Dublin, Ireland, heavy psych/space rock warriors Wild Rocket have announced a March 4 release for Formless Abyss. Their third-full-length behind 2014’s Geomagnetic Hallucinations and 2017’s Disassociation Mechanics (review here), the three-song LP will be the nebulous band’s label debut through Riot Season Records, whose endorsement should tell you something about the quality of their work. If your interest is piqued by that alone, certainly the 10-minute opening title-track that’s streaming (nice) will raise an eyebrow as well, and if your eyebrow’s raised, you’re already three-quarters of the way to rock and rolling. I think the last step has something to do with quitting your dayjob.

So do that.

In fact, we’ll play a game. You start the Wild Rocket track at the bottom of this post, then see if you can compose and fire off an email, text, or phone call to your boss telling them you’re done before the song is over. If you make it in time, you win. If you don’t make it in time, you still win, because you quit your job. And that’s how you win.

Down with capitalism. Up with shorter pressing times:

Wild Rocket – Formless Abyss

Preorders: https://riotseasonrecords.bandcamp.com/album/formless-abyss

When not enthralled to the cosmos, WILD ROCKET call Dublin, Ireland home. It is from this base that their new record FORMLESS ABYSS emanates. This, their third transmission as a musical unit, features three long form pieces of swirling intensity brought to you by Riot Season Records on limited edition “seaweed green” vinyl.

As a confluence of ideas and methods, WILD ROCKET endeavour to interpret the subtle signals of the universe – the interplanetary vibrations – and present them as brash manifestations of sound. Scientists and Shaman alike have endeavoured to interpret the universal whispers, to elucidate meaning from the measurable and the sensable. It is known that to measure and interpret is to alter and colour those signals and this is what drives the development of WILD ROCKET’s sound and interpretation.

FORMLESS ABYSS showcases the band’s unflinching pummelling style, drifting from repetitive blows to unhinged swirls of din yet always remaining innately infectious and perhaps surprisingly danceable. The record is presented as a continuous piece in three parts.

The title track A FORMLESS ABYSS appears here for the first time in recorded form – a behemoth of a tune which builds around a drone, joined by dual drums and minimal bass locked into a repetitive groove. A groove that is slowly expanded via multiple guitars and synthesis. Vocals eventually join at just the right moment imploring the listener to “leave your criticisms down” and realise “we’re all equal now” in the formless abyss or the place between worlds where our earthly preoccupation with human differences are meaningless. We’re all in it together, whether we realise it or not.

The second track INTERPLANETARY VIBRATIONS may seem familiar to some in a simpler form. The expanded lineup and extended development of the core theme brings a new interpretation and experience that is more than worthwhile. The track’s vocals juxtapose the hybrid Germanic language of English with the ancient native Irish language of Gaeilge. Both used to promote meaning and interpretation of the interplanetary vibrations felt by all. The track features large dynamic shifts and changes of pace as the message that “it’s time to leave” propagated by the Earth itself becomes more frantic and more desperate. The track culminates in a wash of smashed gongs and distorted guitars, leaving the listener to interpret the message for themselves. Should we leave, to protect ourselves or the Earth itself?

The final track FUTURE ECHOES is a doom/kraut juggernaut coming in at just under twenty minutes. Only one question is asked and none answered, are we doomed to repeat the mistakes of previous civilisations over and over, or can we find the cracks of light that echo through and show us a new way forward? We’re left in a swirling formless abyss to consider who we are and where we’re headed. Will we ever reach the cosmic truth? Or will we be continuously mocked by the cosmic trout?

WILD ROCKET have proven themselves on the live circuit, playing with such visionaries as Ufomammut, Slomatics, Earth, Boris, The Cosmic Dead and old school rock legends Girlschool. One of the heaviest bands to emerge from the melting pot of talent in the Irish music scene, WILD ROCKET’s reputation precedes them wherever they travel and audiences and venues alike are left to piece themselves together in the discombobulation.

The band play a home town release show on the 26th March at Bello Bar/Lower Deck (Dublin) with their friends Panik Attacks and more tba. More gigs in the works to be announced as and when.

Tracklisting:
1. Formless Abyss
2. Interplanetary Vibrations
3. The Future Echoes

The WILD ROCKET lineup has expanded and contracted around three core consciousnesses since Jon Kelly’s 2018 departure. Jon controlled the synthesisers on the first two records, Dissociation Mechanics in 2017 and Geomagnetic Hallucinations in 2014. The trajectory has been altered but the goal has remained unchanged.

The three core members of Cian “Moose” Megannety, John Breslin and Niall Ó Claonadh (on bass, drums and guitars respectively) are joined in this transmission by:

– George Brennan (Film Composer and member of Cholera House/BB84/ex Melodica Deathship etc.) on modular synthesis and gong.

