Posted in Whathaveyou on March 27th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
The last time I actively engaged with Colour Haze‘s 2008 ninth full-length, All (discussed here), was in 2018, which was the year it turned 10. That was a hell of a week, apparently. I wasn’t sleeping, my dog was dying, The Patient Mrs. was starting a new semester. Maybe I was looking for a bit of comfort, and in that regard, All was probably the right choice.
By 2008, the Munich-based then-trio were already a pivotal presence in the European heavy underground, and All encapsulates a lot of what has been their influence over it in heavy psychedelic song- and jamcraft. Issued through Elektrohasch Schallplatten, of course, it was a sort of third in a (holy) trinity of releases alongside 2004’s suitably declarative Colour Haze (discussed here) and 2006’s mellow masterpiece, Tempel (discussed here). The self-titled had picked up some of the soothing vibe of 2002’s 2LP Los Sounds de Krauts (reissue review here) and expanded greatly on it with attention to detail in tone and melody that pulled away from the harder-shoving rock aspects of some of their prior albums and began a next stage for the band that would continue to flesh out in Tempel and All before 2012’s als0-landmark She Said (review here) began to dive deeper into elements of classic prog, shaping at least in part the work they’ve done since — though I’ll posit 2017’s In Her Garden (review here) as the beginning of another era with the increased focus on keys/synth and their interplay with guitar; golly it would be fun to list this all out sometime.
But whether engaged as a standalone work or the chapter that it is in the narrative of Colour Haze‘s ongoing progression, All was a special moment, fully confident of its execution, situated to be taken as an encompassing entirety, and willing to be beautiful in a way that rock music often is not. It is the kind of record that turns a house into a home.
Along with a new master of the band’s late-2022 album, Sacred (review here), a new double-vinyl for a remastered All is up for preorder now from Elektrohasch, and there’s a CD version too for those of us with storage space issues. Any format you get it on, I don’t think you’re gonna regret it, and that includes hi-res digital. No wrong answer.
Colour Haze also have festival dates and more besides coming up, and one very much looks forward to their appearance later this year at Desertfest New York, which will bring them to the US for just the second time.
Info follows:
Colour Haze – All – DLP
The remastered LP will be delivered in March and can be preordered. The download-files are already from the new masters as well. There is also a Hi-Res version now. Also on CD (remastered) All will be available again soon.
01.04. (DE) Münster | Sputnikhalle, Alterna Sounds Festival 13.04. (AT) Linz | Stadtwerkstatt 14.04. (HR) Zagreb | Mochvara 15.04. (AT) Wien | Arena 14.07. (DE) Erfurt | Stoned From The Underground 15.07. (AT) Stockenboi | Woodstockenboi 18.08. (FR) Volcano Sessions 14.09. (US) New York City | St. Vitus Bar, Desertfest Preparty 15.09. (US) New York City | Knockdown Center, Desertfest 06.10. (DE) München | Backstage, Keep It Low Festival
Posted in Whathaveyou on March 20th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
And so the Fall tourscape continues to unfold. King Buffalo heading abroad again is news, I think. They’re playing RippleFest Texas at the end of September, and between Keep it Low 2023 on Oct. 6-7 and the also-Sound–of–Liberation-affiliated Lazy Bones Festival in Hamburg, for which they were confirmed last week, it looks like they’ll once more spend at least the better part of a month on the road. Good to know these things.
Joining them in this whopper of an announcement is the e’er aggro Mantar, reinvigorated doom legends The Obsessed — who seem to be hitting the touring circuit that much harder with their revamped lineup — the reliably-unhinged Eyehategod, upstart rockers Slomosa, and Humulus, Dirty Sound Magnet, The Moth (who rule and hopefully have a new record coming), Eremit, Lucid Void and masked marauders Iron Walrus. It’s a busy one, but check out the generational blend between the likes of Colour Haze, The Obsessed, Eyehategod and Alabama Thunderpussy and the likes of Slomosa, King Buffalo, and Lucid Void.
