The studio adventures of German heavy psychedelia progenitors Colour Haze are manifold and occasionally more than their share of tragic, but as the band celebrate their 30th anniversary throughout 2024, they’re an essential part of the story. Guitarist and vocalist Stefan Koglek, who is the remaining founding member, has been a part of studio builds and teardowns, recorded in basements and bunkers, and been driven enough toward the band determining their own destiny to end up creating the space itself in which he’d long wished to create. You might recall that around the time of 2012’s She Said (review here), Koglek talked about some of the years’ worth of challenges behind that record alone. As it turns out, that circumstance — while particularly gruesome — was not necessarily an isolated incident.

In addition to a CD sale through his mostly-dormant imprint Elektrohasch Schallplatten and sundry live dates — including SonicBlast Fest in Portugal and Bear Stone in Croatia — that will culminate in an anniversary festival of their own at Feierwerk in Munich this Dec. 28 (further details TBA), Koglek has begun overseeing revisits to past Colour Haze albums at a home studio that, at least for now, he’s willing to call ‘done.’ One might think of the 2021 remix of 2003’s Los Sounds de Krauts (reissue review here) as a precursor to this undertaking, but in terms of the place where the work happens, the already-streaming upcoming 2LP remix and remaster of 2017’s In Her Garden (review here) presents an evolved ideology in its approach to volume, and takes ownership of the material in a way that lets it realize new ideas without actually being all that different.

I’ll just say flat out that if you cherish the original as I do — I hope always to remember dancing with my then-baby daughter to the la-la-las later in “Lotus” — there’s nothing on the 2024 In Her Garden that wants to take that away from you. If the notion of an artist going back over prior output makes you nervous, I understand that. I’m pretty sure there are still folks pissed off Star Wars did a second trilogy at the turn of the century, and I’m not out here to try and belittle or discount anyone’s point of view. Particularly for records toward which one might feel a deep connection, that change can be scary. With the original In Her Garden, Colour Haze united the expanse of the aforementioned She Said with the intentional pushback, go-to-ground organic performance-capture of 2015’s To the Highest Gods We Know (review here), found peace and a place in-between those sides that was memorable unto itself in the listening experience, and cast sun-coated evocations which have continued to resonate in the now-seven years since it came out. Their two-to-date LPs since, 2019/2020’s We Are (review here) and 2022’s Sacred (review here), would not have taken shape as they did without In Her Garden‘s progressive foundation.

Below, you’ll find Koglek detailing the process of going back into the recordings of In Her Garden with a perspective less about volume and more about dynamic. Some pieces have been (partially) rearranged, as with the vocals on “Black Lilly” after the intro “Into Her Garden,” or Jan Faszbender‘s solo in “Lavatera,” but the overarching impression of the music remains serene in its varied movements, and the songs come across with more space, more live energy, and as you can hear in the 11-minute “Islands” and across the span, an underlying tonal crunch that proves well worth highlighting. He calls its sound as “brighter” and “more ‘open,'” and these are assessments with which I can only agree as he, then-bassist Philipp Rasthofer, drummer Manfred Merwald, as well as Faszbender and a host of guest contributors including Mario Oberpucher — who’d take over for Rasthofer on bass in 2021 — present this fresh and refreshing take on the original.

This isn’t an interview, and it’s not an in-studio, but Koglek goes deep in terms of laying out the ideas behind 2024’s In Her Garden and what actually went into making a record that was already so teeming with vitality feel even more alive. Keep your eyes on their website, as they’ll reportedly roll out more background on other albums as the occasion arises. I did some light editing on the text below, but in parallel to the record’s new mix itself, no actual meaning has been changed.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy:

Revisiting ‘In Her Garden’ with Stefan Koglek

…In the summer of 2015, my new control room was ready to work. Now I had a luxurious home studio. While I couldn’t foresee the dynamics starting from the choice of a 2” tape machine as a basic recorder, I have to admit I got intrigued by the reemergence of analogue audio gear. A fascinating world I dived into with passion. Would you stick with drawing watercolor on paper just for economic reasons if it’s your dream to make big oil paintings on canvas?

I think the experiences of your life are more precious than any money you could probably save. I wanted to have gear that I really liked, not just what was doing the job. Even if it was just for the reason that you couldn’t blame the gear for making a poor-sounding record.

I was reasonable enough not to buy overpriced classics, instead choosing esoteric stuff with good value for the money. And with an analogue studio you need a lot of stuff.

Also in my new home studio, I was still missing some tools, equalizer channels, etc., to really do everything necessary or that I wanted. It was still not grown up. And though the room was good now, the monitoring still was far from perfect. Though I wasn’t too happy with the performance of my monitor speakers in the room, my attempts to change this didn’t get much going. But it was much better than before, so I tried to get used to it. I couldn’t improve the situation for another five years.

In 2016, we had enough music for a new album but the garage below my control room still wasn’t converted into the recording space it was initially intended to be.

For the ‘In Her Garden’ recordings, we booked a great sounding, huge 1960s studio room in Munich, which was now mainly used as a rehearsal for a symphonic orchestra. We would have brought all our own recording gear. One week before our sessions, the booking was cancelled by the studio owner.

Though I thought it was clear from the beginning we would rent the empty room during the orchestra’s holiday in a lockout deal, he was shocked to find out we wouldn’t just work from nine to five like the orchestra musicians. First he wanted to double the already whopping 800 Euro per-day price for an empty room, then he cancelled the whole deal.

