Posted in Whathaveyou on February 12th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Here comes the full lineup for Rocky Mountain Riff Fest 2025, fresh off the social media hellscape and set to take place April 19 in Kalispell, Montana, as per tradition. This is the sixth edition of the all-dayer fest (plus a pre-party the night before), which brings Kadabra and Sorcia to town as headliners with support from local spearheads Wizzerd, as well as Mother Root, Doomboyz, Cruel Velvet, Scavenger, Swamp Ritual, Surfbat, Loin Hammer and Superplex. No word on if Superplex sound anything like Suplecs, only, you know, more. I’ll keep you posted on that.
Of the confirmations, at least Sorcia, Loin Hammer, Swamp Ritual, Wizzerd and Surfbat have featured on past Rocky Mountain Riff Fest editions, which tells you there’s a family developing. The only band on this bill I’ve ever seen is Kadabra, and I’ll gladly confirm that they’re something you want to check out when the opportunity presents itself, and certainly other names ring familiar, whether it’s Mother Root or Wizzerd (who had two records out last year) or Sorcia, who also have their own affiliated festival in Washington. Must be nice.
I don’t for one second imagine I’ll be there to see it, but Rocky Mountain Riff Fest has grown over the last few years into its own thing. It’s never struck me as wanting to be huge or some mega-event. It’s an all-dayer with good bands, likely good friends and good times. I like fests with 100,000 people as much as the next guy — so long as the next guy’s also crippled by anxiety in that kind of crowd — but this is more of a hometown showcase for locals and others coming in. Maybe one of these years I’ll get there too. If this is your year, right on.
Here’s info:
FULL LINEUP IS HERE
SEE YOU IN APRIL!
Art by @impillustration
• @kadabra_band Sorcia Wizzerd Mother Root Doomboyz Cruel Velvet Scavenger MT Swamp Ritual @surfbatband Loin Hammer @superplexrulez – Children of Atom The Lucitones @freedrugsusa
This Friday, in releasing the seven-track full-length, Saturnalia, Montana-based heavy troupe Wizzerd complete a song cycle they started earlier this year with their fourth LP, Kronia (discussed here). Both are issued through Fuzzorama Records, given the double-billing Solstice, which of course is the uniting factor between the ancient pagan holidays Saturnalia and Kronia; the former is a more well-known celebration of the Roman god Saturn, the latter is an egalitarian high-summer Greek harvest celebration of the grandfather of the gods, Kronos. Both are now marked near the winter and summer solstices, hence Solstice.
The project is easily grandest Wizzerd — the four-piece of guitarist/vocalist Jhalen Salazar, guitarist Jamie Yeats, bassist Layne Matkovich and drummer Sam Moore — have undertaken in the near-decade since they began putting out their first demos. Solstice essentially takes Kronia and Saturnalia — which were recorded at the same time in an apparently fruitful but shifted process as relates to the band’s norm — and makes a 2LP from them. Double-albums are tricky at this point in history, with attention spans trained for instant gratification and a rush toward the new that might make even the 59 minutes of the two records combined — 22 minutes for Kronia, 36 minutes for Saturnalia — seem like too much of a hurdle to get over. Wizzerd‘s ultra-clever workaround? They made two different albums.
As you can read below, all of the material, the 15 songs in their totality, were tracked over the course of eight days, and some of them written during the recording process. That spontaneity unites Kronia and Saturnalia even as the two diverge in terms of persona, with Saturnalia taking the atmosphere of the mostly-acoustic Kronia and pulling it across the fuller-sounding fare of “Snoozer” with its Stoned Jesus-style croon, the 11-minute “Loops” that works itself through enough repetitions to earn the title and has a darker vibe in its early going like Viaje a 800, or “Sadbot,” which mocks its own sci-fi emotionalism but moves into a wash of resonant tone that reminds of Craneium with more choice vocals over top. The later voices, sitar sounds and acoustic triumph of “Litany” — playing the riff unplugged, but nailing it.
