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Red Desert Post “Free Your Mind” Video From Horizon

Posted in Bootleg Theater on January 4th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

Red Desert

With an immediately thick tone and a quickly-established moody groove, “Free Your Mind” makes a sound argument for Minneapolis-based troupe Red Desert, whose Horizon EP came out in March 2020 as their first offering since 2012’s debut long-player, Damned by Fate and their contribution to Ripple Music‘s The Second Coming of Heavy (review here) in 2016. The rolling hook and Sabbathy turn ahead of its solo are on ready display in the new video for the track, which you’ll find below. And yeah, Emily Easton, who plays the lady on the motorcycle throughout the clip, should probably have a helmet on. You’re absolutely right.

My knowledge of the laws concerning such things in Minnesota are, let’s say, minimal. However, digging into Horizon for the first time — yeah, I missed it when it came out; can anyone think of something happening around March 2020 that might’ve distracted attention elsewhere? — provides a welcome immersion in straightforward heavy rock fare, unpretentious and not trying to change the world so much as kick ass, blow off steam and, presumably, have a good time doing it. There’s some ’90s attitude in the noise of EP opener “Downside,” but that bassline under the two guitars is pure heavy rock and roll and that suits me just fine. “Freedom Machine” janga-jangas a little quicker than the leadoff initially, but works its way into a C.O.C. chug in the middle and some more melodic vocals near the finish before “Free Your Mind” begins its own rollout, so if you’ve found anything to complain about thus far, it’s probably not the music.

Side B — as it were — is shorter and quicker, as none of “Horizon,” “Boozed Again” and “Desert Dream” touches five minutes long and none of the first three tracks 5:05. I guess it’s an arbitrary line, since “Boozed Again” is at 4:49, but it, the title-track and “Desert Dream” legitimately feel speedier in tempo, and as Red Desert work to sludge the start and then run it out, it’s never really a challenge to keep up with where they’re headed. “Boozed Again” is mid-paced and keeps an impressive solo in its pocket for its back half, and “Desert Dream” builds on that sharper execution, teasing a more aggro turn with its opening riff but ultimately keeping things in the spirit of good times previously established, chunky-style nod and all.

Which is all just I suppose a long way of saying, well heck, I’m glad these guys decided to make a video. That and the full stream of Horizon follow here.

Please enjoy:

Red Desert, “Free Your Mind” official video

Official video for “Free Your Mind” off the 2020 album Horizon

Merch, stream/purchase, social media:
https://linktr.ee/reddesert

“Red Desert conjure the spirit of the barren wasteland by way of low-end groove, high octane fuzz and riff wielding hook. Going strong for almost two decades, Red Desert remain a vital contributor to the modern era of heavy rock and roll with a steady flow of fiery records and countless live shows alongside acts such as Sasquatch, Nebula, Freedom Hawk, Wo-Fat, Truckfighters, Mondo Generator and Kadavar. Their loaded discography consisting of, 18 Wheels (2008), Damned By Fate (2012), Chapter 2 on Ripple Music’s Second Coming of Heavy (2016), and Horizon (2020) lay to waste our ears with sultry, psychedelic melodicism. THIS IS desert rock from The Land of 10,000 Lakes.”

Red Desert, Horizon (2020)

Red Desert on Facebook

Red Desert on Instagram

Red Desert on Bandcamp

Red Desert store

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Quarterly Review: The Pilgrim, Polymoon, Doctors of Space, Merlock, Sun Dial, Saturn’s Husk, Diggeth, Horizon, Limousine Beach, The Crooked Whispers

Posted in Reviews on October 12th, 2020 by JJ Koczan

THE-OBELISK-FALL-2020-QUARTERLY-REVIEW

Well, the weekend’s over and it’s time to wrap up the Quarterly Review. Rest assured, I wrote the following during my copious weekend leisure time, resting on the side of a heated Olympic-size pool with a beverage nearby. It definitely wasn’t four in the morning on a Sunday or anything. If I haven’t gotten the point across yet, I hope you’ve found something amid this massive swath of records that has resonated with you. By way of a cheap plug, I’ll be featuring audio from a lot of these bands on the Gimme Metal show this Friday, 5PM Eastern, if you’re up for tuning in.

