Posted in Whathaveyou on July 10th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Though I whiffed on reviewing it at the time — typical; I’ll close a week with it at some point and I never claimed to be relevant — Khan‘s 2023 offering, Creatures, was a landmark realization from the trio. A rousing, hyperbole-laced reception heralding a new voice in heavy psychedelia, weighted, lush, and their own. Pretty much the ideal.
They’ve been on tour since — apart from the time they’ve spent making their impending, yet-untitled fourth album, due out Oct. 1, anyhow — in Australia and Europe. And I think I read they moved to Berlin? Did I make that up? Or somewhere in Germany? I could’ve sworn I saw that, but I’m not 100 percent, so don’t take it as fact. Either way, they’re back on the road in Europe next month, starting Aug. 1 at Krach am Bach and making their way to Hoflärm, with a bonus gig at Merleyn in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, after. You might recall Temple Fang made a live record there one time.
Khan‘s announcement of the album was light on details, to put it mildly. Presumably things like recording info, art, tracks, maybe some blah-blah PR background, let alone a single, will come when the preorders start, but they put up a video with a pretty melody and an immediate sense of instrumental fluidity, and a minute of new Khan music might just be the coolest thing that happens today.
Have at it:
Album #4 announcement
New album out 01.10.25!
Stay tuned for more details and presale information coming very soon.
đ¨EUROPEAN TOUR – PART 2 DATES đ¨
We’re pumped to be coming back to Europe in August supporting REZN and playing Krach am Bach and Hoflärm 2025!
Cheers to Full Contact Safari Records & Tyler from Atonal Music Agency for putting this together for us!
01.08 Krach am Bach Festival Beelen DE 02.08 Neue Zekunft* Berlin DE 03.08 Voodoo* Warsaw PL 05.08 Chemiefabrik* Dresden DE 06.08 Kuba* Jena DE 08.08 Rockhouse* Salzburg AT 10.08 Backstage* Munich DE 12.08 Supersonic Paris FR 14.08 Hoflärm Festival Seelbach DE 15.08 Merleyn* Nijmegen NL * supporting REZN
Posted in Whathaveyou on July 7th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
If I missed a preorder link for Seedy Jeezus‘ forthcoming full-length, Damned to the Depths, I apologize. I did my best and am glad to add any locales, labels, etc., left out. So far as I know, it’ll be out through the band’s own Blown Music in Australia, Lay Bare in Europe and Echodelick Records in the US. Not to spoil it or anything, but the record is worth every bit of backing it can get.
Streaming now is the not-at-all-starting-off-light “Is This All There Is?,” which opens the band’s most complex and emotive release to-date. It’s a jam, a classic, bluesy jam, with all due shred one might expect for a band that now features Tony Reed (Mos Generator, lately of Pentagram) in the lineup with Lex Waterreus. Informed by prog rock, Seedy Jeezus remain earthbound in their groove with the e’er solid, fleet rhythm section of bassist Paul Crick and drummer Mark Sibson, and with Reed at the helm of the recording, mix and master, of course it all comes through clear and vibrant in sound.
As such, when you dig into “Is This All There Is?” and the six-minute track is a front-to-back journey in itself, don’t be surprised as you look at the tracklisting and see the closer is a seven-part epic split across different movements. I wasn’t kidding when I said ‘most complex’ above, but trust me when I say you can handle it.
The below info comes from Bandcamp, and I hope to have more to come before this one is out, so stay tuned:
Seedy Jeezus are proud to announce the release of their long-awaited third studio album â their most emotionally charged and sonically expansive work to date.
Six years in the making, the album marks a significant evolution for the band, which features Paul Crick, Mark Sibson, Lex Waterreus, and Tony Reed. Known for his work with Mos Generator, Big Scenic Nowhere, and Pentagram, Reed not only joins the band as a full member but also takes the helm as producer, shaping the sound .
Thematically, the album delves deep into the human experience of death, with one side focused on grief and the other on mourning, weaving together dark psychedelia, heavy riffage, and introspective lyricism.
The album artwork was created by acclaimed French painter Michel Henricot, known for his emotionally intense and often surrealist works exploring human psychology, mortality, and the unconscious. Michel had listened to early demos and liked what he had heard and the idea of his art being a visual extension to the music.. Tragically, Michel passed away before the album was completed, making his contribution a lasting tribute to his talent and vision.