– Colin Mifsud (Disguise/Cyborg AD/Wolfbait/Drainland and many more) on second drum kit.

– Tommy O’Sullivan (Deepinthewoods66/Estel/Blood Red Dolls) on guitar and all important duties of engineering, mixing and producing the record.

George has since become a full-time member of the Rocket crew, bringing the band back to a solid four piece. That said, membership will likely fluctuate as needed for certain live performances. History may repeat itself but the future remains untold.

Mastering was handled by Ivan Jackman (Girlband, Jape, Solarbears, Stano)

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Wild Rocket, Formless Abyss (2022)

There were a few that were up there, but I think this is the set I’ve gone back to most since Roadburn Redux last year, and when I think about the potentiality of not being at Roadburn 2022, Tau and the Drones of Praise are among the acts I’m saddest to miss. Putting out a live-2LP version of their ‘Dream Awake’ set that aired last April in place of a physical festival makes a lot of sense to me. The performance was great, the songs incredible, and the vitality with which they were presented gives them a character of its own. By the time it aired, I’d already said that their prior stream from Dublin in Dec. 2020 (posted here) should be a live record. Some of those songs, as it turns out, will appear here as bonus tracks.

My only question here is whether I need to also buy the limited yellow vinyl edition as well as the CD and DL. I have not yet decided. We’ll see. Vinyl’s due in June, CD/DL now, so patience might be a factor.

From the PR wire:

First release of the Roadburn Redux 2021 festival that was held 100% online to much applause

TAU will be back at Roadburn 2022 to play in front of an actual live audience

This album and cd include the whole set played at Roadburn Redux and 3 bonus tracks from a session they played in Dublin in December 2020.

Could this be one of the first ever live stream LPs?

Get it here:
For US: https://roadburnrecordsusa.bigcartel.com/
For digital + cd/2LP: Bandcamp: https://tauofficial.bandcamp.com/
Store: https://www.burningworldrecords.com/products/tau-presents-dream-awake-live-at-roadburn-redux-cd-2lp-pre-order (comes with direct download)

Tau is the group formed by Seán Mulrooney who started his voyage into psychedelia music as a member of Dead Skeletons in 2012/2013. Tau who have released 2 LPs and 3 Eps to date have now evolved into Tau & the Drones of Praise.

Their music has been called Shamanic Rock, Ancestral Goth and neo Folk to name a few. The most recent explorations into Mulrooney’s ancient Irish spirituality and folk music traditions has made the sound something singular and unique.

Tau & the Drones of Praise was already slated to appear at the cancelled Roadburn Festival 2020, participated in Roadburn Redux back in April, helping to tide us over in yet another year with no physical edition of the festival. Their hypnotic neo-folk performance featured an appearance from Clannad’s Pól Brennan, and dived headfirst into their back catalogue of delights. No-one could accuse them of phoning it in. As Mulrooney says, “As was with the lockdown situation last year, we hadn’t been in the studio together for months. We were adulated to perform again and get creative. Even without an audience, we built our own world. There is something vital about the whole concert. I’m very proud to release this journey through past, present and future material, Dream Awake”.

Roadburn comments: “We’re thrilled to announce that this acid-tinged psych troupe will be packing up and heading to Tilburg in April, led by Dubliner Sean Mulrooney. Bringing along a suitcase full of extrasensory delights and magic potions, no doubt, Tau & the Drones of Praise will be setting up shop and handing out feel good vibes like nobody’s business. Expect to leave this earthly plane and head out on a meditative voyage of sonic discovery – Sean will be our guide through shamanic experimentalism, folk-led flourishes and far out lysergic luminance.

Having already wowed the crowds at highly regarded festivals throughout Europe, such as Transmusicales, Fusion Festival and Le Guess Who? we’re beyond excited to be one of the first stops on their return to the live stage. Expectations are high!”

Tracklisting:
1. Kauyumari 05:09
2. Already Written 04:58
3. Huey Tonanzin & Mother 10:32
4. Tonatiuh 05:58
5. Bridge Of Khaju 04:34
6. Erasitexnis: Four Horsemen Medley 09:43
7. Éist Le Ceol An Chre 07:39
8. Seanóirí Naofa 04:19
9. Mbás 06:27
10. Esprial 07:23
11. Craw (Live In Dublin) 05:18
12. Mongolia 04:24
13. Speak Your Truth 04:36

Tau and the Drones of Praise:
Seán Mulrooney Guitar/Vocals
Bob Glynn Percussion/Vocals
Ruairi Mac Neill Aodha Guitar/Synth
Iain Faulkner Bass/Vocals
Ken Mooney Drums
Pól Brennan – Whistles/Vocals

