Here’s the deal — last week or somewhere thereabouts, someone on Twitter was bitching about rock music being dead and blah blah the usual good music doesn’t come to me in the ways it did when I was 12 and therefore I think it’s irrelevant. The usual. Gimme Metal was mentioned as an outlet delivering good heavy to those who care enough to invest the minimal effort of clicking ‘listen.’ Dude was all “well if they played Trouble I’d listen” and Gimme rightly responded with a list of DJs who might be on board for such a thing. I was one of them.
Brought into the conversation I said hell yes I’d play Trouble. And as it happens I’ve gone ahead to play them twice, at the start of the show, and then follow it up with a bunch of other killer doom, old, newer and newer still, before circling back on the mother of them all, Black Fucking Sabbath, because when my name is brought into a random Twitter conversation and a challenge is issued, you bet your ass I’m going overboard. So pretty much the first hour of the show is doomed as all get-out. Trouble even through The Quill, who I thought were a good match for Dehumanizer-era Sabbath with that track from their new record.
Sometimes you gotta step up. Or something. I don’t know. I was just happen to have something to talk about in the voice breaks other than my kid or “thanks for listening.”
By the way, thanks for listening and/or reading. As always, I hope you enjoy.
The Obelisk Show airs 5PM Eastern today on the Gimme app or at http://gimmemetal.com
Full playlist:
The Obelisk Show – 04.16.21
Trouble
The Tempter
Psalm 9
Trouble
R.I.P.
Trouble
Saint Vitus
Burial at Sea
Saint Vitus
Place of Skulls
Last Hit
With Vision
VT
The Gates of Slumber
The Awakening (Interpolating the Wrath of the Undead)
…The Awakening
Apostle of Solitude
Grey Farewell
From Gold to Ash
The Obsessed
Neatz Brigade
The Church Within
Black Sabbath
After All (The Dead)
Dehumanizer
The Quill
Evil Omen
Earthrise
VT
Boss Keloid
Gentle Clovis
Family the Smiling Thrush
Hippie Death Cult
Hornet Party
Circle of Days
NOÊTA
Elm
Elm
Kosmodemonic
Morai
Liminal Light
Hellish Form
Shadows with Teeth
Remains
VT
Darsombra
Call the Doctor (Sun Side)
Call the Doctor / Nightgarden
The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is April 30 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.
Posted in Questionnaire on April 9th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.
Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.
Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.
The Obelisk Questionnaire: Brian Daniloski of Darsombra
—
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I define myself as Brian Daniloski, and life is what I do, all the time, until I die. If I had to give a bio to the world of what I would like to be remembered for, I would describe myself as an artist. My primary artistic practices are music composition, playing music, and performing music (which to me is different than, but also involves, playing music), among other artistic practices, like decorating my home, making breakfast, gardening, etc. Beyond that, I am also a yoga teacher and student, bicycle-riding, hiking, nature-loving, peace-loving, kind of a person, and I do a whole bunch of other not very exciting things too.
As to how I came to do the bio-to-the-world stuff, I dreamed of being a musician when I was about 9, soon after getting the (at that time) new KISS album, Rock and Roll Over. KISS changed my life. I started plunking around on a guitar shortly after that. My first guitar was a very shitty acoustic guitar that I picked up at a yard sale. I’m pretty sure it didn’t even have all six strings. It was the kind of guitar that would discourage most people from playing guitar, but I would pick out stuff like “Smoke on the Water” or the Twilight Zone theme by ear, and do pick slides and funny glissando runs up and down the strings all day to amuse myself and anyone nearby.
About a year or two after that, I got my first electric guitar and started taking guitar lessons from a music store in town. I learned several basic chords and some Beatles songs, but never learned to read music very efficiently. Although I could read a chord chart (if the chords weren’t too technically intense, and then eventually there was guitar tablature, which is much easier to read than traditional music notation), I pretty much taught myself to play music by ear, and sometimes, whenever I had the rare opportunity in those days, by watching another guitarist. At some point a neighborhood friend showed me how to play a barre chord, and that was a major revelation. I did the whole jam-by-myself-in-my-teenage-bedroom thing for many years before I felt confident enough in my abilities to play with others.
During the last years of high school, I started performing in some not-so-serious bands with friends, and did that sort of thing on and off for the next few years. We only ever played a couple of shows. I tried writing a tune here or there, but it wasn’t until I bought a four-track cassette recorder that I started really getting into composing.
Around that time, I also started going to underground shows. Before this, I was just going to a lot of arena rock shows, but those musicians were like untouchable gods to me. The chasm between playing in my bedroom or jamming with some friends in a garage, and actually playing a show on a stage to an audience seemed intimidatingly immense. It wasn’t until I saw the Butthole Surfers perform an awesome mind-bending show for a sold-out enthusiastic audience in this small shithole basement punk rock club in Baltimore, that I started to think that perhaps that chasm wasn’t as big as I’d imagined.
Soon after that, now in my early twenties, I started a band with my younger brother. That was in the late ’80s. Very quickly, we started getting serious with it. By serious, I mean we started writing songs, making and releasing recordings, and playing live shows. Within a few years, it went from just playing shows around Baltimore, Maryland, to playing shows that were within a 4-6 hour driving radius from Baltimore, to touring pretty regularly all over the US.
I haven’t stopped doing that sort of thing since. Only the cast of characters that I’ve done it with, and how far away we’ve been able to tour, has changed over the years. Over 30 years in, and I still spend a good chunk of every year as a wandering musician exploring the globe (2020 not so much — although we did get to perform our first show in Mexico before the pandemic shut everything down), and pretty much every day of my life I am involved in music, or some artistic creative process, and thankful of that.