There we stood, holiday already taken. We tried to find a different studio but in the end had to go down again in our rehearsal room. A new place that was formerly a beer cellar for Oktoberfest. It was four floors below ground, 40 sqm, concrete, low ceiling. The lift had just enough room to squeeze in the Telefunken.

We tried to swiftly treat the room acoustically with what was around, and just as everything was set up and ready for soundcheck, the tape machine stopped working. It turned out that a huge surge hit the poor electric system of the building while we were setting up mics (maybe from a crane being shut off from the build of the nearby Oktoberfest).

The Logic-platines of the tape machine were destroyed – and so was the lift. The latter never got repaired again, and in the end we had to carry the 250 kg Telefunken in pieces up four floors on small stairs. We spent the week that was meant for recording on fixing the recorder. But we got ‘In Her Garden’ in the end, despite the difficult circumstance. And the recordings sounded better than what we got from the previous place.

The Remixes:

In 2020, I had to change to a different press for LPs. For some years, the company I was working with since founding Elektrohasch had trouble with quality and when they raised prices three times within two weeks in the 2020 vinyl rush, it was time to go.

The pressing-tools were mine, since I always had my vinyls cut at a different cutting studio. I expected they could simply be sent to the new factory and I could work there. But surprise: most tools arrived damaged at Optimal Media. A part of the stock of work we’d built up over 20 years was gone overnight. I had to deliver new cuts. That meant I had to deliver the master recordings again.

Sometimes this was impossible.

For ‘Los Sounds de Krauts,’ the original digital masters were in poor 16bit 44.1 kHz on CD-R – you wouldn’t use a 15-year-old CD-R as a master! I also thought the mixes could be improved with hindsight and better gear. At least for that I had the original (digital) multitrack recordings, but it took two years to get all the digital files running again. Mind that – just 15 years and your digital memory might be lost already or only retrieved with great effort or cost, even within the very same system: ProTools on a Mac. Meanwhile, I just put the tapes from ‘To The Highest Gods We Know’ on the machine and simply work with them.

Other records are still in stock, some won’t be reprinted anyway.

But when possible I will take the opportunity to remix the rest of our catalogue step by step. Because the sound could be better. It is a lot of work (and actually not paid) but it’s simply a thing I want to do.

With the home studio, I have the possibility and occasion to work on them again. And there are reasons why I think I can get to better results now:

– Over the years, I’ve learned more about mixing. I have a better idea what I’m hearing and how to achieve things.

– My studio finally has proper monitoring. For the first time since ‘All,’ I can really hear what is going on.

– The studio is complete. I do not miss another Equalizer-Channel if I need one. I’m happy with it, got used to what I have and don’t want different or new stuff. I have a tendency to collect things, but thankfully this always ends at some point. I can complete a collection.

– I have no pressure. I can work relaxed at home on the recordings whenever I’m up to it.

– Foremost, it is now finally fun to work in that place.

‘In Her Garden’ is the first record I mixed and mastered with this new situation. The actual changes in the mixing are not that big – it is still the same recordings and the same person working with the same setup on them. But little changes make quite some difference for my ears:

– First of all I learned to take much more care with levels. In the individual tracks, differences in gain settings are subtle to hear, but the dedicated control over all levels throughout the signal chain leads to a less “choked,” more open-sounding result. Though my console has headroom forever I had to learn how different it sounds depending on how you drive it.

– Where for quite some time I kept the ideal of mixing very “dry” without any additional reverberation on the basic tracks, I’m a bit less dogmatic about such things now and I learned to utilize reverberation better.

– I learned how to take greater care of mixing keyboards and vocals…

– Another benefit for the remix was I didn’t feel the pressure to present a new album and also had more distance to the music and therefore maybe a clearer view – remixing ‘In Her Garden’ was pretty relaxed and happened over the course of seven months.

For my ears all this results in a more “open,” pleasant and relaxed sound. The record is more dynamic and sounds brighter and fuller, even though the equalizer settings actually haven’t changed much. It’s just a bit more on-spot here and there, so the individual signals integrate better.

What was changed on the material? Not much, just in:

– “Black Lilly”: I was never satisfied with how the vocals worked. I had this melody, an idea of the vocal line, but had trouble performing it. That’s part of why we don’t play this song live; I simply can’t sing it well enough in the original key. But the basic track was the best I could achieve. I mixed it much better now so it is not rolling up my toenails anymore. And I added a new lower background voice to help the basic track. I actually like the vocals in this song pretty much now.

– “Lavatera“ – for ‘In Her Garden,’ I had originally hired Jan as a session musician, which led to expanding Colour Haze to a quartet later. The original organ tracks were a swift improvisation. As “Lavatera” was part of the live set for a couple of years, Jan developed a synthesizer solo that fit the song better. I wanted to integrate this solo also, to create a bridge within the record to Jan being a member of the band now.

Another difference is the mastering.

I’m first generation home-computer, and with all the changes since the ‘80s, I’ve experienced digital memory as shortlived and ever-changing. If you’re reading this and you record anything, ever, mind the trouble we had recreating the ‘Los Sounds de Krauts’ data. From an artistic point of view, a physical copy is still the form that should present the results of our efforts.

We got accustomed to so many things, and until ‘In Her Garden’, I had the idea that the digital master was better with a certain amount of loudness. This by far was not as gruesome as during the early 2000s, but as close as possible to the technical limits of digital audio.