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Tau, Presents ‘Dream Awake’ Live at Roadburn Redux (2022)

Tau and the Drones of Praise, ‘Dream Awake’

Today in Ireland is Brigid’s Day. The pagan festival Imbolc. Halfway between the winter solstice and the Spring equinox. A celebration of the coming renewal of life, and Brigid — a triple deity, which both sounds cool and is a real thing such as it is — being a goddess of creativity, healing, protecting, wisdom, feminine power and accomplishment, and so on, would seem to have earned the song. Premiered today, “I Mo Bholg” brings together vocalists Michelle Sionnánn and Aoise Tutty Jackson (also percussion), Seán Mulrooney (Tau and the Drones of Praise) on guitar and vocals, and George Quirke on yidaki — not a didgeridoo — as a gorgeously harmonized four-piece called Turas Imbolc.

You can feel the spirit coming through the material. It’s not long. It won’t take up too much of your busy day, but if you got five minutes, the melodies, the incantation, and that part at about 3:45 when all the voices come together — it’s the stuff of chills up the spine. Plus, there are horses — a rather hilarious moment when Quirke is playing the yidaki for them — and frolicking in a green field, and everybody’s hanging out and having fun and communing with the space around them and no one is telling anyone they don’t love them or being mean or mad about nothing. I don’t know. I feel like if that was the world, we’d probably be okay.

A simple view, maybe. Relationships, politics — the great, many “things” of existence — are rarely so compliant to get in line and sing a song, literally or figuratively. More reason to celebrate those moments when they do, then. How many times in your life are you going to get to play yidaki for a horse? Six if you’re lucky and you work hard at it? I’m glad this video was made. The occasion might be the first marking of Brigid’s Day as a full-on national holiday, but it’s clear the resonance of the goddess runs deeper here than just a day off work.

Also, quit your job.

Enjoy the clip:

Turas Imbolc, “I Mo Bholg” official video

NEW SONG CELEBRATING BRIGID’S DAY, NEW PUBLIC HOILIDAY

“Turas Imbolc – I Mo Bholg”

Releasing: Brigid’s Day, 1st February 2022

With the Government’s recent announcement that Brigid’s Day will become a public holiday from 2023 and preparations for St. Brigid’s 1500-year anniversary in 2024 underway, the significance of Brigid to the Irish people is palpable.

To celebrate this historic occasion, four musicians from Ireland are releasing a song dedicated to Brigid, and the season she presides over – Imbolc.

Singer and co-creator Michelle Shannon (Sionnánn) says “As we once again prepare to approach the threshold of Imbolc (‘i mo bholg, meaning in the belly), we present to you a song and video to honour and celebrate not only Brigid as triple Goddess and Matron Saint of Ireland but also to celebrate the rise of the feminine and equality in Irish culture, where a national holiday has been dedicated to a woman for the first time.”

The song features the powerful double vocal female invocation from Aoise Tutty Jackson (poet and singer) and song carrier, Sionnánn. Sean Mulrooney from Tau provides the production, vocals and instrumentation with George Quirke, who has studied with first nation Australian elders on Yidaki.

The song was written during Imbolc 2021 as the group of friends gathered around the fire on Sliabh an Iarann, Co. Leitrim. The video was shot by Cian Brennan at Brigid’s Well near Uisneach which is said to be the mythical 5th province and heart center of Ireland.

Brigid, Brigit, Bríd is a triple Goddess of pre-Christian Ireland who presides over healing and creativity. She was also one of Ireland’s most pre-eminent Saints when she walked these lands over 1,500 years ago. She is associated with the symbols of water, fire and earth, all of which are honoured in this song.

As we are all connected in this collective vision, our friend Laura Murphy expressed what many of us are feeling eloquently in her open letter to an Taoiseach on Brigid’s Day 2021…

“Let this be our commitment to shaping Ireland’s future, a new era guided by Brigid’s principles of light, inspiration, imagination, healing, truth, justice and love.”

Seán Mulrooney says “Our hope is that we can share this song with the world to amplify the message and remembrance of Brigid, Goddess symbol of compassion and love whose qualities are perhaps needed now more than ever.”

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The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.

Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.

Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.

The Obelisk Questionnaire: DJ Howard of Partholón, The Magnapinna & Paranoid Beast Promotions

—

How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?

I’m a musician and artist and it’s difficult to articulate what that even means.

Compulsion comes to mind. It’s the rattling of some sort of primordial instinct to create and share. For me, music and performing were never escapism. It feels far more like a visceral connection to reality. Art is the same, connecting to things and stepping back to experience it all through the eyes of another.