I feel especially fortunate and grateful to have found a partner in crime to do this with. I’m not so sure that I would still be doing this the way I do it at this age, had the circumstances been different. Leaving behind significant others to go driving around in a van full of dudes for chunks of time, like I used to, doesn’t have as much appeal for me these days. I still do the same thing, driving around in a van to play shows, but the atmosphere is much more agreeable with my partner and bestest buddy along for the adventure.
Can great expository essay order really be condensed down into just 8 steps? Well, whilst it's true that there is a lot that goes into academic writing of any kind, these top takeaways are a great place to start if you want to improve your essay writing. To some, essay writing comes naturally. But for many, knowing how to answer an essay question in a way that will score high marks is something that Describe your first musical memory.
I remember deriving a great deal of joy from this enormous record-player-stereo-console-furniture-thing that my parents had. It must have been about the size of a refrigerator lying on its side. This would have been the early ’70s. They would play vinyl LP records on it like The Beatles Abbey Road, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, soundtracks to popular musicals of the time, Smothers Brothers comedy albums, and childrens records. There was a lot of music and dancing in the living room. I instantly loved music.
http://www.istsuper.com/?ghandi-research-paper and Exams; Please refer to the following guidelines when preparing... General Guidelines. Linguistics Style Sheet (pdf) (updated 03-2020) How to read research papers ; Template for research papers ; Guidelines for oral presentations ; Presentation Template ; Theses (Abschlussarbeiten) length: Lehramt – Schriftliche Hausarbeit: ca. 60 pages; Magisterarbeit: ca. 70-80 pages Describe your best musical memory to date.
“Best” is a really hard word for me, but one of my favorite musical moments was playing music outside by the side of the highway in rural Wyoming during a total solar eclipse. The high from the performance was incredible even though there were only two people in attendance — two tourists from Germany just happened to show up to watch the eclipse right as we were getting ready to start playing, a father and his son. The dad seemed to dig it okay; the son, not so much, as he seemed more interested in whatever he was doing on his smartphone. We were so charged from playing the show that we drove four hours to the Badlands of South Dakota, set up our gear again at the top of a mesa, and played over the Badlands as the sun went down that same day. There aren’t a lot of days like that.
Art History Term Paper. 2020/09/11 2020/09/16 ???? ?????. So you wish to buy essay online for the college students? It’s easy and affordable! If you know how to shop online, it may save hundreds of dollars each semester! Let me tell you how you can save money on your own essay authors and receive your student’s high grades in exactly the same moment! The first thing you need to know is When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?
I feel like my beliefs are questioned and tested all the time, so I try not to hold them too firmly. I’m always questioning everything, even myself. I think it was .38 Special that said “Hold on loosely, but don’t let go. If you cling too tightly, you’re gonna lose control.” I can go along with that sentiment, even if I’m not too crazy about the band or the song.
But seriously, reality is not real, or it is at least highly subjective, and therefore malleable. Once one accepts this, then it’s kind of hard to have too firm of a hold on a belief or idea. I think it’s good to have one’s beliefs tested. If your beliefs can’t withstand a test or two, maybe it’s time for a reassessment of that belief.
Discover how our Homework Services Inc can produce a powerful & compelling CV that secures the interviews you want and beats 100s of other applicants How do you define success?
My personal definition of success is being able to spend most of one’s time doing what one wants. I’ve always aimed at that, to varying degrees of success. ;)
college essay depression How Can I Write A Essay steps of research paper writing mit application essay help What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?
Well, it’s nothing horrible like being in a war, but on my way home from work one day, I saw two kittens run into a busy intersection and get run over by some cars right in front of me. That was something I wish I hadn’t seen. Other than that, I’m sure there’s a long list of bad movies that would fit the bill.
Watch dig this by Syedaamina91 on Dailymotion here Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.
We haven’t created the next Darsombra album yet, but we’re working on it, and having a blast! One day I’d like to create an all-synth album, but it’s really hard to put the guitar down, it’s like a third arm. Perhaps a time machine. That might be fun.
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Self-expression. Then after that, I’d say inspiration and/or evocation.
Affordable papers - buy What Is War Essay online! Accessing the benefits of using custom paper writing services for writing quality papers with ease. Order now! Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?
I look forward to socializing like we used to before the pandemic, being able to hug family and friends (instead of acting under the assumption that we’re all lepers), and not having to wear a mask as much.
Posted in Questionnaire on April 8th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.
Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.
Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.
The Obelisk Questionnaire: Ann Everton of Darsombra
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check it out How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?
I am a filmmaker, a musician, and above all, an artist. Making video art was my first creative path after exploring all sorts of art forms in my youth (graffiti, printmaking, oil painting, sculpture, performance art) — I had three days of education in Final Cut Pro 4 when I was in college, concentrating on Visual Arts, writing, and language. From those three little days of learning how to edit videos, I began working in video almost exclusively (save for photographic and graphic design work), from 2003 until now — but in 2013, I started to play music as well.
But I skipped the important part, which is that I met Brian Daniloski in 2009, and began collaborating with him in Darsombra in 2010. Initially, we’d just project my video work on Brian when he played (Darsombra was a solo act before August 2010) — that quickly evolved into me making video work specifically composed to Brian’s music. In 2012, we released our first album together (not including the DVD-album, Mega-Void, released a little earlier in 2012), Climax Community, on German label Exile on Mainstream. I composed, shot, and edited video work to the entire album, as well as doing the album art and graphic design, and Brian composed, played, and recorded all the music (though he was gracious enough to ask my opinion on different parts of the songs!). And then, in 2013, we changed it up again and I started to learn how to play music after we purchased a synthesizer.
