Posted in Whathaveyou on April 3rd, 2026 by JJ Koczan
Colour Haze tonight begin their Obelisk-copresented tour alongside My Sleeping Karma, delivering warmth, sonic-care and — I’ll just say it — hope to chaotic times. The Munich-based forebears of heavy psychedelia have a 2LP’s worth of new material structured as four extended pieces — I’m curious if they’re instrumental or with vocals, as guitarist/vocalist Stefan Koglek says below they don’t follow verse/chorus structure — and after working them out on the road for this run, which will take them into May, they’ll hit Clouds Hill Studio in Hamburg to track the actual record for release reportedly in Fall as the follow-up to 2023’s Sacred (review here), and not a moment too soon.
If you’re going somewhere on this tour, get video and send it to me, please. Colour Haze aren’t strangers to longform composition, but their arrangements have grown broader in the last decade-plus, and I’m curious how keys, maybe strings, percussion and other ‘kaleidoscopic’ elements might be put to use.
From the band’s newsletter, via the PR wire:
Dear friends,
we are on tour soon – come to the shows!
Besides our many shows we worked on new music the recent years and now we want to show it live first at the Karma Haze Tour before we’ll enter the Clouds Hill Studio in Hamburg in May to record the basic tracks of our new album. And as time for rehearsals is always too short we are glad My Sleeping Karma agreed we play first (and a bit shorter than we usualy use to).
It’s only four new songs. But each in LP-side-length. None of the new pieces has any usual song-structure but is a long narrative journey in a linear structure without repeating parts the same way at all. We worked very intensively on composition and arrangement as the music should flow naturally, even if some parts are arranged in a sort of kaleidoscopic manner on purpose. We hope you will enjoy travelling with us through these songs, even at first listen at our shows – and even if we maybe won’t achieve a perfect performance on instant. We will maybe also play the one or other classic as well : )
The doublealbum is scheduled to be released in autumn.
We are looking forward to see you! Best Wishes
Stefan Koglek
Tourdates (more to be announced):
03.04.26 ATHINA // GR – Arch Club – Live Stage 04.04.26 SOFIA // BG – Club Pave 05.04.26 THESSALONIKI // GR – Soul 17.04.26 KARLSRUHE // DE – Substage 18.04.26 WIEN // AT – Arena 19.04.26 KRAKÓW // PL – Hype Park 20.04.26 WARSZAWA // PL – Hydrozagadka 21.04.26 LEIPZIG // DE – WERK 2 22.04.26 NIJMEGEN // NL – Merleyn 23.04.26 KÖLN // DE – Die Kantine 24.04.26 HAMBURG // DE – Markthalle 25.04.26 BERLIN // DE – Festsaal Kreuzberg 26.04.26 BIELEFELD // DE – Forum Bielefeld 27.04.26 SINT-NIKLAAS // BE – De Casino 28.04.26 PARIS // FR – La Machine du Moulin Rouge 29.04.26 TÜBINGEN // DE – Sudhaus 30.04.26 AARAU // CH – KIFF 01.05.26 SEGRATE (MI) // IT – Circolo Magnolia 02.05.26 MÜNCHEN // DE – Backstage Club 12.09.26 FREIBURG IM BREISGAU // DE – Jazzhaus 02.10.26 ALMERIA, TABERNAS // ES – Tabernas Desert Rock Fest 12.11.26 OSNABRÜCK // DE – Botschaft 13.11.26 HUSUM // DE – Speicher Husum 14.11.26 BREMEN // DE – Tower 11.12.26 NUERNBERG // DE – Z-Bau
Both Colour Haze and My Sleeping Karma were both featured on the bill of Desertfest Belgium 2025 this past weekend. Not their first time sharing space, by any means, but another example of the small world the underground becomes over time. That they’d tour together — also I think not their first time doing so — isn’t a huge surprise either. The relationship goes back to probably before My Sleeping Karma existed, and when My Sleeping Karma started out, their first albums were issued through Stefan Koglek of Colour Haze‘s now-mostly-inactive label, Elektrohasch Schallplatten. Meanwhile, Matte Vandeven of My Sleeping Karma happened to found a little booking company called Sound of Liberation, which of course has booked Colour Haze in Europe for 20 of that band’s total 30 years.
