Posted in Questionnaire on August 2nd, 2022 by JJ Koczan
The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.
Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.
Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.
The Obelisk Questionnaire: Jason Higson of Yanomamo
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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?
We call what we do in Yanomamo as SLUDGERIDDENDOOM … we’ve been doing it for 11 years now, based in Sydney Australia. We started the band to play dynamic, super-heavy, riff-based music.
Prior to this, I was playing guitar in a band called Lomera but was keen to do something heavier and more in my own style. I spoke with a few people who were in other bands at the time and we got together and jammed and we’ve been going ever since.
Describe your first musical memory.
Listening to my father’s copy of Thin Lizzy’s Johnny the Fox album in around 1977 whilst marveling over the incredible album cover. My father had a great record collection that included Thin Lizzy, KISS, Sabbath, Zeppelin, etc., and that greatly influenced me.
Describe your best musical memory to date.
So many to choose from, but my favorite would be touring Australia with Conan in 2014. We did something like nine shows in 12 days and it was just an incredible experience, playing sold out shows every night through two full guitar stacks!
When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?
When we parted ways with our original singer in 2016. I have always believed strongly in equality and I cannot and will not accept divisive, toxic and hateful views. Some things are bigger and way more important than music and this was a time where I had to take a stand, which I did.
Where do you feel artistic progression leads?
I believe artistic progression leads to better thought-out ideas and ultimately greater artistic output. I always set goals for the band … some are very personal to me and some relate to the band as a whole. I couldn’t imagine this band functioning with constantly setting goals to help drive us forward.
We are a very different band to when we first started and we are all infinitely better at our instruments than when we started too, and that includes songwriting with. That comes with the experience of playing shows and continually writing new material. After 11 years, I think we have a defined sound and style that makes us recognisable as a band, although we don’t allow that to restrict us when it comes to new material.
How do you define success?
Success for us is seeing people go crazy at our shows, people telling us they loved our set, people buying our music and merch from all over the world … it’s the little things like that for me. We don’t do this for any kind of mainstream success or recognition… after 11 years, we are still trying to make the heaviest, most brutal music possible.
What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?
These eyes have seen so many things I wish they hadn’t and I couldn’t possibly narrow it down to one thing.
Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.
We’ve often talked of doing a music video but are yet to do it. We’ll probably revisit this idea when we record new songs later this year.
What do you believe is the most essential function of art?
To challenge people, to expand their minds, to influence the way people perceive things. I love to be challenged by art, particularly music.
Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?
Posted in audiObelisk on June 28th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
Australian extreme doom five-piece The Slow Death release their fourth full-length, Siege, on Aug. 27 in a range of editions through Transcending Obscurity Records. It is the band’s first studio work in six years since 2015’s Ark, which was the final performance of then-vocalist Gregg Williamson, who passed away in 2014 after completing the recording, and in a style known for being morose, might be all the more so for that, but the arc of their storytelling looks seems more to look outward across the release.
And while one might balk at accusing an album comprised of four songs that runs a total of 63 minutes of being subtle, Siege nonetheless is that in the way it weaves guitar and keys and vocal arrangements within and between its extended cuts, keyboardist Mandy Andresen (also graphics) handling a cleaner singing style while Gamaliel complements with growls, and vice versa atop the tension-and-release riffing of guitarist/keyboardist Stuart Prickett, as well as Dan Garcia‘s bass and Yonn McLaughlin‘s drums, which drive the tempo changes that make 19-minute opener “Tyranny” feel like an album unto itself, with a complete flow and a progression that feels nigh on literary in its poise, however fast it may or may not be moving at a given point.
Each half of the record — that is to say, each platter of the 2LP — brings a 19-minute track and shorter one in “Famine” (13:44) and closer “Ascent of the Flames” (10:28), respectively. And make no mistake, by the time you get down to “Ascent of the Flames,” having just followed The Slow Death on their ultra-willful slog through “Pestilence,” you might be numb to the changes happening, but the shifts there and across Siege are worth paying attention to, as they make the entirety of the release all the more satisfying to hear.
Even within “Tyranny,” the break to keys and soft guitar and vocals after the growling stretch circa 13 minutes in is executed with such fluidity and depressive grace that it’s nothing less than a triumph as the heft surges back in behind Andresen a short time later. Siege is full of these moments, whether it’s “Famine” unveiling a folk melody in its tenth minute before dirge-marching to its piano-laced finish — having bludgeoned so forcefully earlier in its procession — or the sudden cutout from lead guitar five-plus minutes into the buildup of “Pestilence,” which Gamaliel starts on vocals, mirroring Andresen on the album’s leadoff, setting up back and forth movements that play out across the rest of the song.