I had had some musical background as a kid, playing violin, and singing at school and in church choirs, but music had always been a passion for me more as a listener than a player, performer, or singer. I was shy and didn’t like to practice — and I grew up in all-female educational environments for most of my youth, so I actually didn’t like the sound of the female voice (or my own voice, even). In 2013, I felt the call to perform on stage with Brian — previously our shows looked like him on stage and me in the audience, being the projectionist. With my background in photography and video work, I figured synth would be easiest for me — it’s a lot of little knobs and levers to change your parameters to your desire, like a camera. Also… it’s hard to make a synth sound really bad! My first (and only, so far) synth was the Roland Gaia — many folks take umbrage to it, but I love the sounds it makes.
I also sing (at last), and play percussion — singing was hard for me, even though the idea of using your body as an instrument was appealing to me as well. I had no faith in my voice, and it was not until one of my yoga teachers, Anjali Sunita (who was trained extensively in North Indian classical music), explained to me how you could sing from different parts of your body, and sing as a devotional act, the same way you practice yoga — a yoking of the individual to the ultimate. A touch to the universe, a touch of the infinite — that’s when I got past my prejudices against the female voice and began to really enjoy singing again. Also, singing with Darsombra is fun — we hardly ever sing lyrics, and we play with our voices a lot. We test our abilities and use our breath and posture to reach for the next level — it’s a practice, like yoga, that involves my entire body. Plus it’s a great way to convey feeling to strangers — even (or especially) without the use of language.
Percussion’s just great fun to get that stress or anger or nervousness out — I mostly play the gong, but I’ve been using bells a lot too. The challenge is timing — but that is why I love playing music, it’s so much like yoga. I never appreciated practicing until I started practicing yoga, in 2008—that’s part of the reason why my childhood attempts at being a musician were fruitless. I didn’t have the drive, so I didn’t have the discipline. Yoga changed that for me, initially as a physical practice — now as a subtle practice. I guess you could say I have a lot of creative outlets — I didn’t even mention writing, which I still (clearly) enjoy! And, of course filmmaking—my first love, and still my deepest.
I was a very small child, in a church choir of fellow very-small-children, set to sing “Good Morning, Starshine” from Hair with all the other littles for a variety show. Though we had rehearsed the song, right before the performance the choir leader stressed to us how important it was to sing as loud as we possibly could… I took this quite literally and screamed my head off, making the little girl next to me burst into tears… I believe my folks have a VHS of the fateful performance somewheres!
See above. Just kidding… I don’t have a best. Absolutely every one of the hundreds of shows we’ve played has been memorable, for better or worse, and almost every show of the thousands I’ve chosen to attend as an audience member has been memorable, usually for better… though seeing Magma in a small club in Quebec City was life-affirming. We had incredible seats, I shot so much video (one day it will make its way online), and they even gave a shout out to the folks “who came all the way up from Baltimore” to enjoy this rare, beautiful performance. I especially remember the lighting — Magma’s music tells a story without familiar words, and whoever was doing those lights was in on the narrative. So much narrative with just sound and light, no language (but Kobaïan, which not a lot of people speak).
These are really good questions! This is a tough one for me… but I feel called to kinda take ahold of this train and drive it down the sexuality track. Ok… this may be a little obtuse.
Dear loves of Brian and I just broke up — a couple, together for 15 years, our lovers for the past four. I thought they would be together forever — so, in a very literal way, that belief was tested and scrapped — but it taught me something about myself, to believe my loves were so solid in their own relationship — I was projecting. And I see it so, so much as a performer — people see Brian and I on stage and project their fantasies of what our relationship must be like, how they wish they had a relationship like ours, etc., etc. I know this because people tell me this all the time, thinking they’re paying me a compliment, but they have no idea — what we call love and fidelity and sexual freedom may be completely different from what they’ve projected on us. They never project “queer poly pansexual freaks on a hunt for an orgy”… they often project “monogamous heterosexual.” My gears don’t turn that way. So test them beliefs… reality is so much more nuanced, thank goddesxxx…
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I’m trying to find out! My grandmother was an artist, a painter, accomplished in the regions in which she worked, fairly unknown outside of them. She painted images of Black people and communities in Birmingham in the 1950s, images of rural Alabama, moody landscapes, moody still-lifes. . . my life is haunted by her work, and her legacy. I only knew her until I was 13, and the last eight years of her life could not be called living. She stopped making art when I was quite young, and I never really got to know her. I have some very strange memories of her, though.
She has left my family (which is very small) with hundreds of paintings, water colors, oils, pastels… I love them, they are so moody and haunting and beautiful, pictures of another world you’d drift in and out of like an episode of The Twilight Zone. Her work is her legacy, and her progress as an artist led to… ? Misery? Obscurity? I never saw her live to see true reward for her work—and yet, she had a lifetime’s worth of it carried with her, and then with my father and auntie, and now, to me and the rest of my family. So I’m not really sure where artistic progression leads—does it lead to poverty, obscurity, dementia, people around you thinking you’re nuts, a haunted house crammed floor to ceiling with junk? Artists are weird birds. We float up there in the loft of reality, especially if we don’t get grounded by expanding our families. (Grounding’s not a bad thing, by the way.) We dream deep, but we can flake on reality hard. Or, at least, sometimes I do.
In my own life as an artist, I have been cheered to see one thing hold true for the artist who keeps making art—the longer you stay at it, the better it gets, the more people are familiar with your work, enjoy it, get it, the more opportunities you get. . . the trick is, you’ve gotta keep doing it. In 2007, I did a short artist residency in rural Hungary, on lake Balaton. There was a Hungarian artist there that my 25-year-old self had such a crush on. So, of course, I was all ears to his very good advice, which was, “Keep making art. See where it goes. Never stop making art.” Very simple, so right—the world will give you a million-and-one reasons to stop being an artist, but if you just sort of keep doing it… I agree with his beautiful Hungarian ass! Keep making art and see where it goes!
How do you define success?
Ideas made manifest through action.
What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?
