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Review & Track Premiere: Oreyeon & Lord Elephant, Doom Sessions Vol. 8

Posted in audiObelisk, Reviews on March 23rd, 2023 by JJ Koczan

oreyeon lord elephant doom sessions vol 8

On May 5, Italy’s Oreyeon and Lord Elephant will stand together for the latest installment of Heavy Psych Sounds‘ apparently-ongoing split series, Doom Sessions Vol. 8. The two outfits, from La Spezia and Florence, respectively, each contribute an original and a cover to the 32-minute long-player, arranging them such that Oreyeon‘s take on Slo Burn‘s “Wheel Fall” (premiering below) leads into the 10-minute “C10H12N2O” — the chemical formula for serotonin — on side A and Lord Elephant flip the procession, with their own 10-minute jam-piece “Twilight Reflexes” giving over to a take on Link Wray‘s 1958 instrumental single “Rumble,” which is one of those early-ish rock songs that, even if you don’t know where you know it from and can’t identify it by name, might have been taken in through general osmosis/residing on the same planet where it has proliferated for the last 65 years.

Either way, recognizable, and if Lord Elephant‘s stretching the two-minute Link Wray and the Wraymen original to just over eight minutes is an issue, well, you might as well stop reading now, because heavy jams are the order of the day on Doom Sessions Vol. 8, and while the series has in the past has featured the likes of Conan-(16)-TonsBongzillaGrimeDeadsmoke andother meaner-hitting bands, there is precedent for a bit of stylistic ranging as well, whether that’s Hippie Death CultHigh ReeperAcid Mammoth and 1782 or Cosmic Reaper, oreyeonso in addition to both being signed to Heavy Psych Sounds, neither Oreyeon nor Lord Elephant are out of place sound-wise.

If anything, both acts benefit from the concise showcase the split provides. For Oreyeon, it follows their mid-2022 LP, Equations for the Useless (review here); their third album overall and second since changing their name from the more-traditionally-spelled-but-easier-to-confuse-with-a-ton-of-other-bands Orion. They bite into “Wheel Fall” with marked gusto, mashing up the original Slo Burn demo that appeared on various versions of 1997’s Amusing the Amazing with the mellower break and solo from the same album’s “Muezli” before building back into the final chorus, benefitting from the double-guitar density of Andrea Ricci and Matteo Signanini and the outright essential shove of Pietro Virgilio‘s drumming as bassist Richard Silvaggio gracefully makes the vocals his own rather than attempting an impression of John Garcia, who fronted the initially-shortlived Slo Burn after his time in Kyuss.

It’s an in-genre dogwhistle, ‘a classic if you know it,’ and Oreyeon‘s steps to bring it into the context of their style pay off both within “Wheel Fall” itself and in the transition to “C10H12N2O,” which begins its procession with drifting guitar over a quieter low-end foundation, drums smoothly entering with a purpose not to shove but provide some grounding for what might otherwise simply float away, instrumentally-speaking. There’s a heavier drive that starts just past the 90-second mark, and it may be from this that the piece derives its title, since surely the brain is releasing some form or other of mood-altering chemical as the swaying movement plays out with sweet basslines coursing underneath. Whether it’s shiver-down-spine or hairs-standing-up, it’s affecting. They ride that part for a time, move into more of a solo in the middle, then drop the drums and go back not to the start but to standalone guitar, then bass, then keys/effects, before bursting back to life with a larger roll that serves as the apex, guitar and bass gradually fading as Virgilio holds on longer drumming, finally falling out just as “C10H12N2O” enters its 10th minute.

That especially-hypnotic finish gives Lord Elephant a suitable beginning point for the jazzy manner in which “Twilight Reflexes” unfurls itself, Edoardo de Nardi‘s bass doing repetitive runs while Tommaso Urzino‘s drums solidify and Leandro Gaccione makes ready to reveal the Earthless-style soloing set to top the next couple minutes, departing at around 4:10 while the bass holds and the drums dig deeper into their shuffle, only to return again with airier heavy-prog tonality as they build back up, arriving somewhat predictably but satisfyingly at another solo stretch. It’s not as long sustained — just enough to get the point across — before Lord Elephant blues-comedown to another pause, the bass introducing a start-stop progression at 6:25 that is the thread running along the consumingly heavy apex to come, growing slower as “Twilight Reflexes” enters its final minute, less gradual than were Oreyeon in their extended track’s ending, but with a cymbal wash and amp buzz that gives an organic band-in-room feel.

With its telltale guitar strums, “Rumble” hints toward surf but never goes full-Dick Dale, and feels like fair enough territory for Lord Elephant‘s fuzzy interpretation. They grow noisier as they move forward, cycling into a solo that moves around and between the underlying rhythm, meeting it here and departing again before disappearing as they pass the halfway point only to return with echoing-heavy-jam intent for a more languid solo. At 5:30, when they shift back to the song’s central proto-riff, the snare begs for complementary handclaps, and while they don’t come, the subsequent takeoff gives a more weighted impact to signal the ending soon to be take place. As they have since the outset of “Twilight Reflexes,” the three-piece flow easily into and through that heavy capstone part, mirroring the longer cut in a natural ending as well without actually repeating themselves.

Lord Elephant are the newer band here, with their 2021 debut album, Cosmic Awakening (review here) snagged for release last year by Heavy Psych Sounds, but both acts have plenty to offer in terms of the instrumental chemistry on which their material, original or otherwise, largely depends. Doom Sessions Vol. 8 is a bit of a flex on the part of the label showing off two of its up-and-coming outfits, but frankly, that’s what a release like this is for, and while this won’t go down in history as the most doomed of the Doom Sessions, it’s a chance for Oreyeon and Lord Elephant to shine, and neither of them lets the opportunity slip.