Seems to me like we’re in a pretty killer moment of established acts still getting out and releasing quality material (The Obsessed have a new album that hopefully will be out concurrent to this tour) and newer bands on the rise. As the 2020s play out post-pandemic, this may be the shape of the next few years. Let’s learn from the past and support the shit out of the next generation of bands, hmm?
Here’s the latest:
NEW BANDS ADDED TO KEEP IT LOW FESTIVAL 2023
Hey Keepers,
we’re super stoked to present you the latest additions to our Keep It Low line up!
Please welcome to the bill:
MANTAR The Obsessed King Buffalo EYEHATEGOD Slomosa Dirty Sound Magnet Humulus THE MOTH Eremit Lucid Void IRON WALRUS
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 21st, 2023 by JJ Koczan
The ninth edition of the of the Munich-based Keep it Low Festival will be held on Oct. 6 and 7 at Backstage, and it has unveiled the first five acts who will take part. At the top of the bill is hometown heroes Colour Haze, who’ve been a steady presence through the years and are as close to a given as Keep it Low gets. Belzebong, Thronehammer and Daily Thompson between them showcase a range of heavy styles within the genre sphere, none unwelcome on any of Europe’s many, many festival bills. The big surprise of the bunch is Alabama Thunderpussy, who join the lineup for Keep it Low 2023 after playing a reunion show in December of last year (review here) in their native Richmond, Virginia.
I don’t know whether the resurgent ATP will tour Europe or are flying over for this one show, but I wouldn’t be surprised either way. Keep it Low is early in announcing for the Fall season — though it’s not the first to do so; Høstsabbat in Norway has been unveiling its lineup and Desertfest Belgium has been moving toward doing so as well, as it and Switzerland’s Up in Smoke have their dates set — so we’ll see in probably the next two months or so how it’s all going to shake out, who’ll be on tour and when, and so on.
The start of that process is always exciting, though I’ll note that we as a species are moving closer toward a time when festival season doesn’t exist and there’s just something happening every weekend somewhere throughout Europe. I won’t complain when we get there.
Word from Sound of Liberation follows:
Hey Keepers,
we are super excited to present you the first bands for this year’s edition of the Keep It Low festival!
Posted in Features on February 15th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
My thinking here was that these are things Colour Haze would never say about themselves, but that should be said at this point about who they are, what they’ve done over a near-30-year span, and their consistent will to move forward. If you read this site on anything remotely resembling a regular basis, you probably already know they’re an act whose work I treasure on a personal level, and right up to late-2022’s Sacred (review here) — and as it says below — they are singular in my mind. A once-in-a-generation kind of band.
With a long-awaited return to the US slated for later this year at Desertfest New York (info here), I was asked to write a kind of general bio, which of course was a big yes. It’s less a comment on the substance of their whole body of work than a look at where they’re at after a few changes over the last several years, but hopefully it gets some of the point across of how special they are.
I’m honestly putting it here more for my own posterity than anything else, but here’s the bio I wrote, put in PR wire blue basically for form’s sake:
Over more than the last 25 years, Munich, Germany’s Colour Haze have made themselves an institution in underground music. They are progenitors of a style of heavy psychedelia that has influenced two generations of players and counting, marked by warm tonality, flowing rhythms, and immersive melody, embodying a jam spirit while remaining rooted in classic progressive rock.
Led by founding guitarist/vocalist Stefan Koglek and longtime drummer Manfred Merwald, the band has revamped its lineup in the last few years to emerge as a four-piece, with Jan Faszbender on organ/synth and the newest addition, Mario Oberpucher on bass. In late 2022, Colour Haze released their 14th album, Sacred, through Koglek’s own Elektrohasch Schallplatten label.
The follow-up to 2019’s We Are, the latest offering not only introduced Oberpucher as a part of the studio process, but furthered the dynamic exchange between guitar and keys that has made Colour Haze’s latest works feel so adventurous. With a lyrical awareness of the world around them and a mindset critical but loving, the songs are fluid in their jammy foundations and convey the on-stage chemistry of Colour Haze as they continue, always, to grow.
