked by rigorous crash and suitably dense tone, Sun Below‘s apparently-standalone 12-minute single Mammoth’s Tundra tells the story of a wooly mammoth being reborn — I think not through techbro genetic dickery, unlike that dire-wolf story that was going around last week — and laying waste to the ecosystem of the tundra, remaking the food change in its aggro image. Fair enough. The Toronto trio likely recorded “Mammoth’s Tundra” at the same Jan. 2023 sessions that produced their Sept. 2023 split, Inter Terra Solis (review here), and whether you’re here for the immersive groove that rises from the gradual outset, the shred emerging in the second half, or that last meme-ready return of the riff at the end, complete with final slowdown — what? you thought they’d leave you hanging? — they leave the Gods of Stone and Riff smiling. Worship via volume, distortion, and nod.
It’s been nine years since Montreal’s Tumbleweed Dealer released their third album, but as the fourth, Dark Green offers instrumentalist narrative and a range of outside contributions to expand the sound and maybe make up for lost time. Across 10 tracks and 39 minutes, bassist/guitarist Seb Painchaud, synthesist/producer Jean-Baptiste Joubaud and drummer Angelo Fata broaden their arrangements to include Mellotron, Hammond, Wurlitzer, Rhodes and other keys as well as what basically amounts to a horn section on several tracks, the first blares in “Becoming One with the Bayou” somewhat jarring but coming to make their own kind of sense there and in the subsequent “Dragged Across the Wetlands,” the sax in “Body of the Bog,” and so on. These elements seem to be built around the core performances of the trio, but the going is remarkably fluid despite the range, and though it seems counterintuitive to think of a band who might end a record with a song called “A Soul Made of Sludge” as being progressive and considered in their craft, that’s very clearly what’s happening here.
Electronic dub, pop, death metal, glitchy electronics, krautrock synth, malevolent distortion, some far-off falsetto and some throatgurgling crust — it can only be the always-busy anti-genre activist Collyn McCoy (Unida, High Priestess, Circle of Sighs, etc.) mashing together ideas and making it work. To wit, “Alkahest” (17:36) and “Witchchrist” (16:03) both engage in sound design and worldmaking, take on pop, industrial and metallic aspects, and are an album unto themselves, hypnotic and experimental, the latter marked by a darker underlying drone that lasts until the whole song dissipates. “Necrotic Prayer” (7:28) feels more like collage by the time it gets to its surprise-here’s-a-ripper-guitar-solo-over-that-circa-’92-industrial-beat, but it still has a groove, and “Plutonic” (8:30) moves through static drone and seen-on-TV sampling through death-techno (god I love death techno) to croon, churn out with a sci-fi overlord, and finish with piano and voice; a misdirecting contemplative turn worthy of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum. McCoy is a genius and the world will never be ready for these sounds. That’s as plain as I can say it.
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 5th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
I just got the new Daevar record promo and put it on. It’s interesting to hear the band on their third full-length stepping out from their influences. In particular for this 31-minute seven-song outing, note the brevity. “Siren Song,” the second cut and first single from Sub Rosa (which shares a title with ‘Bev screws a ghost’ episode of TNG, also there was the band who were incredible), represents a newfound tightening of craft that even last year’s Amber Eyes (review here) couldn’t boast from its murky positioning. Here, Daevar still resonate ethereal with a sense of space in the sound, but there’s no question they’ve figured something out in songwriting and are working off that.
That’s my first impression of the album. It ends long with the seven-minute “FDSMD,” which may or may not be an acronym related to studying earthquakes — fair enough if it is for the roll of that riff — and are all the more dynamic for the entrenched doomery of that finish. Strong. It helps that as they strip down some of the flourish of their past course, Daevar are also heavier than they’ve ever sounded here.
Gonna hope to have more to come here, but the album announce came from the PR wire over the weekend and here it is:
DAEVAR: Cologne Based GRUNGE/DOOM METAL Outfit Shares Brand New Single “Siren Song”
Taken From The Band’s Third Full-Length Set For Release on March 28th, via Berlin Located Record Label THE LASTING DOSE RECORDS (GRIN, EARTH SHIP, CAFFEINE, SLOWSHINE,…).