Well, one could imagine it simply is not good to drive anything as far as possible to the technical limits. And though mastering engineers might tell you otherwise, my notion is that limiters (tools that cut off signal peaks so the program can be shifted closer to the limit) never do nice things to audio. They limit.

For [remixing] ‘In Her Garden,’ I forgot all considerations of making it loud. It doesn’t matter for the actual result on vinyl anyway. For or me it sounds less “choked” than everything we did before. Only time will tell if this is a better way.

The recording and mix are analogue. I mixdown to 1/4” stereo tape. From there, mastering is basically the translation to digital, but the tools for it are still analogue – a Hi-End valve equalizer to shape the frequency and a Hi-End valve compressor for some dynamic shaping, to “open up” the dynamics rather than to “squeeze” them together. From there it is converted to digital.

This time I didn’t try anymore to get as loud as possible into the digital domain. I accepted the sonically ideal point of the electronics of my mastering converter (if you need to know, I use a Forssell Mada 2a). And the result after mastering 13 songs every now and then over the course of six weeks with all the songs fitting together in loudness and appearance tells me I’m not totally wrong.

For the vinyl cut I changed from DMM to “half-speed lacquer cut”. The digital files are only half as loud now, but I think it sounds better. You have the volume control – use it! :)

Colour Haze, In Her Garden (2024 remix/remaster)

Colour Haze website

Colour Haze on Facebook

Colour Haze on Instagram

Elektrohasch Schallplatten website

Elektrohasch Schallplatten on Facebook

Last month, amid the merciful waning of humid summer on the northeastern seaboard, German heavy psychedelic rock institution Colour Haze traveled to play their first American shows in 17 years at Desertfest New York. They would perform two sets in Brooklyn as part of the festival, an initially-booked headlining slot at the pre-show at Saint Vitus Bar (review here) leading to the addition of a second set for the first night of the fest-proper at the Knockdown Center (review here).

Perhaps for the band’s fans in Europe it might be difficult to appreciate how much of an event this was. Sure, last weekend in their hometown of Munich they played an annual set at the Keep it Low Festival put on by Sound of Liberation, and they’ve got more tour dates lined up for next month that you can see below. Meanwhile, the last time they were in the US was 2006’s Emissions From the Monolith Festival in Youngstown, Ohio, and while I don’t mind telling you that evening changed my life for the better, The Nyabinghi where it happened, was more of an outpost than a scene for a grand entrance for a generational band on new geographic ground. They were brilliant, either way.

Is an American underground ready for Colour Haze? Desertfest sure was. I spoke to several heads in the crowd on both nights who’d been waiting a decade or longer for the chance to see them, and I get it. While their sound is as immersive onstage as it is on record, seeing them actually making that happen is a bit believing it. In the video interview that follows here, Koglek makes some comparison to a jazz band, and there is definitely that element of the crowd watching Colour Haze — Koglek, bassist Mario Oberpucher, keyboardist Jan Faszbender and drummer Mani Merwald — to try to understand how it’s done. To learn. You hear about that a lot with the bop era of jazz acts and players. When you’re on the presence of masters, it’s worth paying attention.

The conversation covers a pretty broad range of topics, from NY, to remixing old albums before the tapes decay to the potential of their return to the US for more touring — yes, touring — in 2024, and so on. It was not at all the first time we’ve spoken over the years, but a new format for it to happen. It’s not a short chat, and I treat posting unedited interviews as a moral position, so if you’re gonna dig in, take your time. You also get to see the Colour Haze Studio where at least part of their recording process (as well as the mix/mastering, generally) happens, so that’s a bonus as well. Yes, the tape machine is apparently as heavy as it looks.

I could go on here about the importance of the band, their influence, the possibility of their touring in North America in addition to their already-confirmed South American dates and whatever, but you’ve got enough on your plate. If you dig in, please enjoy, and either way, thanks for reading:

Colour Haze Interview with Stefan Koglek, Oct. 10, 2023

Colour Haze‘s Sacred is out now through Elektrohasch Schallplatten. Following their performance at Keep it Low, the remaining dates for their Fall tour are as follows:

21.10. – (DE) Ludwigsburg – Scala Ludwigsburg
04.11. – (DE) Weiden – Burn the Streets Festival Vol. 1
10.11. – (DE) Dortmund – JunkYard • Dortmund
11.11. – (NL) Maastricht – Muziekgieterij
12.11.- (NL) Deventer – Burgerweeshuis
14.11. – (DE) Bielefeld – Forum Bielefeld
15.11. – (BE) Brussels – Le Botanique
16.11. – (FR) Paris – Backstage By The Mill Garmonbozia Inc.
17.11. – (FR) Vallet – WESTILL VIIème édition
18.11. – (DE) Neunkirchen – Gloomaar Festival 2023

Colour Haze, Sacred (2023)

Colour Haze website

Colour Haze on Facebook

Colour Haze on Instagram

Elektrohasch Schallplatten website

Elektrohasch Schallplatten on Facebook

Yeah, I know I closed a week with Los Natas like four months ago. Whatever. I don’t care. I’ll do the whole catalog eventually. Today is München Sessions. If you saw that and were going to call me on repeating myself, from the bottom of my heart, thank you for paying attention.

Moving on.