Sacred is a salve for troubled years, but consistently finds ways to put the song first, encouraging the audience’s imagination with evocative and expressive instrumentalism and a serenity that holds firm even at the most raucous moments. Full of righteous twists and unexpected divergences, it nonetheless boasts an overarching groove and the depth of approach that fans know the band will always deliver.
Colour Haze are singular. There is only one. And they are one of the most crucial bands Europe’s heavy underground has ever produced. The ultimate impact of their work is unknowable, since their influence has yet to dwindle, but heavy psychedelic rock would not exist as it does today without them. Their discography is a path traced through landmarks, telling a gorgeous story of growth and commitment to ongoing progression that brings the band to the present day and, hopefully, beyond into a future that is inherently better for their being part of it. – JJ Koczan
Posted in Whathaveyou on January 9th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
German heavy psychedelic rockers Swan Valley Heights will release their new album, Terminal Forest, March 31 on Fuzzorama Records. The Munich-based trio made the announcement and posted the cover art on socials, which is pretty standard, and the label followed up by making it the headlining feature of their ‘Fuzzletter’ — it continues to amaze how versatile the word ‘fuzz’ is, never mind the practice of fuzzing out itself — which is fortunate, since it makes the information less subject to the winds and whims of the algorithm, tyrant of our days as it is.
There is no audio yet public from Terminal Forest, or private for that matter, at least in my case, but I was fortunate enough to see Swan Valley Heights play in Stockholm at the first night of the Truckfighters Fuzz Festival #3 (review here), and that was a joy. The band toured north to that fest with fellow Munich natives Colour Haze, which is a suitable pairing highlighting not only the serenity in Swan Valley Heights‘ sound as well as the harder-hitting stretches that offset. In 2022, Swan Valley Heights also toured with Greece’s Stonus on a run I’m proud to say was presented by this site.
When it arrives, seemingly on March 31, Terminal Forest will be the band’s first outing since The Heavy Seed (review here) in 2019. Not that long, considering, but a welcome return nonetheless.
From the fuzzwire:
Swan Valley Heights – Terminal Forest
Swan Valley Heights announce new album and release show!
March 31st! Save the date
TERMINAL FOREST will be out and we cannnnnot wait to release this cabin-crafted son of a log into the troposphere.
Hallelujah
-Yes-, you’re looking at the official cover artwork, painted by the brilliant Dario Puggioni. What a man.
Infos on pre-orders, the first single and *impending festivities* will be announced in the coming days & weeks.
Posted in Whathaveyou on November 3rd, 2022 by JJ Koczan
Munich-based heavy psych legends and I mean that Colour Haze will head out on a short run of dates next month tying together appearances at Festsaal Kreuzberg and Truckfighters Fuzz Fest #3 with booking headlining shows that have support from Swan Valley Heights.
ColourHaze go forth in herald of their new album, Sacred (review here) — which is enough of a joy that I’m gonna go ahead and put it on now having just typed the title, ah there we go — and follows other similar stints this Fall. I’m set to travel to Sweden for the Truckfighters Fuzz Fest with the dudes from Kings Destroy, and I am very much looking forward to seeing Colour Haze again (it’ll be my first time since they brought in Mario Oberpucher on bass), even if I’ll have knee surgery between now and then. Oh yeah. Hadn’t really thought of that. Well fuck it. If I have to have a cane I’ll have a cane. Maybe people will get out of my way when I’m taking pictures. Ha.
The four-piece haven’t announced any plans for 2023 tour-wise yet (I don’t think), but I wouldn’t be surprised to see their name show up in the Spring fest season either. That’s a good record. Worth pushing it if they can.
Sound of Liberation put it like this:
COLOUR HAZE DECEMBER TOUR
Hey Friends,
Colour Haze is hitting the road again this December for another run!
Support for this tour are the mighty Swan Valley Heights from Munich.
If you have the chance to see this awesome package don’t miss it!
The big runner-up final will be the Fuzz Festival in Stockholm on the 9th of December – hosted by our beloved friends Truckfighters!
Check out their tour dates below and grab your tickets!