Deavar, the Cologne-based trio, kicks off 2025 with their third album, SUB ROSA, evolving their Doom Grunge sound with melodic uptempo bursts and lo-fi textures. Building on their previous releases, they capture the raw energy of the 2020s with intense and rat-drenched riffs, unapologetic lyrics, and a relentless DIY spirit.
While kicking off 2025 as their third year in their band’s history, the Cologne-based trio Daevar announces their third studio album, SUB ROSA. Never slowing down in their musical output and live performances, Daevar continues to redefne their sound in the so called pocket of Doom Grunge. With SUB ROSA, the trio expands their cloudy lo-fi soundscape with fresh invigorating uptempo bursts and bountiful, melodic songwriting.
Building on their previous releases Delirious Rites (2023) and Amber Eyes (2024), Daevar has shaken up the stale pouch of traditional stoner doom structures by capturing the empowering and brutally honest zeitgeist of living in the 20s.
This vibrating, spinning era serves as a catalyst for the swirling melodic riffs and soaring, expansive vocals that defne the seven anthems of SUB ROSA. With Pardis Latif’s blunt, unapologetic lyrics addressing crushing inequities, grotesque inhumanity, and the growth of independence—especially inspired by J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye- Caspar Orfgen elevates his riffs to a more frenetic and melodic level, while maintaining his gritty, rat-drenched roots and razor sharp, cutting solo sound. All of this is framed by the Grohl-esque drumming of Moritz, who guides you like a steady, weathered hand through the raw atmosphere of SUB ROSA, capturing the anxiety of the 2020s.
This hook-laden time capsule of SUB ROSA was once again produced and recorded by Jan Oberg at Hidden Planet Studio and released by The Lasting Dose Records. Oberg’s studio has evolved into Berlin’s own “Space Needle” for the young trio, which blends the feverish grunge drive of Nirvana with the dark, brooding essence of doom.
This whole project of Daevar performing and writing music is build upon love and compassion to the friendship of Pardis, Moritz and Caspar. It goes without saying that this enthusiasm is fueled by a true workaholic mindset and a strong DIY ethic. While Caspar handles the design of all the striking artwork for their releases and merchandise – Moritz creates the visually arresting and atmospheric video content for the music videos and live visuals, inspired by Pardis’ captivating lyrical storytelling and the ethereal, moodsetting, lullaby-like atmosphere the trio crafts with their music.
Teaming up with the booking agency Sound of Liberation in 2023, Deavar played the crème de la crème of genre festivals in 2024, including Freak Valley Festival, Desertfest Berlin & Antwerp, Up In Smoke, Keep It Low, Stoned From the Underground and so on.
They also seized every opportunity to perform in intimate clubs, embarking on an extensive, whirlwind tour and playing their frst international shows. In 2025, Deavar will be hitting the road once again with two European tours and appearances at festivals across the UK, Portugal, Poland, and beyond, further solidifying their reputation as one of the hardest-working and most ambitious acts in the doom pocket.
DISCOGRAPHY: 2023 Daevar – Delirious Rites 2024 Daevar – Amber Eyes 2025 Daevar – Sub Rosa
All songs written & performed by DAEVAR Recorded at HIDDEN PLANET STUDIO / Berlin Engineered, mixed & mastered by Jan Oberg Artwork by Caspar Orfgen
Posted in Whathaveyou on January 29th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
True, the first SOL Sonic Ride (info here) hasn’t happened yet, as European heavy booking company Sound of Liberation mark their 20th anniversary with a growing series of all-dayers, but this June in Wiesbaden, Germany, SOL Sonic Ride Part II will bring a fine sampling of touring acts to the proceedings, including King Buffalo, Brant Bjork Trio, the resurgent My Sleeping Karma, Valley of the Sun, Daily Thompson, The Machine and Einseinseins. Wait, that’s everybody. Well I guess it’s a pretty solid bill then.