The earlier bit-of-finger in “Tempest,” which is very much the kind of noodling a guitarist might do in the studio while waiting for something else to be tracked, and the part-in-Spanish finale “Visalia,” in addition to “Litany” and the surfy interlude prior “To the Sea,” ensure that there’s plenty of crossover as well, just as pieces like “Hel” and “Dire Wolf” on Kronia were rockers. It’s not all black and white, one or the other, and so much the better. Where Wizzerd could’ve fallen into a trap of releasing the same album twice as so many have who’ve spaced albums between ‘Pt. 1’ and ‘Pt. 2’ — I could drop names here, but I’m not looking to just talk smack about people; it’s a complicated thing and it often doesn’t work — the listener can read a narrative from one to the next as Kronia gives over to Saturnalia, the Clutch-gone-punk “Social Butterfly Effect” closing out the former on a note of high shenanigans to let the serene, Colour Hazed heavy psych that starts “Snoozer” reorient the proceedings.
It does so expertly, and as a whole Solstice sees Wizzerd fostering new creative elements in their sound and growing more patient in their execution. But growing, emphatically and actively, pushing themselves in directions outside of where they’ve been previously, whether it was their 2022 label debut, Space‽: Issue No. 001 (review here), or their more nascent outings. Now complete in its picture with the release of Saturnalia, Solistice proves to be the work of a band finding new ways to manifest their own progression and succeeding. Even before you get to the mellow overarching vibe or the changes in arrangement throughout, the sense of ‘play’ in their playing (a looseness that at times brings to mind the resurgent Mammoth Volume), there’s little to be respected more in music or art more broadly.
Saturnalia streams in its entirety below. Kronia can be found at the bottom of this post. How you take them on might depend on whether you’ve already heard Kronia or not, but however you go, understand that the malleability of the listening experience is also part of the accomplishment here. That the way you hear it might not be the way someone else does reminds us of the individual perspectives with which we view the universe more generally, as well as our place in it.
In any case, please enjoy:
Wizzerd on Solstice:
Solstice is a new kind of project for Wizzerd in many ways. Firstly, it was created in the most spontaneous way we have ever worked, with no concrete plan together as we entered the studio for an eight day marathon of recording direct to one inch tape on a farm in Visalia, CA – with some of the songs being written while in the studio, something else we’ve never done. It is also a new creative endeavor for us in that the influence for many of the songs came from very different directions on each band member’s part, leading to material that is not only all over the place, but also unlike anything Wizzerd has made before. It was almost like a creative reforming in a way. We saw ourselves stepping away from the heavy conceptual tendencies of our previous work while writing these songs.
In this whole sporadic process, we found a common connection in what everyone was bringing to the table; the cyclical nature of life and the human condition, ego-death, which is represented in many things such as night and day or summer and winter. We decided to base the albums around this concept, organizing the music into two parts that showcased the juxtaposition in our writing. Titling the records ‘Kronia’ and ‘Saturnalia’, both named after celebrations in mid-summer and mid-winter, we decided to put the entire project together under one name. Releasing music all year seemed like a good plan considering we had so many songs laid down. With the amazing help from Cody Tarbell at Double Wide Studios on recording, Ben McLeod at BRM Studios for mixing, Mikey Allred at Dark Art Audio for mastering, and Isaac M Passwater for creating a wild illustration representing all these songs, we have made this crazy project come to life.
We present to you: Solstice.
Dive into the mind-blowing realm of WIZZERD, the powerhouse rock band emerging from the wild heart of Kalispell, Montana! Prepare to embark on a sonic odyssey with their expansive new project, ‘Solstice,’ a dual album release featuring ‘Kronia’ and its captivating second part, ‘Saturnalia.’ This ambitious collection takes you on an epic journey, seamlessly blending rock, garage, stoner, and punk influences. WIZZERD weaves a heavy and hypnotic tapestry of sound, with crushing riffs and soaring melodies that are sure to leave you spellbound.
Montana heavy rockers Wizzerd have newly announced not one, but a cycle of two full-lengths to be released in 2024 through Fuzzorama Records. The cover for the first of them, titled Kronia, was posted to their social media a couple days ago. Kronia and its yet-untitled counterpart are pieces of a whole work that’s being called Solstice, and the shenanigans-loaded video premiering below brings “HEL” as the latest single (in a series thus far of four; check Spotify) to coincide with the announcement.