In 2003, pivotal Buenos Aires-based heavy rockers Los Natas would have been supporting 2002’s Corsario Negro on tour in Europe, as well as the 2003 and 2004 Toba Trance duology of exploratory psych that, well, maybe in another couple months it’ll close out another week because sometimes you go on a kick. Either way, also ripe for revisit.

It’s funny to write about a record in long-ago hindsight that I remember writing about 18 years ago when it came out in 2005. I got the CD of München Sessions from German imprint Elektrohasch Schallplatten. It was a 2CD, with the 12 tracks — the corresponding Oui Oui Records edition from Argentina edits that down to seven, omitting “Trilogia,” “El Cono del Encono” “Nada,” “Corsario Negro Loco” and “Traicion en el Arrocero,” I’m not entirely sure why — arranged in programs à la vinyl sides, and featured cuts from across their then-discography. Here’s the full 12-track version, with the album the song first appeared on in brackets:

Los Natas, München Sessions:
1. Soma [Delmar]
2. 13 [Ciudad de Brahman]
3. El Negro [Delmar]
4. Tormenta Mental [2003 7″]
5. Trilogia [Delmar]
6. El Cono Del Encono [Corsario Negro]
7. Nada [Ciudad de Brahman]
8. Polvareda [Ciudad de Brahman]
9. Corsario Negro Loco [Corsario Negro]
10. Traición En El Arrocero [Toba Trance]
11. Humo de Marihauna [Corsario Negro]
12. Tomaiten (Jamm Aleman)

You’ll note that the last inclusion, the 19-minute “Tomaiten (Jamm Aleman)” — the title translates to ‘Tomatoes (German Jam)” — is the only one that doesn’t actually come from a prior Los Natas release. I don’t know how the trio — guitarist/vocalist Sergio Chotsourian, bassist Gonzalo Villagra, drummer Walter Broide — wound up in the studio with engineer Tim Höfer, but they did, and at the end of the full half-hour-plus set, for that final jam they brought in Colour Haze‘s Stefan Koglek (who also ran and still runs Elektrohasch, if less actively) for a guest spot on guitar and vocals.

So in addition to a live-in-studio LP, München Sessions features a to-date once-in-a-lifetime meeting of two pinnacle heavy rock guitarists of their generation. Chotsourian is widely acknowledged as an essential figurehead in Argentine and greater South American heavy as a whole, and though their styles of play are different between the punk metal and the hippie prog, Koglek is in a similar position, having played a large role in establishing heavy psychedelia as a sound distinct from both the heavy and the psych that comprise it.

Just the idea that these two would ever share air in the same room while holding guitars is exciting, but the 19-minute “Tomaiten (Jamm Aleman)” is a three-tiered adventure in sound that is well placed as the culmination of a righteous showcase. Both are tonally and stylistically present, Chotsourian‘s fuzz sharper at the edges and recognizable from the earlier hooky thrust of “Tormenta Mental” or the psychedelic twist-around of “13” after “Soma” opens, the latter taken from the band’s 1996 debut, Delmar (discussed here), which I’ll gladly argue as one of the best heavy rock albums ever made.

The sweep at the start of “Tomaiten (Jamm Aleman)” makes immersion that much quicker, the two guitars feeling their way through the buildup as Koglek solos and Chotsourian riffs, the latter stepping forward in a stop shortly before three minutes in to establish what will be the signature riff of the piece, echoed later, but changed into something else after 10-plus minutes of exploration as a four-piece unit. Chotsourian and Koglek both sing. There are early verses from the former, or at least lines arranged in rhythm over the off-the-cuff instrumental progression behind, and Koglek and Broide both seem to contribute backing vocals, Koglek circling around a vocal part over a solo before Chotsourian rejoins during a driving, classic Los Natas push.

Shifting through those initial movements, the group arrive at the nine-minute mark and mellow out for a while, Chotsourian still singing a bit, the words in Spanish with a bit of reverb added. There’s a decisive stop in the drums after 10:30 with just guitar and voice, the Koglek rejoins subtly, and that’s a joy in itself, but it’s when Villagra joins that the movement takes shape. The bass comes in not playing the same part but a different interpretation — not quite a new movement, but almost — and that reinvigorates both guitars. Broide comes back in on drums and soon they’re dug into a riff that’s like a paean to stoner rock from players who helped define it, the entire band — yes, a band — comfortable in the swing and stomp of that groove.

Once they lock in again they remain that way for the duration. This was all done in one day; Oct. 13, 2003. That’s 20 years ago next weekend. The Los Natas tracks and the jam that was likely carved out of a longer take but still preserves a special moment in the tenure of Los Natas (and of Colour Haze, for that matter). I would eventually get to see Los Natas on tour in Europe in 2010, at the Roadburn Festival (review here), and the vitality of “Polvareda” and the swagger in “13” on München Sessions effectively translates to a studio setting, the Oui Oui Records edition — I was going to include the second tracklist but it seemed like too much; here’s an image — starting with “Humo de Marihuana” where the Elektrohasch one starts, giving a different character to each version with two highlights of tone.

Of course, Los Natas effectively called it quits in 2013 and in the aftermath Chotsourian has pursued a number of projects, Ararat, Soldati, solo work under the moniker Sergio Ch., Brno, and other outfits and collaborations, in an ongoing exploration of sounds drawing from rock to doom to punk to folk to psych and any and/or all of them mixed together in various conglomerations. They’re not overly likely to reform, and somehow knowing that makes me even gladder they wound up in Munich that day.