Colour Haze were out earlier this year celebrating passing that three-decade mark, and My Sleeping Karma have been taking stages all year across Europe as part of their return to the stage after losing drummer Steffen Weigand to cancer in 2023. This tour — which, your eyes don’t deceive you; it is co-presented by The Obelisk; can somebody save me a physical poster if any are printed? — will see them out for much of next April and into May, ahead of the Desertfests in Berlin, London and Oslo in which Sound of Liberation always plays a central role.
I was fortunate enough to see My Sleeping Karma for the first time (frickin’ finally) at Freak Valley Festival (review here) and if all goes according to my evil plans, I’ll see them again next summer in Croatia. It was spiritual and emotional, in addition to being sonically rad. I don’t believe in ‘blessed,’ but I do believe I’m blessed to have seen Colour Haze as much as I have over the years. Maybe I’ll get lucky again next year at some point, if not on this run. The two together on stage, however, is nothing short of magic in my mind.
Thanks to SOL and the bands for having me on board as a co-presenter. Here’s the poster and the tour announcement, to make it official:
⚡️MY SLEEPING KARMA + COLOUR HAZE ⚡️
Together, the two German psychedelic rock institutions MY SLEEPING KARMA and COLOUR HAZE celebrate 50 years of heavy underground road life.
To honor this special moment, both bands will play extended headline sets, performing brand new songs each night.
Tour Dates 2026: 17.04. Karlsruhe, Substage 18.04. Wien, Arena 19.04. Kraków, Hype Park 20.04 Warszawa, Hydrozagadka 21.04. Leipzig, Werk 2 22.04. Nijmegen, Doornroosje 23.04. Köln, Kantine 24.04. Hamburg, Markthalle 25.04. Berlin, Festsaal Kreuzberg 26.04. Bielefeld, Forum 27.04. Sint-Niklaas, De Casino 28.04. Paris, La Machine Du Moulin Rouge 29.04. Tübingen, Sudhaus 30.04. Aarau, Kiff 01.05. Milano, Circolo Magnolia 02.05. München, Backstage
Last month it was announced that Danish psych-blues rockers Highway Child would reunite at Freak Valley Festival 2025 in June. It’s been a minute since the last word from the band — whose first two albums, 2008’s On the Old Kings Road (review here) and 2009’s Sanctuary Come (review here) were released through Elektrohasch Schallplatten; a third, self-titled full-length followed in 2011, and to-date, that’s the discography — but that strum at the head of “Lonelytime Blues” still rings like a clarion of garage-style heavy rock, bluesy enough to live up to its name and shuffling in its groove like the best of heavy ’70s rock while keeping its bluesy foundation in swing and mood such that they avoid sounding like Graveyard. Circa 2009, this was an accomplishment unto itself.
Indeed, it’s difficult for me to separate Highway Child — then comprised of vocalist Patrick Lykke Heinsøe, bassist Christian Norup, guitarist Paw Eriksen and drummer Andreas Henriksen — from the time circa 15 years ago when they came up. Considering how the rest of the 2010s would shake out, they were probably three or four years ahead of their time with the 11-track/36-minute first LP, not only getting a jump on the vinyl revival but on the ascent of a psychedelic bluesy sound. They weren’t the first to adopt the sound among their generation, but their take on On the Old Kings Road is rife with a sense of refresh, bringing together poppy Beatlesian bounce, some shove and melodic wisp inherited from turn-of-the-century desert rock as emphasized by Queens of the Stone Age, rad jangly basslines, soul and swing.
At the time, Highway Child were distinct from a lot of what Elektrohasch were releasing. The German imprint helmed by Stefan Koglek, also of the band Colour Haze, was at the time digging into the European underground to find the next generation of heavy psychedelic rock. Bands like Hypnos 69, BeenObscene, My Sleeping Karma, The Machine and The Kings of Frog Island had given the label a formidable roster of underground acts, soon to be bolstered by the woefully shortlived ascent of Sungrazer from the Netherlands.
