A fair amount going on early this year for Ecstatic Vision, which is reasonable because they kick a more than fair amount of ass. The Philly psychblasters are continuing to support last year’s Elusive Mojo (review here) even as they work toward the March 17 release of Live at Duna Jam, which captures their performance at the ultimate daydream of a getaway festival, held annually on a Sardinian beach (see photo above; I don’t know who took it or I’d give credit). Before they go on this massive European tour newly announced, they’ll play two hometown Philadelphia dates with long-running Oregonian classic heavy gurus Danava on March 31 and April 1, which, if it needs to be said, is a good-ass show.

The Euro tour starts April 27, and includes stops at Astral Festival in Berlin, Desertfest London, Sonic Whip, Berlin Desertfest, Gockelscream, Esbjerg Fuzztival, and probably others that I missed on the list below, but if that seems like a lot of festivals, it is. And if you’d ever seen Ecstatic Vision live you’d want them to come and play your festival too.

From social media:

Ecstatic Vision – Live at DunaJam LP, CD, and DVD dropping in March on @heavypsychsounds_records !

Live At Dunajam is the brand new album of the US psychedelic wizards Ecstatic Vision. Recorded live at the legendary Dunajam in June 2022. Mixed by Joe Boldizar. Mastering by Claudio Gruer at Pisi Mastering. Layouts by Branca Studio. Cover album photo by David Wiggins.

“A secret show in hidden location, we absolutely laid everything to waste. You should be excited about this – pure lawlessness.”

Ecstatic Vision European Tour:
27/04/2023 FR Lille La Bulle Café
28/04/2023 FR Paris La Maroquinerie
29/04/2023 NL Haarlem Slachthuis
30/04/2023 UK Bristol Astral Festival
01/05/2023 UK Leeds Old Woollen
02/05/2023 UK Glasgow Ivory Blacks
03/05/2023 UK Preston Continental
04/05/2023 UK Newcastle upon Tyne Lubber Fiend
05/05/2023 UK London Desertfest
06/05/2023 NL Nijmegen Sonic Whip
07/05/2023 FR Reims Les Vieux de La Vieille
08/05/2023 FR Nantes Décadanse
10/05/2023 ES Barcelona Sala Meteoro
11/05/2023 ES Zarogoza Sala Utopía
12/05/2023 ES Pozal de Gallinas Valladolid
13/05/2023 PT Lisboa Galeria Zé dos Bois
14/05/2023 PT Porto WS69
15/05/2023 ES Madrid Sala Silikona
16/05/2023 FR Toulouse Connexion Live
17/05/2023 FR Montpellier L’Antirouille
19/05/2023 FR Grandfontaine Brasserie de Framont
20/05/2023 DE Münster Rare Guitar
21/05/2023 DE Berlin Desertfest
22/05/2023 CZ Pilsen Anděl Music
23/05/2023 AT Linz Kapu
24/05/2023 DE Jena KuBa
26/05/2023 DE D.-Dittersbach GockelScream #4
27/05/2023 DK Esbjerg Fuzztival
28/05/2023 DK Copenhagen Råhuset
30/05/2023 FIN Helsinki G Livelab
31/05/2023 EST Tallinn Sveta
01/06/2023 LV Riga NOASS art centre
02/06/2023 LTU Vilnius XI20
03/06/2023 PL Warsaw Hydrozagadka
04/06/2023 PL Krakow Alchemia
06/06/2023 NL Utrecht dB’s

ECSTATIC VISION is
Doug Sabolik
Michael Field Connor
Kevin Nickles
Ricky Kulp

https://www.facebook.com/ecstaticvision
https://twitter.com/ecstaticvision_
https://www.instagram.com/ecstaticvision

heavypsychsoundsrecords.bandcamp.com
www.heavypsychsounds.com
https://www.facebook.com/HEAVYPSYCHSOUNDS/
https://www.instagram.com/heavypsychsounds_records/

Ecstatic Vision, “You Got it Or You Don’t” live at Duna Jam 2022

Ecstatic Vision, Elusive Mojo (2022)

[Click play above to stream Elusive Mojo by Ecstatic Vision in full. It’s out Friday, May 13, on Heavy Psych Sounds.]

