Posted in Whathaveyou on July 12th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
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
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.
Posted in Whathaveyou on March 27th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
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.
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
Posted in Features on February 15th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
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
Posted in Whathaveyou on November 3rd, 2022 by JJ Koczan
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.
ColourHaze 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!
Posted in Bootleg Theater on September 16th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
It’s not an easy record. And you should know that the version above isn’t the whole thing. We Here Now‘s The Chikipunk Years (discussed here), issued in 2019 through Elektrohasch Schallplatten and Homemade Gifts Music runs 10 tracks on its physical editions; LP, CD, tape. The digital version, which I bought from Bandcamp ahead of writing this with Obelisk merch money — thank you for your support — has seven tracks, leaving out “Angelus Novus,” “Parambulation” and “Clearings.” The stream from the same page is only four songs, and I’m pretty sure that’s the version on YouTube you’ll find that only runs 10 minutes as opposed to the complete album’s 32 minutes. It’s a problem I solved by going upstairs and getting the CD, but if you listen above, know you’re getting a sampler rather than the entirety. ‘Friday Full-Length’ indeed.
The Chikipunk Years came up this week as Elektrohasch — the long-running imprint helmed by Colour Haze guitarist/vocalist Stefan Koglek — announced it was basically shutting down for everything other than that band’s own releases and reissues of past work. A genuine bummer, but well within Koglek‘s rights. What was We Here Now‘s debut and seems like it probably won’t get a follow-up anytime soon (I wouldn’t mind being wrong) was mentioned specifically as an example of an outing the label thought was great that didn’t meet with customers’ desires: “With my last new artists – We Here Now, Public Animal, Carpet, Saturnia… – my taste apparently didn‘t meet yours. That especially such a great, stylistically independent album like We Here Now, The Chikipunk Years — a group apart from the usual European/North American origin — was sold just 60 times made me think.”
That number 60 made me think too, honestly, and it seemed like a fitting occasion to revisit The Chikipunk Years and find out what happened. In terms of sales, well, the band operated under the group moniker of Un Chiquitino, which is another word for ‘Chikipunk,’ which itself is slang for Latin and South American kids trying to sell gum to rich gringo tourists. A pretty obscure reference, maybe, and the gap-toothed smiling kid on the front cover is adorable, but god damn teeth are gross. There’s that little flap of the top gums sticking out there and even looking at it makes my skin crawl. Nothing against the kid, of course, just my own hangup, but still. I feel like I’m about to fall into that space and be lost forever.
Even if that’s not a barrier to entry, the music itself across the 10 tracks is wildly dense. Also just wild. And it’s easy to get the appeal that hooked Koglek on it to start with, since the songs take fuzz and psychedelic rocks and blends it with West African and South American rhythms, dub sampling and cumbia-style psych, classic rock — “Planes of Inmanence” near the record’s middle sounds like if The Beatles made Revolver in the Andes; not a complaint — and more besides. You could sit and pick apart the snare shuffle alone in post-intro leadoff “Gathering and Separation” for a month, let alone the intended-to-move percussion that surrounds, and one song later, “Angelus Novus” arrives a completely drumless stretch of mellow guitar and keys.
We Here Now was an almost maddeningly inventive outfit. Comprised of Pedro “Sozinho” Salvador from Brazil’s Necro, Queen Elephantine‘s Indrayudh Shome who I believe was operating out of the Northeast US at the time (don’t quote me on that; dude gets around), and Peruvian drummer Panchito Fr. Sofista, whose mere association with Montibus Communitas makes him the stuff of legend in my mind, they were perhaps ahead of their time in functioning remotely, but in the reality of bands promoting their own work on social media, ‘It’s been two weeks since we released this album what’s your favorite song?’ etc.-style engagement, there was none of that. Not every act does that, and not every act needs to or wants to pander, which I can understand, but some definitely do, and I doubt it would happen if it didn’t at least push some sales.
The record is also a lot of fun, mind you. That sample about perfection in “Gathering and Separation” right before the solo is humorous and perfectly timed. The insistent fuzz shuffle of “Frontiers and Determinations” on side B, the dizzying for-a-walkness of the penultimate “Parambulation” and the subsequent, also-instrumental closer “Clearings” are both impressive in the doing on the part of the band and engaging in their intricacy. The Chikipunk Years challenges the listener to keep up with it, but makes that process a joy from the 95-second “Sojourns” onward. It is entirely cohesive within itself and yet a song like “Dukkha” knows no real microgenre boundaries, drawing from across a multifaceted sonic experientialism and creating something new from it.