As noted, Oreyeon‘s “Wheel Fall” premieres below. More info follows from the PR wire, including the all-important preorder links in case you’d like to get the jump on the May 5 release date.

Please enjoy:

Oreyeon, “Wheel Fall” (Slo Burn cover) track premiere

WHEEL FALL is the second single taken from the upcoming DOOM SESSIONS VOL. VIII. The single is an OREYEON track.
The release will see the light May 5th via Heavy Psych Sounds.

SAYS THE BAND:
“Wheel Fall is an obscure track from the coolest Kyuss related project ever, Slo Burn. This is our tribute to this short-lived band, we also included in this song, the solo section of Muezli from their amazing debut EP… enjoy it !”

GRAB YOUR COPY HERE:
https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/shop.htm#HPS265

USA SHOP:
https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/shop-usa.htm

Oreyeon:
Richard Silvaggio BASS / VOCALS
Andrea Ricci GUITAR
Matteo Signanini GUITAR
Pietro Virgilio DRUMS

Lord Elephant:
Leandro Gaccione GUITAR
Edoardo De Nardi BASS
Tommaso Urzino DRUMS

Oreyeon on Facebook

Oreyeon on Instagram

Oreyeon on Bandcamp

Lord Elephant on Facebook

Lord Elephant on Bandcamp

Lord Elephant on YouTube

Heavy Psych Sounds on Facebook

Heavy Psych Sounds on Instagram

Heavy Psych Sounds website

Heavy Psych Sounds on Bandcamp

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Quarterly Review: Trigona, Blasting Rod, From Those Ashes, Hashishian, Above & Below, Lord Elephant, Dirty Shades, Venus Principle, Troy the Band, Mount Desert

Posted in Reviews on July 5th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

THE-OBELISK-FALL-2020-QUARTERLY-REVIEW

Day seven of a Quarterly Review is pretty rarefied air, by which I mean it doesn’t happen that often. And even with 100 records in the span of these two weeks, I’ll never ever ever ever claim to approach being comprehensive, but the point is take it as a sign of just how much is out there right now. If you find it overwhelming, me too.

But think about our wretched species. What’s our redeeming factor? Treatment resistant bacteria? War? Yelling for more war? Economic disparity? Abortion rights? Art. Art’s it. Art and nothing.

So at least there’s a lot of art.

Quarterly Review #61-70:

Trigona, Trigona

Trigona Trigona

With independent label distribution in the UK, US, Australia and Europe, Trigona‘s Trigona is about as spread out geographically as sonically. The Queensland, AUS-based instrumental solo outfit of Rob Shiels — guitar, bass, synth, drum programming, effects, noise, etc. — released the Meridian tape earlier in 2022 on Echodelick and I’m honestly not sure if this six-song self-titled is supposed to count as a debut full-length or what, expanded as it is from Trigona‘s 2021 EP of the same name, albeit remastered with a new track sequence and the eight-minute “Via Egnatia” tagged onto the end of side B to mirror side A’s eight-minute finale, “Rosatom.” Sweet toned progressivism and semi-krautrock bass meditation pervades, debut or not, as Shiels touches on more terrestrial songwriting in “Monk” only after “Shita Ue” has offered its uptempo, almost poppy except not at all pop take on space rock outwardness, a mirror itself somewhat for album opener “Von Graf,” while second cut “Nudler” spreads proggy guitar figures over a sunshiny movement, letting “Rosatom” handle the wash-conjuring. There’s a slowdown at the finish of “Via Egnatia,” its effect lessened perhaps by the programmed drums, but Trigona‘s Trigona is so much more about atmosphere than heft it feels silly to even mention. Debut or not, it is striking.

Trigona on Bandcamp

Weird Beard Records store

Ramble Records website

Echodelick Records website

Worst Bassist Records on Bandcamp

 

Blasting Rod, 月鏡 (Mirror Moon Ascending)

Blasting Rod Mirror Moon Ascending

Hells yeah J-psych. Nagoya-based three-piece Blasting Rod — guitarist/vocalist S. Shah (also electronics), bassist/guitarist Yoshihiro Yasui and drummer Chihiro (everybody also adds percussion) — already have a follow-up LP, Of Wild Hazel, on the way/streaming for the two-songer Mirror Moon Ascending, and that and some of their past work has aligned them with US-based Glory or Death Records, but if you’re looking to be introduced to their world of sometimes serene, sometimes madcap psychedelia, these two mono mixes by Eternal Elysium‘s Yukito Okazaki, with the drift and languid crash, far-back drums of “Mirror Moon Ascending” and the shaker-inclusive insistence of “Wheel Upon the Car of Dragonaut,” which turns its title into a multi-layered mantra, can be a decent place to start as a springboard into the band’s and S. Shah‘s sundry other projects. Their experimentalism doesn’t stop them from writing songs, at least not this time around, and it seems to drive aspects of what they do like mixing in mono in the first place, so there’s meta-screwing with form as well as get-weird-stay-weird heavy space rock push. After this, check out 2021’s III and then the new one. After that, you’re on your own. Good luck and have fun.

Blasting Rod on Facebook

Low&Slow.Disk on Facebook

 

From Those Ashes, Contagion

From Those Ashes Contagion

From Those Ashes, a double-guitar four-piece from Chicago, present four songs in Contagion of thrash-derived but ultimately mostly mid-tempo metal, vocalist/guitarist Aaron Pokoj (also production) leading the charge with Jose “Mop” Valles ripping solos for good measure and bassist Ryan Compton and drummer Omar “Pockets” Mombela holding together tight grooves amid the deathlier moments of the title-track. Pokoj‘s trades between harsh and clean vocals show a firm grasp of melody and arrangement, and though their lyrical perspective is disaffected until basically the last two lines of EP-closer “Light Breaks,” the aggression doesn’t necessarily trump craft, though “The Reset Button” moves through throwing elder-hardcore elbows and the first words shouted on opener “Devoid of Thought” are “fuck it.” Fair enough. The Iron Maiden-style opening of “Light Breaks” is a standout moment, though guitar antics aren’t by any means in short supply, but when From Those Ashes build their way into the song proper, the death-thrash onslaught is fervent right up to the end. And those last lines? “As light breaks through the shadow and gives way to life/Sustained emergence of the soul and the will to survive?” Brutally, righteously growled.

