Posted in Whathaveyou on March 3rd, 2026 by JJ Koczan
The soundscapes are getting darker and weirder for Den Der Hale, whose upcoming four-song LP, Larking About — the dirgey title-track opens — is out March 27 on vinyl through Sound Effect Records. There’s nothing streaming from it yet, but I’ve got the record on as I’m writing and you can hear both the organic root instruments they’re using — it gives the procession its folkish sound — and the overarching ethereal drone that emerges from the congregation of the whole. “Larking About” gets pretty and waveformy in its second half to set up the dark-jazz-fog-into-blinding-sci-fi-clarion-but-also-how-is-this-not-horrifying-black-metal “Silphium,” which is vicious and feels challenging in its abrasion.
Subsequent to these, side B enacts something of a march in “Where My Flesh Cannot Be Torn,” getting there on a bed of cinematic horn-ish sounds and intertwining maybe-voices. It’s obscure in everything but the rhythm, which is willfully primitive, giving the half-whispers an urgency in spite of their seeming soothingness. The closing “Under Jord” doesn’t feel so movement-based, but its drone is hypnotic and becomes a build unto itself behind and then in front of the vague, echoing vocals. When they talk about tension or anticipation, they’re right. It turns out that’s what makes it heavy.
The PR wire has album info and live dates, which I cut and pasted from Bandcamp:
DEN DER HALE – Larking About: OUT Mar-27th, 2026, via Sound Effect Records
(Self Released/ Black Vinyl & Limited Oxblood Red Vinyl)
Our third album, Larking About, is an exploration of more eclectic soundscapes than has been presented before. As we have went through line-up changes, we have eschewed the traditional sound of drums, guitars, and bass. Instead, we have built these songs from tape loops, resampling, and acoustic instruments, resulting in a greater focus on recording technique and panning. The majority of the songs on the album have been processed during the past year and a half, serving as an experimental and ambient counterpart to the songs we usually perform live. The result, we feel, is an album that thrives on anticipation and tension.
The entirety of the album was recorded and mixed in our studio in Malmö. In contrast to our previous releases, this album was stem-mastered and transferred to 24-track tape reel by the very adept mastering engineer Joakim Lindberg of Studio Sickan. This process was extremely helpful in providing us an extra set of ears and attention to the soundscape of the individual tracks as well as the overall sound of the album.
The album will be pressed to vinyl and released on Sound Effect Records.
Tracklisting: 1. Larking About 2. Silphium 3. Where My Flesh Cannot Be Torn 4. Under Jord
This spring, we will be touring Europe with some of the songs from this album while also finishing the writing process for another album we aim to finish later this year.
Live: Apr 15 VERA Groningen, Netherlands Apr 18 Weltkunstzimmer Düsseldorf, Germany Apr 19 KuBa Jena Jena, Germany
Posted in Whathaveyou on November 6th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Business as usual here, by which I mean Desertfest London is coming in hot with the latest round of names for the 2026 lineup, with Clutch headlining on a UK exclusive, plus Gnome, Mario Lalli, Blackwater Holylight, friggin’ 16, Howling Giant, Waxy, and a host of others — names I’ve heard, names I’ve not — joining the bill. Some homework to do — who are Ian? who are Meatdripper? — and still more reveals to come, you can see on the poster below it’s getting pretty crowded.
Clutch are the last of the headliners to be revealed, and sure to be a draw for oldschool heads alongside Green Lung, Hermano and The Sword, whoever else counts. They’re always, always, always fun live, so no doubt they’ll deliver. Tickets are on sale and linked below:
Are you ready? Our third and final 2026 headliners are here – some of you may have guessed it from our teasers — please welcome the mighty Clutch to Desertfest 2026!
It certainly has been a longtime coming but we are thrilled to announce these supernovas are *finally* bringing their legendary high-energy live show to the Desertfest London stage – their only UK show in 2026.
And that’s not all we have to share — we warmly welcome:
↠ Antwerp powertrio Gnome
↠ LA (via PDX) ethereal heavy psyche dreamers Blackwater Holylight
↠ The Godfather of Desert Rock, Mario Lalli, returning with The Rubber Snake Charmers, to take us on a shaman’s journey through the desert landscape of imagination.