Posted in Reviews on September 27th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
Here we go again as we get closer to 100 records covered in this expanded Fall 2022 Quarterly Review. It’s been a pretty interesting ride so far, and as I’ve dug in I know for sure I’ve added a few names (and titles) to my year-end lists for albums, debuts, and so on. Today keeps the thread going with a good spread of styles and some very, very heavy stuff. If you haven’t found anything in the bunch yet — first I’d tell you to go back and check again, because, really? nothing in 60 records? — but after that, hey, maybe today’s your day.
Here’s hoping.
Quarterly Review #61-70:
Spirit Adrift, 20 Centuries Gone
The second short release in two years from trad metal forerunners Spirit Adrift, 20 Centuries Gone pairs two new originals in “Sorcerer’s Fate” and “Mass Formation Psychosis” — songs for our times written as fantasy narrative — with six covers, of Type O Negative‘s “Everything Dies,” Pantera‘s “Hollow,” Metallica‘s “Escape,” Thin Lizzy‘s “Waiting for an Alibi,” ZZ Top‘s “Nasty Dogs and Funky Kings” and Lynyrd Skynyrd‘s “Poison Whiskey.” The covers find them demonstrating a bit of malleability — founding guitarist/vocalist does well with Phil Lynott‘s and Peter Steele‘s inflections while still sounding like himself — and it’s always a novelty to hear a band purposefully showcase their influences like this, but “Sorcerer’s Fate” and “Mass Formation Psychosis” are the real draw. The former nods atop a Candlemassian chug and sweeping chorus before spending much of its second half instrumental, and “Mass Formation Psychosis” resolves in burly riffing, but only after a poised rollout of classic doom, slower, sleeker in its groove, with acoustic strum layered in amid the distortion and keyboard. Two quick reaffirmations of the band’s metallic flourishing and, indeed, a greater movement happening partially in their wake. And then the covers, which are admirably more than filler in terms of arrangement. Something of a holdover, maybe, but by no means lacking substance.
Just because it’s so bludgeoning doesn’t necessarily mean that’s all it is. The melodic stretch of “Forbidden World of Light” and delve into progressive black metal after the nakedly Crowbarian sludge of “A Path Beyond Grief,” the clean vocal-topped atmospheric heft of “What Must Be Done” and the choral feel of centerpiece “Carried,” even the way “Of Shadow and Sanguine” seems to purposefully thrash (also some more black metal there) amid its bouts of deathcore and sludge lumbering — all of these come together to make Northless‘ fourth long-player, A Path Beyond Grief, an experience that’s still perhaps defined by its intensity and concrete tonality, its aggression, but that is not necessarily beholden to those. Even the quiet intro “Nihil Sanctum Vitae” — a seeming complement to the nine-minute bring-it-all-together closer “Nothing That Lives Will Last” — seems intended to tell the listener there’s more happening here than it might at first seem. As someone who still misses Swarm of the Lotus, some of the culmination in that finale is enough to move the blood in my wretched body, but while born in part of hardcore, Northless are deep into their own style throughout these seven songs, and the resultant smashy smashy is able to adjust its own elemental balance while remaining ferociously executed. Except, you know, when it’s not. Because it’s not just one thing.
Comprised of five songs running a tidy 20 minutes, each brought together through ambience as well as the fact that their titles are all three letters long — “Aer,” “Hyd,” “Orb,” “Wiz,” “Rue” — AER is the debut EP from German instrumentalists Lightrain, who would seek entry into the contemplative and evocative sphere of acts like Toundra or We Lost the Sea as they offer headed-out post-rock float and heavy psychedelic vibe. “Hyd” is a focal point, both for its eight-minute runtime (nothing else is half that long) and the general spaciousness, plus a bit of riffy shove in the middle, with which it fills that, but the ultra-mellow “Aer” and drumless wash of “Wiz” feed into an overarching flow that speaks to greater intentions on the part of the band vis a vis a first album. “Rue” is progressive without being overthought, and “Orb” feels born of a jam without necessarily being that jam, finding sure footing on ground that for many would be uncertain. If this is the beginning point of a longer-term evolution on the part of the band, so much the better, but even taken as a standalone, without consideration for the potential of what it might lead to, the LP-style fluidity that takes hold across AER puts the lie to its 20 minutes being somehow minor.
