Posted in Whathaveyou on August 20th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Darmstadt, Germany’s Wight have put out word that they’re ready to not be a band anymore. Maybe for a while, maybe forever, maybe they’ll do something again, maybe not, but this isn’t the kind of thing where the band is breaking up because somebody threw a chair at someone else. At least that’s not the vibe one gets from their statement posted below, and you know Wight have always been all about vibe.
The announcement of their hiatus, which is what it maths out to be, comes one year after their most recent single, the somewhat sleazy “St. Tropez,” and five years after their most recent album, Spank the World (review here). This was the fourth full-length from the band, who had already by then moved through the stoner idolatry of their 2011 debut, Wight Weedy Wight (review here), which was reissued in 2023, and the heavy psychedelia of the subsequent 2012 LP, Through the Woods into Deep Water (review here), into the way-funkier ground of 2016’s Love is Not Only What You Know (review here) to make a defining statement. In melody, groove and craft, they embodied a heavy funk rock that was neither cynical nor overly serious, and they always seemed to remember that physical movement and the inciting of it were crucial to the effectiveness of the material. Spank the World was a more than worthy follow-up as the band dug further into soul and classic shuffle.
But these things run their course. And if it’s not there right now, why on earth would you try to force it to be. I’ve been in touch with René Hofmann since the first record, and I wish him and the rest of the band the best going forward, whether that’s with future projects, an eventual return to Wight, or not. It was a pleasure to watch this band progress and come into their own, and as they hang it up potentially forever, I’m glad to see their ending be a happy one.
From social media:
This photo captures the ecstasy of our last weekend—and truly, the last 17 years together. After nearly a year with the amazing Lara Fischer on bass, it’s time for us to take a well-deserved pause.
Seventeen years of music, madness, love, and growth. We’ll let our song ideas ferment for a while before we gather again in our creative kitchen to cook up new soul food for your ears.
For now, we just want to live—because life itself, in all its fullness, is the root of creativity. We thank ourselves for staying true, for standing by each other with acceptance, understanding, and love. And we thank YOU—our audience, our community, the salt in our soup. You shared your lives with us on stage, in every show, every record, every stream. That’s the greatest gift we could ever receive.
Posted in Reviews on August 15th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
You could sit for a week and get no further than the title. Snakes Bite Tales. Call it ‘grammatical depth.’ If it was ‘Snake Bite Tales’ or ‘Snakes Bite Tails,’ that would be one thing. Snakes Bite Tales refuses not to be both. That petulance is part of its charm. Think of snakes eating multiple stories. As with the cover art, there’s an ouroboros aspect, snakes biting their own tails — I also read snakes biting tails as a warning or a motivation; “better haul ass, you know snakes bite tails”; a way of saying keep moving — and there’s ‘tales’ to imply that the songs themselves are the stories of these self-inflicted bites, which it very much turns out is the case across the nine songs/42 minutes of the fifth Bushfire LP and first since 2017’s When Darkness Comes (review here). The Darmstadt, Germany, five-piece have been around long enough to name their regrets, but with actual-maturity comes the ability to call a thing what it is and move forward (or so I’m told), and with a succession of relatively short, catchy tracks informed by Southern heavy with a burl that’s received as many bruises as it’s dished out, forward momentum is definitely a factor here.
I’ll not feign impartiality on the subject, as I’ve come to consider Bushfire frontman Bill Brown a good friend over the years, and it was with particular joy that I got to see Bushfire play twice at this year’s Freak Valley Festival (review here), playing this album in full between two sets. The setting is relevant because Snakes Bite Tales, in addition to welcoming back bassist Nicolas Kurz to the fold alongside Bill — normally I’d use someone’s last name here, but it feels wrong; this is another way I know I’m not impartial — guitarists Miguel Pereira and Luis Jacobi and drummer Sascha Holz, features near its finish the song “Valley of the Freak,” which is an ode to the fest in question begun with the if-you’ve-been-there-recognizable voice of Volker Fröhmer greeting the crowd with “Liebe freunde!” before the riff kicks in. While right in line with the traditions of the kind of boozy Southern heavy they play, the heart-on-sleeve aspects of “Valley of the Freak” nonetheless come through as sincere, and knowing Bill as I do, I’ll tell you he means it when he talks about finding his place between those hillsides.
