Posted in Whathaveyou on April 24th, 2019 by JJ Koczan
I’m holding out hope for a new Wo Fat record this year. Their last two, 2016’s Midnight Cometh (review here) and 2014’s The Conjuring (review here), were both Spring releases, out in June and May in their respective years, so that seems unlikely for 2019 unless there’s news coming, like, right now, about it. I just checked my email again, and nope. Maybe tomorrow. But Wo Fat have worked on an every-other-year schedule since 2012, and that alone was enough to make me speculate they’d have an album out last Fall in time for their European tour, which obviously didn’t happen.
As they head to Australia and New Zealand this June, I’m not necessarily thinking they’ll put one out in time for the trip because, again, we’d probably know about it by now if that were happening, but maybe later in the year? Maybe in the Fall? Maybe I just want to hear a new Wo Fat album so I’m trying to project a timeframe for it to be released? That seems possible to me. Indeed, likely.
Fine.
Their label, Ripple Music, posted the Aus/NZ dates as follows:
Wo Fat announce Australian and New Zealand Tour!! This is gonna be killer!
Thursday 6/6 The Bendigo Hotel, Collingwood W/ Jack Harlon & The Dead Crows Tickets: http://rcl.ink/bO3
Friday 7/6 The Barwon Club Hotel, Geelong W/ Turtle Skull & Peeling Sun Tickets: http://rcl.ink/bO6
Saturday 8/6 WO FEST at The Gold Mines Hotel, Bendigo W/ Pieces Of Molly (NZ), Turtle Skull, Motherslug, Pseudo Mind Hive, Burden Man, Thaw, Honeybone, Kitchen Witch, Full Tone Generator and @SubterraneanDisposition Tickets: http://rcl.ink/bOu
Sunday 9/6 Crown and Anchorl, Adelaide W/ Planet of the 8s & Howl n Bones Tickets: http://rcl.ink/bOE
Tuesday 11/6 Whammy Bar, Auckland W/ Bloodnut & The Deadbeat Dads Tickets: http://rcl.ink/bO8
Posted in Reviews on March 21st, 2019 by JJ Koczan
Day four of the six-dayer. Head’s a little reeling, but I’m not sure any more so than, say, last week at this time. I’d be more specific about that, but oddly enough, I don’t hook my brain up to medical scanners while doing reviews. Seems like an oversight on my part, now that I think about it. Ten years later and still learning something new! How about that internet, huh?
Since I don’t think I’ve said it in a couple days, I’ll remind you that the hope here is you find something you dig. There’s a lot of cool stuff in this batch, so that should at least make skimming through it fun if you go that route. Either way, thanks for reading if you do.
Quarterly Review #31-40:
Electric Octopus, Smile
It’s been about two months since Electric Octopus posted Smile, so they’re about due for their next release. So, quick! Before this 82-minute collection of insta-chill jams is out of date, there’s still time to consider it their latest offering. Working as the four-piece of Tyrell Black and Dale Hughes — both of whom share bass and guitar duties — drummer Guy Hetherington and synthesist Stevie Lennox, the Belfast improv jammers rightfully commence with the 25-minute longest track (immediate points) “Abberation” (sic), which evolves and devolves along its course and winds up turning from a percussive jam to a guitar-led build up that still stays gloriously mellow even as it works its way out. You can almost hear the band moving from instrument to instrument, and that’s the point. The much shorter “Spiral,” “Dinner at Sea, for One” and closer “Mouseangelo” bring in a welcome bit of funk, “Moth Dust” explores minimalist reaches of guitar and ambient drumming, and “Hyperloop” digs into fuzz-soaked swirl before cleaning up its act in the last couple minutes. These cats j-a-m. May they do so into perpetuity.