The record also features a haunting guest performance by Kasinda Faase on flute, adding an ethereal layer to the track The Hollow Earth.
Seedy Jeezus invite listeners into an immersive sonic journey â a bold and deeply personal statement forged in patience, vision, and creative fire.
Tracklisting: 1. Is That All There Is? 06:27 2. Golden Miles 04:54 3. Acid in the Blood 03:20 4. The Hollow Earth 06:26 5. The Mourning Sea part I 02:00 6. The Mourning Sea part II 02:48 7. The Mourning Sea part III 03:48 8. The Mourning Sea part IV 03:03 9. The Mourning Sea part V 02:01 10. The Mourning Sea part VI 03:37 11. The Mourning Sea part VII 01:58
Production Credits: Produced by: Tony Reed Recorded at: Studio One B, Melbourne Mixed by: Tony Reed Mastered by: Tony Reed Engineering: Brent Quirk
Art & Design: Album Artwork by: Michel Henricot Photography: Stephen Boxshall Layout/Design: Mr Frumpy
Band Lineup: Lex Waterreus â Guitars, Vocals, Synths Paul Crick â Bass, Mellotron, Synths Mark Sibson â Drums, Percussion Tony Reed- Guitars, Synths
Posted in Whathaveyou on June 2nd, 2025 by JJ Koczan
I don’t know when the hell it’s coming out, but you can put Light Rite, which will be the debut studio full-length from Melbourne-based psychedelic explorers Spawn, right on my most-anticipated-of-whenever-the-hell list, thank you very much. Last heard from with the 2021 live release Live at Moonah Arts Collective (review here), the group are giving an eight-minute sampling of the upcoming album with the new single “Ascension,” streaming audio and video below.
Can you guess the reason I included both the YouTube and Bandcamp streams? Because I think you should listen to the song in whatever way you prefer — the point is listening. Darkly progressive melody and a mounting atmosphere of doom pervade the initial folkish sweetness, and they end up in a bit of a swaggering riff that’s like a slow, memorable strut. I’m curious where else the album will go, so mark this a win for sure.
All the info below came from Bandcamp and YouTube. Just listen to the track, for crying out loud:
âHi! Dear Spawnies! Please enjoy this new single Ascension, a tribute to our Jewel Gold! Happy Ascending!!!â
LYRICS: Time, pulls us further apart But love, brings us together Time, weakens our immortal hearts But love, transcends both space and time Cosmic strings of our souls are intertwined Beyond control of the human mind Among each other we will always find That none of us are really left behind For I am yours and you are mine I will find a way to end both space and time For I am yours and you are mine I will find a way to end both space and time Time Time Time Time Time Time Time Time Time Time Time Time Time Time Time Time Time, pulls us further apart But time, brings us together Time, weakens our immortal hearts But love, transcends both space and time
Recorded & Mixed by Paul Maybury Mastered by Nao Anzai
Video created by Tahlia Palmer Live footage provided by KingBean & Coopodon Lighting by Electric Light Brigade
SPAWN: Lenz Ma: Guitar, Vocals and Theremin Madi O’Shea: Guitar and Vocals Andie Kate: Bass and Vocals Dr Sarita McHarg: Sitar and Vocals Rhiannon Smith: Drums Angelique Forsyth: Keys Jewel Gold: Lyrics
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 30th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
If you’ve been waiting for Melbourne psych rockers Khan to announce European tour dates since they started to be confirmed for Desertfest in London and Berlin and Sonic Whip in the Netherlands, well, yeah, me too. There indeed will be a few club shows around those fest appearances and one in Belgium at the Dunk!festival, but not a ton, and Khan are accordingly teasing more to come “later in the year.”
When Khan traveled to Europe in 2023 supporting their then-new album, Creatures, reveling in an excited reception to the album and the band’s heavy wash more generally, it was during the Fall festival season. I wouldn’t expect much to change there, but you never know — I’ve seen a couple tours for November and December as booking companies look at opening up late-year calendar nights for club shows. I’m curious if it’ll work, but it’ll be a few years before you could know either way. And that doesn’t tell you when Khan will actually hit Europe for the second time this year — the truth is I don’t know and am just speculating — but maybe if you’re the type who likes to travel for shows and don’t really have anything lined up yet for the Fall it’s one to keep an eye on. Hypothetically.