If that’s momentum and passion working on Bushfire‘s side, they’re not alone in terms of appeals. “Cult of Conformity” opens with a rasp and a roll, a tight structure and a loose groove, starting the procession through “Force of 1,000 Suns” — slower, chuggier, but still moving — and barreling into “Dead Man’s Hand,” the Motörheady skid of the guitars feeling anything but coincidental. There’s strut in the final slowdown there, vibrant, classic and dirty in kind, that feels particularly Pepper Keenan-esque, but with the raspy shouts over top and the smooth-nodder cymbal crash behind, the feel is a push but not overblown. There’s a lot of record left, after all. “Self-Inflicted Bite” cleans up the vocals momentarily before unveiling more of a bellow atop the driving early verse, a howling midsection solo, and a grungier delve later that prefaces some of the moodier/darker fare to come toward the end of the album — the tail end, specifically — without departing the raw-with-purpose sound fostered by the surrounding tracks. At this point, Bushfire are four songs deep and about to hit into the centerpiece highlight, “Comfort in Silence,” which ends side A of the vinyl and bridges to “Under the Willow Tree,” the longest inclusion at 5:43.
The side B leadoff brings a departure in terms of arrangement, diving further into the Southern side with lap steel and a brooding vocal in the first half, only to break out in the second, volume and distortion taking hold fluidly without sacrificing the emotional crux of the lyrics. It stands to reason that “Watch You Drown,” which follows, would be the hardest hitting inclusion on the record, or close enough to it to make the point — which is to say I haven’t gotten out the ‘how heavy is it’ ruler and measured. A comparative intensity of riff feels like it’s picking up the forward crux of the songs’ structures and adding to the shove, and this sets up a back-and-forth in tempo as the slowdown becomes a hook unto itself, complementing “Under the Willow Tree”‘s branched-out vibe with a drop-everything, down-to-business feel that still manages to hone a sense of dynamic. Some of the grunge of “Self-Inflicted Bite” is echoed toward the end of “Watch You Drown,” and with “Valley of the Freak” after, Snakes Bite Tales holds some of its most memorable stretches in reserve not for the up-front rockers “Cult of Conformity” or “Force of 1,000 Suns” at the start of the record, but for the later reaches, where “Under the Willow Tree,” “Watch You Drown,” “Valley of the Freak” and “InTerrorGate” each give a distinct look at a side of what Bushfire does.
As the last of those, “InTerrorGate” is the darkest and most aggressive, and it stands out from the tracklisting before that. Given the raw, from-the-guts love exuded by “Valley of the Freak” just prior, the closer feels like a stark turn that, although it’s nastier in terms of the execution, pulls back on the emotional impact and so feels somewhat superfluous in terms of the full-album flow. That is, with that succession of three songs on side B, Bushfire are pushing toward the culmination of “Valley of the Freak,” that very-definite declaring of self. “InTerrorGate,” which comes through as less personal and more ‘about a thing’ than speaking right to it in the way of the ode preceding. My sense in listening is it’s there because the band felt it needed to be, and there are a few different levels on which that might be true eight years after the record before it, more than 20 since they started out, among them documentation and preservation. You never know when it’s going to be your last album; so yeah, “InTerrorGate” has something to offer. If Snakes Bite Tales ends up being Bushfire‘s swansong or it doesn’t, in their songwriting and the fervency of its expression — let alone the hours spent analyzing the title — you could only call it representative. This is who Bushfire are.
Posted in Whathaveyou on March 26th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Wight‘s founding guitarist/vocalist and psych-funk-grunge visionary René Hofmann is right when he says it’s been a while since he wrote a newsletter. The last one I have is from Sept. 2023, which since they’re numbered I know is the latest one until the below.
Hofmann points out that doesn’t mean the band have been inactive. In that 2023 post, for a tour celebrating the band’s 15th anniversary, the stated intention was to play more live in 2024. Apparently that happened and bassist Peter-Philipp Schierhorn started a family besides. Good news, even if it means he won’t play the six-show run the band have lined up for next month. Lara Fischer of ’80s-style AOR hard rockers Meloi steps into the bassist role for the tour.