Either way, thanks for reading and for being a part of the whole thing. Let’s wrap it up.

Quarterly Review #51-60:

The Pilgrim, …From the Earth to the Sky and Back

the pilgrim from the earth to the sky and back

Lest he be accused of laziness, Gabriele Fiori — also of Black Rainbows, Killer Boogie and the head of the Heavy Psych Sounds label, booking agency and festival series — made his solo debut as The Pilgrim with Spring 2019’s Walking into the Forest (review here). Joined by Black Rainbows drummer Filippo Ragazzoni, Fiori ups the scale of the journey with the second The Pilgrim LP, …From the Earth to the Sky and Back. Richer in arrangement, bolder in craft and more confident in performance, the album runs 14 songs and 50 minutes still largely based around an acoustic acid rock foundation, but with a song like “Riding the Horse” tapping ’70s singer-songwriter vibes while “Cuba” touches on Latin percussion and guitar and “Space and Time” journeying out near the record’s end with waves of synthesizer, it seems The Pilgrim isn’t so willing to be pigeonholed. So much the better.

The Pilgrim on Thee Facebooks

Heavy Psych Sounds website

 

Polymoon, Caterpillars of Creation

Polymoon Caterpillars of Creation

There is an undercurrent of extremity to the debut release from Polymoon, who hail from the psychedelic hotbed that is Tampere, Finland. The six-song/42-minute Caterpillars of Creation turns in opener “Silver Mt.” to fervent guitar push or from freaked-out cosmic prog into drifting post-universe exploration, setting the stage for the dynamic that unfolds throughout. The wash early in the second half of “Lazaward” is glorious, and it’s not the first or the last time Polymoon go to that adrenaline-pumping well, but the serenity that caps that song and seems to continue into “Malamalama” in closing side A is no less effective. “Helicaling” mounts tension in its early drumming but finally releases it later, and “Neitherworld” gives Caterpillars of Creation‘s most fervent thrust while closer “Metempsychosis” rounds out with a fitting sense of dissipation. As a first album/first release, it is particularly stunning, and to make it as plain as possible, I will think less of any list of 2020’s best debut albums that leaves out Polymoon.

Polymoon on Thee Facebooks

Svart Records website

 

Doctors of Space, First Treatment

doctors of space first treatment

The two-piece comprised of Martin Weaver (ex-Wicked Lady) and synthesist Scott “Dr. Space” Heller (Øresund Space Collective, Black Moon Circle, etc.) position First Treatment as their proper studio debut, and it certainly hits its marks in galaxial adventuring well enough to qualify as such, but the duo have been on a creative splurge throughout this year — even in lockdown — and so the six songs here are also born out of the work they’ve been doing since releasing their debut single “Ghouls ‘n’ Shit” (video premiere here) late last year. The album launches with “Journey to Enceladus,” which boasts drum programming by Weaver and though one of the movements in the 21-minute “Into the Oort Cloud” is based around beats, the bulk of First Treatment is purely a work of guitar and synth, and it basks in the freedom that being so untethered inherently brings. Running an hour long, it’s improvisational nature isn’t going to be for everyone, but Heller and Weaver make a strong argument that maybe it should be.

