Posted in Whathaveyou on October 20th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
The Fall incarnation of Into the Void, held in Leeuwarden, took place on Sept. 30 with Alabama Thunderpussy, Howling Giant and scores of others, and that had been announced in April, so there’s a fitting symmetry to unveiling the initial lineup for Spring 2024 even as the autumnal festival season in Europe continues to play out. Look for Truckfighters, Mars Red Sky, Skraeckoedlan, Black Rainbows, Endonomos and Acid Mammoth to be out and about in Winter 2024, as the Dutch fest will be early on the circuit and probably a launch point for tours, and with Netherlands natives like Ter Ziele, Rrrags and Onhou, the regional underground is supported as well. Feb. 24 is the date and there are reportedly three more acts to add.
No, I don’t know who they are, but you might have fun trying to guess based on who has records out now and in the early going of 2024. No shortage of names on that list. But you’ll notice that Endonomos from Austria and Onhou aren’t included in the text of the announcement but are on the artwork, so don’t ask me who’s gonna play when. February is four months out. I’m sure by the time the fest happens it’ll be sorted. Everybody calm down in the meantime.
Lots to dig here, so get diggin’:
After a successful first edition of Into the Void in Rockcity Eindhoven, of course, a second edition can’t be missed. (#128640#) On February 24, 2024, the Effenaar will be submerged once again in a swamp of stoner, sludge and doom.
In this edition we welcome the following bands: BLACK RAINBOWS, Truckfighters, ️ Mars Red Sky,️ Acid Mammoth, SKRAECKOEDLAN, TER ZIELE and RRRags. The final 3 bands including the headliner will be announced soon.
Eindhoven-based dark heavy experimentalist outfit Soothsayer Orchestra release their new album, The Last Black Flower, this Saturday, Feb. 4, through Lay Bare Recordings. At the behest of multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Pieter Hendriks, the album pulls together a sometimes-lush, sometimes-minimal, broadly-scoped approach to songwriting and arrangement, reminiscent on album opener “Celestial Virtues” of goth rock but by no means limited to that as it flirts with elements of dudely-swinging blues und drang on “The Bonediggers Blues” — one doesn’t know if the band or Lay Bare have considered alternate revenue streams, but there has to be a tv show Western or video game they could license it to — all foreboding in its later electric guitar ringouts. Neither of the first two cuts its really a tell for what’s to come, but the opener is also the longest of the 11 inclusions (immediate points) across the 41-minute release, which follow’s the band’s 2021 self-titled debut, and the Mark Lanegan-style vocal style Hendriks uses there suits the attention to detail that creates both the wash at the end of that track and the build that takes place across the next.
From there, Hendriks guides the listener skillfully through the meat of the record. “Galaxy Gazing for Supernovas” is ambient and seems to have fading sirens in the background that put one in mind of covid ambulances going by in a tense late Spring three years ago as the piano at the forefront and lyrics look outward with poetic and a purposeful sense of being half a song — it’s the shortest cut at 2:46; more than an interlude, but a definite pull away from the first two tracks — with a windy transition to “Kissed a Tyrant,” which brings an Ableton-style industrial march to a particularly Ulverian vocal melody, recalling that band’s “Shadows of the Sun” as it leaves space open in a mix that sounds like it was duly fretted-over only to fill it with layers of guitar and synth, ending up in a post-doom anti-genre moodiness that should appeal to fans of Crippled Black Phoenix but in reality is no more actually that than it is Ulver. The songs function deceptively quick thanks to an efficiency in creating an atmosphere, each one having a crux and persona of its own as it adds to the whole. Acoustic guitar at the outset of “The Gleaming of Beryl” contrasts against the beats of “Kissed a Tyrant,” and echo-stretch vocals atop Hendriks‘ (and someone else’s) gritty voice reminds of Steve Von Till‘s more recent solo work, but is on its own path, with strings and a closing sense of drift that carries into a soft breath of drone before fading to silence.
That puts “Black Dust” as the centerpiece of The Last Black Flower, building on the electronic vibe of “Kissed a Tyrant” with buried-under-rubble beats behind Hendriks‘ voice and various other ambient sounds surrounding in a not-empty-but-guitarless stretch that shifts into slow industrial doom, a few admirably sludgy screams arriving near the end not so much as a payoff as what you’ve found in this specific horror mine. Is that as far in as the record goes? Not a chance. “Everlasting Wings” brings back the acoustic guitar and a kind of muttered spoken word before the old-soul, rough-throat croon, piano and twanging rhythm mirrors the feel of “The Bonediggers Blues” back on side A while holding to an organic version of the march of “Black Dust” prior.
The work of artist Alexander Von Wieding in the swampy Larman Clamor comes to mind, but Soothsayer Orchestra is by and large slower, more willfully patient and atmospheric, starting from a different foundation in what used to be called neofolk but has morphed with time into ‘folk noir,’ and fair enough; can’t be ‘neo’ forever. In any case, to the credit of “Everlasting Wings,” it folds in some bassy wub-wubs for a suitably dystopian-future wreckage of an ending, and the bright electric guitar strum that starts the sub-three-minute “Destroy Humanity” is a pointed contradiction, snapping the listener back from the hypnosis that Hendriks (and company?) has cast, with an easy swing and horn-ish sounds like Peter Gabriel gone grim and later twists as the track melts and a giant bee seems to buzz it closed. Anybody remember pollinators? Those were the days.
