Mos Generator Release Forging Behind 2002-2012 Compilation LP

Posted in Whathaveyou on April 16th, 2024 by JJ Koczan

Mos Generator

Today — I think maybe right now — Mos Generator release Forging Behind 2002-2012, a compilation LP of material taken from the decade listed. That covers the era from their 2002 self-titled debut (reissue review here) through 2005’s Nasoni-issued The Late Great Planet Earth, 2007’s Songs for Future Gods (which was on Roadburn Records and Small Stone), and their 2012 Ripple Music post-hiatus resurgence, Nomads (review here). Also included is the harmony-laced “Dyin’ Blues” from the 2007 10″ EP Tales From the Vault, which saw new life in 2021 as The Lantern (review here) on Argonauta Records. Long and winding road, as the fella said.

Its tracks assembled and newly mastered by founding guitarist/vocalist, producer and bandleader Tony Reed, the stated intention of Forging Behind 2002-2012 is to simplify Mos Generator‘s back catalog a bit for people just getting to know their work. In 2020, the Strange Powers comp LP did likewise for 2014’s Electric Mountain Majesty (review here), 2016’s Abyssinia (review here) and 2018’s Shadowlands (review here) — all three of which first came out on Listenable Records — which took them into the Mk. II lineup of Reed, bassist Sean Booth and drummer Jono Garrett. On Forging Behind, it’s all the original trio: Reed, bassist Scooter Haslip and drummer Shawn Johnson.

OKAY… That’s a lot of info. A lot of text in bold. A lot of ‘review here’ links. I get it. Densely packed. But something else you need to know going into Forging Behind is that the original trio lineup — the band that first made these songs; Mk. I — is still active. In the promo info below, Reed says all these songs are in rotation for the current live set. The Mk. II lineup? Also still active. That’s right, kids. Mos Generator have split the timeline. My understanding is both incarnations of Mos Generator are writing for new studio albums, which is a dizzying thought even in the context of Reed‘s generally furious work ethic. Their most recent studio LP, Time//Wounds (review here), came out in Dec. 2022.

So what Forging Behind 2002-2012 is also doing is giving background to whatever it might ultimately be that surfaces from the ReedHaslipJohnson three-piece, and providing a gateway for those who discovered the band after they came back in the 2010s to dig into the output from their original run. How it differs from 2008’s 2LP/CD comp Destroy! The Mos Generator 2001-2008 is of course the years it covers — Nomads didn’t exist yet and it’s become a landmark for them — the new master, and the idea of being curated around the songs they play now as a single-LP/DL release. 300 vinyls.

And if you do get the download version, one last thing to note is that it’s Reed‘s own vinyl rip, not a straight digital transfer. Probably took a little longer to get together, but a cool idea that not everybody would think of doing.

They remain a treasure of the American heavy rock underground:

mos generator forging behind

Mos Generator Forging Behind 2002 – 2012

Forging Behind is a compilation of songs released between 2002 and 2012 and is kind of a “young person’s guide” to the early years of the band. Forging Behind can also be considered a companion album to Strange Powers released in 2020. Strange Powers was a compilation of songs from the three albums released on Listenable Records between 2014 and 2018 and together, these two albums make a comprehensive overview of highlights from the band’s career. All of the songs on Forging Behind are still in rotation in the current live set so this makes it easy for fans to choose an album to buy if they liked the set but aren’t familiar with the band.

Label: Music Abuse Records
Units pressed: 300
Vinyl colors: Black (no variants)

All sonic manipulations by Reed at ‘Vault’, Temple Sound, & HeavyHead Recording Co. between 2001 and 2012. Mastered by Reed at HeavyHead January 2024. Front cover art by Lex Waterreus. Artwork layout by #3. All songs written by Reed. Arranged by Mos Generator.

