Originally released on Transubstans Records and re-pressed in 2013 ahead of the band’s 2014 debut on Small Stone, Spirit Knife, 2011’s sophomore outing from the band once known as Jeremy Irons and the Ratgang Malibus, Bloom, is seeing a 10th anniversary reissue through Majestic Mountain Records with preorders set to go up on Friday.

The four-piece rebranded themselves in 2018 to JIRM and issued Surge Ex Monumentis (discussed here) as a likewise departure in sound from the classic-style heavy rock and boogie they’d brought to bear on prior offerings. For what it’s worth, they pulled that shift off well, and sounded no less sure of what they wanted to be doing than they ever had. I still think of them as a young band. Funny they’re doing decade-anniversary reissues. For their second record. Ha.

The PR wire has it like this:

JIRM (AKA Jeremy Irons & The Ratgang Malibus) to Celebrate Anniversary of Bloom with Reissue on Majestic Mountain Records

Majestic Mountain Records is thrilled to announce the official reissue of Bloom, the sophomore album from Swedish psych rockers JIRM… AKA Jeremy Irons & The Ratgang Malibus.

Originally formed in 2004 by close friends Micke Pettersson and Karl Apelmo, the curiously monikered Swedes were keen to implement their surrealist reimagining of heavy psych, early doors. Cementing their line-up in Stockholm circa-2007 with the addition of drummer Henke Persson and bassist Viktor Källgren, the quartet signalled the grand old return of Krautrock and psychedelic grooves to the underground scene. The culmination of which can be best heard on their 2011 album, Bloom, which celebrates its tenth anniversary this year.

Recorded by Marcus Sjoberg at Studio Skyline in the Swedes’ home city of Eskilstuna; Bloom provided listeners with a bed of raw, blues-based hard rock from which myriad sophisticated sonic structures are built. Bathing in the sunlit influence of bands like Led Zeppelin and The Allman Brothers, the album was lauded upon release and has only grown in prestige over the past decade.

“We recorded the album on old Vox AC30s and a bunch of cheap guitars, while trying to figure out amongst ourselves how delay pedals worked,” remembers Karl Apelmo. “Ten years on and we believe Marcus did a fantastic job in recording and capturing the magic in those songs and thanks to Majestic Mountain Records you’ll be able to hear it again. We’re psyched!”

And for MMR’s Marco Berg, the feeling is mutual. “We’re huge fans of this band so it’s a real honour to be able to reissue this classic rock album for anyone who was unlucky to have missed it first time around.”

Majestic Mountain Records will be releasing two exclusive editions of Bloom by JIRM (as Jeremy Irons & The Ratgang Malibus) this year with pre-orders for both imprints going live on 12th March at 19:00 CET / 13:00 EST / 10:00 PST / 18:00 BST here – https://bit.ly/3t0gPwy.

BLOOM EDITION ///
Limited to 200 – Black and green marbled 180g heavyweight vinyl, housed in full colour gatefold cover

SKIN DEEP EDITION ///
Limited to 300 – Black and green swirl 180g heavyweight vinyl, housed in full colour gatefold cover

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Jeremy Irons & the Ratgang Malibus, Bloom (2011)

What do we know about The Goners? Well, what do we really know about anything? In an age of malleable truths, alternative facts and flat earths, suddenly not being 100 percent on the origins of a band seems only too appropriate, but in some measure — I believe at least in the case of Nate Gone — The Goners are born out of Swedish alt rockers Yvonne and the apparent demise of the riffly Salem’s Pot, and in relation to the semi-costumed witchy ’70s horror/sexploitation doom of that outfit, they present a marked turn of aesthetic. Not just in the lack of fancy dress — though while we’re generalizing, aren’t we all just wearing costumes all the time? are we all not impostors of ourselves? — but in terms of sound as well, The Goners cast off Salem’s Pot‘s lumbering riffage in favor of a rawer approach on their debut release, Good Mourning, out in March on RidingEasy Records.

Think ’60s more than ’70s, garage and surf more than doom, and reverb more than fuzz and you’re probably on your way to wherever it is The Goners are headed — the answer, seemingly, is to “gone.” Good Mourning comprises 10 tracks, the last of which is the Dead Moon cover “Dead in the Saddle,” and though there’s a bit of residual Electric Wizardry in “Evil (Is Not Enough),” but “Good Ol’ Death” offers immediate counterargument, reminding of some of Kadavar‘s more recent wistful Western meanderings, and the bulk of Good Mourning in general is on a more stripped trip, with opener “Are You Gone Yet?” asking the essential question like some lost Death Alley demo reminding of a day when every single from an album was released as a 45RPM and played with a never-changed needle that seemed to be digging its own grooves because it was.

Cuts like the slower second inclusion “High, Low and in Between” and the subsequent Thin Lizzy swaggerer “World of Decay,” seem to find even footing in establishing some diversity of approach, but later on, The Goners seem to take extra delight in the brash two-minute squibbly-laced distortion blast that is “The Sickening,” and the subsequent “Down and Out” echoes out some maybe-horns at the start of its second half, just to throw a wrench into the gears of expectation. So it goes, goes, gone. “You Better Run” is noteworthy for its proto-riffly nod backing synth weirdness — too earthy to be space, but delightfully weird — and the last of the originals, “The Little Blue,” feels like a side B’er with a bit of flash in the guitar betraying Good Mourning‘s modern origins without necessarily contradicting the proceedings as a whole. And a reverby, handclap-inclusive Dead Moon cover on top of all that? Yeah, go ahead and count me in on the fun.

Good Mourning by The Goners is out in March through RidingEasy. It’s a standout on the record in terms of style, but “World of Decay” is a damn good time, and you can stream the premiere on the player below.

Have at it and enjoy:

Rock bottom. A place you have to throw yourself over the edge and burn all your bridges to reach. A place where the devil is laughing as a constant reminder of everything that went to shit. A place where you owe.

As the echoes of the past get louder and the forget-me-now’s no longer work, you have to pick up the remaining pieces and try to make them fit. You can only wake up in an unknown bed with aching intestines and a throbbing noise inside your skull, still craving more, so many times until you realize that your life didn’t quite turn out to be what you expected it to be. The killing floor is crowded and when the smoke starts to clear you start to notice just how bad you’ve been letting yourself go. It’s Monday. You are on your own now.

And even as you start to do the right, start paying your dues and bills, doing the 9 to 5 and saying your sorries, you’re still standing there like a sack of dead meat in a stinkin’ world of decay where nobody cares. Gone but still aware. Ain’t that something! Ain’t that grand!

There’s no remedy, no working cure but at least you got loud guitars, thumping bass and bashing cymbals to ease the pain. And as you stumble into your thirties, scorched earth policy-style, you can at least smile at the fact that you finished first. At last you succeeded in something. Now you can just lay back, back where the sun doesn’t shine and ask everybody else ”aren’t YOU gone yet?”.

Don’t worry, you soon will see that Gone is just a four-letter word. We’re all heading south and again, no one really gives a fuck.

It’s Sunday. Join us.

Tracklisting:
01. Are You Gone Yet?
02. High, Low and Never In Between
03. World of Decay
04. Evil (Is Not Enough)
05. Good Ol’ Death
06. The Sickening
07.. Down & Out
08. You Better Run
09. The Little Blue
10. Dead In The Saddle (Dead Moon)

The Goners are:
Mick Dagger
Nate Gone
Vic Odin
Timo Tinto
Grave Dave

The Goners on Thee Facebooks

The Goners on Bandcamp

RidingEasy Records website

RidingEasy Records on Instagram

RidingEasy Records on Bandcamp