Jam in the Psych Castle won’t be the first music festival hosted at the Öreg Tölgy Kastély-Fogadó, an estate-turned-event-space in Pusztazámor, Hungary. Earlier this year, the grounds hosted a punk and hardcore barbecue that went on for two days, so yes, don’t break a window because the place has weddings in — don’t break a window anyway; don’t be a dick — but there is experience on-site for running sound, lights, and all that other festival-type stuff. The partnership between Para Hobo and Psychedelic Source Records — which will also host a jam session the second day — has put together a lineup that runs a gamut through European heavy psych, with Speck and Obsidian Sea, MR.BISON, the proggy Daliborovo Granje and Poland’s Weedpecker in the headlining spot. By next September, they’ll likely have spent much of 2026 on the road for their impending album, V, due in February.
I’ll make no bones about my interest in Hungary. I’m of Hungarian origin and have been taking language lessons with an eye toward acquiring citizenship through my ancestry. My family and I spent four weeks in Budapest last year and I’ve been trying to figure out how to get back since. I’m proud to have The Obelisk’s logo (especially the metal one!) in good company on the poster above, and while I doubt I’ll be there to see it next year, I hope to be able to watch Jam in the Psych Castle grow in the years to come, as well as to be a part of it physically eventually.
Please keep in mind that this is a small gathering at a very special venue. Our capacity is limited to only 500 people per day. You should buy your ticket as soon as possible if you want to participate!
Shows: Weedpecker / POL Daliborovo Granje / HR Karkara / FR The Qualitons / HUN (special set) Mr. Bison / IT Roadkillsoda / RO Giöbia / IT Speck / AT Supernaughty / IT Obsidian Sea / BG Da Captain Trips / IT Psychedelic Source Records / HUN (with special guests) Band in the Pit / HUN Endre / HUN Azutmaga / HUN Alas! / HUN Deley / HUN (Sound System special)
Tomorrow, June 27, marks the release of Da Captain Trips‘ fifth album, In Between, through Subsound Records. With it. the long-ish running North Italian instrumental prog-psych four-piece offer six new tracks of lush immersion and fluidity — a safe space to dwell for a time — and foster a bit of heft besides. Looking at you, “Spiralis.”
Beginning with the keyboard blips and bloops fading it at the start of opener and longest cut (immediate points) “Die,” with guitar gradually entering the procession with such finesse that it’s there before you know it. This movement, happening patiently over the first several minutes of the 38-minute six-song LP, is telling of the band’s methodology more broadly across the record. Not all of the songs end up in the same place — “Die” is longer than everything else by three minutes or so and plays across its own linear build to an encompassing and bright-hued wash, guitars and keys surging together at the finish. But it’s indicative of the dream tones and the care the four-piece of guitarist Riccardo Cavicchia, bassist Federico Chiappa, drummer Tommaso Villa and keyboardist Paolo “Apollo” Negri have clearly put into presenting the material. One who has spent time in the evocations of My Sleeping Karma wouldn’t feel out of place in “Whispers,” or really any of the songs here.
But at the same time, there’s a story to tell (through the music), and death, as you may have heard somewhere, is only the beginning. “Whispers” begins the onward journey, and it is not without footfalls, whether that’s a flourish of denser tone or the proggy solo exploring across much of the second half before the keyboards move forward to mark the finish. The chemistry there, guitar and keys weaving melodies over a solid underlying groove, is a big part of what makes In Between feel cohesive as it moves through the early emotional pastoralism of “Spiralis,” seeming to declare something in the midsection but I’m not sure what. If this it’s the procession of an afterlife, then maybe we’re in memory, but there’s more than nostalgia happening too, which is fair when one considers the complexity of a life.
“Back to Sargassian” continues the thread and tops its steady low-end movement with keyboard and effects swirls before a more jagged guitar strum cuts through, but the threat it momentary, and it’s the synth that gives the presumed side B leadoff its crescendo. That “Land of Shades” takes its time unfurling isn’t a shock by the time the listener arrives at the penultimate track’s doorstep, but there’s jazzy flourish in the guitar and a more insistent punchthrough from the snare drum that soon enough diverge via organ into a section of more classic ranging psychedelia, complete with effects-manipulated spoken voice, picking up from a Morricone-style whistle to Hypnos 69-level progressive classicism before departing again into the finish. It’s not revolutionary, but it certainly is gorgeous. The same is true of the album as a whole.