↠ Swedish quintet Hällas, bringing their cinematic storytelling, and epic fantasy-themed Adventure Rock.
↠ California sludge pioneers 16 The Band – playing their first UK show in over a decade – their first time at DF London.
Feast your eyes on the 24 new artists who have joined are 2026 line up! 💥 CLUTCH GNOME BLACKWATER HOLYLIGHT MARIO LALLI & THE RUBBER SNAKE CHARMERS Hällas 16 Howling Giant khost Cwfen Harrowed Coffin Mulch The Grey Red Eyed Cult DROMOS LIQUID SHIT Waxy Midhaven Meatdripper IAN SMOULDERING TOMB Praetorian Den Der Hale SUPERSEED INSTAR SLING
Posted in Whathaveyou on September 25th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
The Nijmegen-based Sonic Whip Festival has unveiled the first five acts for its 2025 edition. Elder are all over the place — here, Desertfest in London, Berlin and Oslo, plus club shows — and The Devil and the Almighty Blues will be making the rounds. If you’ve never seen them, just know that they deliver a lot of both devilry and blues from the stage. It’s early to get a sense of the full shape of the thing, but with Temple Fang, Karkara and Den Der Hale rounding out, Sonic Whip 2025 presents a varied face within the realms of that which is heavy and psychedelic. I look forward to finding out who else is taking part, as the Spring European touring circuit begins to take shape months before the year has even started.
Also, as Burning World Records recently announced it was restructuring business to lean more into the distro side of things rather than new releases — fair enough — it specifically noted that the label would continue to release live outings captured at Sonic Whip, so it’ll be fun to see what if anything emerges from next May’s fest. For those of us who’ve never been, such things are only fuel for daydreams.
From the PR wire:
FIRST NAMES SONIC WHIP 2025 AND START TICKETSALE
Two days full of roaring guitars with steaming bass lines, pounding drums and other sonic, psychedelic excesses. That’s what you can expect during Sonic Whip 2025 on Friday 16 May and Saturday 17 May.
We are delighted to share the first few names; Elder, The Devil And The Almighty Blues, Temple Fang, Karkara and Den Der Hale will hit the stage for next year’s edition. There are many more artists to be announced. Join us on this sonic journey, because it’s going to be a killer party again!
A limited amount of early bird weekend tickets is available now. Get yours when you can. Day tickets will be available on a later date.
Posted in audiObelisk on April 9th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
Swedish psychedelic post-rock explorers Den Der Hale release their debut album Harsyra through Sound Effect Records on June 11. Even if the endorsement from the Greek imprint isn’t enough to immediately pique your interest — and it probably should be — the Malmö-based five-piece won’t take long to immerse you in their melodic wash, speaking here and there to post-punk or proto-New Wave (is there a difference?) or sundry other microgenres and eternal niches-within-niches they simply dub “post-psych.” Points for being concise, but much as the LP’s accessible runtime of five tracks/35 minutes unfolds sonic spaces greater than the sum of their time, so too does their chosen designation only begin to explain where they’re coming from on Harsyra, from the airy, harmony-culminating come-with-us downer-dirge of “Carcassonne,” string break included, to the surging wash of bliss that caps the concluding title-track.
Perhaps their path to creating such a striking first full-length makes more sense when one learns of band members’ past in Insaunas, whose dreamy svenskfolk found itself combining bedroom-psych intimacy and experimentalism on 2019’s We Brought Some Days Back, released through the Malmö label Nytt Arkiv. Knowing that isn’t going to account for all of the ritual-style standalone vocals at the end of second cut and side A closer “Ant Mill” — a 13-minute journey of spaces lush and minimal, fuzzed-out, weirded up and moving into your neighborhood, and, in that finish, more or less still; it is a beautiful thing that feels reckless without being so — but it’s a foundation to work from, and as much as Den Der Hale have their own mission throughout Harsyra, finding a place for themselves between that which is essentially human and that which is formless ether and grooving in and on that divide, melody is melody. Fortunately.