Cleanly produced and leaning toward sleaze at times in a way that feels purposefully drawn from ’80s glam metal, the second offering from Poland’s 1965 — they might as well have called themselves 1542 for as much as they have to do sound-wise with what was going on that year — is the 12-song/52-minute Panther, which wants your nuclear love on “Nuclear Love,” wants to rock on “Let’s Rock,” and would be more than happy to do whatever it wants on “Anything We Want.” Okay, so maybe guitarist, vocalist and principal songwriter Michał Rogalski isn’t going to take home gold at the Subtlety Olympics, but the Warsaw-based outfit — him plus Marco Caponi on bass/backing vocals and Tomasz Rudnicki on drums/backing vocals, as well as an array of lead guitarists guesting — know the rock they want to make, and they make it. Songs are tight and well performed, heavy enough in tone to have a presence but fleet-footed in their turns from verse to chorus and the many trad-metal-derived leads. Given the lyrics of the title-track, I’m not sure positioning oneself as an actual predatory creature as a metaphor for seduction has been fully thought through, but you don’t see me out here writing lyrics in Polish either, so take it with that grain of salt if you feel the need or it helps. For my money I’ll take the still-over-the-top “So Many Times” and the sharp start-stops of “All My Heroes Are Dead,” but there’s certainly no lack of others to choose from.
Blacklab — also stylized BlackLab — are the Osaka, Japan-based duo of guitarist/vocalist Yuko Morino and drummer Chia Shiraishi, but if you’d enter into their second full-length, In a Bizarre Dream, expecting some rawness or lacking heft on account of their sans-bass configuration, you’re more likely to be bowled over by the sludgy tonality on display. “Cold Rain” — opener and longest track (immediate points) at 6:13 — and “Abyss Woods” are largely screamers, righteously harsh with riffs no less biting, and “Dark Clouds” does the job in half the time with a punkier onslaught leading to “Evil 1,” but “Evil 2” mellows out a bit, adjusts the balance toward clean singing and brooding in a way that the oh-hi-there guest vocal contribution from Laetitia Sadier of Stereolab (after whom Blacklab are partially named) on “Crows, Sparrows and Cats” shifts into a grungier modus. “Lost” and “In a Bizarre Dream,” the latter more of an interlude, keep the momentum going on the rock side, but somehow you just know they’re going to turn it around again, and they absolutely do, easing their way in with the largesse of “Monochrome Rainbow” before “Collapse” caps with a full-on onslaught that brings into full emphasis how much reach they have as a two-piece and just how successfully they make it all heavy.
I guess the only problem that might arise from recording your first two-songer with Steve Albini is that you’ve set an awfully high standard for, well, every subsequent offering your band ever makes in terms of production. There are traces of Karma to Burn-style chug on “Ectotherm,” the A-side accompanied by “Writhing Mass” on the two-songer that shares the same name, but Chicago imstrumental trio Sun King Ba are digging into more progressively-minded, less-stripped-down fare on both of these initial tracks. Still, impact and the vitality of the end result are loosely reminiscent, but the life on that guitar, bass and drums speaks volumes, and not just in favor of the recording itself. “Writhing Mass” crashes into tempo changes and resolves itself in being both big and loud, and the space in the cymbals alone as it comes to its noisy finish hints at future incursions to be made. Lest we forget that Chicago birthed Pelican and Bongripper, among others, for the benefit of instrumental heavy worldwide. Sun King Ba have a ways to go before they’re added to that list, but there is intention being signaled here for those with ears to hear it.