In terms of how I came to do it, I was probably led towards music by my father. He was a musician doing it the hard way in hard times before he had kids and things got harder. He was always banging out tunes at parties and I was hyper-aware of how people reacted. My oldest sister guided me a bit later on. I’d get home an hour before her after school and listen to Prince cassettes on her hifi. I was fascinated with her obsession with one musical act, I didn’t know you could “follow” an artist back then. She started dating an older guy when I was a teenager, and his musical taste really really influenced me towards the heavier side of music. I owe them both a lot of gratitude. She took me to my first proper arena show, Metallica in ’96. There was no going back.

Art came naturally, I just saw drawing as a thing you did and went from there.

Describe your first musical memory.

I got a small alarm clock radio as a young kid and I’d sit by it for hours turning the plastic dial looking for guitar music. We had no money for records at the time and a TV with two channels, so music through the media was very difficult to come by. Having that radio opened up a big world to me. I remember hearing “Jailbreak” by Thin Lizzy for the second time and just losing my mind in the excitement of recognizing a tune. I was probably 5 or 6 years of age.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

Memories are such a fluid thing, it’d be impossible to single out one moment in particular. The best of my memories are in the people I’ve met through playing shows. When I think of stand out shows or moments, it always centres around an individual or group of people. There’s a sadness in that at times, but I’m lucky to have amazing memories with some of the best people through music.

When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?

I don’t feel like I carry any firmly held beliefs with me in general. I grew up in a very religious setting, particularly with regards to education, so firmly held beliefs were achieved through intimidation, manipulation and fear. I try to keep an open mind through reason and logic as best I can and let any firmly held beliefs wear themselves out.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

I have no idea, but I’m all in to find out.

How do you define success?

Success is the death of endeavour and I’m very much in the endeavour phase of success. Long may it last.

What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?

Catholic education in the ’80s was a covertly brutal place for any child. There’s a residual ignorance and discomfort in Irish society even today when it comes to addressing it. I made it through by the skin of my teeth but I saw enough to give me sleepless nights into adulthood. I already know I’ll be pressed on this answer should anyone local encounter it. It usually comes with the prefix “be very careful” or “the dead can’t defend themselves.” The irony is fucking lost on them.

Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.

I’m currently working on a portrait for a friend. It’s very important and personal to her and her partner and I’m battling with myself to produce something worthy for them. I’m working on it right now while answering these questions and contemplating starting it over. I’d really like to create a way of just getting it done.

What do you believe is the most essential function of art?

I went to Art college straight out of high school. I was young and out of my depth, but I had talent. This question was asked and answered a lot in my time there with increasingly hyperbolic sentiment. I’m not sure that you can boil Art down into any essential function. It’s everything and nothing and a little bit of what you’re having yourself.

Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?

I have a couple of art pieces on the horizon that are going to be challenging. It’s going to require some time away from my dayjob and a brief retreat from the world, but I’m looking forward to figuring it all out.

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The Magnapinna, “Werewolves of London”

Partholón, Follow Me Through Body (2016)

Dublin-based Beneath the Sod — the mostly-solo-project of Raymond Keenaghan, also of Gourd — will release its self-titled EP on Dec. 17 through Cursed Monk Records. It is a work of atmospheric extremity, comprised of six songs running 28 minutes that, from opener “Silence of Lead” to finale “Deafness of Lead,” grips the listener with a lurching, semi-industrial sonic brutality. “Drooping Spirit” stinks of hot death. “Silence of Lead” rages to a forward riff and a drum-machine march that’s like Godflesh from the dark universe, and the cave-echo vocals, samples and rumbling, post-Khanate barely-a-song-ism of the piano-for-emphasis “Begotten of Grot” (video premiering below) — the first of two tracks to feature guest vocals from Unyielding Love‘s Richard Carson, the other being “Deafness of Lead” — follows with a further plunge into some oily abyss that only gets heavier and more maddening as it consumes across its five minutes.

It’s not so much a video premiere as it is a psychological test. A moving Rorschach of horrors across five minutes set to the audio from your deathly poetic nightmares. Though its underlying mechanized grit remains, highlighting (lowlighting?) the balance of rawness and concept that almost inherently coincides with something even partially industrial as Beneath the Sod is; that is to say, at some point during the process of making the thing, it’s likely Keenaghan looked at a waveform, and thought to himself that indeed this was the noise he wanted to make. That’s a jarring thought as “Expulsion of Revulsion” plays out its lumbering ugh-ness and “Rustling of the Spheres” kicks the tempo up but is almost so noisy in the process you’d hardly notice if not for the biting high frequency cut-through of the digitized cymbals. With “Deafness of Lead” — the EP running between silence and deafness, mind you — first calling back to (admittedly, a more active) Khanate before departing suddenly before two minutes in to a more disjointed version of the same progression on which it long-fades out, the proverbial last nail in the coffin proves no less rusty than any of the others.