At the suggestion of my dear Zoom writing group, I will answer this challenging and intriguing question by reflecting on touring life in general… you will never take your own bathroom for granted again. When we’re on the road, particularly in North America, we travel in a van equipped with a place to sleep and a place to prepare food, but no plumbing… so I will just sort of describe a scenario to you, dear reader:
You wake up in a van, in August — it’s hot, it’s about 10:30am (you went to bed at 4 after working at the venue till 2 and then enjoying a post-show hang with friends from the bill), and you’re mostly comfortable because your van is conveniently parked under a tree in a driveway at a friend’s place. Said friend also sleeps in a mobile unit, which is quite clean, but they rent the unit from another friend who has a small house — to which the driveway is attached. The home is made from scraps of other homes and houses another musician, who is devoted to his craft but struggles with hygiene and household chores, as well as his health and alcohol addiction. He is a kind, gracious man, so you can’t refuse his hospitality when he offers you the use of his facilities (i.e. driveway, toilet, shower) — plus, his tenants are your friends and fellow performers from the night before, so that’s where the fun is.
So yes, you wake up at 10:30 — nature calls. Not the sort of nature which is easy to heed the call of in a plumbing-less van or in the bushes. You decide to hazard the toilet. The screen door of the trailer slams behind you as you enter, seeing the space for the first time in the daylight, wet, gray-green carpet squishing underfoot. You pass a small, economically-sized kitchen, covered in dried food and piled with dirty dishes in the sink and on the counter. Also on the counter is a gelatinous savory food item (like potato salad?) in a large bowl with plastic cling wrap on top, slightly puffed outwards, a halo of fruit flies alighting up in a vortex above the bowl as you walk by and feel the creaky, gritty floor shake the counter and disturb the bowled substance’s equipoise. The small cloud of flies eventually settles back down onto the engorged plastic wrap as you pass and enter the bathroom, pulling the thin plastic door closed behind you, and the toilet appears clean enough — yes, you can certainly do your business here. But wait! What’s that on the bathroom sink? It sort of looks like something from a deranged scientist’s lab — vials and jars and tubes of liquid await their next worldly purpose, whatever it may be, and all the liquid is yellow. You ask yourself… will I relax in this environment, surrounded by jars of urine?
I sincerely hope I did not incur some bogus vibes from recounting this memory… you asked!
Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.
Well, I am in the midst of composing and shooting the video art/music videos for this new single we’re about to release… I am soooooooo excited to share it, as well as the album it’ll be on (though that will probably come later in 2021 — the single first, hopefully by spring). So, technically, that counts!
I love composing video art to the music we make — it’s always such a surprise what comes up when I’m in the right frame of mind and listening deep. Sometimes I see scenes I don’t want to film, or to make real — that happened a lot during the first half of Transmission, composing the video. This time around, we have two songs, one 15 minutes in length, and the other 10 minutes — for us, pop songs! Well, one is more of a dance track, of all things, and the other is a lullaby waltz/spacewalk (with brief but significant hand-of-doom shenanigans) — so I’ve got some fun ideas I’ll be shooting and editing soon. Lots of dancing, lots of play, lots of space and sci-fi. But I’m curious to see what comes up in future deep listens…
I often see color schemes for the songs before any sort of theme or narrative comes up — for example, the color scheme for “From Insects… to Aliens (The Worms Turn)” was blue, cyan, black, and white (and maybe bright green too) — for the first half of “Transmission” it was black, red, and white; for the second half, yellow, blue, magenta, green, cyan… basically, rainbow! For these new songs on the single, one is yellow, blue, and white (and black); the other, black, blue, cyan, green… purple? Like the colors of a ’70s fantasy landscape painted on the side of a van… That’s what the deep listen is for — to figure that out, and if there’s a story, like how “Insects…” tells a story about insects out-evolving humans, becoming sentient and developing methods of space travel and colonization. Actually, the “Thunder Thighs” video is about space colonization too… I sense a theme here…
What do you believe is the most essential function of art?
Transcendence. Level up!
Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?
As of 2020 quarantine, I have become a HUGE fan of Star Trek: The Original Series (and The Animated Series, too — which I may like as much or even more than The Original Series). Neither Brian nor I had seen any Star Trek, so we decided to start from scratch — at first, I was a little turned-off by the old-school sexism of the show, though it was clearly of its time. . however, then I fell into the world of Star Trek fanfiction, and I’ve, ahem, never looked at Kirk or Spock the same since! So, I’m looking forward to publishing my own Star Trek fanfiction online, very soon… bet ya didn’t know I’m such a big nerd!!!
Posted in Bootleg Theater on January 13th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
This shit is insane. Do I really think you’re going to sit and watch all 43 minutes of Darsombra‘s video for the title-track and only-track from their 2019 LP, Transmission (review here)? Well, when you put it like that, no, I don’t, because who the hell has 43 minutes to do anything ever, but whether it’s the frenetic, full-body-suit-clad fire-dancing ritual followed by a bit of shoulder boogie near the halfway point or some more serene nature shots of waterfalls, mountains, animals, caves and so on captured during the two-piece’s many adventures hither and yon on this silly planet, I’m really glad the clip for the entirety of “Transmission” exists. Put together by Ann Everton, whose visuals have become an essential component of Darsombra‘s live presentation yet inherently go underrepresented when it comes to their studio work, the video makes its interpretive aspects plain to follow as “Transmission” shifts between parts and moods, as her own various instrumentation and Brian Daniloski‘s guitar intertwine with a fluidity that, frankly, to call it drone would be underselling its complexity and psychedelic nuance.