Everybody caught up? Sweet. The band made their Fuzzorama label debut with 2022’s Space‽: Issue No. 001 (review here), and an earlier version of “HEL” appeared on that album’s precursor 7″, Space‽: Issue No. 000, which was released in 2021. Those who dug on it then, or who got down with the punkier side of the record that came after will likely find little to argue with in “HEL,” which is somewhat rawer in the presentation here, but suited to that with its gang-shout chorus and relatively uptempo swing, somewhere between classic boogie and barroom rock and roll, still with punk down at its roots and still catchy as hell. A mix by Ben McLeod (also guitarist for All Them Witches) helps make sense of the shove, and the master from Mikey Allred (who’s always up to something cool; seriously, just look up anything he puts his name to and you’re not likely to go wrong) gives a finish that one hopes is indicative of the whole album(s)’s sound.
And as for the video? Well, given all the snow, I’ll just assume they made it over the winter. They’re channeling the rich, violent history of Norwegian black metal with “HEL,” and a little bit giving it the LOL-ready, VHS-grainy sendup that it, like anything else that ever has taken itself so seriously, arguably earned. Spatter on snow. The woods. A sword. You get the idea. I don’t have a release date for Kronia yet, but I think preorders are starting… now?… so it can’t be too terribly far off, and hopefully they’re able to get the companion long-player to fruition before the end of the year. As it was all recorded in 2022, you might say a few crucial steps are already taken care of.
There are live dates below as well for June and July, as well as the already-nailed-down support slot for Mars Red Sky on the French heavy psych proggers’ return to the States tour in September. Wizzerd may or may not have more to come later this year in that regard too, but they were out on the West Coast in March and April, so it’s not like they’re neglecting it or anything. Two records seems like a fitting occasion to get back out, so they probably will, barring disaster.
Speaking of disasters, the clip for “HEL” is a delightful one. Please enjoy:
We are very excited to reveal the full artwork for our next album, ‘Kronia’, made by the amazingly talented @impillustration! If you’ve been following our recent single releases you will notice some details here…
‘Kronia’ will be the first of two albums released through @fuzzoramarecords in 2024 as a part of a year spanning project titled ‘Solstice’. More info on LP/CD preorders coming very soon!
‘Solstice’ is a project we have been working on for just over two years now. The albums are a culmination of many different styles and showcase wide input from all members’ out-reaching musical ideas.
All tracks were recorded direct to 1” tape at @dblwidestudio in Visalia, CA by @skitchpatterson in March 2022.
All tracks mixed by @benmcleod88 at @brmsound and mastered by Mikey Allred @darkartaudio.
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 21st, 2024 by JJ Koczan
In addition to a slot at Treefort Music Fest in Boise, Idaho, on March 22 and a three-pack of dates in the company of Matt Pike‘s Pike vs. the Automaton, the upcoming West Coast tour from Montana heavy rockers Wizzerd will lead to their return appearance at Rocky Mountain Riff Fest (info here), to be held April 20 in the band’s native Kalispell.
The four-piece toured this past Fall in support of 2022’s Space‽: Issue No. 001 (review here), hitting the Midwest and touching on the Eastern Seaboard, so a Spring complement along the Pacific (and inland) seems about right. They had talked at that point about moving on toward their next release, whatever shape that might ultimately take, and while this tour is substantial, I don’t see it precluding a focus on new material at all. What, if they play a couple new songs live it’s gonna hurt the next record? The opposite seems much likelier.