It is well and truly fucked, on aesthetic terms, and “Begotten of Grot” should probably best be viewed in either a vomit-stank dungeon or a chic Dublin art gallery with the video projected on a white wall while viewers rest chins on their hands and discern whatever message from its raw scathe might be the most pretentious.

Not appropriate to say “enjoy” here, as I generally might, but if you can appreciate the expressive gruel of something so intended toward such punishment — and not everyone can, and that’s okay — well then, enjoy.

PR wire info follows the clip below:

Beneath the Sod, “Begotten of Grot” video premiere

Beneath the Sod is the one man project of Raymond Keenaghan, one half of Doom Noise merchants Gourd.

On December 17th we will be releasing Beneath The Sod’s new self-titled EP on CD and digital.

This will be Beneath The Sod’s third release after their debut album Circling the Drain (Fort Evil Fruit, 2017), and their split with Crypticum, Transmorphic Eye (Cursed Monk Records, 2018).

Featuring guest vocals from Richard Carson (Unyielding Love) on “Begotten of Grot” and “Deafness of Lead,” this latest offering from Beneath The Sod offers up an intense serving of Industrial Doom, a claustrophobic experience which sounds like the sonic equivalent of a panic attack. Quite frankly, we think it’s their best work to date.

Beneath the Sod scrape back the top soil to lay bare all that is repulsive and feculent beneath. Narcotic and eldritch, Beneath the Sod erodes the listener with a writhing tapestry of industrial doom, grinding noise and hallucinatory horror. Punishing and bewildering, with each release Beneath the Sod sinks deeper into their unique and singularly maddening mire.

Beneath the Sod, Beneath the Sod (2021)

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Life takes you to unexpected places, and if you’re alive, that’s probably something you already know. I’ve been to Sligo, Ireland, where singer-songwriter Rainbow Starlight is situated, and it vibes like a place where magic might actually happen. I don’t just mean that it’s beautiful, though it is, but with its worn hills and long-stretched landscape, it’s easy to get lost in the thought of it being a place of old knowledge. If you were going to tie a Gaelic version of the Hail Mary into the pagan roots of Christianity as an exploration of reformed organic folk, as Starlight does here in the company of Pól Brennan and Seán Mulrooney, it might be the kind of spot where that would happen.

So it goes that the title “Ón Mháthair” translates to English as “from the mother,” and the eight-minute unfurling of the track takes place indoors and out in the accompanying video. Mulrooney, also of Tau and the Drones of Praise, recently took part in the Roadburn Redux virtual fest, and had Brennan sit in with the band as a part of that. I don’t know when that was filmed in relation to this, but there’s plenty of Springtime mist and clouds as Starlight takes a deep breath, sees the world go from black and white to full color, and seems to try to bring the essence of the place — Knocknarea, as you can read below — into herself. If you want a magic vibe, there it is.

Patient natural drone, guitar, percussion, some flute for good measure, and everyone’s voices coming together around Rainbow Starlight‘s own, “Ón Mháthair” is a subtly varied but all the more lush for that stretch of melody and ambience. I’ll readily admit my connection here is Tau — who I hear have finished recording their next album, by the by — but the piece as a whole is beautiful and engrossing and if you’re up for giving it a chance, I think you’ll find much the same.

More info on the release follows, courtesy of the PR wire.

Please enjoy:

Rainbow Starlight, Pól Brennan and Seán Mulrooney, “Ón Mháthair” video premiere

Clannad’s Pól Brennan and Seán Mulrooney from Tau collaborate with singer-songwriter Rainbow Starlight to release a haunting new version of the ‘Hail Mary’ as Gaeilge.

Release Date: Summer Solstice, 21st June 2021

Inspired by the multi-faceted and complex spiritual traditions of Ireland, Sligo-based singer-songwriter, Rainbow Starlight has composed a powerful and ethereal melody for one of Ireland’s best loved ancient prayers, ‘Sé Do Bheatha a Mhuire’.

Starlight says “We have experienced many waves of imperial and religious conquest in Ireland and despite concerted efforts to remove the essence of the Feminine from the collective psyche, the spiritual connection of the Irish people to the nurturing energy of the Feminine has always endured. During pre-Christian times this was expressed as a deep appreciation for the cycles of nature and Irish Goddesses such as Brigit and Maebh. In our more recent history, it has manifested as a continued reverence for Mother Mary and St. Brigid.”