From socials:
đ¨Europe 2025 Tour – Part 1 dates!!đ¨
Yes, that means there’ll be more later in the year but we can’t announce all of them yet sorry!
May 15 – Lippstadt – Zum GĂźterbahnhof Khan @bahnhofskultLive | Do.15.05.2025 | Zum GĂźterbahnhof | Lippstadt
May 16 – Nijmegen – Sonic Whip Sonic Whip 2025
May 18 – London – Desertfest London Desertfest London 2025
May 23 – Berlin – Desertfest Berlin DESERTFEST BERLIN 2025 w/ THE HELLACOPTERS + DINOSAUR JR + ELDER + EYEHATEGOD + SLOMOSA & MANY MORE!
May 24 – Prague – Club Subzero đ KHAN [AUS] + ELBE [CZ] + GORDON COLE [CZ]âŤ
May 25 – Budapest – Robot *Event link coming*
May 26 – Vienna – Arena Khan (aus) + Dogs vs Gods (aut) I Arena Wien
Posted in Whathaveyou on March 27th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
You know how many of these they’re making? Well, probably not yet if you haven’t read the info below, but the answer is 60. Sixty.
That’d be fine if “Lakeland Storm” — the single song broken up across two sides of the notably limited collaborative 7″ from Melbourne weirdo-folky Trappist Afterland and New Zealand psych-folk experimentalist Lamp of the Universe — wasn’t so gosh darn encompassing, but it is, pulling from both sides of its component songwriter team, growing tripper in the A side as it plays out while easing on acoustic strum into a Mellotron-laced contemplation after its soft verses have subsided.
Look. I don’t know that either party will see this — I’m in touch with Craig LOTU sometimes about records and stuff but I wouldn’t presume either he or Roger from Trappist Afterland necessarily catch everything written about their projects — but I’ll say regardless that what comes through most from Lakeland Storm is potential. If I was the bigwig industry fatcat calling the shots on such things, I’d send them back into the studio to come up with six more songs plus a solo interlude from each of them, take the best four or five plus whatever other weirdo noises happened in the process and make an LP. I’m not in charge of that stuff, however. Mostly these days I do the dishes.
But let the potential here be your takeaway, and golly, I hope they do more. The full stream from Trappist Afterland‘s Bandcamp is below, as well as info on how to order if you’re feeling lucky:
Lamp Of The Universe & Trappist Afterland Lakeland Storm Transluscent Red Vinyl 7″ Lathe Cut 60 Copies (Future Grave FG 32) PREORDER
It a delight to announce this superb collaboration from Lamp Of The Universe and Trappist Afterland.
This one had been on the cards for a while and I was really excited to hear the finished results which are really superb. Here we have one long psychedlically enhanced folk track which perfectly blends both artists’ stylings. The track has been split into two parts to fit onto a 7″ 45rpm lathe cut.
Cut onto transluscent red vinyl in an edition of 60 numbered copies. The cover image has a old photograph of Anzacs in the trenches in Gallipoli. Covers printed onto cream 300gsm hammered finish card. Lathes cut by Phil Macy @ 345 RPM. ONE COPY PER PERSON PLEASE. ++++THIS IS A PREORDER WHICH WILL BE HOPEFULLY POSTED/SHIPPED OUT TOWARDS THE END OF APRIL.
Cost as follows: The lathe cut costs ÂŁ15.00 plus the following additional postage/shipping cost: UK = ÂŁ3.00 Europe = ÂŁ5.50 GBP USA & ROW = ÂŁ7.50 GBP Australia = ÂŁ8.75 GBP Paypal to roger.linney@btinternet.com PLEASE CONTACT ME BEFORE ORDERING
Head over to the Reverb Worship group to pre-order.
Posted in Reviews on December 9th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
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:
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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.
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 Garcia, Dandy Brown, David 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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
“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.
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.
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.
Posted in Reviews on September 10th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
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 2 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.
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 2 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 2 in ways that are both meaningful and resonant. As it stands, 2 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.
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 MĂźnster 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 LĂźkaz LĂźnen 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 MĂźnster DE