Not that fucking elusive, apparently.

Maybe you’ve ripped a hole in the spatial-temporal fabric and aren’t sure what to wear to the celebratory Timebreakers Ball later. Maybe you’ve just hit the green button on your quantum slipstream drive and discovered that artificial gravity glitched off and your body along with everything else nearby has been pushed to the back wall and crushed by a level of gravity that should be impossible in terms of physics into a puddle of so much space-traveling goo. Maybe an insectoid alien showed up on your doorstep and, when you opened the door thinking it was pizza, he said, “Take me to your boogie.” In these cases and many others, Ecstatic Vision have you covered.

The central ethic of Ecstatic Vision‘s fourth album, Elusive Mojo, is found on side A’s “Time’s Up” as guitarist/vocalist Doug Sabolik gruffly declares over Ricky Kulp‘s motorik shuffle, “Take it easy/Enjoy the ride/But you gotta go fast/There’s not enough time.” Take it easy but you gotta go fast. With seven songs and 35 minutes, the Philadelphia-based four-piece of Sabolik, Kulp, guitarist/saxophonist/flutist Kevin Nickles and bassist Michael Field Connor do precisely that. This is Ecstatic Vision‘s second LP for Heavy Psych Sounds, following 2019’s triumphal For the Masses (review here) and the 2018 covers EP, Under the Influence (discussed here), as well as their Relapse-issued first two full-lengths, 2017’s Raw Rock Fury (review here) and 2015’s Sonic Praise (review here). And while it’s true that their mission has remained largely unchanged for the seven standard Earth years that have comprised their tenure, their hard-edged space-madness rock sounds all the more ready to fire up the big engines and leave this dimension behind with the live recording by returning engineer Joe Boldizar and Bob Pantella of Monster Magnet at the helm, with mastering by Tim Green.

In terms of timing, their restlessness is well met. Kulp joined the band in time for Under the Influence, but as this is the second record he’s played on with them, the effect he’s had on the band’s dynamic is all the more resonant. It is a fervent shove. Momentum begins in the first second of the minute-long takeoff “March of the Troglodytes,” amid Nickles‘ howling echo-sax, synthesizer swirl and turning, maybe-looped-but-hypnotic-either-way guitar and bass. And as they crash into the title-track like nothing so much as a city-sized asteroid shredding an atmosphere en route to a devastating collision, Kulp can be found on the toms and the kick, wailing away, always moving, the fuel burning behind the punch-in-face wah of Sabolik‘s guitar and his buried in mix vocal declarations. I’m not saying there aren’t moments of comedown — there is, after all, the penultimate inclusion here, aptly-titled “The Comedown” — just that even among Ecstatic Vision‘s four long-players to-date, Elusive Mojo feels geared toward the physical motion within the music itself.

Made for the stage, maybe, where Connor‘s bass most reveals itself as the secret component holding everything together while sax is traded for guitar is traded for sax throughout the set, as “Time’s Up” burns its hole in the sky, as centerpiece “The Kenzo Shake” lands its surprisingly hard-edged riffs amid a rhythm set to elicit whatever the hell dance they’re talking about, as, as, as “Venom” spits through each head-whirling measure and troglodyte treads on any number of sacred grounds, be it Stooges or Hawkwind or whoever, building, tense, rising and receding to allow “The Comedown” its fluidic transition, the four-piece shapeshifting albeit momentarily via the fading noise of “Venom” and daring a mellow moment of standalone guitar that reminds just how ready they stand to present the lessons inherited from Monster Magnet on how to rock faces, shake asses and blow minds. “The Comedown” is a bluesy cosmic trip, its first half stood out through a lead guitar still cutting in tone but not necessarily as frantic as some of the other solos. The full breadth is uncovered at 2:48 and soon enough Sabolik offers some rough-edged spoken parts, slurred like someone who’s not so much in any kind of altered state but just tired from all their recent non-lucidity. To say it fits would be understatement, whatever the hell is actually being said.