Despite the somewhat grim imagery on the cover art for Kenodromia‘s self-titled debut EP — a three-cut outing that marks a return to the band of vocalist Hilde Chruicshank after some stretch of absence during which they were known as Hideout — the Oslo, Norway, four-piece play heavy rock through and through on “Slandered,” “Corrupted” and “Bound,” with the bluesy fuzzer riffs and subtle psych flourishes of Eigil Nicolaisen‘s guitar backing Chruicshank‘s lyrics as bassist Michael Sindhu and drummer Trond Buvik underscore the “break free” moment in “Corrupted,” which feels well within its rights in terms of sociopolitical commentary ahead of the airier start of “Bound” after the relatively straightforward beginning that was “Slandered.” With the songs arranged shortest to longest, “Bound” is also the darkest in terms of atmosphere and features a more open verse, but the nod that defines the second half is huge, welcome and consuming even as it veers into a swaggering kind of guitar solo before coming back to finish. These players have been together one way or another for over 10 years, and knowing that, Kenodromia‘s overarching cohesion makes sense. Hopefully it’s not long before they turn attentions toward a first LP. They’re clearly ready.
Mezzoa are the San Diego three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Ignacio “El Falcone” Maldonado, bassist Q “Dust Devil” Pena (who according to their bio was created in the ‘Cholo Goth Universe,’ so yes, charm is a factor), and drummer Roy “Bam Bam” Belarmino, and the 13-track/45-minute Dunes of Mars is their second album behind 2017’s Astral Travel. They sound like a band who’ve been around for a bit, and indeed they have, playing in other bands and so on, but they’ve got their approach on lockdown and I don’t mean for the plague. The material here, whether it’s the Helmet-plus-melody riffing of “Tattoos and Halos” or the more languid roll of the seven-minute “Dunes of Mars” earlier on, is crisp and mature without sounding flat or staid creatively, and though they’re likened most to desert rock and one can hear that in the penultimate “Seized Up” a bit, there’s more density in the guitar and bass, and the immediacy of “Hyde” speaks of more urgent influences at work. That said, the nodding chill-and-chug of “Moya” is heavy whatever landscape you want to say birthed it, and with the movement into and out of psychedelic vibes, the land is something you’re just as likely to leave behind anyway. Hit me as a surprise. Don’t be shocked if you end up going back to check out the first record after.
Released through emergent Texas-based imprint Gravitoyd Heavy Music, Stone Nomads‘ Fields of Doom comprises six songs, five originals, and is accordingly somewhere between a debut full-length and an EP at half an hour long. The cover is a take on Saint Vitus‘ “Dragon Time,” and it rests well here as the closer behind the prior-released single “Soul Stealer,” as bassist Jude Sisk and guitarist Jon Cosky trade lead vocal duties while Dwayne Crosby furthers the underlying metallic impression on drums, pushing some double-kick gallop under the solo of “Fiery Sabbath” early on after the leadoff title-track lumbers and chugs and bell-tolls to its ending, heavy enough for heavy heads, aggro enough to suit your sneer, with maybe a bit of Type O Negative influence in the vocal. Huffing oldschool gasoline, Fields of Doom might prove too burled-out for some listeners, but the interlude “Winds of Barren Lands” and the vocal swaps mean that you’re never quite sure where they’re going to hit you next, even if you know the hit is coming, and even as “Soul Stealer” goes grandiose before giving way to the already-noted Vitus cover. And if you’re wondering, they nail the noise of the solo in that song, leaving no doubt that they know what they’re doing, with their own material or otherwise.
Drawing from various corners of punk, noise rock and heavy rock’s accessibility, Munich trio Blind Mess offer their third full-length in After the Storm, which is aptly-enough titled, considering. “Fight Fire with Fire” isn’t a cover, but the closing “What’s the Matter Man?” is, of Rollins Band, no less, and they arrive there after careening though a swath of tunes like “Twilight Zone,” “At the Gates” and “Save a Bullet,” which are as likely to be hardcore-born shove or desert-riffed melody, and in the last of those listed there, a little bit of both. To make matters more complicated, “Killing My Idols” leans into classic metal in its underlying riff as the vocals bark and its swing is heavy ’70s through and through. This aesthetic amalgam holds together in the toughguy march of “Sirens” as much as the garage-QOTSA rush of “Left to Do” and the dares-to-thrash finish of “Fight Fire with Fire” since the songs themselves are well composed and at 38 minutes they’re in no danger of overstaying their welcome. And when they get there, “What’s the Matter Man?” makes a friendly-ish-but-still-confrontational complemement to “Left to Do” back at the outset, as though to remind us that wherever they’ve gone over the course of the album between, it’s all been about rock and roll the whole time. So be it.