Onto the best-albums-of-2019 list go San Marcos, Texas, trio Crypt Trip, who, sonically speaking, are way more Beto O’Rourke than Ted Cruz. The three-piece have way-way-upped the production value and general breadth from their 2018 Heavy Psych Sounds debut, Rootstock, and the clarity of purpose more than suits them as they touch on ’70s country jams and hard boogie and find a new melodic vocal confidence that speaks to guitarist Ryan Lee as a burgeoning frontman as well as the shredder panning channels in “To Be Whole.” Fortunately, he’s backed by bassist Sam Bryant and drummer Cameron Martin in the endeavor, and as ever, it’s the rhythm section that gives the “power trio” its power. Centerpiece “Free Rain” is a highlight, but so is the pedal steel of intro “Forward” and the later “Pastures” that precedes six-minute closer “Gotta Get Away,” which makes its transport by means of a hypnotic drum solo from Martin. Mark it a win and go to the show. That’s all you can do. Haze County is a blueprint for America’s answer to Europe’s classic heavy rock movement.
A bit of Tull as Love Gang‘s flute-inclusive opener “Can’t Seem to Win” skirts the line of the proggier end of ’70s worship. The Denver outfit and Dallas’ Smokey Mirror both present three tracks on Glory or Death Records‘ Split Double EP, and Love Gang back the leadoff with “Break Free” and “Lonely Man,” reveling in wall-o’-fuzz chicanery and organ-laced push between them, making their already unpredictable style less predictable, while Smokey Mirror kick off side B in particularly righteous fashion via the nine-minute “Sword and Scepter,” which steps forth to take ultra-Sabbathian ownership of the release even as the filthy tone of “Sucio y Desprolijo” and the loose-swinging Amplified Heat-style megashuffle of “A Thousand Days in the Desert” follow. Two bands in the process of finding their sound coming together to serve notice of ass-kickery present and future. If you can complain about that, you’re wrong.
Very much a solid first album, Heavy Feather‘s 11-song Débris & Rubble lands at a run via The Sign Records and finds the Stockholm-based classic heavy blues rockers comporting with modern Euro retroism in grand fashion. At 41 minutes, it’s a little long for a classic-style LP if one measures by the eight-track/38-minute standard, but the four-piece fill that time with a varied take that basks in sing-along-ready hooks like those of post-intro opener “Where Did We Go,” the Rolling Stones-style strutter “Waited All My Life,” and the later “I Spend My Money Wrong,” which features not the first interplay of harmonica and lead guitar amid its insistent groove. Elsewhere, more mellow cuts like “Dreams,” or the slide-infused “Tell Me Your Tale” and the closing duo of the Zeppelinian “Please Don’t Leave” and the melancholy finisher “Whispering Things” assure Débris & Rubble never stays in one place too long, though one could say the same of the softshoe-ready boogie in “Hey There Mama” as well. On the one hand, they’re figuring it out. On the other, they’re figuring it out.
Five full-lengths deep into a tenure spanning a decade thus far, Faith in Jane have officially entered the running to be one of the best kept secrets of Maryland heavy. Their late-2018 live-recorded studio offering, Countryside, clocks in at just under an hour of organic tonality and performance, bringing a sharp presentation to the chemistry that’s taken hold among the three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Dan Mize, bassist Brendan Winston and drummer Alex Llewellyn, with Mize taking extended solos on the Wino model throughout early cuts “All is All” and “Mountain Lore” while the trio adds Appalachian grunge push to the Chesapeake’s flowing groove while building “Blues for Owsley” from acoustic strum to scorching cacophonous wash and rolling out the 9:48 “Hippy Nihilism” like the masters of the form they’re becoming. It’s not a minor undertaking in terms of runtime, but for those in on what these cats have been up to all the while, hard to imagine Countryside is seen as anything other than hospitable.
Lafayette, Indiana’s The Mound Builders last year offered a redux of their 2014 album, Wabash War Machine (review here), but that was their last proper full-length. Their self-titled arrives as eight bruiser slabs of weighted sludge/groove metal, launching with its longest track (immediate points) in the 7:30 “Torchbearer,” before shifting into the outright screams-forward pummel of “Hair of the Dogma” and the likewise dry-throated “Separated from Youth.” By the time they get to the hardcore-punk-via-sludge of “Acid Slugs,” it’s not a little heavy. It’s a lot heavy. And it stays that way through the thrashing “Star City Massacre” and “Regolith,” hitting the brakes on “Broken Pillars” only to slam headfirst into closer “Vanished Frontier.” Five years later and they’re still way pissed off. So be it. The four-formerly-five-piece were never really all that gone, but they still seem to have packed an extended absence’s worth of aggro into their self-titled LP.
