Quarterly Review: Gnome, Hermano, Stahv, Space Shepherds, King Botfly, Last Band, Dream Circuit, Okkoto, Trappist Afterland, Big Muff Brigade

Posted in Reviews on December 9th, 2024 by JJ Koczan

THE-OBELISK-FALL-2020-QUARTERLY-REVIEW

Welcome to the Quarterly Review. Oh, you were here last time? Me too. All door prizes will be mailed to winning parties upon completion of, uh, everything, I guess?

Anywhazzle, the good news is this week is gonna have 50 releases covered between now — the 10 below — and the final batch of 10 this Friday. I’m trying to sneak in a bunch of stuff ahead of year-end coverage, yes, but let the urgency of my doing so stand as testament to the quality of the music contained in this particular Quarterly Review. If I didn’t feel strongly about it, surely I’d find some other way to spend my time.

That said, let’s not waste time. You know the drill, I know the drill. Just don’t be surprised when some of the stuff you see here, today, tomorrow, and throughout the week, ends up in the Best of 2024 when the time comes. I have no idea what just yet, but for sure some of it.

We go.

Quarterly Review #1-10:

Gnome, Vestiges of Verumex Visidrome

Gnome vestiges of Verumex Visidrome

Some bands write songs for emotional catharsis. Some do it to make a political statement. Gnome‘s songs feel specifically — and expertly — crafted to engage an audience, and their third full-length, Vestiges of Verumex Visidrome, underscores the point. Hooks like “Old Soul” and “Duke of Disgrace” offer a self-effacing charm, where elsewhere the Antwerp trio burn through hot-shit riffing and impact-minded slam metal with a quirk that, if you’ve caught wind of the likes of Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol or Howling Giant in recent years, should fit nicely among them while finding its own sonic niche in being able to, say, throw a long sax solo on second cut “The Ogre” or veer into death growls for the title line of “Rotten Tongue” and others. They make ‘party riff metal’ sound much easier to manifest than it probably is, and the reason their reputation precedes them at this point goes right back to the songwriting. They hit hard, they get in, get out, it’s efficient when it wants to be but can still throw a curve with the stop and pivot in “Rotten Tongue,” running a line between punk and stoner, rock and metal, your face and the floor. It might actually be too enjoyable for some, but the funk they bring here is infectious. They make the riffs dance, and everything goes from there.

Gnome on Instagram

Polder Records website

Hermano, When the Moon Was High…

hermano when the moon was high

The lone studio track “Breathe” serves as the reasoning behind Hermano‘s first new release since 2007’s …Into the Exam Room (discussed here), and actually predates that still-latest long-player by some years. Does it matter? Yeah, sort of. As regards John Garcia‘s post-Kyuss career, Hermano both got fleshed out more than most (thinking bands like Unida and Slo Burn, even Vista Chino, that didn’t get to release three full-lengths in their time), and still seemed to fade out when there was so much potential ahead of them. If “Breathe” doesn’t argue in favor of this band giving it the proverbial “one more go,” perhaps the live version of “Brother Bjork” (maybe the same one featured on 2005’s Live at W2?) and a trio of cuts captured at Hellfest in 2016 should do the trick nicely. They’re on fire through “Senor Moreno’s Plan,” “Love” and “Manager’s Special,” with GarciaDandy BrownDavid Angstrom, Chris Leathers and Mike Callahan treating Clisson to a reminder of why they’re the kind of band who might get to build an entire EP around a leftover studio track — because that studio track, and the band more broadly, righteously kick their own kind of ass. What would a new album be like?

Ripple Music on Facebook

Ripple Music website

Stahv, Sentiens Eklektikos

STAHV Sentiens Eklektikos

Almost on a per-song basis, Stahv — the mostly-solo brainchild of multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Solomon Arye Rosenschein, here collaborating on production with John Getze of Ako-Lite Records — skewers and melds genres to create something new from their gooey remnants. On the opening title-track, maybe that’s a post-industrial Phil Collins set to dreamtime keyboard and backed by fuzzy drone. On “Lunar Haze,” it’s all goth ’80s keyboard handclaps until the chorus melody shines through the fog machine like The Beatles circa ’64. Yeah that’s right. And on “Bossa Supernova,” you bet your ass it’s bossa nova. “The Calling” reveals a rocker’s soul, where “Plainview” earlier on has a swing that might draw from The Birthday Party at its root (it also might not) but has its own sleek vibe just the same with a far-back, lo-fi buzz that somehow makes the melody sound better. “Aaskew” (sic) takes a hard-funkier stance musically but its outsider perspective in the lyrics is similar. The 1960s come back around in the later for “Circuit Crash” — it would have to be a song about the future — and “Leaving Light” seems to make fun of/celebrate (it can be both) that moment in the ’80s when everything became tropical. There’s worlds here waiting for ears adventurous enough to hear them.

Stahv on Facebook

Ako-Lite Records on Bandcamp

Space Shepherds, Cycler

Space Shepherds Cycler

I mean, look. The central question you really have to ask yourself is how mellow do you want to get? Do you think you can handle 12 minutes of “Transmigration?” Do you think you can be present in yourself through that cool-as-fuck, ultra-smooth psychedelic twist Space Shepherds pull off, barely three minutes into the the beginning of this seven-track, 71-minute pacifier to quiet the bad voices in your (definitely not my) brain. What’s up with that keyboard shuffle in “Celestial Rose” later on? I don’t know, but it rules. And when they blow it out in “Got Caught Dreaming?” Yeah, hell yeah, wake up! “Free Return” is a 15-minute drifter jam that gets funky in the back half (a phrase I’d like on a shirt) and you don’t wanna miss it! At the risk of spoiling it, I’ll tell you that the title-track, which closes, is absolutely the payoff it’s all asking for. If you’ve got the time to sit with it, and you can just sort of go where it’s going, Cycler is a trip begging to be taken.

Space Shepherds on Facebook

Space Shepherds on Bandcamp

King Botfly, All Hail

king botfly all hail

It is all very big. All very grand, sweeping and poised musically, very modern and progressive and such — and immediately it has something if that’s what you’re looking for, which is super-doper, thanks — but if you dig into King Botfly‘s vocals, there’s a vulnerability there as well that adds an intimacy to all that sweep and plunges down the depths of the spacious mix’s low end. And I’m not knocking that part of it either. The Portsmouth, UK-based three-piece of guitarist/vocalist George Bell, bassist Luke Andrew and drummer Darren Draper, take on a monumental task in terms of largesse, and they hit hard when they want to, but there’s dynamic in it too, and both has an edge and doesn’t seem to go anywhere it does without a reason, which is a hard balance to strike. They sound like a band who will and maybe already have learned from this and will use that knowledge to move forward in an ongoing creative pursuit. So yes, progressive. Also tectonically heavy. And with heart. I think you got it. They’ll be at Desertfest London next May, and they sound ready for it.