Wight‘s last full-length was 2020’s Spank the World (review here), and especially with the band working at their own pace, exploring in Hofmann‘s Wasted Life Studio perhaps or feeling out new sounds in the rehearsal space and at shows, I’m curious what they might have in the works, whatever stage of ‘in the works’ that actually means.
Until the next newsletter? You never know:
Wight on tour in Switzerland, Austria and Italy!
It’s been a while since I wrote a newsletter. That’s ok, because first: I really don’t wanna fill your inbox with unnecessary shit! I think we all got enough of that 😅 and second: We really did not have much to say. We are still a very active band but during the years it all got a bit slower… let’s say without pressure. Nevertheless we played quite a lot of shows in 2024 and I personally have to say this was my best year with Wight on stage ever and I am grateful to say that after 17 years of band history. Our bassist Peter became a father by the end of the year and decided to take a break, so we got our friend Lara Fischer on Bass for the upcoming tour in Switzerland, Austria and our first ever appearance in Italy.
Unfortunately our gig in Basel got cancelled so we head back to Germany to play in Frankfurt which will be our “home base gig” in 2025. I think this might be the only chance to see us with Lara if you are reading this and you are coming from Rhein-Main Area like we do. See you soon, enjoy life and spring 😘
– René
The dates:
Friday April 11th LUZERN (CH) – Sedel Saturday April 12th FRANKFURT (DE) – The Cave Thursday April 17th SALZBURG (AT) – Rockhouse Bar Friday April 18th GRAZ (AT) – Club Wakuum Saturday April 19th LINZ (AT) – Kapu Sunday April 20th ZERO BLANCO (IT) – Atroquando
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 5th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
At this point it’s been over six years since Darmstadt, Germany, heavy rockers Bushfire put out their last album, 2018’s When Darkness Comes (review here), and it seems like if a follow-up is something that’s ever going to happen, now’s probably a good time. The long-running troupe sent word that they’ve welcomed bassist Nicolas Kurz back into the fold and they don’t go so far as to announce recording plans or say a thing is done, but they do say flat out they’re targeting a 2024 release, and there’s a lot of year left, so they might even get there.
The band released their Live at 806qm recording in 2020 and played Desertfest Belgium last year. I’d assume any future live plans will come together around the recording, whenever that happens, so it might be a bit before they’re out for anything more than a getaway, but that they’re moving forward is still good news. Proceedings proceeding, and so on.
Frontman Bill Brown checked in on socials:
Yo, BILL here, on behalf of BUSHFIRE.
Well, you might have noticed we’ve been off the radar for quite some time. And trust me, it’s not been easy.
Understanding. For me this means in these almost 20 years as a BUSHFIRE member, in this band you must have a love for music and share with other musicians, musical ideas, a common ground and goal so to say. Sometimes that’s tougher than you’d think. As a lyricist, I depend on the music to drive me into the emotional journey so I can reflect and convey, if nothing but, a feeling. I can only assume every musician has exactly that feeling no matter the instrument. Dependance, on one another. We take a journey together and it’s tough sometimes. I’m nothing without my band. Well ok, a poet maybe.
As always in life, things change. Our bassist and good buddy Vince, has decide to depart from the BUSHFIRE saga, on his own terms and personal reasons. It lay heavy in our hearts but understanding is key. We wish him nothing but the best.
From Vinz:
“When I joined Bushfire I was a fan of the band. I had seen them in 2012, playing a gig in Das Bett in Frankfurt and I thought “This is the music I would like to play!”. Fast forward a couple of years and I was waking up at 6 every morning to practice dozens of songs after Billorone had asked me: “Do you have time for a 2 weeks tour of the Balkans?”. It has been 10+ years of efforts and rewards, sacrifices and satisfactions, sweat and thrills, passionate fights and passionate harmonies, crazy highway trips, long stage-time waits, amazing concerts. I leave now because I need to find a new perspective, you know when sometimes a cycle must close? I will stay a Bushfire fan. I wish you good luck, guys, and I bow one last time to all the people that have been supporting us all along. Rock on!”