It’s a fluid balance between heavy rock and progressive metal Terras Paralelas make in the six inclusions on their debut full-length, Entre Dois Mundos. The Brazilian instrumentalist trio keep a foundation of metallic kickdrumming beneath “Do Abismo ao Triunfo,” and even the chugging in “Espirais e Labirintos” calls to mind some background in harder-hitting fare, but it’s set against a will toward semi-psychedelic exploration, making the giving the album a sense of refusing to play exclusively to one impulse. This proves a strength in the lengthier pieces that follow “Infinito Cósmico” and “Do Abismo ao Triunfo” at the outset, and as Terras Paralelas move from the mellower “Bom Presságio” and “Espirais e Labirintos” into the more spaciously post-rocking “Nossa Jornada Interior” and the nine-minute-plus prog-out title-track that closes by summarizing as much as pushing further outward, one is left wondering why such distinctions might matter in the first place. Kudos to the band for making them not.
The Black Heart Death Cult, The Black Heart Death Cult
Though one wouldn’t accuse The Black Heart Death Cult of being the first cumbersomely-named psych-rocking band in the current wave originating in Melbourne, Australia, their self-titled debut is nonetheless a gorgeous shimmer of classic psychedelia, given tonal presence through guitar and bass, but conjuring an ethereal sensibility through the keys and far-back vocals like “She’s a Believer,” tapping alt-reality 1967 vibes there while fostering what I hear is called neo-psych but is really just kinda psych throughout the nodding meander of “Black Rainbow,” giving even the more weighted fuzz of “Aloha From Hell” and the distortion flood of “Davidian Dream Beam” a happier context. They cap with the marshmallowtron hallucinations of “We Love You” and thereby depart even the ground stepped on earlier in the sitar-laced “The Magic Lamp,” finding and losing and losing themselves in the drifting ether probably not to return until, you know, the next record. When it shows up, it will be greeted as a liberator.
I’m pretty sure the Sami who plays drums in Orbiter is the same dude playing bass in Roadog, but I could easily be wrong about that. Either way, the two Finnish cohort units make a fitting complement to each other on their two-songer 7″ single, which presents Orbiter‘s six-minute “Anthropocene” with the hard-driving title-track of Roadog‘s 2018 full-length, Reinventing the Wheels. The two tracks have a certain amount in common, mostly in the use of fuzz and some underlying desert influence, but it’s what they do with that that makes all the difference between them. Orbiter‘s track is spacier and echoing, where “Reinventing the Wheels” lands more straightforward in its three minutes, its motoring riff filled out by some effects but essentially manifest in dead-ahead push and lyrics about a motorcycle. They don’t reinvent the wheel, as it happens, and neither do Orbiter, but neither seems to want to do so either, and both bands are very clearly having a blast, so I’m not inclined to argue. Good fun and not a second of pretense on either side.
Space is the place where you’ll find Boston improvisationalists Hhoogg, who extend their fun penchant for adding double letters to the leadoff “Ccoossmmooss” of their exclamatory second self-released full-length, Earthling, Go Home!, which brings forth seven tracks in a vinyl-ready 37 minutes and uses that opener also as its longest track (immediate points) to set a molten tone to the proceedings while subsequent vibes in “Rustic Alien Living” and the later, bass-heavy “Recalled to the Pyramids” range from the Hendrixian to the funkadelicness he helped inspire. With a centerpiece in “Star Wizard, Headless and Awake,” a relatively straightforward three-minute noodler, the four-piece choose to cap with “Infinitely Gone,” which feels as much like a statement of purpose and an aesthetic designation as a descriptor for what’s contained within. In truth, it’s a little under six minutes gone, but jams like these tend to beg for repeat listens anyway. There’s some growing to do, but the melding of their essential chemistry is in progress, and that’s what matters most. The rest is exploration, and they sound well up for it.