Side A
1. SILVER OLYMPUS (3:58)
(from the album Songs for Future Gods released September 2007)
2. DYIN’ BLUES (4:53)
(from the album Tales from the Vault released May 2007)
3. LONELY ONE KENOBI (single version) (4:28)
(from the album Nomads released October 2012)
4. ON THE EVE (promo edit) (5:44)
(from the album The Late Great Planet Earth released October 2005)

Side B
1. LUMBO ROCK (3:57)
(from the album Mos Generator released April 2002)
2. STEP UP (4:51)
(from the album Nomads released October 2012)
3. NANDV (3:37)
(from the album Songs for Future Gods released September 2007)
4. THIS IS THE GIFT OF NATURE (7:25)
(from the album Nomads released October 2012)

Mos Generator on Forging Behind:
TONY REED – guitar / vocals / keys
SHAWN JOHNSON – drums
SCOOTER HASLIP – bass

http://www.facebook.com/MosGenerator
https://www.instagram.com/mos_generator
http://www.mosgenerator.bandcamp.com
https://heavyheadsuperstore.storenvy.com/

Mos Generator, Forging Behind 2002-2012 promo video

Mos Generator, Forging Behind 2002-2012 (2024)

Tags: , , , ,

Rocky Mountain Riff Fest 2024 Announces Lineup

Posted in Whathaveyou on February 2nd, 2024 by JJ Koczan

You can see in the lineup for Rocky Mountain Riff Fest 2024 that the festival, which is set for April 20 in Kalispell, Montana, is expanding its reach. Yes, Wizzerd, Sorcia, Merlock, The Gray Goo and Spliffripper have played before — The Old Ones played Erosion Festival in 2016; I remember thinking that looked awesome and it did — but returning parties are accompanied by newcomers like Lord VelvetChokesetter and Hot Milk and the Flower Pallets, who play the pre-show, and I think they’ll have two stages going and Mos Generator are popping eastward from their home in Port Orchard, Washington, which is probably like a 40-hour drive or something, to headline. I’d go to this in a second, man. That’s a good way to spend a day, and you’re in Kalispell, which looks gorgeous.

The full lineup was announced on social media — I know, crazy, right? — and notes a venue change that looks like it’ll actually be pretty cool having it all in one place. Dig:

Rocky mountain riff fest 2024

FULL LINEUP HAS ARRIVED!

We’re excited to reveal the lineup for #rmrf2024! We are welcoming back some heavy hitters, and introducing some bands to the Flathead valley for the first time.

-MOS GENERATOR-
-SORCIA-
-LORD VELVET-
-MERLOCK-
-CHOKESETTER-
-WIZZERD-
-GREASE CULT-
-THE GRAY GOO-
-THE OLD ONES-
-SURFBAT-
-SCHTICKY-
-SPLIFFRIPPER-
-FREE DRUGS-
-HOT MILK AND THE FLOWER PALLETS-

In years past, Riff Fest has been a block party between the legendary @oldschoolrecords134 and the Eagles in downtown Kalispell. Facing the closure of the 1st Street location of OSR, we are now taking over two levels of the Eagles! It’s going to be a party in the whole building, with our traditional free pre-party at the Glacier Park VFW.

We are also proud to bring on some local sponsors who are stoked to help bring some killer music to the valley!

-ALTITUDE-
-WHEATON’S-
-BIAS BREWING-

Spread the word, and see everybody in April!
🏔🤘🏔

Artwork by @isaacpasswaterillustration

Sorcia, Lost Season (2023)

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Mos Generator Release Remasters for Electric Mountain Majesty, Abyssinia and Shadowlands

Posted in Whathaveyou on January 10th, 2024 by JJ Koczan

mos generator

This was a pretty special run for Mos Generator, from when they signed to Listenable Records after coming back in 2012 with Nomads (review here) on Ripple Music through when they issued Shadowlands (review here) in 2018. Led as ever by founding guitarist, vocalist, sometimes-keyboardist, producer, etc. Tony Reed (also Big Scenic Nowhere and a veritable slew of others), the band had revamped its lineup and those were years of heavy touring and momentum on their side from one to the next, through 2014’s Electric Mountain Majesty (review here) and 2016’s Abyssinia (review here), the latter of which introduced bassist Sean Booth and drummer Jono Garrett.