Either way — and mind you I don’t know that they’ll be playing new songs at all on the run — they continue to put their work in. The shows were posted on socials thusly:
⚡️TOUR ANNOUNCEMENT⚡️ We’re pleased to announce the Equinox Tour! We can’t wait to get back out on the west coast, and there are some real doozies on this one. More news coming very soon, but for now we’ll see you at one of the dates below… Details at the link in our bio! • 3/16 – Kalispell, MT – Eagles 3/22 – Boise, ID – @treefortfest 3/23 – Salt Lake City, UT – @aceshighsaloon_slc 3/24 – Las Vegas, NV – Dive Bar 3/26 – Tempe, AZ – @yuccataproom 3/27 – Los Angeles, CA – @theredwoodbarandgrill 3/29 – Oceanside, CA – @pourhouseoceanside 3/30 – Yucca Valley, CA – @giantrockmeetingroom 4/1 – Santa Cruz, CA – @bluelagoonsc 4/2 – San Francisco, CA – @theknockoutsf 4/3 – Eureka, CA – @solarsiren 4/5 – Portland, OR – @dantesportland * 4/6 – Bremerton, WA – @tracytonmoviehouse * 4/7 – Seattle, WA – @elcorazonseattle * 4/20 – Kalispell, MT – @rockymtnrifffest *=with Pike vs the Automaton
Poster by @isaacpasswaterillustration
Wizzerd is: Guitar/Vocals – Jhalen Salazar Guitar – Jamie Yeats Drums – Sam Moore Bass – Layne Matkovich
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 2nd, 2024 by JJ Koczan
You can see in the lineup for Rocky Mountain Riff Fest 2024 that the festival, which is set for April 20 in Kalispell, Montana, is expanding its reach. Yes, Wizzerd, Sorcia, Merlock, The Gray Goo and Spliffripper have played before — The Old Ones played Erosion Festival in 2016; I remember thinking that looked awesome and it did — but returning parties are accompanied by newcomers like Lord Velvet, Chokesetter and Hot Milk and the Flower Pallets, who play the pre-show, and I think they’ll have two stages going and Mos Generator are popping eastward from their home in Port Orchard, Washington, which is probably like a 40-hour drive or something, to headline. I’d go to this in a second, man. That’s a good way to spend a day, and you’re in Kalispell, which looks gorgeous.
The full lineup was announced on social media — I know, crazy, right? — and notes a venue change that looks like it’ll actually be pretty cool having it all in one place. Dig:
FULL LINEUP HAS ARRIVED!
We’re excited to reveal the lineup for #rmrf2024! We are welcoming back some heavy hitters, and introducing some bands to the Flathead valley for the first time.
-MOS GENERATOR- -SORCIA- -LORD VELVET- -MERLOCK- -CHOKESETTER- -WIZZERD- -GREASE CULT- -THE GRAY GOO- -THE OLD ONES- -SURFBAT- -SCHTICKY- -SPLIFFRIPPER- -FREE DRUGS- -HOT MILK AND THE FLOWER PALLETS-
In years past, Riff Fest has been a block party between the legendary @oldschoolrecords134 and the Eagles in downtown Kalispell. Facing the closure of the 1st Street location of OSR, we are now taking over two levels of the Eagles! It’s going to be a party in the whole building, with our traditional free pre-party at the Glacier Park VFW.
We are also proud to bring on some local sponsors who are stoked to help bring some killer music to the valley!
Posted in Whathaveyou on August 16th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Montana-based heavy rockers Wizzerd released their first album for Fuzzorama, titled Space‽: Issue No. 001 (review here), last September, and as they announced this tour that will bring them to the East Coast for the first time since it arrived, I couldn’t help but notice the word “final” included. Is the implication that the band are done after this? A last hurrah and that’s it? Would be unfortunate timing, most especially since the record was cool, but I reached out to guitarist Jamie Yeats for clarification and was assured that no, they’re not saying they’re breaking up, it’s just probably the last time they’ll be out supporting the latest album. Fair. It will have been a year, after all.
And glad as I am they’re not dissolving the project, it’s also rad to see them doing shows with Greek heavy forerunners 1000mods on their US tour and Fuzzorama labelmates Valley of the Sun, from Ohio, who are also doing some of their best work right now, at this very moment. Seems like the kind of show one might consider hitting up, should they be rolling through your neighborhood. Go to a show. Buy a shirt.
Here are the dates:
TRANSMISSION:
Wizzerd is excited to reveal the Afterburner Tour! We will journey east in a final‽ voyage through space…
We will travel alone in the first half and return to home alongside 1000mods and Valley of the Sun.
Join us in the fight against moon spiders.