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 14th, 2019 by JJ Koczan
I think we all know Valentine’s Day is some beat shit. Manufactured to sell greeting cards. And if you love someone and you have to buy into some prepacked sentiment to tell them so, guess what, you’re fucking up, and you should probably be in therapy. You don’t need to wait for some special day to buy someone candy or some corny-ass stuffed bear or whatever other gender-prescribed red-tinted crap they’re hocking at CVS, and frankly, neither should you. Love is all the time, every day.
That said, a new split from Denver’s Love Gang and Dallas’ Smokey Mirror out today through Glory or Death Records is just about enough to get me through this most dopey of faux-holidays — and there’s some stiff competition in that regard; don’t get me started on Mother’s and Father’s Days — bringing three killer tracks from each band out at a name-your-price rate with limited vinyl available for those who’d like to give it the archival treatment. I’ll admit it’s tempting, especially as it’s the first time either band have been pressed to platter and they’ll both have new records out later this year. I don’t know if those will also be through Glory or Death or what, but listening to these tracks, I can rattle off five labels who should be chasing down either band, easily.
So to sum up: Crappy holiday, cool tunes. Take what you can get in this life. Especially when it’s riffs.
From the PR wire:
LOVE GANG AND SMOKEY MIRROR SPLIT DOUBLE EP
Valentines day is a mixed bag to say the least but this Special Edition Double EP slab featuring the saturated grooves of LOVE GANG & SMOKEY MIRROR will moisten any undergarment regardless of romantic affiliation. This is the FIRST vinyl offering for either band and will prove to be a gem that leads to both bands highly anticipated 1st FULL LENGTH LP later this year.
Digital release is available today and as a special heart warming gift for those lost in romantic despair the crew at Glory or Death Records along with the Bands alike have made all 6 tracks available to download free-of-charge.
So go downloads some tunes, light one up, and consider yourself the Valentine of both LOVE GANG & SMOKEY MIRROR because blasting these tunes will never end in heartbreak.
Posted in Whathaveyou on July 12th, 2018 by JJ Koczan
With their having already been announced for Desertfest Belgium 2018, Keep it Low 2018 and Into the Void 2018, a European tour announcement from Texas swampriffers Wo Fat isn’t entirely unexpected. Still welcome news to just about anyone in their path who’s ever nodded to a riff, though, which always seems to be more and more people in their path. The veteran three-piece are two years removed from their most recent studio offering, Midnight Cometh (review here), which for them is about on pace — see 2014’s The Conjuring (review here) and 2012’s The Black Code (reviews here and here), each out with a two-year split between — but I haven’t heard anything yet about a new record. Does that mean it’s not happening? Shit no. Not like I friggin’ know anything. But if it’s coming this year, well, album announcements are into October already, so it would be getting here late. Not to say it can’t happen, just that 2019 seems more likely to my addled, baby-chasing, no-sleep-getting, feeble-to-start-with brain.
Either way, their touring Europe is more than enough excuse to revisit Midnight Cometh, so you’ll find that at the bottom of this post, courtesy of Ripple Music‘s Bandcamp. News comes from the PR wire:
Texan heavy rock legends WO FAT announce “Electric Conjure Man Tour” across UK/Europe this October
To purchase tickets for available dates, please click HERE
Having already secured their legendary status within the stoner rock community over a sonic odyssey of six studio albums, Wo Fat has stayed true to the deep, dark blues that wail from within. Following on from the critical success of their last album, Midnight Cometh, and continuing their partnership with the equally formidable California-based record label Ripple Music, European fans that have yet to experience the full force of the Wo Fat experience will be able to get a taste of what they’ve been missing this October.
“Playing in Europe is always an amazing experience for us and it’s been a couple years since we last made the trip, so we’re really excited to be coming back,” explains Wo Fat’s vocalist/guitarist, Kent Stump.
“We are particularly stoked to be able to play three different festivals, all killer, on this run; Desertfest Belgium, Into the Void and Keep It Low. We’ll also be playing some new places as well as returning to some favourites, like The Underworld in London and Le Glazart in Paris. And even better, about half the shows will be with the mighty Sasquatch along with shows with Elder and The Devil and the Almighty Blues. We’ll be rolling out some new songs on this tour and it will be our first European trip with Zack playing bass so I think our fans in Europe will really dig the heavy groove he brings.”