But Mos Generator, and by extension Reed (and actually I think it’s the other way around), are always busy. In 2022, they released Time//Wounds (review here) and quickly set about tweaking its mix and master, the darker and more progressive feel providing ample sandbox space for it, and if you don’t follow their Bandcamp or socials or however it is you follow, it’s worth doing so for the off-album tracks, live releases, demos and other odds and ends that always show up in Reed‘s ongoing prolific mania. If you’d keep up with that, you’ll find three embeds below from their site. I’m not sure if the new Listenable pressings are of the 2022 remasters from the band’s Bandcamp or what, but chances are you’re reading this on a phone, so I don’t think we’re exactly splitting hairs on audio intricacies sitting in the exact mathematically calculated space between two giant studio monitor speakers either. Enjoy some songs.

Alright, I’m falling asleep as I type (it’s early), so it must be time for the PR wire:

mos-generator-electric-mountain-majesty

Hello and Happy New Year. This year starts out with an exciting announcement.

Our studio albums recorded for Listenable Records (France) between 2014 and 2018 are now back in print. All three have been newly remastered and sound stellar. Along with the new masters, there have been minor changes to the artwork and original audio. We are so stoked that these are available again. They are some of the most important albums in our evolution. We hope you enjoy them as well.
They are all available on vinyl in the corresponding digital link here on bandcamp.

1. Electric Mountain Majesty (2014)
– Transparent yellow vinyl
– Remastered by Reed 2023. The audio on this is vastly improved by the new remaster.

2. Abyssinia (2016)
– Milky clear vinyl
– Remastered by Reed 2023
– Updated artwork with lyric insert (the original pressing had no lyric sheet)
– Original intro to ‘Red Canyons’ restored on this master

3. Shadowlands (2018)
– Transparent purple vinyl
– Remastered by Reed 2023
– 2020 mix of ‘Drowning in Your Loving Cup’ included on this master

European fans can shop here for better shipping rate
shop-listenable.net/en/search?controller=search&s=mos+generator

Cheers,
Tony/MG

Mos Generator:
Tony Reed: guitar/vocals/mellotron
Jono Garrett: drums
Sean Booth: bass

http://www.facebook.com/MosGenerator
https://www.instagram.com/mos_generator
http://www.mosgenerator.bandcamp.com
https://heavyheadsuperstore.storenvy.com/

Mos Generator, Electric Mountain Majesty (2014)

Mos Generator, Abyssinia (2016)

Mos Generator, Shadowlands (2018)

Tags: , , ,

Rain City Doom Fest Announces Lineup for Dec. 16

Posted in Whathaveyou on October 16th, 2023 by JJ Koczan

An all-dayer set for Saturday, Dec. 16, at El Corazon and Funhouse in Seattle, Washington, Rain City Doom Fest was announced late last week by the bands. There are eight of those, which is probably plenty, considering you’ve got Matt Pike bringing his Pike vs. the Automaton solo band through with direct support from Witch Ripper and Mos Generator. Un, Sorcia, Sun Crow, Grim Earth and Mother Root round out, and if you know all of those bands or you don’t — Sorcia in July put out a record called Lost Season (review here); Witch Ripper gleaned fervent hyperbole around their The Flight After the Fall (review here) this Spring; Sun Crow are working toward their next LP; the list goes on — but if I’ve earned any trust in the last 14 years, I hope maybe you’ll take my word for it when I say it’s a solid lineup between established and newer acts, and that I hope it continues to be a regular thing.

Because a homegrown heavy fest isn’t anything to sneeze at and it’s not easy to put together, learning many invariably crucial lessons the only way they can be learned: by doing the thing. I didn’t know it when I first posted the lineup, but Jessica Brasch of Sorcia books this one and it’s been going for three years. This is the first time it will be at two venues — I think — and it remains a killer bill.

Have at it:

Rain city doom fest

El Corazon & The Funhouse present:

RAIN CITY DOOM FEST 2023

2 stages, 8 bands. Showcasing some of the heaviest music in the PNW and beyond.