“The Shadow,” which follows, is the first song over four minutes since “Kissed a Tyrant” at least a handful of lives ago, and brings arrangements of lush electric guitar, a meditative rhythm and layers of vocals arranged almost geometrically before breaking to sitar in its second half — something the groove prefaced earlier — and making its way into a plotted psychedelic flow around the chorus as the vocals return and give over to electronic noise before a more singer-songwriter spirit takes hold in “Black Tar and Silver,” not at all minimalist in reality, but subtle, with echoing lines of keys, backing vocals at its peak and guitar in there somewhere, but seemingly able to drop it all and rely just on the vocals and guitar at its core.
Structurally, it’s a song Hendriks could do anything with, and as the penultimate piece before the five-minute finale “November Moon,” with its memorable repetitions of the title and resumption of some of the march of prior cuts, its contemplative feel is well placed. The acoustic guitar holds over to the closer, and stays at the song’s foundation even as the vocals move into whispers and a bluesy line of electric guitar emerges, soon enough to howl at the moon in the song’s title, a more resolved crash of drums alongside in what’s clearly the big finish for The Last Black Flower as a whole, but stays somewhat understated in keeping with the spirit of the collection it wraps. Both of the last two songs represent the most recently recorded Soothsayer Orchestra material, exclusive to the digital edition of the record.
Throughout this second offering from Soothsayer Orchestra, the most prominent abiding element, apart perhaps from Hendriks‘ vocals, which provide an appreciated human aspect, is the obvious care that’s been put into crafting and arranging this material no matter how an individual song manifests it. As an auteur, Hendriks (also a former drummer of the more metalcore-minded Born From Pain) is able to create a sense of scope and rough-edged grace, creating momentum from one song to the next like an underwater current by which the individual immersed doesn’t even realize they’re being moved. That image, being drawn away from shore, is perhaps antithetical to some of the bleak plains-sprawl throughout — grey-sky overhead, vast and mostly barren sepia-toned lands below, a place where people used to be before nature took the land back; grass grown over the road — but maybe that’s what happens when an album creates an entire world instead of part of one. So much the better.
The Last Black Flower is streaming in its entirety below, followed by more info on the album from the PR wire.
Please enjoy:
Soothsayer Orchestra, The Last Black Flower album premiere
Pieter Hendricks on The Last Black Flower:
This album is musically a journey with heavy industrial fueled riffing and electronic vibes flowing into small fragile songs and darkblues rocking roadtrip horizon gazers. It is truelly a trip through the brain, as if reading a diary written by a person digging through the deepest vaults of their soul losing himself but also rediscovering themselves and griefing the loss of love and scared of losing control. A moodswing that paints the times we are living in perfectly. A very deep and personal record that people can relate to and find a piece of themselves in, hope and destruction mix with love and death. This is a record that had to be made to stay sane and build a bridge crawling out of darkness longing for light.
The Last Black Flower the new album from Soothsayer Orchestra, the one-man project of Dutch experimentalist Pieter Hendriks, out today via Lay Bare Recordings.
Pieter is a musical solitudinarian who has enough gumption to leave the commonplace behind and only take with him what can enrich his music and performance. There is a certain weight of tragedy in his music. Pieters gravelly voice possesses an uneasy moodiness that reflects doom and despair, which immerses you in the dark side of life. Then, amidst this darkness Hendriks shifts his compositions to newfound hope, warm and flowing, creating a longing, yet bold mood.
In his brand-new studio, fittingly named The Dungeon, Hendriks crawled back into writing mode for new album The Last Black Flower and explored new territory, always looking for new influences. Elements of electronic industrial music and psychedelic vintage rock blend with the dark bluesy foundation on which Soothsayer Orchestra is firmly built. Lyrically and conceptually this album can be seen as a documentation of self-reflection that Hendriks went through during the often hopeless and haunting years of the pandemic. What came out of this is a beautiful and very honest album that lays bare one’s soul and takes the listener on a musically dynamic journey through Hendriks his mind.
Posted in audiObelisk on April 30th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
Today marks the release of Severant‘s first two-songer EP, Closure, through Lay Bare Recordings. Based in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, the four-piece posted up the 12-minute “Sunyata” late in 2019 and seem to have taken the bulk of 2020 to get themselves together — not much else to do, really — ahead of making this debut. Their sound brims with moody psychedelia, warm in tone, but earning the grayscale of their press photo above with a kind of overarching downer feel, brought to bear with a balance between clarity and natural tone by the esteemed Pieter Kloos, who produced at The Void Studio. Both “Soulsplit” (6:42) and the subsequent “Candles” (10:52) are exploratory and patient without being overly self-indulgent, the former making its resonance felt early in hypnotic guitar even as the second cut, which is ultimately the “jammier” of the two, gallops out of the gate.
Melody is key to each piece of the 17-minute sampler Severant are giving of their approach, but they’re not without rhythmic weight either. “Sousplit” works its way fluidly into a swinging second half with the drums pushing a classic-feeling drive forward as a bed for the two guitars working in plotted and winding leads — a nod that’s fun to follow with the stops along the way accessible and building to a depth of fuzz that’s not quite over the nostrils but far enough for one to get the idea of the rampant immersion the band might undertake on a subsequent full-length. Following the thrust at the beginning of “Candles,” the proceedings drop to a distinctly Floydian drift, the vocals inhabiting the space willfully created by more subdued instrumentation. The sway as they move toward the midsection solo called to mind The Devil and the Almighty Blues‘ tendency to hold a groove just to where it feels like it might fall apart before pulling it back under control, and as the bass takes hold circa seven minutes in, Severant seem to be setting up Closure for a final push, but they’re not.