An ability to convey beauty in darkness is a tenet of the style, but The Slow Death do so well, while still keeping an overarching rawness to their presentation that helps them blur the line between where goth ends and death-doom begins. The orchestral elements, even synthesized, bolster the drama of the material and could easily fall flat, but don’t, largely because of the human performances behind them, the dynamic setup between Andresen and Gamaliel essential to the outing and its thoughtful shifts from one part or one song to the next, landing with emotional weight as well as tonal — again, an essential factor in making the sound what it is.
“Famine” was previously streamed, and you’ll find that near the bottom of this post. Between that and “Tyranny” premiering below, you’ve got about 33 of the 63 minutes of Siege to give you an idea of what The Slow Death are all about, if the moniker didn’t already tell you. PR wire info follows the player. Seems cruel to say “enjoy” at this point, so yes, I will.
Enjoy:
The Slow Death, “Tyranny” official premiere
The Slow Death are an exceptional band that straddles the emotive as well as heavier aspect of atmospheric death/doom metal. There are eerie, haunting female vocals alternated with abysmally low growls to go with similarly undulating music, encompassing a terrific range of heart-rending expression. Members of veteran bands such as Illimitable Dolor, Horrisonous, ex-Mournful Congregation ensure that the music remains engaging, even during the sparser, atmospheric parts, which invariably give way to soul-piercing solos or dread-inducing chugging parts.
This is a staggering interpretation of the double-edged style with everything remaining all too palpable, as it hurtles you through a harrowing, emotional roller-coaster ride through four epochal tracks averaging over 15 minutes, at the end of which you’ll emerge cleansed, purged, feeling exhausted but somehow lighter. It’s a microcosm of the events that are bound to unfold in everyone’s life, and The Slow Death couldn’t express the inevitable moments of grief and triumph any better through their emotionally-charged music. Six years in the making, ‘Siege’ is sure to be remembered as one of the best albums in the style.
Artworks by Mandy Andresen
Track listing: 1. Tyranny 2. Famine 3. Pestilence 4. Ascent of the Flames
Line up – Mandy Andresen (ex-Murkrat, Crone) – Vocals and Keyboards Stuart Prickett (Horrisonous, Illimitable Dolor) – Guitars and Keyboards Yonn McLaughlin (Temple Nightside, Horrisonous, Illimitable Dolor, Nazxul) – Drums Dan Garcia (Horrisonous, Illimitable Dolor) – Bass Gamaliel (ex-Oracle of the Void) – Vocals
Posted in Bootleg Theater on October 20th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
At this point, I’m not sure anymore who likes Bunny Racket more, me or my son. The Pecan — about to turn three in less than a week’s time — was duly transfixed yesterday when I showed him the Australian kid-friendly heavy rockers’ video for “Moon Buggy,” which comes from their new album, Bunny Racket in Space, and as ever from my own point of view, I couldn’t help likewise appreciating the song’s complete and total lack of pretense. They’re not pretending fun doesn’t exist or that making and playing music together isn’t fun. And they’re engaging their audience without dumbing down the material. It’s simple but not at all unclever, talking about moon buggies carrying balloons and riding into the night — the dark side of the moon, in other words — and all that.
Along with Bunny Racket‘s take on “Stagger Lee,” and other recent clips like “Rock Like an Animal” and the perhaps-forever-on-regular-rotation “Woolly Mammoth on a Motorcycle,” the “Moon Buggy” video continues to serve as a fitting argument that whichever streaming service it might be — Netflix, Amazing, Hu-ever — should immediately set about financing a Bunny Racket show based around these songs. I have to imagine you could get a whole season out of Bunny Racket in Space. Plus you’d have cameo opportunities for the likes of Brant Bjork and Ed Mundell! And then in 25 years they can do a gritty reboot for the adults who were the kids who watched the original and everyone can make even more well-deserved money.
I’m not even asking for an executive producer credit. Just make it happen.
Enjoy the video:
Bunny Racket, “Moon Buggy” official video
2020. Wow.
If nothing else, it really has been an incredible year for space travel. And that is exactly what these punk-rock bunnies have been doing. Travelling the outer reaches of the Solar System, they searched for a new sound to share with planet Earth’s radical kids. The mission has been successful. With a little help from some like minded space rockers – Brant Bjork (Kyuss/Fu Manchu) and Ed Mundell (Monster Magnet), the intergalactic stage has been set for a new chapter in the Kids rock ‘n’ roll playbook.