Brought to you by Ripple Music and Sound of Liberation, Wo Fat’s “Electric Conjure Man European Tour 2018” will kick off on 11th October 2018 at The Underworld, London. For a complete list of dates, see below.
Wo Fat “Electric Conjure Man European Tour 2018”
11/10/18 – The Underworld, London, UK [w. The Devil & the Almighty Blues] 12/10/18 – Desertfest Belgium, Antwerp, BEL 13/10/18 – Engelsburg, Erfurt, DE Stoned From the Underground [w. Sasquatch] 14/10/18 – Cassiopeia, Berlin, DE 15/10/18 – Schlachthof, Wiesbaden, DE [w. Sasquatch] 16/10/18 – Fabrik, Zurich, CH [w. Sasquatch] 17/10/18 – Les Caves Du Manoir, Martigny, CH [w. Sasquatch] 18/10/18 – Le Glazart, Paris, FRA [w. Elder and Sasquatch] 19/10/18 – Into the Void Festival, Leuwaarden, NL 20/10/18 – Keep It Low Festival, Munich, DE
[Click play above to stream ‘Tyrell’ from Mountain of Smoke’s Gods of Biomechanics. Album is out July 7.]
Crush wins the day quickly on Mountain of Smoke‘s second album, Gods of Biomechanics. The Dallas-area duo of bassist/vocalist Brooks and drummer PJ bludgeon efficiently on the 10-track/33-minute outing, and expand their lineup through working with pedal steel guitarist Alex, filling out the bass/drum sound with an atmospheric breadth that can be heard on songs like “Caesium Beams,” making the material all the more memorable as well as being brutal and extreme. As with their 2014 self-titled debut, which was issued through Do for It Records, the theme that ties all the songs together is drawn from Ridley Scott’s 1982 sci-noir classic Blade Runner. Songs are based around the story of Ray Batty (Rutger Hauer) and named after characters from the film — “Leon,” “Tyrell,” “Zhora” — and as the band already seem to have covered the main characters in their debut with “Decker,” “Rachel,” “Pris,” and so on, and they also begin to dig into ideas expressed in the movie, places or other elements.
Accordingly, we get “Tannhauser Gate” which is mentioned in a sample of Rutger Hauer at the end of the subsequent and pummeling “Orion’s Shoulder,” “Incept” referring to the concept of when a replicant is ‘born,’ and “Retirement” for when they’re killed. Samples from the film — which I’m just going to assume everyone reading this watched at least once when they were in their 20s — are sprinkled throughout, providing transitions and making sure that Mountain of Smoke stick with the plot, as it were. In addition to giving the audience something to latch onto for a record that, put to tape by Michael Briggs at Civil Audio in Denton, TX, both bludgeoning in its execution and largely indecipherable on first listen when it comes to the blown-out growls that serve for most of the vocals, the theme also lends aesthetic nuance to Mountain of Smoke‘s sound, which if the point hasn’t gotten across yet, is anything but subtle.
Rather, it is a style built for volume. The litmus test for duo-violence used to be Black Cobra and I suppose now it’s probably Germany’s Mantar. For what it’s worth, Mountain of Smoke have more in common with the latter than the former in terms of their overall approach, though of course it varies. Less outwardly thrash, they’re nonetheless given to driving moments throughout Gods of Biomechanics, whether it’s the closing title-track, the rush of “Tannhauser Gate” or the stabbing verse of “Retirement.” Amid the thrust come massive rolling grooves. Massive, as in, of mass. From the moment “Incept” picks up from its leadoff sample at the album’s open, its huge low end plod becomes as much of a running theme as the film itself. That instrumental opener leads way via another sample — just of the score — into “Tannhauser Gate,” which revels in its thrust and brashness. Who could argue? Like much of the record, it’s a speaker-blower, and the pedal steel shows itself pivotal as well when it comes to adding a sense of space to the proceedings.