In fact, they drop to quiet again and end by renewing that sway, capping “Candles” with an altogether classier and more restrained spirit. That is to say, it would’ve been easy for them to let the song simply carry itself out. That they didn’t speaks to an underlying thoughtfulness of their process that, thinking in terms of what they might do from here, bodes well.
I’m pretty sure that by the time this post goes live, both of these tracks will have been made public anyway, but whatever. I’m happy enough to feature Closure on its release day one way or the other. You’ll find “Candles” in the embed below, and “Soulsplit” on the Bandcamp player at the bottom of this post, below the release info from Lay Bare.
However you go, please enjoy:
SEVERANT, a new and talented four piece from The Netherlands, brings to life righteous psychedelic sounds by combining their love for the late 60’s and early 70’s fused with their attraction to the dark. They take influences from musical adventures such as Pink Floyd and The Devil’s Blood. Expect beautiful melodies and harmonies floating on a deep groove, contrasted with heavy guitar parts. Produced by Pieter Kloos.
S E V E R A N T – Dark Psychedelic Rock – from The Netherlands
DEBUT EP – CLOSURE – comes in: – 250pcs of black wax – 10inch debut – 350gsm Custom Die Cut Sleeve – 250gsm Printed Innerbag – Produced and engineered by Pieter Kloos | The Void Studio – Cover artwork by Manuel Tinnemans | Comaworx – Lay Out by Pieter Hendriks
Severant is: Erik van Liempd – Vocals & Guitar Loet Braamkolk – Guitar Riccardo Subasi – Bass Koen Steendijk – Drums
Posted in Whathaveyou on October 20th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
Let’s assume that with the advent of preorders for the next Komatsu record later this week will come the details about the album itself, probably also the cover art. Tracked pre-lockdown, the upcoming long-player from the Eindhoven-based four-piece is the follow-up to 2018’s Argonauta-issued A New Horizon (review here) and will mark the band’s debut on Heavy Psych Sounds. Though new to the label, Komatsu have appeared at at least one Heavy Psych Sounds fest in their decade together, and have done a wide swath of touring besides. One expects that thread to continue once circumstances permit.
So, while this news is more about background than details of the due-next-year album, you know I like it when cool stuff happens to good bands. Accordingly, here you go:
Heavy Psych Sounds to announce a new band signing: Dutch heavy rockers KOMATSU!!!
ALBUM PRESALE STARTS: OCTOBER 22nd
Komatsu is formed early 2010. Members of locally acclaimed bands from Eindhoven Rock City joined forces. Their years of music experience in all kinds of bands and individual creativity, created a brutal mix of sludge, stoner and metal….. KOMATSU is born!
The band released a self-titled EP in 2011. After that, they focused on live shows and writing material for their first full length album. “Manu Armata” saw the daylight in February of 2012 and was instantly well received by the international press. It got raving reviews and Komatsu’s music style was compared to bands like Queens Of The Stone Age, Torche, Mastodon, Monster Magnet and Karma to Burn.
Over the past years Komatsu has shown growth and was asked to support internationally well-known bands like Truckfighters (SWE) and a wide range of bands from the US: Karma to Burn, The Sword, Red Fang, Clutch, Nashville Pussy, High on Fire, Corrosion of Conformity and Baroness. They also performed at the official Queens Of The Stone Age after party in the Effenaar in Eindhoven. In 2014 they went on a European tour with none other than John Garcia (Vista Chino, ex-Kyuss, Hermano, Unida and Slo Burn) and played 32 shows in 13 countries. In 2015 Komatsu went on tour with another Palm Desert scene stoner hero: Nick Oliveri’s band Mondo Generator (USA).
“Recipe For Murder One” was released September 2016 and showed that the band gained confidence and experience. On the album you can hear Nick Oliveri on vocals on two songs. The album took the band on various tours throughout Europe with Duel (USA) in October 2016 and the Freeks (with Ruben Romano, ex-Fu Manchu) in March 2017. The album even took Komatsu to Brazil for a stand alone tour. The album appeared in several annual lists of best albums of 2016, and the song “Lockdown” (with a guest appearance by Nick Oliveri on vocals (ex-Kyuss, Queens Of The Stone Age) was nominated by 3voor12 as song of the year.
After playing 85 shows in France, Germany, Belgium. Italy, Switzerland, England, Scotland, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Brazil and Austria in support of the album “Recipe for murder one”, Komatsu entered the Void Studio with producer Pieter Kloos to record “A New Horizon”. This album was released in January 2018 and marked their return to Europe and Brazil for several tours. Komatsu supported Brant Bjork in their hometown and with that completed a straight quartet: they played with all four ex-members of Kyuss (Garcia, Oliveri, Bjork, Homme).
After their latest European stand alone tour in December 2019, Komatsu felt it was time to record a new studio album. In February/March 2020 the Super Massive Mother Sludgers recorded a new studio album, this time at Studio Iglesias, Eindhoven. The new album is recorded and produced by Peter van Elderen (Peter Pan Speedrock) and Komatsu and is mastered by Pieter Kloos. The artwork is made by Lotte Voorhoeve. The album was recorded just before the Covid-19 pandemic and will be released at the beginning of 2021 at Heavy Psych Sounds.
With 9 new killer songs, Komatsu is more than ready and waiting to hit the road again!