Now Bunny Racket are back from outer space with a brand new album and the first of a new series of music videos!
Bunny Racket In Space – this new album is out of this world!
Posted in Reviews on October 5th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
Oh hi there. It’s Quarterly Review time again, and you know what that means. 50 records between now and Friday — and I may or may not extend it through next Monday as well; I think I have enough of a backlog at this point to do so. It’s really just a question of how destroyed I am by writing about 10 different records every day this week. If past is prologue, that’s fairly well destroyed. But I’ve yet to do a Quarterly Review and regret it when it’s over, and like the last one, this roundup of 50 albums is pretty well curated, so it might even be fun to go through. There’s a thought. In any case, as always, I hope you find something you enjoy, and thank you for reading if you do or as much as you do.
Quarterly Review #1-10:
Steve Von Till, No Wilderness Deep Enough
Neurosis guitarist/vocalist Steve Von Till seems to be bringing some of the experimentalism that drives his Harvestman project into the context of his solo work with No Wilderness Deep Enough, his fifth LP and first since 2015’s A Life unto Itself (review here). Drones and melodic synth backs the deceptively-titled “The Old Straight Track,” and where Von Till began his solo career 20 years ago with traditional folk guitar, if slower, on these six tracks, he uses that meditative approach as the foundation for an outward-reaching 37-minute run, incorporating ethereal strings among the swirls of “Shadows on the Run” and finishing with the foreboding hum of “Wild Iron.” Opener “Dreams of Trees” establishes the palette’s breadth with synthesized beats alongside piano and maybe-cello, but it’s Von Till‘s voice itself that ties the material together and provides the crucial human presence and intimacy that most distinguishes the offerings under his own name. Accompanied by Von Till‘s first published book of poetry, No Wilderness Deep Enough is a portrait of the unrelenting creative growth of its maker.
Cyttorak, Simultaneous Invocation of Apocalyptic Harbingers
Take a breath before you hit play only to have it punched right out from your solar plexus by the brutalist deathsludge Cyttorak cleverly call “slowerviolence.” Dominated by low end and growls, screams, and shouts, the lumbering onslaught is the second standalone EP for the three-piece who hail from scenic Pawtucket, Rhode Island (former home of the PawSox), and throughout its six-track run, the unit conjure an unyieldingly punishing tonal morass set to aggressive purpose. That they take their name from the Marvel Universe character who controls X-Men villain Juggernaut should not be taken as coincidence, since their sound indeed seems intended to put its head down and smash through walls and/or anything else that might be in its path in pursuit of its quarry. With Conan-esque lyrical minimalism, the songs nonetheless give clues to their origins — “Royal Shokan Dismemberment” refers to Goro from Mortal Kombat, and finale “Domination Lord of Coldharbour” to Skyrim (which I still regret not playing) — but if you consider comics or video games to be lighter fare, first off, you’re working with an outdated mentality, and second, Cyttorak would like a bit of your time to smother you with volume and ferocity. They have a new split out as well, both on tape.
Also signified by the Greek letter from which they take their moniker, Czech four-piece Lambda represent a new age of progressive heavy post-rock. Influences from Russian Circles aren’t necessarily surprising to find coursing through the instrumental debut full-length, Heliopolis, but there are shades of Elder as well behind the more driving riffs and underlying swing of “Space Express,” which also featured on the band’s 2015 EP of the same name. The seven-minute “El Sonido Nuevo” did likewise, but older material or newer, the album’s nine-song procession moves toward its culminating title-track through the grace of “Odysea” and the intertwining psychedelic guitars of “Milkyway Phaseshifter” with an overarching atmosphere of the journey to the city of the sun being undertaken. And when they get there, at the closer, there’s an initial sense of peace that gives way to some of the most directly heavy push Heliopolis has to offer. Payoff, then. So be it. Purposeful and somewhat cerebral in its execution, the DIY debut brings depth and space together to immersive effect.