As bittersweet as this may be, we are excited to announce and love to re-welcome, NICK. (Nicolas Kurz)
Nick has shared the stage with us through the years with countless heroes of music.
We have a history, it’s comforting. Between (2011-2013) (recorded: Heal Thy Self), we’ve crossed Europe, destroying minds and ears along the way. It’s amazing to have him back for the support and journey. So let’s raise a glass to our brother’s return!
That being said, we’ve been focusing on our new album diligently. Our goal is to record, produce and release this album this year. Determined to take a new journey and return to the light, love, family, friends and stage that we’ve been so greatly missing.
Understanding is key. See you very soon. Love. BUSHFIRE
Posted in Whathaveyou on October 10th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
15 years of Wight, huh? I recall vividly digging their recently-reissued 2011 debut, Wight Weedy Wight (review here), and the progression they’ve unfolded in the years since — their most recent album is 2020’s Spank the World (review here) — they came to embrace first a psychedelic take and settled into a funkish groove based around that, emphasizing performance and daring to be fun in an unironic way. Well, at least mostly unironic. Cheekiness has always been a factor, along with a good deal of charm.
They’ll head out for live shows to celebrate the anniversary, which is fair enough, in the company of Buddha Sentenza, who as fate and luck would apparently have it are also celebrating their 15th year in 2023. Cheers to both bands and safe travels. You don’t even have to look as far as the poster to know this’ll be fun, but you might want to check it out anyway.
And worth noting that 15 years in, Wight aren’t resting on laurels. I saw some studio-adjacent antics in a post on whichever social it was, so they’re at least around recording equipment, which if you’ve ever heard music before you know is an important step toward making a thing.
And while I’m ticking boxes, I’ll further note that the only reason I’m posting Wight‘s announcement of these shows instead of Buddha Sentenza‘s is I saw Wight‘s first. Fair’s fair.
Dig:
Wight’s 15th anniversary tour with Buddha Sentenza
As you might have noticed on social media, we had our 15th anniversary this year. We prepared a special set for our birthday show back in April, and we’d like to play a few more gigs with that one. So far we have only played locally this year, but now we’ll be going on a short tour through Germany in November. We’ll have our friends of Buddha Sentenza with us, who coincidentally also just turned 15 years old. (The band that is, not the members.)
The tour dates: 01.11 Bessunger Knabenschule – DARMSTADT (Wight only!) 02.11 SubKultur – HANNOVER 03.11 Supamolly – BERLIN 04.11 Schlachthof – EISENACH 11.11 Bessunger Knabenschule – DARMSTADT (Buddha Sentenza only!)
We are planning to play live a lot more in 2024, and also go to other European countries. If you have ideas or suggestions, let us know! So far, we have the following gigs confirmed:
There’s something unassuming about the way Lucid Void jazz into “Himmelheber,” the seven-minute opening track on their self-titled debut full-length, released through Sound of Liberation Records. But the first two minutes of that song, before it moves to the more grounded but still intricate series of jabs and bass flourishes, building like classic heavy prog jams, are emblematic of the subtleties on display throughout the record. Based in Darmstadt, Germany, and produced by René Hofmann (also of Wight) with mixing by Josko Joketovic Jole Joka (Willi Dammeier at Institut für Wohlklangforschung mastered), Lucid Void offer six tracks of krautrock-informed sans-vox heavy prog and psych.
Beginning with “Himmelheber” as both leadoff and the longest individual piece (immediate points), they go on to inhabit a range of vibes across the three-per-side-makes-six songs and 36 minutes, with “Gala Ballada,” following and opening wider to psychedelic-ish fluidity, mellow space rock throwing itself a twist in the last of its own seven minutes (opening with the two longest tracks is double points; please note there are no actual points) in giving due accent to its patient but not still movement. Like the quiet section of a latter-day Elder song isolated and extracted to stand on its own, it sweeps into its more shimmering conclusion of thoughtful lead guitar and keys, resides there for a while and then fades out, not looking to wear out its welcome but, especially in combination with “Himmelheber” just before, engaging and maybe a little hypnotic but still clear in its purposes toward exploring classy/classic progressive rock.