Pike Vs The Automaton
Witch Ripper
Mos Generator
Un
Sorcia
Sun Crow
Grim Earth
Mother Root

Saturday, Dec. 16

Doors @ 6pm | Show @ 7pm
$20 ADV | $25 DOS | 21+

(#127903#)️ on sale Friday 10/13 at 9am

Poster: Brian Kim

Event page: https://facebook.com/events/s/rain-city-doom-fest-2023/1021960045617875/

Sorcia, Lost Season (2023)

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Mos Generator to Release Heavy Sevens & Spaced Oddities Compilation; Time//Wounds Reissue Coming Soon

Posted in Whathaveyou on July 6th, 2023 by JJ Koczan

Mos Generator releasing a thing can be news even if it’s not really a huge surprise. Led by the e’er prolific Tony Reed — also of Big Scenic Nowhere, Hot Spring Water, Constance Tomb, ex-Stone Axe, on and on — the Port Orchard, Washington, heavy rockers have posted 2022 remasters on their Bandcamp for  2018’s Shadowlands (review here), 2016’s Abyssinia (review here) and 2014’s Electric Mountain Majesty (review here), representing the most productive stretch in terms of full-length records in the band’s career, though along with studio LPs there’s always EPs, singles, and other odds and ends the band have going.

To wit, Heavy Sevens and Spaced Oddities is a compilation of off-album tracks from various releases over a 20-year span. That and a reissue of their latest album, 2022’s Time//Wounds, will be out through Glory or Death Records, deepening an association that’s been in place for several years, as Mos Generator has taken part in tribute releases for the label before — why I don’t write about those whole-album or best-of-whoever tributes more: it just got to be too much, there’s like a zillion of them, and as cool and novel as those are, with the hours in the day that I have, it seems more suitable to me to write about actually-new music — and Reed‘s Hot Spring Water project put out their 2022 album, In Session, via Glory or Death as well.

Release dates? I don’t know. They put up test pressings over the weekend, signed and so on, so I’d imagine there will be more word soon. In any case, one to keep an eye out for:

mos generator glory or death

Greetings all, just letting you know that we have a few things coming out at the end of summer through Glory or Death Records.

First is ‘HEAVY SEVENS & SPACED ODDITIES’. This is a single LP collection of the original songs from our 7″ singles and also a few audio oddities from 2001-2021. Second is the Glory or Death version of our last album ‘Time//Wounds’. This version has different art layout and mastering and will be available in some different variants. Unlike the Music Abuse version which was only available in black vinyl. We will have some standard editions available on our bandcamp but if you would like to pre-order or find all the limited versions please go to:
gloryordeathrecords.bandcamp.com
www.gloryordeathrecords.com/

Signed test pressing go live Sunday July 2nd @ 12pm CST

Here is the tracklisting for the Heavy Sevens album. Music Abuse will be releasing it on Cd with extra tracks.

– Gus’s Boogie
– You Bring the Wine, I’ll Bring the Weather
– Step up (7″ Version)
– Godhand Iommi
– Downer Rock ’89
– Wicked Willow (rsd 7″ Version)
– Wroomb
– Tracks (tall Bodies)*
– Serpent’s Glance
– There’s No Return from Nowhere (video Version)
– Gamma/hydra (7″ Version)
– Nowarning (flexi Mix)

Mos Generator:
Tony Reed: guitar/vocals/mellotron
Jono Garrett: drums
Sean Booth: bass

http://www.facebook.com/MosGenerator
https://www.instagram.com/mos_generator
http://www.mosgenerator.bandcamp.com
https://heavyheadsuperstore.storenvy.com/

https://www.facebook.com/Gloryordeathrecords/
http://gloryordeathrecords.bigcartel.com/
https://gloryordeathrecords.bandcamp.com/
https://www.gloryordeathrecords.com/shop/

Mos Generator, Time//Wounds (2022)

Tags: , , , , , ,

Mos Generator: New Pressing of Time//Wounds Available

Posted in Whathaveyou on February 15th, 2023 by JJ Koczan

Released in the waning hours of 2022, Time//Wounds (review here) feels like an especially bold album for Mos Generator in terms of style. Yeah, the Port Orchard heavy rockers led by prolific madman guitarist/vocalist/producer Tony Reed have long since delved into progressive sounds, but never with such a surety of purpose as they do on their latest work. It’s not about “going prog” or something like that, like it’s 1974 and all of a sudden a what had been blues band sounds like Yes or some such, but about incorporating a new range of scope to Mos Generator‘s well established penchant for songcraft and melody. Not the kind of record a band would make out of the gate, rather, it is the beneficiary of the years and decades of experience of Reed in and out of the band as well as the chemistry he shares with bassist Sean Booth and drummer Jono Garrett.