Following his 2016 debut, Rotgut (review here) and 2018’s Go to the Devil (review here), Godless is the third full-length from former Iron Man and current Spiral Grave frontman Dee Calhoun, and its considerable 63-minute runtime finds him working in multiple directions while keeping his underlying roots in acoustic-based heavy metal. Certainly “To My Boy” — and Rob Calhoun has appeared on his father’s releases before as well — has its basis in familial expression, but its pairing with “Spite Fuck” is somewhat curious. Meanwhile, “Hornswoggled” cleverly samples George W. Bush with a laugh track, and “Here Under Protest,” “The Greater Evil,” “Ebenezer” and “No Justice” seem to take a worldly view as well. Meanwhile again, “Godless,” “The Day Salvation Went Away” and “Prudes, Puritanicals and Puddles of Piss” make their perspective nothing if not plain for the listener, and the album ends with the two-minute kazoo-laced gag track “Here Comes the Bride: A Tale From Backwater.” So perhaps scattershot, but Godless is nonetheless Calhoun‘s most effective outing yet in terms of arrangements and craft, and shows him digging further into the singer-songwriter form than he has up to now, sounding more comfortable and confident in the process.
Melodic vocal lines weave together and float over alternately weighted and likewise ethereal guitars on Turtle Skull‘s second album, Monoliths. The percussion-inclusive (tambourine, congas, rain stick, etc.) Sydney-based heavy psychedelic outfit create an immersive wash that makes the eight-song/55-minute long-player consuming for the duration, and while there are moments of clarity to be found throughout — the steady snare taps of “Why Do You Ask?” for example — but the vast bulk of the LP is given to the overarching flow, which finds progressive/space-rock footing in the 11-plus minutes of finale “The Clock Strikes Forever” and is irresistibly consuming on the drifting wash of “Rabbit” or the lysergic grunge blowout of “Who Cares What You Think?,” which gives way to the choral drone of “Halcyon” gorgeously en route through the record’s back half. It’s not the highest profile heavy psych release of 2020, but neither is it to be overlooked for the languid stretch of “Leaves” at the outset or the fuzz-drenched roll in the penultimate “Apple of Your Eye.”
In some ways, the dichotomy of Diuna‘s 2019 sophomore full-length, Golem, is set by its first two tracks, the 24-second intro “Menu” and the seven-minute “Jarmark Cudów” that follows, each longer song throughout is prefaced by an introduction or interlude, varying in degrees of experimentation. That, however, doesn’t cover the outsider vibes the Polish trio bring to bear in those longer songs themselves, be it “Jarmark Cudów” devolving into a post-Life of Agony noise rock roll, or the thrust in “Frank Herbert” cut into starts and stops and shouting madness. Heavy rock, noise, sludge, post-this-or-that, it doesn’t matter by the end of the 12-track/44-minute release, because Diuna establish such firm control over the proceedings and make so clear the challenge to the listener to keep up that it’s only fun to try. It might take a couple listens to sink in, but the more attention one gives Golem, the more one is going to be rewarded in the end, and I don’t just mean in the off-kilter fuckery of closer “Pan Jezus Idzie Do Wojska.”
“Ambitious” doesn’t begin to cover it. With eight songs (plus a bonus track) and 11 listed guest musicians, the debut full-length, Hollow, from Tel Aviv-based death-doomers Tomorrow’s Rain seems to be setting its own standard in that regard. And quite a list it is, with the likes of Aaron Stainthorpe of My Dying Bride, Greg Mackintosh of Paradise Lost, Fernando Ribeiro of Moonspell, Mikko Kotamaki of Swallow the Sun, and so on, it is a who’s-who of melodic/gothic death-doom and the album lives up to the occasion in terms of the instrumental drama it presents. Some appear on one track, some on multiple tracks — Ribeiro and Kotamaki both feature on “Misery Rain” — and despite the constant shifts in personnel with only one of the eight tracks completely without an outside contributor, the core six-piece of Tomorrow’s Rain are still able to make an impression of their own that is bolstered and not necessarily overwhelmed by the extravagant company being kept throughout.
Mother Eel‘s take on sludge isn’t so much crushing as it is caustic. They’re plenty heavy, but their punishment isn’t just meted out through tonal weight being brought down on your head. It’s the noise. It’s the blown-out screams. It’s the harshness of the atmosphere in which the entirety of their debut album, Svalbard, resides. Five tracks, 33 minutes, zero forgiveness. One might be tempted to think of songs like “Erection of Pain” as nihilistic fuckall, but that seems incorrect. Nah, they mean it. Fuckall, yeah. But fuckall as ethos. Fuckall manifest. So it goes through “Alpha Woman” and “Listen to the Elderly for They Have Much to Teach,” which ends in a Primitive Man-ish static assault, and the lumbering finish “Not My Shade,” which assures that what began on “Sucking to Gain” half an hour earlier ends on the same anti-note: a disaffected malevolence writ into sheer sonic unkindness. There is little letup, even in the quiet introductions or transitions, so if you’re looking for mercy, don’t bother.