Doctors of Space on Thee Facebooks

Space Rock Productions website

 

Merlock, That Which Speaks

merlock that which speaks

Who’s ready for a New Wave of PNW Fuckery? That’s right folks, the NWOPNWF has arrived and it’s Spokane, Washington’s Merlock leading the sometimes-awfully-punk-sometimes-awfully-metal-but-somehow-also-always-sludge charge. Aggressive and damning in lyrics, swapping between raw screams, grows, shouts and cleaner vocals and unhinged in terms of its genre loyalties, That Which Speaks seems to find the “melt faces” setting wherever it goes, and though there’s a sense of the four-piece feeling out what works best for them stylistically, the sometimes frantic, sometimes willfully awkward transitions — as in second cut “Prolapse” — serve the overall purpose of undercutting predictability. Eight-minute opener/longest track (immediate points) “Idolon” stomps and shoves and gnashes and nasties its way through, and that’s the modus across what follows, though the scream-along headbanger “Vessel” somehow seems even rawer, and though it ends by floating into oblivion, the start of “Condemnation” is heavy fuckin’ metal to me. You never know quite where Merlock are going to hit next, and that’s the joy of the thing. May they remain so cacophonous.

Merlock on Thee Facebooks

Merlock on Bandcamp

 

Sun Dial, Mind Control: The Ultimate Edition

sun dial mind control

Long-running UK psychedelic rockers Sun Dial — led by founding guitarist/vocalist Gary Ramon — released Mind Control in 2012. Sulatron Records picked it up in 2015, and now, five years after that, the same label presents Mind Control: The Ultimate Edition, a 2CD version of the original LP-plus-bonus-tracks reissue that brings the total runtime of the release to a well-beyond-manageable 98 minutes of lysergic experimentation. A full 20 tracks are included in the comprehensive-feeling offering, and from early mixes to alternative takes and lost tracks, and if this isn’t the ‘ultimate’ version of Mind Control, I’m not sure what could be, notwithstanding a complete-studio-sessions box set. Perhaps as a step toward that, Mind Control: The Ultimate Edition gives an in-depth look at a vastly underappreciated outfit and is obviously put together as much for the label as by it. That is to say, you don’t put out a reissue like this unless you really love the original record, and if Sulatron loving a record isn’t enough endorsement for you, please turn in your mushrooms on your way out the door.

Sun Dial on Thee Facebooks

Sulatron Records webstore

 

Saturn’s Husk, The Conduit

Saturns Husk The Conduit

Immersion is the goal of Saturn’s Husk‘s third long-player, The Conduit, and the Riga, Latvia, instrumentalist trio accomplish it quickly with the fluid riffs that emerge from the drone-based intro “Death of Imaginary Lights” and the subsequent 10-minute opener “Black Nebula.” At nine songs and 63 minutes, the album is consuming through the welcome nodder “The Heavenly Ape,” the especially-doomed “The Ritual” and the more mellow-float centerpiece “Spectral Haze,” while “Mycelium Messiah” brings more straight-ahead fuzz (for a time) and drones on either side surround the 10:35 “Sand Barrows,” the latter serving as the finale “A Shattered Visage” quoting Percy Bysshe Shelley and the former “City of the Djinn” running just a minute-plus but still doing enough to reset the brain from where “Mycelium Messiah” left it. Almost functioning as two albums side-by-side with “Spectral Haze” as the dividing point, The Conduit indeed seems to join various sides together, with a depth to coincide that invites the listener to explore along with it.

Saturn’s Husk on Thee Facebooks

Saturn’s Husk on Bandcamp

 

Diggeth, Gringos Galacticos

diggeth gringos galacticos

Landing a punch of classic metal to go along with its heavy-bottomed groove, Diggeth‘s Gringos Galacticos — one supposes the title ‘Spacecrackers’ was taken — was released by the Dutch trio in 2019 and receives a US limited vinyl edition thanks to Qumran Records. One finds some similar guitar heroics to those of Astrosoniq‘s more straightforward moments, but Diggeth‘s focus remains on hookmaking for the duration, offering hints of twang and acoustics in “In the Wake of Giants” and tipping a hat southwestward in “Three Gringos,” but “Straight-Shooter” is willfully breaks out its inner Hetfield and even as the penultimate “Unshackled” departs for a quieter break, it makes its way back in time for the big finish chorus, adding just a touch of Candlemass grandiosity for good measure before the harmonica-laced closing title-track rounds out with its dynamic spacey weirdness, the name of the album repeating itself in an answer to the Stephen Hawking sample that started the voyage on its way.