As always, I hope you enjoy. Thanks for reading.

—

I will not lie to you or mince words: that fucking Quarterly Review was hard to get through. Most of that is because of organizational stuff on the back end, the importing and arrangement of outbound links, embedded players, images, and so on. But I would say three of the five days were tougher as well because I had other stuff going on that was not happening in front of my computer, and that was a challenge. The kid had to go to school, the dog had to go to the vet. I had to go to Hungarian class. Did I mention I’m trying to learn to speak Hungarian?

My father’s family emigrated from Hungary. My great grandfather, I think. Came right to Morris County, NJ, where I grew up and currently reside. Because of that generational connection (and if it was further back this wouldn’t be the case), I’m in a position where I can hopefully begin a process of gaining Hungarian citizenship.

Why Hungarian citizenship? Well, Europe’s badass and I’d have a much easier time getting there with an EU passport. We’re also looking at traveling to Hungary next summer for a few weeks’ stay. And basically it’s kind of our we-need-to-flee backup plan for what happens when American democracy falls to fascism — just in case — sometime in the next 10 years. Seems like silly, low-stakes liberal panic until you look at the bills being proposed in state legislatures around the country concerning the rights of trans kids and other gender-queer individuals. No, Hungary is not a beacon of progressive thought, but with American political candidates openly embracing christofascist white supremacist ideologies and paralyzing the government to get their way, I’d rather be safe than shot in the face by my rifle-toting right-winger neighbor for having a trans flag hanging outside the house. These are horrifying times. And Hungarian is hard. Really hard. But it’s also fun using my brain in a way I haven’t in a long time.

So yes, that.

But to go back to the above, yeah, that Quarterly Review. I don’t know what the answer is there. It’s always so difficult to make those happen, and there was so much ELSE this week that I wanted to cover but couldn’t because I’d booked that. I guess I’m pissed at having missed the Mars Red Sky video — it’ll go up Monday, so not a permanent thing — and being late on the Slift news, but the hours I had in the days of this week were spoken for, and once you start one of those things the only way out is through. This afternoon, when I go through and take 50 records off my desktop and put them in the stuff-that-was-covered folder, I’ll be glad to have been productive. Getting to that point, though. God damn.

Next week, then, is some form of return to normalcy. In addition to the Mars Red Sky video, I’ve got a Travo full stream on Monday, a King Potenaz video on Tuesday, a long-overdue Mondo Drag review on Wednesday, a video premiere for All Are to Return on Thursday and an Oslo Tapes video premiere on Friday. Packed. Another week. Lot of writing. Lot of riffs.

But I’ve also got new records from Green Lung and Lamp of the Universe to listen to, and that gul-dern Howling Giant album that I can’t seem to put down for an entire day. So I’ll be fine.

Have a great and safe weekend. Hydrate, watch your head. Gonna rain here, which sucks, but I hope you’re good and that you don’t mind Los Natas showing up again here so soon. They’re one of my favorite bands. Sometimes it’s nice to dig in. Your understanding and patience are appreciated as always. Thanks for reading.

FRM.

The Obelisk Collective on Facebook

The Obelisk Radio

The Obelisk merch

Colour Haze will be at Stoned From the Underground and Woodstockenboi Musik und Kulturfestival this weekend and have more fest appearances before they come to the US to play twice at Desertfest New York in September, after which they’ll return to Germany to make their regular appearance at Keep it Low in their hometown of Munich. There’s more beyond that as well leading up to this newly-announced November tour, which puts them out for nine shows in nine days across four-so-far countries (one date still TBA). All well and good. I’m just happy I’ll get to watch them play again when they come to New York.

Their late 2022 album, Sacred (review here), continues to resonate, and having seen them in their current incarnation for the first time this past December (review here), it’s all the more encouraging that they’re getting out like this. I don’t know that they’ll ever want to do six weeks of shows or something on that scale, but the more the merrier. Note that there have not been more US dates announced. I don’t think any others are coming. If you’ve been on the fence about Desertfest, I would offer the friendly suggestion to decide in the positive. Seeing Colour Haze will only improve your life.

From socials:

Some new shows added for 2023 –
France, Belgium, Germany and Netherlands!

14.07. – (DE) Erfurt – Stoned From The Underground 2023
15.07. – (AT) Stockenboi – Woodstockenboi Musik und Kulturfestival
05.08. – (GR) Los Almiros Rockradio – Festival
18.08. – (FR) Volcano Sessions – Black Owl
08.09. – (DE) Regensburg – Kulturzentrum Alte Mälzerei
09.09. – (AT) Vöcklabruck – OKH Vöcklabruck
14.09. – (USA) New York – Desert Fest PreParty
15.09. – (USA) New York – Desertfest NYC
06.10. – (DE) München, Backstage – Keep It Low 2023
21.10. – (DE) Ludwigsburg – Scala Ludwigsburg
04.11. – (DE) Weiden – Burn the Streets Festival Vol. 1

November Tour:
10.11. – (DE) Dortmund, Junkyard
11.11. – (NL) Maastricht, Muziekgieterij
12.11.- (NL) Deventer, Burgerweeshuis
13.11. – tba
14.11. – (DE) Bielefeld, Forum
15.11. – (BE) Brussels, Botanique
16.11. – (FR) Paris, Backstage By The Mill
17.11. – (FR) Vallet, Westill Fest
18.11. – (DE) Neunkirchen, Gloomaar Festival

https://www.facebook.com/COLOURHAZE.official/
https://www.instagram.com/colourhazeband/
http://colourhaze.de/

www.elektrohasch.de

Colour Haze, Sacred (2022)