King Botfly on Facebook

King Botfly on Bandcamp

Last Band, The Sacrament in Accidents

last band the sacrament in accidents

Are Last Band a band? They sure sound like one. Founded by guitarists Pat Paul and Matt LeGrow (the latter also of Admiral Browning) upwards of 15 years ago, when they were less of an actual band, the Maryland-based outfit offer 13 songs of heavy alternative rock on The Sacrament in Accidents, with some classic metal roots shining through amid the harmonies of “Saffire Alice” and a denser thrust in “Season of Outrage,” a rush in the penultimate “Forty-Four to the Floor,” and so on, where the title-track is more of an open sway and “Lidocaine” is duly placid, and while the production is by no means expansive, the band convey their songs with intent. Most cuts are in the three-to-four-minute range, but “Blown Out” dips into psychedelic-gaze wash as the longest at 5:32 offset by comparatively grounded, far-off Queens of the Stone Age-style vocalizing in the last minute, which is an effective culmination. The material has range and feels worked on, and while The Sacrament in Accidents sounds raw, it hones a reach that feels true to a songwriting methodology evolved over time.

Last Band on Bandcamp

Dream Circuit, Pennies for Your Life

Dream Circuit Pennies for Your Life

Debuting earlier this decade as a solo-project of Andrew Cox, Seattle’s Dream Circuit have built out to a four-piece for with Pennies for Your Life, which throughout its six-track/36-minute run sets a contemplative emotionalist landscape. Now completed by Anthony Timm, Cody Albers and Ian Etheridge, the band are able to move from atmospheric stretches of classically-inspired-but-modern-sounding verses into heavier tonality on a song like “Rosy” with fluidity that seems to save its sweep for when it counts. The title-track dares some shouts, giving some hint of a metallic underpinning, but that still rests well in context next to the sitar sounds of “Let Go,” which opens at 4:10 into its own organ-laced crush, emotionally satisfying. Imagine a post-heavy rock that’s still pretty heavy, and a dynamic that stretches across microgenres, and maybe that will give some starting idea. The last two tracks argue for efficiency in craft, but wherever Dream Circuit go on this sophomore release, they take their own route to get there.

Dream Circuit on Facebook

Dream Circuit on Bandcamp

Okkoto, All is Light

okkoto all is light

“All is Light” is the first single from New Paltz bliss-drone meditationalist solo outfit Okkoto since 2022’s stellar and affirming Climb the Antlers and Reach the Stars (review here), and its seven minutes carry a similar scope to what one found on that album. To be clear, that’s a compliment. Interwoven threads of synth over methodical timekeeping drum sounds, wisps of airy guitar drawn together with other lead lines, keys or strings, create a flowing world around the vocals added by Michael Lutomski, also (formerly?) of heavy psych rockers It’s Not Night: It’s Space, the sole proprietor of the expanse. A lot of a given listener’s experience of Okkoto experience will depend on their own headspace, but if you have the time and attention — seven-plus minutes of active-but-not-too-active hearing recommended — but “All is Light” showcases the rare restorative aspects of Okkoto in a way that, if you can get to it, can make you believe, or at least escape for a little while.

Okkoto on Instagram

Okkoto on Bandcamp

Trappist Afterland, Evergreen: Walk to Paradise Garden

Trappist Afterland Evergreen Walk to Paradise Garden

Underscored with a earth-rooted folkish fragility in the voice of Adam Geoffrey Cole (also guitar, cittern, tanpura, oud, synth, xylophone and something called a ‘dulcitar’), Melbourne’s Trappist Afterland are comfortably adventurous on this 10th full-length, Evergreen: Walk to Paradise Garden, which digs deeper into psych-drone on longest track “Cruciform/The Reincarnation of Kelly-Anne (Parts 1-3)” (7:55) while elsewhere digs into fare more Eastern-influenced-Western-traditional, largely based around guitar composition. With an assortment of collaborators coming and going, even this is enough for Cole and his seemingly itinerant company to create a sense of variety — the violin in centerpiece “Barefoot in Thistles” does a lot of work in that regard; ditto the squeezebox of opener “The Squall” — and while the arrangements don’t lack for flourish, the human expression is paramount, and the nine songs are serene unto the group vocal that caps in “You Are Evergreen,” which would seem to be placed to highlight its resonance, and reasonably so. As it’s Trappist Afterland‘s 10th album by their own count, it’s hardly a surprise they know what they’re about, but they do anyway.

Trappist Afterland on Facebook

Trappist Afterland on Bandcamp

Big Muff Brigade, Pi

big muff brigade pi

For a band who went so far as to name themselves after a fuzz pedal, Spain’s Big Muff Brigade have more in common with traditional desert rock than the kind of tonal worship one might expect them to deliver. That landscape doesn’t account for their naming a song “Terre Haute,” seemingly after the town in Indiana — I’ve been there; not a desert — but fair enough for the shove of that track, which on Pi arrives just ahead of closer “Seasonal Affective Disorder,” which builds to a nonetheless-mellow payoff before its fadeout. Elsewhere, the seven-minute “Pierced by the Spear” drops Sleepy (and thus Sabbathian) references in the guitar ahead of creating a duly stonerly lumber before they even unfurl the first verse — a little more in keeping with the kind of riff celebration one might expect going in — but even there, the band maintain a thread of purposeful songcraft that can only continue to serve them as they move past this Argonauta-delivered debut and continued to grow. There is a notable sense of outreach here, though, and in writing to genre, Big Muff Brigade show both their love of what they do and a will to connect with likeminded audiences.

Big Muff Brigade on Facebook

Argonauta Records website

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Album Review: Tranquonauts, 2

Posted in Reviews on September 10th, 2024 by JJ Koczan

Tranquonauts 2 album cover 1

A lot of what you need to know about the aptly-titled second Tranquonauts album, 2 — on Lay Bare Recordings and Blown Music, distro through Echodelick in the US — they tell you in listing the lineup on the front cover. It’s Seedy Jeezus, from Melbourne, Australia, partnered with Isaiah Mitchell, guitar hero of voidbound heavy psych plungers Earthless, who is based (I think) in San Francisco, and Mos Generator figurehead Tony Reed (who can now count being in Pentagram among the many impressive lines of his CV), tucked up in the top left corner of the US in Port Orchard, Washington, working as mixing/mastering engineer as well as a this-time contributor to the material on vocals, synth, programming and Mellotron.