Note that if you’re dividing the year into quarters — which is something I do around here every now and again; every couple months — this still only covers half of 2025. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if there’s more to come before the year’s out. 20 years, especially 20 years booking heavy music in a time that’s seen the rise of the internet, a global pandemic, and unprecedented instability generally, is a triumph. They should have a party every weekend if that’s what they want. If it ends up being four throughout the rest of the year, well fucking earned.
From socials:
⚡️20 YEARS OF SOUND OF LIBERATION – SOL SONIC RIDE PART ll⚡️
Hey friends,
The celebration continues! 🪩
Join us for SOL SONIC RIDE PART II on June 28, 2025, as we mark two decades of heavy riffs with another epic festival day!
Expect mind-blowing performances from a killer lineup, including:
KING BUFFALO • BRANT BJORK TRIO MY SLEEPING KARMA • VALLEY OF THE SUN DAILY THOMPSON • THE MACHINE • EINSEINSEINS & more to be announced soon!
This time, we’re taking over Schlachthof Wiesbaden for a day packed with electrifying energy.
Posted in Whathaveyou on November 14th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Holy smokes, check out that lineup. 10 bands and not a clunker or a filler in the bunch. Each offers something different, each occupies a different place in sound and has a different history. From heavy psych progenitors Colour Haze through up and comers like Lucid Void and Kant — both of whom have releases out through Sound of Liberation‘s label wing in addition to working with the booking agency — and being My Sleeping Karma‘s first-revealed date for 2025 (come on, Freak Valley; they’re a bucket-list band for me), it’s a stunner even before you tap 1000mods supporting their new record, Slomosa on the heels of their second, Greenleaf being Greenleaf, Gnome and Earth Tongue and Daevar all continuing to kill it. Damn. As all-dayers go, the SOL Sonic Ride — the 20th anniversary celebration of the aforementioned Sound of Liberation, ser for March 29 and happening across two venues in Cologne, Germany — looks positively epic.
You might recall what happened with Sound of Liberation‘s 15th anniversary shindig, which was to have been held in 2020 and became a 17th anniversary shindig in 2022. On more than a few levels, I wish SOL Sonic Ride a less fraught realization. And happy 20 years to Sound of Liberation, while we’re here.
From socials:
20 YEARS OF SOUND OF LIBERATION
Hey friends,
we’re celebrating two decades of heavy riffs!🪩
Join us on March 29, 2025 in Cologne for a one-day-only festival: SOL SONIC RIDE COLOGNE!🚀
Expect explosive performances from some of the heaviest and trippiest bands on the SOL roster, including:
Posted in Bootleg Theater on November 8th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
German heavy instrumentalists Astral Kompakt will release their full-length debut, Goldader, on Nov. 22 through Tonzonen Records. And from opener “Pirsch” onward, the record is plenty heavy — the lead cut, first of seven total on a 40-minute front-to-back, kicks in from its quiet intro at right around 1:40 — and that’s all well and good, but Goldader is working toward more than just that standard. There are flourishes, pieces of pieces, that seem to come from more progressive fare, even prog-metal in “Batavische Träne I,” where the prior “Welwitschie” offers fluid rumination early and builds in stages, unveiling a plus-sized roll en route to a stop in its final minute from which a Truckfighters-y fuzz-run takes off to end.
The title-track is the longest inclusion at 7:42, and comes off “Pirsch” with a more expansive, psychedelic vibe, but there’s purpose behind everything Astral Kompakt do. These aren’t jams. It’s not unstructured. There’s a plot to each of these tracks — even the wailing feedback and fuzzy comedown leads of the penultimate “Ruin” brim with intent — and while the band make a point of their complexity and are clearly ambitious in terms of challenging themselves as players and writers, that doesn’t come at the cost of the material’s raw impact.