The four-song/39-minute atmospheric sludge long-player Filled by Empty Spaces is listed by Brazilian solo outfit Umbilichaos as being the third part of, “the Tetralogy of Loneliness.” If that’s the emotion being expressed in the noise-metal post-Godflesh chug-and-shout of “Filled by Empty Spaces Pt. 02,” then it is loneliness viscerally presented by founding principal and multi-instrumentalist Anna C. Chaos. The feel throughout the early going of the release is plodding and agonized in kind, but in “Filled by Empty Spaces Pt. 01” and “Filled by Empty Spaces Pt. 03” there is some element of grim, crusted-over psychedelia happening alongside the outright dirge-ism, though the latter ultimately wins out in the four-minute instrumental capper “Disintegration.” One way or the other, Chaos makes her point through raw tonality and overarching intensity of purpose, the compositions coming across simultaneously unhinged and dangerously under control. There are many kinds of heavy. Filled by Empty Spaces is a whole assortment of them.
Fueled by avant grunge/noise impulsion, Radar Men From the Moon‘s latest foray to Planet Whothefuckknows arrives in the eight-song/41-minute The Bestial Light, a record alternately engrossing and off-putting, that does active harm when the sounds-like-it’s-skipping intro to “Piss Christ” comes on and then subsequently mellows out with psych-sax like they didn’t just decide to call the song “Sacred Cunt of the Universe” or something. Riffs, electronics, the kind of weirdness that’s too self-aware not to be progressive, Radar Men From the Moon take the foundation of experimentation set by Astrosoniq and mutate it via Swans into something unrecognizable by genre and unwilling to compromise its own direction. And no, by the time “Levelling” comes on to round out, there is no peace to be found, though perhaps a twisted kind of joy at the sheer postmodernism. They should score ballets with this stuff. No one would go, but three centuries from now, they’d be worshiped as gods. Chance of that anyway, I suppose.
Posted in Whathaveyou on September 17th, 2018 by JJ Koczan
I played the new Bunny Racket video for The Pecan, and he was coming up on naptime but still kind of into it, seeing the Australian, costumed kids’ heavy rock outfit for the first time. Bunny Racket, though directed at children, might be a little old for him yet, but he did a little dance and that usually means he’s into what’s going on. At least this wee. I’m sure next week it’ll mean something else. The dance of poopy tragedy, or some such.
Anyway, we were talking about new Bunny Racket. I don’t know where they’re at with the tv series or anything, but it seems to me that Netflix would only be dumbassed if they didn’t pick that one up and roll it out. It’s a dude in a battle vest and a bunny costume. I mean, seriously, what more do you want of television than that. Sign it up. Two seasons. If you have to raise my account cost another dollar every six months to make it happen, so be it.
The PR wire brings an update:
New Bunny Racket release!
Affectionately known as ‘the Motorhead of kids bands’, Bunny Racket is bringing rock to the kids.
Plain and simple!
But it isn’t just the little kids that we have in mind. Big kids, we’ve got you covered too!
Recorded with Brant Bjork in Los Angeles, this new music video for ‘We Want More!’ is a reminder of why we are doing all of this. A trip down memory lane to dig on all the things that made being a kid so great!
The series…
We raised over $50,000 through our Kickstarter campaign to create a couple of banging pilot episodes for the Bunny Racket series. Well, the pilots are finished and the Bunny Racket team have been busy pitching this series to networks and investors in every burrow, near and far!
The Bunny Racket series delivers electrifying, live action awesomeness in a super fun series that follows the musical adventures of King Bunny and his quest to bring rock ’n’ roll to all the boys and girls of the world, one hard-rockin’ song at a time. 80’s rock nostalgia at it’s best with a magical blend of Sesame Street going head to head with MTV!
2018 has been massive for the Bunny Racket Live show! Be sure to come along to a gig when we are playing near you!
Bunny Racket live: October 7th – Byron Theatre, Byron Bay. October 31st – Halloween at Kingscliff Beach Hotel. December 7th – Alexandria Park, Sydney. December 8th – Golden Age Cinema, Surry Hills. More shows to be announced!