Not to mention, Transmission is active. It’s not bouncing to a catchy, danceable drumbeat — or any drumbeat at all, mind you — but it is a work of pointed exploration and movement. Darsombra‘s pieces have certainly done their share of adventuring in the past, real-world and ethereal as some of the footage captured while driving through various landscape portrays, but the will to push these impulses further to new places can be heard even as parts loop around and are manipulated by various effects and added layers of synth, maybe-vocals, definitely-vocals, and so on. The video goes so far as to involve the viewer, turning white letters of its later chanting yellow in follow-along fashion — only the bouncing ball is missing. And it’s fitting that what began with birds flying under the sun and a spinning moon should close with a solar eclipse and that same returned moon, which appears over silence as the song itself has ended. For those who stick it out or those who skim, the resonance goes well beyond the tonal.
As ever, Darsombra will tour. They’ll do a Northeast weekender this weekend, then head to the West Coast for shows in Tijuana and CA ahead of an appearance next month at Shadow Frost in Maryland. Then in Spring it’s off to the UK and Europe alternately alongside fellow Exile on Mainstream types Conny Ochs and Kristian Harting. They’ll stop at Roadburn in April, where I look forward to seeing them.
Dates follow courtesy of the PR wire.
Enjoy:
Darsombra, “Transmission” official video
Following the release of their sprawling fifth album, Transmission, Baltimore, Maryland’s audiovisual progressive/psychedelic duo DARSOMBRA has digitally released a film, to accompany the entire record. In addition, the band is expanding their upcoming tour itinerary with new North American and European dates booked in support of the record.
Released independently by the band last summer, Transmission consists of one continuous forty-one-minute flood of DARSOMBRA’s sprawling, mind-expanding, musical exploration. Ranging from relentless, charged, and cinematic, to ephemeral, transcendent, and delicate, the song embraces its many qualities as it wraps itself into a thematic, uncompromising saga with a million different interpretations available to the listener. The band’s filmmaker, Ann Everton, directed, shot, and edited the new film accompanying the album, backing the entire song with a visual experience as vivid, vast, and harrowingly psychedelic as the music itself.
Posted in Whathaveyou on December 30th, 2019 by JJ Koczan
A wintry companion to each autumn’s Shadow Woods fest, the inaugural Shadow Frost Music & Arts Festival is set to take place not in the forest — probably a practical choice, given, you know, winter and all — but at the Clarion Inn Frederick Event Center in Frederick, Maryland, on Feb. 21 and 22. And let’s be honest, that’s not as romantic or as kvlt an idea as having a party out in the woods in the waning days of summer, but from where I sit, it’s also kind of awesome. Think of it this way: Here’s an all-ages festival infiltrating an otherwise normal, unassuming space that, instead of a campground, gives you on-site hotel amenities. Of all the fests you’ve ever been to, how many have listed “free breakfast” and “Saturday morning yoga” — which I’m going to assume will be led by Darsombra, who are also playing, and if that’s not true I don’t want to know — among its resources? Imagine going for a swim before you see some “pizza-themed punk/grind.” This could be your life.
Like Shadow Woods, the lineup for Shadow Frost 2020 carries a rich and admirable sense of curation, loyal to its Chesapeake home, but unafraid as well to branch out in multiple directions, as festival director Mary Spiro continues to proliferate her vision of an underground that transcends genre barriers and unites communities who probably have more in common than they think.
Awesome project, especially for a first run. I hope it goes off without a hitch:
SHADOW FROST MUSIC & ARTS FESTIVAL: Frederick, Maryland’s Exclusive Indoor Winter Gathering Announces Updated Lineup + Merch Presales
SHADOW FROST MUSIC & ARTS FESTIVAL, Frederick, Maryland’s exclusive indoor winter gathering, will take place February 21st and 22nd, 2020.
Produced by Shadow Woods Productions, LLC, this inaugural, hotel-based gala will feature Oakland’s crushing Vastum with a special set from their guitarist/ambient industrialist Leila Abdul-Rauf. The lineup rounds out with East Coast cult thrashers Deceased, Vermont’s thunderous Barishi, Boston traditional metallers Magic Circle, and Houston’s Doomstress. Also performing are heavy psych throwbacks Alms and the otherworldly Darsombra (both from Baltimore), Detroit black metalists Fell Ruin, and up-and-coming doom maestros from Maryland’s Eastern Shore, Yatra. Tickets and the full daily lineups can be found here at THIS LOCATION.
Exclusive SHADOW FROST merch has also been released for presale until February 1st. Designed by Legerdemain’s Brian Sheehan, Wailing Wizard’s Rebecca Magar, and Art Noir’s Yuriy Seroff, these phenomenal creations all evoke the chilling winter months. Merch can be found HERE.
SHADOW FROST is heavily focused on Maryland-based artists including Alms, Darsombra, Spiral Grave, Radamanthys, and Yatra and is geared toward those who want to step outside their comfort zone and explore. “There is so much great music being created that totally flies under the radar in the music scene, even among people who seem to know a lot about music trends,” said SHADOW FROST producer M A Spiro. “I am not trying to host bands that you can see at a lot of other festivals, but I want to showcase a few of the best that that underground music has to offer. That has been my philosophy with every event I have done, and I don’t plan to change that.”
While previous Shadow Woods fests have been outdoors, the hotel setting provides attendees with unique opportunities to mingle. Hotel amenities include an indoor pool and game room, tavern serving traditional pub fare, and free breakfast every morning. Festivities will occur in the ballroom and pre-function area of the event center, which is attached via an indoor corridor to the hotel. No need to step outside in the cold! SHADOW FROST will also host arts and music vendors, workshops, Saturday morning yoga, table games, and other fun activities. The fest will have the feel of an event such as a horror or comic convention.