Of course, a production and mix from Jan Oberg at Berlin’s Hidden Planet (see also current releases from Daevar, Caffeine, Oberg‘s own Grin, etc.) isn’t going to hurt the prospect of aural largesse, and Goldader, whether it’s the midsection of the title-track, the immersion of “Pirsch” or the way “Batavische Träne II” (video premiering below) seems to do honor to Karma to Burn‘s central ethic of here’s-the-riff-now-eat-it when it came to groovemaking, but tone and tempo variation assures that not every song has the same goals or winds up in the same place. It is not a collection of linear builds, though “Batavische Träne II” has a doozy after its rocking opening section gives way to a quieter middle before its held-in-pocket nod is laid bare, soon to be topped with a duly airy solo.
But “Ruin” shifts the structure away from that build and works around its core progression with a rocker’s intention and Conan-style tonality underpinning a markedly doomed — and by that I mean grunge — riff. “Ruin” stones out, throws a little wah on the bass even, later on, but ends crushing, and drops to a silence, which the barely-there-at-first ambient opening of “Levitas” gets moving before a cymbal wash marks the arrival point of bloodrush punctuated lumber that ultimately opens to a transposed desert rock riff — (only) in my head, vague echoes of being told I don’t seem to understand the dee-yal — rolled out in a way that’s straightforward enough but doesn’t let go of the mood of its mellower launch.
And do they bring back the crashes and the slammy-slammy and the heavy-heavy whatnot? Well of course they do; rest easy. Shifting from roll to nod and stomp between, Astral Kompakt are once again following a plot, but what distinguishes “Levitas” from “Ruin” before it or even Goldader‘s title-cut, which is the only piece here over seven minutes long, is the clever way the parts are charted and interact with each other. You think one change is coming, another comes, and this is a strength. It’s not that Astral Kompakt are pulling cheeky switcheroos, but instead that the material is interesting enough and executed well enough to stand up to defying the expectations of genre.
In this way, Goldader seems very much to have accomplished what Astral Kompakt set out for it to do, building something that is progressive in construction, rich in atmosphere/mood, diverse in sound and a push in playing if not raw technique for its own sake. There are reaches here, and as sparse as some moments are, the band wield density with cleverness and skill as one of the tools used, and when they hit into a payoff like that of “Pirsch” after spending a minute or so in a welcoming La-La Land of dreamy ’90s-alt lead guitar, they make it physically affecting.
It might take a couple listens to let Goldader sink in completely, and I can’t help you there — it’s not out yet and this is a video not an album premiere; I didn’t even see another single streaming — but the album’s out in two weeks, and I believe strongly in your ability to keep these things in mind. Until it’s out, keep in mind “Batavische Träne II” is riffier on average than some of what Astral Kompakt do in other tracks, but represents well the heavier side without giving up mood.
PR wire info follows the video on the player below. As always, I hope you enjoy:
Astral Kompakt, “Batavische Träne II” video premiere
A video by Astral Kompakt and Solid Waste
Astral Kompakt carefully dissect the psych metal blueprint laid out by Sleep and Electric Wizard, slowing it down, spacing it out and abstracting its essence. Creating a new conversation in which heaviness is not a goal but a means to an end, Goldader, out November 22 via Tonzonen Records, perfects the art of making complexity comprehensible and sonic violence sophisticated.
Stoner rock leans heavily on its psychedelic imagery and lyrics for its allure, leaving a small number of artists capable of writing captivating instrumental music that still fits the bill. Where other acts turn to humorous tropes or excessive layers of fuzz, Germany-based instrumental outfit Astral Kompakt resort to reducing things to a minimum, keeping a tight formation as a trio. With their debut album Goldader they have perfected the art of making complexity comprehensible and sonic violence sophisticated.
Across its 40-minute long runtime Goldader reveals itself as a lexicon of anything prog and stoner, touching upon and playing with stylistic devices that also characterise the metal genre as a whole. From from the jagged start-stop riffing of Pirsch through the subtle polyrhythms of Welwitschie to the repeating motifs of Batavische Träne II, Astral Kompakt prove they understand the elements of the genre and know how to use them in refreshing ways.