The former two parties — that’s Mitchell and Seedy Jeezus, which is drummer Mark Sibson, bassist Paul Crick (also Mellotron) and guitarist Lex Waterreus (also credited with vocals, bass and theremin) — released the first, self-titled Tranquonauts album (review here) in 2016, and recorded the basic tracks on which is based in 2022, with Waterreus editing the material together to get the extended pieces that respectively comprise sides A and B, “Fugitives From the Void Pts. 1-3” (20:29) and “Ground Control” (17:11), as well as the worth-seeking-out non-vinyl bonus tracks “Drown” (6:37) and “Drop” (4:54) while on a 2023 trip to New York, before sending the stems to Reed, to mix/master and, ultimately, add his vocals, synth, and so on.

For Reed, it’s somewhat akin to the role he plays in the band Big Scenic Nowhere, and his ability to find the spaces a verse might occupy in an otherwise amorphous pool of liquid audio comes into play. That he brings a heart-on-sleeve crux to the early going of “Fugitives From the Void Pts. 1-3” greatly deepens the impression of the album as a whole, coming after the fact of the initial recording, but for the listener hearing the finished version, giving the longform jam and solo that follows a sense of direction and expression beyond the creative exploration happening on the instruments. In the open-spaced introduction of the 20-minute track, he starts as a single voice over light guitar strum and (perhaps his own, I don’t know) swirling synth, but is soon in harmony with himself finding the right niche to bolster the mood and ambience surrounding.

As the organ strikes circa 3:30 into “Fugitives From the Void Pts. 1-3,” his voice in layers is contemplative and present in the moment. Soon enough, though, what I assume is the shift between the first and second parts of the song happens and the guitar takes over the lead position. The abiding sense of melancholy remains — there will only ever be one “Maggot Brain,” but Mitchell and Waterreus are both well able to convey emotionality through their instrument — and is informed by Reed‘s lines in a way that likely couldn’t have been anticipated when the original recordings were done. For the one on the hearing end of Tranquonauts 2, this span of time flattens in a way that is fascinating, and is likely the result of lyrics written for or applied to what feelings were evoked by “Fugitives From the Void Pts. 1-3” in its original, instrumental form. The opener/longest track (immediate points), like the subsequent “Ground Control,” is mostly instrumental, but even the momentary presence is enough to affect how one engages with what follows.

Tranquonauts 2 vinyl

I won’t take away from the appeal of what Mitchell and Seedy Jeezus accomplished on the first Tranquonauts LP, but in most cases a band with words is going to sound like they have more to say, and the experience of “Fugitives From the Void Pts. 1-3” as a whole is that much richer for Reed‘s involvement, vocally as well as instrumentally. It wouldn’t be fair to call the jam grounded by the time guitars start turning backwards around seven minutes in, building gradually to a crescendo at the behest of Sibson‘s drums past the 10-minute mark before deconstructing and shifting presumably into ‘Pt. 3’ with a sonically obscured sample from either NASA ground control or an old sci-fi flick a short while later after some patient, we’ll-get-there-type meander, but its far-outbound sprawl is hypnotic even as the emotive undertone is maintained by Mellotron under the scorching, concluding guitar solo.

“Ground Control” is immediately bound on a different pursuit. The 17-minute cut is perhaps even more exploratory than the preceding, longer one, with a more direct line drawn to krautrock and get-spaced impulses. An abiding, deceptively funky wah on the guitar is built around with live drums and a programmed beat that’s speaking to early electronic music, and in combination with the cosmos-minded synth and effects on guitars, it almost sounds like an alternate-reality version of pre-2000 techno, like Hawkwind produced by Dust Brothers in 1996. Boldly, willfully uneven in concept, it nonetheless works as a droning vocal from Waterreus arrives amid the interstellar tumult to tie it together through the pervasively weird twists, ebbs and flows. What is shared with “”Fugitives From the Void Pts. 1-3,” aside from basics like personnel, etc., is a sense of the unknown being engaged. Tranquonauts are hardly the first to meld electronic and organic instrumentation even in a psychedelic context, but they do so with a vibrancy of persona that maintains the unflinching creative spirit of the song prior even while departing from it in sound and mood.

Will there be a third Tranquonauts? Was there always going to be a second? I don’t know. While there are plenty of bands out there who work remotely to overcome being geographically spread out, having at least the Mitchell/Seedy Jeezus core in the same room seems to be a priority — otherwise might have already happened years ago and surely would’ve taken a different shape — and fair enough for the distinctive roots from which these songs spring in their now-completed forms. I would not hazard to predict when logistics will again align to put Mitchell in Melbourne when both the three members of Seedy Jeezus and a room at Studio One B with engineer David Warner (who has now helmed both Tranquonauts LPs) are available, but it’s happened at least twice to-date, so neither is it outside the apparent realm of possibility.

When and if such a thing happens, one can only hope for Reed‘s continued involvement as well, even if that’s after the fact, as his contributions broaden the scope of in ways that are both meaningful and resonant. As it stands, makes Tranquonauts sound like more of an actual-band than perhaps even the component players expected it to be. Mark that a win for those who either heard the first one eight years ago or will take them on now.

Tranquonauts, 2 (2024)

Seedy Jeezus on Facebook

Seedy Jeezus on Instagram

Seedy Jeezus on Bandcamp

Seedy Jeezus website

Earthless on Facebook

Earthless on Instagram

Blown Music on Facebook

Lay Bare Recordings website

Lay Bare Recordings on Facebook

Lay Bare Recordings on Instagram

Lay Bare Recordings on Bandcamp

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Seedy Jeezus Announce European Tour Dates

Posted in Whathaveyou on August 21st, 2024 by JJ Koczan

Melbourne heavy psych rockers Seedy Jeezus are headed back to Europe this October — which sounds really far away in my head, but isn’t — to appear as part of the encompassing, stellar, someone-please-fly-me-over-so-I-can-cover-it lineup of Desertfest Belgium 2024, and while I have no reason to suspect I’ll be there to see them, if you are, I heartily recommend you take advantage of the opportunity. A special set at Rare Guitar in Münster sounds cool, or a stop at the Freak Valley Festival-associated Vortex Surfer Musikclub in Siegen. When I was lucky enough to catch Seedy Jeezus, it was at Freak Valley (review here), so hitting that feels appropriate enough. You can’t really go wrong with the classic psych and heavy, bluesy flow the Australian trio proffer.