Diggeth on Thee Facebooks

Qumran Records website

 

Horizon, The White Planet Patrol

horizon the white planet patrol

Cursed Tongue Records has the vinyl here, and Three Moons the tape, and the CD will arrive through Aladeriva Records, La Rubia Producciones, Aneurisma Records, Surnia Records and Violence in the Veins — so yes, Horizon‘s third album, The White Planet Patrol is well backed. Fair enough for the Kyuss-via-BlackRainbows vibes of “End of Utopia” or the initial charge and flow of “The Backyard” that sets the Alicante, Spain, trio on their way. “King Serpent” and “Death & Teddies” bring well-crafted fuzz to bear, and “Blind World” effectively layers vocals in its chorus to coincide, but the more laid back roll of the title-cut is an unmistakable highlight. Shades of mid-paced Nebula surface in “Meet the Forest” later on, but Horizon are part of a tradition of heavy bands in Alicante and they know it. The smoothness of their tone and delivery speaks volumes on its own in that regard, never mind the actual songwriting, which also leaves nothing to be desired.

Horizon on Thee Facebooks

Cursed Tongue Records webstore

 

Limousine Beach, Stealin’ Wine + 2

Limousine Beach Stealin Wine

Debut EP from Limousine Beach out of Pittsburgh, and if the three guitars involved don’t push it over the top, certainly the vocal harmonies get that particular job done. You got six minutes for three songs? Yeah, obviously. They scorch through “Tiny Hunter” to close out, but it’s in the leadoff title-track that Stealin’ Wine + 2 sees the Dave Wheeler-fronted outfit land its most outrageous chorus, just before they go on to find a middle-ground between KISS and Thin Lizzy on “Hear You Calling.” The harmonies open and are striking from the outset, but it’s in how they’re arranged around the standalone parts from Wheeler (also Outsideinside, ex-Carousel) that the outfit’s truest potential is shown. Issued through Tee Pee Records, Stealin’ Wine + 2 is the kind of thing you’d pick up at a show in a normal year and then feel way ahead of everyone else when the LP finally hits. Not a normal year, obviously, but Limousine Beach are serving due notice just the same. In six minutes, no less.

Limousine Beach on Thee Facebooks

Tee Pee Records website

 

The Crooked Whispers, Satanic Melodies

the crooked whispers satanic melodies

I’m sure a lot of records show up at Satan’s door with notes, like, “Dear sir, please find the enclosed submitted for your approval,” but it’s not hard to imagine Beelzebub himself getting down with the filth-coated sludge and rolling doom unfurled across The Crooked Whispers‘ debut offering, Satanic Melodies, marked by hateful, near-blackened screams from Anthony Gaglia and the plodding riffs of Chad Davis (Hour of 13, et al). The title-track is longest at 8:23 and in addition to featuring Ignacio De Tommaso‘s right-on bass tone in its midsection, it plays out early like Weedeater sold their collective soul, and drifts out where earlier pieces “Sacrifice” and “Evil Tribute” and “Profane Pleasure” held their roll for the duration. Stretches of clean-vocal cultistry add to the doomier aspects, but The Crooked Whispers seem to care way less about genre than they do about worshiping the devil, and that unshakable faith behind them, the rest seems to fall into place in accordingly biting fashion.

The Crooked Whispers on Thee Facebooks

The Crooked Whispers on Bandcamp

 

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Horizon Sign to Cursed Tongue Records; The White Planet Patrol LP Due Oct. 18

Posted in Whathaveyou on June 25th, 2020 by JJ Koczan

Spanish heavy rockers Horizon will release their third album, The White Planet Patrol, through Cursed Tongue Records this Fall. I’m not allowed to show you the cover for it yet or I would — it’s pretty cool — and there isn’t any audio yet to go with the announcement — the audio’s pretty cool too — so I guess you’re going to have to take my word for it at this point. The LP version that Cursed Tongue is putting out runs eight tracks and the CD/DL has two more cuts on top of that, bringing the full beast up to 53 minutes long, but the Alicante, Spain, trio spend their time and yours wisely, meting out heavy rock with a fluid variety in pacing and intent and atmosphere. It’s the kind of thing that, if you dig it, you’re gonna dig it. That’s about all I can tell you.