KOMATSU is: Mo Truijens (vocals/guitar) Mathijs Bodt (guitar) Martijn Mansvelders (bass) Jos Roosen (drums)
Posted in Reviews on October 5th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
Oh hi there. It’s Quarterly Review time again, and you know what that means. 50 records between now and Friday — and I may or may not extend it through next Monday as well; I think I have enough of a backlog at this point to do so. It’s really just a question of how destroyed I am by writing about 10 different records every day this week. If past is prologue, that’s fairly well destroyed. But I’ve yet to do a Quarterly Review and regret it when it’s over, and like the last one, this roundup of 50 albums is pretty well curated, so it might even be fun to go through. There’s a thought. In any case, as always, I hope you find something you enjoy, and thank you for reading if you do or as much as you do.
Quarterly Review #1-10:
Steve Von Till, No Wilderness Deep Enough
Neurosis guitarist/vocalist Steve Von Till seems to be bringing some of the experimentalism that drives his Harvestman project into the context of his solo work with No Wilderness Deep Enough, his fifth LP and first since 2015’s A Life unto Itself (review here). Drones and melodic synth backs the deceptively-titled “The Old Straight Track,” and where Von Till began his solo career 20 years ago with traditional folk guitar, if slower, on these six tracks, he uses that meditative approach as the foundation for an outward-reaching 37-minute run, incorporating ethereal strings among the swirls of “Shadows on the Run” and finishing with the foreboding hum of “Wild Iron.” Opener “Dreams of Trees” establishes the palette’s breadth with synthesized beats alongside piano and maybe-cello, but it’s Von Till‘s voice itself that ties the material together and provides the crucial human presence and intimacy that most distinguishes the offerings under his own name. Accompanied by Von Till‘s first published book of poetry, No Wilderness Deep Enough is a portrait of the unrelenting creative growth of its maker.
Cyttorak, Simultaneous Invocation of Apocalyptic Harbingers
Take a breath before you hit play only to have it punched right out from your solar plexus by the brutalist deathsludge Cyttorak cleverly call “slowerviolence.” Dominated by low end and growls, screams, and shouts, the lumbering onslaught is the second standalone EP for the three-piece who hail from scenic Pawtucket, Rhode Island (former home of the PawSox), and throughout its six-track run, the unit conjure an unyieldingly punishing tonal morass set to aggressive purpose. That they take their name from the Marvel Universe character who controls X-Men villain Juggernaut should not be taken as coincidence, since their sound indeed seems intended to put its head down and smash through walls and/or anything else that might be in its path in pursuit of its quarry. With Conan-esque lyrical minimalism, the songs nonetheless give clues to their origins — “Royal Shokan Dismemberment” refers to Goro from Mortal Kombat, and finale “Domination Lord of Coldharbour” to Skyrim (which I still regret not playing) — but if you consider comics or video games to be lighter fare, first off, you’re working with an outdated mentality, and second, Cyttorak would like a bit of your time to smother you with volume and ferocity. They have a new split out as well, both on tape.
Also signified by the Greek letter from which they take their moniker, Czech four-piece Lambda represent a new age of progressive heavy post-rock. Influences from Russian Circles aren’t necessarily surprising to find coursing through the instrumental debut full-length, Heliopolis, but there are shades of Elder as well behind the more driving riffs and underlying swing of “Space Express,” which also featured on the band’s 2015 EP of the same name. The seven-minute “El Sonido Nuevo” did likewise, but older material or newer, the album’s nine-song procession moves toward its culminating title-track through the grace of “Odysea” and the intertwining psychedelic guitars of “Milkyway Phaseshifter” with an overarching atmosphere of the journey to the city of the sun being undertaken. And when they get there, at the closer, there’s an initial sense of peace that gives way to some of the most directly heavy push Heliopolis has to offer. Payoff, then. So be it. Purposeful and somewhat cerebral in its execution, the DIY debut brings depth and space together to immersive effect.
Following his 2016 debut, Rotgut (review here) and 2018’s Go to the Devil (review here), Godless is the third full-length from former Iron Man and current Spiral Grave frontman Dee Calhoun, and its considerable 63-minute runtime finds him working in multiple directions while keeping his underlying roots in acoustic-based heavy metal. Certainly “To My Boy” — and Rob Calhoun has appeared on his father’s releases before as well — has its basis in familial expression, but its pairing with “Spite Fuck” is somewhat curious. Meanwhile, “Hornswoggled” cleverly samples George W. Bush with a laugh track, and “Here Under Protest,” “The Greater Evil,” “Ebenezer” and “No Justice” seem to take a worldly view as well. Meanwhile again, “Godless,” “The Day Salvation Went Away” and “Prudes, Puritanicals and Puddles of Piss” make their perspective nothing if not plain for the listener, and the album ends with the two-minute kazoo-laced gag track “Here Comes the Bride: A Tale From Backwater.” So perhaps scattershot, but Godless is nonetheless Calhoun‘s most effective outing yet in terms of arrangements and craft, and shows him digging further into the singer-songwriter form than he has up to now, sounding more comfortable and confident in the process.