Friday – February 21st: Barishi — Vermont prog-psych rock Leila Abdul-Rauf — Oakland dark ambient multi-instrumentalist Doomstress — Texas heavy rock Alms — Baltimore proto-metal Fell Ruin — Detroit blackened sludge Capitalist — New Jersey crust grind Infinite Pizza — Baltimore pizza-themed punk/grind
Saturday – February 22nd: Vastum — Oakland death metal Deceased — East Coast death metal legends Darsombra — Baltimore trans-apocalyptic galaxy rock Arsantiqva — New York black metal Magic Circle — Boston traditional heavy metal Frost Giant — Philadelphia viking metal Volur — Toronto ambient doom Spiral Grave — Maryland/Virginia heavy metal Witching — Philadelphia blackened sludge Yatra — Maryland death doom Mo’ynoq — Raleigh DSBM Polemicist — Philadelphia blackened death Radamanthys — Maryland tech death
SHADOW FROST is an all ages event, however, children’s tickets (ages 5-17) will be available at the door with a PAID parent or guardian on-premises. Children under 5 get in for FREE with a paid parent or guardian.
Posted in Whathaveyou on November 29th, 2019 by JJ Koczan
This announcement went out yesterday from Roadburn 2020, and as we in the United States celebrated Thanksgiving — one of our least morally reprehensible holidays until one examines it in any sort of historical context whatsoever — I was extra grateful for the fact that I found out this week that the Weirdo Canyon Dispatch, the daily festival ‘zine for which I’ve served as editor for the last six years, will run again. It’s always a fingers-crossed scenario as to whether there will be the budget for such a thing — it’s not like I could begrudge them making the right choice if it was “who needs the money, David Eugene Edwards or WCD?” — but I am of course beyond thrilled to say that I will be at Roadburn Festival for the 11th year in a row in 2020. If you’re going, I’m the guy with the cosmic backpack dorking out during Patrick Walker‘s solo set.
Which, by the way is a thing that’s happening. That was added along with Inter Arma playing their latest LP, Sulphur English, in its masterful entirety, Dommengang, Darsombra, two sets from Alcest, 40 Watt Sun doing The Inside Room in full, and Kungens Män and a whole bunch of others. I’ll look forward to feeling completely overwhelmed by it all as I try to cover as much as possible — like always.
Thanks from the bottom of my heart to Roadburn for having me back. This festival has changed my life.
Here’s the update:
Today’s announcement for Roadburn Festival 2020 includes the only band where our two curators cross over: Alcest, who will play a special set titled ‘Visions du futur’, focussing on their last two albums. James Kent (AKA Perturbator) also added OKKULTOKRATI to his curation, whilst Emma Ruth Rundle added INTER ARMA (playing Sulphur English in full), 40 Watt Sun (playing The Inside Room in full) and a solo Patrick Walker set, Helms Alee and FACS.
Elsewhere we added Algiers, Richard Dawson, Dynfari (playing The Four Doors Of The Mind), BAD BREEDING, White Ward, Dommengang, Kungens Män, darsombra and TAU and The Drones Of Praise.
With 97% of weekend tickets now gone, and day tickets on sale on December 10 – we’re looking forward to seeing you all in Tilburg in April:roadburn.com/tickets
EUROPEAN FESTIVAL AWARD NOMINATION
Roadburn has been nominated in the best small festival category (less than 10,000 visitors) at the European Festival Awards 2019. Votes can be cast HERE. Votes and spreading the word are appreciated as it would be a huge honour for us to win such recognition.
Posted in Reviews on October 2nd, 2019 by JJ Koczan
Had to take a second this morning to get my email back under 100 unread. It currently stands at 95. There’s just something about being in triple digits that I can’t stand. Press releases and stuff I can usually file right away since not everything’s relevant to the site, etc., but that’s all stuff that either wants follow-up or could be a factor here if there was time. I do my best to try to keep up. And I fail, consistently.
The tradeoff, of course, is I spend that time writing reviews and other stuff for the site. Today’s hump day when we pass the halfway mark of the Fall 2019 Quarterly Review, and we’re doing it in absolutely all-over-the-place style, so all the better. Some pretty familiar names today, but some that might not be as well, so whatever your poison, I hope you enjoy the picking.
Quarterly Review #21-30:
Russian Circles, Blood Year
There’s simply no denying the force behind the depths and swell of a song like “Kohokia” on Russian Circles‘ latest offering, Blood Year (Sargent House), and though one knows what to expect to some degree from the Chicago heavy post-rockers at this point in their career, they seem to be doing all they can to deliver their instrumental progressions with energy to match the breadth of the spaces and the heft they conjure. Like 2016’s Guidance (review here), the seven-track/39-minute Blood Year — was recorded with Kurt Ballou, whom the trio imported to their hometown to work at Electrical Audio (aka Steve Albini‘s stomping ground) instead of traveling to Massachusetts to track at Ballou‘s Godcity. If it was the long-famed drum sound of Electrical Audio that they wanted and the live feel that so many of the recordings done there have, they got both, so mark it a success and another notch in the belt of one of the heavy underground’s most immersive and evocative outfits. Their building and releasing of tension is second to none and moves into the spiritual by the time they even get to side B, let alone through it.
Oh, the riffs you’ll gallop. Oakland, California’s War Cloud skirt the line between classic thrash and heavy rock and roll on their second album for Ripple Music, State of Shock, and from the sound of things, they have a good time doing it. The record’s not much over a half-hour long, which is as it should be for this kind of party, and they toy a bit with the balance between their two sides on a rocker like “Do Anything” or the subsequent “Means of Your Defeat” on side B, but the main crux of State of Shock and certainly the impression it makes off the bat with “Striker” and “White Lightning” up front ahead of the six-minute that-moment-when-Thin–Lizzy-turned-into-Iron–Maiden “Dangerous Game” is one of homage to the metal of yore, and in following-up the band’s 2017 self-titled debut (review here), it’s a showcase of energy and craft alike as two guitars shred, chug, groove and charge through the material. If they were from the Eastern Seaboard, I’d say something about getting caught in a mosh. As it stands, I’ll go with urging you to jump in the fire instead. Horns up, either way.