The listener might not always know where the four-piece of Jakob Schuck (guitar), Samba Gueye (keyboards), Béla Nitsch (bass) and Max Hübner (drums/percussion) are going, but if Causa Sui had already known they wanted to be psych-jazz when they started out, their first record might’ve sounded like Lucid Void‘s self-titled, and as they move through the willfully bumpy early rhythm and warm heavy-psych-toned procession of “Dorian,” definitely plotted in its structure but still feeling open on its journey into the proto-New Wave keyboard and molten bass and the concluding acoustic reveal in its second half, the grace in the band’s sound isn’t to be ignored.
One can hear hints of Colour Haze, the aforementioned Causa Sui and Elder, maybe some loose influence from fellow European instrumentalists like My Sleeping Karma on “Dorian,” but while Lucid Void are obviously schooled in the works of generational forebears, they come across as wanting to take on an array of different sounds and sub-styles within the proggier end of heavy music, and that ambition is realized across Lucid Voidin the varied but cohesive stretches of the songs that comprise it.
“Dorian” is shorter than either of its two side A companions, and no less thoughtful in wrapping the first half of the album than “Himmelheber” was in starting, the pastoral shimmer of its relatively quick guitar intro soon joined by toms seeming to preface some of the serenity of the is-that-running-water-I-hear ending. To be symmetrical and liquid in kind is not easy in any style, let alone on a first record, but a deceptively gentle delivery even at in the neo-space rock shuffle of “Gala Ballada” answers the insistence that emerges from the keys and chimes in the early going of “Himmelheber” in ways that make the album a deeper listening experience and give a more complex impression of the band on the whole.
Further evidence of an underlying plan at work is the manner in which “Flatlanders” picks up with acoustic guitar where “Dorian” left off, taking its first minute for an introductory exploration before the organ-backed swing and strutting lead electric guitar kick in to unfold the ‘meat’ of the song itself. There’s character in “Flatlanders” beyond the organic tonality of the band itself and the bit of tambourine they toss in shortly before mellowing out at the halfway mark. The patience in that trade, in pulling back, is crucial to understanding the band, and that they don’t rush back into ‘the heavy part’ communicates their potential all the more. Instead, “Flatlanders” makes its way through a build of guitar and keys.
Yes, the tambourine returns at the end, but the four-piece do well to focus on getting there as much as where they’re going, where they’ve been. The penultimate “Galyxo” is the longest cut on side B at 6:29, and by then the course is set. Lucid Void lean a bit into the rhythmic urgency of Slift but not necessarily the sensory-overload of volume, and when they turn from the buzz-fuzz and sharp snare to the more open flow for the second time, the result in what you might call the song’s payoff if the whole thing wasn’t the payoff arrives at thicker distortion and riffier push only as part of its overarching purpose toward heavy psychedelia.
“Galyxo” is satisfying enough to be the crescendo of Lucid Void, and is all the more appropriate to think of in those terms because it doesn’t lose itself in the moment it creates, but the concluding “Suns,” which is the shortest inclusion at 5:08 seems to allow the listener space to daydream. There’s definite forward movement, a particularly post-Koglek rhythm to the riff that some of the song works around, but in the finale as well, Lucid Void show they’re up to the task of incorporating influences into their own approach rather than carbon-copying what came before. More than an epilogue as the closer, “Suns” is languid in its groove and the last guitar solo and standalone-piano ending feel placed in order to leave off with no less consciousness-of-self (as opposed to being self-conscious in an insecure sense) than they executed “Himmelheber,” “Dorian,” or “Flatlanders.”
Which is to say, if Lucid Void didn’t write these songs specifically to be put where they are on the record, they sound like they did, and that might actually be more of an accomplishment. That’s doubly true on a debut full-length, where the task is as much about making a first impression on new listeners as establishing at least some facets of the aesthetic scope the band will explore. Lucid Void sound fresh in their not-overwrought, semi-psychedelic prog, and are able to shape their material in order to evoke and emotional response without vocals. Wherever they ultimately end up in terms of sound, that ability can only be an asset, as it most certainly is here.