What a record. Formed in 1995, Belgian heavy psychedelic progressive rockers Hypnos 69 were at the vanguard of a revivalist sound, but by the time they got around to releasing their fourth album, The Eclectic Measure, in 2006 through Elektrohasch Schallplatten, their depth of arrangement, complexity of songcraft and melodic grace were their own. Running a sprawl across 10 songs and 48 minutes, the band — brothers Steve Houtmeyers (vocals, guitar, synth, theremin) and Dave Houtmeyers (drums, synth, percussion, glockenspiel, timpani), as well as bassist Tom Vanlaer (also synth, Hammond, Rhodes piano) and secret-weapon multi-instrumentalist Steven Marx (tenor and baritone sax, Mellotron, clarinet, Rhodes, Hammond, seemingly whatever else a given part called for) — surpassed even the scope of 2004’s The Intrigue of Perception (discussed here) and captured a warm-toned organic vibe that made each detail precious.

The interplay of acoustic strum and glockenspiel before the Mellotron leads the build in “Forgotten Souls,” that humble sweep there, or the lush but unassuming way in which “I and You and Me (II)” builds off the album’s intro “I and You and Me (I)” with a quiet flow, folkish vocal delivery, down-home electric guitar solo just past halfway into its 6:25 and subsequent sax-blast crescendo, or even the subdued melodic exploration in the sub-two-minute instrumental “My Ambiguity of Reality,” the hand-drums and blips behind the guitar and Vanlaer‘s Moog in “Halfway to the Stars.” Each piece on The Eclectic Measure was and is a showcase of progressive intent, but it’s the totality — the front-to-back experience — through which they made their declaration, whether that’s the title-track bursting to life out of the ending to “I and You and Me (I)” and giving an initial hook to ground the proceedings that seem to lift off the ground so casually, or the soft comedown of closer “Deus Ex Machina” (which does have a subdued payoff in Mellotron and timpani to finish) after the landmark culmination offered in the penultimate “The Point of No Return,” the initial weeping guitar lead of which signals the righteousness to come as it moves past its verses into what, in my mind at least, is a career-defining arc.

Life affords very few moments of absolute perfection, and even fewer of those ever end up on records, but “The Point of No Return” is one of them. There’s the soft, almost sneaking around of the verse and the snap of snare before two minutes in as it shifts into a classic prog boogie — answering both the fuzz shuffle of the earlier “The Antagonist” and the jazzy runs and King Crimson‘ed distorted verse of “Ominous (But Fooled Before)” immediately preceding — before dropping to organ, bass and meandering-seeming electric guitar as the start of a build through an increasingly-adrenaline-fueled-but-still-controlled vibrant rush, the crash cymbal becoming propulsive past the four-minute mark as the song, which is the longest on The Eclectic Measure at 7:42, feels more and more like it’s about to live up to its title. In the spirit of Opeth‘s “Closure” as played on the 2003 Lamentations live video/album, the tension becomes maddening, except that Hypnos 69, instead of ending there push even further, turning at 5:28 to a series of hit-stops and Iberian-ish acoustic guitar in call and response, the weeping lead line coming back beautifully before minute six to underscore the thoughtfulness, plot and understated majesty of the entire arrangement. That they then return to the verse, contradicting the title, does nothing to diminish the spirit of how far out they’ve gone, instead reinforcing it with a rare sense of wholeness; a total, album-style flight compacted into one song. One complete, perfect moment.

The Eclectic Measure was produced by Hypnos 69 and Jean-Pierre Kerckhofs at Artsound Studio in Houthalen. Kerckhofs had also recorded The Intrigue of Perception and the band’s concurrent split with Colour Haze, but The Eclectic Measure remains a lesson in the power of attention to detail, be it in “The Point of No Return,” the ’60s psych-folk sunshine of the keys in “Halfway to the Stars” or the way the percussion in “Forgotten Souls” seems to foreshadow the ending of the album in “Deus Ex Machina.” Among the many strengths of the record is the fact that, in listening, one can immerse completely in these nuances and intricacies spread throughout the tracks like the treasures they are, or not. Especially if you’re new to the band or you don’t know this record, etc., you can put on “I and You and Me (I)” and trust that the material will carry you through, because yes, it will. And that’s true of “The Point of No Return” in itself, as well as “Deus Ex Machina” and “The Eclectic Measure” and “My Ambiguity of Reality,” taken as an entirety or as individual pieces.

Another thing about The Eclectic Measure? It can’t even be called the band’s crowning achievement. Four years later, in 2010, Hypnos 69 offered their to-date swansong, aptly-titled Legacy (review here), and dove even further into the reaches of progressive psychedelic rock, demonstrating again their distinctive approach that could be so encompassing and still cohesive, purposeful and expressive, with a scope even beyond the 2006 LP. It was an album that genuinely seemed like they put everything they had into it, and fitting, if sad, that they didn’t do another after it.