Isn’t that the ideal? So, 60 copies? Maybe some records are destined to be cult favorites, and for being clean in its tone and delivery, clear in its exploratory purpose and progressive and thoughtful in its construction, The Chikipunk Years is nonetheless a head-spinner, and that doesn’t necessarily make it more accessible to a mass listenership. It’s also worth noting that in 2019, the similarly-named Los Angeles-based troupe Here Lies Man had released two albums, and worked in a more grounded aesthetic pursuing Afrobeat and heavy vibes in a way that some of We Here Now‘s material also seemed to do, with more promotion and touring behind them. So maybe We Here Now just kind of got lost in the shuffle.
The makings of a future classic? The kind of album that’ll be reissued in another 20 years and leave its audience scratching its collective head as to why it wasn’t huge at the time? Maybe. Who knows? It may go down as the last non-Colour Haze record on Elektrohasch — I don’t know that either, mind you — and that alone is a legacy worthy of the kind of trivia contest that happens basically nowhere, but given that The Chikipunk Years is so much in its own sphere aesthetically and so dug into its intent, it’s a process of meeting the band where they are rather than the kind of situation where they come to you. That’s the challenge. The thing that apparently remains undiscovered about We Here Now‘s lone offering to-date is how much it’s completely worth that effort.
—
It’s 5:23AM. I just put up the first post of the day, which this will follow in a few hours, and the kid’s been down here since 4:55AM. The Patient Mrs. has been away since Wednesday at a conference and will be back I think tomorrow night after he goes to bed. He misses her and was expressing it yesterday after school by being a complete asshole. Can’t imagine where he possibly ever learned to do that.
Ups and downs, then. Big fucking change.
I found out this week that Creem Magazine is cutting out digital columns as part of a ‘restructuring’ happening apparently across the board. That’s a bit of money I’ll miss. Since the piece I turned in about King Buffalo didn’t make it into the print issue either, I’m kind of assuming that means my association with whatever Creem becomes is over. Nice while it lasted, but I’ve been a part of magazine rollouts and refreshes before and that’s how it goes. Everybody’s very excited at the start and then the reality becomes something different. I’m sure the t-shirts are selling well though. Anyway, I’ve got one more Creem column and that’s it. Back to my corner of the internet I go, grateful for the opportunity I had and probably blew.
I guess that sucks. I could go on but frankly see no point in it. All the best to Creem and sincere thanks to Fred Pessaro for bringing me on board.
Still got the Gimme show though. That’s 5PM Eastern today: http://gimmemetal.com. Thanks if you listen.
Burnt out, tired of bullshit. So perfect time for a Quarterly Review, right? That starts next week. 100 records again. Could easily be 150, but won’t be.
Alright, that’s my last plug. I’ll actually get started on that QR today and over the weekend in the maybe-an-hour-if-I’m-lucky that wakong up at 4AM buys me before the kid is awake, so will be around. I hope you have a great and safe weekend.
Posted in Whathaveyou on September 13th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
I wish I could say this was a particular surprise. As far back as Fall 2019, Colour Haze guitarist/vocalist and Elektrohasch Schallplatten label head Stefan Koglek was talking about shifting focus with the long-running imprint to focus less on other groups’ output and more on his own. The announcement below, which makes the release yesterday of the new Colour Haze album, Sacred (review here), somewhat bittersweet, seems like not much more than a re-confirming of the same.
And the last few years have borne it out as well. Perhaps somewhat obscured by the pandemic, the turn on Elektrohasch‘s part to centering Colour Haze was already underway by the time lockdowns started. The label’s last new release for another band was We Here Now‘s 2019 outing, The Chikipunk Years (discussed here), which as a multinational experimentalist conglomerate and a record with “punk” in the title that wasn’t at all punk, was always going to be a hard sell. Apparently it turned out to be exactly that.
But if this is an official “the end” for Elektrohasch as a label that might dig a band and put out their record, the legacy and catalog left behind are remarkable. Significant. Consider it was Elektrohasch who either first picked up and/or offered releases from My Sleeping Karma, Josiah, The Machine, Hypnos 69, Cherry Choke, The Kings of Frog Island,Sungrazer, Rotor, All Them Witches, Saturnia, BeenObscene, Causa Sui, Sgt. Sunshine, Gas Giant, Phased, UGH! and a slew of others. In addition to Colour Haze‘s landmark catalog, many of these artists continue to have an effect on the scope and direction of heavy psych and heavy rock, especially in Europe but by no means limited to those borders or any others.