Highway Child were a part of this movement while also being apart from it. As “Branded a Fool” dons an acoustic arrangement and a semi-Western strut, the band counteract the twisty heft of “Change Yourself,” but the sleaze of fuzz rocker “Highclass Bitch” — which let’s just say probably isn’t a song that gets written in this day and age; or at least gets a different title — builds to a solo-topped culmination that a sunnier piece like “Lovin’ Lovin'” or the rush of “Love for Sale” flesh out as an aspect of Highway Child‘s persona. This pulls together the bluesy vocal reach of “Gold” with its classy, somewhat restrained shuffle and the penultimate “Just Like You,” which takes the boogie and tambourine-for-extra-movement mentality of “Love for Sale” just before it and blows it out party-style with a stage-ready fiery blues jam, ready for the eponymous closer “Highway Child” to back it with firm declaration. However it’s ultimately defined in terms of vibe — and I’ll argue for it as a nascent version of what in the years since has taken shape as a heavy psych blues sound; kin to some of what Elektrohasch was doing at the time but on its own wavelength — the band brought vitality to the studio and a sense of variety to the songs.
As rockin’ a start as “Lonelytime Blues” and “Change Yourself” give it before “Branded a Fool” unplugs with prescience for “High” at the tracklisting’s middle, On the Old Kings Road is never only about one thing. As the centerpiece, “High” rolls out with harmonica hypnotics to complement the vocals and acoustic guitar, and where “Lovin’ Lovin'” departs into ’60s-type psych rock “Oooh”s and such — thrillingly holding its rhythm all the while — that shift underscores the manner in which Highway Child let each song become its own thing.
It’s not that the album isn’t fluid in terms of how the tracks are arranged. Just the opposite. Each piece brings another look, another element, sometimes just a tempo change or a break, that adds something to the entirety. As such, the full course of On the Kings Road becomes richer, and though the band never quite had a penchant for the same kind of molten heavy exploration as some of their peers — thinking of a band like The Machine, who at this point where more directly jam-based, or the jazzier aspects of BeenObscene — hindsight makes On the Old Kings Road feel all the more brazen for just how much it stands out as individualized in the end. The context that just a couple years later, Elektrohasch would stand behind the first All Them Witches record and ignite an influential course of the subgenre that continues to flesh out, brings to light just how much potential their was in psych-blues at the time. Or, if you want to put it to a different label, consider The Devil and the Almighty Blues.
But the dictates of trend are what they are, and Highway Child‘s tenure as a band went the way it did. As to the story of their reunion, in January they were announced for Kun For Forrykte festival — Freak Valley was announced after; there’s also a club show this August in Aalborg — and had this to say about it: “So, we met up at the end of last year and had some fun. That turned to be quite a night, so we kinda decided it was time for us to blast some ears off again.” Simple as that. Band who’s not a band decides to be a band again.
I do not know who’s in Highway Child at this point in terms of personnel, whether it’s all the same players or not, but the basic question at this point is how much of a reunion we’re talking about, and that’s probably not a question the band can answer until these shows are done and a response is gauged. Reissues or a new album? Slow down. It’s true to the organic style of the music they play that the band would take their time, see how these shows go, and then take it from there rather than enact some broad-looking 10-year plan or some such. Highway Child will get back on the stage, I assume playing at least some of these songs. Whatever happens subsequent, that’s good news.
As always, I hope you enjoy. Thanks for reading.
—
At the risk of being honest, I feel more than a bit like I’m limping to the finish of the week. Literally as I hurt my ankle the other day and figuratively on an existential level. There was a bunch of news that I’m behind on, from a Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol video to a new Candlemass EP and the first single from the Temple Fang record, but I woke up yesterday morning to start writing the Kryptograf review I’d planned to put up today — obviously it didn’t happen — and just couldn’t get it started.
Admittedly, I’d woken up at 3AM and my head was elsewhere, but I stared at the screen for like 45 minutes between being distracted by other stuff and decided that was enough torturing myself for an album that’s actually fun and let it go. If I can find a day, I’ll write it up, because it’s a good record and there’s a decent amount to say, but if I don’t get there I’ve saved a space for it in the next Quarterly Review.