Artwork by Isaac Passwater
9/6 – Billings, MT – Kirk’s Grocery 9/7 – Spearfish, SD – Crow Peak Brewing 9/8 – Denver, CO – Skylark 9/9 – Lawrence, KS – Replay Lounge 9/10 – St. Louis, MO – Platypus 9/12 – Morgantown, WV – 123 Pleasant St 9/14 – Cambridge, MA – Middle East# 9/15 – Buffalo, NY – Soup of Dissent 9/16 – Youngstown, OH – Westside Bowl# 9/18 – Columbus, OH – Rumba Cafe# 9/20 – Fort Wayne, IN – Stan’s Room# 9/21 – Des Moines, IA – Lefty’s# 9/22 – Omaha, NE – Reverb Lounge# 9/23 – St. Paul, MN – Turf Club# 9/24 – Chicago, IL – Reggies# #=with 1000mods and Valley of the Sun
Wizzerd is: Guitar/Vocals – Jhalen Salazar Guitar – Jamie Yeats Drums – Sam Moore Bass – Layne Matkovich
I’m drinking coffee out of a different mug today. It may not surprise you to learn that I’m particular about that kind of thing. I have two mugs — one from Baltimore, one from Salem, Mass. — that are the same. They are huge, blue and black, and they curve slightly inward at the top. They can hold half of a 10-cup pot of coffee. I use one of them per day for a pot in the morning.
Not today. The Pecan gifted me a Mr. Spock mug — he’s in his dress uniform, so it’s likely based on the TOS episode ‘Journey to Babel,’ where we meet his parents for the first (our time) time — and it’s smaller and lighter in the hand, will require an extra trip up to the kitchen to finish the pot, but I think she’ll be glad to see me use it, and maybe that’ll help her get a decent start to the day in a bit when she comes downstairs.
Today’s the last day for this week of QR, but we dive back in on Monday and Tuesday to close out. Hope you find something you dig, and if I don’t catch you at the closeout post for the week, have a great weekend.
Quarterly Review #41-50:
Motorpsycho, Yay!
Long-running and prolific Norwegian prog rockers Motorpsycho have proven time and again their stylistic malleability across their north-of-100-strong catalog of releases, and comprised of 10 tracks running 42 minutes of acoustic-led-but-still-lushly-arranged, melodic and sometimes folkish craft. If you ever needed an argument that Motorpsycho could have been writing simplified, ultra-accessible, soundtrack-to-your-summer fare — and I’m not sure you have — Yay! provides that, with a classic feel in the harmonies of “Sentinels” and “Dank State,” though the lyrics in that last cut and in pieces like the leadoff “Cold & Bored,” the later isolated strummer “Real Again (Norway Shrugs and Stays at Home)” and in the lost-love-themed “Loch Meaninglessness and the Mull of Dull” have a cynical current to their framing contrasts that the outwardly pretty face lent to it by the Paul Simon-style lead vocals from Bent Sæther (also guitar, mandolin, omnichord here and more elsewhere). If the record is a gimme for an audience looking for a more earthbound Motorpsycho, then the arrival of the 7:46 “Hotel Daedalus” is where they give a nod to the heavier heads in their fanbase, with one of several guest spots from Reine Fiske (Dungen, Träden, etc.) and a shift in the balance between electric and acoustic guitar and synth at the foreground. Standout as that is, it’s also consistent with the spirit of Yay! more generally, which is built to be more complex in emotion than it presents on its face, and the work of masters, whether they’re writing longform prog epics or sweet closer “The Rapture,” which paints the change of seasons through an image of unmelted leftover snow “sulking in the shade.” One should expect no less than that kind of reach and attention to expression, and one should never engage Motorpsycho with expectations beyond that.
“Apollo,” which was the first single released by Severed Satellites, opens the Baltimore instrumentalists’ first EP, Aphelion, as well, its uptempo blues-informed groove an enticing beginning before “Lost Transmissions” digs further into riffer nod. With five tracks running 27 minutes, Severed Satellites — guitarist Matt Naas, keyboardist Dave Drell, bassist Adam Heinzmann and drummer Chuck Dukehart, the latter two both of heavy rockers Foghound, among others — offer material that’s built out of jamming but that is not itself the jam. Songs, in other words. Recorded by Noel Mueller at Tiny Castle Studio, the EP proves solid through “Lost Transmissions” and the bassier “Hurtling Toward Oblivion” with its ending comedown leading into the coursing keyboard waveform at the start of “Breaking Free From Orbit,” which is the longest inclusion at 7:21 and uses most of that extra time in the intro, building afterward toward a ’70s strutting apex that puts energy ahead of largesse before the keys lead the way out in the two-minute outro “Reaching Aphelion.” Through the variety in the material, Severed Satellites showcase a persona that knows what it’s about and presents that fluidly to the listener with a minimum of indulgence. A rousing start.