They should’ve just called it an album. Yeah, it would be short at 26 or so minutes, but it’s got everything you’d want from a full-length, and if they’d put a four-minute jam or something on it, they’d have been there anyhow. In any case, Los Angeles’ Afrobeat-infused heavy psych rockers Here Lies Man present seven tracks of dug-in glory with No Ground to Walk Upon (on RidingEasy), continuing to build on the potential shown across their first two LPs, 2017’s self-titled debut (review here) and last year’s You Will Know Nothing (review here), even as they swagger their way through a groove like “Long Legs (Look Away)” and show their continued forward potential. They continue to be a special band — the kind of band who doesn’t just come along every day and who shouldn’t be overlooked during their time, because maybe they’ll be around 30 years and maybe they won’t, but what they’re doing now is bringing something wholly individual to a heavy context. They’ve already proven influential to some degree, but listening to No Ground to Walk Upon cuts like the dream-keyed “Iron Rattles” and the opening strut-into-drone of “Clad in Silver,” one wonders if they wouldn’t be more so if people weren’t too afraid to try to pull this thing off. Hard to argue with that, since more likely than not most couldn’t.
I won’t take anything away from the eight-minute “Blacklight Warpriest” earlier in the offering, but the highlight of Book of Wyrms‘ second album, Remythologizer (on Twin Earth & Stoner Witch Records) has to be the closing “Dust Toad,” which at 9:25 is the longest track and the slowest crawl included. Led into by the synth-infused “Curse of the Werecop,” it takes the crunch that showed itself through opener “Autumnal Snow” and, later, the melody and swing of “Undead Pegasus” — as seen on the cover art — and brings them together in order to perfectly summarize the doom rocking ethic the Richmond, Virginia, four-piece are working from. Tonally righteous and more solvent in their songwriting than they were on their 2017 debut, Sci-Fi/Fantasy (review here), the band sound assured as they move in “Spirit Drifter” from a standout keyboard line to a likewise standout guitar solo, giving a feeling of progressive nuance that’s continuing to take hold in their sound, balanced by the underlying naturalism of their approach. That dynamic continues to duke it out on Remythologizer, much to the benefit of anyone who takes the record on.
Too weird for planet earth and, well, probably too weird for anywhere else too, Helsinki psych-space-kraut-whathaveyou experimentalists issue their third tape in the form of Huume Jet Set Life and whether it’s the cosmo-jamming on “MITÄ ON TULLUT VEDETTYÄ?” or the who-the-hell-knows-what-ism of “MEDIA-AJOJAHTI 2000,” the band at no point fail to make an impression of being out there in the far gone far out there reaches of the far out there. Talkin’ freaked out next level total, like the cassette just fell into the atmosphere to represent some other planet’s culture where things are both dangerous and interesting and you never really know if you’re going to get laid or eaten or both. Still, they may be doing math of the likes not yet conceived by humanity, but Möyhy-Veikot go about it in suitably friendly if totally over-the-top fashion, and it’s fun to play along while also being completely overwhelmed at the various pushes and pulls happening all at once, the media samples and the Windows 95 compatibility of it all. It’s one small step for man, one giant leap for disco.
It’s just lovely. Really. In some ways it feels like the 41:20 single-track full-length Transmission — self-released, no less — is what Baltimore ambient exploratory two-piece Darsombra have been building toward all along, but I think the truth is they probably could’ve done this at any time if they’d chosen to do so. Still, the fluidity of “Transmission” itself is something special, with its cascades of manipulated voice, riffs that swell and recede, loops, synth and somehow-manifested light that are as much immersion for the spirit as the eardrum. One doesn’t want to dive too deep into hyperbole and oversell it to the point of dulling the listener’s own impression, but Transmission is the kind of record that even those who profess to never “get” drone or noise offerings can engage with. Part of that is owed to Brian Daniloski‘s guitar, which provides landmarks along the path of swirl conjured by his own effects and the synth from Ann Everton (both add vocals where applicable; don’t look for lyrics or verses) that allow those who’d take it on to do so more easily. But the real joy in Transmission is letting go and allowing the piece to carry you along its progressive course, genuine in its reaching for the unknown. Plus there’s a gong, and that’s always fun too. Go with it.
Traya is the third three-song full-length from Boston’s Set Fire, and it would seem that, and in addition to marking the last recording to feature drummer Rob Davol, who’s since been replaced by Josh Cronin, it would seem to show the three-piece nailing their sound of classic-tinged duet-fronted heavy rock and roll. With two powerhouse vocalists on board in guitarist Jim Healey (We’re all Gonna Die, Black Thai, etc.) and keyboardist Jess Collins (ex-Mellow Bravo), they work in varying arrangements across a meager 12-minute run that feels short mostly because it is short. Too short. “Any Place Left” puts Collins in the foreground, while “Sacred Song” is more Healey‘s, and unsurprisingly to anyone who’s experienced their past work either together or separate, they’re more than able to carry the material — only more so with the other party backing. “Waves” brings them together around theatrical layers of piano and keyboard and guitar, and that they manage to hold it steady at all, let alone take flight as it does, speaks to how ready they are to embark on a longer offering. Put out an album, already, would ya?
For those feeling adventurous, Portugal’s Jesus the Snake follow-up their 2017 self-titled EP (review here) with the unmitigated warmth of Black Acid, Pink Rain, their live-recorded full-length debut. And for the sort of heavy psych-jazz-prog meandering, one would almost expect the organ-laced instrumentalist four-piece to track the record as they perform it, if not front-to-back then certainly one song at a time across multiple takes. Not one piece of the five total on the 49-minute offering is under eight minutes long, and sandwiched between opener “Karma” (10:28) and the closing title-track (10:55) are three cuts circa nine that prove no less hypnotic. The beginning of “Floyds I” is so fluid with the interplay of organ and guitar that one almost expects a gentle Portuguese spoken word verse to start, but of course one never does. Instead, Jesus the Snake complement mindful drift with flashes of more weighted or active fare, all the while holding to a central vibe that is peaceful even as “Duna” finds its chill before the halfway point, with no loss of spirit in the process.