If you’re up for some tunes, you can check out Horizon‘s 2019 EP, Pigs, at the bottom of this post. I’m sure you’ve already heard it, because you’re down with the Bandcamping like that, but just in case.

Here’s the announcement:

horizon

SPACE STONER ROCKERS HORIZON SIGNS TO CURSED TONGUE RECORDS FOR A GLOBAL VINYL RELEASE OF THEIR THIRD ALBUM OCTOBER 16 2020

Cursed Tongue Records is very happy to announce the signing of Alicante, ES based trio Horizon and look forward to release their new album entitled ‘The White Planet Patrol’ on premium vinyl. Horizon is no new acquaintance to Cursed Tongue Records as we have been fans of the band for years and were among some of the first to support the band and buy their debut album ‘Last Man in Terminus’ back in 2014 once it (initially self-released by the band) was put out on vinyl.

We were mesmerized already back then, by the groove and riffs a plenty that seem to flow from the band in endless streams. It thus only requited little to no brain-activity (a pleasant change, ha ha) to decide on a collaboration when the band approached the label some months back earlier in 2020. We can, with confidence say that ‘The White Planet Patrol’ is the most accomplished, coherent and straight-out rocking material the band has conjured up to date and we super excited for all of you to hear it when the floodgates opens in October for the full ordeal.

Luckily, you will not have to wait that long as the band has prepared a nice release schedule with lots of chunks of tasties along the road to the release in October. This way it has seeped from the Horizon HQ that a first single should be ready and dropping in early July.

This album will once more remind the Heavy Underground why this Spanish trio is not easily forgotten and why they are a fuzz tour-de-force to be reckoned with. On this their third album Horizon delivers their most focused and heavy album to date, packed to the brim with metal-tinged, yet warm and fuzzy riffs, pulsating bass and hard-hitting grooves. The White Planet Patrol takes you on mind-melting trip through familiar territories to the outskirt of our planet of stoned out heavy retro desert rock.

While Cursed Tongue Records handles the vinyl only release, the band has kept busy and ensured that, the Spanish labels La Rubia Producciones, Aneurisma Records, Aladeriva Records, and Surnia Records undertake the CD format release of ‘The White Planet Patrol’. As novelty act, the album also releases on cassette tape by the Polish label Three Moons Records.

Horizon’s third full-length album ‘The White Planet Patrol’ releases digitally on Bandcamp and all major streaming outlets on October 16 2020. Same day sees the release of the album in all sort of tangible media including 180 grams vinyl, CD and cassette tape formats – Get Psyched!

ALBUM BACKGROUND

“The White Planet Patrol” is the name of Horizon’s third full-length album of which we cannot give you any further details yet, but those who have been fortunate enough having been given the opportunity to listen to it and to give it some thought can testify that we are still faithful to our constant riff salad style.

Recorded in Red Records Estudios and mastered by Tony Reed (Mos Generator) and counting again with the artwork of Creu Estudio (“Pigs”) this album also counts with the collaboration of two greats of the scene and already known as they are Judit Aliaga (Violins) and Juan Angel Slang (Synths). Mastered for optimal vinyl playback by Tony Reed (of Mos Generator, Seedy Jeezus, many more) at HeavyHead Rec.

Horizon is:
*Paula Dominguez // Drums
*Nicolás D’Andrea // Voice and Guitars
*César Tenorio // Bass and Synths effects

https://horizonrockband.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Horizonrockband/
https://instagram.com/horizonrockband
http://cursedtonguerecords.bigcartel.com/
https://www.facebook.com/CursedTongueRecords/
https://instagram.com/cursedtonguerecords

Horizon, Pigs (2019)

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