That’s not to say it couldn’t still happen. Following years of quiet and Dave Houtmeyers and Tom Vanlaer putting out two records with Hidden Trails, Hypnos 69 reunited in 2022 to play the 25th anniversary of Orange Factory in Belgium, and they opened that set with a new song called “And the Spirit Spoke.” They’ve been confirmed for Freak Valley 2023 in Germany this June and Down the Hill 2023 in Belgium this August, so while I don’t want to jinx it, the possibility of their keeping the reunion going and building toward a new release exists. However and whenever such a thing arrived, it would be welcome.

I could go on here, tell you about living with this album when it came out and the surprise it presented even after The Intrigue of Perception and 2002’s Timeline Traveller, or about how my first CD copy didn’t have a front cover and it would be more than a decade before I finally saw the Malleus cover art in person, or just how unrealistically stoked I am to say I’ll see Hypnos 69 at Freak Valley, on and on, but you get the idea, I’m sure. A band worth appreciating, with more than one masterpiece under their collective belt, who creep up on 30 years since their inception with a future that is unknowable in its potential.

As always, I hope you enjoy. Thanks for reading.

—

Went to sleep last night at 9PM. We had a kind of surprise-for-us party to celebrate my sister killing it as a realtor last night and so I was up what I consider late, though not much more so than the night before. I woke up at 3:15AM, which was an improvement over yesterday’s 2:30. I’m not even sure it matters anymore. The kid came downstairs at 5:05. I didn’t even have time to finish the above and send the three or four emails that have been hounding the back of my brain for the last week.

Tomorrow night, Church of the Cosmic Skull play NYC for the first time. I’m taking The Patient Mrs., because that’s something she should see, but the kicker is we’ll go after already making the trip during the day to Connecticut and back, decorating eggs because Easter, and kid, and so on. Show will be good, fatigue will suck, and New York feels pretty unpleasant to me at this point in my life, but sometimes you have to go. This is one of those occasions. I have an Iron Jinn premiere Monday, but if I can review the show at the show, I’ll post that as well with probably a few disappointing pictures.

That’s part of a busy weekend at end of a busy week. Not sure that matters either.

5PM Eastern is a new Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal. Playlist should be posted by the time this is — if not, maybe I just forgot because today is a 12-post day and that’s just stupid — but it’s a cool one either way, some old and new mixed together.

The rest of next week is full. Ditto week after and week after that. Time.

I’ve been punched and kicked and scratched this morning. I said rules exist. Yesterday while cleaning the house for four hours the popcorn maker fell on my face and I have a black eye. I just tried to stop the shower head from leaking and accidentally popped it off, spraying water all over the bathroom. No one will deliver weed, and even if they did, I’m fucking broke. So fuck everything. Today. Yesterday. Tomorrow. I feel like I’m about to have a fucking aneurysm and if we’re being honest with each other, if I did, it would be a favor to myself and those around me.

Great and safe weekend. Don’t forget to hydrate.

FRM.

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The last time I actively engaged with Colour Haze‘s 2008 ninth full-length, All (discussed here), was in 2018, which was the year it turned 10. That was a hell of a week, apparently. I wasn’t sleeping, my dog was dying, The Patient Mrs. was starting a new semester. Maybe I was looking for a bit of comfort, and in that regard, All was probably the right choice.

By 2008, the Munich-based then-trio were already a pivotal presence in the European heavy underground, and All encapsulates a lot of what has been their influence over it in heavy psychedelic song- and jamcraft. Issued through Elektrohasch Schallplatten, of course, it was a sort of third in a (holy) trinity of releases alongside 2004’s suitably declarative Colour Haze (discussed here) and 2006’s mellow masterpiece, Tempel (discussed here). The self-titled had picked up some of the soothing vibe of 2002’s 2LP Los Sounds de Krauts (reissue review here) and expanded greatly on it with attention to detail in tone and melody that pulled away from the harder-shoving rock aspects of some of their prior albums and began a next stage for the band that would continue to flesh out in Tempel and All before 2012’s als0-landmark She Said (review here) began to dive deeper into elements of classic prog, shaping at least in part the work they’ve done since — though I’ll posit 2017’s In Her Garden (review here) as the beginning of another era with the increased focus on keys/synth and their interplay with guitar; golly it would be fun to list this all out sometime.

But whether engaged as a standalone work or the chapter that it is in the narrative of Colour Haze‘s ongoing progression, All was a special moment, fully confident of its execution, situated to be taken as an encompassing entirety, and willing to be beautiful in a way that rock music often is not. It is the kind of record that turns a house into a home.

Along with a new master of the band’s late-2022 album, Sacred (review here), a new double-vinyl for a remastered All is up for preorder now from Elektrohasch, and there’s a CD version too for those of us with storage space issues. Any format you get it on, I don’t think you’re gonna regret it, and that includes hi-res digital. No wrong answer.

Colour Haze also have festival dates and more besides coming up, and one very much looks forward to their appearance later this year at Desertfest New York, which will bring them to the US for just the second time.

Info follows:

Colour Haze – All – DLP

The remastered LP will be delivered in March and can be preordered. The download-files are already from the new masters as well. There is also a Hi-Res version now. Also on CD (remastered) All will be available again soon.

Preorder: https://www.elektrohasch.de/en/shops-en/shop-en/colour-haze-all-2

We are on tour again! Please come to the shows!