It’s an eight-show run, mostly Germany with a gig in Amsterdam as well as the obvious exception of Desertfest Belgium, but that it’s happening at all is the thing here. It’s not their first time in Europe and ideally it won’t be their last, but for the dynamic they bring to the stage, it seemed in my mind like an occasion worth marking. I hear there’s a new Tranquonauts LP on the way; not sure when. Seedy‘s last LP was the 2022 double-live album The Hollow Earth (discussed here), released through the much-respected Lay Bare Recordings. A video for the title-track is at the bottom of the post if you’ve got a second to sample.

Dates from socials:

*****SEEDY JEEZUS – EUROPEAN TOUR ANNOUNCEMENT ******

This October we hit the road to Europe to play a handful of shows. We kick off Desertfest Antwerp 2024 and finish up with a extended set on the final night of the tour RARE GUITAR .

The events will be up soon, with presales available… We will share events an individual posters….

Seedy Jeezus European Tour:
Oct. 19 Desertfest Antwerp BE
Oct. 20 Lükaz Lünen DE
Oct. 21 Backyard Club Recklinghausen DE
Oct. 22 Sonic Ballroom Cologne DE
Oct. 23 Bar 227 Hamburg DE
Oct. 24 De Tanker in Noord Amsterdam NL
Oct. 25 Vortex Surfer Musikclub Siegen DE
Oct. 26 Rare Guitar Münster DE

See you soon.

https://www.facebook.com/seedyjeezuspage/
https://www.instagram.com/seedyjeezus/
https://seedyjeezus.bandcamp.com/
http://www.seedyjeezus.com/

https://laybarerecordings.com/
https://www.facebook.com/laybarerecordings/
https://www.instagram.com/laybarerecordings/
https://laybarerecordings.bandcamp.com/

Seedy Jeezus, “The Hollow Earth” official video

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Child Announce Fall European Tour; Playing Heavy Psych Sounds Fests, Desertfest Belgium, Westill Festival & More

Posted in Whathaveyou on July 23rd, 2024 by JJ Koczan

child hps

A few obvious reasons to post Child‘s upcoming Euro/UK tour dates. One, it’s their first time on the continent since before the pandemic, and that was long enough ago that the western world seems to have forgotten not to cough and sneeze all over each other. Two, they’re traveling from their home base in Melbourne, Australia, and that’s an awfully long way to go. Three, they’re supporting their 2023 album, Soul Murder (review here), which is their best work to-date, and has been pressed up along with the rest of their catalog through Heavy Psych Sounds for your merch-table perusal. Four, they’re set to appear as part of the frankly-stunning lineup of Desertfest Belgium as well as Heavy Psych Sounds Fest in Germany (x2) and the UK, as well as the Westill Festival in France. And five, there are open dates and if you’re seeing this and you can help out, I encourage you to do so, both as a moral good serving the greater universe and in order to give yourself what will probably be a rad, bluesy-as-hell show.

I think that about covers it.

France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Sweden, Belgium, England. Seems like there’s room to sneak a Netherlands show in there, maybe Switzerland, Scotland? I don’t route tours, which is difficult and largely thankless work, but you can see where they’re headed below as of now. You can be the one who steps in with a gig. The magic is in you. It always has been.

From socials:

child european tour

*** CHILD – European Tour 2024 ***

Today we are stoked to announce CHILD European Tour starts end of September.

Don’t miss them !!

STILL FEW OPEN SLOTS

Book your show – write to info@heavypsychsounds.com

Says Child: “We are coming back… This time it’s different. We are in the best shape we have ever been. This is the band we have wanted since the beginning in 2012. The oldest of brothers, the newest of horizons! LET’S FUCKIN’ SEND IT!!! Thank you HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS.”

*** CHILD – European Tour 2024 ***
SA 28.09.24 FR SEIGNOSSE – BLACK FLAG
SU 29.09.24 ES PORTUGALETE – GROOVE
MO 30.09.24 ES OVIEDO – LA SALVAJE
TU 01.10.24 ES CORUNA – MARDI GRAS
WE 02.10.24 ES MADRID – WURLITZER BALLROOM
TH 03.10.24 ES ZARAGOZA – ROCK & BLUES
FR 04.10.24 ES BARCELONA – UPLOAD
SA 05.10.24 FR ***OPEN SLOT***
SU 06.10.24 FR LYON – LA PENTE
MO 07.10.24 IT MANTOVA – ARCI TOM
TU 08.10.24 DE BOLZANO – SUDWERK
WE 09.10.24 DE INNSBRUCK – PMK
TH 10.10.24 AT KUFSTEIN – KULTURFABRIK
FR 11.10.24 DE ULM – HEXENHAUS
SA 12.10.24 DE BERLIN – HPS FEST
SU 13.10.24 ***OPEN SLOT***
TU 15.10.24 ***OPEN SLOT***
WE 16.10.24 SE GÖTEBORG – ABYSS
TH 17.10.24 ***OPEN SLOT***
FR 18.10.24 BE ANTWERP – DESERTFEST
SA 19.10.24 ***OPEN SLOT***
SU 20.10.24 ***OPEN SLOT***
MO 21.10.24 DE BIELEFELD – EXTRA BLUES BAR
TU 22.10.24 DE COLOGNE – SONIC BALLROOM
WE 23.10.24 ***OPEN SLOT***
TH 24.10.24 DE RAVENSBURG – IRISH PUB SLAINTE
FR 25.10.24 DE JENA – KUBA
SA 26.10.24 DE DRESDEN – HPS FEST
SU 27.10.24 ***OPEN SLOT***
TU 29.10.24 ***OPEN SLOT***
WE 30.10.24 ***OPEN SLOT***
TH 31.10.24 ***OPEN SLOT***
FR 01.11.24 FR NANTES – WESTILL FESTIVAL
SA 02.11.24 UK LONDON – HPS FEST

CHILD is
Mathias Northway – guitar/vocals
Michael Lowe – drums
Rhys Kelly – bass

https://www.facebook.com/childtheband
https://www.instagram.com/childtheband/
https://childtheband.bandcamp.com
https://www.youtube.com/childtheband
http://www.childtheband.com
https://linktr.ee/childtheband

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

Child, Soul Murder (2023)

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Child Sign to Heavy Psych Sounds; Soul Murder & Other Reissues Coming Soon

Posted in Whathaveyou on January 23rd, 2024 by JJ Koczan

I like it when cool things happen to good bands generally, but specifically in this case I’m glad that Child‘s 2023 heavy-blues delve, Soul Murder (review here), is getting another look with the backing of Heavy Psych Sounds — from whom I’m almost an hour removed from discussing as one of the premier heavy labels in the world, so I must be due — since the Melbourne trio basically opened their veins and bled onto the tape, at least if the audio was anything to go by, and at least in the narrative I have of last year in my mind, the corresponding response was not what the record had earned. A Heavy Psych Sounds reissue, which is a first proper physical pressing, will fix that. The concept of one kind of already does.