From Those Ashes on Facebook

From Those Ashes on Bandcamp

 

Hasishian, Hashishian

hasishian hasishian

Rarely does music itself sound so stoned. Across six tracks of bassy, at least partially Dune-referential — the hand-drummed “Shai Hulud,” etc. — meditative heavy, the anonymous outfit Hashishian from somewhere, sometime, convey a languid, loosely Middle Eastern-informed, vibe-dense aural weedianism. And much to their credit, “Mountain of Smoke” seems to live up to its name. Less so, perhaps, “Let Us Reason,” which is drawn out in such a way that the moderation implied, maybe with desperation, is inhaled like so much pine-smelling vapor. “Shai Hulud” is the longest cut, mostly instrumental, and might be as far out as Hashishian go, but even the twisting feedback and lead notes at the beginning of closer “Nazareth” feel like a heavy-eyelidded march toward the riff-fill’d land, never mind the bass-led procession of the song itself, manifesting the ethic of opener “Onward” that seems to be the mentality of the 39-minute self-titled as a whole. It is molten in a way not much can claim to be, more patient than the most patient person you know, and seems to find way to make even the tolling bell of the penultimate “High Chief” a drone. Definitely post-Om in sound, Hashishian‘s Hashishian is a sprawl of sand waiting to engulf you. And to whoever is playing this bass, thank you.

Hashishian on Bandcamp

Herby Records on Bandcamp

 

Above & Below, Suffer Decay Alone

Above and Below Suffer Decay Alone

Ohio-based industrialists Above & Below — primarily Plaguewielder‘s Bryce Seditz on vocals, guitar, synth, programming with Chrome WavesJeff Wilson adding bass, noise, production and a release through his Disorder Recordings imprint — make their debut with the seven tracks/27 minutes of Suffer Decay Alone, which digs into modern stylistic features like the weighted tonality of the guitar in “Isolate” and the screams on top, some The Downward Spiraling atmosphere given a boost in rhythm from the dense machine churn of Author & Punisher there and on the prior “Hope,” while “Rust” approaches danceable but for all that screaming. “Dead” sounds like something Gnaw might come up with, but the cold realization of craft in “Tear” feels like a signpost telling the project where it wants to head, and the same applies to the 3Teeth-style horror noise of “Covered.” I don’t know which impulse will win out, songwriting or destructive noise, and I’m not sure it needs to be one or the other, but Suffer Decay Alone sets out with a duly harsh mentality and sounds to match. If this is Rust Belt fuckall circa 2022, I’m on board.

Above & Below on Facebook

Disorder Recordings website

 

Lord Elephant, Cosmic Awakening

Lord Elephant Cosmic Awakening

Shades of Earthless‘ more meandering stretches pervade “Cosmic Awakening Pt. I – Forsaken Slumber,” the opener of Lord Elephant‘s Heavy Psych Sounds debut, Cosmic Awakening, and those are purposefully brushed away as “Cosmic Awakening Pt. II – First Radiation” brings on more straight-ahead instrumental shove. The Florence, Italy, trio issued the eight-track album independently in 2021 and their being on the label they are earns them a certain amount of trust before one even listens, but the vibe throughout the outing’s 43 minutes is a don’t-worry-we-know-what-we’re-doing blend of psychedelia and underlying tonal heft. Bass. Tone. Guitar. Tone. Drums. On point. There’s nothing overly fancy about it and there doesn’t need to be as “Raktabija” is a rush and a blast at once, “Covered in Earth’s Blood” crunches and builds and builds and crunches again and “Stellar Cloud” has enough low end to make you feel funny for staring. I wouldn’t put it past them to make friends with an organist at some point, but they’ve got everything they need for right now even without vocals, and the combination of weight and breadth is effectively conveyed from front to back, with closer “Secreteternal” executing a final slowdown until it just seems to come apart. Right on.

Lord Elephant on Facebook

Heavy Psych Sounds website

 

Dirty Shades, Lift Off

Dirty Shades Lift Off

French double-guitar four-piece Dirty Shades released their debut EP in March 2020, so yeah, there goes that. Lift Off is the four-song follow-up short release, tagged as a ‘live session,’ and given the organic vibe of the performances, I’m inclined to believe it. Vocalist/guitarist Anouk Degrande leads the way as “Dazed” picks up in winding style from the more ethereal opening across the two-minute “Ignition,” her voice reminding in places of No Doubt-era Gwen Stefani, albeit in a much different context. Fellow guitarist Nathan Mimeau provides backing for the chorus, ditto bassist Martin Degrande, and drummer Mathurin Robart is charged with keeping the patterns together behind the various turns in volume and intensity through “Dazed” and the subsequent “Running for Your Life,” which is full, spaced and surprisingly heavy by the time its five minutes are done but is still somehow more about the trip getting there. And a shorter take on now-closer “Trainwreck” appeared on 2020’s Specific Impulse, but its added dreaminess serves it well. Jazzy in spots and showing the band still seeking their stylistic niche, Lift Off may well prove to be the foundation from which the band launches.