The next solo is the one that really bites down, and there’s some more echoing stretch, but they’re on the tail end of the surge and they drop it as quickly as it arrived, entranced by the steady progression beneath in a way that could jam out on it probably for at least another 20 minutes or so and see where it ends up, but doesn’t, instead “The Comedown” doing as its told by capping with an edge of regret. This turn is key (pun intended, screw off) as it brings about the scorching 3:55 closer “Deathwish 1970” and Elusive Mojo‘s landmark hook, wrapped around lines about being the devil and an all-go skullrattler of an instrumental push. Somewhere in there, it’s coherent, it’s controlled chaos, and it’s structured, but on the outside, it’s a plasma fire and the only way to put it out is open the airlock and vent the atmosphere, which is basically what Ecstatic Vision do as they careen and sax-blast through the last chorus and sudden, cold finish. Did you take devil’s hand? Would you remember if you did?

As compares to For the Masses, Elusive Mojo is both clearer in its intent and fuller in its execution. Apart from the into and the closer, the songs are more evened 0ut in terms of length on either side of six minutes, and each one finds a way to imprint itself on the audience such that, if it was a show, you’d come out of it afterward likewise dizzy and energized, excited and falling over. That may or may not be what Ecstatic Vision were shooting for, but their mojo has never been more present despite its apparently fugitive nature, and their execution of this material is kinetic and rife with the chemistry of undiscovered elements. There’s a lot of psych out there right now, but I’m hard pressed to think of another band who wield it with such righteous viciousness. Feel free to fuck around and find out.

Ecstatic Vision on Facebook

Ecstatic Vision on Instagram

Heavy Psych Sounds on Facebook

Heavy Psych Sounds website

Heavy Psych Sounds on Bandcamp

 

Ahead of releasing their new album, Elusive Mojo, on May 13, Ecstatic Vision announce a round of European touring to follow-up on prior festival confirmations. The Philadelphia-based band are nothing less than a righteous bee in the bonnet of stagnant psychedelia, ready and willing to blow minds out the airlock instead of impressing you with the obscurity of their own record collections. Their music wants nothing for nuance, but theirs is a psych for rejoicing, energetically delivered and engineered to be an unrepentant good time rather than something more cred-seeking and, often, staid. If you can keep up with them on their way, you’re doing awesome. Psych of body and much as mind.

The run starts at Heavy Psych Sounds Fest back to back nights in Switzerland and Austria, then continues from there through Hellfest and so on, capping at Red Smoke Fest in Poland. I note a couple empty dates circa Germany around the start of the tour, so there may be another announcement coming for that. Or maybe they’re just gonna hang out with Heavy Psych Sounds labelmates after the fests and live it up like that. Who knows?

From the PR wire:

ECSTATIC VISION Announces European Tour Dates!

New Album, “Elusive Mojo”, out this May on Heavy Psych Sounds Records!

Philadelphia’s psychedelic hard rockers ECSTATIC VISION have announced an extensive European tour kicking off this summer, with selected club shows as well as festival appearances at such as Hellfest, Heavy Psych Sounds Fest, Red Smoke and many more! The band will release their fourth studio album, Elusive Mojo, on May 13, 2022 through Heavy Psych Sounds Records.

Elusive Mojo finds ECSTATIC VISION firing on all cylinders with this unhinged, raw and dangerous new album. The band continues down their unique warpath mixing heavy psych rock, Detroit-rock, proto-punk, and world music. The album contains caveman grooves that would rattle the remaining teeth out of the Asheton brother’s skulls, scorching saxophones that would make Nik Turner feel high on a potent mix of speed and Viagra, and basslines hot enough to melt down the Lemmy statue.

Just recently the band shared a first album single, “March Of The Troglodytes/Elusive Mojo”! Listen to the track right here.