01.04. (DE) Münster | Sputnikhalle, Alterna Sounds Festival
13.04. (AT) Linz | Stadtwerkstatt
14.04. (HR) Zagreb | Mochvara
15.04. (AT) Wien | Arena
14.07. (DE) Erfurt | Stoned From The Underground
15.07. (AT) Stockenboi | Woodstockenboi
18.08. (FR) Volcano Sessions
14.09. (US) New York City | St. Vitus Bar, Desertfest Preparty
15.09. (US) New York City | Knockdown Center, Desertfest
06.10. (DE) München | Backstage, Keep It Low Festival

https://www.facebook.com/COLOURHAZE.official/
https://www.instagram.com/colourhazeband/
http://colourhaze.de/

https://www.facebook.com/elektrohasch/
www.elektrohasch.de

My thinking here was that these are things Colour Haze would never say about themselves, but that should be said at this point about who they are, what they’ve done over a near-30-year span, and their consistent will to move forward. If you read this site on anything remotely resembling a regular basis, you probably already know they’re an act whose work I treasure on a personal level, and right up to late-2022’s Sacred (review here) — and as it says below — they are singular in my mind. A once-in-a-generation kind of band.

With a long-awaited return to the US slated for later this year at Desertfest New York (info here), I was asked to write a kind of general bio, which of course was a big yes. It’s less a comment on the substance of their whole body of work than a look at where they’re at after a few changes over the last several years, but hopefully it gets some of the point across of how special they are.

I’m honestly putting it here more for my own posterity than anything else, but here’s the bio I wrote, put in PR wire blue basically for form’s sake:

Over more than the last 25 years, Munich, Germany’s Colour Haze have made themselves an institution in underground music. They are progenitors of a style of heavy psychedelia that has influenced two generations of players and counting, marked by warm tonality, flowing rhythms, and immersive melody, embodying a jam spirit while remaining rooted in classic progressive rock.

Led by founding guitarist/vocalist Stefan Koglek and longtime drummer Manfred Merwald, the band has revamped its lineup in the last few years to emerge as a four-piece, with Jan Faszbender on organ/synth and the newest addition, Mario Oberpucher on bass. In late 2022, Colour Haze released their 14th album, Sacred, through Koglek’s own Elektrohasch Schallplatten label.

The follow-up to 2019’s We Are, the latest offering not only introduced Oberpucher as a part of the studio process, but furthered the dynamic exchange between guitar and keys that has made Colour Haze’s latest works feel so adventurous. With a lyrical awareness of the world around them and a mindset critical but loving, the songs are fluid in their jammy foundations and convey the on-stage chemistry of Colour Haze as they continue, always, to grow.

Sacred is a salve for troubled years, but consistently finds ways to put the song first, encouraging the audience’s imagination with evocative and expressive instrumentalism and a serenity that holds firm even at the most raucous moments. Full of righteous twists and unexpected divergences, it nonetheless boasts an overarching groove and the depth of approach that fans know the band will always deliver.

Colour Haze are singular. There is only one. And they are one of the most crucial bands Europe’s heavy underground has ever produced. The ultimate impact of their work is unknowable, since their influence has yet to dwindle, but heavy psychedelic rock would not exist as it does today without them. Their discography is a path traced through landmarks, telling a gorgeous story of growth and commitment to ongoing progression that brings the band to the present day and, hopefully, beyond into a future that is inherently better for their being part of it. – JJ Koczan

Colour Haze, Sacred (2022)

Colour Haze website

Colour Haze on Facebook

Colour Haze on Instagram

Elektrohasch Schallplatten website

Elektrohasch Schallplatten on Facebook

Munich-based heavy psych legends and I mean that Colour Haze will head out on a short run of dates next month tying together appearances at Festsaal Kreuzberg and Truckfighters Fuzz Fest #3 with booking headlining shows that have support from Swan Valley Heights.

Colour Haze go forth in herald of their new album, Sacred (review here) — which is enough of a joy that I’m gonna go ahead and put it on now having just typed the title, ah there we go — and follows other similar stints this Fall. I’m set to travel to Sweden for the Truckfighters Fuzz Fest with the dudes from Kings Destroy, and I am very much looking forward to seeing Colour Haze again (it’ll be my first time since they brought in Mario Oberpucher on bass), even if I’ll have knee surgery between now and then. Oh yeah. Hadn’t really thought of that. Well fuck it. If I have to have a cane I’ll have a cane. Maybe people will get out of my way when I’m taking pictures. Ha.

The four-piece haven’t announced any plans for 2023 tour-wise yet (I don’t think), but I wouldn’t be surprised to see their name show up in the Spring fest season either. That’s a good record. Worth pushing it if they can.

Sound of Liberation put it like this:

COLOUR HAZE DECEMBER TOUR

Hey Friends,

Colour Haze is hitting the road again this December for another run!

Support for this tour are the mighty Swan Valley Heights from Munich.

If you have the chance to see this awesome package don’t miss it!

The big runner-up final will be the Fuzz Festival in Stockholm on the 9th of December – hosted by our beloved friends Truckfighters!

Check out their tour dates below and grab your tickets!

05.12 – (DE) Hannover, Kulturzentrum Faust
06.12 – (DE) Dresden, Beatpol
07.12 – (DE) Berlin, Festsaal Kreuzberg
08.12 – (DK) Copenhagen, Spillestedet Stengade
09.12 – (SE) Stockholm, TRUCKFIGHTERS FUZZ FESTIVAL #3
10.12 – (SE) Malmö, PlanB

https://www.facebook.com/COLOURHAZE.official/
http://colourhaze.de/

www.elektrohasch.de