Dirty Shades on Facebook

Dirty Shades webstore

 

Venus Principle, Stand in Your Light

Venus Principle Stand in Your Light

Best case scenario when a band revamps its lineup is that listeners get another killer band out of it. With that, bid hello to Venus Principle‘s debut album, Stand in Your Light. With vocalist/guitarist Daniel Änghede (also Astroqueen), pianist/vocalist Daisy Chapman, guitarist/keyboardist Jonas Stålhammar (also At the Gates), keyboardist/backing vocalist Mark Furnevall and drummer Ben Wilsker all having been in Crippled Black Phoenix — only bassist Pontus Blom would seem not to be an alumnus — this more recent project perhaps unsurprisingly digs into a deeply, richly melodic, expanded-definition-of-heavy post-rock. The songs across the 68-minute 2LP, which starts with its longest track (immediate points) in the 10:34 “Rebel Drones,” are afraid neither to be loud nor minimal, and standout moments like “Shut it Down” or the Mellotron into absolute-melody-wash of “Sanctuary” bear out that vibe as a reminder of the gorgeousness that can come from emotions normally thought negative. The promo text for this record says it, “provides balm for the wound that the split of ANATHEMA has caused,” and that’s a lofty claim from where I sit, but you know, it’s a start, and clearly a lineup capable of a certain kind of magic that they represent well here.

Venus Principle website

Prophecy Productions store

 

Troy the Band, The Blissful Unknown

troy the band the blissful unknown

One doesn’t imagine it’s easy to be a new band in London at this point, with the seen-it-all-plus-we’re-all-in-like-10-bands-ourselves crowd and so many acts in and around the sphere of Desertfest, etc. — or maybe I’m way off and the community is amazing; I honestly don’t know — but Troy the Band distinguish themselves through the pendulum swing in their debut EP, The Blissful Unknown, guitars and bass both fuzzed to and beyond the gills and just a bit showy in “Michael” to give the outing a hint of strut despite its generally laid back attitude. Opener “I Wage a War” is the shortest inclusion by far on the 26-minute offering, and it’s a sprint compared to the more plodding, drone-hum-backed “Less Than Nothing,” and after “Michael” chugs and sways to its noisy finish, the title-track blows it all out to end off by underscoring the encouragingly atmospheric impression made by the songs prior, loose-sounding but not at all sloppy and occupying an expanse that comes across like it only wants to grow bigger. Here’s hoping it does exactly that. In the meantime, even in England’s green, pleasant and perpetually-full-of-riffs land, Troy the Band carve a fascinating place for themselves between various microgenres, psychedelic without being carried off by self-indulgence.

Troy the Band on Facebook

Troy the Band on Bandcamp

 

Mount Desert, Fear the Heart

Mount Desert Fear The Heart

Oakland, California’s Mount Desert make an awaited full-length debut with Fear the Heart a full seven years after releasing their self-titled two-songer (review here), both cuts from which feature on the record. Hey, life happens. I get that. And if the tradeoff for not putting out two or three records in the interim is the airy float of guitar throughout and the subtle-then-not-so-subtle build in “Semper Virens,” I’ll take it. Who the hell needs more records when you can have one that speaks to your unconscious like that? In any case, Fear the Heart is striking in more than just its moments of culmination, “Blue Madonna” and “New Fire” at the outset casting a fluidity that “The River I” and “The River II” perhaps unsurprisingly further even as they find their own paths into the second half of the record. “The Wail” closes with nighttime howls only after “Fear the Heart” — one of the two from the first outing — and the aforementioned “Semper Virens” have their say in progressive guitar and weighted psychedelicraft, earthbound thanks to vocal soul and ‘them drums tho,’ and especially as a debut, and one apparently a while in the making, Mount Desert‘s first LP justifies all that hype from more than half a decade and 15 lifetimes ago. They’re a band with something to say aesthetically and in songwriting. I hope they continue to move forward.

Mount Desert on Facebook

Mount Desert on Bandcamp

 

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Lord Elephant Sign to Heavy Psych Sounds

Posted in Whathaveyou on May 12th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

Lest a day should go by without some sort of news from Italy’s Heavy Psych Sounds, word comes down the PR wire that the kingpin label has snagged countrymen rockers Lord Elephant for the release of their debut album. The Florentine trio reportedly had a record out last year called Cosmic Awakening, and as that’s off their Bandcamp, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if that turns out to be what Heavy Psych Sounds is pre-hyping with the signing announcement here, but you never really know until you get there, I guess.

In any case, a new band — even one that’s been around for six years — getting picked up by this label is legit news, even with the preorders and album details a week away. They join other recent signees ŞTIU NU ŞTIU (whose album info I still need to post) and Somnus Throne, whose new record rules, and there’s plenty of other good company to keep besides. Cheers to the band.

Words in blue follow:

Lord Elephant

HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS signed the heavy-psych rockers LORD ELEPHANT for the new album // presale + first track premiere May 19th !!!

We are so stoked to announce that the heavy-psych rockers LORD ELEPHANT has signed a worldwide deal with Heavy Psych Sounds for their new album !!!

PRESALE + first track premiere: MAY 19th

SAYS THE BAND:

“Lord Elephant and Heavy Psych Sounds is finally a thing! We are stoked to be part of this mighty label, and we want to celebrate the demon pact with the dirtiest and wildest rock’n’roll !!”

BIOGRAPHY

Lord Elephant was raised by Edoardo and Leandro in 2016, after the split of their previous “napalm blues” band Random’N’Roll and the entry of Tommaso Urzino behind the drum kit. With diversified and complementary experiences, the trio melt its passion for blues, stoner, fuzzy and improvised music into a personal journey of acid psychedelia, graced with heaviness and tasty riffs as well. After almost five years in the work, the DEBUT ALBUM seals the final result of the long road made by Lord Elephant in their musical research, finding in Heavy Psych Sound Records the best possible partner to expand their sound as far as they can!