The inconspicuous way in which they open the album in 10/8 but make it seem like the most normal stoner riff ever, attests to the ability of Astral Kompakt to make music that is both fun and engaging. The title track innovatively juxtaposes the summer vibes of indie rock with exuberant blast beats, while album closer Levitas skilfully anatomizes the art of melting face, creating an experience in which the real heaviness is found in the space between the distorted chords.
With Goldader Astral Kompakt have indeed struck gold, creating a record you can spend endless moments with, digging around and unearthing all its intricacies. The songwriting is serious but also has a sense of humour, the riffs are both brain-heavy and face-melting, while the album sounds phenomenal thanks to Jan Oberg at who recorded, produced and mixed the album at his Hidden Planet Studio in Berlin.
Posted in Whathaveyou on September 12th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Not saying I’ve conceded defeat when it comes to trying to keep up with label-branded festival shows happening in various cities across Europe and the US — Ripplefests and Heavy Psych Sounds Fests scattered to various reaches of hither and yon — but I have definitely come to terms with the fact that if I posted every time one is announced or adds to its lineup, I probably wouldn’t be able to cover much else. Only many hours/so much brainpower in the day. Both are fleeting fast as a given morning progresses toward a hurried, inevitably dumber afternoon.
If I recall correctly, Ripplefest Germany is put together by members of Plainride, so seeing them at the top of the thus-far bills for shows in Köln and Berlin isn’t such a shocker, and fair enough both for their involvement in making it happen and for their 2023 self-titled (review here) that was released, of course, on Ripple Music. They’re joined by Håndgemeng and Crowley on both bills, while hotly-tipped rockers Scorched Oak are a fourth name unveiled for the Köln date. The two shows are a week apart — you could feasibly attend both; congratulations on your life if you do — and while some of the lineups will likely continue to be shared as they already are, it seems reasonable to expect not everyone who plays the one will make it for the other. Maybe Scorched Oak have something else going on Dec. 7, you never really know.
Whether I can hold to the pace of announcements or not — not, surely — you’ll find ticket links and more info on Ripplefest Germany 2024 below, courtesy of the PR wire. Note the secret venue in Berlin, because who doesn’t love a mystery?
Have at it:
Heavy rock festival RIPPLEFEST GERMANY announces first names for 2024 edition in Berlin and Cologne; tickets on sale now!
Curated by Californian independent label Ripple Music, heavy rock festival RIPPLEFEST reveals the first bands to play its Cologne and Berlin editions on November 30th and December 7th, with tickets on sale now!
Californian heavy label Ripple Music is known and revered worldwide for unearthing the finest bands in heavy rock and heavy metal and bringing together a vast and passionate community of fans from across the globe. The Bay Area-based label is home to international acts such as The Obsessed, Hermano, Scott “Wino” Weinrich, Tony Reed, Poobah, Wo Fat or Colour Haze.
Dubbing their festival series “Ripplefest”, the record label has been organizing showcase events in cities such as Austin, San Francisco, London, Stockholm, Cologne and Berlin over the years. Now the German chapter of Ripplefest is ready to celebrate its fifth edition this fall! Returning to the cities of Berlin and Cologne, the festival is once again set to shed light on an array of bands from scene veterans to new blood, from occult rock to doom ‘n’ roll!
Posted in Bootleg Theater on February 8th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
This past Friday, classically progressive heavy rockers Mouth released Vortex Redux through This Charming Man Records. And though ‘redux’ in a heavy context has come to be associated with Magnetic Eye Records‘ ongoing album-tribute series, no, this is not Mouth or anyone else covering their own album. Remastered with the included bonus track “Turn the Lie” (video premiering below) and liner notes by yours truly.