They’ve settled down touring for the last several years, even since such a thing became possible again, and fair enough for how hard they went from around 2014-2018, but as they take more chances on this record, it’s satisfying in a way to see them meet with success on the listener end. That would seem to be what’s underlying this announcement of a second pressing of Time//Wounds since, inevitably, the reason they’re making more records is because they sold through the first pressing and think people will continue to buy. No doubt that’s the case, and bonus for fixing typos in the lyric sheet. As someone who regularly corrects spelling and grammatical errors from, say, a decade ago, on this site, I find it easy to appreciate that kind of thing, frustrating as it is that there’s no shortage of them wanting correction.

In any case, good for Mos Gen, and though it’s only been about three months since the record came out, you know Reed will have something new on tap for this year as well, whatever form that might take.

Here’s the band’s update:

Mos Generator Time Wounds

Hello friends. For those of you who didn’t get a copy of Time//Wounds on vinyl before it sold out or you just like to collect different versions of the same record…the second pressing of Time//Wounds arrived at my door yesterday and I’ve put it up in the store. 200 copies on black vinyl.

It has the same audio as the 1st pressing but there are many changes to the artwork layout of the second edition (including the fixing of MANY typos on the lyric sheet). We’ve been getting some amazing feedback on this album and we truly appreciate the support of people buying it and letting us (and the social media public) know how they feel about it.

Mos Generator:
Tony Reed: guitar/vocals/mellotron
Jono Garrett: drums
Sean Booth: bass

http://www.facebook.com/MosGenerator
https://www.instagram.com/mos_generator
http://www.mosgenerator.bandcamp.com
https://heavyheadsuperstore.storenvy.com/

https://www.facebook.com/palewizard/
https://www.instagram.com/palewizard/
https://palewizard.bigcartel.com/
https://palewizardrecords.bandcamp.com/

Mos Generator, Time//Wounds (2022)

Tags: , , , , , ,

Album Review: Mos Generator, Time//Wounds

Posted in Reviews on December 2nd, 2022 by JJ Koczan

Mos Generator Time Wounds

Time//Wounds is the fifth album since Port Orchard, Washington’s Mos Generator returned from the ether of hiatus with 2012’s Nomads (review here). The second era of the band is now longer than the first, as and as six tracks of Time//Wounds — issued through Music Abuse and Pale Wizard Records following a trilogy on Listenable Records in 2014’s Electric Mountain Majesty (review here), 2016’s Abyssinia (review here) and 2018’s Shadowlands (review here) — time matters.

Accompanying this return to activity in terms of full studio LPs has been a glutton’s delight of short releases, splits, self-bootlegs, unearthed demos, one offs, a solo album from founding guitarist/vocalist/keyboardist/producer Tony Reed, as well as several other Reed-inclusive side-projects, including Big Scenic NowhereConstance TombHot Spring Water, in-depth work with Australia’s Seedy Jeezus as producer and player, and more besides. As stretches of time go, it’s been a good one to be a Mos Generator fan.