LORD ELEPHANT is
Leandro Gaccione – Guitars
Edoardo De Nardi – Bass
Tommaso Urzino – Drums

https://www.facebook.com/RandomnRoll
https://lordelephant.bandcamp.com/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFA-3FchTu_apvNxsfCxu3w

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

Lord Elephant, 2016 SAFFA Session

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Quarterly Review: Zack Oakley, Vøuhl, White Manna, Daily Thompson, Headless Monarch, Some Pills for Ayala, Il Mostro, Carmen Sea, Trip Hill, Yanomamo & Slomatics

Posted in Reviews on January 17th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

THE-OBELISK-FALL-2020-QUARTERLY-REVIEW

Somehow it feels longer than it’s actually been. Yeah, a year’s changed over, but it’s really only been about a month since the last Quarterly Review installment, which I said at the time was only half of the full proceedings. I’ve started the count over at 1-50, but in my head, this is really a continuation of that five-day stretch more than something separate. It’s been booked out I think since before the last round of 50 was done, if that tells you anything. Should tell you 2021 was a busy year and 2022 looks like it’ll be more of the same in that regard. Also a few other regards, but let’s keep it optimistic, hmm?

We start today fresh with a wide swath of stuff for digging and, well, I hope you dig it. Let’s go.

Quarterly Review #1-10:

Zack Oakley, Badlands

Zack Oakley Badlands

Apparently I’ve been spelling Zack Oakley‘s name wrong for the better part of a decade. Zack with a ‘k’ instead of an ‘h’ at the end. I feel like a jerk. By any spelling, dude both shreds and can write a song. Known for his work in Joy, Pharlee, Volcano, etc., he brings vibrant classic heavy to the fore on his solo debut, Badlands, sounding like a one-man San Diego scene on “I’m the One” only after declaring his own genre in opener “Freedom Rock.” “Mexico” vibes on harmonica-laced heavy blues and the acoustic-led “Looking High Searching Low” follows suit with slide, but there’s tinge of psych on the catchy “Desert Shack,” and “Fever” stomps out in pure Hendrix style without sounding ridiculous, which is not an achievement to be understated. Closing duo “Acid Rain” and “Badlands” meet at the place where the ’60s ended and the ’70s started, swaggering through time with more hooks and a sound that might be garage if your garage had a really nice studio in it. I’ll take more of this anytime Mr. Oakley wants to belt it out.

Zack Oakley website

Kommune Records on Bandcamp

 

Vøuhl, Vøuhl

Vøuhl Vøuhl

Issued by Shawn Pelata — also known as Pælãtä Shåvvn, with an apparent thing for accent marks — the self-titled debut from Vøuhl mixes industrial-style experimentalism, dark ambience and a strong cinematic current across a still-relatively-unassuming five-songs and 23 minutes, hitting a resonant minimalism at the ending of “Evvûl” while building to a fuller-sounding progression on the subsequent “Välle.” Drones, echoing, looped beats and thoughtfully executed synth let Pelata construct each atmosphere as an individual piece, but with the attention obviously paid to the presentation of the whole, there’s nothing that keeps one piece from tying into the next either, so whether one approaches Vøuhl‘s Vøuhl as an EP or a short album, the impression of a deep-running soundscape is made one way or the other. What seems to be speech samples in “Aurô” and noise-laced closer “ßlasste” — thoroughly manipulated — may hint at things to come, but I hope not entirely at the expense of the percussive urgency of opener “Dùste” here.

Vøuhl on Facebook

Stone Groove Records website

 

White Manna, First Welcome

White Manna First Welcome

At first you’re all like, “yeah this is right on I can handle it” and then all of a sudden White Manna are about four minutes into the freakery of “Light Cones” opening up their latest opus First Welcome and you’re starting to panic because you took too much and you’re couchlocked. The heretofore undervalued Calipsych weirdos are out-out-out on their new eight-songer, done in an LP-ready 39 minutes but drippy droppy through an interdimensional swap-meet of renegade noises and melted-down aesthetics. Maybe you heard 2020’s ARC (review here) and thereby got on board, or maybe you don’t know them at all. Doesn’t matter. The thing is they’re already in your brain and by the time you’re done with the triumph-boogie of “Lions of Fire” you realize you’re one with the vibrating universe and only then are you ready to meet the “Monogamous Cassanova” in krautrock purgatory before the swirling “Milk Symposium” spreads itself out like a blanket over the sun. Too trippy for everything, and so just. fucking. right. If you can hang with this, I wanna be friends.

White Manna on Facebook

Cardinal Fuzz webstore

Centripetal Force Records website

 

Daily Thompson, God of Spinoza

God Of Spinoza by Daily Thompson

In 2022, German heavy rockers Daily Thompson mark a decade since their founding. God of Spinoza is their fifth full-length, and in songs like “Cantaloupe Melon,” “Golden Desert Child,” and “Muaratic Acid,” the reliability one has come to expect from them is only reinforced. Their sound hinges on psychedelia, but complements that with an abiding sense of grunge and a patience in songwriting. They’ve done heavy blues and straight-up rock in the past, so neither is out of the trio’s wheelhouse — the penultimate “Midnight Soldier” is a breakout here — but the title-track’s drawn-out “yeah”s and slacker-nod rhythm seem to draw more directly from the Alice in Chains school of making material sound slow without actually having it crawl or sacrifice accessibility. I’d give them points regardless for calling a song “I Saw Jesus in a Taco Bell,” but the closer is a genuine highlight on God of Spinoza turning a long stretch of disaffection to immersive fuzz with a deftness befitting a band on their fifth record who know precisely who they are. Like I said, reliable.