Side B is about a minute shorter than A when all put together — which is how I got the album, by the way; two files, one for each side and a time sheet from Magnus Lindberg Mastering that showed where one track ended and another began; pioneer spirit! — but it spends its time digging further into the post-heavy vibe set forth in the first two tracks. To wit, the droning line of guitar/maybe-keys/who-knows-what underscoring “Armoured,” which arrives as the first half-ish of the eight-minute “Armoured/Endurance,” the latter half of the track picking up immediately and letting the guitar come more forward to create Harsyra‘s most fervent wash (it’s no wonder they didn’t want to give it away by premiering the whole thing), vital and weighted and engulfing in its distortion and broad in its aftermath of noise and feedback. This builds on what Den Der Hale were doing previously, takes it someplace new, and there’s still enough context so that when the far-back programmed beat behind the guitar of the two-minute “Tinktur” comes in, it’s not at all out of place.
“Tinktur,” while short, is more than an interlude. Its soothing vocal calls back to “Carcassonne” at the outset and while it provides a convenient basis for contrast when the immediately motorik guitar chug begins at the start of “Harsyra” itself, it’s not without a presence of its own either. Still, once the Hawkwindian launch sequence begins, Den Der Hale make it clear they’ll not be returning to ground anytime soon. The melody remains fluid as the finale finds its grandness, guitars and drums leading an outward procession that’s loyal to the core rhythm while teasing the payoff to come and still giving the vocals room when necessary. It is tense, exciting. And then they’re off again. God knows what the lyrics are about — the title refers to a wood-sorrel, a three-leaf clover, which blooms from Spring to Midsummer, so maybe there’s some alignment with the June release — but the echoing voices provide a reassurance just the same. You’re not on this trip alone, and that becomes comforting as “Harsyra” is brought to its end. It’s not as cacophonous a blaster as “Armoured/Endurance” becomes, but it sure is fascinating that they put both those songs on side B to set up the contrast between them. Almost enough to make you think there’s been a plan underway the whole time.
And maybe there has, but Den Der Hale aren’t telling, and though Harsyra‘s accomplishments across this first 12″ are significant, they’re all the more so for the potential they hold. I’m no arbiter of cool and I never have been, but this one speaks to me and so I wanted to cover it. It’s as simple as that. I hope you find it speaks to you too. If you check out “Armoured” on the player below, it’s not going to tell you everything you need to know about the album. Don’t expect it to. It’s a teaser. Half a track. But it’s what I could get, and no one pays attention to anything that isn’t a premiere anymore and I thought this was worth someone paying attention to it, so here we are. I’ve put this record on my list of 2021’s best debuts, and I look forward to hearing what Den Der Hale do next.
That and preorder links is all I got, friends. PR wire info follows the song below.
After forming in late 2019, Den Der Hale quickly wrote and put out a number of singles, straddling the genres of post-rock and psych. ‘Harsyra’ is their debut album, a 5-track output which crystallizes their particular brand of post-psych. Tracks range from anthem-like and earthy, to fast paced and grimy, all while keeping an ethereal atmosphere throughout. “Harsyra” is out, on limited edition black and bone color vinyl, on June 11th via Sound Effect Records.
Born in Oljehamnen, the industrial harbour of Malmö, Den Der Hale rose from the remnants of former neo-folk project Insaunas. The addition of new members saw the sound evolve in a heavier and more complex direction, drawing on a wide array of influences. After putting out two singles during 2020, and polishing their sound through a number of live shows, guitarist Max Bredberg dubbed their new brand of music ‘post-psych’. The continued lockdown in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, has led to a sharp decrease in opportunities to play live shows. For Den Der Hale, this meant that the creative energy had to find some other form of outlet.
That outlet is what would eventually become the debut album Harsyra. Recorded and produced by the band itself in a studio located in the old railway roundhouses of Malmö, the album features five tracks, ranging in tone from earthy, grimy and ethereal to heavy hitting and fast-paced. Until the day comes when we can again enjoy music performed in the flesh, this post-psych oeuvre can best be experienced on vinyl, put out by Sound-Effect Records.