That Soul Murder will feature alongside reissues for the band’s other releases — 2018’s I EP (review here), 2016’s Blueside (review here) and 2013’s self-titled debut (discussed here) — should hopefully bring more validation the band’s way for what they’ve done over the last decade-plus, and that’s super too, but getting the material out for international distribution is where it’s at here, and preorders for everything go up early next month. If you need more info than that, well, stick around because I’m sure it’s coming.

What I’ve got for now follows here, courtesy of the PR wire:

child hps

*** CHILD *** repressing the australian band catalogue with 2023 album Soul Murder for the first time on VINYL and CD

We’re incredibly stoked to announce that the australian psychedelic hard rockerz CHILD are now part of the Heavy Psych Sounds Family !!!

Heavy Psych Sounds Records will release the band’s highly acclaimed 2023 album SOUL MURDER for the very first time on VINYL and CD + repress the first two albums Child and Blueside and the EP I

FOUR ALBUMs PRESALE STARTs: February 7th

BIOGRAPHY

Combine the heavy emotion of the blues, the tone and raw power of hard rock, the finesse of soul and a twist of 60’s psychedelia. It will give you a visceral musical experience that plays directly to your being. That is CHILD. Living for their art, the pubs, the booze, the endless highways and the blues is what makes this band who they are. Child are a must see for those who are worshippers at “the electric church”. The freedom and power of a live performance is important to CHILD in their approach to music, endeavouring to never perform the same way twice. They look forward to once again bringing this to the world on their continued search for sonic paradise.

Since the release of their runaway self-titled debut in 2014, Child have continued to develop their unique brand of heavy blues through constant writing and extensive national/international touring. The band released the follow-up ‘Blueside’ in December 2016, which builds on this foundation to deliver a disc of pure sonic expression whilst following in the long tradition of the blues. 2018 saw the release of Child’s first EP, simply titled ‘I’. Recorded live to tape, ‘I’ is a glimpse into the boundless directions that could be taken on upcoming releases.

CHILD is
Mathias Northway – guitar/vocals
Michael Lowe – drums
Rhys Kelly – bass

https://www.facebook.com/childtheband
https://www.instagram.com/childtheband/
https://childtheband.bandcamp.com
https://www.youtube.com/childtheband
http://www.childtheband.com

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

Child, Soul Murder (2023)

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Quarterly Review: Samsara Blues Experiment, Restless Spirit, Stepmother, Pilot Voyager, Northern Liberties, Nyxora, Old Goat Smoke, Van Groover, Hotel Lucifer, Megalith Levitation

Posted in Reviews on October 3rd, 2023 by JJ Koczan

the obelisk winter quarterly review

I broke my wife’s phone yesterday. What a mess. I was cleaning the counter or doing some shit and our spare butter dish — as opposed to the regular one, which was already out — was sitting near the edge of the top of the microwave, from where I bumped it so that the ceramic corner apparently went right through the screen hard enough that in addition to shattering it there’s a big black spot and yes a new phone has been ordered. In the meantime, she can’t type the letter ‘e’ and, well, I have to hand it to Le Creuset on the sturdy construction of their butter dishes. Technology succumbing to the brute force of a harder blunt object and gravity.

Certainly do wish that hadn’t happened. What does it have to do with riffs, or music at all, or really anything? Who cares. I’m about to review 10 records today. I can talk about whatever the hell I want.

Quarterly Review #11-20:

Samsara Blues Experiment, Rock Hard in Concert

samsara blues experiment rock hard in concert

10 years after releasing 2013’s Live at Rockpalast (review here), and nearly three after they put out their 2021 swansong studio LP, End of Forever (review here), German heavy psych rockers Samsara Blues Experiment offer the 80-minute live 2LP Rock Hard in Concert, and while it’s not their first live album, it gives a broader overview of the band from front to (apparent) back during their time together, as songs opening salvo of “Center of the Sun,” “Singata Mystic Queen” and “For the Lost Souls” from 2010’s debut, Long-Distance Trip (review here), melds in the set with “One With the Universe” and “Vipassana” from 2017’s One With the Universe (review here), End of Forever‘s own title-track and “Massive Passive,” and “Hangin’ on a Wire” from 2013’s Waiting for the Flood (review here) to become a fan-piece that nonetheless engages in sound and presentation. If you were there, it’s likely must-own. For the rest of us, who maybe did or didn’t see the band during their time — glad to say I did — it’s a reminder of how immersive they could be, especially in longer-form material, and how much influence they had on the last decade-plus of jam-based heavy psych in Europe. Recorded in 2018 at a special gig for Germany’s Rock Hard magazine, Rock Hard in Concert follows behind 2022’s Demos & Rarities (review here) in the band’s posthumous catalog, and it may or may not be Samsara Blues Experiment‘s final non-reissue release. Whether it is or not, it summarizes their run gorgeously and puts a light on the chemistry of the trio that led them through so many winding aural paths.

Samsara Blues Experiment on Facebook

World in Sound Records website

Restless Spirit, Afterimage

Restless Spirit Afterimage

Sounding modern and full and in opening cut “Marrow” almost like the fuzz is about to swallow the rest of the song, Restless Spirit step forward with their third long-player, Afterimage, and establish a new level of craft for themselves. In 2021, the Long Island heavy/doom rock trio offered Blood of the Old Gods (review here), and their guitar-led energetic surges continue here in Afterimage riffers like the chug-nod “Shadow Command” and “Of Spirit and Form,” which seems to account for the underlying metallic edge of the band’s execution with its sharper turns. Their first album for Magnetic Eye Records, its eight tracks fit smoothly into the label’s roster, which at its baseline might be said to foster modern heavy styles with a particular ear for songwriting and melody, and Restless Spirit dig into “All Furies” like High on Fire galloping into a wall of Slayer records, only to follow with the 1:45 instrumental reset “Brutalized,” which is somehow weightier. They touch on the ethereal with the guitar in “The Fatalist,” but the vocals are more post-hardcore and have a grounding effect, and after starting with outright crush, “Hell’s Grasp” offers respite in progressive flourish and midtempo meandering before resuming the double-plus-huge roll and pointed riff and noodly offsets, the huge hook coming back in a way that makes me miss doing a radio show. “Hell’s Grasp” is the longest piece on the collection at 6:25, but “From the Dust Returned” closes, mindful of the atmospherics that have been at work all along and no less huge, but clearly saving a last push for, well, last. I’ll be interested in how it holds up over the long term, but Magnetic Eye has become one of the US’ most essential labels in heavy music and releases like this are exactly why.