That happens three weeks from Monday. Starts April 7 and runs seven days to Tuesday, April 15. That lets it end right as I’m leaving for Roadburn, which will be dumb interms of keeping up with announcements or whatever else is going on in the universe other than writing about 10 records a day or covering what will be one of the busiest festivals I attend this year, but the writing needs to get done and I don’t have anyone to blame except myself for my own stupid scheduling. It’ll work out.
Busy weekend coming up, at least for the kid. She had a playdate yesterday, a kid came over, and it was fine, and there’s another playdate tomorrow morning and then Sunday is a birthday party. Tonight Brant Bjork is in PA and tomorrow he’s in Brooklyn. It’s sold out tonight and I don’t know about tomorrow. Fair enough. Would be cool to see the Trio after catching them in Budapest last summer, but I don’t think it’s doable. Alas.
Last weekend we had The Patient Mrs.’ mother’s 70th birthday party, and so a lot of this week was dedicated to recovering from that, so I guess it makes sense I’m exhausted, but I ended up taking yesterday for some downtime after banging out the news posts for today — plenty of time to do that when you wake up at 3AM — and hung out with The Patient Mrs. and that did me a world of good as it will. The evening I was nodding out on the couch and she was at a school board meeting, the kid playing Mario Odyssey, tired from her playdate. At least if I’m limping into the weekend, I’m not alone. Next week is The Patient Mrs.’ Spring Break. Such as it is, relief is on the way.
Okay, time to punch out. I hope you have a great and safe weekend. I’ll be back Monday with more shenanigans and old news stories you’ve already seen the press releases for. Don’t forget to hydrate and watch your head in the meantime.
Posted in Whathaveyou on October 2nd, 2024 by JJ Koczan
A short time after I took the above photo at Bear Stone Festival this past July in Croatia, I stood by the side of the stage with an assemblage from among the media-types brought in to cover the fest. I had been singing Colour Haze‘s praises before the set, as one will, and as a few turned to me with now-knowing smiles, I said flat out they’re my favorite band in the world to watch on a stage.
What’s worse, I think I meant it.
Wildly influential yet singular in their character, the (mostly) German four-piece comprised of guitarist/vocalist Stefan Koglek, bassist Mario Oberpucher, drummer Manfred Merwald and keyboardist/synthesist Jan Faszbender will continue to tour celebrating the band’s 30th anniversary early next year, following up on 2024 dates heralding the same cause. Whatever the reason, get to a Colour Haze gig if you can. There were rumors around of North American touring next year too. I haven’t heard anything solid in that regard as yet, but, well, a boy can hope. Any year you get to see them play is a good one.
Note that El Padre El Don is a new father-son duo from Mario Lalli and Dino Von Lalli, who feature together otherwise in Fatso Jetson. They’ll have desert-mainstay Sean Wheeler (see also Mario Lalli and the Rubber Snake Charmers) with them for a few dates as well, while no less than UK expectation-destroyers Josiah will provide direct support for the bulk of the dates. You can’t go wrong here.
Dates were posted on socials as follows:
Tour in February 2025:
Colour Haze + Josiah + El Padre El Don (Mario & Dino Lalli): 14.02.25 (AT) Vienna, Arena 15.02.25 (PL) Kraków, Hype Park 16.02.25 (PL) Warszawa, Proxima 17.02.25 (DE) Leipzig, Werk 2 18.02.25 (DE) Hamburg, Knust 19.02.25 (DE) Hannover, Faust 20.02.25 (NL) Groningen, Vera 21.02.25 (NL) Nijmegen, Doornroosje 22.02.25 (LU) Esch-sur-Alzette, Kulturfabrik
Colour Haze + Josiah + El Padre El Don (Mario & Dino Lalli) featuring Sean Wheeler: 23.02.25 (FR) Paris, Petit Bain
Colour Haze + El Padre El Don (Mario & Dino Lalli) featuring Sean Wheeler: 24.02.25 (CH) Genf, L’Usine 25.02.25 (IT) Milano, Legend Club 26.02.25 (CH) Düdingen, Bad Bonn 27.02.25 (CH) Aarau, Kiff 28.02.25 (DE) Freiburg, Jazzhaus 01.03.25 (DE) Tübingen, Sudhaus
Posted in Whathaveyou on July 31st, 2024 by JJ Koczan
That Colour Haze are writing a new album makes me pretty happy, but honestly, I kind of expect at this point that the Munich progenitors of heavy psychedelic rock are always writing at one level or another, moving forward as they go from fest to fest or show to show or the stretches between, just as a part of life. That the plan is to take their time with it, that they’ve “taken on quite something” for it and are letting it unfold as they need to is even more encouraging.