The collaboration between baritone/bass guitarist Martin Rude, drummer Jakob Skøtt, both also of Danish psych-jazz and psych-as-jazz explorers Causa Sui, and guitarist Nicklas Sørensen of molten-but-mellow jammers Papir, Edena Gardens issue their first and perhaps not last live album in Live Momentum, a three-song set taped at Jaiyede Jazz Festival — their first onstage appearance — in 2022 and pressed concurrent to the second Edena Gardens studio full-length, Agar (review here) while still not so far removed from their 2022 self-titled debut (review here). “Veil” from the sophomore LP opens, with a thicker guitar sound and more active delivery from the stage, a heavier presence in the guitar early on, hinting at Link Wray and sounding clear enough that the applause at the end is a surprise. Taken from the self-titled, “Now Here Nowhere” is more soothing and post-rocking in its languidity — also shorter at seven minutes — an active but not overbearing jazz fusion, while side B’s 17-minute “Live Momentum” would seem to be the occasion for the release. Exploratory at the start, it settles into a groove that’s outright bombastic in comparison to the other two tracks, brings down the jam and pushes it out, growing in volume again late for a slow, howling finish. What should be a no-brainer to those who’ve heard the band, Live Momentum portrays a side of Edena Gardens that their ‘proper’ albums — which is also where new listeners should begin — hasn’t yet shown, which is no doubt why it was issued to start with. Only fortunate.
Following up 2022’s What Lies Beneath (review here) and the intervening covers collection, Cover Ups, and the Crack the Lock EP, prolific Pennsylvania heavy rock outfit Delco Detention, led by the son/father duo of Tyler and Adam Pomerantz return with their Come and Get It! is suitably exclamatory fashion. The nine-track collection is headlined by a guest guitar spot from Earthless‘ Isaiah Mitchell on “Earthless Delco” near the album’s middle, but stop-bys from familiar parties like Kevin McNamara and Mike DiDonato of The Age of Truth and Jared Collins of Mississippi Bones, among others, assure diversity in the material around the foundation of groovy heavy rock. Clutch remain a strong influence — and the record finishes with a take on “I Have the Body of John Wilkes Booth” — but the fuzzy four minutes of the penultimate “Rock and Roll God” and the swing in opener “Domagoj Simek Told Me Quitters Never Smoke” continue to show the band’s growth in refining their songwriting process and aligning the right performers with the right songs, which they do.
The second full-length from Montana heavy-funk shenanigans purveyors The Gray Goo, Circus Nightmare, sounds like there’s a story to go along with every song, whether it’s the tale of “Nightstocker” no doubt based on a 24-hour grocery store, or the smoke-weed-now anthem “Pipe Hitter” that so purposefully and blatantly takes on Sleep‘s “Dragonaut,” or even the interlude “Cerulean” with its backward wisps of guitar leading into the dreamy-Ween-esque, Beatles-reference-dropping “Cosmic Sea,” or the Primus-informed absurdity of “Alligator Bundee,” which leads off, and the garage punk that caps in “Out of Sight (Out of Mind).” Equal parts brilliant and dopey, “BEP” is a brief delve into surf-toned weirdness while “Wizards of the Mountain” pays off the basement doom of “Pipe Hitter” just before with its raw-captured slowdown, organ included in its post-midpoint creep and “Cumbia de Montana” is perhaps more dub than South American-style mountain jamming — though there’s a flute — but if you want to draw a line and tell me where one ends and another starts, I won’t argue. Bottom line is that after an encouraging start in last year’s 1943 (review here), The Gray Goo are more sure of themselves and more sure of the planet’s ridiculousness. May they long remain so certain and productive. Heavy rock needs more oddballs.