Their upcoming album, Elusive Mojo, was recorded live to 2” tape in Philadelphia by Joe Boldizar (Sonic Praise) with Bob Pantella (Monster Magnet), and was mastertered by Tim Green (Melvins). What emerged was a burly, timeless and unique sounding record that is hard to tell if it was recorded in 1971 or 2022. It will be out on May 13th in various Vinyl formats, CD and digital via powerhouse label Heavy Psych Sounds, the pre-sale is available at THIS LOCATION: https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/shop.htm#HPS228

03.06.22 CH Winterthur HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS FEST
04.06.22 AT Salzburg HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS FEST
05.06.22 DE Stuttgart Komma
10.06.22 NL Nijmegen Doornroosje
11.06.22 NL Utrecht dB’s
13.06.22 BE Brussels Magasin4
14.06.22 UK Brighton The Hope & Ruin
15.06.22 UK Liverpool Kazimier Stockroom
16.06.22 UK London Black Heart
17.06.22 UK Bristol Crofters Room 2
19.06.22 FR Clisson Hellfest
20.06.22 FR Tours Canadian Café
21.06.22 FR Bordeaux L’Astrodome Open Air
22.06.22 FR Clermont-Fd Blackmoon
23.06.22 FR Paris Supersonic
24.06.22 FR Bourlon Rock in Bourlon
25.06.22 FR Bourlon Rock in Bourlon
26.06.22 FR Bourlon Rock in Bourlon
29.06.22 IT Sardegna secret location
30.06.22 IT Cagliari Corto Maltese
01.07.22 IT Bologna DEV
03.07.22 IT Schlanders BASIS
04.07.22 AT Linz Kapu
05.07.22 SK Kosice Collosseum Club Kosice
06.07.22 SK Bratislava Kulturák Klub
07.07.22 PL Wroclaw Akademia
08.07.22 PL Krakow Klub RE
09.07.22 PL Pleszew Red Smoke Fest

ECSTATIC VISION is
Doug Sabolik
Michael Field Connor
Kevin Nickles
Ricky Kulp

https://www.facebook.com/ecstaticvision
https://twitter.com/ecstaticvision_
https://www.instagram.com/ecstaticvision
https://www.facebook.com/HEAVYPSYCHSOUNDS/
http://www.heavypsychsounds.com/
https://heavypsychsoundsrecords.bandcamp.com/

Ecstatic Vision, “March of the Troglodytes/Elusive Mojo”

I was sitting by the side of the bathtub, giving my kid a bath. My head was between my knees and I just decided I couldn’t live like this. I was out the door half a xanax and 10 minutes later, headed to Brooklyn. Yes, I told my wife I was going first.

Yesterday was a misery. Weeks, really. It feels like years since I’ve properly slept and maybe it has been. I don’t know. I’d had tickets for the third night of the four, last night, but I just couldn’t do it. Couldn’t get out the door. And I’d been wretched all day. Mad at myself for missing it, mad at the bullshit, all the last two years, this endless feeling of being right on the edge of something terrible. Fucking hell, at some point you have to live. Was I really going to let this go?

The Saint Vitus Bar has changed. There’s a door in now that bypasses the front barroom if you just want to go to the back, and a corresponding wall on the side of the back bar that I imagine makes it even more compressed between sets but maybe that’s just me protecting my terror at being out among humans. They’ve redone the bathrooms. There’s a wine store next door. Luxury apartment buildings are going up in this neighborhood by the dozen.

In the end, it was the last-chance factor that got me. Four shows. I didn’t need to see all of them. But one didn’t seem like too much to ask for. I’ve been inside for so long. I’ve been good. I got all my shots. I thought less of those who didn’t. Can’t I get a little something for all that comfortable moral superiority?

Remind me sometime and I’ll tell you (again) about the first time I almost saw YOB. Let me tell you from experience: almost seeing YOB is no way to go through life.