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 4th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Just a couple weeks ago, Darmstadt’s Lucid Void were announced as having signed to SOL Records. The acronym there is for Sound of Liberation — if you were thinking “shit out of luck,” nope, though there may well be days where the European booking agency feels like it might apply — and the German four-piece join a nascent but already international roster of acts after already inking for tours. I suppose a big clue might’ve been when Lucid Void were invited to play the Sound of Liberation anniversary party last year, or 2022’s first edition of the Lazy Bones Festival in Hamburg, which the company also puts on.
In 2023, Lucid Void are already confirmed for Keep it Low in October — they’ll be at Stoned From the Underground as well this summer — and it only seems likely that will lead to more as they make ready to unveil their self-titled debut, produced like their 2020 SAAT EP by René Hofmann of Wight, on May 19. If that seems like a quick turnaround from signing to release, that might be a result of shellshock from the pressing delays of 2021-2022, which have reportedly abated to some degree this year, so take it as a good sign. And you could do far worse than, “my goodness we gottta get this record out asap,” as regards urgency.
Cover art and preorder link and other whathaveyou follow here, as per socials:
It’s official — Our self-titled album “Lucid Void” will be released on 19th of May via SOL Records
It will be available on limited coloured vinyl, black vinyl and cd. You can preorder your copy now on SOL Record’s website.
We’re also proud to finally present to you our magnificent album cover by the amazing artist Johanna Amberg from Darmstadt.
She took inspiration from our music and came up with a very cool idea. What you are seeing is actually a real miniature sculpture she manufactured herself.
The album was recorded by René Hofmann and mixed by Josko Joketovic Jole Joka. The mastering was done by Willi Dammeier at Institut für Wohlklangforschung.
TRACKLIST: A 1 Himmelheber A 2 Gala Ballada A 3 Dorian B 1 Flatlanders B 2 Galyxo B 3 Suns
Lucid Void are Jakob Schuck, Samba Gueye, Béla Nitsch and Max Hübner.
Posted in Whathaveyou on March 23rd, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Darmstadt, Germany’s Lucid Void are the second band to be picked up for the roster of SOL Records, the label wing of European booking agency Sound of Liberation. The imprint released Slip Through the Cracks (review here) by Athens’ Half Gramme of Soma last year and will follow sometime in the coming months with Lucid Void‘s yet-untitled debut. If you saw the word “Darmstadt” there and thought to yourself, “Gee, I wonder if they know Wight and/or Bushfire,” well, Wight‘s René Hofmann mixed and mastered their 2020 SAAT EP — streaming below; it’s pretty cool — so at least there’s that.
I don’t know what they call this generation in Europe. Is it still Gen-Z? I think we’re really starting to see a generational turnover in bands. Some are aging out, some new ones are coming in, it’s great. If I was the listicle type, I’d put together a ’30 under 30′ or some such, but I’ve got neither the time, the inclination, nor the will to fact-check the age of a bunch of dudes when it’s secondary to the point of the band’s existence anyhow. I wouldn’t count someone out because they’re 32, is what I’m saying, and the whole thing suddenly becomes an overthought pain in the ass because that’s how I do.
Whatever. I asked the AI robot what Gen-Z is called in Europe and it’s Gen-Z, mostly. See? Fact-checking matters. Though I’m not sure I’d call that robot a reputable source at this point. In any case, congrats to Lucid Void on the signing and here’s looking forward to the record. I’m kind of assuming it’ll be out this Fall since after playing Stoned From the Underground this summer, the band will also play Keep it Low in Munich this October. Would be a hell of a release party, but I guess we’ll see how the timing works.
Sound of Liberation sent the following in their newsletter:
SOL RECORDS: LUCID VOID SIGNED
We are proud to announce the signing of the super talented psychedelic krautrock band Lucid Void from Darmstadt, Germany.
Some of you might know them already from performances with My Sleeping Karma, Colour Haze and Greenleaf at some of our festivals.
We are stoked to have them on board. Their first full length album will be released soon via our new SOL Records Label.
Stay tuned about what’s coming next. A lot of good music cooking in our label pot. We are sure you will love it!