I’m curious as to the particulars of that, of course, whether it’s something about the recording circumstance, or maybe they’re going full-orchestral, whatever it might be, but we’ll find out in due course and they have plenty going on in the meantime, between more festivals upcoming — Palp Festival in Switzerland and SonicBlast in Portugal ahead of Heavy Psych Sounds Fest in Germany and more this Fall, a presumed stop at Keep it Low for the Oct. 11 TBA below, and a 30th anniversary party at the end of December that, well, if someone wanted to fly my ass to Germany for it is a celebration I’d very much enjoy attending — and guitarist/vocalist Stefan Koglek‘s ongoing catalog revisits.
Details came in the band’s latest newsletter, which you’ll find in blue text below:
Dear Friends,
This year we celebrate 30 years Colour Haze!
As a first anniversary special, selected CDs are available in our webshop for a special price of 6.- Euro (5,04 outside EU).
After 30 years you have something to tell. We want to give you some more information and pictures on our webpage. Apart from more detailed information to our records we are busy writing some articles and stories – about music, instruments, recordings, touring etc. – which we will published one by one at www.colourhaze.de
The new In Her Garden DLP will arrive from factory on August 15th. The downloads at www.colourhaze.de are already the new version. You can listen to the new mixes at our youtube channel.
At the moment I’m reworking our 2014 album „To The Highest Gods We Know“. Besides a more powerful and transparent mix I take the opportunity to improve also the musical side. E.g. I took the slow original album version of „Überall“ in C and speeded it up on the tapemachine so it matches todays much faster live-version in D – some Hammond and the guitar-solo have been added by Jan and me as well. We think this way the album version of Überall is much better now : ) As a little preview you can hear an unmastered mix of Überall on https://www.youtube.com/@colourhaze6383.
Mix of side A is done and side B won’t take too long.
Next will be Live Vol. 4 from the recordings of our recent liveshows and a rework of We Are. And of course we are working on new music. We have taken on quite something for the new album and will take the time it needs. : )
But foremost we’ll play a lot of shows in the next months! After we already had a great time at Desertfest London, Duna Jam, Fusion Festival, Bearstone & Stonerkras (thanks to everybody!) we are looking forward to the upcoming shows – a.o. a first tour to the Balkans with support Smokemaster.
Liebe Grüße & Best Wishes Stefan Koglek
Tourdates:
07.08. – CH – Rocklette / Palp Festival 08.08. – IT – Brescia, Festival 09.08. – POR – Sonic Blast Festival 28.09. – Lohr – Praise The Fuzz Festival 03.10. SLO – Ljubljana – Gala Hala 04.10. SRB – Novi Sad – SKCNS Fabrika 05.10. GR – Thessaloniki – Mylos Club 06.10. GR – Athen – Gargarin 205 08.10. BU – Sofia – Club Mixtape 5 09.10. RO – Bucharest 10.10. RO – Cluj-Napoca – Flying Circus 11.10. tba 12.10. A – Graz – Dom Im Berg – Strom Im Berg 26.10. Dresden – Heavy Psych Sounds Fest 22.11. Regensburg – Alte Mälzerei 29.11. Darmstadt – Centralstation – Psychedelic Night 07.12. Zwickau – Alter Gasometer 28.12. München – Feierwerk – 30-Jahre Colour Haze Fest 2025 03.01. Erlangen – E-Werk 04.01. Duisburg – Bora
Posted in Features on March 26th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
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! :)
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
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 OuiRecords 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.