As it invariably would be on either a craft or thematic level, the closer “Lotus” is a landing point. It marks itself out as such quickly with a full-tone procession, keys, guitar, bass and drums aligned around a more dramatic, almost doomly, nod. The keyboard departs to trickle down notes in between — hey that’s the name of the record — the crashes, but the kick drum gives a transition under the keyboard and soon enough the darker hue is a memory replaced by Mediterranean-sounding keys over motion-minded drums; we’re dancing. It gets weirder, and should. The guitar gradually comes back in, works its way toward a final solo, but there isn’t a blowout coming. It wouldn’t work for the theme. Ultimately, this is the story of a shutting down.
A gong strikes and they’re done, Da Captain Trips having succeeded in conveying a kind of transcendence through music that resonates whether one is following a plot thread or not. At the very least, it’s nothing to be afraid of, and there’s a kind of comfort in that.
Some PR wire-type background follows the player below. Immerse and enjoy:
“In Between” is the fifth full length album of the band and comes after 3 years from “Maths of the Elements” with the same line up.
This time the mission of the four musicians is to explore the sound and the landscape of the place “in between” where our consciousness moves when the physical form ends its time .
Death is part of life and it could be the last definitive psychedelic trip.
A great inspiration was reading “The Tibetan Book of the Dead”, where you can find a detailed explanation of what to do in life to recognize the way after you have passed away. They tried to give their own Interpretation going deep in their consciousness to explore the sound of that moment, passing through the colors, whispers, shades, symbols and thinking about the emptiness of our being.
The result can be perceived in their compositions from a dark and a light side of the music that fight.
Compared to the previous album, there is an improvement in dialogue between guitar and keyboards and structures are like a flow because most of the ideas come from improvisations and some songs were born and developed starting from the rhythm.
Visual artist and friend “Dem” created this beautiful artwork as his own interpretation of the cycle of life, death, and rebirth. Inspired by the shape of a double Vajra (a ritual tool symbolizing absolute stability in Tibetan Buddhism) he merged it with magical symbols from various European traditions that bridge the material and spiritual worlds.
Da Captain Trips are : Riccardo Cavicchia : Guitars Federico Chiappa : Bass Tommaso Villa : Drums & Percussions Paolo “Apollo” Negri : Keyboards
Posted in Whathaveyou on August 14th, 2018 by JJ Koczan
Holy shit this looks like a good time. Don’t get me wrong, I post about a lot of festivals all over the place and often say the same, but if you’ve got two minutes and 45 seconds — and if you make it to the end of this run-on-ass sentence, let’s face it, you do — go ahead and check out the recap video at the bottom of this post of last year’s Elav Stoner Open Air in Bergamo, Italy. I know it’s edited together to look cool and I know rocking out in slow motion is universally awesome and blah blah blah, but even so, look at that space. Look at the vibe. Look how relaxed everything seems, everybody just having a good time, downing some beers and watching killer bands play. What the hell is life about if not that very thing?
That was the first edition of the festival, and it’s grown significantly since. Elav Stoner Open Air 2018 features Bergamo’s own beer aficionados Humulus in a returning role, and alongside them are the likes of Mars Red Sky, Samavayo, Sonic Wolves, Papir playing a special jam set and a regular set, Belzebong, Weedpecker, Da Captain Trips and more. Just absolutely killer. I don’t want to say “job well done” before it happens and jinx anything, but seriously, this looks like an incredible time. It’s free to get in if you can get there, and it’s three nights of killer shows back to back to back. I’m sorry I won’t get to see it, but I’ll look forward to the video after the fact.
Lineup info and links follow here, as seen on the social medias:
ELAV STONER OPEN AIR FESTIVAL 2018
13-14-15 September 2018
@ Birrificio Indipendente Elav (Comun nuovo – Bergamo, Italy)
\\\\ FREE ENTRY ////
LINE UP:
Gio 13 ::: Da Captain Trips + Sonic Wolves + Samavayo Ven 14 ::: RAIKINAS + Papir (jam set) + Humulus + Mars Red Sky Sab 15 ::: The Black Lodge + Dead Man’s Blues Fuckers + Weedpecker + Papir + BelzebonG