Melodic vocal lines weave together and float over alternately weighted and likewise ethereal guitars on Turtle Skull‘s second album, Monoliths. The percussion-inclusive (tambourine, congas, rain stick, etc.) Sydney-based heavy psychedelic outfit create an immersive wash that makes the eight-song/55-minute long-player consuming for the duration, and while there are moments of clarity to be found throughout — the steady snare taps of “Why Do You Ask?” for example — but the vast bulk of the LP is given to the overarching flow, which finds progressive/space-rock footing in the 11-plus minutes of finale “The Clock Strikes Forever” and is irresistibly consuming on the drifting wash of “Rabbit” or the lysergic grunge blowout of “Who Cares What You Think?,” which gives way to the choral drone of “Halcyon” gorgeously en route through the record’s back half. It’s not the highest profile heavy psych release of 2020, but neither is it to be overlooked for the languid stretch of “Leaves” at the outset or the fuzz-drenched roll in the penultimate “Apple of Your Eye.”
In some ways, the dichotomy of Diuna‘s 2019 sophomore full-length, Golem, is set by its first two tracks, the 24-second intro “Menu” and the seven-minute “Jarmark Cudów” that follows, each longer song throughout is prefaced by an introduction or interlude, varying in degrees of experimentation. That, however, doesn’t cover the outsider vibes the Polish trio bring to bear in those longer songs themselves, be it “Jarmark Cudów” devolving into a post-Life of Agony noise rock roll, or the thrust in “Frank Herbert” cut into starts and stops and shouting madness. Heavy rock, noise, sludge, post-this-or-that, it doesn’t matter by the end of the 12-track/44-minute release, because Diuna establish such firm control over the proceedings and make so clear the challenge to the listener to keep up that it’s only fun to try. It might take a couple listens to sink in, but the more attention one gives Golem, the more one is going to be rewarded in the end, and I don’t just mean in the off-kilter fuckery of closer “Pan Jezus Idzie Do Wojska.”
“Ambitious” doesn’t begin to cover it. With eight songs (plus a bonus track) and 11 listed guest musicians, the debut full-length, Hollow, from Tel Aviv-based death-doomers Tomorrow’s Rain seems to be setting its own standard in that regard. And quite a list it is, with the likes of Aaron Stainthorpe of My Dying Bride, Greg Mackintosh of Paradise Lost, Fernando Ribeiro of Moonspell, Mikko Kotamaki of Swallow the Sun, and so on, it is a who’s-who of melodic/gothic death-doom and the album lives up to the occasion in terms of the instrumental drama it presents. Some appear on one track, some on multiple tracks — Ribeiro and Kotamaki both feature on “Misery Rain” — and despite the constant shifts in personnel with only one of the eight tracks completely without an outside contributor, the core six-piece of Tomorrow’s Rain are still able to make an impression of their own that is bolstered and not necessarily overwhelmed by the extravagant company being kept throughout.
Mother Eel‘s take on sludge isn’t so much crushing as it is caustic. They’re plenty heavy, but their punishment isn’t just meted out through tonal weight being brought down on your head. It’s the noise. It’s the blown-out screams. It’s the harshness of the atmosphere in which the entirety of their debut album, Svalbard, resides. Five tracks, 33 minutes, zero forgiveness. One might be tempted to think of songs like “Erection of Pain” as nihilistic fuckall, but that seems incorrect. Nah, they mean it. Fuckall, yeah. But fuckall as ethos. Fuckall manifest. So it goes through “Alpha Woman” and “Listen to the Elderly for They Have Much to Teach,” which ends in a Primitive Man-ish static assault, and the lumbering finish “Not My Shade,” which assures that what began on “Sucking to Gain” half an hour earlier ends on the same anti-note: a disaffected malevolence writ into sheer sonic unkindness. There is little letup, even in the quiet introductions or transitions, so if you’re looking for mercy, don’t bother.
The four-song/39-minute atmospheric sludge long-player Filled by Empty Spaces is listed by Brazilian solo outfit Umbilichaos as being the third part of, “the Tetralogy of Loneliness.” If that’s the emotion being expressed in the noise-metal post-Godflesh chug-and-shout of “Filled by Empty Spaces Pt. 02,” then it is loneliness viscerally presented by founding principal and multi-instrumentalist Anna C. Chaos. The feel throughout the early going of the release is plodding and agonized in kind, but in “Filled by Empty Spaces Pt. 01” and “Filled by Empty Spaces Pt. 03” there is some element of grim, crusted-over psychedelia happening alongside the outright dirge-ism, though the latter ultimately wins out in the four-minute instrumental capper “Disintegration.” One way or the other, Chaos makes her point through raw tonality and overarching intensity of purpose, the compositions coming across simultaneously unhinged and dangerously under control. There are many kinds of heavy. Filled by Empty Spaces is a whole assortment of them.
Fueled by avant grunge/noise impulsion, Radar Men From the Moon‘s latest foray to Planet Whothefuckknows arrives in the eight-song/41-minute The Bestial Light, a record alternately engrossing and off-putting, that does active harm when the sounds-like-it’s-skipping intro to “Piss Christ” comes on and then subsequently mellows out with psych-sax like they didn’t just decide to call the song “Sacred Cunt of the Universe” or something. Riffs, electronics, the kind of weirdness that’s too self-aware not to be progressive, Radar Men From the Moon take the foundation of experimentation set by Astrosoniq and mutate it via Swans into something unrecognizable by genre and unwilling to compromise its own direction. And no, by the time “Levelling” comes on to round out, there is no peace to be found, though perhaps a twisted kind of joy at the sheer postmodernism. They should score ballets with this stuff. No one would go, but three centuries from now, they’d be worshiped as gods. Chance of that anyway, I suppose.