It is the enduring connection of the Irish people to the Feminine that Starlight wanted to represent with this song. Clannad’s Pól Brennan says “One of the reasons we have lost our way in the world today is because we have lost our connection to the Feminine.” Seán from Tau adds “Unless we restore our connection to nature and begin to truly honour the Feminine, our trail of destruction will continue to blaze.”

The trio were united by a shared wish for healing and harmony in the world, each bringing their unique musicality and essence to craft this stunning piece. Starlight says “This song calls to everyone on this island of Ireland and across the world to reclaim our essence as balanced humans, to stand strong and to walk together on this beautiful Earth with sovereignty of heart.”

‘Ón Mháithair’ (‘From the Mother’) was recorded live in the Chapel of Ease, Dublin in December 2020 and shot on the sacred mountain of Knocknarea, Co. Sligo, where Queen Maebh’s Tomb lies on the summit. The video and song work beautifully together to bring forth the golden thread of the Feminine that runs through Ireland’s ancient past and present alike.

Rainbow Starlight on YouTube

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Tau and the Drones of Praise on Bandcamp

Originally aired last month as part of Roadburn Redux and ‘premiered’ via YouTube this past weekend, ‘Dream Awake’ brings an hour-plus live set from Tau and the Drones of Praise celebrating the band’s past, present and future. I was fortunate enough to interview guitarist/vocalist Seán Mulrooney for the Roadburn ‘zine, the Weirdo Canyon Dispatch, and the way he described it was, “It’s like the hero’s quest, the return home, and infinite possibilities. It’s a set of three parts. It’s the hero’s quest, the return home, the cosmos: infinite possibilities.”

Not wanting for scope, then, and fair enough given the sonic breadth — and breath, since this music is very much alive; the changes can be seen signaled between bandmates with sometimes urgent glances — that comes across in the 68-minute offering. And yet it is very much tied to the land and the spirit of the land that comes through in Irish folklore, from the inclusion of Pól Brennan of Clannad — who marked their 50th year in 2020 — to the paeans to ancestors and culture that are born in melodies and arrangement as well as lyrics and themes that perpetuate in the songs. It is a beautiful music, and by no means restricted to Irish influences, but every outward journey begins somewhere.

I was enthralled earlier this year when Tau and the Drones of Praise posted a live set from Dublin in support of their 2020 EP, Seanóirí Naofa (discussed here), and I knew going into Roadburn Redux that this was my gotta-see set of the entire affair. I am glad that as other exclusives have begun to trickle out to the greater public, this one has not been left to languish, because it deserves no less than to catch as many eyes and ears as possible with its transportive atmosphere and resonant emotional foundation, human and otherworldly at once.

Enjoy:

Tau and the Drones of Praise, ‘Dream Awake’

Full concert recorded exclusively for Roadburn Redux.

So glad you can be here now. Thanks so much Global community.
Donate here to help us record 3rd album.
paypal.me/taufornow

Thanks so much Global community.

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Tau and the Drones of Praise:
Seán Mulrooney – guitar/vocals
Ruarí Mac Néill Aodha – guitar
Bob “Wildman” Glynn – percussion/vocals
Iain Faulkner – bass/vocals
Ken “Moon” Mooney – drums/percussion

Tau and the Drones of Praise, Seanóirí Naofa (2020)

Tau on Instagram

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Tau and the Drones of Praise on Bandcamp

Hello Day Two of the Quarterly Review. It started by oversleeping by about an hour, but so it goes. Yesterday went about as smoothly as I can ask a QR day to go, so I’m hoping that today follows suit despite the rough start. There’s nothing like building some momentum once you get going with these writeups. It’s about as close to ‘in the zone’ as I get. Trance of productivity.

As always, I hope you find something here you dig. Today’s round is good and all over the place, so maybe everyone’ll get lucky. Here goes.

Quarterly Review #11-20:

Jess and the Ancient Ones, Vertigo

More than a decade on from their founding, Finland’s Jess and the Ancient Ones are an established brand when it comes to cult psych rock, and their fourth full-length, issued through Svart, is gleeful to the point of witch-cackling on “Talking Board” (think Ouija) and offers rousing classically-stylized hooks on fellow early cuts like opener “Burning of the Velvet Fires” and “World Paranormal” as well as side B’s “Born to Kill,” the Dr. Strangelove-sampling “Summer Tripping Man” and the organ-washed “What’s on Your Mind” ahead of an 11-minute prog rock grand finale in “Strange Earth Illusion” that feels very much like the impetus toward which the album has been driving all along. Relax, you’re in the hands of professional mystics, and their acid rock vibes are made all the more grand by Jess‘ soulful delivery atop the ever-clever arrangements of guitar, organ, bass, drums, samples, and so on. This kind of cultish lysergic fare has never been and never will be for everyone. Listening to Vertigo, you can only really wonder why that is.