Daily Thompson on Facebook

Noisolution website

 

Headless Monarch, Titan Slug

Headless Monarch Titan Slug

Founded by guitarist/bassist Collin Green, Headless Monarch released their first demo in 2013 and their most recent EP, Nothing on the Horizon, in 2016. Five years later, Green and drummer Brandon Zackey offer the late-2021 debut full-length, Titan Slug, working in collaboration for the first time with vocalist and producer Otu Suurmunne of Moonic Productions — who mostly goes by Otu — across a richly executed collection of six tracks, three new, three from prior outings. Not sure if Otu is a hired gun as a singer working alongside the other two, but there’s little arguing with the results they glean as a trio across a song like “Fever Dream” or “Sleeper Now Rise,” the latter taken from Headless Monarch‘s 2015 two-songer and positioned in a more aggressive stance overall. The newer songs come across as more fleshed out, but even “Eight Minutes of Light” from the first demo has atmospheric reach to go with its clarity of focus and noteworthy heft. One only hopes the collaboration continues and inspires further work along these lines.

Headless Monarch on Instagram

Headless Monarch on Bandcamp

 

Some Pills for Ayala, Space Octopus

Some Pills for Ayala Space Octopus

Technically speaking, you had me at Space Octopus. After releasing a self-titled EP under the somewhat-troubling moniker (one hopes it’s not too many) Some Pills for Ayala, multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and producer Néstor Ayala Cortés of At Devil Dirt returns with this two-songer, comprised of its 11-minute title-cut and the shorter “It’s Been a Long Trip.” The lead track is duly dream-drifty in its procession, a subtle build underway across its span but pushing more for hypnosis than impact and getting there to be sure, even as the second half grows thicker in tone. At 3:48, “It’s Been a Long Trip” comes across more as an experiment in technique captured and used as the foundation for Cortés‘ soft, wide echoing vocals. Lysergic and adventurous in kind, the 15-minute EP is nonetheless serene in its presence and soothing overall. Could be that Cortés might push deeper into folk as he goes forward, but the acidy foundation he’s working from will only add to that.

Some Pills for Ayala on Instagram

Some Pills for Ayala on Bandcamp

 

Il Mostro, Occult Practices

Il Mostro Occult Practices

It’s a quick in-out from Boston heavy punkers Il Mostro on the Occult Practices EP. Four songs, the last of which is a cover of T.S.O.L.‘s “Black Magic,” nothing over three minutes long, all fits neatly on a 7″. For what they’re doing, that makes sense, taking the high-velocity ethic of Motörhead or Peter Pan Speedrock (if you need a second plays-fast-punk-derived-and-rocks band) and delivering with an appropriately straightforward thrust. Opener “Firewitch” ends with giggling, and that’s fair enough to convey the overarching lack of pretense throughout, but they do well with the cover and have a righteous balance between control and chaos in the relatively-mid-paced “Trial” and the sprinter “Faith in Ghosts,” which follows. Is cult punk a thing? I guess you could ask the Misfits that question, but Il Mostro mostly avoid sounding like that Jersey band, and it’s easy enough to imagine them bashing walls at any number of Beantown havens or bathed under the telltale red lights of O’Brien’s as they tear into a set. So be it, punkers.

Il Mostro on Facebook

Il Mostro on Bandcamp

 

Carmen Sea, Hiss

Carmen Sea Hiss

Should it come as a surprise that an EP of violin-laced/led instrumentalist progressive post-rock, willfully working against genre convention in order to cross between metal, rock and more atmospheric fare includes an element of self-indulgence? Nope. How could it be otherwise? The five-track Hiss from Parisian four-piece Carmen Sea is a heady outing indeed, but at just 29 minutes, the band doesn’t actually lose themselves in what they’re doing, and the surprises they offer along the way like the electronic turns in “Black Echoes” or the quiet drone stretch in the first half of 11-minute closer “Glow in Space” — which gets plenty tense soon enough — provide welcome defiance of expectation. That is to say, whatever else they are, Carmen Sea are not predictable, and that serves them well here and will continue to. “Frames” begins jarring and strutting, but finds its strength in its more floating movement, though the later bridge of classical and weighted musics feels like the realization that might’ve led to creating the band in the first place. There’s potential in toying with that balance.

Carmen Sea on Facebook

Carmen Sea Distrokid

 

Trip Hill, Ain’t Trip Ceremony

Trip Hill Aint Trip Ceremony

Florence’s Fabrizio Cecchi has vibe to spare with his solo-project Trip Hill, and Denmark’s Bad Afro Records has stepped forward to issue the 2020 offering, Ain’t Trip Ceremony, toward broader consciousness. The eight-song/39-minute long-player is duly dug-in, and its psychedelic reach comes with a humility of craft that makes the songs likewise peaceful and exploratory and entrancing. Repetition is key for the latter, but Cecchi also manages to keep things moving across the album, with a fuzzy cut like “Spam Mind” seeming to build on top of loops and shifting into a not-overblown space rock, hardly mellow, but more acknowledging the vastness of the cosmos than one might expect. The more densely-fuzzed “Ralph’s Heart Attack” leads into the guitar-focused “Pan” ahead of the finale “What Happened to Will,” but that’s after “Tame Ùkhan” has gone a-wandering and decided to stay that way and the seven-minute “Trái tim Thán Yêu” has singlehandedly justified the vinyl release in its blend of percussive urgency and psychedelic shimmer. Go in with an open mind and you won’t go wrong.