Since Electric Mountain Majesty and particularly across recent EPs like 2019’s Spontaneous Combustions (review here), 2016’s The Firmament, and even the demos that showed up on their 2020 split with Di’Aul (review here), the band have moved in multifaceted fashion toward a more progressive approach from their foundation in more straightforward classic heavy rock. True, they’ve never lacked ambition, and they’ve done strongly thematic work before such as the concept album The Late Great Planet Earth in 2005, but particularly as Reed has grown more comfortable with various synth instrumentation and worked to flesh out his own vocal arrangements, the direction the band — completed by Sean Booth on bass and Jono Garrett, whose contributions aren’t to be minimized in how these recordings sound; I don’t know their dynamic in the studio, but it’s safe to say nothing is ending up on a Mos Generator record that Reed didn’t approve even if for diplomacy — but 20 years on from their self-titled debut (reissue review here), Time//Wounds seems to complete a turn toward a vision of performance-rooted progressive heavy rock that is both classic in substance and very much Mos Generator‘s and Reed‘s own.

Influenced by a deeper knowledge of original-era heavy and prog than one could ever aspire to amass, as well as his own roots as a player in more punkish fare — looking at you, “Getting Good at Revenge,” which reminds of bit of Mos Generator doing Fu Manchu at their own most punk — and indeed the work Reed has done as a songwriter to bring the band to this point, the 43 minutes of Time//Wounds carry something of an exploratory feel for the finished versions being created using what were the demo tracks for the songs.

This process has been a more than a year long front to back, and accompanying the rawer underpinnings is, instrumentally and vocally, the most complex material Mos Generator have released. To wit, the Opethian bridge(s) of partially-acoustic second cut “(Don’t) Wait Until Tomorrow” or the 14-minute finale “Until We Meet Again (Parts I-IV),” which indeed plays out structurally in movements flowing one into the next. That these moves take place alongside the prog-funky keyboard in “Burn Away the Years,” which is almost garage rock in its strum, is emblematic of the stylistic sprawl brought to bear under the heading of Time//WoundsKing CrimsonMotorpsychoMC5Beatles and who else? It doesn’t even matter since it all comes out as Mos Generator anyhow.

mos generator

That, as it happens, is a major unifying factor throughout the songs. Another is an abiding sense of melancholy — certainly present in the cover photo by singer-songwriter Conny Ochs as well — that’s present from the less-than-thrilled-sounding opening verse of “Aja-Minor” (premiered here), “…Don’t lose your time/You ain’t got none…,” onward. Immediately, the engagement with time is at the forefront, and by the time the hook comes around with layers of Reed almost taunting himself, “Time wounds/What you got what you got in your head/N-n-nothing,” the inevitable connection between temporality and mortality is writ large without being said at all. If this is Mos Generator confronting death, they do so in almost manic but inherently still plotted fashion.

Time is almost everywhere throughout — “(Don’t) Wait Until Tomorrow,” “Burn Away the Years,” the also-linear-structured just-under-eight-minute penultimate track “Only Yesterday,” which likely starts the side B stretch-out that continues in “Until We Meet Again (Parts I-IV)” and feels born of a similar process. Shadowlands was likewise not without its darker streak, and I suppose one might say the same of the preceding records in this era of the band too, to some degree or other, but the contrast born with Time//Wounds is striking. Some of these melodies, tones and grooves are bright and near-soaring, and they carry with them an existential weight that goes even beyond the more intense shove of “Getting Good at Revenge.”

It’s not necessarily a pall this casts over Time//Wounds, but it’s a shadow in the tapestry. And as Mos Generator adventure into new ideas in terms of their sound as a unit and in Reed‘s songwriting, the seemingly lighthearted strum of “Burn Away the Years” — “Never give in and never look back at the smoke” — and the churning layers of synthesizer and guitar that ensue want nothing for clarity of purpose. It is Mos Generator growing older, weirder, but maintaining the surefootedness of craft that has always been a an essential component of the band’s work. Time wounds and time heals in “Aja-Minor,” and the lyrics of “Burn Away the Years” seem reluctantly reconciled to being “another birthday song,” but even if the album holds a scope that can feel disjointed at first glance, there’s always a course charted beneath the surface, and on the most fundamental level, the songs are too thoughtful and intricately made to be anything other than progressive rock.