Posted in Bootleg Theater on February 8th, 2019 by JJ Koczan
7Zuma7, Untitled EP (1998)
7Zuma7 — or 7 Zuma 7, if you’re feeling more spaced out — weren’t necessarily the earliest heavy rock band out of the Netherlands. That title might belong to the likes of 35007 or Beaver or Celestial Season, but the Eindhoven-based four-piece weren’t far behind either, and the 1998 arrival of their untitled debut EP put them right in line with what one might consider the MySpace era of heavy rock — a moment of burgeoning, pre-mobile social media engagement and, with the arrival of higher-speed internet in more places, the ability to stream media. They got their start in ’95, but by 1998, the “stoner rock” wave was well enough underway in the Europe and the US alike, and 7Zuma7 were particularly adept in taking influence from all that was going on around them and bringing it into their own context. Sure, their logo/cover art was of its era, but the straightforward push in their material on the five-song/22-minute outing, which presented a cover of Donna Summer‘s “Hot Stuff” as its centerpiece that turned disco fever into ’70s rock swagger and seemed to be in conversation with the likes of Kyuss, Roadsaw and Dozer on the six-and-a-half-minute closer “Nugtohs” — “shotgun” backwards — was righteously positioned the band in the dug-in style of the genre of the day.
More than two decades later, the work of vocalist/guitarist Jerry van Eyck, guitarist John Peate, bassist Nick Sanders and drummer Jacco van Rooij on this first EP might seem like something of a precursor. Prior to calling it quits, the 7Zuma7 released Deep Inside in 2000 as their lone full-length. And they’re further notable for in 1999 working with bassist Miranda van der Voort, who by then was already a founding member of Toner Low. But while that might be enough to make them a footnote in the Netherlands’ heavy rock family tree, it’s the songs on 7Zuma7‘s EP that continue to hold such relevance. I feel like I say this about bands from this era a lot — and I probably do, so apologies if I’m being redundant — but taking 7Zuma7 in comparison to some of the straight-ahead heavy and roll coming out now, and it’s like the 21 years between just melt away. If these guys were around today, they’d be signed to Ripple Music and I’d be writing about how awesome it was they were going to play at Desertfest and a bunch of other European festivals I won’t be fortunate enough to go to.
It’s not that heavy rock is a stagnant thing. If anything, the definition has expanded beyond recognition. But 7Zuma7, especially in tracks like the catchy opener “Velvet Slide” or “An Instant Cool” here, speak to a core groove and energy that in no small part works to epitomize the style then and now. You can hear it when you listen to Fu Manchu, and you can hear it when you listen to 7Zuma7. The inheritance of rhythmic swing is a big part of it, but it’s not the whole thing. In the second-half solo of “Velvet Slide,” or in the post-grunge drive of “Blue T.S.” and the slowdown that follows, it’s the kind of sound one has to step back from and say, “Yes. This is that thing.” To typify genre is not the same as to play to it, and in that regard, it’s important to remember that this was more than two decades ago, and even as 7Zuma7 weren’t the first to fuzz-blast their guitars and blow the doors off a surprising cover song, they were at very least earlier adopters of the style, and they would soon enough pay off the potential they showed on the EP with Deep Inside, while showing even more.
You know those hundreds of heavy ’70s bands who put out one or two records, were awesome, and then broke up? I’ll gladly put 7Zuma7 in that category. Listening to the rolling groove of “An Instant Cool” and the midsection break there that seems to foreshadow the outbound trip later in “Nugtohs,” yeah, the production might be somewhat dated, but the methods should still be familiar, and it’s hard to imagine that, sooner or later, some generous soul won’t dip back into this pool and bring similar “lost” outings to the surface for reissue and exposure to the now-two generations of listeners who’ve been turned on to heavy rock since it was first released. Maybe that’s wishful thinking, and I don’t imagine it’s the kind of thing that would entice much venture capital, but aside from its own merits, which extended both to songwriting and performance — that is, on the most basic level, it’s not 22 minutes of your life you’re going to regret spending — the tracks on 7Zuma7‘s EP represent a moment in the history of heavy rock that’s at this point relatively forgotten. And like all those bands from the ’70s who still seem to show up out of the blue, there’s a project waiting to be undertaken in exploring and rediscovering this moment. Where’s the Akarma Records of ’90s heavy?
While I, as ever, daydream about having things like money and time in infinite supply, I’ll go back and put on 7Zuma7‘s EP again and dig the raw drum sound, the way the vocals seem to ride over top of the riffs and the general swagger on display throughout. That’s all I’m advocating for here, ultimately. A revisit. Right now, we are once again awash in bands. It’s astounding how much stuff there is out right now. Between Bandcamp and a vinyl resurgence, a multifaceted movement of heavy is playing out. And it will recede for a time again, and take a lot of similar one-album or two-album groups with it as people move on to different stages of their life and other projects. It’s a life-cycle, basically. But even as there’s a constantly overwhelming forward motion, releases like this one underscore the importance of looking back and drawing the line from then to now. I’m pretty sure I’ve mixed metaphors irreparably throughout this post, but if you take away anything from it at all, understand that whatever your angle of approach to exploring heavy rock and roll, there’s always going to be more to find.
As always, I hope you enjoy.
—
I let myself sleep until 4:30 this morning, which felt like a luxury. Alarm went off an hour earlier, but in my head I saw myself yesterday afternoon, dead to the world on the couch during the baby’s second nap, and decided it was worth investing in the day now. I don’t know if it was the right call or not, but screw it. As The Patient Mrs. told me the other day, “You’ll get your shit done.” And so I will. The only question, I suppose, is the freneticism of pace at which that happens. I shouldn’t complain. I mean, I do anyway — constantly — but I shouldn’t.