Jess and the Ancient Ones on Facebook

Svart Records website

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Dread Sovereign, Alchemical Warfare

Metallic overload! Irish assault supreme! All sentences end with exclamation points! A new Dread Sovereign record doesn’t come along every day, or year, but the Dublin trio certainly make it count when one does. Alchemical Warfare is the third LP from the Alan Averill-fronted outfit, and with Johnny “Con Ri” King (also Conan) on drums and guitarist Bones Huse (also Wizards of Firetop Mountain), the band tear through nine tracks and 51 minutes of doom-colored metallurgy, throwing unrepentant fists in the air under darkened, irony-free skies. By the time 10-minute post-intro opener “She Wolves of the Savage Season” is over, if you’re not ready to quit your job and join the legion about to set march to “The Great Beast We Serve,” it’s no fault of the band’s. “Nature is the Devil’s Church” was the lead single and is a standout hook, but the grandiosity of “Ruin Upon the Temple Mount”‘s Candlemassy riffing is too good to be ignored, and they finish with a Bathory cover, because fucking a, that’s why.

Dread Sovereign on Facebook

Metal Blade Records website

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Space Smoke, Aurora Dourada

The debut EP from Brazilian instrumentalist trio Space Smoke runs all of 12 minutes, but that’s long enough for Aurora Dourada to give an impression of where the band are coming from. Three distinct tracks — “Magia Cerimonial,” “Interludio” and “Corpo Solar” — comprise the outing, and the middle one is indeed an interlude, so it’s really the opener and closer doing the heavy lifting. “Magia Cerimonia” starts off with a sense of foreboding but makes its way instead into hypnotic repetition, bordering on a meditative lumber that doesn’t stick around long enough to be redundant, and with the interlude as a breath between, the eight-minute “Corpo Solar” rounds out as the most substantial piece of the outing, drifting guitar over languid drums and bass, dreamy and sopping wet with reverb. They push it heavier than its quiet beginning, of course, but even the howling lead work near the finish maintains the inviting and immersive vibe with which they set out. Might be a blip of things to come, but it’s a blip worth checking out. Mini-trip.

Space Smoke on Instagram

Abraxas Events on Facebook

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If it Kills You, Infinite Hum

Infinite Hum is the striking debut LP from Bakersfield, California, post-hardcore heavy three/four-piece If it Kills You, who along with the periodic charred guest vocals on half the six tracks, bring together a quick assemblage for a 12″ that readily alternates between melodic sway and shoutier roll. They groove despite unpredictable turns, and their blend of hefted tones and punker-grown-up melodies makes a welcome impression on opener “We Don’t Belong Here” or “Moving Target.” Starts and stops and a bit of winding lead work give “Repeat Resolve” an edge of noise rock — more than an edge, actually; kind of like the flat side of a brick — but If it Kills You never push to one side or the other entirely, and as the screams return for later in “Repeat Resolve” and closer “Projections,” charged every time with and succeeding at pushing a crescendo over the top, the band manage to bring sincerity and structure together with what sounds like experienced hands. Don’t be fooled by “first album”; they know what they’re doing.

If it Kills You on Facebook

Killer Kern on Bandcamp

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Clara Engel, A New Skin

I’m not sure if anyone still calls this kind of thing “neo-folk,” but I am sure I don’t care. The sense of atmosphere Clara Engel puts into her latest album, A New Skin, beginning with the shift between minimal guitar and keyboard on “Starry Eyed Goat,” uses negative space no less effectively than does the mostly-black cover art, and the eight-song/46-minute outing that ensues alternates between emotive and wondrously ambient, suited to the home recording done during (presumed) isolation in Fall 2020. Engel handles all instrumentation herself and remains indelibly human in her sometimes-layered vocal delivery all the while, speaking to a building-out process of the material, but one does not get the sense in listening to “Night Tide” and the sparse “Thieves” back-to-back that the foundation of all the songs is the same, which is all the more representative of an exploratory songwriting process. A New Skin as a whole feels likewise exploratory, a reflection inward as much as out.

Clara Engel on Facebook

Clara Engel on Bandcamp

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Maya Mountains, Era

Long-running Italian trio Maya Mountains issued Era through Go Down Records in 2020 as their first album in some six years, readily engaging with desert rock on cuts like “San Saguaro” and closer “El Toro,” working in a bit of post-Queens of the Stone Age riffy quirk to go along with less bouncing and chunkier fare on “Vibromatic” and “Baumgartner,” or “Extremely High,” which makes its speedier tempo feel organic ahead of the finish. All told, it’s 44 minutes of solid heavy rock, with variation between songs of what each is working toward doing that does nothing to pull away from the vibe as a whole, whether that’s in a more aggressive moment like “Vibromatic” or the spacier playfulness at the start of “Raul,” the band clearly unafraid of letting a little funk hold sway for a minute or two. Engaging without being revolutionary, Era knows its craft and audience alike, and offers one to the other without pretense or presumption. It’s rock for rockers, but what’s wrong with that?