So here I am. At soundcheck. They’re playing “Adrift in the Ocean,” which they’ve done for the last three nights, and fair enough since Atma is being reissued. Got to talk to the band for a minute, and the Ecstatic Vision guys are kicking around somewhere. I don’t know when doors are and I don’t care. I made it. I’m doing this.

They follow “Adrift in the Ocean” with “Prepare the Ground.”

—

Next week, Ecstatic Vision will announce the name of their new album and the release date, as well as post the first single. They got to soundcheck after YOB. They even nailed that, but if there was any thought that their mojo might prove elusive for all their time away from a stage, it was dispelled almost immediately once their set started. Covered “TV Eye.” Place went off.

Do you understand? I mean, communal energy. Not just some throw-your-hands-in-the-air hackneyed shit, but the real deal; an honest to goodness vibe. Energy sent on an electric wave through the room, Ecstatic Vision pummeling asteroids careening through space like they’re totally out of control but playing off that tension and release the whole time. Magic. Or at very least, technology my brain will never be able to understand. They just finished. I feel alive.

I have a memory of seeing them in Jersey that feels recent despite being 10 lifetimes ago. They played with Brant Bjork that night. And no one was there. I tried to be kind about it at the time, but the truth is I was maybe one of 30 in the room. But tonight, this place. Shit. They killed then, don’t get me wrong. They were fucking awesome that night. Tonight there were witnesses. I was up front, didn’t move. Almost took a guitar string to the eye. Who cares? Element of danger was sick. Cables coming unplugged before the riff hits. My man swapping between sax and guitar and flute, pounding a Bud Light the whole time. Ecstatic Vision’s psychedelia is beautiful the way you think of lions chasing down and devouring zebras. I feel like I could nap for a week and I feel like I just woke up.

—

“Prepare the Ground.” Awaken. Awaken. I want to say all the weirdness went away immediately. Like it was pushed out of the room by the amps moving air. Even at its most ideal, life doesn’t work like that. But headbanging to YOB on a Wednesday night in Brooklyn is probably the closest I’m ever going to get.

It was beautiful. What a beautiful moment to exist.

Mike Scheidt, Aaron Rieseberg, Dave French, the latter new on drums. Last time I saw him was playing with Brothers of the Sonic Cloth at Roadburn. Or maybe something else. I don’t know. The room was full by the time they went on. It was easier for me to look forward at the stage than to look back at the humans assembled, so that’s what I did. I stayed up front for the duration. Where was I gonna go?

They played the chug ‘n’ lurcher from the last album, “The Screen.” And they played “The Lie That is Sin,” and “Upon the Sight of the Other Shore” and” Adrift in the Ocean” back to back. Broken string? Whatever. Next guitar. Fucking a. Roll on. And they finished with “Burning the Altar.” And that’s when everything was obliterated. You. Me. The whole place. The toxic air. The time. The shitty condos. Just gone.

What do you do with that? This was the last of four nights of YOB at Saint Vitus Bar. I’m so, so glad I saw it. Heard it. Felt it vibrating in my chest, the pain in my neck that I expect will only get worse tomorrow and the next day before it gets better. It doesn’t even matter. Just the sound. That rumble, that ring out. That scream. Fuck. If the altar didn’t burn from that, I don’t think it ever will. I gave Mike and Aaron hugs. I saw friends when it was done. Real friends. Real life. Amazing. Love.

—

Bought a shirt, said goodbye on the quick, mask on, and left. Nothing against anybody’s anything but it was time to go. Flat tire when I got back to the car a bit ago. Called AAA like you do. Box Street and McGuiness. They’re gonna film Blue Bloods there on Friday. Cops and such. Dude put the donut on. I got out in time for the headache to kick in. That’s where I’m at now. Home. Tired. After 1AM. I’ll be up around 7 if there’s mercy to be had. Maybe there is, maybe not. Can’t say I earned it.

I feel like I’ve been hibernating a piece of myself and it just got up and got a first drink of cold water. I don’t know what’s next. Neither do you. But holy shit I’m glad I was born so that I could live tonight.

Ecstatic Vision

YOB