I expect some listeners won’t know what to make of it — even longtime followers might be surprised — but those who find themselves able to invest properly in the mission and the message here, a record that seems to describe the urgency of its own making even before the first track is done while also stretching out in ways the band never has before, will find it nothing but a triumph. That won’t be everybody, but it will definitely be some, and with what ReedBooth and Garrett conjure in these tracks, I feel like Mos Generator have never been less predictable for what might come next. Especially given their history, let alone the fleeting nature of all things, that in itself seems worthy of appreciating. This is the output of a master of the form refusing to not challenge himself. In other words, the way art moves forward.

Mos Generator, “Aja-Minor”

Mos Generator on Facebook

Mos Generator on Instagram

Mos Generator on Bandcamp

HeavyHead webstore

Pale Wizard Records on Instagram

Pale Wizard Records on Facebook

Pale Wizard Records store

Pale Wizard Records on Bandcamp

Tags: , , , , , ,

Mos Generator Premiere “Aja-Minor”; Announce Time//Wounds Due Dec. 16

Posted in audiObelisk, Whathaveyou on October 27th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

mos generator

Mos Generator will release their awaited full-length, Time//Wounds, on Dec. 16 through Music Abuse Records and Pale Wizard Records. And as I tell you it’s been four years since the Tony Reed-led, Port Orchard, Washington-based heavy rock trio released their last album, 2018’s Shadowlands (review here), understand that the count of years comes with the caveat of a steady stream of EPs, remasters, compilation appearances, live recordings, side-projects from Reed and sundry other one-offs. I’ve said on multiple occasions that Tony Reed — joined on Time//Wounds by bassist Sean Booth and drummer Jono Garrett after briefly reuniting the original lineup of the band this year for a couple live shows; wonder if they were recorded — has a work ethic that I consider deeply inspiring on a personal level in that he wakes up each morning and hits it. These are the levels of productivity to which one aspires.

Time//Wounds states its central themes plainly, and “Aja-Minor” (premiering below) arrives as the opening track and the leadoff for a deeply progressive and intricately arranged collection of progressive but classically structured heavy rock. Songs like the Mos Generator Time Woundsacoustic-led “(Don’t) Wait Until Tomorrow” and the subsequent melodic roller “Burn Away the Years” lay out the premise in lines like, “Until it’s over, never look behind,” etc., amid intricate fuzz and fluidly arranged keyboard/Mellotron. I’d be surprised if “Getting Good on Revenge” isn’t released as a single after “Aja-Minor” since it’s a rocker and the component barn-burner, setting up the more extended reach of “Only Yesterday” and the 14-minute “Until We Meet Again,” parts of which, if they came from Belgium, would probably be hailed as groundbreaking post-black metal but are nonetheless a grand unfolding that is distinctly the band’s own in that it is executed with a surprising lack of pretense for something that’s both so long and so grandiose in style.

This is basically an album announcement — SO HEY, there’s an album coming! Here’s a song off it! I sincerely hope you enjoy and look forward to having Time//Wounds as a late highlight for 2022, because that’s exactly what it’s gonna be.

Some comment from Reed follows the song below:

Mos Generator, “Aja-Minor” track premiere

Tony Reed on “Aja-Minor”:

Like many of the songs on the Time//Wounds album, Aja-Minor is about time and the decisions that are made as the years pass by. I feel like the lyrics are a message to the young telling them not to waste a moment in this life. Musically, the track goes through many changes and it’s hard for me to pinpoint direct influences, but I think the initial spark for the song comes from the fact that I am using a tuning that Joni Mitchell uses on her Hejira album. Using that tuning allowed for chord voicings I wouldn’t normally use and helped to create a piece of music I’m very satisfied with. I think it’s a condensed representation of the rest of the album. Progressive rock with pop elements.

From the album “Time//Wounds”. Coming December 16th on Music Abuse Records (vinyl) & Pale Wizard Records (cd)

Mos Generator:
Tony Reed: guitar/vocals/mellotron
Jono Garrett: drums
Sean Booth: bass

Mos Generator on Facebook

Mos Generator on Instagram

Mos Generator on Bandcamp

HeavyHead webstore

Pale Wizard Records on Instagram

Pale Wizard Records on Facebook

Pale Wizard Records store

Pale Wizard Records on Bandcamp

Tags: , , , , , ,