As with any kind of sonic minimalism or release based around trance induction — see Darsombra above — there’s a certain amount of buy-in that needs to happen on the listener’s side. Accordingly, those going into the fourth LP from Chilean duo Föllakzoid, titled I and issued through Sacred Bones Records as a double-vinyl, should be aware that it’s requires that kind of interaction from one side to the other. It’s not especially loud or abrasive, or even demanding in terms of the basic sonics of the thing, but as “I” becomes “II” becomes “III” becomes “IIII” and the songs such as they are alternate between 17- and 13-minute runtimes and the blend of effects and electro beats tips to one side or the other — “II” with a fervent ‘ump-tis’ in its early going while “III” brings a more Vangelis-style cinematic wash — of course there’s an ask in terms of indulgence happening on the part of the two-piece to their audience. Whether an individual is willing to make that jump is obviously going to be up to their headspace and where they’re at, but Föllakzoid‘s work here is more than worth the investment, even for those less familiar with their methods.
The sub-three-minute “Hiedra – Sencillo” is the latest in an ongoing series of digital offerings from Mexico City’s Dresden Wolves, and though the two-piece band bill themselves as post-punk and they may actually have a history in playing punk rock — stranger things have happened, certainly — the song finds them working in a taut heavy rock context, brash in delivery but not overly so as to lose the overarching swagger they seem intent on conveying. Particularly as it follows behind two EPs and a swath of other single tracks, and is offered name-your-price through their Bandcamp, “Hiedra – Sencillo” feels like its most nefarious aim is to hook anyone who’d click play on first listen and try and keep them intrigued for next time out. Fair enough. I won’t profess to know what Dresden Wolves‘ plans are, but they’ve got songwriting in their pocket and the production on “Hiedra – Sencillo” is crisp and clear enough to convey the heft of the guitar but not so much so as to dull its rawer aspects. They’ve got the balance ready to go, whatever they might choose to do with it from here.
Posted in Whathaveyou on July 22nd, 2019 by JJ Koczan
Oh, you think you tour a lot? Well, Darsombra think that’s adorable. Next week, they’ll head out on what’s only their latest string of impossible-looking tour dates, running up through the Northeast and into and across Canada and then back through the Midwest in a way that makes me think there’s probably a specifically Californian string of dates to come, and knowing Darsombra — who are based as much “on earth” as they are in Baltimore — it’ll probably run for a month straight. The duo’s new album, Transmission, is up for preorder now direct from their website or Bandcamp, and they’ve got a new trailer for it posted as of pretty much when I post this, that I’m pretty sure was filmed at a haunted house. Neat. The album, of course, is one long track, so you’re getting about 1/45th of it here, but still, it’s a good 1/45th. Mark it a win and then go a show and buy all the merch.
Here’s where they’ll be:
Darsombra’s 2019 album, “Transmission” is almost here!!! Preorder is available at www.darsombra.com and www.darsombra.bandcamp.com. Or come out and see us and get a copy in person, in any of the following places:
July 31 – Cleveland OH @ Magalen Aug 1 – Toronto ON @ Sneaky Dee’s Aug 2 – Buffalo NY – Infringement Festival @ Nietzsche’s Aug 3 – Buffalo NY – Infringement Festival @ Hickory Urban Sanctuary Aug 5 – Rochester NY @ Bug Jar Aug 6 – Albany NY @ Pauly’s Hotel Aug 7 – Providence RI @ AS220 Aug 8 – Boston MA @ O’Brien’s Aug 9 – Portland ME @ Geno’s Aug 10 – Littleton NH @ Loading Dock Aug 11 – Burlington VT @ Junktiques Aug 13 – Montreal QC @ Casa Del Popolo Aug 15 – Ottawa ON @ Pressed Aug 16 – Sudbury ON @ The Asylum Aug 17 – Sault Ste Marie ON @ New American Aug 20 – Thunder Bay ON @ The Apollo Aug 22 – Winnipeg MB @ Times Changed Aug 23 – Regina SK @ German Club Aug 24 – Saskatoon SK @ Amigo’s Aug 25 – Edmonton AB @ 9910 Aug 26 – Calgary AB @ Dickens Aug 28 – Kelowna BC @ Milkcrate Records Aug 29 – Vancouver BC @ Avant Garden Aug 30 – Nanaimo BC @ The Cambie Aug 31 – Victoria BC @ Vinyl Envy Sept 4 – Olympia WA @ Cryptatropa Sept 5 – Seattle WA @ Lofi Sept 6 – Salem OR @ The Space Concert Club Sept 7 – Portland OR @ High Water Mark Sept 10 – Boise ID @ The Olympic Sept 12 – Bozeman MT @ Filling Station Sept 13 – Billings MT @ Kirks’ Grocery Sept 14 – Rapid City SD @ Cave Collective Sept 18 – Sioux Falls SD @ Total Drag Sept 19 – Minneapolis MN @ Kitty Cat Club Sept 20 – Duluth MN @ Blush Sept 21 – Marquette MI @ The Crib Sept 23 – Milwaukee WI @ Cactus Club Sept 25 – Rock Island IL @ Rozz-Tox Sept 26 – Peoria IL @ Trailside Event Center Sept 27 – Chicago IL @ Charm School Sept 28 – Detroit MI @ Trumbullplex Sept 29 – Pittsburgh PA @ 3577 Studios Oct 5 – Baltimore MD – Mushroom City Arts Festival @ Gwynns Falls Leakin Park