Maya Mountains on Facebook

Go Down Records website

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Cave of Swimmers, Aurora

An awaited first long-player from Miami duo Cave of Swimmers — vocalist/guitarist/synthesist Guillermo Gonzalez and drummer/percussionist/vocalist Arturo Garcia — packages epic metal in tight-knit bursts of heavy rock tonality. Choruses in “The Sun” and “Double Rainbow” are grand affairs not because their tones are so huge, but because of the melodies that top them, and at the same time, with riffs at the forefront of the verses, the duo make progressive shifts sound classic in the vein of Iron Maiden or Dio with a still-prevailing fuzzy topcoat. Centerpiece “My Human” is a love song that slams, while “Looking Glass” leans deeper into prog metal but brings the listener along with a another sweeping hook, a pattern of tension and release that carries over to “Dirt” as well, which leaves “C.S” to close out with its “Sign of the Southern Cross” keyboard-and-harmonies intro en route to a poised but still thrashing finish. There’s life in heavy metal, and here it is.

Cave of Swimmers on Facebook

Broomtune Records website

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Blind Monarch, What is Imposed Must Be Endured

Straight out of Sheffield, UK, Blind Monarch first released their What is Imposed Must Be Endured four-song/56-minute full-length on Black Bow Records in 2020 and it’s been picked up for a 2LP vinyl pressing by Dry Cough Records. There’s something to be said for splitting up these tracks each onto its own side, making the whole release more manageable despite getting up to do a side or platter flip, but any way you go, “Suffering Breathes My Name” (13:45), “My Mother, My Cradle, My Tomb” (10:47), “Blind Monarch” (14:10) and closer “Living Altar” (17:54) are geared toward sharp-toothed death-sludge consumption, extreme in thought and deed. Feedback is strewn about the place like so much flayed skin, and even in the quiet moments at the start and laced into “Living Altar,” the atmosphere remains oppressive. Yet, endure one must. Blind Monarch, even among the UK’s ultra-packed underground, are a standout in how maddeningly heavy they manage to be, and on their debut outing, no less. If you missed it last year, be ready to pay extra for shipping.

Blind Monarch on Facebook

Dry Cough Records website

Black Bow Records webstore

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Cancervo, 1

Each track on Italian instrumentalist trio Cancervo‘s debut album, titled simply 1, is intended to represent an area near their home in the mountainous region of Lombardy, Italy. Their tones are duly thick, their presentation patient and their cast is broad in terms of its landscape. From “Averara,” one might see kilometers, in other words. Whether or not you’re familiar with Cancervo‘s locale, their tonal warmth and heavy psychedelic expanse resonates immersively, letting each of the two sides develop on its own from the beginnings in “Cancervo” and “Darco,” both the longest cuts on their respective halves. The fuller fuzz of “SWLABR” and the punch of bass that accompanies the tom hits on closer “1987” are subtle shifts emblematic of Cancervo‘s creative progression getting underway, and the task to which they set themselves — portraying place in sound — is no less admirable than their accomplishment of same would see to be. I’ve never been there, so can’t confirm 100 percent if that’s what it sounds like, but in repeat listens, I’m happy to take the band’s word (or riffs) for it.

Cancervo on Facebook

Electric Valley Records website

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Sahara, The Curse

Its four cuts run 17 minutes with the last of them an instrumental title-track that’s under three, but I don’t care — the entire thing is so righteously raw and garage nasty that I’m on board with however much Argentina’s Sahara want to bring to The Curse. “Gallows Noose” sounds like it was taped, and then re-taped, and then re-taped again before finally being pressed (to tape), and there’s no mistaking that’s an aesthetic choice on the part of the band, who probably have phones that could make something with clearer audio, but the in-room demo feel of “Hell on Earth” and “Altar of Sacrifice,” the rootsy metal-of-doom feel of it hits on its own level. Sometimes you just want something that comes across barebones and mean, and that’s what The Curse does. Call it retro, call it unproduced, call it whatever you want, it doesn’t matter. Sahara (bring looks that) kill it on that Sabbath-worshiping altar and sound dirt-coated all the while, making everything everything else in the universe seem more complicated than it needs to be.

Sahara on Facebook

Helter Skelter Productions website

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