That too will become more and more apparent as the rest of Gods of Biomechancis plays out, through “Orion’s Shoulder” and “Caesium Beams” and the High on Fire-worthy bombast of “Zhora,” and into side B on “Retirement,” “Leon,” “Tyrell” and the title-track. So really just everywhere save perhaps “Incept” and its counterpart “Morphology” which gives the second half of the album its own instrumental launch. I don’t know how full-time a member of the band Alex will be, if the two-piece has become a trio, but his work winds up being crucial here just the same. As mentioned, the pedal steel adds breadth and a sense of space to the songs, but it also works in concert with the Blade Runner theme, since with the echo behind it and often played in sustained notes, it cuts a direct line to the kinds of otherworldly melodies Vangelis brought to the original film’s soundtrack. That was largely synthesized, but if one thinks of it on an interpretive level, the comparison holds up.
And the effect that has on making Gods of Biomechanics seem all the more complete in terms of concept and delivery isn’t to be understated. Mountain of Smoke‘s first offering was rawer and hit with plenty of force, but was more abrasive and not nearly so methodical. Gods of Biomechanics mounts its attack with some feeling of calculation behind it. The band aren’t simply crashing through the wall, they’re sneaking around it — though one hesitates to use a work like “sneaking” when it comes to something so obviously meant to be played as loudly as possible. Either way, not to be lost in all the holy-crap-this-is-heavy hyperbole that’s sure to be tossed the album’s way is the fact that Mountain of Smoke‘s sound isn’t just about bearing an inhuman amount of heft, or about describing scenes from a movie, but about entering a creative conversation with that work, and the pedal steel, siren-like at the start of “Retirement” or riding the fury of Brooks‘ riff on “Leon,” is a major part of what allows it to do so.
Its inclusion feels organic — as opposed to it feeling android, I guess — as an extension of the band’s overarching purpose, and as they slam into “Tyrell” and “Gods of Biomechanics” at the record’s back end, the statement they seem to be making not only engages with its subject matter, but brings it to life in a new, fascinating and oddly appropriate way. The risk with bands working on a single-theme as Mountain of Smoke are is that, at a certain point, they might run out of things to talk about once all the characters and ideas from the movie are covered. Would they write a song about the 2017 sequel? The sans-monologue directors cut version of the original? I don’t know, but they wouldn’t be the first group to come up against that issue, say screw it, and successfully move on to other thematic ground, so maybe I’m worrying about nothing. More important for the moment is the success throughout Gods of Biomechanics in putting their listeners in that always-dark, always-raining world where the threat always seems to be present and the danger always seems to be right there waiting. So too is the case here as Mountain of Smoke dream of electric sheep and awaken to be unbridled in their aural instensity.
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 31st, 2017 by JJ Koczan
It’s been a good long while since the last time we heard from Dallas, Texas, trio Elliott’s Keep. Their third record, Nascentes Morimur (review here), arrived in 2013, and, well that was four years ago, so yeah. It was the doom metallers’ harshest offering to-date at the time, and one wonders what the intervening years will have done to their sound. It’s a relevant question, of course, because they’re recording a fourth long-player as we speak.
Okay, maybe not this second, but it’s in progress. Once again working with producer J.T. Longoria (Mercyful Fate, Absu, King Diamond, Solitude Aeturnus), once again keeping on theme in the medieval imagery of their cover art and once again holding true to their penchant for Latin album titles — Lacrimae Mundi translates, as noted below, to “tears of the world” — Elliott’s Keep seem to be signaling a sticking to form rather than any radical changes, but each of their outings has been a creative step from its predecessor and I’d expect no less this time around as well, whatever other elements may persist. The band, as you’ll recall, were formed in homage to mutual friend Glenn Riley Elliott, whose passing continues to inform their thematic and overall style.
Not sure on the exact timing of the release, but the band sent over the following so we can all be in the loop on the art and tracks. Here goes:
Elliott’s Keep – Lacrimae Mundi
Just a quick Elliott’s Keep update.
We have been recording the new album over the past few weeks and the guitar, drums and bass tracking is now complete. We will go back to Nomad Studios in a few weeks for Ken to do his vocal tracking.
The new album is titled Lacrimae Mundi (Latin for Tears of the World). We are again working with JT Longoria.