Restless Spirit on Facebook

Magnetic Eye Records store

Stepmother, Planet Brutalicon

stepmother planet brutalicon

When did Graham Clise from Witch Lecherous Gaze, etc. — dude used to be in Uphill Battle; I remember that band — move to Australia? Doesn’t matter. It happened and Stepmother is the raw, garage-ish fuzz rock outfit the now-Melbourne-residing Clise has established, with Rob Muinos on bass and vocals and Sam Rains on drums. With Clise on guitar/vocals peppering hard-strummed riffs with bouts of shred and various dirtier coatings, the 12-tracker goes north of four minutes one time for “Do You Believe,” already by then having found its proto-Misfits bent in the catchy “Scream for Death.” But whether they’re buzz-overdosing “Waiting for the Axe” or digging into the comedown in “Signed DC” ahead of the surf-informed rager of a finale “Gusano,” Planet Brutalicon is a debut that presents fresh ideas taking on known stylistic elements. And it’s not a showcase for Clise‘s instrumental prowess on a technical level or anything — he’s not trying to put on a clinic — but from the sound of his guitar to the noises he gets from it in “The Game” (that middle part, ultra-fuzz) and at the end of “Stalingrad,” it is very much a guitar-centered offering. No complaints there whatsoever.

Stepmother on Instagram

Tee Pee Records website

Pilot Voyager, The Structure is Still Under Construction

Pilot Voyager The Structure is Still Under Construction

WARNING: Users who take even a small dose of Pilot Voyager‘s The Structure is Still Under Construction may find themselves experiencing euphoria, or adrift, as though on some serene ocean under the warm green sky of impossibly refracted light. The ethereal drones and melodic textures of the 46-minute single-song LP may cause side effects like: momentary flashes of inner peace, the quieting of your brain that you’ve been seeking your whole life without knowing it, calm. Also nausea, but that’s probably just something you ate. Talk to your doctor about whether this extended work from the Hungarian collective Psychedelic Source Records (szia!) is right for you, and if it is, make sure to consume responsibly. Headphones required (not included or covered by insurance). Do not be afraid as “The Structure is Still Under Construction” leaves the water behind to float upward in its midsection, finally resolving in intertwining drones, vague sampled speech echoing far off somewhere — ugh, the real world — and birdsong someplace in the mix. Go with it. This is why you got the prescription in the first place. Decades of aural research and artistic movement and progression have led you and the Budapesti outfit to this moment. Do not operate heavy machinery. Ever. In fact, find an empty field, take off your pants and run around for a while until you get out of breath. Then drink cool water and giggle. This could be you. Your life.

Pilot Voyager on Facebook

Psychedelic Source Records on Bandcamp

Northern Liberties, Self-Dissolving Abandoned Universe

northern liberties Self-Dissolving Abandoned Universe

Philadelphia has become the East Coast US’ hotbed for heavy psychedelia, which must be interesting for Northern Liberties, who started out more than two decades ago. The trio’s self-released, 10-song/41-minute Self-Dissolving Abandoned Universe — maybe their eighth album, if my count is right — with venerated producer Steve Albini, so one might count ‘instant-Gen-X-cred’ and ‘recognizably-muddy-toms’ among their goals. I wasn’t completely sold on the offering until “Infusorian Hymnal” started to dig a little further into the genuinely weird after opener “The Plot Thickens” and the subsequent “Drowned Out” laid forth the crunch of the tones and gave hints of the structures beneath the noise. “Crucible” follows up the raw shove of “Star Spangled Corpse” by expanding the palette toward space rock and an unhinged psych-noise shove that the somehow-still-Hawkwindian volatility of “The Awaited” moves away from while the finale “Song of the Sole Survivor” calls back to the folkish vocal melody in “Ghosts of Ghosts,” if in echoing and particularly addled fashion. Momentum serves the three-piece well throughout, though they seem to have no trouble interrupting themselves (can relate), and turning to follow a disparate impulse. Distractable heavy? Yeah, except bands like that usually don’t last two decades. Let’s say maybe their own kind of oddball, semi-spaced band who aren’t afraid to screw around in the studio, find what they like, and keep it. And whatever else you want to say about Albini-tracked drums, “Hold on to the Darkness” has a heavier tone to its snare than most guitars do to whole LPs. Whatever works, and it does.

Northern Liberties website

Northern Liberties on Bandcamp

Nyxora, “Good Night, Ophelia”

Nyxora Good Night Ophelia

“Good Night, Ophelia” is the first single from the forthcoming debut full-length from semi-goth Portland, Oregon, heavy rock four-piece Nyxora. There are worse opening shots to fire than a Hamlet reference, I suppose, and if one regards Ophelia’s character as an innocent driven to suicide by gender-based oppression, then her lack of agency is nothing if not continually relevant. Nonetheless, for NyxoraVox on, well, vox, guitarist E.Wrath, bassist Luke and drummer Weatherman — she pairs with dark-boogie riff recorded for edge with Witch Mountain‘s Rob Wrong at his Wrong Way Studio. There are some similarities between Nyxora and Wrong‘s own outfit — I double-checked it wasn’t Uta Plotkin singing some of the higher-reaching lines of “Good Night, Ophelia,” which is a definite compliment — but I get the sense that fuller atmosphere of Nyxora‘s first LP isn’t necessarily encapsulated in this one three-and-a-half-minute song. That is, I’m thinking at some point on the album, Nyxora will get more morose than they are here. Or maybe not. Either way, “Good Night, Ophelia” is an enticing teaser from a group who seem ready to dig their niche when the album is released, I’ll assume in 2024 though one never knows.