I’ll miss trusting Koglek‘s taste while approaching a new Elektrohasch release, knowing that the label’s logo on back meant that wherever the record in question actually went, it would be a work of substance meant to last longer in the mind and heart of the listener than that first playthrough on the turntable.
And in committing to use Elektrohasch as an outlet for Colour Haze and related projects, Koglek essentially leaves the door open to reigniting the label at some future date for other bands as well. Hard to imagine someone getting that email from Koglek with an offer to release their album and saying no. You know, unless their head is up their ass or something. I guess that happens sometimes.
But this struck me as a moment worth marking since the announcement came through in a newsletter that also welcomed Sacred and plugged Colour Haze‘s upcoming Fall tour dates. They’re doing festivals and more. So, things move forward. And if you need me, I’ll be checking out the discounted CD catalog.
Here goes:
Elektrohasch Label
With my last new artists – We Here Now, Public Animal, Carpet, Saturnia… – my taste aparently didn‘t meet yours. That especially such a great, stylisticaly independent album like We Here Now – The Chikipunk Years – a group apart from the usual European/North American origin was sold just 60 times made me think.
I stopped signing new bands therefore since quite a while – also because I didn‘t got too much interesting offered recently (well for my taste…).
My initial plan was to concentrate on my own band but keep your favorite Elektrohasch-classics in stock – such as My Sleeping Karma, Rotor, Sungrazer, The Machine or Hypnos 69 , etc…
Unfortunately pressing vinyl is such a pain in the ass these days and furthermore became so exspensive I simply can‘t afford anymore to repress and store 500 copies of records which will sell slowly over coming years.
Well – there is a time for everything.
I want to thank all artists, record enthusiasts, customers, retailers, friends for the trust and the interest in Elektrohasch the last 19 years! Thank you very much!
For farewell I‘ll release a remastered reprint of the Sungrazer LP.
Otherwise I will sell off my stock.
Many CDs are in the webshop for sell-out prices now! Have a look! What you don‘t want to have will go in recycling one day…
Elektrohasch will stay in business! – but in the future only as a label for Colour Haze (and matching bandmember projects like Marios endless A Great River In The Sky)
I think I made a small contribution to music-culture with Elektrohasch – but I‘m also exhausted from all the work.
I want to use all my energy entirely for my own music now – especially as with Mario and Jan we gained fresh power and new possibilities. Sacred is a first result. And we have a lot of plans…
[Click play above to stream Colour Haze’s premiere of ‘Goldmine.’ Sacred is out soon digitally on Elektrohasch Schallplatten with vinyl to follow.]
Even before listening to Colour Haze‘s Sacred, let us assume that there are more than a few things a band has figured out by the time they get around to issuing their 14th full-length. And as regards their sound, what makes Colour Haze who they are as a band, they have. But they’ve also never stopped exploring. Since 1995, each of the Munich-based troupe’s albums has offered a personality of its own, and over time, there has grown to be consistency within that. One expects a certain amount of tonal warmth from founding guitarist/vocalist Stefan Koglek and a low-key clinic put on by not-quite-founding-but-it’s-been-almost-25-years-so-close-enough drummer Manfred Merwald, an edge held over in the songwriting from the jams that bore the songs, and so on.
Since 2017’s In Her Garden (review here), longtime collaborator Jan Faszbender has played more of a role on keys and synth — he ‘officially joined’ in 2018 — and that continues in the seven songs and 41 minutes of Sacred, but for the first time since 1998, the band have a new bassist. Mario Oberpucher, who’s also done front-of-house sound and recording for Colour Haze in the past, makes his first studio appearance here in place of Philipp Rasthofer, who left in 2020. That invariably has an effect on the dynamic of the group as a whole, but as noted, every Colour Haze record offers something different. Sacred — basic tracks recorded live by Willi Dammeier at Clouds Hill in Hamburg; overdubbing, mixing, and mastering by Koglek at his Colour HazeStudio — is more of the same in that particular regard.
In some ways, Sacred might be defined by the directness of some of its songs. Following up on 2019’s We Are (review here), the only single track here that tops seven minutes is “Ideologigi” at 8:59, where on the last album, four of seven did. That doesn’t necessarily make the rest of what surrounds that extended side A stretch more straightforward, just relatively concise. Structures vary throughout as the instrumental “Turquoise” (6:09) leads off with a sunrise unfurling over its first two minutes graceful enough to remind you who Colour Haze are, and a smooth, for-a-walk progression that might just have gotten its name in reference to the title-track of 2006’s Tempel (discussed here), the cover art for which was blue. Faszbender‘s keys add a melody to flesh out around the guitar, and shifts into a spacier synth in the second half of the song even as Oberpucher‘s bass comes forward in the two understated payoffs.