The track listing is as follows: Carpe Noctem Tempest The Doom of Men Banished to Shadow Ninestane Rig Moments of Respite Reflection Remembrance
Elliott’s Keep is: Joel Bates – Drums Kenneth Greene – Vocals and Bass Guitar Jonathan Bates – Guitar
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 24th, 2017 by JJ Koczan
Next month, Texas heavy rock exports Mothership will head back to Europe and the UK for a tour to support their 2017 third album, High Strangeness (review here). Launching with a revisit to Germany’s Freak Valley Festival, from which they previously released a live album, the power trio will make their way in the company of desert legends Yawning Man to the UK for a stretch alongside Ripple Music compatriots Poseidon, after which they’ll meet up with Karma to Burn and Egypt and work their way toward the finish of the run July 14 at Stoned from the Underground, also in Germany. Almost a full month on the road, shows all around Europe, and it comes full circle at German fests. Awesome.
Word came through the PR wire about the UK shows, and I’ve added the complete European run info here — because one likes to be thorough about these things. Check it out:
MOTHERSHIP Set to Storm the U.K. for the HIGH STRANGENESS’ UK Album Tour 2017
Mothership took the world by storm with their latest album, “High Strangeness”, their 4th release for California Heavy Rock leader, Ripple Music. After months of non-stop touring in America, now the Texan hard rockers take their high energy, guitar-mad show to Europe. Be sure not to miss ‘HIGH STRANGENESS’ UK Album Tour 2017. Tickets on sale now!
Joining them on the U.K. highways are Ripple Labelmates, post-metal doomsters, Poseidon, who’ll be touring their Ripple Music debut, “Prologue”
17 June – Siegen, DE – Freak Valley Festival (SOLD OUT) 18 June – Berlin, DE – Badehaus* 19 June – Hamburg, DE – Hafenklang* 21 June – Landgraaf, NL – Oefenbunker 22 June – Utrecht, NL – dB’s 23 June – Bourlon, FR – Rock In Bourlon 24 June – Brussels, BE – Magasin 4 25 June – Milton Keynes, UK – Craufurd Arms+ 26 June – Coventry, UK – The Phoenix+ 27 June – Manchester, UK – Factory+ 28 June – Edinburgh, UK – Bannermans+ 29 June – Cardiff, UK – Fuel+ 30 June – Bournemouth, UK – The Anvil+ 01 July – London, UK- The Black Heart+ 03 July – Paris, FR – Le Glazart** 04 July – Nantes, FR – Le Scene Michelet** 06 July – Barcelona, ES – Rocksound 07 July – Turin, IT – Blah Blah 08 July – Povegliano Veronese, IT – Art Pollution Festival 09 July – Parma, IT – App Colombofili 10 July – Treviso, IT – Benecio Live Gigs*** 11 July – Vienna, AUT- Arena 12 July – Nuremberg, DE – MUZclub 13 July – Munich, DE – Feierwerk 14 July – Erfurt, DE – Stoned From The Underground Festival * W/ Yawning Man + W/ Poseidon **W/ Karma To Burn & Egypt ***W/ Karma To Burn
Mothership is: Kelley Juett – Guitars/Vox Kyle Juett – Bass/Vox Judge Smith – Drums
[Click play above to stream ‘Helter Skelter’ by Mothership. High Strangeness is out March 17 on Ripple Music and Heavy Psych Sounds.]
Texas heavy rock trio hit a crucial moment with their third album. Their first two records, 2012’s self-titled debut (review here) and the aptly-named 2014 follow-up, Mothership II (review here), brought them to the fore of the then-emergent/now-dominant Ripple Music as one of the label’s best acts and the seeming inheritors of a Lone Star heavy rock legacy spanning decades from Bloodrock and ZZ Top to Dixie Witch and Blood of the Sun. Persistent touring at home and abroad has brought them to the forefront of the US underground and they’re hitting a point where their reputation for an on-stage energy blast is preceding them. Accordingly, it’s time for the trio of guitarist/vocalist Kelley Juett, bassist/vocalist Kyle Juett and drummer Judge Smith to step up and claim that place as their own.