It’s like they packed it with extra nasty. The seven-song/27-minute Shit Hexis is the debut offering from Saarbrücken, Germany’s Shit Hexis, and it stabs, it scathes, it skin-peels and not in the refreshing way. Flaying extreme sludge riffs presented with the cavernous echo and murky purposes of black metal, it is a filthy sound but not completely un-cosmic as “Latrine Odins” feedsback and lumbers through its 92 seconds, or “Erde” drone-plods at terrifying proportion. On paper, Shit Hexis share a mindset with the likes of Come to Grief or even earlier Yatra in bringing together tonal weight with aesthetics born out of the more extreme ends of heavy metal, but their sharp angles, harsh tones and the echoing rasp of “Le Mort Saisit le Vif” are their own. Not that fucking matters, because when you’re this disaffected you probably don’t give a shit about originality either. But as their first release of any kind, even less than a half-hour of exposure seems likely to cause a reaction, and if you’re ever somewhere that you need people not to be, the misanthropic, loathing-born gurgling of “Mkwekm” should do the trick in clearing a room. This, of course, is as the duo of guitarist/vocalist Mo and drummer Pat designed it to be, and so, wretched as it is, their self-titled can only be called a success. But what a vision thereof.
That Sacramento, California, two-piece Oromet — guitarist/vocalist/layout specialist Dan Aguilar and drummer/bassist/synthesist/backing vocalist/engineer Patrick Hills — have a pedigree between them that shares time in Occlith accounts for some of the unity of intent on the grandly-unfolding death-doom outfit’s self-titled three-song Transylvanian Recordings debut full-length. Side A is dedicated solely to the opener/longest track (immediate points) “Familiar Spirits” (22:00), which quiets down near the finish to end in a contemplative/reflective drone, and earlier positions Oromet among the likes of Dream Undending or Bell Witch in an increasingly prevalent, yet-untagged mournful subset of death-doom. “Diluvium” (11:31) and “Alpenglow” (10:07) follow suit, the former basking in the beauty in its own darkness and sounding duly astounded as it pounds its way toward a sudden stop to let the residual frequencies swell before carrying into the latter, which is gloriously tortured for its first six minutes and comes apart slowly thereafter, having found a place to dwell in the melodic aftermath. Crushing spiritually even as it reaffirms the validity of that pain, it is an affecting listening experience that can be overwhelming at points, but its extremity never feels superfluous or disconnected from the sorrowful emotionality of the songs themselves.
Each of the four tracks of Le Mur‘s fourth record, Keep Your Fear Away From Me, corresponds to a place in time and point of view. That is, we start in the past with 15-minute leadoff “…The Past Will Be Perfect…” — and please note that the band’s name is also stylized all-caps where album and song titles are all-lowercase — moving through “Today is the Day/The Beauty of Now” (9:27) in the present and “Another Life/Burning the Tree/I See You” (11:19) confirming the subjectivity of one’s experience of self and the world, and closer “…For the Puzzles of the Future.” (12:12) finishing the train of thought by looking at the present from a time to come. Samples peppered throughout add to the otherwise mostly instrumental proceedings, focused on flow and at least semi-improvised, and horns on the opener/longest cut (immediate points) sets a jazzy mindset that holds even as “Another Life/Burning the Tree/I See You” forays through its three-stage journey, starting with a shimmy before growing ever-so-slightly funky in the middle and finishing acoustic, while the (electric) guitar on “…For the Puzzles of the Future.” seems to have saved its letting loose for the final jam, emerging out of the keyboardy intro and sample to top a raucous, fun finish.
Pushing through sax-laced, dug-in space jamming, Tunisia’s 10-20 Project reportedly recorded Snakes Go Dark to Soak in the Sun during the pandemic lockdown, perhaps in a bid just to do anything during July 2020. Removed from that circumstance, the work of the core duo of guitarist Marwen Lazaar and bassist Dhia Eddine Mejrissi as well as a few friends — drummer Manef Zoghlemi, saxophonist Ghassen Abdelghani and Mohammed Barsaoui on didgeridoo — present a three-track suite that oozes between liquid and vaporous states of matter across “Chutney I” (25:06), “Chutney II” (14:32) and “Chutney III” (13:00), which may or may not have actually been carved out of the same extended jam. From the interweaving of the sax alongside the guitar in the mix of the opener through the hand-drumming in the middle cut and “Chutney III” picking up with an active rhythm after the two pieces prior took their time in building quietly, plus some odd vocalizations included for good measure, the 52-minute outing gets its character from the exploratory meld in their arrangements and the loose nature with which they seem to approach composition generally. It is not a challenge to be entranced by Snakes Go Dark to Soak in the Sun, as even 10-20 Project seem to have been during its making.