The Köln-based trio — now comprised of guitarist/vocalist/keyboardist Christian Koller, drummer/keyboardist Nick Mavridis and bassist Thomas Johnen, who made his first appearance on last year’s Getaway (review here) in the role previously filled by Gerald Kirsch — originally released Vortex (review here) in 2017 through Al!ve/Blunoise Records as an eight-years-later follow-up to their debut, Rhizome, but really, it was the point at which their proggy intent found its fruition. With underlying influence from the heavier end of the style and a modern cast on vintage ideologies, they’ve been able to position themselves in both worlds as a band whose foundation is in prog textures with keys and retro organs and synth and melodies and all that stuff mixed with the occasional let-loose of a thicker shove.
It’s a fine line and Mouth dance all over it, but you’ll pardon me if I leave the analysis there. I’ve both reviewed this album AND I wrote the liner notes below in blue — as opposed to the usual ‘bio I wrote’ tag I apply in situations where editorial and promotional lines are blurred (always uncomfortable; full disclosure, I actually don’t remember if I was compensated or not for the below writing; I’m terrible with money and knowing things generally; see also ‘incompetent’) — that begin with “Welcome…” and end where they end. Seems like plenty, so if you’re still reading at all and haven’t already started the clip, I’ll just say that that whole “prog + fun” equation alluded to above is exactly what comes to life here, and in close-up style.
Plenty more of my blah blah blah follows — I didn’t even know they were using the notes as promo copy until the record was out, but fair enough — and the clip’s three minutes and weird and kind of lo-fi, which somehow makes it more of a good time. But you’re right in the box with them, so I hope you’ve showered recently. Nobody wants to be the one stinking up the practice space.
Please enjoy:
Mouth, “Turn the Lie” video premiere
This is the bonus track of the redux version of MOUTH’s second album VORTEX. Order the new mastered and reworked album here:
Welcome to the definitive Vortex. The LP you’re holding has been on a journey, and no, not just shipping. Mouth’s second after 2009’s Rhizome, Vortex was mostly recorded in 2011 and 2012 over five sessions in a small space where the band rehearsed. Material was pieced together intermittently over a period of 11 months with Chris Koller handling guitar, keys and bass and Nick Mavridis on drums. That’s where it started. Two construction projects: the studio and a recording that would help define the course of the band in classic and melodic progressive rock, happening almost simultaneously in a creative meta-narrative that could easily stand as analog for the depth of pieces like “Into the Light” or the sprawling “Vortex” itself, which opens the record (new and old editions) in an encompassing display of impulse and fluidity
Through experiments in atmosphere like “March of the Cyclopes” and toward the finish of “Epilogue,” Mouth married sounds that in other contexts would come up disparate, like finding a hidden magnetism between two north poles.
Most of the Vortex songs were created on the spot in the studio.There would be no way to know it at the time, but this process would result in a collection of songs with a broad range, within as well as between the component tracks. “Parade” taps Sly Stone on the shoulder and asks if he wants to party (he does), while the penultimate “Soon After…” resonates with its smoky, mellow-jazz vibe. “Vortex” itself happens over six movements and was put together across different sessions, while “Epilogue” happened in a day.
Dissatisfaction with the original mix – and when an album has as much put into its arrangements as Vortex, that balance matters – would lead Mouth to offer Out of the Vortex in 2020 as a collection of alternate versions of pieces like “Mountain” and “Parade,” as well as the unreleased “Ready” and “Homagotago’s Paddle Boat Trip,” the latter an apparent successor to a cut from Floating. But sometimes a thing nestles itself into the back of your head and just won’t leave, and Mouth’s pursuit of a finished Vortex would lead them into the studio again.
Koller handled the remix himself in Oct. 2023, and in addition to helming the new master, krautrock legend Eroc (who drummed in Grobschnitt) brought a gong to mark the beginning of “March of the Cyclopes.” Like a lot of the finer touches on this Vortex, be it a hashed-out stretch in the title-track built on a drum/bass jam or just pulling the vocals and Hammond down a bit in “Epilogue,” the result is a stylistic flourishing that was there all along throughout the journey and now can finally shine as the band intended. – JJ Koczan / Dec. 2023
Pressing Info: 100 copies black (mailorder edition) 400 copies purple transparent wax -> all copies come with a fold out poster