Nyxora on Facebook

Nyxora on Bandcamp

Old Goat Smoke, Demo

Old Goat Smoke Demo

I hate to do it, but I’m calling bullshit right now on Sydney, Australia’s Old Goat Smoke. Sorry gents. To be sure, your Bongzilla-crusty, ultra-stoned, Church of Misery-esque-in-its-madcap-vocal-wails, goat weed metal is only a pleasure to behold. But that’s the problem. How’re you gonna write a song called “Old Goat Smoke” and not post the lyrics? I shudder to think of the weed puns I’m missing. Fortunately, it’s not too late for the newcomer band to correct the mistake before the entire project is derailed. In that eponymous one of three total tracks included, Old Goat Smoke cast themselves in the mold of the despondent and disaffected. “Return to Dirt” shifts fluidly in and out of screams and harsher fare while radioactive-dirt tonality infects the guitar and bass that have already challenged the drums to cut through their morass. So that there’s no risk of the point not being made, they cap this initial public offering with “The Great Hate,” and eight-and-a-half-minute treatise on feedback and raw scathe that’s likewise a show of future nastiness to manifest. Quit your job, do all the drugs you can find, engage the permanent fuck-off. Old Goat Smoke may not have ‘bong’ in their moniker, but that’s about all they’re missing. And those lyrics, I guess, though by the time the 20 minutes of Demo have expired, they’ve made their caustic point regardless.

Old Goat Smoke on Facebook

Old Goat Smoke on Bandcamp

Van Groover, Back From the Shop

Van Groover Back From the Shop

German transport-themed heavy rock and rollers Van Groover — as in, one who grooves in or with vans — made a charming debut with 2021’s Honk if Parts Fall Off (review here), and the follow-up five-song EP, Back From the Shop, makes no attempt to fix what isn’t broken. That would seem to put it at odds with the mechanic speaking in the intro “Hill Willy’s Chop Shop,” who runs through a litany of issues fixed, goes on long enough to hypnotize and then swaps in body parts and so on. From there, the motor works, and Van Groover hit the gas through 21 minutes of smells-like-octane riffing and storytelling. In “A-38″ — the reference being to the size of a sheet of paper in Europe; equivalent but not the same as the US’ 8.5″ x 11” — they either get arrested, which would seem to be the ending of “The Bandit” just before,” or are at the DMV, I can’t quite tell, but it doesn’t matter one you meet “The Grizz.” The closer has an urgency to its push that doesn’t quite sound like I’d imagine being torn apart by a bear to feel, but the Lebowski-paraphrased penultimate line, “Some days you get eaten by the bear, some days the bear eats you,” underscores Van Groover‘s for-the-converted approach, speaking to the subculture from within. Possibly while driving. Does look like a nice van, though. The kind you might write a song or two about.

Van Groover on Facebook

Van Groover on Bandcamp

Hotel Lucifer, Hotel Lucifer

Hotel Lucifer Hotel Lucifer

Facts-wise, there’s not much more I can tell you about Hotel Lucifer than you might glean from looking at the New York four-piece’s Bandcamp page. Their self-released and self-titled debut runs 43 minutes and eight tracks, and its somewhat bleak, not-obligated-to-heavy-tonalism course takes several violent thematic turns, including (I think.) in opener “Room 222,” where Katie‘s vocals seem to talk about raping god. This, “Murderer,” “Torquemada,” “The Ultimate Price,” “Picking Your Eyes Out” and 12-minute horror noisefest closer “Beheaded” — only the classic metaller “Training the Beast” and the three-minute acoustic-backed psychedelic voice showcase “Echidna” seem to restrain the brutaller impulses, and I’m not sure about that either. With Jimmy on guitar, Muriel playing bass and Ed on drums, Hotel Lucifer are defined in no small part by the whispers, rasps and croons that mark their verses and choruses, but that becomes an effective means to convey character and mood along with the instrumental ambience behind, and so Hotel Lucifer find this strange, almost willfully off-putting cultish individualism, and it’s not hooks keeping your attention so much as the desire to figure it out, to learn more about just what the hell is going on on this record. I’ll wish you good luck with that as I continue my efforts along similar lines.

Hotel Lucifer on Bandcamp

Megalith Levitation, Obscure Fire

Megalith Levitation Obscure Fire

Its five songs broken into two sections along lines of “Obscure Fire” pairing with “Of Silence” and “Descending” leading to “Into the Depths” with “Of Eternal Doom” answering the question that didn’t even really need to be asked about which depths the Russian stoner sludge rollers were talking about. The Sleep-worshiping three-piece of guitarist/vocalist SAA, bassist KKV and drummer PAN — whose credits are worth reading in the band’s own words — lumber with purpose as they make that final statement, each side of Obscure Fire working shortest to longest beginning with the howling guitar and drum thud of the title-track at nine minutes as opposed to the 10 of “Of Silence.” At two minutes, “Descending” is barely more than feedback and tortured gurgles, so yes, very much a fit with the concrete-toned plod of the subsequent “Into the Depths” as the band skirt the line between ultra-stoner metal and cavernous atmospheric sludge without necessarily committing to one or the other. That position favors them, but after a certain point of being bludgeoned with huge riffs and slow-nodding, deeply-weighted churn, your skull is going to be goo either way. The route Megalith Levitation take to get you there is where the weed is, aurally speaking.

Megalith Levitation on Facebook

Addicted Label on Bandcamp

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Khan Announce European Tour Supporting Creatures LP

Posted in Whathaveyou on September 27th, 2023 by JJ Koczan

KHAN

I have spent a decent portion of this year marveling at the small fortune Melbourne’s Khan would seem to have spent on social media promotion. They haven’t been in my feed every single day, but it’s been regular enough since before they released their Creatures album this past February that I feel way more familiar with the band than I am. Oh, Josh recorded the album? That’s nice.

Much of these months of content-creation has been heralding a European tour to come this Fall. Khan were among the early principals announced for Truckfighters Fuzz Festival #4 back in May, and pretty much since then the tour dates have been coming soon.

I’m not knocking this method of spreading the word about your work, mind you. Money where your mouth is. And it got me to finally listen to the record, which is of course killer enough to make me wish I’d bothered seven months ago. Never too late, though, and if you’re at Desertfest Belgium or wherever, you can succeed where I’ve failed in terms of seeing Khan live, which I now want to do, because I heard the record. Funny how that works.

But it does work. I’m a big believer in PR and all that, but a push like this can do a lot for a band. I can’t imagine I’m the only one who feels like they’ve spent a good amount of time this year keeping up with Khan. Otherwise they probably wouldn’t be touring Europe in the first place.

From socials, of course:

khan creatures tour

KHAN – EUROPEAN DATES!!

Here it is kids! Behold, the long awaited list of locations, dates and venues!!

We’ve been working really hard for the last 7 months to put this together and are very excited to finally share with you the full list of dates for our second European tour!