Trip Hill on Facebook

Bad Afro Records on Bandcamp

 

Yanomamo & Slomatics, Split 7″

Yanomamo & Slomatics Split

Yanomamo begin their Iommium Records two-song split 7″ with Slomatics by harshly delivering a deceptively positive message: “If you’re going to seek revenge/Might as well dig two graves/He who holds resentment is already digging his own.” Fair enough. The Sydney, Australia, and Belfast, Northern Ireland, outfits offer about 10 and a half minutes of material between them, but complement each other well, with the thickness of the latter building off the raw presentation of the former, Yanomamo‘s guttural portrayal of bitterness offered in scream-topped sludge crash on “Dig Two Graves” that builds in momentum toward the end while Slomatics‘ “Griefhound” offers the futurist tonal density and expanse of vocal echo typifying their latter-day work and turns a quiet, chugging bridge into a consciousness-slamming payoff. Neither act is really out of their comfort zone, but established listeners will revel in the chance to hear them alongside each other, and if you hear complaints about either of these cuts, they won’t be from me.

Yanomamo on Facebook

Slomatics on Facebook

Iommium Records on Bandcamp

 

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Trip Hill to Release Ain’t Trip Ceremony Oct. 29 on Bad Afro; “Dropside” Single Out Sept. 24

Posted in Whathaveyou on September 16th, 2021 by JJ Koczan

Buzzing and hypnotic, the first single from Trip Hill‘s forthcoming LP, Ain’t Trip Ceremony — say it out loud kind of quickly, to reveal the wordplay — is short at three minutes long, but bodes well just the same. I don’t think there are words in “Dropside” other than the title, but that’s all Florence’s Fabrizio Cecchi needs to get the point across from his long-running solo outfit. Ain’t Trip Ceremony was originally self-released late last year as a limited CDR, but Bad Afro Records has picked up the outing for an LP edition due out Oct. 29, and “Dropside” will precede the vinyl on Sept. 24.

If you want to do a headfirst dive in the interim, Trip Hill‘s Bandcamp page is like a coral reef for the many different colors it offers. Earlier this year, Cecchi re-released the 2000 compilation Takes From Oblivion from ’90s-era demo recordings, and you’ll find that, the 2019 LP Psych Wedding, and the new single all streaming below, because I guess I got excited about a thing. Bad Afro doesn’t sign non-Uffe Lorenzen-related bands every day, you know. Gotta figure this is going to be right on.

PR wire info follows:

trip hill

Trip Hill – “Dropside” single out September 24th

Trip Hill is a one-man operation by Fabrizio Cecchi out of Florence, Italy. With a naïve approach to making music and inspiration from all over the world he is making his own homemade and original version of trippy psychedelia and krautrock. “Dropside” is the first single from the Ain’t Trip Ceremony album due out October 29th on Bad Afro Records.

Fabrizio Cecchi played in various garage and psych rock bands in the early 90’s but by 1994 he set his own cause and started to work alone and in his own universe. Originally a bass-player he since taught himself guitar, drums, keyboards and various other instruments to be able to find his own way in making psychedelic music.

Ain’t Trip Ceremony is the latest output in a long string of experimental home productions recorded in his basement studio. Until recently it was only available on his bandcamp and as a very cool limited edition CD-R with covers printed on thick cardboard with a special linograph technique. But now it gets the proper release on vinyl via Bad Afro Records that these recordings deserve. 1st print is limited to 500 copies on black vinyl.

https://www.facebook.com/Triphill.band
https://triphill.bandcamp.com/
https://badafrorecords.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/badafrorecords
http://badafro.dk/

Trip Hill, Takes From Oblivion (2021)

Trip Hill, Psych Wedding (2019)

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Psychedelic Witchcraft Announce Magick Rites and Spells Due Jan. 27

Posted in Whathaveyou on November 25th, 2016 by JJ Koczan

psychedelic-witchcraft-700

Seems like about half the tracks on Psychedelic Witchcraft‘s upcoming release, Magick Rites and Spells, are new. That Sam Gopal cover was released I believe with the reissue of their Black Magic Man EP (review here), from whence a goodly portion of these songs also originate. There are, nonetheless, a few new ones, including a take on Blue Öyster Cult‘s “Godzilla” and the original “Come a Little Closer,” for which the band also have a new video (if you’re sensitive to flashing lights, watch out). I’d be interested to know when they were recorded.

Part of the reason why is because several of the members of Psychedelic Witchcraft, including vocalist Virignia Monti seem to have moved onto other projects in the last couple months, which kind of had me questioning the status of the band. I guess we’ll see how it all shakes out in 2017. Magick Rites and Spells is out Jan. 27 on Soulseller Records.

From the PR wire:

psychedelic-witchcraft-magick-rites-and-spells

PSYCHEDELIC WITCHCRAFT – “Magick Rites and Spells” details revealed – New video available

Following last year’s debut album “The Vision”, Italian occult-doom-rockers PSYCHEDELIC WITCHCRAFT now return with “Magick Rites and Spells”, which will be released via Soulseller Records on 27th January 2017 on digipack-CD, limited gatefold LP and digitally.

The first part of “Magick Rites and Spells” offers new and exclusive tracks that were not included on the debut though had an important meaning to the band, while the second part features the band’s first EP that blends perfectly with the first half concerning sounds, atmosphere and magick.

A video for the track “Come A Little Closer” is now available. Feel the bluesy atmosphere, without ever missing the energy of rock and roll. Feel the spell!