If one assumes that “Side A” (19:58) and “Side B” (20:01) of Landing‘s are the edited-down versions of what appeared as part of the Connecticut ambient psych troupe’s Bandcamp ‘Subscriber Series Collection 02’ as “Motionless I-III” (29:56) and “Motionless IV-VI” (27:18), then perhaps yes, the Sulatron Records-issued Motionless I-VI has been markedly altered to accommodate the LP format. The (relatively) concise presentation, however, does little to undercut either the floating cosmic acoustics and drones about halfway through the first side or the pastoral flight taken in “Side B” before the last drone seems to devour the concept with especially cinematic drama. Whereas when there are drums in “Side A” the mood is more krautrock or traditional space rock, the second stretch of Motionless I-VI is more radical in its changes while still being gentle in its corner turning from one to the next, as heard with the arrival of the electric guitar that fades in at around six and a half minutes and merrily chugs through the brightly-lit serenity of what might’ve at some point been “Motionless V” and here is soon engulfed in a gradual fade that brings forward the already-mentioned drone. There’s more going on under the surface than at it — and that dimension of mix is crucial to Landing‘s methodology — but Motionless I-VI urges the listener to appreciate each element in its place, and is best heard doing that.
Posted in Whathaveyou on June 2nd, 2023 by JJ Koczan
I haven’t heard Circus Nightmare, the second full-length from Montana heavy weirdos The Gray Goo as yet, but it’s out today, so one way or the other I’m resting easy knowing I will soon. The trio prone to chicanery, funky-psych, and funky-psych chicanery — also doom — offered their debut in 2022’s 1943 (review here), and if you didn’t hear Circus Nightmare‘s lead single “Alligator Bundee” in all its post-Primus-plus-riff dug-in noodle and silly hoedown verse, wobbly psych solo, and so on, it was rad. Album player’s at the bottom of the post. Maybe you’ll like it. Pretty sure that’s an ‘ole!’ at the end of the single. So that’s fun, as my sister might say.
In April, Twin Void toured from their home in Spokane to play Rocky Mountain Riff Fest in Kalispell, Montana, which The Gray Goo also played (and if they do again next year I feel like I might have to go). Their 2022 release, Free From Hardtimes, remains fresh in memory and they’ll join The Gray Goo on this newly announced string of shows happening mostly in the Pacific Northwest, hitting Seattle, Tacoma and Portland, but heading down the coast on the 101 as well in North and Central Cali — Eureka to Sacramento is a little over five hours by car/van; they give themselves an extra day to make the trip, and fair enough for taking pictures with very large trees — to round out. Five shows isn’t the most extensive tour ever, but these are DIY bands hitting it together and especially with The Gray Goo‘s Circus Nightmare release to celebrate, no doubt it’ll be a good time.
The Gray Goo sent the following along the PR wire, and I added the quote from Twin Void:
TWIN VOID & THE GRAY GOO – Trippin’ Down the Coast
Big news for us personally, we’ve got our first ever little tour coming up fast with Twin Void (seriously, check out Twin Void)! We’re sliding up and down the Pacific Northwest Coast a little ways. Says Twin Void, “More tours incoming! We are absolutely so stoked to announce we’re heading down the west coast with Montana crushers The Gray Goo, huge thanks Chad Scheres for making the Poster Art.”
We are excited to be gearing up for the release of our sophomore album titled “Circus Nightmare” on June 2nd. We put lots of hard work into this one and recorded it ourselves. There’s a lot of different vibes on here from mellow psychedelic to heavy stoner doom and lots of weird punky side tangents along the way, we hope you enjoy it!
TWIN VOID & THE GRAY GOO – Trippin’ Down the Coast 06/08 Seattle WA The Funhouse 06/09 Tacoma WA The Plaid Pig 06/10 Portland OR Laylow 06/12 Eureka CA Savage Henry 06/14 Sacramento CA Cafe Colonial
The Gray Goo: Max Gargasz- Guitar/Synth/Jaw Harp Matt Carper- Bass/Vox Zach Ronish- Drums/Percussion