The Pecan woke up at about 5:30. It takes him a bit to get going, but that’s when he really started to stir. I grabbed him a couple minutes before six, as usual, and that started the morning. I’m beat. The Patient Mrs. and I are pretty dug into the beginning of her Spring semester teaching, so she’s out most days for some measure of time or other, and there’s always grading besides. I’m just trying to get through the days. I’ve had some ferocious ups and downs the last couple weeks — more downs, if I’m honest — but whatever. I’m getting through the way I get through, which is by writing and trying to catch my quiet moments where and when I can.
One thing The Pecan is good for though is he gets me out of the house. The Patient Mrs. and I are sharing a car (her car, to be more precise), but even aside from dropping her off at work, the kid needs to get out of the house at least once per day, preferably twice. It was warm and sunny earlier this week so we spent the whole day more or less at different parks. There’s a skatepark down the way from where we live and I took him there just to run up and down the ramps and stuff. No one’s ever there — it’s right next to the police station, oddly enough — so we had it to ourselves and he had a good time. Then we went to the regular park and he faceplanted coming down a big-kid slide. He was fine, but displeased. Point is he’s happy getting out as much as he can. In Massachusetts winter, you have to take those days when you can get them. There’s usually one per month or so.
He’s down for a nap now — it’s a bit after breakfast — but I can hear him singing to himself upstairs. He’ll fall asleep eventually. Domestic bliss.
Agenda for the weekend includes getting the ball rolling for the Roadburn ‘zine and driving to CT to celebrate The Patient Mrs.’ upcoming birthday with her family. That, honestly, will probably be enough.
I’ve got notes for next week though. Here they are:
MON 02/11 OLD MEXICO REVIEW; THE OTHER SUN VID PREMIERE
TUE 02/12 SAVER PREMIERE/REVIEW; DUN RINGILL VID PREMIERE
WED 02/13 VAREGO ALBUM STREAM/REVIEW; HIGH BRIAN VID PREMIERE
THU 02/14 RED EYE PREMIERE
FRI 02/15 DEMON HEAD REVIEW
I’m also slated to go see C.O.C. next weekend in Boston and I’m already anxious about it. What if crowds, what if photos, what if parking, what if Boston. All that stuff. You know the deal.
No new ‘The Obelisk Show’ this weekend, but as you can see, plenty going besides. I’ll be around if you need anything though. You know where to find me.
Please have a great and safe weekend, and please, forum, radio, merch.
Posted in Whathaveyou on November 7th, 2018 by JJ Koczan
If you want to hear something funny, as I was first putting together this post about Komatsu‘s upcoming release show and tour, I had November listed as ‘next month.’ I guess I’m still in a pre-Halloween mindset, and fair enough because it’s pretty early in the morning and there’s a baby screaming upstairs who needs to go back to sleep, but you know, I could probably still get a handle on what month it is. I’m just happy that the post didn’t actually go up that way, though I can’t promise either that that’s a mistake I’ve never made in the past or that I won’t make it (again) sometime in the future. I know better than to swear to something like that.
Komatsu‘s tour actually starts not only this month, but this very week. They’ll play the release show for their new album, A New Horizon (discussed here), on Friday in Eindhoven, which is a city I’ve been to precisely once, and continue on from there with a stretch through Switzerland, Italy and Germany before hitting Iberia and turning back to their home in the Netherlands before closing out the month again in Germany. It’s a good run, all told, and should serve the record well, which as it happens is a cause worth supporting.
Dates come via the PR wire:
Dutch stoner rock collective KOMATSU will embark on an European tour through 7 countries to present their brand new full-length “A New Horizon”.
See KOMATSU on the following dates:
FRI 09-11 – Blue Collar, Eindhoven (NL) (album release party EU) SAT 10-11 – Pörompömpöm, Oberendfelden (CH) SUN 11-11 – Krach Club, Treviso (IT) WED 14-11 – Gaswerk, Winterthur (CH) THU 15-11 – Ziggy, Turin (IT) FRI 16-11 – 11er, Frankfurt (GER) SAT 17-11 – Dirtfeast, Osnabrück (GER) SUN 18-11 – Le Midland, Lille (FR) TUE 20-11 – Metalpoint, Porto (PT) WED 21-11 – Rock Beer The New, Santander (ES) FRI 23-11 – Bibelot, Dordrecht (NL) SAT 24-11 – Hedon, Zwolle (NL) FRI 30-11 – Limes, Koln (GER)
Komatsu is: Mo Truijens: Guitar + Lead vocals Mathijs Bodt: Guitar + vocals Martijn Mansvelders: Bass + vocals Joris Lindner: Drums + vocals
Netherlands-based four-piece Komatsu will issue their next album, A New Horizon, Sept. 7 through Argonauta Records, and with it, the band reach a yet-uncharted echelon in their approach. Working with producer Pieter Kloos, the band — vocalist/guitarist Mo Truijens, guitarist/vocalist Mathijs Bodt, bassist/vocalist Martijn Mansvelders and drummer/vocalist Joris Lindner — bring a progressive edge to the tonal mass of their past outings, 2016’s Recipe for Murder One (review here) and their 2011 self-titled EP (review here), so that “Prophecy,” “Walk a Mile” and “Love Screams Cruelty” tap into a decidedly European brand of metal, seeming here and there to share some spaciousness and melancholy with the likes of mid-period Katatonia, but still keeping plenty of impact both there and in other cuts like surging opener “I Got Drive” and the head-down pummel of “10-4,” the latter of which is about as stripped-down and noisy as they get on the 10-song release.
