Love Monster is pretty easy to understand once you give up on trying to make it make sense. The 47-minute long-player, which shares its name but little else with a rare tracks compilation by Monster Magnet, is the first studio full-length in 11 years from German heavy psych improv-specialists Zone Six, released on CD by Sulatron Records and limited vinyl by Deep Distance Records. All four members of the band — bassist Komet Lulu, drummer Dave “Sula Bassana” Schmidt, guitarist Rainer Neeff and synthesist Modulfix — also double in Krautzone, and Schmidt and Lulu are also founders of Electric Moon and Neeff also plays in The Pancakes, so even if one wasn’t necessarily paying attention when Zone Six released their last album, Psychedelic Scripture, in 2004, the names and pedigree should at least set up some expectation of lysergic jamming, and as it happens, that’s precisely what the four pieces on Love Monster have to offer.

Comprised of its title-track (14:54), “The Insight” (8:21), “Acidic” (7:30) and “Cosmogyral” (15:18), Love Monster is by no means short on sprawl, but as with the several other projects in which Schmidt and/or Lulu are involved — up to and including Sula Bassana, the band, and the Papir collaboration Papermoon — the point is as much the journey itself as about what has come out of it. Improvisation seems to be at the center from the start of “Love Monster,” which brings about a flowing cascade of effects over liquefied rhythms, space-minded in its push, but based less on direct thrust than some. “The Insight” and “Acidic,” presumably the side A finale and the side B opener, work with a similar palette of molten heavy psych, though the more one listens back the more each piece emerges with an identity of its own, whether it’s the open build in the second half of “Acidic” or the quieter, synth-introduced fuzz swing of “Cosmogyral,” which is somewhat more nodding but ultimately proves the highlight of Love Monster as a whole as much for its subdued moments as the sendoff push that gives way to swirling noise to end the album.

I don’t know what it was that brought Zone Six together after so long. Maybe the stars lined up just right, or maybe it was the fact that they were already in another band together and they just decided “what the hell?” and went for it. Whatever the case, as a unit, they cut directly to the roots of heavy psychedelic creativity, and their jams are positively hypnotic. You could, if you wanted, sit as you listen and take notes at what minute the second solo in “Love Monster” begins or when the fuzz really kicks in on “Cosmogyral,” but that doesn’t seem to be either how this stuff was created or how it’s best experienced. Hit play on the embed below and let your tired head vibe out for a couple minutes. Even if you snap back to consciousness once or twice along the way, that’s cool. Zone Six have plenty of ground to cover, and they know just how to get where they’re going.

Top-order expanded-mind jams such as these might be best left to the converted, but I’ve no doubt they also have the power to win a few over to that side. Please enjoy Love Monster in full on the player below:

[mp3player width=480 height=400 config=fmp_jw_widget_config.xml playlist=zone-six-love-monster.xml]

After 11 years without a proper studioalbum, german spacerockers Zone Six are back with a new album! Founded 18 years ago, Zone Six is one of the oldest active spacerock / acidrock / neo-krautrock bands in Europe, even if they are lazy as hell. The band now consists of founder member Dave Schmidt (aka Sula Bassana) on drums (formerly bass), Martin Schorn (aka Modulfix) on synthesizer, Komet Lulu on bass and Rainer Reeff on guitar.

All four members also are in Krautzone, Lulu and Sula are the founders of Electric Moon and Rainer plays in The Pancakes. They met some days to freak out together and produced 4 tracks to blow your mind away into deep space! This whole thing is very groovy and psychedelic – kaleidoscopic flights are stopping the time from existing and mix it up with the space which is endless… And full of acid! Recorded and mixed at Amöbenklangraum by Sula. Mastered by Axel Frank. Cover by Lulu Artwork!

The vinyl version is on the british label Deep Distance Records, lim. to 500 copies on incredible splatter vinyl!

Zone Six website

Zone Six on Thee Facebooks

Sulatron Records

Deep Distance Records

I only purchased two CDs at this year’s Roadburn festival. One was Rotor‘s 2, which I was far less than thrilled to discover later that I already owned (it was their first one I wanted), and the other was Love Monster, a 2001 compilation of Dave Wyndorf‘s pre-Monster Magnet demos, recorded in 1988. This one, which I didn’t already own, has been on my radar for a while, and though I was royally, epically broke at the fest, I used some of the Euros left in my wallet from 2013 to pay for the disc, which came out on Wrong Way Records basically as a fan-piece for Monster Magnet heads who maybe by then were missing the band’s more psychedelic side.

Remember, this was 2001, the same year Monster Magnet put out God Says No, right around the height of their commerciality, so in a way a release like this was bound to happen. 3,000 copies were made, and indeed, the seven tracks do capture some of the space-rocking spirit of Monster Magnet‘s earliest work — their landmark debut, Spine of God, would see US release in 1992, following a self-titled EP in 1990 — but there’s more to it than that. The material was recorded on a 4-track by Wyndorf himself, so it’s pretty blown out and raw, but there are shades of pre-industrial new wave on “Atom Age Vampire” and Wyndorf adjusts his attitude-drenched vocals accordingly, and “Brighter than the Sun” coats classic garage riffing in echo like the prototype for a psychedelic punk movement that never really existed. Rawness notwithstanding, a lot of what would prove so pivotal to Monster Magnet‘s sound is there on Love Monster, which if nothing else underscores the clarity of vision at work in the band from its launch.

There are seven tracks on the CD, with the penultimate “Five Years Ahead” a cover of obscure New York psych rockers The Third Bardo‘s 1967 single, and the closer “Snoopy” a 10-minute effects-laden noise-buzz freakout, but really, the appeal of Love Monster when it was new would’ve been the chance to hear where Monster Magnet came from some 13 years earlier. Now, another 13 years after that, the EP still has that appeal, however rough it might sound, and in the clever lyrics of “Poster” and the bright-toned bliss of “War Hippie” one can hear one of psych rock’s most accomplished songwriting processes beginning to take shape. What Monster Magnet would go on to accomplish and the influence they’d wind up having didn’t come solely from the songs on Love Monster, but they were a step on the way to getting there, and for that, I was more than happy to shell out a couple of my remaining Euros for the disc.

Monster Magnet, “Poster”

Monster Magnet on Thee Facebooks

Monster Magnet’s website