Posted in Whathaveyou on September 13th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
I wish I could say this was a particular surprise. As far back as Fall 2019, Colour Haze guitarist/vocalist and Elektrohasch Schallplatten label head Stefan Koglek was talking about shifting focus with the long-running imprint to focus less on other groups’ output and more on his own. The announcement below, which makes the release yesterday of the new Colour Haze album, Sacred (review here), somewhat bittersweet, seems like not much more than a re-confirming of the same.
And the last few years have borne it out as well. Perhaps somewhat obscured by the pandemic, the turn on Elektrohasch‘s part to centering Colour Haze was already underway by the time lockdowns started. The label’s last new release for another band was We Here Now‘s 2019 outing, The Chikipunk Years (discussed here), which as a multinational experimentalist conglomerate and a record with “punk” in the title that wasn’t at all punk, was always going to be a hard sell. Apparently it turned out to be exactly that.
But if this is an official “the end” for Elektrohasch as a label that might dig a band and put out their record, the legacy and catalog left behind are remarkable. Significant. Consider it was Elektrohasch who either first picked up and/or offered releases from My Sleeping Karma, Josiah, The Machine, Hypnos 69, Cherry Choke, The Kings of Frog Island,Sungrazer, Rotor, All Them Witches, Saturnia, BeenObscene, Causa Sui, Sgt. Sunshine, Gas Giant, Phased, UGH! and a slew of others. In addition to Colour Haze‘s landmark catalog, many of these artists continue to have an effect on the scope and direction of heavy psych and heavy rock, especially in Europe but by no means limited to those borders or any others.
I’ll miss trusting Koglek‘s taste while approaching a new Elektrohasch release, knowing that the label’s logo on back meant that wherever the record in question actually went, it would be a work of substance meant to last longer in the mind and heart of the listener than that first playthrough on the turntable.
And in committing to use Elektrohasch as an outlet for Colour Haze and related projects, Koglek essentially leaves the door open to reigniting the label at some future date for other bands as well. Hard to imagine someone getting that email from Koglek with an offer to release their album and saying no. You know, unless their head is up their ass or something. I guess that happens sometimes.
But this struck me as a moment worth marking since the announcement came through in a newsletter that also welcomed Sacred and plugged Colour Haze‘s upcoming Fall tour dates. They’re doing festivals and more. So, things move forward. And if you need me, I’ll be checking out the discounted CD catalog.
Here goes:
Elektrohasch Label
With my last new artists – We Here Now, Public Animal, Carpet, Saturnia… – my taste aparently didn‘t meet yours. That especially such a great, stylisticaly independent album like We Here Now – The Chikipunk Years – a group apart from the usual European/North American origin was sold just 60 times made me think.
I stopped signing new bands therefore since quite a while – also because I didn‘t got too much interesting offered recently (well for my taste…).
My initial plan was to concentrate on my own band but keep your favorite Elektrohasch-classics in stock – such as My Sleeping Karma, Rotor, Sungrazer, The Machine or Hypnos 69 , etc…
Unfortunately pressing vinyl is such a pain in the ass these days and furthermore became so exspensive I simply can‘t afford anymore to repress and store 500 copies of records which will sell slowly over coming years.
Well – there is a time for everything.
I want to thank all artists, record enthusiasts, customers, retailers, friends for the trust and the interest in Elektrohasch the last 19 years! Thank you very much!
For farewell I‘ll release a remastered reprint of the Sungrazer LP.
Otherwise I will sell off my stock.
Many CDs are in the webshop for sell-out prices now! Have a look! What you don‘t want to have will go in recycling one day…
Elektrohasch will stay in business! – but in the future only as a label for Colour Haze (and matching bandmember projects like Marios endless A Great River In The Sky)
I think I made a small contribution to music-culture with Elektrohasch – but I‘m also exhausted from all the work.
I want to use all my energy entirely for my own music now – especially as with Mario and Jan we gained fresh power and new possibilities. Sacred is a first result. And we have a lot of plans…