Tracklist:
1. Come A Little Closer (exclusive to this release)
2. Godzilla (Blue Öyster Cult cover, exclusive to this release)
3. Set Me Free (Re-recording, exclusive to this release)
4. Wicked Dream (Re-recording, exclusive to this release)
5. The Dark Lord (originally performed by Sam Gopal with Lemmy)
6. Angela (taken from the Black Magic Man EP)
7. Lying On Iron (taken from the Black Magic Man EP)
8. Black Magic Man (taken from the Black Magic Man EP)
9. Slave Of Grief (taken from the Black Magic Man EP)

http://www.facebook.com/PsychedelicWitchcraft
https://psychedelicwitchcraft.bandcamp.com/
http://www.soulsellerrecords.com

Psychedelic Witchcraft, “Come a Little Closer” official video

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Live Review: Blaak Heat Shujaa and Mirror Queen in Massachusetts, 11.14.13

Posted in Reviews on November 19th, 2013 by JJ Koczan

Since the time change, it’s been getting dark at around 5PM, which means that as I made my way out west on the Masspike to Florence to see Blaak Heat Shujaa and Mirror Queen at the pleasantly-named JJ’s Tavern, it was too dark to enjoy the late-fall scenery. Too bad, as that’s some good forest. Anyone interested in demographic study might do well to take a look at how hardcore did so well up here in the ’90s instead of black metal. I’d suspect it has to do with socioeconomic factors — a hardcore 7″ is cheap and Norwegian LPs would’ve meant paying import prices; with its roots in zealotry, Massachusetts maintains a healthy love of its working class foundations — but from the bare branches to the legacy of witch burnings, it seems like someone would’ve put some corpsepaint on by now and given the misty Pacific Northwest a run for its money. So it goes.

I had time to consider these things on the drive to Florence (my grandmother’s name) and JJ’s Tavern (my name), which was a solid two hours. Both bands would be in Providence, Rhode Island, the next night, which is only half as far away, but I had other obligations and didn’t want to miss Blaak Heat Shujaa, who were making an overdue first appearance on the Eastern Seaboard in support of their sophomore full-length and Tee Pee long-play debut, The Edge of an Era (review here). The young desert rock trio from Los Angeles via Paris were partnered up for the excursion with NYC labelmates Mirror Queen, whose own style of grooving has become familiar at shows this year with The Atomic Bitchwax and Truckfighters (see here and here). There were four bands on the bill, but by the time I arrived at JJ’s, local radio rockers Odds of Eden were on as the second of four, which meant that Mirror Queen weren’t far behind.

Drummer Jeremy O’Brien was local to the area, so there was a familial contingent present in the short-ceilinged upstairs space — almost a loft, with a bar in another little room to the side and pool tables in back — as Mirror Queen got going. Lead guitarist Phi Moon and bassist James Corallo had played Brooklyn two weekends prior as members of Polygamyst, who opened for Orange Goblin at the St. Vitus bar (review here), and it hadn’t been that long anyway since I last caught Mirror Queen, so although I felt like I knew what I was getting, that didn’t make their set any less enjoyable, whether it was the Cream-y riffing of “Scaffold of the Skies” or the catchy and insistent chorus of “Vagabondage.” Guitarist/vocalist Kenny Sehgal set up to the far right-side of the stage, and Moon and Corallo had plenty of room to rock out their parts in classic fashion.

And there was a twist! I’d anticipated they’d close with the Captain Beyond cover “Mesmerization Eclipse,” as they have the last couple times I’ve seen them, but no dice. Instead, they gave a take on Iron Maiden‘s “Phantom of the Opera” for their finishing move, and it only emphasized for me how tight their jams are at this point. Sehgal and O’Brien have been playing together going back to their days as Aytobach Kreisor, whose self-titled debut was issued on Rubric Records in 2002, but with Moon‘s swaggering solos and the sheer enjoyment for playing that Corallo brings to his work on bass, Mirror Queen seem all the more solid at the base of their sonic fluidity. I’ve yet to catch a set and be bummed out, and though I’d been looking forward to a little Captain Beyond, the Maiden worked just fine in its place.

Between reviews, video premieres, track premieres, interviews, news posts and whatever else I can’t think of at the moment (it’s all here), I’ve said an awful lot about Blaak Heat Shujaa the last couple years, and I was greatly anticipating seeing them play live. The three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Thomas Bellier, bassist Antoine Morel-Vulliez and drummer Mike Amster were surprisingly loud once they got going. Considerable volume. The effect was to make their sound even fuller than on the record, and give Bellier a task in letting his effects-laden vocals cut through the tones surrounding. Those tones, it’s worth emphasizing, were gorgeous. As much of a role as Morel-Vulliez‘s bass plays in setting the mood on The Edge of an Era, live it is all the more a foundational element, and Amster‘s drumming has a vitality behind it that a studio album would be hard-pressed to convey. Everything I’ve enjoyed about the band since I caught wind of their 2010 self-titled debut (review here) was only more prevalent in their stage presentation.

That’s especially true of some of their more subdued stretches. With Amster keeping a steady intensity to his tom runs even as Morel-Vulliez and Bellier set about the purposefully meandering jams of the “The Beast” two-parter which Bellier announced as “the first side of our new record,” smirking in full awareness of just how awesome that sounds to say, there was a sense of build that came across as hypnotic in its repetitions and still consciously focused on movement forward. This made the payoff in that progression all the more of one. It was gratifying to see, not just because I enjoyed the album, but because what the album seemed to be hinting that the band could do was right there on stage at full blast. Their jamming was jazz-tight and the surf rock in Bellier‘s guitar acknowledged the roots of the desert that Blaak Heat Shujaa has adopted as their home. Whether it was “Society of Barricades” or the closing sprawl of “Land of the Freaks, Home of the Brave,” I was really, really glad to have made the trip to see them play.

My new appreciation for their songs in tow, I split out of JJ’s Tavern when Blaak Heat Shujaa were done and made my way back east along the same route I’d taken west to get there. At around 1:40AM, still an hour out, I got pulled over doing 81 in a 65 and got a ticket. 16 miles over the limit at $10 a mile had me cursing the rest of the way, but traffic violations come and go, and nights like this one leave longer impressions than dents in a checking account.

More pics after the jump. Thanks for reading.

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