The resultant blend continues the sonic growth one could hear in Komatsu‘s sound their last time out, but seems also to bring their style into focus. Rhythmic momentum becomes key to pieces like the instrumental “Surfing a Landslide,” which reinterprets classic surf rock-ish lead work with the ‘landslide’ that is the guitar and bass tones, as that song and others like “Infected” touch on a more rocking aesthetic, delivering a hook in the lines “Well if misery loves company/Why the fuck are you so lonely?” atop a beat that’s near danceable. Still, it’s telling that when it comes to their eponymous track “Komatsu” at the outset of side B, they turn to full-on crunch and seem to cast their lot in with the heft at the foundation of their take. The surroundings are exciting for being less willing to commit to one side or the other, and A New Horizon as a whole is richer for that refusal.
In order to herald the arrival of A New Horizon, the Eindhoven unit have a video for the title-track premiering below. The song, which appears on side B and is the longest inclusion at 5:12, seems to bring some of the varied sides together in the progressive metal verses and its open and rolling chorus. Note the thud of the kick drum throughout, as Lindner plays a huge role across the album’s full span in conveying the different vibes in the songs, and the atmosphere of confrontation as the lyrics ask plainly, “Are you in or are you out?” I guess when it comes right down to it that’s the central question. Komatsu indeed touch on places they’ve never been with A New Horizon, and that’s all the more intriguing because it’s only been two years since Recipe for Murder One, but as they grow into their own they also leave the comforts of genre behind them, and inevitably there will be some who don’t get what they’re going for. Even so, with a core of quality songwriting beneath the nuanced turns, Komatsu make it easy to answer that question in the affirmative.
Copious PR wire info, including festival and Iberian tour dates, follows the video below, which it’s my pleasure to premiere.
Please enjoy:
Komatsu, “A New Horizon” official video premiere
Hailing from Eindhoven-rock city, Netherlands, Stoner and Sludge Metal rockers KOMATSU have just recently unveiled first details about their upcoming and 3rd studio album titled ‘A New Horizon’! Set to be released on September 7th 2018 with Argonauta Records, KOMATSU once again unleash an exciting mixture of the Sludge, Stoner Rock and Metal while setting stones for a new horizon indeed. Recorded at The Void Studio with producer Pieter Kloos in early 2018, ‘A New Horizon’ features 10 blistering songs that combine all that is heavy while staying true to the band’s very own sound. Now KOMATSU give a first glimpse on their upcoming and hotly anticipated record, and premiere a brand new video to the album title track ‘A New Horizon’.
Says the band: “For A new horizon we wanted a clip that tells the story of the lyrics in a sci-fi setting. The song has a revolutionary feel. People free themselves from rules and laws they leave the madness behind on earth in search of a new world and a new horizon.
The clip for new horizon was made by Joost Nevels and he did an excellent job!
So …are you in or are you out?“
The tracklist for ‘A New Horizon’ reads as follows:
1. I Got Drive 2. Prophecy 3. 10-4 4. Surfing A Landslide 5. Love Screams Cruelty 6. Komatsu 7. Infected 8. A New Horizon 9. Walk A Mile 10. This Ship Has Sailed
KOMATSU was formed in early 2010. The band released a self-titled EP in 2011, followed by numerous live shows all over Europe. ‘Manu Armata’ was released in February 2013 and been instantly well received by the international press and fans alike. In 2014 KOMATSU went on tour with none other than John Garcia (Vista Chino, ex-Kyuss, Hermano, Unida, Slo Burn) and played 32 shows in 13 European countries. The critically acclaimed ‘Recipe for Murder One’ was released September 2016 and showed that the band gained trust and experience. It took the band on various tours throughout Europe with bands such as Duel or The Freeks. During May 2017 ‘Recipe for Murder One’ even got KOMATSU to tour Brazil. The band’s upcoming ‘A New Horizon’ will be available September 7th 2018 on Argonauta Records (Vinyl/CD/Digital Download) and will mark the band’s return to the world of heavy music, to once again smash the rock audiences and make sure everybody has a mothersludging time! Pre-order your copy here:
In support of ‘A New Horizon’, KOMATSU will be heavily touring this year again! Make sure to catch the band live on the following dates, with many more shows to be announced soon:
It’s not that heavy rock is a stagnant thing. If anything, the definition has expanded beyond recognition. But 7Zuma7, especially in tracks like the catchy opener “Velvet Slide” or “An Instant Cool” here, speak to a core groove and energy that in no small part works to epitomize the style then and now. You can hear it when you listen to Fu Manchu, and you can hear it when you listen to 7Zuma7. The inheritance of rhythmic swing is a big part of it, but it’s not the whole thing. In the second-half solo of “Velvet Slide,” or in the post-grunge drive of “Blue T.S.” and the slowdown that follows, it’s the kind of sound one has to step back from and say, “Yes. This is that thing.” To typify genre is not the same as to play to it, and in that regard, it’s important to remember that this was more than two decades ago, and even as 7Zuma7 weren’t the first to fuzz-blast their guitars and blow the doors off a surprising cover song, they were at very least earlier adopters of the style, and they would soon enough pay off the potential they showed on the EP with Deep Inside, while showing even more.