“Goldmine” — which follows and actually is more straightforward — works into its verse quickly and leaves the jam for after, surprising almost with a twist back to the verse later on as the bouncing and careening riff works its way toward the end; Colour Haze are no strangers to songwriting, of course, it’s just a balance adjusted in “Goldmine” toward structure carved around the riffs. The aforementioned “Ideologigi” offers ready contrast of purpose, beginning with a dreamy ambient intro in apparent answer to “Turquoise” just a short time ago and the triumph of a lead that emerges in the song’s first half , and moving into the lyrics that answer the heavy-hippie, anti-materialist viewpoint of “Goldmine,” Koglek dipping perhaps into “Lord of This World”-style Sabbathism as he delivers the lines, “Whatever tale you may call your bible/Even enforce by rifles/Life ignores your rules.”
The entire second half of “Ideologigi” is instrumental and wraps side A, but is not to be discounted as Merwald plays it like low-key Buddy Rich, Koglek tears into an improv-sounding solo, Faszbender casts the awe in organ lines and Oberpucher is tasked and succeeds in holding it all together; take that, new guy. They circle around a build at about two minutes in, cut to another, cut to another, then twist and crash and tease falling apart until swapping out realities at four minutes in and locking around a final cycle through the verse riff to let you know they’ve been in control all the while.
Side B leadoff “Avatar,” with its once-again headphone-ready subdued beginning, finds Koglek entering early with quiet and melodic vocal layers before the signature-style shuffling riff — if a guitar lick could also be a whistle, “Avatar” might be one — casually saunters toward a break and return to the not-quite-standalone vocals before its rousing finish. At 3:38, the instrumental “1.5 Degrees” — a climate change policy target/environmental tipping point — is the shortest inclusion, starting out with acoustic guitar, backwards whatnot surrounding, some noise, but gets its point across with what sounds like a metronome in place of an existentialist ticking clock, and the surge of low fuzz that’s maybe the heaviest-sounding tonality Colour Haze have put to tape assures the message of threat isn’t lost.
That part doesn’t last, but it’s clearly meant to grab attention and it does. Where “Avatar” commented on social media lyrically — and that kind of opining on an issue isn’t new for Colour Haze, but the lyrics do seem to be especially pointed this time out — “See the Fools” picks up from “1.5 Degrees” and speaks to divisions between ideologies more generally: “Turn all upside down by lies and made up truths doesn’t cure no pain,” each word almost in a race with the others to be heard first. “See the Fools” (6:54) and “In All You Are” (6:58) are the two longest pieces on Sacred, and both offer fluidity to match the seemingly intended listener immersion. Faszbender weaves synth or mellotron into the crescendo of “See the Fools” around the wistful but somehow hopeful warmth of Koglek‘s guitar, and “In All You Are” brings a joy of a chorus also bolstered by the organ — bolstered by everyone, really; just generally bolstered — and guest vocals by Julia Rutigliano, who brings emphasis to the delivery of the album’s title-line, directed at the listener.
And if that last message, “My dear/You are beloved/You are the love/You are sacred,” is to be the final impression left by the record, it is an in-character sentiment for Colour Haze, but again, distinct in its expression. It has been an eventful few years, and Sacred was obviously not written in a vacuum. It is, however, invariably put through the filter of the group’s and Koglek‘s craft, organically recorded, and presented with love as the believable foundation.
Even as they partially remake their dynamic — I won’t downplay either the change in having Oberpucher on bass or his performance on these tracks — there is much about Sacred that finds Colour Haze playing to their strengths as a rock band, but whether it’s the moments of minimalist ambience leading into or out of songs, the fluidity of their jams, or the apparently willful defiance of where one expects a given song to go, they continue to delight in finding new ways and new ideas to expand the definition of what they do as a unit.
I’m a fan, and I’ve no doubt said as much before, but Colour Haze are a once-in-a-generation band. There is not another out there who does what they do at their level, who has had their influence, or can claim the same kind of commitment to the creativity as an act of searching. It is right that “In All You Are” caps with a sentiment so beautiful since beauty is a thing wholly embraced throughout. As an entirety, is not coincidentally titled.