We know we’ve already announced the Australian dates and that most of them have already happened, but we wanted to include them because it looks way more impressive on a poster (#129464#)‍♂️ Plus we still have our final show of the Australian leg with Lucid Planet coming up (#129395#)

Please note, there were definitely other cities/countries that we really tried to book shows in but despite our best efforts approaching multiple promoters and venues, we were unable to get dates that worked with the rest of our tour.

Having said that, we do still have a few gaps in the tour schedule, so if you’re a promoter, venue booker or in a band and want to book us or add us to an existing show on one of our free dates, please send us a DM.

Event Details (will be updated with more event links shortly).

Axl Entertainment & Full Contact Safari Records presents:

Oct 7 – Melbourne (AU) – Bergy Bandroom
https://fb.me/e/2V9oUxqQf

Oct 19 – Jena (DE) – KuBa
(Event link coming soon)

Oct 21 – Antwerp (BE) – Desertfest Antwerp 2023
https://fb.me/e/41lLv8ceg

Oct 26 – Berlin (DE) – Urban Spree w/ Swan Valley Heights
(Event link coming soon)

Oct 27 – Ingolstadt (DE) – Fronte 79 Jugendkulturzentrum w/ Swan Valley Heights
https://fb.me/e/14oRwAPla

Oct 28 – Frankfurt (DE) – The Cave w/ Swan Valley Heights
https://fb.me/e/1bSmDc0X3

Oct 31 – Swansea (UK) – The Bunkhouse Swansea
(Event link coming soon)

Nov 1 – Exeter (UK) – Move Live
(Event link coming soon)

Nov 2 – Bristol (UK) – The Gryphon
https://fb.me/e/5GC7Q6mQ8

Nov 4 – London (UK) – The Dev
(Event link coming soon)

Nov 5 – Manchester (UK) – Grand Central – Alt Bar & Live Music Venue – 80 Oxford st Manchester
(Event link coming soon)

Nov 7 – Lippstadt (DE) – Gaststätte Zum Güterbahnhof
https://fb.me/e/2WhgUsqvQ

Nov 8 – Odense (DK) – Frølageret
(Event link coming soon)

Nov 9 – Malmö (SE) – Plan B – malmö
(Event link coming soon)

Nov 10 – Stockholm (SE) – TRUCKIGHTERS FUZZ FESTIVAL #4 – 10/11 Nov 2023 with Valley of the Sun, Skraeckoedlan and more!
https://fb.me/e/10VMKv3zZ

Nov 11 – Oslo (NO) – Revolver
https://fb.me/e/36CHCnQ0q

Khan are:
Josh Bills – Vocals/Guitar/Keys
Mitchell Kerr – Bass
Beau Heffernan – Drums

https://www.facebook.com/khanbandofficial/
http://www.instagram.com/khanbandofficial
http://khanofficial.bandcamp.com/
https://linktr.ee/khanofficial

https://www.facebook.com/fullcontactsafarirecords/
https://www.instagram.com/fullcontactsafarirecords/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUMHoOMtZHqXWtBKfzG7TmA
https://www.fullcontactsafarirecords.com/

Khan, Creatures (2023)

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Stepmother Sign to Tee Pee Records; Planet Brutalicon Due Sept. 29

Posted in Whathaveyou on August 4th, 2023 by JJ Koczan

stepmother (Photo by Laura Douglas)

Melbourne, Australia-based raw heavy rockers Stepmother will release their first full-length, Planet Brutalicon, through Tee Pee Records on Sept. 29. The label has preorders up and that’s probably fair enough as they also unveil the song “Do You Believe,” the apparent side A closer with its languid hook and disaffected slow-garage tonality. You’ll note the involvement of Graham Clise, whom one might recognize from Witch or Annihilation Time or Lecherous Gaze, and so on, and that the trio also issued their self-titled debut EP last year.

That outing (also streaming below, along with the title-track of the LP) had three songs: “Fade Away,” “Here Comes the End” and “Stalingrad.” All of them feature on the 12-cut long-player, so if you hear “Do You Believe” and decide you want to dig further — and you well might; I certainly did — those are available at least in an earlier form to give some basic idea. Sept. 29 is the release date, as the PR wire confirms:

Australian Power Trio STEPMOTHER to Unleash Debut Album PLANET BRUTALICON on TEE PEE RECORDS

Steam new single ‘Do You Believe’ now! | Prepare for a sonic assault like no other with the release of Planet Brutalicon on 29th September 2023

Pre-order HERE: https://teepeerecords.com/products/stepmother-planet-brutalicon-lp-out-9-29-2023

Spearheaded by legendary underground guitarist Graham Clise (Witch, Annihilation Time, Lecherous Gaze, Rot TV), Tee Pee Records is thrilled to announce the release of Planet Brutalicon, the debut album by Oz–based outliers, Stepmother.

Channelling raw rock ‘n’ roll energy into anthems that resonate with the poor, depraved and miscreant sickos of society, the trio concoct an aural speedball of motor city proto-punk cut with power lines of fedback-fuzz and electric psychedelia.

Influenced by the likes of Blue Cheer, The Pink Fairies, Nervous Eaters, and The Damned, the band weave together a spellbinding tapestry of hardened punk rage and nefarious nihilism, no better exemplified than on their storming debut single, ‘Do you Believe’:

“Just think of it as a fairy-tale hellscape of children being dragged into the woods and eaten alive by goblins and trolls,” explains Clise. “It sounds like a proto-punk fuzzed out crazy horse… don’t forget to check under the bed.”

Recorded at Rat Shack by Robert Muinos (Saskwatch) and mastered by John Davis (The Damned) at Metropolis Mastering, there’s no doubt that Stepmother are set to carve a mark in the annals of rock history with Planet Brutalicon. The question is will you be joining them for the ride?

Planet Brutalicon is released worldwide on 29th September 2023 via Tee Pee Records and can be pre-ordered HERE: https://teepeerecords.com/products/stepmother-planet-brutalicon-lp-out-9-29-2023

TRACK LISTING:
1. Fade Away
2. Settle Down
3. Scream for Death
4. The Game
5. One Way Out
6. Do You Believe
7. Dead and Gone
8. Here Comes the End
9. Waiting for the Axe
10. Stalingrad
11. Signed DC
12. El Gusano

STEPMOTHER:
Graham Clise – Guitar, Vocals
Rob Muinos – Bass, Vocals
Sam Rains – Drums

https://www.instagram.com/thee_stepmother/
https://stepmother1.bandcamp.com/

http://teepeerecords.com/
https://www.instagram.com/teepeerecords/
https://www.facebook.com/teepeerecords/

Stepmother, “Do You Believe”

Stepmother, Stepmother EP (2022)

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