Easier said than done, but this is the place where High Strangeness — the third Mothership full-length and second for Ripple, with a release in Europe via Heavy Psych Sounds — sees them. They have moved beyond the brash upstart position where they started, having collectively played a disruptor role as only a badass guitar-led outfit can, and while no doubt each subsequent tour introduces them to new ears and eyes, among a core audience of the converted, they’ve become more of a known, established quantity. They demonstrated last time out that their songwriting could take a multifaceted approach to classic-style heavy rock, working in elements of psychedelia at a whim and more measured execution, and much to its and the band’s benefit, High Strangeness follows suit in not only expanding their palette, but doing so with a more stripped-down, from-the-stage sound.
While the Adam Burke cover art might lead one to think High Strangeness is gearing toward maximum lushness with its depth of color and detail, its eight-track/33-minute run goes the other way almost entirely. True, the intro title-track and the later subdued instrumental interlude “Eternal Trip” dip into patient psych and offer listeners a stretch to chill out, but Mothership are much more about the raw charge in tracks like “Ride the Sun” — the second cut and a nigh-on-flawless nod to ’90s-style stoner rock à la Fu Manchu — the subsequent chugger “Midnight Express” or the six-plus-minute finale “Speed Dealer,” and the sound and vibe of the album bolsters that intention. Hooks remain a consistent factor in their work — “Midnight Express” is infectious, as is side A closer “Crown of Lies,” as is side B opener and not-at-all-a-Beatles-cover “Helter Skelter” and so on — but a noteworthy change in production method, working at Fire Station Studios in San Marcos, Texas, with Crypt Trip‘s Ryan Lee to record and mix (Tony Reed of Mos Generator mastered), as opposed to the first two LPs, which were produced by Kent Stump of Wo Fat, seems to be the conscious choice driving the change in the overarching feel.
With distinct separation between the guitar, bass and drums, as well as some well-placed trades between the Juett brothers on vocals — perhaps best represented in the shift between the brief, penultimate “Wise Man” and “Speed Dealer” as High Strangeness rounds out — Mothership come across as professionally crisp but road-hardened, caked perhaps by the grit of the highways they’ve traveled. Kelley‘s solos on the galloping “Crown of Lies,” the motor-riffed “Ride the Sun” (in layers), snuck in toward the end of “Midnight Express,” etc., will likewise leave scorch marks as ever, but these too carry a rawer, more live impression. If Mothership are looking to represent what they do on tour in these tracks — and listening to the groove locked into at the end of “Helter Skelter,” it’s an easy argument to make that they are — then they’re doing it well. It sounds like a show one would want to catch.
And while there’s still an ‘album’ sensibility, as emphasized by “High Strangeness” itself at the outset — a hypnotic three-minute first impression the band righteously counteracts with the punch in the face of “Ride the Sun” — and the guitar-only spaciousness of “Eternal Trip” prior to the closing duo, it’s worth noting that the naturalistic feel of High Strangeness gives the Juetts and Smith an opportunity to highlight the efficiency in their songwriting in a way that their material simply hasn’t done before. Its 33-minute runtime is over 20 minutes shorter than was Mothership II, and so each track here does more work in crafting the spirit of the record, including those instrumental pieces, and while Mothership come across with fewer tonal frills than they have in the past, playing toward the organic roots of their approach suits them. They may not be upstarts anymore, but they’re still plenty brash.
It’s a wholly unpretentious front-to-back flow, asking next to nothing as far as indulgences and delivering on its early promises. As “Speed Dealer” rounds out — one would not say “winds down” for such a song — with its balance between speed and push and shouted vocals on top, rolling into its bigger-riffed second half, Mothership have found a way to continue their forward growth while driving toward this leaner modus. They could have gone either way and, to be perfectly honest, with the strength of their choruses they’d probably still come out successful in the end had they chosen a more grandiose path, but High Strangeness especially on repeat listens shows its maturity in making the exact moves it needs to make at exactly the times it needs to make them, and it would seem that Mothership — whose momentum carries right through each of these tracks and on to their next tour, recording, whatever it might be — have done exactly the same.
